Nigeria: Pre-colonial Cultures and Traditions - 1

Now back to business - Nigeria!
Past European history writers in large part maintained that Africans had no history until their contact with Europeans. The fallacy of this assertion has today been taken care of by incontrovertible evidence of the existence in the past, of great African empires and kingdoms with advanced civilizations and cultures. Africans governed themselves well prior to colonialism. In what today constitutes Nigeria, there existed separate political units that had their peculiar cultures and forms of government. These units left remarkable footprints in the sand of time. They exhibited high levels of cultural values, norms and thrived as well developed empires or republics as the case might be. Their fame transcended the shores of Africa.

Before the inception of colonial rule, the geo-political territory called Nigeria today had a lot of independent sovereign entities which ranged from small village republics and city states to big empires and kingdoms. Many of them rose to enviable heights with legendary accomplishments in arts and culture. Great among them were the Benin Kingdom and the Sokoto Caliphate. There were also trading city states of Opobo, Kano and Lagos. Warrior republican states of Aro and Abam thrived in the Eastern part of Nigeria alongside other Igbo village republics.

The socio-cultural setting of pre-colonial Nigeria was hinged on sacred norms and values. The pre-colonial states of Nigeria had cultural institutions that were entrusted with the tasks of preservation of values in the society. Some of the institutions played political, judicial and religious roles in the dispensation of their duties. In fact, religion gave meaning and value to social and cultural life of the people in pre-colonial times because authority to enact and execute laws were derived through the 'gods' and 'ancestors'. Religion also compelled the people to do more of what was right and acceptable in the eyes of the gods.

The pre-colonial Nigerian socio-cultural cum economic setting was generally egalitarian and communialistic. There was the absence of capitalism and therefore little or no room for individualism. Everybody took part in the production of goods and services and there was fair distribution of the products of communal labour and resources. The welfare of every member of the society was thus promoted. The pre-colonial Nigerian culture also promoted the extended family system. Offsprings of a common ancestry bonded together as a kindred which was responsible for the welfare of families within it. The egalitarian concept and practice associated with this system had its limitations. It fostered social equality but within it existed cases of discrininaton against women.
To be continued...
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