A nation is a large group of people who live in the same country; and who share

similar traditions, culture and ways of life. Watson

(1977) sees it as a community of people whose members are bound together by a sense
of solidarity, a common culture and a national consciousness. Nations are products
of the human will and imagination and the institutions that sustain their
collective efforts.
Basic Factors for Nation Building
Three factors are basic about a Nation. National consciousness.
Similar culture and tradition and Common geographical location.
National Consciousness: This is the minimum requisite awareness by any member of
the community to the things happening in the community and the level of interest,
passion and commitment of the individual to the development of the community. A
national consciousness is a shared sense of national identity, which is a shared
understanding that a group shares a common ethnic/linguistic/cultural background.
In fact, a rise in national consciousness has been the first step towards the
creation of a nation. It is a set of historical facts, feelings, attitudes, values,
and ways of activity united by the national language, culture and general history
which people admit as national and which are directed to establishment of both
spiritual and social links for the people.
Similar Culture and Tradition: A nation constitutes people that share similar way
of life and tradition. The tradition is known amongst the members of the group and
each person tries as much as possible to retain and maintain the boundaries. The
principles of the culture are made open and are communicated accordingly.
Common Geographical Location: A nation has a significant characteristic of having
defined geographical location and bearing.
The defined map enables proper delineation of boundaries. These boundaries provide
proper cultural identity and definite characterization.
Nation building according to Ikwumelo (1975) involves actions, behavious and
thoughts or feelings aimed at sustaining the attributes of a nation. Eboh and
Ukpong, (1993) defined nation building as a process, whereby the leaders of a
country strive to achieve unity and progress for their nation through various
programmes. It is aimed at promoting peace and harmony, reducing conflicts, laying
good foundations for economic, social and political development and above all to
create conditions for progress. Nation building refers to more abstract process of
developing a shared sense of identity or community among the various groups making
up the population of a particular state. It emphasizes the character of relations
between citizens and their nation. Nation building is aimed at promoting peace,
harmony, reducing conflicts, laying good foundation for economic and political
development.
Nation-building is the product of conscious statecraft, not happenstance. Nation-
building is always a work-in-progress; a dynamic process in constant need of
nurturing and re-invention.
Nation-building never stops and true nation-builders never rest because all nations
are constantly facing up to new challenges (Gambari,2008). Nation-building has many
important aspects.
Firstly, it is about building a political entity which corresponds to a given
territory, based on some generally accepted rules, norms, and principles, and a
common citizenship. Secondly, it is also about building institutions which
symbolize the political entity - institutions such as a bureaucracy, an economy,
the judiciary, universities, a civil service, and civil society organizations.
Above all else, however, nation-building is about building a common sense of
purpose, a sense of shared destiny, a collective imagination of belonging. Nation-
building is therefore about building the tangible and intangible threads that hold
a political entity together and gives it a sense of purpose. Even in these days of
globalization and rapid international flows of people and ideas, having a viable
nation remains synonymous with achieving modernity. It is about building the
institutions and values which sustain the collective community in these modern
times.
Conditions for Nation Building
Great nations have known the importance of Nation Building in the socio-economic
development of the people. In most instances, the authorities persuade the citizens
to ensure that everybody shares in the philosophy of nation building because they
have realized that no significant progress can be made without shared cohesion of
the thinking, feeling and aspiration of the people. The following are the
conditions for nation building:
Obedience and Allegiance to the Central Government: For any nation to make
significant progress, the citizens must be ready to obey the government in power.
There should be absolute obedience to the constitution governing the nation and
every citizen must be willing to abide by it. Also, there should be total
allegiance to the central government and not undue allegiance to ethnic
associations and significant people.
Willingness to live together: The various ethnic groups that make up the nation
must be willing and ready to live together. There should not be unnecessary ethnic
loyalty and ethnic chauvinism.
The purpose and perception of events in the nation should be the same. The
implication is that communication on national issues should be detailed and
straight to the point without encumbrances.
National Sentiment: This is feeling based on common cultural characteristics that
every member of the community shares. It is a commitment, devotion and patriotism
to the nation. It encompasses passionate devotion to the aspiration of the nation
and unalloyed interest to issues that concern the nation. National sentiment
mobilizes the citizenry to action that galvanizes to national development and
nation building.
It should be noted that for a country like Nigeria, issue of national building has
been a problem. Many governments have come up with programs aimed at addressing
concerns pertaining to proper mobilization of the people to nation building like
National Youth Service Corps, National Orientation programs, establishment of unity
schools and establishment of Federal character commission.
However, these programs and commissions created have not been able to address and
mobilize the citizens to nation building. The citizens are not ready to subjugate
local ethnic loyalty to the nation.
Challenges to Nation Building
The following have been identified as problems of nation building in Nigeria.
Gambari (2008) identified the following as the challenges of Nation building in
Nigeria.
The Challenge of History: The historical activities and the unenviable legacies of
colonial rule created some challenges for nation-building in Nigeria. The British
colonial rulers divided Nigeria into North and South with different land tenure
systems, local government administration, educational systems, and judicial systems
for ease of administration and exploitation strategy. While larger British colonies
like India and the Sudan had a single administrative system, Nigeria had two, one
for the North and one for the South. It was almost as if these were two separate
countries, held together only by a shared currency and transportation system
infrastructure development etc. These inequalities pose two related challenges to
nation-building. Firstly, high levels of socioeconomic inequalities mean that
different Nigerians live different lives in different parts of the country. The
chances of surviving child-birth, of surviving childhood, of receiving education
and skills, all vary across the country. A common nationhood cannot be achieved
while citizens are living such parallel lives. Inequalities are a threat to a
common citizenship. Secondly, even in those parts of the country that are
relatively better off, the level of social provision and protection is still low by
world standards. Instead of resorting to the divisive politics of indigene against
settler as a means of accessing resources, a generalized commitment to social
citizenship will create a civic structure of rights that will unite people around
shared rights and goals.
Challenge of poverty: Poverty and nation-building are strange bedfellows and should
not be allowed to exist in a sane society. A largely marginalized citizenry,
increasingly crippled by poverty and the lack of basic needs, can hardly be
expected to play its proper role in the development of the nation. Nations are
built by healthy and skilled citizens. On grounds of both equity and efficiency, we
need to promote the access of the bulk of the Nigerian population to basic
education, health, and housing. Nigeria needs a social contract with its citizens
as a basis for demanding their loyalty and support.
The Constitutional Challenge: Since independence, the country has been facing the
challenge of crafting a constitutional arrangement that has the backing of an
overwhelming majority of Nigerians. Our founding fathers battled with this problem
and in the end, they arrived at the principle of federalism as a foundation for our
nation. But federalism has faced stiff challenges over the years from those wanting
a unitary form of government on the one hand, and from those wanting a confederal
arrangement, on the other.
This confusion in having a proper constitution that can address the myriad of
problems facing the nation is a challenge to nation building. Another
constitutional challenge relates to the nature of our democracy. Whereas, most
Nigerians support the principles of democracy such as the forming of government
based on the will of the majority, respect for the rule of law, and respect for
basic freedoms of citizens, the fact remains that in practice, Nigeria has had
either military rule or defective civilian governments. Either in terms of
accountability, or respect for the rule of law, or the holding of elections, the
conduct of elections in the recent past has been far from democratic. There is also
the challenge of sharing power among the elective offices and positions in Nigeria.
The Challenge of Building Institutions for Democracy and Development: One of the
greatest challenges of nation building is the challenge of institution building.
Whether nations are able to manage their political and social disputes peacefully,
without lapsing into conflict, or sustain economic growth without creating huge
inequalities, critically depend on the quality of the relevant national
institutions. There are three important components to institution building: setting
the rules; hiring persons with the technical expertise and moral competence to
interpret the rules or implement the goals of the organizations; and ensuring that
the institutions inspire public confidence by being transparent, fair and
consistent. These are also the standards by which the performance of any
organization, in particular, public sector organizations should be measured. This
shows that the act of creating the organization itself is not as important as its
proper functioning and overall effectiveness. In this regard, Nigeria needs to
create or strengthen institutions that would help achieve the national goals of
democratic governance and sustainable development. The institutions can be for
public service delivery, economic governance, public integrity and accountability,
democracy and development and judicial services.
The Leadership Challenge: According to Achebe (1983) in his book entitled the
trouble with Nigeria stated that failure of leadership is the trouble with Nigeria.
Leadership is a critical factor in nation-building and it should be understood in
two important but related ways. Firstly, there are the personal qualities of
integrity, honesty, commitment, and competence of individual leaders at the top.
Secondly, there are the collective qualities of common vision, focus, and desire
for development of the elites as a whole. The standards for recruitment and the
performance of our individual leaders over the years have left much to be desired.
Nigeria does not need leaders who see themselves as champions of only some sections
of our population, leaders who do not understand the economic and political
problems of the country, not to talk of finding durable solutions for them. Leaders
who are more interested in silencing their opponents do not galvanize the citizens
for nation building and pursuing justice. Leaders who place themselves above the
constitution and the laws of the country do not help in nation building, but
leaders who lead by upholding and respecting the law.
Nigeria does not need leaders who have no sense of tomorrow, other than that of
their private bank accounts. If we are to succeed in nation-building, there must be
leadership that is committed to the rule of law and has a demonstrable sense of
fair play and democratic tolerance; a leadership with ability and integrity; above
all else, leadership that can see beyond the ostentatious pomp of office. We must
have leaders who have a vision for a Nigeria better than the one they inherited;
leaders who will lead by deeds and not by words; achievers, not deceivers. We need
a leadership that will not only leave its foot-prints on the sands of time, but
one, which by dint of hard-work, fair play, dedication and commitment, will live
forever in the hearts of Nigerians.
Leadership is not everything, but it is an extremely important factor. Unless we
have leaders with ability, integrity, commitment, and vision, Nigeria cannot
succeed at nation-building.
The National language Issue: Language plays a significant role in uniting a people.
With common language, there is common understanding to meaning and meanings of
words and expressions.
The contextual meaning is the same to every citizen and there is no room for
misinterpretation or representation of facts. In Nigeria, there is no common
language. There are more than 250 languages competing seriously with the 3 major
languages which are Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. Facts, statements are erroneously
misrepresented using various ethnic binoculars. Every word is scrutinized and it
goes through the ethnic fire chamber before interpretation. These processes do not
call for unification. A nation that wants to develop will not be having different
interpretation to simple statements.
High Level of Ethnic and Communal Crises: Nigeria is a heterogeneous country. This
simply means that understanding the various aspirations and perceptions of members
of any group totally is usually difficult. Nigeria has witnessed great ethnic and
communal crises that the list is endless. These crises culminated in the unenviable
civil war that engulfed the nation from 1967 to
1970. The war was between the Igbo ethnic group and the rest of Nigeria. The end
increased the mistrust amongst the various ethnic groups and has also increased
other dimensions of communal confrontations. The violent crises in 1995 between the
Igbos and Hausas in Kano is a case in point. Ijaw and Itsekiri crises in 1999.
Also, there were crises between Yorubas and the Hausas and also Odua people's
congress and the Hausas. Others are between Eleme and Okrika people in Rivers
State. These skirmishes are also seen in Plateau state, Ondo State and in all the
states of the federation. It is known that in each ethnic crisis, properties and
lives are lost. In many instances, the damage cannot be measured in haste. The
implication is that the nation has no love among the citizens. This degenerates to
hostility and lack of the fundamental cohesion needed to build a virile nation.
No Common Culture in Nigeria: Nigeria has more than 250 ethnic groups, All these
ethnic groups have their distinct cultures that they bring to the table in any
situation. These varying ethnic cultures come with their attendant ideology that in
most cases does not match with the national ideology. What comes out of such a
circumstance is disharmony as the cultural bond that fosters national unity is not
available. The nation floats in cultural limbo.
Another attendant result is that issues of nation building are understood
differently and the needed strong voice to fight dissent is not available. Culture
binds individuals together and purifies aspirations to one accord and where it is
not universal, it gives rise to discordant cultural vibes that cause disunity.
NATIONALISM
Nationalism is the tendency to consider the interests of one's own nation as
transcendent over the interests of all other nations. It is an attitude that
attaches particular importance to the distinctive culture, values and mores of a
nation, thus, placing great premium on the cultural variants of the nation. It is a
feeling of loyalty and responsibility to the nation. Nationalism is both an
ideology and a political movement which holds a nation and the sovereign nation-
state accountable to values, and which manages to mobilize the political will of a
people or a large section of a population to achieving identified goals for the
nation. It exists whenever individuals feel they belong primarily to the nation,
and whenever affective attachment and loyalty to that nation override all other
attachments and loyalties. Minogue (2018) sees it as the belief that each nation
has both the right and the duty to constitute itself as a state but goes on to
explain that in this sense, it is not a belief but rather a force that is supposed
to move people to both action and belief. Smooha (2019) maintains that nationalism
is the claim of ethnic groups to self-determination. When an ethnic group achieves
sovereignty in a certain state, it will become a nation, thus, nationalism is
characterized as a form of culture: an ideology, a language, mythology, symbolism,
and consciousness. Nationalism is the sense of political togetherness that invokes
spirit of patriotism and 'we feeling' in people towards their country and one
another and which distinguishes a group from other groups (Kellas, 1998).
As an ideology, nationalism holds that the nation should be the primary political
identity of individuals (Negedu and Atabor 2015).
This is in line with Geller's position that 'nationalism is primarily a political
principle, which holds that the political and the national unit should be
congruent' (Mclean and Mcmillan 2009). It is the sentiment of belonging to a
community whose members identifies with a set of symbols, beliefs and ways of life
and has the will to decide upon their common political destiny.
Goals of Nationalism
Nationalism has four goals. The first goal is turning of a passive ethnic category
or group into an active ethno political community.
This encompasses mobilizing support for the members of the community to properly
understand the need and importance of being active in all political issues going on
in the nation. The active participation creates serious synergy that brings the
aspiration of the people into one objective. This invariably reduces discord and
helps to harmonize dissenting voices for the good of the people. The citizens can
now raise their collective interest to become an ethnic interest that metamorphoses
into national interest. Active political interest makes the achievement of other
pivotal goals possible. This is so because political power and mobilization in most
instances changes the political equation of the government and align it towards the
popular thinking and feeling of the people. The people in this circumstance are the
most active in the political scene at the moments that have control of political
pendulum due to their active political participation.
The second goal is the development of an enduring culture. As it is known, culture
is the conglomeration of people's way of life. It encapsulates the values, mores
and artifacts of the people. Strong cultural fabric helps the community to have a
strong base to agitate and push for other pecks from the political class. Culture
defines and properly articulates the aspiration of the people and locates their
dream to be in line with fundamental objectives and directives of the community.
The culture of the people anchors the will of the people towards emancipation and
ensures that interferences do not sway the baseline of proper living.
The third goal is the forming of the community into a culturally homogeneous
organic nation. Nationalism distils the varying aspirations and divergent
orientation of the people into an organogram that leads to prosperity and
nationhood. The different cultural orientation and cleavages are x-rayed into a
philosophy that unites all with serious emphases on the things that unite the
various peoples and not what separate them. The cultural or attitude dimensions
that are inconsistent with the main cultural bias of the people are corrected and
fused into the main cultural domain of the people.

The fourth goal is getting a defined and appropriately delineated territory or even
a state for the nation. For nationalism to blossom, the territorial integrity of
the people must be definite. The boundaries must be defined and protected and the
aerial map well-articulated. The proper delineation enhances peaceful co-existence
on the communities in the nation and also helps in planning for development.
It is readily apparent to note that nationalism comes in association with four
other terms namely nation, state, ethnic group, and culture. All these concepts are
towards realizing one objective which is mobilizing the citizens for greatness.
While it is seductive to think of nationalism as emerging from and representing
real, concrete, perhaps ancient nations, in many actual cases, the nation must be
seen as a creation of nationalism.
It should be known that not all nationalism necessarily seeks or results in a
national state, and not all nationalist movements represent real, concrete,
already-existing nations. Some nationalism sets more modest goals, such as national
recognition of a region or province and perhaps a certain amount of devolution of
power to the regional or provincial level for example, the agitation for
independent Biafra by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group.
The Tamil Tigers demands in Sri Lanka and recurrent Kurdish demands in their
various host-states take this form. There is theoretically no lower limit to the
size of a group which may call itself, and demand recognition as a nation; there is
also no cultural or political litmus test which can establish or deny a group's
claims to nationhood, no objective standard or definition to apply.
Nationalism may merely seek recognition, respect, and justice for a nation: its
people and their culture; the raison d'être for a nation however, is the enjoyment
and cultivation of its unique culture values.
The relation, though, between nationalism and culture is a problematic one and in
fact relativizes once again the entire question of who precisely is the nation.
Which aspects of culture are central to the nation: language, or religion, or
homeland, or history, and so on? The elevation of one or another of these to the
status of a national symbol and marker changes the contours of the group which
might be claimed a nation.

Manifestations And Management Of Ethnic Crisis

Crisis is a universal feature of human society. It takes its origins in economic
differentiation, social change, cultural formation, psychological development and
political organization all of which are inherently conflictual and becomes overt
through the formation of conflict parties, which come to have, or are perceived to
have, mutually incompatible goals. According to Adetoye and Omilusi
(2015) conflict entails struggle and rivalry for objects to which individuals and
groups attach importance. Osagbae and Suberu
(2005) opined that the material objects in relation to conflict may include scarce
resources like money, employment, and position including political ones, promotion
in both the private and public organizations. The non-material objects include
culture, tradition, religion and language. Conflicts are dynamic as they escalate
and de-escalate, and are constituted by a complex interplay of attitudes and
behaviours that can assume a reality of their own. One basic fact of the Nigerian
social formation or the Nigerian state is its composition by multi-ethnic
nationalities or multi-ethnic groups.
An interesting thing about this basic fact, is that both scholarship and experience
have not come to terms with the exact number of Nigeria's multi-ethnic groups.
Galtung (1967) suggested that conflict could be viewed as a triangle, with
contradiction (C), attitude (A) and behaviour (B) at its vertices. In a symmetric
conflict, the contradiction is defined by the parties, their interests and the
clash of interests between them. In an asymmetric conflict, it is defined by the
parties and their relationship, and the conflict of interests inherent in the
relationship. The conflictual attitude includes the parties' perceptions and
misperceptions of each other and of themselves.
This can be positive or negative, but in violent conflicts, parties tend to develop
demeaning stereotypes of the other, and attitudes are often influenced by emotions
such as fear, anger, bitterness and hatred. Attitude covers emotive (feeling),
cognitive (belief) and conative (desire, will) elements. Behaviour is the third
component.
It can involve cooperation or coercion, gestures signifying conciliation or
hostility. Violent conflict behaviour is characterized by threats, coercion and
destructive attacks. It should be noted that all the three components have to be
present together in a full conflict. Conflict is a dynamic process in which
structure; attitudes and behaviour are constantly changing and influencing one
another.
As the dynamics develop, it becomes a manifest conflict formation, as parties'
interests clash or the relationship they are in becomes oppressive. Parties then
organize around this structure to pursue their interests. They develop hostile
attitudes and conflictual behavior. Thus, the conflict formation starts to grow and
intensify.
As it does so, it may widen, drawing in other parties, deepen and spread,
generating secondary conflicts within the main parties or among outsiders.
In Nigeria, conflicts are part of the developmental history, thus, the history of
ethnic conflict in Nigeria can be traced back to the colonial and post-colonial
era. Colonial tripartite division of Nigeria prevented a nationalistic movement,
manipulating geographical boundaries to reinforce separation between ethnic groups
and transforming ethnicity into an identity by which to gain political power; this
structure along with other administrative decisions emphasized ethnic nationalism
and regional politics, resulting from significant uneven development within each
region. The heterogeneity of the Nigerian state is more glaring if we understand
that in each state or local government in Nigeria, there is a proliferation of
ethnic groupings making the country susceptible to the ills of ethnicism, which
have implications for her ability to turn the unlimited advantages she has for the
benefit of all and sundry.
It is known that ethnic consciousness motivated the majority ethnic groups to
develop regional political parties which stimulated inter-ethnic tensions, ethnic
politics inevitably became the main deterrent to Nigerian nationalism. In each
ethnic group, a party dominated by members of the majority ethnic group obtained
office and provided services and patronage for the group (Cooper, 2002).
According to Ebegbulem, (2010), the politics of ethnic and regional security play a
key role in Nigeria's political and economic development as well as its role in
Africa and the world in general. It is the major source of growing political crisis
in Nigeria. It undermines the selection of responsible and responsive national
leadership by politicizing ethnicity. Leaders are recruited on the basis of
ethnicity, religion, ideology and region, rather than their competence, ability,
experience and vision, hence, Nigeria's political and economic performance falls
below par in comparison with other countries of comparable size, might, strength
and resources. Ethnicity resulted in periodic outbreaks of violence between
different ethnic groups in Nigeria.
The social formation of Nigeria which is basically ethnically heterogeneous and by
implication multi-cultural society is expected to have high potentiality for lack
of cordiality, mutual suspicion and fear, and in addition a high tendency towards
violent confrontations. Colonial division of Nigeria that reinforced ethnic groups,
rise of ethno-political consciousness, and the development of ethnic/regional
political parties demonstrated that the British administration intentionally
prevented the rise and success of Nigerian nationalism, instead promoting ethnic
nationalism as a means to gain political power Ebegbulem (2010). It is believed
that Lord Frederick Lugard's 1914-18 constitutional exercises, which resulted in
the amalgamation of the separate protectorates of Southern Nigeria and Cameroon
with the protectorate of Northern Nigeria, were carried out without any explicit
consent from Nigerians. As a result of this action, Okoye (2005) opined that
provinces and other divisions were created according to the wisdom and convenience
of imperial British officials. This influenced the ethnic consciousness of
Nigerians.
The wave of ethnic crisis in the country can also be traced to the creation of
three regions by the British government using the two major rivers, the Niger and
the Benue rivers to divide the country into three geographical units, namely, the
North, East and West.
The unjust nature of the division is encapsulated in the words of Ojo (2014) who
averred that the division exacerbated the country's ethnic problems. Firstly, the
regions were not equal; the Northern region was the size of the Eastern and Western
regions combined.
Secondly, the three regions were created without due consideration of minority
groups that abound in these regions. The division of Nigeria into three regions in
1946 by Richard Constitution for administrative convenience was directly associated
with the three major ethnic groups - Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo.
There were series of inter and intra-communal crisis and ethnic clashes in 1997
arising from either deliberate marginalization, differential opportunities of
employment, education, government appointments and so on. The level of damage, the
degree of loss of lives and properties, the disruption of social activities are
pointers to the fact that ethnic clashes are doing more damage to the nation rather
than building it. In highlighting ethnic crises and the dimensions of the
manifestations in Nigeria, the analysis will be on crises noted or building blocks
of crises in the colonial era and post-colonial era.
Colonial Era Conflicts
With reference to the chronicle of Ebegbulem, (2010), the history of ethnicity and
ethnic conflicts in Nigeria is traced back to the colonial transgressions that
forced the ethnic groups of the northern and southern provinces to become an entity
called Nigeria in 1914.
Since the various ethnic groups living in these provinces were not consulted
regarding the merger, this British colonial policy was autocratic and undemocratic,
and thus led to conflict. It denied the people's basic needs of psychological
consent, participation, equality and social wellbeing. An administration that
endorses segregation for its people does not have the unity of the country at
heart. Rather, the separate governments introduced in the North and the South were
designed to strengthen the colonial grip on Nigerian society and weaken the
people's potentials for resistance. This era of provincial development, though
relatively peaceful, also led to growing ethnocentrism.
The introduction of indirect rule in Nigeria by Lord Frederick Lugard, promoted
tribal animosity in Nigeria. The system not only reinforced ethnic division, it
complicated the task of welding diverse elements into a Nigerian nation (Coleman
1958 as cited in Okwudibia 1980). This strategy of governance distanced ethnic
groups from each other. Lord Lugard gave power to the traditional rulers who
corruptly used it in the villages to amass wealth, land and establish patronage
networks, which, in the long run, encouraged tribalism and nepotism. The
segregation of the Nigerian colony was also reinforced by the colonial laws that
limited the mobility of Christian southerners to the Muslim North, created a
separate settlement for non-indigenous citizens in the North, and even limited the
purchase of land outside one's own region (Afigbo,
1989). Prejudice and hatred became rife in the provinces as different ethnic groups
started looking at each other suspiciously in all spheres of contact. Unequal and
differential treatment of ethnic groups was manifest as intense competition in
Nigerian society was the order of the day. It created disparity in educational
achievement and widened the political and economic gaps between Northern and
Southern Nigeria.
During this period, there was significant scarcity of all reasonable goods and
services in this Nation. The social, political and religious lives of the people
were asphyxiated and bruised. The education was a dependent educational system that
produced middle class people that are not too innovative to move the country to the
next level of prosperity. Thus, this affected employment, political participation
and the provision of social services to the population (Nnoli 1980). The lack of
such basic needs always gave the elites the ability to mobilize groups for intense
competition thereby firing the embers of ethnocentrism to achieve their goals. The
mindsets of the people were manipulated and their thinking patterned towards
worshipping the queen and not to think inwards for development strategies. In 1947,
a colonial constitution divided Nigeria into three political regions: East, West
and North. This division further emphasized boldly the secret machination of the
colonial masters to division. The division made ethnic thinking and aspiration to
be paramount and more constitutional. The North, which was predominantly Hausa-
Fulani, was the largest and eventually the most populous region. The Igbos
dominated the East and the Yorubas the West. Osaghae, (1991) and Subaru, (1996)
observed that with the three major ethnic groups in dominance, the minority groups
rebelled and Nigerians started fighting for ethnic dominance as the nation marched
towards independence.

Post-Colonial Era Conflicts

Nigeria Civil War
The Nigerian civil war was the result of ethnic and religious tensions among two
major ethnic groups of Nigeria. Like many other African countries, Nigeria was an
artificial structure initiated by the British which had neglected to consider
religious, linguistic and ethnic differences. Nigeria, which won independence from
Britain in 1960, had at that time a population of about 60 million people
consisting of about 250 differing ethnic and cultural groups.
The Nigerian civil war which started in 1967 was a political conflict caused by the
attempted secession of the Eastern region of Nigeria under the leadership of Lt.
Col. Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu. According to Udo (1972), there were close to
3,000,000 military casualties and civilian deaths from starvation. Following
independence in 1960, three regions were created along ethnic lines. These are the
Northern region dominated by the Hausa-Fulani, the Eastern region dominated by the
Igbos and the Western
Midwestern region, was created from the western region after Nigeria became a
Republic in 1963.
Ethnic tensions increased after a military coup in January, 1966 led by Major
Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu. The coup was seen by the Northerners as an attempt by the
Igbos to dominate the country.
This led to a counter coup led by the Northerners few months later.
In the counter coup, Aguiyi Ironsi, an Igbo Major General who was the then Head of
State was killed and widespread reprisals were unleashed against the Igbos in the
Northern part of the country.
Fearing marginalization within the state, on May 30, 1967 the Eastern region
dominated by the Igbos declared its independence as the Republic of Biafra.
The Nigerian government launched a military action to repossess the secessionist
territory as it declared Ojukwu's action as a rebellion and promised to crush it.
As observed by Osaghae, fighting broke out between federal and Biafran forces on
July 6, 1967, with Gowon ordering military action in a war which he and other top
federal military officers believed would not last long. The war ended on January
12, 1970 with the announcement of Lt. Col.
Philip Effiong (Ojukwu's Second in Command) of the surrender of Biafra. Osaghae
2002) has argued that it was mostly the genocide against the Igbos in the Northern
region and the revenge killings of Eastern officers, including the Head of State
General Aguiyi Ironsi, in the July Countercoup, that provided the grounds for
Ojukwu's secessionist plans which resulted in the civil war. By the end of
September, Ojukwu who had argued that the action of the Northerners against the
Igbos had cast serious doubts on whether the people of Nigeria could ever sincerely
live together as members of the same country, concluded that the safety of
Easterners living outside the region could no longer be guaranteed and asked them
to return home. These and other causes led to the Nigerian civil war. It has been
estimated that about three million people died as a result of the war, most from
hunger and disease.
After the war, the federal government embarked on a vigorous policy of
reintegration and rehabilitation built around the "three Rs" Reconstruction,
Rehabilitation, and Reconciliation. Reconstruction, helped by oil money, was swift;
however, the old ethnic and religious tensions remained a constant feature of
Nigerian politics.
The Warri Ethnic War
This crisis which started in the month of March, 1997 went on for over six months.
The crisis broke out between the Ijaws and the Itsekiris, two of the three major
ethnic groups in Warri. For some time now, the two groups have regarded each other
with mutual suspicions. The crisis of 1997 came after the location of the
headquarters of one of the newly created local governments in the area. The crisis
led to the sack of several villages while properties worth several millions of
naira were wantonly destroyed.
Sophisticated weapons including grenades and other explosives were freely employed.
According to the 1997 annual report on the human rights situation in Nigeria,
mercenaries were recruited to train youths in the art of handling sophisticated
weapons of modern warfare. Many school children became emergency warriors and
classroom activities were paralyzed for many months.
In this Kind of situation, nation building processes cannot be possible.

Ife-Modakeke Fratricidal War

The creation of 183 additional local governments in Nigeria by the Abacha
administration in 1996 had generated hostilities in the country. In Ife-Modakeke,
palpable tension had been generated over the location of the headquarters of the
newly created Ife-East Local government; Indigenes of the two communities engaged
themselves in physical warfare. Houses and properties were looted, vandalized or
completely razed. Many people were killed.
Educational and social activities in the area were paralyzed (CDHR;
1997). Other Cases of ethnic/communal clashes hostilities between the Esan speaking
people of, llushin and their Uro-speaking migrant neighbors; and the ethnic crisis
involving Pam-Pam and Gindiri townships of the Mangu Local Government Council of
Plateau State to mention but few, Many other inter-ethnic crises occur almost
everyday in the country and these rather than helping in the building of a virile
nation have been destabilizing the process of nation building.
Warri Communal Clash
OPC and Hausa Traders in Sagamu Lagos State
Boundary disputes in communities in Cross River State and Akwalbom State
Eleme and Okirka people in Rivers State
Clashes between local farmers and Fulani herders men in Benue, Oyo, Enugu, Imo,
Kogi and other parts of Nigeria
Communal clashes between people of Offiong and Oku Iboku in Cross River State
Ijaw and Urhobo communal clashes
Zango- Kataf crises in Kaduna State
Kalo - Kata Ethnic crises
Yelwa and Shamdam Crises
However, the various programs have been introduced by the government to address the
crises: National Youth Service Corps program, Establishment of Unity Schools,
Creation of States, Mass Mobilization Programs (MAMSER), National Orientation
Programs, National Directorate of Employment Programs, Better Life for Rural Women
program, Various National Reconciliation Committees, Establishment of Human rights
Commission and various Constitutional Review Committees.
Unfortunately, however, as lofty as these programmes were, none of them has
succeeded in fostering any serious unity in the country.
The reasons for their failure are not farfetched. It has been discovered that in
most cases, the government's commitment to the programme may be mere rhetoric.
Hence, most of the programmes were poorly implemented or ended up being a kind of
conduit pipes through which money were siphoned by the governing elites. Also, lack
of proper orientation or education of the people the programmes were meant for
account for the failure of many of them.

In addition, Nigerian ethnic problem has been worsened by the people's loss of
confidence in the ability of the government to ensure fair and equitable
distribution of government benefits.
Nation building is low. Whenever the people perceive that the government, either at
the state or federal level is serving the interest of a particular section of the
society, parochialism and ethnic identity may become an important mobilizing factor
in expressing marginalization.
Little wonder then why ethnic pressure groups like the Oodua's peoples' Congress
(OPC), Bakassi Boys, Egbesu Boys, Arewa peoples' Congress, Ohaneze Ndigbo,
Indigenous People of Baifra, Arewa Consultative Forum, Afenifere and the likes have
sprung up in Nigeria to fight for the interest of their individual ethnic groups.
These associations view and perceive issues in Nigeria from the ethnic spectrum.
Everything is interpreted from the ethnic perspective. These ethnic based
evaluations often aggravated communal tensions which in some cases have snowballed
into ethnic crisis. Hence ethnic jingoists have always capitalized on the high rate
of unemployment, high rate of illiteracy, unequal distribution of wealth and
corruption to drag the people of the country into ethnic battles, for their own
selfish reasons.
There is no gain-saying the fact that ethnic crises in Nigeria have seriously
affected governance. They have made it impossible for Nigerian government to
consolidate its rule and they have resulted in serious political and economic
instability. They have weakened patriotism, commitment to national ideals and true
nationhood.
Moreover ethnic crises have often bred suspicion, lack of trust and relationship
problem between members of different ethnic groups, a situation which further
deepens parochialism. This becomes worsened when the government cannot protect the
citizens from, and guard against injustice, or perform its role effectively as an
impartial judge. The serial attack on communities by suspected Fulani herdsmen and
the conspiracy of silence in reprimanding the attackers and punishing them will not
encourage development of the country.
The lack of trust in government and government institutions which this has
generated has often made people to recourse more to ethnic cleavages and throw them
on the laps of religious and ethnic jingoists who are always ready to use them to
foment further trouble for their selfish interests. Similarly, the wanton
destruction of lives and property caused by ethnic violence is deepening animosity
and removing sense of friendship, solidarity and good neighborliness among people
of various ethnic divide. For instance, Human Right Watch report gave figures of
15000 and 20000 as the death recorded in Jos crises of 2010 and 2018 respectively.
Also, the Amnesty International reported that about 25,000 people were killed on
account of ethnic conflicts in Nigeria since 1999.
Moreover, incessant ethno-communal conflicts have led to massive displacement of
people in the conflict zones thereby making them internal refugees and burden to
the government. For instance, the Amnesty International report in 2018 put the
number of people displaced on the account of sectarian conflicts at 2,000,000.

The psychological effects of the memories of the killings, arsons, lootings and the
attendant discomfort may be long lasting and produce spirit of vengeance, thereby
making crisis to be a vicious circle. This accounts for the difficulty the
governments at state and federal levels encounter in curtailing the incessant
violent ethnic crises in all parts of Nigeria.
Jekada (2015) has rightly observed that there is a linkage between proliferation of
small arms and light weapons and the upsurge of ethnic conflict in Nigeria.
Similarly, Adeoye (2016) emphasizes that people procure arms and ammunition because
they believe that failure to do that will make them vulnerable to attacks by the
other ethnic groups. In some cases, community members take delight in contributing
money for the purchase of arms during communal clashes. A UNDP report revealed that
there are about 8 million illegal small arms and light weapons in West Africa,
while a senior Nigerian official claimed that Nigeria alone account for 1 million
illegal weapons out of the total number claimed by UNDP.
Although, this book opines that this figure may be over bloated, yet the fact
remains that hundreds of thousands of illegal arms are in Nigeria. There is no
gain-saying the fact that this puts a serious question mark on the security of the
country. The attendant security threat may have serious implication on the country.
Furthermore, ethnic crises make the government to embark on diversion of fund to
maintain peace in conflict areas at the expense of the demanding developmental
programmes. Both the Federal and State governments spend huge amount of money to
maintain peace, keep security personnel, build the ruins of the crises, provide
relief materials and pay compensation to the victims of the crises. Ethnic crises
lead to loss of revenue to both private individuals and the government. Apart from
the fact that violent conflict leads to the destruction of the economic mainstay of
some people like land and economic crops, it also leads to imposition of curfew
which will grind all economic activities in the affected areas to a halt. This will
certainly result in loss of revenue to the government and produce its adverse
effects on the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Finally, ethnic crisis can give the country a bad image in the international
community and discourage foreign investment.
Alao (2012) has stressed that as a way forward, the government should pay more
attention to human capital development because it is very central to curbing ethnic
violence. According to Wilson Churchill the empires of the future are the empires
of the mind.
Human capital development and empowerment generate knowledge, understanding,
informal rules, norms and long relationships that facilitate co-coordinated action
and enable people to undertake cooperative ventures for mutual advantage. This is
expected to redirect citizens attention to joint action instead of dissipating
energy on divisive issues. The melting point in the teaching of the various
religions should be the focus of the government and interest groups and not on
divisive issues. Central to the above is the creation of enabling environment for
stable academic calendar, job creation most importantly, the development of good
school curriculum that reflects the currents developmental trends and challenges.
Nigerian government needs to ensure equality, fair play and justice. When the
people perceive that the state institutions can no longer protect them from or
guard against injustice, there is every likelihood that they will recourse to
ethnic loyalty where they hope to get succor. Moreover, equitable distribution of
the nation's wealth will go a long way to restore public confidence in the
citizens, if access to socio-economic and political resources in the society is
universally guaranteed, based on inherent equal worth of citizens.
However, if life chances and access to important socio-economic opportunities are
dependent on membership of a particular ethnic group, ethnic pluralism will
continue to be a problem. Hence Nigeria government needs the institutionalization
of constitutional and policy regime that will ensure efficacious citizenship.
Furthermore, true federalism should be allowed to exist. This will enable ethnic
groups within the federation to exercise some control over their economic
resources. It will also enable the people to have some measure of self-
determination within the country. A denial of this may lead to frustration and
aggression. If true federalism is operative, a lot of issues such as creation of
local government and competition over citing of development projects, which attract
national attention could be effectively addressed locally.
Also, the government needs to develop strong political will to tackle security
challenges and address the issues of conflict than pacifying the parties or victims
of conflict. It has almost become a norm in Nigeria that the constitution of panel
of inquiry into any crisis is always a window dressing. Usually, the reports of the
panels are not implemented nor culprits punished. Implementing such reports will
create confidence in the conflicting parties and serve as deterrence to future
perpetrators of crisis. The nation needs to come off its weakness or rhetoric
commitment to security issues and address frontally myriad of security issues
especially the rampaging herdsmen attack ravaging the country.

Culture, Gender Roles And Ethnic Behavior

Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,
attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial
relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired
by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group
striving (Hofstede,
1997). It is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of
one group or category of people from another. It posits that the ideas, meanings,
beliefs and values people learn as members of society determines human nature.
People are what they learn, therefore, culture ultimately determines the quality in
a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in
arts, letters, manners and scholarly pursuits and many more. It is a particular
stage or form of civilization (Johnson, 1921).
Different cultural groups think, feel, and act differently. There are no scientific
standards for considering one group as intrinsically superior or inferior to
another. Culture is considered to be the tradition of that people and is
transmitted from generation to generation. This varies worldwide in relation to the
different group in terms of the eating habit, kind of food eaten, language, music,
dressing, and the like. On a general note, Africans are considered to be rich in
terms of culture and tradition (Babatunde, 1992;
Akintoye, 2010).
It is the fabric of ideas, skills, tools, aesthetics, objects, method of thinking,
of eating and of talking as well of customs and institutions into which a member of
the society is born. It connotes a people's way of living, permutations, ideologies
and beliefs. Thus, it encompasses all the knowledge, customs, and skills that are
available to the members of a community (Agba, 2012) Culture provides the framework
for social behaviour and social control and serves as an architect and moulders of
social personality.
Culture entails the totality of the way of life of a people and its knowledge helps
to incorporate other people's ideas. Individuals adapt to different pattern of
lifestyle because by so doing they enrich their own cultures and also gain new
knowledge.
Developmental studies affirm that culture represents norms, values and customs
which are dynamic and passed socially. The variants of culture that are good are
inculcated into the existing ones through acculturation and social behaviors
inconsistent with the acculturation are modified (Njoku, 2016). Each ethnic group
has unique cultural definitions and these definitions guide and guard behaviours.
Social learning which enables cultures to be learned and transmitted comprises of a
lot of processes like attention, affective valence, distinctiveness, prevalence,
complexity and functional value (Bandura, 1997). However, an individual adapting
culture as a formidable tool for change must have arousal, sensory and perceptual
abilities. These abilities help to synthesize the needed cultural dimensions
relevant to the community. Importantly, significant elements of culture must be
learned, understood and properly retained so that understanding, interpreting and
appropriate feedback are distilled for effective behavioral change (Craig, 2014).
It should be noted that human populations living in similar environment can exhibit
different cultural patterns of behavior and hold different beliefs and values that
can be adaptive, neutral and even maladaptive. Adaptiveness to a culture in this
sense provides the needed cultural information that can crystallize behavior
modification.
Individuals have the ability to approve or disapprove cultural learning. Baun
(1994) indicates that humans are usually sensitive to expressions of approval and
disapproval and also have the tendency to accept social influences that allow the
individual to use adaptive advantages stored in the cultural tradition. The
capacity of approving and disapproving of behavior is an elementary form of
teaching and behavior modification. This capacity allows the approval or
disapproval of badly imitated behaviors or behaviors that are abhorrent within the
environment. Also, it allows for quick categorization of behaviors as positive or
negative, favoring their acceptance or rejection respectively. Therefore, it was
this capacity to approve and disapprove an individual's behavior within a cultural
precinct that made learning both more accurate and less costly, increasing
reliability in the replication of learned behavior.
Interestingly too, the approval or disapproval is usually directed at the behavior
that ought to be maintained, reinforced or removed.
Culture provides social reference groups and these reference groups depending on
the category provide the appropriate reinforcement, reward or punishments that
situate the needed behavior. Individuals in the group are neither neutral nor
passive towards the behavior of a person within the group. They evaluate and
demonstrate approval or disapproval even if the behavior in question does not
affect them directly. This role of behavior gauge is typically seen in age group
organizations in Igbo land and peer group associations in other ethnic groups
(Idachaba, 2014). Culture in this context provides a reference for assessment of
appropriate behavior.
Gender within a cultural context defines how males and females should think, speak,
dress and interact within the society (Heinrich,2014). Many ethnic groups have
distinct male and female gender roles that define the relationship and interaction
with the gender.
Many factors determine gender role playing. These include natural factors, cultural
factors, economic factors, religious factors and social value system. The
biological aspect of gender entails a situation where a person is born either a
male or a female. This factor is simply based on anatomical feature in individuals.
Cultural, religious and societal value systems assign roles on this anatomical
differentiation. Differential ethnic Cultures shape gender roles and provide the
schemas that cognitively provides framework for defining appropriate masculine and
feminine roles.
Although parents and significant others teach and enforce gender roles, ethnic
culture ultimately provides the strongest influence because the role prescriptions,
parents, books, media and significant others' teachings are extracted from the
prevailing culture of the people (Akav, 2013).
People treat and perceive male and female infants differently.
Traditionally, fathers teach males how to fix and build things, to lead and the
process of settlement of disputes. Females are usually taught how to cook, sow,
plait hairs and keep the house, although feminists are kicking against these roles
as too elementary to the actual roles females play in the society. Accurate
discharge of these duties gets approval from parents especially when they conform
to cultural stipulations. These are also usually reinforced by socializing agents
such as the media, and religious organizations.
Males in most cultures too are expected to be independent, assertive and
competitive. Females are expected to be more passive, sensitive, dependent and
supportive (Susanne, 2014). These beliefs in roles designation provide an internal
assessment, parameter and galvanize thinking towards ensuring that defined roles
are not tampered with.
However, there may be divergent gender role descriptions and compliance in
different countries. For example, African families tend to strict gender role
definitions when socializing children or inculcating new teachings, while non
Africans especially Americans relax these rules and choose democratic gender role
identification. This freedom led to transgender movement which is threatening the
cultural fabric of our nations.

Ethnic Cultural Transmission

People living in Nigerian society especially children are now faced with the
daunting task of sustaining the existing cultural norms and withholding the wave of
cultural imperialism orchestrated through the foreign media. Presently, it is very
difficult to stop these cultural infiltrations as the channels of the penetrations
are quite in our living rooms, bedrooms and offices. This is more prominent in
urban centers where the power of new cultural concepts and ideals communicated by
various modes of media influence behavioral patterns of people. These new cultural
influences undermine those inherited from the tightly knit community structures of
the past that had clearly defined our value system. Traditional value systems have
broken down with these cultural infiltrations, leaving people especially the youths
making transition to adolescence without clear cut cultural distinctions and
appropriate norms of behaviors (Samuel, 2014). This is evident in the question my
daughter asked me, "Daddy, what is the difference between Come and Bia?" (Njoku,
2016). This confusion of understanding simple cultural concepts and meanings now
lead to behavioral catharsis with its consequent mal-adaptiveness.
An outery by parents, schools, churches and government of these prevailing
behavioral deteriorations will not abate if not tackled from all fronts especially
by revisiting our cultural fabric that is under heavy imperialistic threats. A
formulation of specifically designed programmes to serve as an alternative
framework for the modification of the identified negative values, attitudes and
behaviors that showcase in form of cultism, school dropout, examination
malpractices, under achievement, poor attitude to work, lack of dignity of labor,
avarice, drug abuse, robbery, rape, homicide, teenage pregnancies are very
important now. These alternative frameworks give rise to stable cultural
differences among both individuals and groups and provide social relation
guidelines for differentiation of behaviors. Appropriate and fundamental traits
like risk aversion, altruism, brotherhood and communalism play a central role in
the formulation of cultural traits and norms that serve as reference behavior.
These reference behaviors are integrated into the social lives and dynamics through
the socialization process; an important behavior modification channel. Although
opinions vary on the specific mental and social processes that are involved in
socialization of an individual. However, many social psychologists are of the view
that socialization is a process of learning involving strong cognitive and
deliberative character with the parents playing the role of the teacher and
distributing rewards and punishment for socially approved and disapproved behaviors
respectively. Importantly, the individual can learn by imitating approved behaviors
of parents and significant others.
Ethnic Cultural Values
Values are standard for good behavior. Values are basic and fundamental beliefs
that guide or motivate attitudes or actions.
They help us to determine what is important to us. Values describe the personal
qualities we choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to
be; the manner in which we treat ourselves and others, and our interaction with the
world around us.
They provide the general guidelines for conduct. Values in a narrow sense are that
which are good, desirable, or worthwhile. They are the motive behind purposeful
action. They are the ends to which we act and come in many forms. They are guiding
principles that dictate behavior and can help people understand the difference
between right and wrong. Personal values are personal beliefs about right and wrong
and may or may not be considered moral. Cultural values are values accepted by the
people or societies and reflect what is important in each context. Value specifies
a relationship between a person and a goal. It is relational in the sense that what
one person values may not be what another person values even in the same situation.
For example, a person who values honesty might blow the whistle on incest by a
superior whereas another person who values loyalty may remain silent. This is an
example of values conflict. The honest person may believe there are limits to
loyalty and keeping quiet about a wrongful act out of loyalty might harm others.
The loyal person may believe in the importance of keeping one's confidence even if
it might harm others because of the trusting relationship. Some values stand up
well over the test of time; they are always good or rightful behavior for example
Innovation, Creativity, Good humor, Compassion, Spirit of adventure, Motivation,
Positivity, Optimism, Passion, Respect, Fitness, Courage, Education, Perseverance,
Patriotism, Service to others, Environmentalism.
In our society, many individuals on face value may express and profess these
values; often the best way to identify and confirm these values in an individual is
to watch how individuals behave especially when they have the authority and nobody
is watching them.
Value has 2 perspectives. They are intrinsic and extrinsic value.
Intrinsic value is something that has value in its own right, such as honesty and
kindness, whereas extrinsic value is doing something for another reason (i.e.,
wealth and fame). They are very important and fundamental in all human societies
and in human actions and activities. Generally, morality which is an aspect of
value system originates from religious considerations, and so pervasive is religion
in Nigerian culture that the two cannot be separated. What constitutes moral code
of any particular Nigerian society are the laws, taboos, customs and set forms of
behavior and all derive their compelling power from religion. Thus, morality flows
out of religion, and through this the conduct of individuals are regulated; and any
break of the moral code is regarded as evil and punishable.
An Important fact about the rules which constitute the ethical code of Nigeria
societies is that they are usually integrated into a unified system, and to
understand the ethical code, no rule can be considered apart from the system as a
whole. The only desirable ideal is social harmony and peace for the good of man and
society.
Most of the important virtues are either couched in proverbs which are believed to
have been handed down by the ancestors or expressed in the form of a folk-tale with
moral information to it.
The proverbs may serve as prescriptions for action or act as judgment in times of
moral lapses. Proverbs are often cited at an appropriate time during an argument,
discussion or dispute resolution and can help settle the dispute instantly. The
content of the proverb defines the values of the people.
A country like Nigeria needs a good value system to anchor the social, economic
governance and development behavior of her citizens for national growth. Value
system has been conceptualized in different forms by different scholars, but what
is common to all the concepts is that the culture of a people represents the
embodiment of the society's values, norms, beliefs and ethos which form the basis
for social interaction between members of that society. Cultural mores, values,
norms, beliefs and ethos in effect define the expectations of right and wrong
behavior, proper and improper behavior and acceptable and unacceptable behavior in
a given society. The values and attitudes often reflect the degree of the
internalization of the norms and beliefs imbibed from the family, community,
schools and the society. In fact, development of a positive value system is the
first process of proper socialization because when an individual's values are
right, attitude to issues, to self and to others will be good because positive
attitude and behavior come from an entrenched positive value system. It should be
noted that individual or group of individuals may choose what they call their
values, cultural values go deeper than values because, cultural values are
transmitted and acquired not freely chosen. It is also inscribed deeply in the
spirit and philosophy of the people and also in their history.

Igbo Cultural Values and Tradition

Igbo land is the home of the Igbo people and it covers most of southeast Nigeria.
The Igbo people, natively called Ndi-Igbo are the third largest ethnic group in
Nigeria. Igbo people are said to be the most dispersed ethnic community in Nigeria.
Their migration started in the early days of the slave trade and continues to be
felt to this day. Igbo people are mostly traders, farmers, and craftsmen, with
agriculture being the most dominant activity. presently, they reside in Imo,
Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, states and parts of Rivers and Delta states, although
they are present in all parts of the country and beyond because of their business
interest and quest for wealth. The main language is Igbo language and the religion
is Christianity and few others practice traditional religion. The Igbo culture
includes the various customs, practices and traditions that comprise archaic
practices as well as new concepts.
Igbo as a nation has the family and its name, sacredness of human life, chastity,
mutual respect and respect for elders and parents, marriage, hospitality,
brotherhood, brotherly understanding, obligation to work, as important values.
There is sense of community, sense of good relation, sense of sacredness of life,
sense of respect for authority.
Igbo idea of security and its value depends on personal identification with and
within the community. The community is the custodian of the individual; hence the
individual must go where the community goes. The community within the
transcendental becomes the custodian of the individuals' idea. It means that the
community offers the Igbos psychological and ultimate security, as it gives its
members both physical and ideological identity.
Brotherhood is seriously promoted and is epitomized in their unique gatherings for
meeting anywhere they live. The Igbos believe in self-help and when work or a
project had to be done, the whole community will turn out with supplies and music
and proceed to sing and dance its way through to the successful conclusion of each
particular chore. In this way work was converted into a pleasurable procedure
pleasure. The value cherished in this community enables them know that the other
man is his brother as a human being.
Again this spirit or sense of brotherhood is inculcated to the young one through
socialization and acculturation.
A child is imbued with the communitarian spirit so that, as he grows up, his
solidarity with the members of the community becomes stronger. Community spirit and
consciousness are very strong among Igbo almost from the first day the individual
is aware of his dependence on his community, also realizes the necessity of making
his own contributions to the group to which he owes so much. Igbos also believe in
family. The typical Igbo family consists of father, mother, children and the
extended family and the servants. Igbo family normally lives in a walled compound,
consisting of at least two houses; one for the father and the other for the mother.
Adult sons share the father's house, while daughters and juvenile sons have with
their mother. The Igbo views the family institution as the foundation of the Igbo
society. Its importance lies not only in its being an agent of cultural
conditioning for young members of society but also in that marriage and
procreation, which takes place at the family level. The family therefore, is
indispensable for the continuity of the Igbo.
Igbos have ontological bond whose philosophy is based on the belief that there is a
natural relationship between the living members of the community and the ancestors
through seriously defined lineage system. Igbo world is principally anthropocentric
such that human life is sacred and is immensely valued.
Human life is sacred in Igbo land; it must be protected and respected. Willful
murder is an abomination in Igbo tradition and cultures, and therefore human life
cannot be taken away with impunity. Human life has an intrinsic, innate value that
must not be destroyed no matter the circumstance.
The Igbo people of Nigeria have strong values that have continued to form the basis
for the harmony and peace that transverse the entire ethnic group. Brotherhood,
communalism, reincarnation, republicanism, independence, hard work, competition are
some of their cherished values (Chimeziem, 2013). These values have over the years
become the bedrock and reference for decent behavior.
Igbos appreciate names and in most cases it serves the purpose of behavior
modification. Such names like Onwubiko- (Death. I implore you), Onwubere-(Death,
stop) bear testimonies to the pains and agony preceding the birth of the child
(Opara, 2014).
Such names help to make the child resolve to behave well in order to reduce the
pains the parents already have in life. Also, birth rites initiate sex role
orientations at an early stage. A child is expected to behave the way of the
reincarnated ancestor. If the child is behaving wrongly, the child will be
cautioned and will be reminded intermittently of the worldview and ways of life of
the person the reincarnated individual resembles. In most cases, you see the
parents of the child calling the child grandmother or grandfather or try to appease
and direct consciously the behavior of the individual.
The consciousness of this reincarnated status makes the individual to modify
behaviours to be in line with the expected or anticipated way of life. People point
to marks, looks and traits to reinforce their reincarnation belief in the child.
The child grows with such a mindset and socializes to the whole society.
Igbo socialization processes in general nurture an orientation to solid personal
achievement. Activities like wrestling, secret society outings, masquerade and
hunting all reinforce male orientation, while the girls engage in dancing, hair
plaiting, singing and cooking of make belief food. A good performance in wrestling
and other male activities is met with good rewards in marriage from females or
titles. Also classic dancing steps, singing and other worthy performances from
females are rewarded with marriages and titles too. This motivates and strengthens
an individual's determination.
The hunting behavior reinforces the risk behavior aspect of an Igbo man. Great
catches in hunting activities are celebrated and willing women are ready to give
out themselves as wives to the hunter.
This invariably encourages positive behaviour to the risk behaviour value and
modifies non risk behaviors.
In terms of girls' upbringing, the biggest challenge that parents face is child
pregnancy, rape and domestic molestation. However, if an Igbo girl becomes
pregnant, young boys and girls usually carry garbage and sing obscene, satirical
songs with staccato rhythms to the girl's home and dump the garbage. This whole
exercise informs the young female children of what awaits them if they indulge in
premarital sex. For a male child that impregnates or abuses a female child, the age
group steps in and usually, they take the child round the market half naked and
pour bees and ants on the body of the individual. With this information and
necessary sanctions at the back of their mind, appropriate behavior is exhibited.
The shame of premarital pregnancy both to the family and the child encourages the
need for disciplined upbringing of girl child. Sex role standards are enforced as
solutions and courtships and marriages are arranged and regarded as family rather
private affair.
Care for the old is the duty of the children of the aged. As a result, parents
spend more time in teaching, nurturing and investing in their children because they
are the only insurance and hope they have when they are old. This assignment and
expected role reinforces the child to be hard working as to be able to take care of
the responsibilities. In ability to rise to the occasion results in appropriate
sanctions from the age group and extended family.
In gbo culture, people pray to be buried in their land of nativity where their
umbilical cord is buried. With this, people anywhere at 70 to 80 years come back to
the village and await the journey into the ancestral world. With this, Igbo
cultural norms and values bind the people and society together. The aged knowing
that the young will bury them live a life of goodness and also with the mindset of
meeting the ancestors and the creator become a model of good behavior to the young
ones. They engage in serious counseling, conflict resolution, peace building, and
cultural propagation. Also being aware that if they die as bad persons, the evil
forest awaits them for burial, the individuals live exemplary lives. With the
awareness and the fact that traditional religion is an element of Igbo culture,
appropriate behaviors are displayed and reinforced constantly.
There is appropriate marriage standard that helps to maintain the brotherhood
value. Before any marriage is contracted, questions are asked to know if there is
any blood relationship with the family the marriage is to take place. This is to
avoid any form of incest. Also questions on the family history and general
behavioral patterns are asked to ascertain the true identity of the family. Good
answers mean that the marriage will go ahead; while bad answers mean that the
marriage will stop. If they are related in any way, or if the family has bad
history, they are advised to cancel the marriage too.
Bad family history which affects the marriage negatively makes the family to adhere
to strict cultural values so that children coming from the family can easily get
married without hindrance. Couples that insist in getting married upon unfavorable
reports from the families are ostracized from the family and community.
Also disagreements if established in marriages are settled in most cases through
the Umunna (Kinsmen) and the witness in the marriage arrangement. With the
knowledge that the Umunna and the extended family members may be part of problem
resolution in a marriage, significantly makes each of the partners to be careful
and do everything possible to sustain the relationship (Nweje,
2014). Most, importantly, disputes that are difficult to be settled are further
referred to the traditional rulers of the couples if they are from different
communities. Families are usually not happy when their married daughter is brought
back home due to indecent behaviors because there is no inheritance available for
such a daughter. Also the man that divorces his wife is viewed as an irresponsible
person because the culture assesses responsibility through successful marriage.
With these norms available in the society, couples strive to maintain peace and
therein uphold the cherished values of marriage.
The age group system assures a formal character in the life of an Igbo adolescence.
The boys pass through the rite of passage which enables them to acquire medical aid
for aggressiveness. Girls pass through Iru Mgbede ceremonial seclusion. Iru Mgbede
provides an opportunity for the young woman's mother, her mother's female friends
and the married women of the community to educate, and familiarize her with the
various responsibilities she will face as a married woman. She would be sequestered
in a hut where she would be fed special foods and the other women would gather and
offer her advice on various issues ranging from her relationship with her husband,
family members and the larger village, to practical matters like cooking, farming
and other tasks. Iru Mgbede is an important aspect of socialization of an Igbo
woman because it reinforces essential elements of Igbo culture.
The age groups contribute to the financial welfare programmes of the village groups
in the spirit of brotherhood, censure the immorality of their members, en liven
funeral ceremonies and provide pressure needed for changes in social and political
life of the people (Amadi, 2014).
These processes and cultural values are transmitted to the children which influence
their adult behavior. Adult patterns of socialization through rituals operate in a
complementary way to reinforce what had been internalized in the early childhood,
thereby creating stability and consistency in the social life of people.
Yoruba Cultural Values and Tradition
The name Yoruba was applied to all linguistically and culturally related peoples.
The Yoruba People, of whom there are more than thirty-five million (CIA World Fact
book, 2012), occupy the southwestern part of Nigeria along the Dahomey border and
extends into Dahomey itself. To the east and north the Yoruba culture reaches its
approximate limits in the region of the Niger River. However ancestral cultures
directly related to the Yoruba once flourished well north of the Niger (Fadipe,
1970). Portuguese explorers "discovered" the Yoruba cities and kingdoms in the
fifteenth century, but cities such as Ife and Benin, among others, had been
standing at their present sites for at least five hundred years before the European
arrival. Archeological evidence indicates that they were technologically and
artistically advanced (Eades,
1980). Yoruba were living somewhat north of the Niger in the first millennium B.C.,
and they were then already working with iron. Ifa theology states that the creation
of humankind arose in the sacred city of Ile Ife where Oduduwa created dry land
from water (Adewale, 1986). Much later on an unknown number of Africans migrated
from Mecca to Ile Ife (Fadipe, 1970). At this point the Eastern Africans and
Western Africans synergized. Ife was the first of all Yoruba cities, Oyo and Benin
came later and grew and expanded as a consequence of their strategic locations at a
time when trading became prosperous (Akogun, 2011). Ife, unlike Benin and Oyo,
never developed onto a true kingdom; but though it remained a city-state it had
paramount importance to Yorubas as the original sacred city and the dispenser of
basic religious thought (CIA World, 2012). Until relatively recent times the
Yorubas did not consider themselves a single people, but rather as citizens of Oyo,
Benin, Yaba and other cities, regions or kingdoms.
(Babatunde, 1992).The old Yoruba cities typically were urban centers with
surrounding farmlands that extended outward as much as a dozen miles or more. Both
Benin and Oyo are said to have been founded by Ife rulers or descendants of Ife
rulers. Benin derived its knowledge of brass casting directly from Ife (Babatunde,
1992), and the religious system of divining called Ifa spread from Ife not only
throughout the Yoruba land but to other West African cultures as well (Bascom,
1969). A common Yoruba belief system dominated the region from the Niger, where it
flows in an easterly direction, all the way to the Gulf of Guinea in the south. It
is no accident that the Yoruba cultural influence spread across the Atlantic to the
Americas. Yoruba slaves were sent to British, French, Spanish and Portuguese
colonies in the New World, and in a number of these places (Eades, 1980). Yoruba
traditions survived strongly in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Yoruba religious rites, beliefs, music and myths are evident even at this late day.
In Haiti, the Yorubas were generally called Anagos. Afro-Haitian religious
activities give Yoruba rites and beliefs an honored place, and the pantheon
includes numerous deities of Yoruba origin.
Also, more than one-third of Afro-Brazilians claim Yoruba ancestry (Fadipe,1970).
Yoruba culture is famously visible in Bahia, Brazil, manifesting in everything from
its religion to its music; in Brazil, Yoruba religious activities are called Anago
or Shango, and in Cuba they are designated Lucumi (Babatunde, 1983; Akintoye, 2010)
Oral history of the Yoruba recounts Odùduwà to be the Progenitor of the Yoruba and
the reigning ancestor of their crowned kings.
Upon the disappearance of Oduduwa, there was a dispersal of his children from Ife
to found other kingdoms. Each making their mark in the subsequent urbanization and
consolidation of Yoruba confederacy of kingdoms, with each kingdom tracing its
origin to Ile-Ife (Babatunde, 1992). After the dispersal, the aborigines became
difficult, and constituted a serious threat to the survival of Ife. Thought to be
survivors of the old occupants of the land before the arrival of Oduduwa, these
people now turned themselves into marauders. They would come to town in costumes
made of raffia with terrible and fearsome appearances, and burn down houses and
loot the markets. Then came Moremi on the scene; she was said to have played a
significant role in the quelling of the marauders advancements (Babatunde,1983).
But this was at a great price; having to give up her only son Oluorogbo. The reward
for her patriotism and selflessness was not to be reaped in one life time as she
later passed on and was thereafter immortalized.
The Edi festival celebrates this feat till date (Fadipe, 1970). The Yoruba people
live mostly in Southwestern Nigeria. Traditionally, the Yorubas organized
themselves into networks of related villages, towns and kingdoms; with most of them
headed by an Oba (King) or Baale (anobleman or mayor).
The Yoruba faith, variously known as Aborisha, Orisha- Ifa or simply (and
erroneously) Ifa, is commonly seen as one of the principal components of the
syncretic pool known as the African traditional religions. It largely survived the
so-called middle passage, and is seen in a variety of forms in the New World as a
result. Ife bronze casting of a king dated around the 12th Century, currently in
the British Museum. Orisa'nla (The great divinity) also known as Obatala was the
arch-divinity chosen by Olodumare. The mythology has it that the Supreme god,
created solid land out of the primordial water that constituted the earth and
populating the land with human beings. Obatala descended from heaven on a chain,
carrying a small snail shell full of earth, palm kernels and a five-toed chicken.
He was to empty the content of the snail shell on the water after placing some
pieces of iron on it, and then to place the chicken on the earth to spread it over
the primordial water
Music and dance have always been an important part of Yoruba culture for those
living in Nigeria as well as in the diaspora. Yoruba music and dance are used for
many different occasions in life such as religious festivals, royal occasions, and
entertainment. Yoruba traditional music focuses on Yoruba deities. Drums and
singing are the main elements of Yoruba music. Instruments such as metal bells and
wind instruments are sometimes used. Yoruba is a tonal language. Words must be
pronounced in the appropriate tone (pitch) in order to understand speech in its
correct meaning. There
are three major tones: high, mid, and low. Most of Yoruba music is based on these
tonal patterns of speech. Juju music emerged in the 1920's and is the most well-
known form of Yoruba popular contemporary music in Nigeria. Juju has its roots in
traditional Yoruba drum based music. Juju is dance music played by large ensembles
centred on guitars and drumming. Singing is a major part of Juju music and is
inspired by Yoruba poetry, proverbs, praise songs, and the musical character of the
language.
For a man or a woman who has reached the age of marriage to remain single is
against the mores of the Yorubas. Men get married even when they are sexually
impotent in order to save either their faces or the faces of their immediate
relatives, as well as to get one to look after their domestic establishment. There
are six important steps leading to the traditional Yoruba marriage:
• The time for seeking a potential spouse (Igbaifojusode)
• The approval of the oracle-divinity (Ifaf' ore)
• The release of the voice of the young woman (Isihun)
• The request for the young woman's hand in marriage (Itoro)
• The creation of the affinity bond (Idana)
• The transfer of the wife to the husband's lineage (Igbeyawo).
Yoruba people are well known for their attire. Clothing materials traditionally
come from processed cotton by traditional weavers.
The Yoruba have a very wide range of clothing. The basic being the Aso-Oke, which
comes in different colours and patterns. Some common styles are Alaari - a rich red
Aso-Oke• Sanyan- a brown and usual light brown Aso-Oke, and • Etu- a dark blue Aso-
Oke.
The Yoruba culture does not play with the respect and honour of elders. In many
times they prostrate and bow in awe to show overwhelming and unending respect to an
elder.
Hausa Cultural Values and Tradition
The Hausas are one of the biggest ethnic groups in Nigeria. The Hausa people are
concentrated mainly in northwestern Nigeria and in adjoining southern Niger. This
area is mostly semi-arid grassland or savanna, dotted with cities surrounded by
farming communities.
The cities of this region are Kano, Sokoto, Zaria, and Katsina.
Hausa is the most widely spoken language in West Africa. It is spoken by an
estimated 22 million people. Another 17 million people speak Hausa as a second
language. Hausa is written in Arabic characters, and about one-fourth of Hausa
words come from Arabic. Many Hausa can read and write Arabic. According to
tradition, Bayajidda, the mythical ancestor of the Hausa, migrated from Baghdad in
the ninth or tenth century AD. After stopping at the kingdom of Bornu, he fled west
and helped the king of Daura slay a dangerous snake. As a reward, he was given the
Queen of Daura in marriage. Bayajidda's son, Bawo, founded the city of Biram. He
had six sons who became the rulers of other Hausa city-states. Collectively, these
are known as the Hausa bakwai (Hausa seven). Most Hausa are devout Muslims who
believe in Allah and in Muhammad as his prophet. They pray five times each day,
read the Koran (holy scriptures), fast during the month of Ramadan, give alms to
the poor, and aspire to make the pilgrimage hajj) to the Muslim holy land in Mecca.
Islam affects nearly all aspects of Hausa behavior, including dress, art, housing,
rites of passage, and laws. In the rural areas, there are communities of peoples
who do not follow Islam. These people are called Maguzawa. They worship nature
spirits known as bori or iskoki. Child Birth in Hausa follows a ritual. About a
week after a child is born, the child is given a name during an Islamic naming
ceremony. Boys are usually circumcised at around the age of seven, but there is no
special rite associated with this.
In their mid-to late teens, young men and women may become engaged. Families
usually arrange marriages for their young people.
The marriage ceremony may take as long as several days.
Celebrations begin among the bride and her family and friends as she is prepared
for marriage. Everyone is to appear happy except the bride. Male representatives of
the bride's and the groom's families sign the marriage contract according to
Islamic law, usually at the mosque. Shortly thereafter, the couple is brought
together. Under Islamic law, a man may marry up to four wives.
Following a death, Islamic burial principles are always followed.
The deceased is washed, wrapped in a shroud, and buried facing eastward-toward the
holy land of Mecca. Prayers are recited, and family members receive condolences.
Wives mourn their deceased husbands for about three months. Hausas tend to be quiet
and reserved. When they interact with outsiders, they generally do not show
emotion. There are also some customs that govern interaction with one's relatives.
For example, it is considered a sign of respect not to say the name of one's spouse
or parents. By contrast, relaxed, playful relations are the norm with certain
relatives, such as younger siblings, grandparents, and cousins.
As for friendship and socialization, from an early age, children develop
friendships with their neighbors that may last a lifetime. In some towns, young
people may form associations whose members socialize together until they marry. In
rural villages, Hausa usually live in large households (gidaje) that include a man,
his wives, his sons, and their wives and children. In large cities, such as Kano or
Katsina, Relatives cooperate in activities such as farming and trade in rural
areas, and business activities in urban areas. Relatives hope to live near each
other to socialize and support each other.
Following Islamic custom, most married Hausa women live in seclusion. They stay in
the home and only go out for ceremonies or to seek medical treatment. When they do
leave their homes, women wear veils and are often escorted by their children. In
the village compounds, each wife has her own hut where she and her young children
sleep. Often the husband has his own hut where the wives take turns spending the
night. In Nigerian terms, a woman is almost always defined as someone's daughter,
wife, mother, or widow and is given less educational opportunities than men. In
fact, women are often confined to the home, except for visits to relatives and
attending ceremonies. For the most part, women do not work in the fields, but are
responsible for preparing all the daily meals. There is a large population of
single women, especially in the cities, due to the high divorce rate.
Hausa men are recognizable by their elaborate dress. Many wear large, flowing gowns
(gare, babbangida) with elaborate embroidery around the neck. They also wear
colorful embroidered caps (huluna). Hausa women wear a wrap-around robe made of
colorful cloth with a matching blouse, head tie, and shawl. Music and art play are
important in everyday life. From a young age, Hausa children participate in dances,
which are held in meeting places such as the market. Work songs often accompany
activities in the rural areas and in the markets. Praise-singers sing about
community histories, leaders, and other prominent individuals. Storytelling, local
dramas, and musical performances are also common forms of traditional
entertainment. The Hausa culture is strongly linked to Islam. Hausas emphasize
certain values, such as strict discipline, respect for elders, mallams (teachers),
parents, honesty, self-discipline, perseverance, and cleanliness.
Culture moderates the behaviour of people and provides the bench mark for
behavioural assessment. It outlines appropriate behaviour and stipulates the
values, norms and ethos of the people. It defines their attitude and encourages the
development of activities that strengthens the core fabrics of the society. Gender
allocates roles and defines behavioural patterns and expectations of males and
females. This role definition further provides the baseline for appraisal of
behaviours.

Psychological Assessment Of Ethnic Groups

A psychological assessment is the attempt of a skilled professional, usually a
psychologist, to use the techniques and tools of psychology to learn either general
or specific facts about another person or group, either to inform others of how
they function now, or to predict their behavior and functioning in the future. It
is the use of standardized tests and measurements to develop a clinical diagnosis
of an ethnic group or a person. Psychological assessments offer enormous power for
clinicians and patients. It should be noted that every aspect of ethnic
psychological assessment is influenced by the culture of the people. Psychological
assessment of individuals for various purposes requires carefully constructed tests
which guarantee maximum validity and reliability. Tests should be modified or
discarded if they are found to inflict bias upon certain individuals. Bias is the
presence of systematic error in measuring certain factors among certain individuals
or groups. Maloney and Ward (1976) offer that Psychological assessment:
• Frequently uses tests
• Typically does not involve defined procedures or steps
• Contributes to some decision process to some problem, often by
redefining the problem, breaking the problem down into smaller pieces, or
highlighting some part(s) of the problem<
• Requires the examiner to consider, evaluate, and integrate the data
• Produces results that cannot be evaluated solely on psychometric
grounds
• Is less routine and inflexible, more individualized.
Psychological Assessment is an objective assessment. This means that a person is
diagnosed based on the responses to a scientifically standardized set of questions.
Second, Psychological Assessment reduces the chance that the clinician's personal
bias affecting the diagnosis. While many diagnoses are straightforward to make,
others can be quite difficult or 'non-obvious', this is where Psychological
Assessment shines. Psychological assessment pervades nearly every aspect of
psychological or psychotherapeutic work with ethnic groups. Thorough evaluation of
the psychological status of an ethnic group or a person is an important but often
times complex and daunting process, even for experienced psychologists.
Most broadly, psychological assessment involves an objective manner in which one's
psychological functioning is assessed. An objective way of testing involves
comparing one's responses to standardized measures.
For psychological assessment to be objective, it must be reliable, valid and
standard. Reliability refers to the degree to which measurement is consistent and
stable over time. For example, a reliable psychological assessment yields
consistent scores when a person retakes the test after an interval, usually several
days to weeks. Internal consistency reliability is a measure of the extent to which
items in a test are interrelated with each other. Test-retest reliability refers to
the extent to which test scores are consistent from one administration to the next.
Assessment used with ethnic groups or persons should show ample evidence of
reliability, since this is the first requirement for good measurement.
Validity refers to the extent to which a test measures what it purports to measure
and the extent to which the test can be used to make accurate predictions.
Reliability and validity are closely inter-twined, as reliability is a necessary,
but not sufficient, condition for validity. An unreliable assessment cannot
possibly be valid, although it is possible for an assessment to have good
reliability but poor validity if the assessment does not measure anything
meaningful. The primary types of validity for psychological assessment are content,
construct, predictive, and concurrent validity. It should be noted that the
psychologist must be sure that the tests one is using have been well validated in
other ethnic sample that is similar to the sample from which the respondent comes.
Standardization and Norms. Scores on most psychological tests rarely provide
absolute measures of the construct being assessed (e.g., self-esteem). Rather,
tests frequently indicate the relative performance of a respondent when compared to
others. Thus, most popular psychological assessments are standardized, which means
that there are fixed procedures for administration and scoring and that the
assessment has been given to many different people in order to establish
statistical norms for age, sex, race, and so provide standards for interpreting
test scores, so that a person's responses can be compared to an appropriate
reference group. Without standardization and norms, it would be impossible to
determine if an ethnic group's score is typical, above average, or below average,
making the assessment worthless. Generally, psychological assessment helps in Pre-
treatment evaluations, particularly if you know a patient has been referred to you
because of limited success in previous treatment or the patient has complex
problems/presentation; When treatment has stalled, psychological assessment can be
used to identify the factors limiting progress, and; Questions of fitness where
decisions are being made about patients based on their psychological functioning
Psychological assessments give you relatively objective evidence to be used in
decision-making processes.
Ethnic Based Psychological Assessment Strategies
Due to the complex nature of assessment of ethnic groups, multiple strategies are
often used in combination to elicit the most comprehensive and meaningful
description of the elements of the individuals that make up the ethnic group. The
following are the strategies.
Clinical interview: The clinical interview is perhaps the most important and
informative strategy during an evaluation of an ethnic group. During the interview,
the psychologist gathers information about the person's current difficulties the
presenting problem), including a history of the problem. Other topics include an
in-depth personal history, psychiatric treatment history, family history, mental
status, and level of social functioning. It is important to develop rapport with
the ethnic person to allow him or her to disclose intensely personal information.
There are really three kinds of Interviews, structured or unstructured and semi
structured interview. Structured - The SCID-R is the Structured Clinical Interview
for the DSM-III-R and is, as the name implies, an example of a very structured
interview material. It is designed to provide a diagnosis for a client by detailed
questioning of the client in a "yes/no" or "definitely/somewhat/not at all" forced
choice format. It is broken up into different sections reflecting the diagnosis in
question. Often Structured interviews use closed questions, which require a simple
pre-determined answer. Examples of closed questions are "When did this problem
begin? Was there any particular stressor going on at that time? Can you tell me
about how this problem started?" Closed interviews are better suited for specific
information gathering.
Unstructured - Other interviews can be less structured and allow the client more
control over the topic and direction of the interview.
Unstructured interviews are better suited for general information gathering, and
structured interviews for specific information gathering. Unstructured interviews
often use open questions, which ask for more explanation and elaboration on the
part of the client.
Examples of open questions are "What was happening in your life when this problem
started? How did you feel then? How did this all start?" Open interviews are better
suited for general information gathering.

Semi-structured interviews are the most common form of mental health interview.
Here the clinician has a standard set of questions to be sure they cover the most
common areas of mental health challenge. Common questions in a semi-structured
interview will ask about sleep patterns, eating habits, mood, thinking processes,
and communication styles. The interview is semi-structured because follow-up
questions will be based on the client's response, In this way, the standard
questions are used as starting points to get the conversation going, but once going
the clients are allowed to expand on the challenges they are experiencing so that
the psychologist can come to best understand the clients' unique situation. Semi-
structured interviews help ensure key data is gathered while allowing the client's
particular challenges and goals to rise to the forefront. This helps ensure that
the co-developed treatment plan is on target for the client's needs.
In interview the Psychologists should explain to the ethnic groups in clear terms,
the purposes and procedures of the assessment and show respect for the person. Any
concerns the person may have about the evaluation should be addressed, to avoid
tremendous shame and stigmatization associated with assessments. It is imperative
that psychologists fully assess concomitant medical conditions and medication use.
This is important because many medical illnesses, and the medications used to treat
them, can cause psychiatric conditions (e.g., delirium, depression, anxiety,
psychosis). Diverse drug interactions can cause memory problems that mimic a
dementing illness, such as Alzheimer's disease. Ethnic persons are encouraged to
bring a complete listing of medications to the testing session. Referral for a
thorough medical work-up is always indicated if the person has not recently been
medically evaluated.
Interviewers need to be flexible when engaging ethnic persons because of
differences in culture and perception. The environment should be adjusted to reduce
the impact of any sensory or physical limitations. Traditional time constraints
should be adjusted to not fatigue the individuals. A final tenet in geriatric
assessment is to involve close family members and/or caregivers in the assessment
to gather corroborative or additional information about the persons being assessed.
In fact, the interview helps define the current situation/problems and important
elements of personal history. It also engages the patient with the assessment
process.
Personality Assessment: Personality assessments strive to uncover the structure and
features of one's personality, or one's characteristic way of thinking, feeling,
and behaving. Objective personality tests are self-report pencil-and-paper tests
based on standardized, specific items and questions. In contrast, projective tests
present stimuli whose meanings are not immediately obvious and have an open-ended
response format, such as a story from the respondent.
The most popular objective personality test is the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory-2 (MMP1-2). The MMPI-2 has ten standard clinical scales
(e.g., depression, schizophrenia, social introversion) and three validity scales to
detect unusual test-taking attitudes. The MMPI-2 is widely utilized with older
adults, although separate norms for older adults are not readily available and
there is concern that some older adults may receive inaccurately elevated
depression scores due to the high number of somatic items on the scale.
The Rorschach Inkblot Test and the Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT) are popular projective tests. During the Rorschach Test, the respondent
provides associations to ten bilaterally symmetrical inkblots. The TAT consists of
thirty-one black and white pictures that tend to induce particular themes, such as
sexuality and achievement. Typically, ten to twenty cards are administered and the
respondent is asked to create a story about each picture. Though not developed
specifically for older persons, both tests are used with older adults. Two
projective measures designed for older adults include the Geriatric Sentence
Completion Form (which provides provocative age-appropriate sentence "stems" that
are completed by the respondent) and the Senior Apperception Test (which has age-
relevant pictures and themes). Symptom checklists.
Self-report checklists have been developed for hundreds of psychological
constructs. Fortunately, several ethnic-specific checklists are available and they
have excellent psychometric properties. Some stellar examples include the Geriatric
Depression Scale (GDS), the Geriatric Hopelessness Scale (GHS), and the Michigan
Alcoholism Screening Test-Geriatric Version (MAST-G)
The GDS is one of the best screening measures for depression in ethnic adults. It
consists of thirty items presented in a simple Yes/No format. Items focus on
cognitive and behavioral aspects of depression, and somatic items are excluded. The
scale is in the public domain, and is available, with the scoring key, The GHS is a
thirty-item Yes/No self-report scale that assesses pessimism and hopelessness of
ethnic groups due to the various ethnic issues that arise from time to time. The
MAST-G is used for substance abuse assessment too, which is a significant problem
among ethnic persons and is linked to depression and suicide. The MAST-G contains
twenty-four Yes/No items unique to ethnic persons that have problem of drinking
especially in our coastal regions. In all cases, "yes" is the pathological
response, and a cutoff of five positive responses indicates an alcohol problem.
Cognitive Functioning: Assessment of cognitive functioning is an important part of
any thorough geriatric assessment and ethnic evaluation, since cognitive impairment
(e.g., dementia) is an age-related problem in many ethnic groups that have older
population.
Notably, other test results may not be valid if the respondent has significant
cognitive impairment. Early detection of cognitive problems is crucial in any
ethnic group because many symptoms are reversible, especially for delirium. More
so, due to the fact that most transmission of history of the ethnic group is done
orally with an active brain. The primary DSM-IV cognitive disorders are delirium
and dementia. Delirium refers to a clouding of consciousness with impaired
concentration, disorientation, and perceptual disturbances that develop over a
short period of time.
Since delirium is often obvious and acute, there are no specific tests for it. If
delirium is suspected in ethnic persons, they should be quickly referred for
medical treatment, since delirium is typically reversible but can be deadly if the
underlying cause (e.g., infections, malnutrition) is not corrected.

Dementia is a syndrome of multiple cognitive deficits that include memory

impairment, but without impairment in consciousness. The most common type of
dementia is Alzheimer's disease, which accounts for 50 to 60 percent of demented
persons. It is important for psychologists to screen for dementia in all older
ethnic clients during a psychological assessment. Several brief, standardized, and
easily administered screening tools are available. The Folstein Mini-Mental State
Examination takes five to ten minutes to administer and is well-validated. Items
taps include: orientation, concentration, memory, language, and gross motor skills.
Scores range from 0 to 30, with scores under 25 indicating a need for further
testing and evaluation. The Dementia Rating Scale is a psychometrically sound,
interviewer administered test designed for dementia evaluation. It consists of
thirty-six tasks and takes about thirty minutes to complete.
Cognitive impairments are mostly noted in many screening tests especially from
neuropsychological testing. Such testing assesses brain-behavior relationships in
multiple domains and behavioral disturbances that are caused by brain dysfunction,
and also helps to quantify and localize brain damage. One approach is for the
examiner to use a standard and fixed battery (e.g., the Halstead-Reitan Battery),
whereas another strategy is to carefully choose a variety of different tests to
assess particular neuropsychological domains of interest. Finally, laboratory tests
(e.g., electrolyte panel, urinalysis, electroencephalography) and high-tech brain-
imaging procedures (e.g., CAT scan, MRI scan) are often used to complement
neuropsychological assessment.

Assessment of Intelligence: This is another important area.

Intelligence is adjustment or adaptation of the individual to his or her total
environment, or to the limited aspects of the environment.
It is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to
think rationally and to deal effectively with his [or her] environment. It can also
be seen as mental activity involved in purposive adaptation to, shaping of, and
selection of real-world environments relevant to one's life. A commonality among
these definitions is the nature of the nested relationship of individuals within
their environment. How a person acts within their environment is directly related
to the cultural knowledge that has developed to deal with that environment. The way
in which intelligence would manifest in a test-taking situation is thus, inherently
culturally-bound.
Intelligence tests are standardized tests designed to measure a person's mental
ability. The two prominent tests are the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test, fourth
edition and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, third edition (WAIS-III). The
WAIS-III consists of fourteen separate subtests: seven verbal and seven
performance.
Raw scores for each subtest are converted into scaled scores, and score sums are
converted into a verbal intelligence quotient, a performance intelligence quotient,
and a full-scale intelligence quotient. Both tests have extensive age-norms and are
the leading measures of intelligence assessment across much of the life span.
However, Measures of intelligence that have been noted to minimize bias include
Culture Fair Intelligence Test, Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Leiter
International Performance Scale, and Progressive Matrices (Paniagua, 1994).

Cultural Bias in Ethnic Psychological Assessment.

Culture refers to an integrated pattern of behaviors, norms, and rules that are
shared by a group and involves their beliefs, values, expectations, worldviews,
communication, common history, and institutions (Gladding, 2001). It is shared
learned meanings and behaviours that are transmitted from within a social activity
context for purposes of promoting individual/societal adjustment, growth, and
development. Culture has both external ie artifacts, roles, activity contexts,
institutions) and internal i.e. values, beliefs, attitudes, activity contexts,
patterns of consciousness, personality styles and epistemology representations. The
shared meanings and behaviours are subject to continuous change and modification in
response to changing internal and external circumstances. Each culture, as a whole,
views psychology and psychological assessment differently. Those views dictate
which tests the culture is familiar with, accepts, and willing to participate in.
Just as the creation and usage of psychological testing is dictated by cultures,
the interpretation and implications of the results of the assessment is culturally
based too. Bias and human variants infiltrate the assessment in most cases.
The individuals subjected to bias can vary in age, gender and ethnicity. In most
cases, it is the minorities that are subjected to bias, since most evaluation tools
have been designed based on the research data obtained from cohorts which largely
consist of individuals representing the majority ethnic groups. Therefore they
reflect the values of the majority and merely the variants of the minority. This
issue has become a controversial subject in the case of ethnicity, because
researchers believe that many tests are heavily biased in favour of the European
American, middle class society as against the representation of less powerful
nations and continents.
They usually yield inaccurate results if applied to the minorities.
However, it is important to note that the individuals of a majority ethnic group
can also be the victims of bias. This may occur if the evaluator and the person
being evaluated are of different ethnicities.
The effect of ethnicity can lead an individual to exaggerate or deny certain
factors in their lives without the motive to deceive. This is usually done to
protect the shared interest and agenda of the ethnic group and holds sway more if
the ethnic group is with power.
In order to reduce the effects of these biases, psychologists have developed
guidelines for psychological assessments on multiculturalism to ensure positive
outcomes for all individuals in the society. According to the cultural test bias
hypothesis, the deficits seen in the mean scores of minorities in various mental
tests and the earlier intelligence test results of blacks in United States of
America being unintelligent for example are not due to inability. but rather due to
the design, administration and interpretation of these tests that were hitherto
programmed to produce such results.
This can also include the usage of content which cannot be comprehended by the
minorities. The usage of certain words, idioms, proverbs, pop culture articles may
confuse those who are not familiar with such information. A foreigner who is fluent
in English may not know the meaning of certain unique terms peculiar to a
particular ethnic group.
Presence of inappropriate standardization samples is another reason for bias.
Minorities are overwhelmingly underrepresented in the standardization samples used
for most tests. As evident from extensive cross cultural research, different
ethnicities have varying personality traits that are brought about by the influence
of their respective societies. These can be inaccurately over-pathologized due to
flawed evaluation tools. Existence of language bias can also cause inaccurate
results. An individual that cannot understand the language rule system of an ethnic
group will not do magic to behave rationally in the environment and culture of the
ethnic group; thus subjecting the individual or members of the ethnic group to any
kind and subsequent result is bias. Emphatically, Individuals of various cultures
differ in personality and aptitude and this reflects in their response to ethnic or
cultural situations. The problems/ bias arising during cross cultural testing/
assessment are not just limited to evaluation. The outcome of important events such
as court proceedings and investigations may also be altered due to
incompatibilities in cultures.

Guidelines for a Culturally Sensitive Psychological Assessment

For a successful outing in ethnic psychological assessment, the psychologist must
be aware of the guidelines for culturally sensitive psychological assessment.
Before beginning the assessment process with culturally diverse clients,
psychologists should conduct a self-assessment of their own biases and prejudices
(Paniagua, 1994). It is the psychologists' role to learn as much as possible about
the culture and to recognize and acknowledge any stereotypes they may have about
the client's ethnic group. Moreover, it is important for psychologists to
acknowledge that not all culturally diverse groups subscribe to traditional customs
(Sattler, 2001). Also before initiating the assessment process, psychologists
should determine the client's preferred language (Sattler, 2001). If psychologists
do not speak the client's first language, then a referral to a psychologist who
speaks the client's first language should be made. If this option is not feasible,
then an interpreter will be required (Hays, 2001).
During the initial meetings with the client, psychologists should establish
rapport, respect, and a therapeutic relationship (Hays, 2001; Paniagua, 1994).
Rapport and communication problems may exist when psychologists are of a different
cultural group from the client. This may hinder the assessment process as
difficulties in rapport and communication may impede the client's ability to
respond to test items (Brescia & Fortune, 1989). In addition, culturally diverse
individuals may not be familiar with test-taking skills and they may exhibit
deficits in motivation, test practice, and reading and may have limited exposure to
the values and experiences of the dominant culture (Brescia & Fortune, 1989;
Flanagan & Ortiz, 2001).
Consequently, it is important to establish cooperation, motivation, and interest in
the assessment process from the client (Sattler,
2001). There are always issues of distrust. This distrust may be attributed to
negative experiences with an earlier encounter with a member of the ethnic group or
the perception that the assessment is an attempt at assimilation without respect
for the local culture (Brant, 1990). The psychologist in this circumstance must
ensure that the needed cooperation prevails for authentic and verifiable
assessment.
More so, the psychologist must understand the contemporary and historical issues
that are relevant to the people for psychological assessment. Factors such as
limited educational opportunities, unemployment, poverty, difficulties accessing
health care, substandard housing, poor sanitation and water quality that may be
affecting the people may have implication on the result of the assessment. Noting
these developmental challenges on their psychological development will help to
evaluate appropriately the people.
More so, the application of multi-method assessment approach is best practice
regardless of which cultural group one is assessing.
This is because it strengthens the validity of the assessment. It is a combination
of interviews, observations, standardized measures, and informal assessment
procedures. It enables the gathering of vital and relevant information that guides
in decision making.
Family and community members can provide invaluable information about the client's
emotional, physical, social, and spiritual presentation. More information can also
be attained from consulting with health care providers, other professionals, and
traditional healers from within the cultural group. Consulting with professionals
who are familiar with the culture of the client provides invaluable information as
to the clinical presentation within a cultural context and better analysis and
interpretation of the results. In addition, observations of clients within their
natural environments increase the reliability of assessment and strengthen rapport
with the people. Individuals feel more comfortable and relaxed for assessment if
they are within their geographical map and control. Observing individual in their
natural state perform on tasks that require attention, memory, planning, and
decision-making; social interactions; and behavioural changes throughout the day
help the psychologist know how these individuals behave.
These observations may address behaviours or performances that may not be assessed
in a standardized tool. Thus, activity preference, home feeling and language
fluency can make the individual perform greatly and better assessed.
Assessment should be done using traditional assessment measures.
Assessments are often plagued with complexity and ambiguity and involve special
considerations to ensure an accurate assessment of culturally diverse individuals.
When utilizing standardized measures, psychologists conform to assumptions that the
client is similar to the standardized population; this assumption is violated when
assessing a client from another culture. The misuse of standardized tests among
culturally diverse people can cause significant damage and can lead to
misdiagnoses, over-diagnoses and under-diagnoses. Importantly, there should be
improvement and development of cross cultural skills that can help in management of
psychological assessment and interpretation of results. The psychologist should
ensure a balance between empirical research findings and the consequences related
to cultural and linguistic factors and also should carefully consider the
intelligence scale generated by different tests and to consider the cultural and
linguistic dimensions of each measure. Measures of intelligence with the lowest
cultural loadings and lowest linguistic demands should be selected over tests that
are classified higher in these areas.

Challengcs of Ethnic Psychological Assessment

Psychological assessment is very important to the development of an ethnic group;
however, the following challenges are usually experienced in the application of
psychological assessment.
Lack of culturally competent knowledge, attitudes, and skills by the practitioners.
The psychologist should have some knowledge of the patient's cultural identity, and
the use of a cultural consultant may be appropriate to avoid biases and
misdiagnosis even if the individuals are from the same cultural affinity with the
psychologist. Also, Psychologists need to be aware of their own cultural identity
and their attitudes and beliefs toward ethnic minorities, because these will affect
their relationships with patients. Psychologists need additional skills because
traditional methods of interviewing the patients may not be effective and
psychological tests may not be adequate or appropriate.
Psychologists may need to use an interpreter or may need to conduct family
interviews, and psychological tests may need modification in such circumstance.
Also, there is usually lack of phenomenological organization of nosology; the lack
of use of more specific definitions for diagnostic categories. There are many
culture bound syndrome not yet captured in psychological lexicon and such
situations affect the proper labeling of diagnosed ethnic based psychological
problems. A psychologist who is unfamiliar with the nuances of an individual's
cultural frame of reference may incorrectly judge as psychopathology those normal
variations in behavior, belief, or experience that are particular to the
individual's culture.
More so, when psychological assessment is used, it may not receive the true and
right reflection of the responses of the client, thereby confounding the whole
process. In addition, the issue of external validity is very common as different
cultural orientation present unique conditions. The influence of cultural myth and
folk stories in many instances affect the proper utilization of assessment tools.
Many assessment tools like psychological tests and interest inventories are mired
in unsubstantiated mythology that cannot be verified.

Xenophobia
Despite its widespread usage, xenophobia is an ambiguous and contested term in
popular, policy and scholarly debates. The interchangeable or complementary use of
similar terms such as nativism, autochthony, ethnocentrism, xeno-racism, ethno-
exclusionism, anti-immigrant prejudice and immigration-phobia (Crush, 2009) further
demonstrates this conceptual vagueness.
Some scholars consider it to be intense dislike, hatred or fear of others
(Nyamnjoh, 2006), others only recognise it when it manifests itself as a visible
hostility towards strangers or that which is deemed foreign (Stocke, 1999). There
are also ongoing debates on whether xenophobia emanates at the individual or
collective level (Berezin,
2006). While these approaches are unified by a generalized acceptance that
xenophobia is a set of attitudes and/or practices surrounding people's origins, the
specific locus of debate and work is highly contextualized and often generally
incomparable.
Xenophobia for one analyst may be only tangentially tied to the xenophobia
discussed by a scholar. Xenophobia is attitudes, prejudices and behaviour that
reject, exclude and often vilify persons based on the perception that they are
outsiders or foreigners to the community, society or national identity (ILO, IOM
and OHCHR, 2001). Importantly, this definition includes both negative attitudes and
chauvinistic behavior. Xenophobia translates into a broad spectrum of behaviors
including discriminatory, stereotyping and dehumanizing remarks; discriminatory
policies and practices by government and private officials such as exclusion from
public services to which target groups are entitled; selective enforcement of by-
laws by local authorities; assault and harassment by state agents particularly the
police and immigration officials; as well as public threats and violence commonly
known as xenophobic violence that often results in massive loss of lives and
livelihoods(UNHCR, 2015).
Wimmer (2007) defines xenophobia as irrational fear and dislike of foreigners or
strangers. Creswell (2006) sees it as intense dislike or fear of strangers or
people from other countries. Thus, xenophobia is seen as a deep dislike of
foreigners or foreign things. Xenophobia is further defined by Azindow 2007) as
discrimination towards foreigners or strangers. This is manifested in individuals
who could be, for instance, the same colour as the local inhabitants. In fact,
xenophobia is simply a dislike of foreigners by nationals of a country. It
signifies attitudes of dislike and fear as well as violent actions towards
foreigners. Harris (2010) identifies three hypotheses to explain xenophobia.
Firstly, the isolation hypothesis explains xenophobia as a result of the larger or
siege mentality developed during cruel colonization. Secondly, the scapegoat
hypothesis blames foreigners for all the ills of the country. Finally, the
bicultural hypothesis locates xenophobia at the level of visible difference or
otherness, for example, physical, biological features and cultural differences
exhibited by African foreigners in a given nation.
According to Morris (1998), xenophobia emanates as the product of social
transition. It is also seen as a defense against the anxiety induced by the
"unknown" foreigner. From a cultural perspective, Crush (2002) presents xenophobia
as a phenomenon which operates through a level of physical and cultural appearance,
giving rise to the fact that anything which is not of the required culture is
forcibly removed. It is to this effect that the International literature on
nationalism views xenophobia as a negative consequence of nation building and at
such, it is not totally divorced from national processes and discourses.
Xenophobia is a global phenomenon that has occurred in various countries of the
world from USA, Germany, Malaysia, and Sweden to South Africa. The circumstance in
which xenophobia arises represents a combination of socio-economic and political
conditions, necessitating the comprehension of the specifics of individual contexts
of contemporary prejudice. The effects of globalization, economic hardship,
migration, ethnic conflict and the plight of indigenous people affect many, if not
all countries of the world. It is a global problem, and is not limited to South
Africa alone. Various societies across the world have exhibited xenophobic
tendencies. This has been caused by immigration, which has become a focal point of
heated national debates (Dillon 2001). Immigrants are repeatedly associated with
the declining economy, overpopulation, pollution, increased violence, depleted
social resources (i.e., medical and educational), erosion of cultural values, and
terrorism (Munro 2006). Issues relating to education, access to services, disparate
economic status, autonomy and problems arising from migration are among the
manifestations of racism and xenophobia. Collective fear of groups like immigrants,
refugees, or asylum seekers leads to negative attitudes about such minorities,
which in turn can lead to active hostilities, such as ethnic violence. It is also
rooted in hatred based on the current racial and economic lines. Bosch & Peucker
(2008) states that the notion of xenophobia is not a strange or new phenomenon, it
is largely based on unfounded or unverified fears, and the inclination to
stereotype foreigners as the cause of social and economic problems in a host
country. The international economic environment is broadly characterized by
globalization. Changes in the economic organization and the reduction of state
capacity have contributed to inequality and poverty which are the underlying
explanatory causes of immigration (Harris 2001). In developing countries,
modernized economic production has eroded traditional and social support mechanism;
this has accentuated the need for migration for better opportunities with all its
consequences.
Environmental degradation and resource shortages have rendered areas untenable and
have reduced the viability of rural life styles.
This has been an underlying explanation for immigration with linear increase of
inequality and poverty in the world.
Along with this, comes a fear or distrust of anything associated with foreigners
such as their culture, language and religion. Delport & Strydom, (2009) attest that
xenophobia has been experienced in many countries across the globe. Poverty and
lack of employment opportunities and other factors provide drive factors that
motivate migration. Civil War and other atrocities in some countries have resulted
in many people leaving their country of origin and fleeing across the borders with
the hope of securing safety and a better life.
The issue with xenophobia in is that, it exists and is on the increase.
It is not only people who are illegal in a country who get to experience this
phenomenon, but also those who are in the country lawfully, like students, traders
and business people. Xenophobia is the deep dislike of non-nationals by nationals
of a recipient state.
The manifestation of xenophobia undermines social cohesion, peaceful co-existence,
good governance, and constitutes a violation of human rights.
Xenophobic attacks range from name-calling, attacks against homes and businesses of
foreigners and even violent attacks which result in death. Foreigners are often
called names such as makwerekwere, which is a derogatory term for foreign
individuals who do not understand any of the languages of the country. Stereotypes
also play a role in xenophobic behaviors as these labels entail predetermined
opinions of a certain group. These labels are held as true and result in
prejudicial thinking towards the stereotyped group. For instance, blacks were
likened to children who could not think for themselves. This patriarchal view can
be considered to underpin much stereotypical thinking on the African continent.
Xenophobia implies behaviour based on the idea that an individual is foreign to, or
originates from outside the home community or nation. It is often difficult
however, to differentiate between racism
and xenophobia as motivations for negative behaviours.
Expressions of xenophobia occur when people of identical physical characteristics,
but who have a different culture and/or language, arrive in a community and are
discriminated against. It can be concluded that xenophobia falls under the category
of modern racism as it concentrates more on cultural than biological difference.

Historical Development of Xenophobia in South Africa

South Africa has always shown traces of xenophobia from as early as 1910; and as
time progressed, it had segregation laws such as the Urban Areas Act of 1923 which
introduced residential segregation, discriminating against people based on national
origin, class, gender and race. Kruger (1969) explains that during the Union of
South Africa, the white South Africans did everything possible to limit the
immigration of non-white immigrants. According to Peberdy (2008) the first group of
people to fall victim to these restraining immigration policies of the South
African government was the Indians. Due to a number of Indians rising in the
country during the 1910s, the government prohibited immigrants from entering the
country. A lot of the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Germany started
coming into the country during the 1920s and 1930s, causing the government to panic
and be fearful.
During this era of apartheid, the South Africa government started to pass more
restrictive policies attempting to restrict the people whom they believed to be
threatening their ideology, religion and life style. Hunt, (2008) states that the
South African government justified its restrictive policies by saying peaceful co-
existence was only possible when different racial/ cultural/ population groups
lived apart. Racial segregation, apartheid and colonialism are closely linked to
South African history. Apartheid ultimately resulted in black-on-black
discrimination (not only white on black discrimination), namely tribalism and
xenophobia which have been fuelled by the prevailing paradigm of patriarchy. The
findings of Crush (2006) stated that there are signs of racial stereotypes in all
ethnic groups. South Africans are known to be positively biased • towards their own
group and negatively biased towards other cultural groups. Crush (2006) further
states that foreigners mostly came to South Africa to seek employment. They lived
with locals in townships, squatter areas or domestic quarters in suburbia ending up
being part of the local communities. Due to living with locals, the foreigners
ended up having local partners and speaking at least one indigenous language. They
dressed and conducted their lifestyle as ordinary township locals, making it almost
impossible to be distinguished as foreigners. Although these foreigners were
illegal immigrants, the locals welcomed them and did not see them as a threat in
taking their jobs or women.
However communities and locals saw the apartheid regime as a threat because they
believed that it robbed them of a decent quality life, employment and upward
mobility, stirring up the emotions of the people to an extent that all their focus
went into eliminate apartheid. Croucher (2009) notes that in 1994 South Africa
became a democratic state, however, it still faced problems related to politics and
policies of immigration. Immigration problems became increased burden on the state
welfare system, the tension between locals and foreigners over jobs, the demand of
resettling refugees, the scarce economic resources and xenophobia which is both a
cause and a consequence of the challenges faced during the apartheid regime
continued to grow. According to Croucher (2009) the Southern African Migration
Project, (SAMP) conducted a research in South Africa in 2006 and discovered that
the attitude towards xenophobia continued to harden. The research showed that
between the years 2002 and 2008, 37% of the participants wanted a total ban on
foreigners entering the country, while three quarters supported electrification of
borders. A 72% of the participants wanted non-citizens to carry personal
identification with them at all times and 60% supported a policy for foreigners'
with HIV/ AIDS deported back home, only a small number of about 15% supported that
migrants can have and enjoy the privilege of basic rights such as legal protection,
freedom of movement, police protection and access to social services. A 30% of the
population group indicated that they would take matters in their own hands by
taking action to prevent migrants from neighboring countries moving into or
operating a business in their community. 60% of those interviewed replied by saying
they were prepared to combine with others to force foreign nationals to leave their
area. Indeed, in the years and months leading up to 2018, violent attacks on
foreign nationals increased and became more common.
Three reasons may be advanced for the current rise in hostility towards foreigners
in South Africa. First, after the isolation of the apartheid years, the arrival of
migrants and refugees from elsewhere in Africa caused widespread panic and
intolerance among South Africans. Second, the government immigration policy reform
which was primarily a tool of control and exclusion, rather than management and
development of opportunity hampering its efforts to move beyond the structure
inherited from the apartheid era.
Thirdly, progress on immigration reform was slowed by a bitter partisan row within
the Cabinet and Parliament between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which held the
immigration portfolio, and the ruling African National Congress (Crush 2001). Thus
in the aftermath of the 1994 elections and with the absence of the anti-immigrant
apartheid regime, the country witnessed an influx of migrants mainly from sub-
Sahara African countries. These countries had been in turmoil, due to war,
conflicts, political instability and economic crisis (Polzer 2007).
On their arrival, African migrants were easily granted access into the country, due
to the fact that the nation now under majority black rule was celebrating its
democratic victory which of course they owe a lot to other African countries who
hosted its struggle movement and thus felt senseless to turn down asylum request of
African. migrants, as well as owing to the greatest human right goal the country
had achieved and thus the nation had to uphold such a record in which turning away
migrants and asylum seekers would have meant the other way round so to speak.
However, Crush (2001) argues that despite the fact that the country: was
celebrating the end of the apartheid regime, it was completely unprepared for an
influx of migration and thus it was premature for the nation to lift the anti-
immigrant measures that it inherited from its predecessor. Migration is a sign of
South Africa's emergence as Africa's preeminent economic, educational and cultural
center; and from an international perspective it is seen as something of a duty to
share this prosperity with its African counterparts. As Jacobsen and Landau (2003)
contend, the promises of freedom and prosperity are resonating beyond the country's
borders and so it seems only reasonable that this ray of hope for the rest of
Africa will attract migrants from less privileged situations.
However, soon as not expected, things started falling apart, as South Africans
became antagonistic and turn on fellow Africans who sought refuge in their country,
just as South Africans did elsewhere on the continent under the apartheid regime.
This was because government framed an immigration policy as a way of control and
exclusion, rather than as a management and development opportunity.

Theories of Xenophobia
Prejudice Theory: This is a social identity theory which propounds that prejudice
rests on the identification of groups and the influence of group membership on the
identity of an individual. People build their identities from their own group
membership. They inhibit tendencies that categorize themselves into one or more in
groups, developing a part of their identities. These identities that are built tend
to create a system of distinctiveness which creates a boundary between the two
groups, Consequently, people relate to groups in such a way as to maximize their
positive distinctiveness with groups, offering both identity and self-esteem.
According to Botha (2012), positive social identity can be achieved by comparing
the in-group with a relevant out-group. This will lead to a derogation of the out-
group. There is an assumption that inter-group comparisons are related to the
degree of someone's in-group identification. This is an indication that the higher
the importance of the in-group for the members, the stronger the inter-group
differentiation will be.
The main yardsticks for classification of identification in society include class,
gender, culture, political affiliation and ethnicity (Botha 2012). This theory,
therefore, explains the presence of social groups and the nature of relations
between them and further posits that people are willing to see their group as
better in some way than other groups and behave in ways that appropriate social
values, privileges and distinction to themselves. The theory of prejudice uses
social identities built along ethnic lines that create boundaries which keep an
individual who does not ascribe to the ethnic grouping out of the group. These
groups agitate for the need to look at other groups as negative and bad. Xenophobia
is approached from an ethnocentric view where people readily though not inevitably
develop strong loyalties to their own ethnic group and discriminate against
outsiders.
Functionalism Theory. The functionalism theory was propounded by Durkheim.
According to Durkheim deviance is a normal and necessary part of social
organization. The theory opines that individuals commit crimes for the good of an
individual's group, due to lack of ties, or because the societal norms that place
the individual in check no longer have the power to do so, due to society's
problems. Deviation is straying away from the norms and laws governing the society.
In many instances, it is intentional in order to evaluate the strength of the
government or as a result serious decay in the institutions of the government in
maintaining law and order. Anomie is the resultant effect of such situation due to
lack of regulations in terms of policy, monitoring and a legal framework. In fact,
the functionalism theory uses the principle of anomie to explain the conscious
decision by individuals to involve in deviant acts against others, due to lack of a
clear legal process which deals with criminal acts in the times of problems.
Relative Deprivation Theory. This theory refers to the lack of resources to sustain
the diet, lifestyle, activities and amenities that an individual or group is
accustomed to or that are widely encouraged or approved by the society to which
they belong (Walker & Smith 1984). Relative deprivation is looked at as a key
psychological factor in generating social unrest, arising from a subjective feeling
of discontent based on the belief that one is getting less than one feels entitled
to. When there is a gap between aspirations and reality, social discontent is
likely the outcome. The social discontent and frustration in many instances come in
form of violence against any group especially the group perceived to be relatively
powerless and in this instance the immigrants become soft targets. This theory
lends credence to the scape goat hypothesis. According to Tshitereke (1999),
frustrated people vent their anger on that 'frustration- scapegoat'. In this case,
the frustration scape-goat refers to the non-national minorities who are resident
in a nation. Thus, anger from problems of scarce resources, such as Jobs, housing,
and healthcare, coupled with high expectation as promised the government make the
citizens to vent their anger on the immigrants. People in a period of difficulties,
often create a 'frustration-scapegoat' in which they create a target to blame for
on-going social problems and thus in the light of the scapegoating hypothesis,
foreigners become such a scapegoats.
Foreigners here are made to be the scapegoats in the sense that they are seen to be
a threat to jobs, housing, education, and healthcare.
However, Harris 2002) argues that anger caused by deprivation and perceived or real
threats from immigrants as it relates to resources does not directly cause the
nationals to commit violence, but it frustrates them.
Relative-deprivation theory offers a psychological explanation for scapegoating.
Concepts of frustration and aggression are interpreted as subjective, intrapsychic
processes. In this way, the theory understands xenophobia from the inside out.
Psychoanalytic theory similarly offers an intrapsychic explanation of scapegoating
as a projective and defensive process. This invariably connotes that the cause of
social unrest cannot be simply located within subjective perceptions of reality.
The search for causes of social action must extend beyond the subjective
psychological realm to include its complex inter-relatedness with objective social
reality.
Psychological interpretation of scapegoating must not be divorced from the socio-
economic realities of any contemporary nation. It should be understood that
psychological process of relative deprivation rests on social comparison. This
takes place at the level of jobs, houses, education and even women, such that
foreigners are scapegoated for taking the jobs, taking the houses and stealing the
women.
The Theory of Isolation. The theory is of the view that when a nation is isolated
by other nations of the world, the psychological damages results in the citizens
making obvious steps to isolate foreigners in the country as a demonstration of the
isolation from the world and as a retaliation to the world. During the isolation
period of any nation, foreigners represented the unknown to the citizens. When the
isolation period is over and the citizens are opened up to the world as is the case
in South Africa, there is serious resentment from the citizens as they were not
used to such interactions. They saw the opening of their borders to other nations
as contagious and inimical to their survival and happiness. The theory says that if
the citizens of any nation has no history of incorporating strangers, it may find
it difficult to be welcoming them if the circumstances necessitate it. Intolerance
towards foreigners is ascribed to the creation of strict boundaries between
citizens and other nation. The isolation theory understands xenophobia as a
consequence of apartheid South Africa's exclusion from the international community.
The theory also explains that contemporary xenophobia is recourse to internal
isolation, the isolation of South Africans from South Africans, as a consequence of
apartheid and the brutal environment created by apartheid with its enormous
emphasis on boundary maintenance impacted on people's ability to be tolerant of
differences (Morris 1998).

The Bio-Cultural Theory.

The bio-cultural theory locates xenophobia at the level of visible difference, or
otherness, i.e. in terms of physical, biological factors and cultural differences
exhibited by foreigners in a country. The foreigners in most cases openly display
and exhibit their cultural components which are alien to the citizens. This
exacerbates the frustration and the isolation into criminal acts on the identified
victims. In addition to the physio-biological characteristics, cultural differences
such as bearing, skin colour, clothing styles; the inability to speak an indigenous
language are indicators that promote xenophobia between nationals and foreigners,
in the sense of locals easily identify possible victims. Xenophobia is due to
failure by government in harnessing the cultural diversity of nation for prosperity
and development of the economy of the nation.
According to Sinclair (1999), on the other hand, the xenophobic attacks against
migrants can be seen as a failure to appreciate the positive impact of foreign
migrants especially in harnessing their cross cultural endowments.
Manifestation of Xenophobia and Violence in South Africa South African xenophobia
manifests in various forms, ranging from everyday street-level abuse to
discrimination and harassment by government officials and recurring bouts of
popular xenophobic violence in varying intensity and scale. There is strong
evidence that outsiders, a group including non-nationals, domestic migrants, and
others, living and working in South Africa face discrimination.
This comes at the hands of citizens, government officials, the police, and private
organizations contracted to manage and provide services, promote urban development
or manage detention and deportation processes. More specifically, such ‘outsiders’
face disproportionate difficulties in accessing employment, accommodation, banking
services, and health care, along with extortion, targeted corruption, arbitrary
arrest, detention and deportation. While arrest, detention and deportation are
fundamental components of the country's immigration regime, research over the last
two decades suggests that such practices are carried out in ways that are not only
highly prejudicial, but often extend well beyond legal limits (Amit, 2010).
In the South African like in any other nation, the normal society is not, however,
divorced from violence. A solid body of research highlights what has been termed
South Africa's 'culture of violence (Hamber 1997; Hamber & Lewis 1997). The culture
of violence can be described as a situation in which social relations and
interactions are governed through violent, rather than non-violent. This is a
culture in which violence is proffered as a normative and legitimate solution to
problems. Violence is seen as a legitimate means to achieve goals particularly
because it was legitimized by most political role-players in the past. The culture
of violence is a legacy of apartheid. It found its roots in the 1980s, when
violence was predominantly political in nature. That is, where the dominant
motivation for violence was based on political difference or the competing desire
for political power. During this period, violence was utilized and sanctioned
across the political spectrum. The politics of the 1980s effectively laid the
foundation for an ongoing culture of violence till today. According to analysts,
the form of violence has altered across this period. Whilst levels of political
violence have generally dropped, the transition has been characterized by dramatic
increases in violent crime and xenophobic attacks. Violence today is described as
criminal rather than political in nature. So, although the form of violence may
have altered across time, violence itself still persists as the dominant means to
solve problems in South Africa. It is in this context of a culture of violence that
xenophobia in South Africa must be conceptualized. Despite the pervasiveness of
South Africa's culture of violence, it is ironic that xenophobia has been
represented as something abnormal or pathological. Xenophobia is a form of violence
and violence is the norm in South Africa. Violence is an integral part of the
social fabric, even though the New South African discourse belies this. Xenophobia
is pathology in South Africa. It is also not a negative consequence of nationalism.
Rather, it functions within the culture of violence in which South Africa was
formed. Xenophobic violence is often intertwined within other material, political,
cultural or social motivations and may be fundamentally driven by such concerns
(Dodson, 2010).
Xenophobia attacks have killed many people and destroyed the brotherhood Africa is
known for. Xenophobic violence was most intense and widely scrutinized in May 2008
when attacks across the country left at least 62 dead, 670 wounded, dozens raped,
more than 100,000 displaced. Millions of Rands worth of property was also looted,
destroyed or appropriated by local residents in just over two weeks (CoRMSA, 2008).
Although the majority of those attacked were foreign migrants, a third of those
killed were South African citizens who had married foreigners, refused to
participate in the violent orgy, or had the misfortune of belonging to groups that
were evidently not South African enough to claim their patch of urban space
(Landau, 2011).
Sinclair (1999) engaged the impact of xenophobia on foreign identity in post-
apartheid South Africa. Drawing on interviews with seventy-seven African
foreigners, she notes that 'hostility towards foreigners has become one of the most
significant features of post-apartheid South African society'. Hostility and abuse
are reported throughout her sample, spanning a range of institutions and
interactions, from the police and the Department of Home Affairs to employers and
neighbours. As a consequence of this hostility, social networks and support
structures have developed among non-South Africans during the post-apartheid era.
Communities have been established largely along national lines, and do not span
nationality divisions. They exist as discrete networks, representing particular
nationalities, such as 'Nigerians, Angolans and Mozambicans. These local
communities have developed as safe havens and comfort zones for migrants. Company
and mutual protection, rather than long-term assimilation with the host country,
are the central criteria for these local migrant communities. For many migrants,
permanence has become untenable, given the realities of the harsh life and
intrinsic hatred. Another response to xenophobia is that of resentment and
hostility on the part of foreign migrants: Many migrants respond with anger and
indignation to the hostility that they face. For example, Nigerians and Congolese
living in South Africa due to antagonism and prejudice experienced has resulted in
an unfortunate cycle. It has encouraged a strong sense of nationhood among the
Congolese and Nigerian immigrants. The harsh treatment has also encouraged a
tendency to view South Africans as the inferior nation thus, less enterprising,
wasteful, poorly educated and ignorant. It must be recognized that responses to
xenophobia may manifest in hostility, and possible acts of violence, from
foreigners themselves. Indeed, the potential for violence rests within the actions
and interactions that develop at the point of national identity. The foreigners
fortify themselves in view of the reality and exude confidence thereby further
alienating the local black Africans. Through xenophobia, foreigners feel foreign.
This effect, in turn, alienates and excludes foreigners further from South African
society. It also contributes to foreign hostility, and possibly violence, towards
South Africans. This understanding of the impact of xenophobia on identity,
together with the culture of violence that pervades ordinary South African life,
suggests that xenophobia is not only the pathology it is represented to be, rather,
it is also a key component of the New South African nation.
Watts (1996) hypothesized that xenophobia is a "discriminatory potential," which is
activated when ideology, such as ethnocentrism, is connected to a sense of threat
on a personal or group level. An example of such threat is an individual or
cultural perception that foreigners are taking jobs from native workers.
Prejudice produces political xenophobia, which results in the desire to create and
apply public policies that actively discriminate against foreign individuals.
Similarly, Radkiewicz (2003) suggested that xenophobia is related to an
ethnocentric "syndrome" with two separate dimensions:
(a) beliefs about the national superiority and
(b) hostile, reluctant attitudes toward representatives of other countries.

Triggers of Xenophobia
The media have been seen as one of the triggers of xenophobia because of their
negative reporting on cross-border movement and migrants in South Africa and other
nations. It is argued that the media play a greater role in regard to the
information or misinformation about attitudes towards non-citizens. The perception
of a report influences the reaction to it. Unprofessional reporting of movement of
immigrants can spark widespread violence especially in a predominantly illiterate
society. In recent years, the South African media, particularly the print media
have come under scrutiny for their negative reporting regarding cross border
migration and migrants in the country. The media preoccupied itself with
stereotyping foreigners and other outsiders in their victimization. The media
develop uninformed opinions and agenda which guide the thinking, perception and
inclinations of the citizens. These inclinations and views are often reproduced
unexamined without critical, objective and rational evaluation.
Press references to overwhelming 'floods' of foreigners entering the country
heighten existing fears and defensive attitudes in the absence of reliable
statistics or any credible basis upon which to measure the true scale of
immigration (Crush and Williams, 2001).
The careless use of the word 'illegal' in reference to immigrants lends credence to
the criminalization of foreigners who in many cases are undocumented due to
administrative delays rather than criminal intent. This is a particularly dangerous
form of stereotyping, as the label 'illegal' legitimizes police abuses and
community "justice' by positioning the migrant as a criminal deserving of
punishment.
Poor service delivery, poverty, ineffective migration management, perceived
competition for resources, scarcity of resources, lack of jobs, competition for
women, unavailable and unaffordable houses and high crime rates are cited as some
of the causes of xenophobia.
The women in South Africa see male migrants especially from Nigeria as hard
working, reliable, romantic and above all very strong in bed. This assumption makes
the men to be prone to violent attacks especially in an illiterate population.
Furthermore, the comments of politicians have not been positive as they usually
make inflammatory statements that do not unite. Much energy is expended on
political discourse rather than explanations around poverty, scarce resources and
lack of service delivery.
Political notions of exclusion from the community and the state, under apartheid
have been transferred to post-apartheid South Africa. Exclusionism is propagated by
the leaders and the citizens are pitched against one another. The political use of
the discourse of exclusion and citizenship was common throughout the postcolonial
era in South Africa, in regard to the creation of citizen's negative perception
against foreign nationals, which in turn may lead to xenophobic attacks. State
sponsored propaganda against foreigners is inimical to the growth and development
of any nation. Available evidence in the literature shows that indeed the use of
the two discourses have been apparent mainly in statements made by politicians in
power. The most popularly quoted of such statements was the infamous statement made
by Buthelezi, surprisingly being the Minister of Home Affairs by then, responsible
for the protection of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, but instead seemed
to have taken a different direction with the following statement he made in 1998,
in the statement, he said that if as South Africans they are going to compete for
scarce resources with millions of aliens who are pouring into South Africa, then it
can bid goodbye to its Reconstruction and Development Programme (Neocosmos
2008). Similar xenophobic sentiments were also echoed by the Premier of Western
Cape, Helen Zille during a meeting with local business people in Cape Town, in
which she demanded the change to what she called "myriad laws on foreigners", need
to be changed (Lynette 2011).
In addition, some South Africans have argued that African immigrants have
jeopardized the ability of the government to provide resources and employment
(Crush 2000). They compete unfavorably with the citizens. Accordingly, the influx
of African immigrants into South Africa has resulted in unrest in the country.
This according to the citizens is exacerbating the competition on the job market
and is also contributing to the squatter problem. South Africa has the highest
opposition to immigration in the world.
Another symptomatic cause of xenophobia is the inherent prejudice on foreigners.
The recent xenophobic attacks and the killing of African immigrants in South Africa
could further underscore the fact that South Africans do not want African
immigrants in South Africa. Many Africans were killed and many Nigeria businesses
in millions of naira lost. The gravity was so much that on the 6th of September,
2019, Nigeria commenced the repatriation of her citizens from the country. Mr Allen
Onyema, the MD of Air Peace Nigeria donated her air planes for the air lifting of
Nigerians free of charge. This dislike for foreigners is so entrenched and had
continued to fuel the embers of xenophobia.

Responding to Xenophobia; The way forward:

Systemic and deeply entrenched xenophobic attitudes and behavior in South Africa
are clear evidence that responses and interventions designed to address the problem
must be cogent. Sadly, civil society efforts to foster peaceful coexistence and
tolerance through social dialogues and awareness campaigns have also largely proven
unsuccessful in changing attitudes and reducing violence and other forms of
outsider exclusion. Early efforts by the government included its commitment to
uphold the Declaration adopted at the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) held in Durban in
2001. The Conference recognized the urgent need to translate the objectives of the
Durban Declaration into a practical and workable plan. Unfortunately no such plan
exists although a National Action Plan to Combat Racism, Racial Discrimination,
Xenophobia and Related Intolerance spearheaded by the Department of Justice and
Constitutional Development has been under discussion for many years. However, the
following have been adduced as possible pragmatic strategies as solution.

Providing solutions to the problems of xenophobia is very important if Africa is

willing to lead the world in this century. The following suggested as possible way
forward.
Provision of an inclusive education program that is devoid of race, class, culture
and ethnicity.
Hold political and traditional leaders accountable when they spout xenophobic
rhetoric.
Stopping the legalization of violent public displays of hatred and intolerance.
Making efforts aimed at addressing inequality in any nation.
Learning more about the rest of Africa to foster empathy.
The creation of strategic advocacy platforms for nation building.
Basing xenophobia related programming on evidence-based understanding of current
socio-political and socio-economic conditions and theoretically sound and
empirically supported behavioral change models.
Dedication of more oversight, training, human and financial resources to anti-
xenophobia programs.
All countries in Africa must endeavor to provide both legal and social framework to
immediately stop the spread and reinforcement of xenophobia no matter the guise. It
is a trend that will not augur well with any individual or country.