Religious Violence in Nigeria

I learned a plethora of information about the decades leading up to the Nigerian civil war as a result of this reading. Firstly, I never knew that the process of gaining independence was a systematized and prolonged one in the sense that there were 10-year programs established to facilitate this process, including the development and expansion of “social services, infrastructure, and local industries” (Falola and Heaton 146). I don’t know why I had always romanticized the independence of Nigeria to be an abrupt and quick toppling of the entrenched colonialist systems.

Intrastate conflict has historically been savage and chaotic; nowhere have these descriptors been more fitting than within African civil wars. A legacy of colonialism, ineffective governance, and regional conflict scars the continent, resulting in regular political instability within its territories. The Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s cost the lives of an estimated three-million people- the majority of whom were civilians who succumbed to starvation (NWE 2015). This conflict has traditionally been understood to have been caused by ethnic tensions within the state, and justifiably so (Falola 1999, 125). The ethnic cleansing of the Igbo that occurred throughout September and October of 1966 in northern Nigeria undoubtedly played a

One example of the impact of Christianity on traditional religions is the state of Nigeria. In the state of Nigeria, its native religion is Yoruba. Islam is also the second largest religion that came to Nigeria from the middle east by trading between merchants. With the emergence of Christianity, Yoruba and Islam felt threatened by the number of people who were either forces or convinced in converting to Christianity. Leaders of these two religions did not stand still toward the issue.They put in a lot of efforts in order to stop Christianity from spreading across the country. However, These efforts seemed to be futile against the cooperation between colonial governments and missionaries, who used their superiority in military power to keep the rebellious African chiefs in their place. Christianity seemed to be used as a tool for the colonial government to show off their superiority of their own religious point of view compared to the traditional religion of native people. Christianity was not used for the sake of spreading religion like its earlier purpose before the colonial

40% of sub-Saharan countries have experienced civil war largely because of differences in cultural and political beliefs. On prominent African civil war existed in Nigeria where after gaining their independence, cultural differences led the Ibo people to rebel against the government and declare independence as the Republic of Biafra. “A 3 year war ensued that left hundreds of thousands dead” (Ellis and Esler 1030). Similar wars existed in countries throughout the continent, greatly hurting Africa’s economic

The Boko Haram sect in Nigeria has been a huge problem for the country in the past, and the threat is only growing. This group is considered responsible for a handful of government attacks, targets on the United Nations, and often churches who undermine the Islamic religion. Their actions have spawned from the idea that their country is controlled by “fake Muslims”, and aim to create an Islamic nation ruled with Sharia law.

Nigeria was having an internal war that the Muslims started with the Ibos. It started when they gained independence in 1960. They adopted the feudal systems and had to share power with Lagos, and three state governments in the north, east, and west. In 1964, the Ibos seized power and declared a central dictatorship. The Muslims of the north didn’t like the Ibos because they weren’t Muslim. So they sparked a war in 1967. The Ibos, after a group of northern officers obtained the government positions, created their own

European men have traveled into Nigeria preaching their beliefs on Christianity. THe majority of the Umuofian people are against this new religion being forced upon them. While others are joining to regain a feeling of acceptance. Some are understanding of these changes while others are trying to force the new religion out.

Both of these events that occurred in human history caused seriously traumatic impact to the citizens, who were surrounded by all the destruction, devastation, and mayhem that resulted from it. In similar cases like these, violence is clearly not the answer. The reason being because so many innocent people get hurt and they are mostly the people who would never cause any harm in the first place. In the situation of Boko Haram and his beliefs, he wanted a nation that was entirely Islam and any country or person who was against it was his enemy, which resulted in most of the Nigerian population being eliminated from existence. In relation is the Holocaust, which had Germans disliking Jews because they were seen as “inferior” towards the Germans

This conversation between Akunna and the missionary Mr. Brown shows how the colonist perceive the religion of the Igbo people. Because the Igbo do not worship only one God and have different ways of perceiving God this causes conflict and tensions between one another because the Igbo people and the colonist cannot completely agree and understand each other's religions. And because of these differences in religion, it tends to lead to major conflicts such as violence among each other. “The three white men and a very large number of other men surrounded the market. They must have used a powerful medicine to make themselves invisible until the market was full.

Intolerance breeds injustice. Injustice invariably leads to rebellion and retaliation, and these will lead to escalation on the part of both making reconciliation almost impossible. It would appear that during times of stress, despair and frustration, people become increasingly irrational, and they do things which they never think they are capable of. And so we see hideous brutality perpetrated by the most gentle people. Once started, religious strife has a tendency to go on and on, to become permanent feuds. Today we see such intractable inter-religious wars in Northern Nigeria, between Muslims and Christians, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and in many other places. Attempts to bring about peace have failed again and again. Always the extremist

The first was the weak sense of nationalism caused by all the ethnic groups where religion played a major part of the division. The main three ethnicities in Nigeria are Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo; the former is Muslim while the two latter are Christians. The second cause mentioned was the “divide and rule” which was a British tactic to employ ethnic groups against one another, and thus “helped ensure that ethnicity would be the main line of political cleavage after Nigeria became an independent country.” The third cause is the personal rule system based on “big men” and what this means is that Nigerian’s who worked for the British used their personal relationships to gain power and wealth, and in a certain way it is still used today in the Nigerian government. The fourth devastating cause was the “creation of an increasingly active and interventionist state during WWII and after until its independence in 1960, but that opened the doors to patronage, which would be used to gain political power and wealth. The past reveals the problems Nigeria has had for several decades, some of which have not disappeared but seem to get progressively worse. (CITATION)

International Relations is a field of politics that takes a look at the interactions that occur in between states in the international arena. Its aim is to explain why certain events have unfolded in certain ways, as a result of how states use their power relatively to each other. Mostly the interactions that International Relations tries to examine or explain, is the conflicts that arise as a result of differing interests that states have. To provide a base for analysis, this essay is going to use the central theory of realism to explain the civil war that occurred in Nigeria in between 1967 to 1970. This essay will seek to explain the

Growing ethnic tensions within the confines of the colonial Nigeria, as a result of political instability reached a high upon Nigeria’s independence. There are the Hausa-Fulani tribes in the north, the Yoruba in the southwest and the Igbo in the southeast, consisting of the dominant Nigerian tribes. However, the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom in the north initiated the conflict. Muslim Hausas in the Nigeria’s northern region began slaughtering of 10,000 - 30,000 Christian Igbos within the region between May and September 1966. The devastating pogrom was in reaction to the multiple killings on January 15th, 1966 when the Igbo led army under the command of General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi launched a coup d’êtat. The successful coup d 'état raised increasing suspicion of Igbo domination among the Hausa, Fulani and Yoruba leading them to unify and organize a counter-coup lead by General Yakubu Gowon against the

     Nigeria has been a country in political turmoil for a long time. The country was created in 1914 under British colonial rule and at that time it was considered a protectorate. It was not until 1960 that Nigeria received independence from the United Kingdom. One of Nigeria's problems politically is that it has over three hundred different ethnic groups. The three largest of these are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba. At the time of the independence of Nigeria it was split up into three states with each state being under the control of one of the major ethnic groups. The natural resources of the other 297 ethnic groups were exploited for the major three groups,

Corruption in the Niger delta region of Nigeria as resulted in youths becoming militants and kidnappers which have led to killing of innocent individuals. During the past few years a lot of people have died in the Niger delta due to violent killings because of dispute over oil revenue and compensation. Most of these atrocities are carried out main by youths, who are agitated by the corrupt practice of the