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Panelist Hetty ter Haar |
Migration and Identity Formation: Ecology, Migration Patterns, and the Igbo of West Africa Chima J. Korieh, Rowan University Migration is a potentially powerful
conceptual framework for analyzing the formation of ethnic identity
in Africa. This paper addresses what I call the "question of Igbo
identity," with a view to presenting a synthesis and a framework
for understanding Igbo identity as influenced by Igbo migration pattern
from the late 19th century. The emergence or reinforcement of Igbo
identity at least from the beginning of the 20th century seem to have
occurred in the context of increasing migration and competition between
the Igbo and other ethnic groups as colonialism opened opportunities
for commerce and work in within and outside Nigeria. The forces that
determined Igbo migration seem to have been related to ecological factors.
The contextual space that a particular group of people inhabit and
ecological niches in relations to others inform the exhibition or suppression
of ethnic consciousness. The distinction between rural and urban based
Igbo migrants in Cameroon, for example, or what Kleis calls "confrontational
and incorporation ethnicity" suggests that ethnic identity, as
reflected in the Igbo case emerged in response to competition with
other groups. I argue that once outside their homeland, a greater sense
of cohesion, cooperation, and identification, at least based on a common
language and experience emerged in response to particular ecological
and contextual factors.
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