INTRA-COMMUNAL CONFLICTS IN POST-COLONIAL IGBOLAND, THE AGULU CASE, 1990-2002

Abstract

Intra-communal conflict remains a major factor that hinders integration at the grassroots level in Igboland. The phenomenon goes a long way to undermine Igbo solidarity and response(s) to Nigerian issues. Nigeria being a multi-ethnic and volatile heterogeneous society where citizens tend to primarily pay allegiance to their respective ethnic groups, recurring intra-communal crisis within communities tends to have an adverse effect, as regards integration and harmonisation of purposes and developmental initiatives. The crisis in Agulu, a community located in Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria, provides an insight into the retrogressive implications of intra-communal conflict towards integration and community development. Considering the enormous impact it had on community integration and development and on inter-group relations, the crisis, which rocked the community for more than a decade, has not been properly placed in the existing history of Agulu. In view of the stated problem, this study explicates the nature and disintegrative tendencies of religious-induced intra-communal conflict in Agulu. The study observes that Christianity actively altered the patterns of causal factors of conflict in Agulu as well as elsewhere in Igboland. The strife in Agulu was particularly embedded in Christian denominational differences.