Historiographical Understanding of Group Perceptions: The Ijaw and their Neighbours in the Niger Delta

Abstract

This paper provides insights on the perception of the Ijaw (Izon) people of their neighbours in the body of knowledge.  This is germane as it would provide a rich, non-discriminatory view of managing inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations.  Studies on culture and civilization have been mostly dominated by social science scholars. Thus, mainstream social  scientists have created a rigid framework where the mathematical concept of ‘greater than and lesser than’ are applied  to the study of peoples and cultures. A fundamental problem observed is seen in the discouragement of dialectical  thinking ultimately reflected in the canonization of African history without the input of those being studied. Ake (1981)  has averred that this is akin and connected to the institution of slavery and slave trade, racism, colonialism and its  concomitant effects on relations among the various world peoples. This has been the hallmark of historical scholarship in Africa until K.O. Dike leading the Afrocentric charge, established the need for a balance through micro-study of  peoples. Taking the Ijaw (Izon) society as case study, it is observed that, they have been understudied and mostly seen  only in their late nineteenth and twentieth century’s agitations for self-determination against British imperialism firstly  and oppression, domination and victimization in the Nigerian state. The Ijaws had sound knowledge of their neighbours  in pre-colonial times. This is descriptive according to the occupation, dietary patterns and location of the neighbours  which is the opposite of what Eurocentric concept of civilization that profiles Africans as backward and Europeans as the  only hope of the ‘dark continent.’ The article re-echoes a humanistic approach of collaboration of disciplines as well as  democratization of research International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities ISSN: 0855-9740 No. 23, 2019 Eweke: Historiography and Canonical Un/Becoming of in Reading Africa processes to accommodate the perspectives of  people being researched on. This is a fundamental pillar of historical engagements reflected as historical objectivity. It  further advocates the Izonic model which is an all embracing view of humans as part of humanity and the need for unity  of purpose in tackling challenges. The study adopted the historical method (ethnographic observations and oral  interviews) in the collation of data while the descriptive analysis was used for data processing and presentation.