Description
Book SynopsisThis book analyzes the influence of memory on social conflict as well as the role of ethnicity in state formation and governance in Nigeria. It examines the nexus between the Nigerian civil war and the conflict in the oil rich Niger Delta against the background of memory and ethnicization of the state. Ultimately, both social conflicts, though separated by decades, profit from shared memories in a largely ethnicized state structure. Nigeria emerges as a centrifugal state characterized by bias in resource distribution and concentration of power in the center. These forces create the perception of marginalization and sponsor enduring memory of a biased state not helped by failure of the state to ensure closure of the civil war. The book argues that the non-systematic closure of the civil war has generated memory lapse which has given rise to social conflicts and dissension in the socio-geographical region of the erstwhile Biafra republic. These conflicts in the contemporary history of Ni
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Theoretical Insights and Assumptions Chapter 3: From Memory to Social Memory: Diversities of Knowledge and Practice Chapter 4: The Nature of the Nigerian State Chapter 5: The State, Ethnicity and Social Conflict Chapter 6: Ethnicization of State Power, Resource Distribution and Self-Determination Struggles Chapter 7: Social Memory, Ethnicity and Conflict: The Biafra War and the Niger Delta Oil Conflict Chapter 8: Social Memory as Breeding Uniform Patterns of Remembrance and Mobilization Chapter 9: Ethnicity and Memory Hegemonies in Nigeria Chapter 10: The State, Memory and Dealing with the Past Chapter 11: Conclusion
