A Peep into Isoko Relations with her Neighbours under British Colonial Rule in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Abstract

This work attempts a discourse on the establishment of colonial rule in Isokoland and its impact on inter-group relations. The changes and continuities in  intergroup relations, which colonialism eventuated in these societies, remained largely misunderstood. The work attempts to illuminate, the nexus  between colonial administrative and socio-economic policies and the changes in Isoko relations with her neighbours. Colonialism ruptured the organic  interdependence amongst and between the various pre-colonial social formations it agglomerated into a single political unit, which was christened  Nigeria. In this connection, colonialism was the catalyst of the changes and continuities in inter-group relations in Nigeria during the 19th and 20th  centuries. The work shows that there was a shift from an essentially agrarian communal economic system and patterns of interactions to a pseudo-  capitalist economic system based on the export of cash crops facilitated the encapsulation of the entire spectrum of these social relations into the  colonial economy. The work is premised on the historical method and interpretations deploying primary and secondary data to achieve its objective. The  study concludes that changes in intergroup relations in the region were largely influenced by geographical contiguity; and the experience of similar  external influences having lasting implications for contemporary regional, national and international community relations.