Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Ife and Modakeke are both Yoruba of Osun state in southwestern Nigeria. According to local ancestral myth, both are descendants of Oduduwa, the perceived progenitor of the Yoruba people. The sociocultural and political systems of the two communities are essentially identical and their geographical distribution largely overlaps. As related as Ife and Modakeke are, however, both have engaged in protracted conflict for over a century. It remains the oldest intra-ethnic conflict in Nigeria. The Modakeke people are generally considered strangers, tenants, and migrants in Ife. Historical accounts suggest that they migrated and settled in Ife in the aftermath of the collapse of the Old Oyo empire in the nineteenth century, causing a refugee crisis to the south and resulting in the occupation of their contemporary location. Two distinct categories of people were thus created: the original settlers (landlords) and the migrants, tenants, farmhands, and a resettled group considered as refugees (Modakeke). These categorizations form the remote causes of the conflicts between the two groups. Indeed, crises are bound to exist in relationships like this when parties perceive their aspirations to be contradictory and their values, needs or interests divergent. Thus, while from a general sociocultural and identity perspective the two groups are identical as part of the Yoruba race, economic ... log in or subscribe to read full text