scholarly journals The post-war era in Nigeria and the resilience of Igbo communal system

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Okwuosa ◽  
Chinyere T. Nwaoga ◽  
Favour Uroko

The Igbo people survived a civil war that raged between 1967 and 1970 and that devastated their land and reduced their population because of more than three million deaths. They were confronted with the challenges of beginning life afresh from scratch with almost nothing. Since then, they have allegedly been marginalised on a continuous basis by the Nigerian government. This notwithstanding the people with their communal spirit, which saw them through the civil war, have continued to cement their survival resolve in the post-war era. The aim of this article was to study the Igbo communal system as the bedrock of Igbo progress, especially in the past 50 years and recommends it as the basic principle of Igbo survival in Nigeria. It considers Igbo communal spirit as a veritable panacea against the recent agitations for secession by the people as that would guarantee Igbo people an ample space to operate in Nigeria. The methodology used in this article is a qualitative phenomenological method. This was carried out by interviewing some members of Igbo society, observing and interpreting events in Igbo society and as documented in literatures. It was found that Igbo people have really done well for themselves despite the seeming marginalisation by sticking to their resilient spirit. This study concluded that instead of seeking for independence from Nigeria, the Igbo people need to be mindful of their resilient communal spirit and reinforce it in all spheres of life. This would make them more relevant in the country’s affairs than they are currently.

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-224
Author(s):  
David Robie

Wilson's Long drive Through A Short War is a personal account of their time in Iraq during the invasion and a subsequent post-war visit to the country to see the fate of the people he had met.  Hersh's Chain of Command provides many of the missing links to those seeking greater insight into the wider struggle of Iraq's civil war unleashed by the failure of US post-invasion policy, even if this is not officially admitted. His 'muckracking' investigations concentrate on the policy failures, corruptions and abuses of power. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
DR. RANI ERUM

The Syrian crisis is one of the most extensive issue of Middle East. The enduring fight among Baathist regime and factions of rebellion groups created a humanitarian dilemma in the country. Since 2011 the people of Syria are in complete despair, every dawn increases the intensity of their misery. The high amount of civilian deaths and destruction of infrastructure turned the country in to complete turmoil. Every day thousands of Syrian entre in Greece and Turkey for refuge and security, many among them died during this process which regularly shows on television screens but regional and internal actors are looking completely disable to do any significant effort to settle the conflicts among opponents of crisis. Therefore, the peace prospects are not very hopeful because the ongoing clashes frequently sabotage every effort between the combatants. This study design to discuss the reasons, consequences and effects of civil war on Syrians and enlightened the direct and indirect role of regional and Western powers in the past seven years.


1973 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
Ernest Nneji Emenyonu

The Nigerian civil war is now history. The Republic of Biafra lives in the pages of books, pamphlets, and newspapers. In that form, it is no threat to the people of Nigeria who, in a solemn oath of allegiance in January 1970, pledged to consign Biafra into oblivion and face the task of reconstruction and reconciliation. Biafra is now an issue only for historians who are plagued with the search for an answer to “what might have happened if…” But the war itself has left deep scars not only upon the lives of the survivors, but also on their beliefs and attitudes towards life. Unless he visits the right places in Nigeria, the visitor today may hear nothing and possibly see nothing to remind him of the war.


1990 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Silverstein

1988 was unlike any other year in Burma's short history as an independent nation. It began quietly, but erupted into a revolution for democracy and change which failed when the army violently restored its dictatorship; it ended quietly, but with the people living in fear under a military determined not to be challenged openly again. During this same period, while the world focused on Rangoon, the minorities continued to pursue a civil war which some have been fighting for the past forty years, hopeful that the changing situation in Burma's heartland would effect their struggles because both they, and the Burmans who rose in revolt, have the same enemy and seek the same ends — a peaceful and democratic Burma. Both looked to and sought help from the free nations of the world who spoke out vigorously when the rebellion began but whose voices either have been lowered or even stilled since the military made clear that it would decide the time and degree of change; only the U.S. continued to hold the high moral ground in support of the rebellion but its actions hardly matched its rhetoric.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Festić

AbstractThe paper discusses the possibilities of building a framework for conceptualization and understanding of the effects of the atrocities committed upon the collapse of ‘ex-Yugoslavia’. It relates the war-horrors and personal and collective traumas to the everyday of the people(s) of both the communist and post-communist times, and includes empirical cross-references from the social relations, cultural, educational and political contexts while revealing the ambivalent meanings of the ‘ghosts of the past’ and of their ‘return’. In rethinking the notions of the signifier, representation, the abject from the social/the symbolic, the text argues for the centrality of memory work based on victims’ experiences and their articulation in public spaces in the post-war societies. Envisioning the move forward and safer inter-ethnic relations on the discussed territories argues for individual responsibility in the processes of (re)construction and (re)formation of complex personal, collective and national identities, lived memory and institutions and in attempts to inter- and intracommunicate the particularized units.


1991 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 99-102

The old-mountainous area, a part of Serbia set on the Balkan covers the mountain Stara planina and its smaller integral totallties Zaglava, Visok and Vidlič. Though hilly-mountainous border zone this area used to be relatively densely inhabited in the past. However, in the post-war period the migration of the populiation grew to be distinct. The people moved on from the villages to the cines and from hillymountainous areas to the valleys. In the 1948 in the mountainous area lived 54,3% out of total populatIon of that area and in 1981. only 21,6%. But on the contrary, the number of the inhabitants 'in the hilly areas has enlarged from 45,7% to 78,4% out of total population of the region Stara planina (old-mountamous area).


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-53
Author(s):  
Faouzia Zeraoulia

The Algerian Civil War during the 1990s is considered to be one of the violent wars in the Arab world. For one decade, isolated from the international community, the country and its civilians suffered from extremism, radicalism, torture, and assassinations. Today, it is arguable that the memory of the Algerian Civil War played a pivotal role in producing the legitimacy of the political system and framing the citizens’ perceptions of the postwar regime before the current manifestations. Nevertheless, no field research has explored how that memory is represented and recalled by the people. Through analyzing the public narrative, surveying and examining the public platforms, and conversations dealing with the past civil war in Algeria, this article seeks to demonstrate how that violent past is remembered in the public arena, the emotions that have been accumulated from such experience and the lessons that have been learned by the people. In doing so, we use many examples from the Algerian manifestations after 22 February 2019, or what is called “the Algerian Hirak.”


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis S. Ermolin

Multiple Voices of the Past: (Hi)stories and Memories from the Ethnically Mixed Neighbourhoods in PristinaUsing the Bakhtinian term heteroglossia developed by Andrea L. Smith, this article analyses the multiple and sometimes internally contradictory narratives, memories and stereotypes articulated in everyday talk about the common past in Pristina that could be heard nowadays in post-war Kosovo (mostly among Kosovo Albanians) and among the people who used to live in Kosovo prior to 1999 (mostly Kosovo Serbs) and then left the country for Serbia (Belgrade, Niš, etc.) or went abroad. The study explores the existing memories, images and stereotypes shared among the current and former citizens of Pristina (Kosovo) – both Albanians and Serbs – about each other and their city. It relies on the basic tools of cultural memory studies and applies them to the analysis of existing local narratives in the present-day Albanian and Serbian communities that used to be parts of one and the same city of Pristina. The article offers a discussion of the opposition between urban and rural models of mindset in changing Pristina and its importance in understanding some of the factors of ethnic conflict in Kosovo. The basic social unit selected for analysis is ethnically mixed neighbourhood and its memory due to the fact that this social and spatial entity functioned as the primary condition and source of interaction, mutual familiarity and cooperation both during peace and war. The empirical data for the study were collected in 2010–2020 during short visits to Pristina (Kosovo) and Niš (Serbia).Множественные голоса прошлого: история и память в этнически смешанных районах ПриштиныАннотация: Используя термин гетероглоссия, предложенный М. Бахтиным и разработанный А. Смитом, в данной статье я про- анализирую многочисленные и иногда внутренне противоречивые нарративы, воспоминания и стереотипы, сформулированные в повседневных разговорах об общем прошлом в Приштине, которые сегодня можно услышать в послевоенном Косово (в среде косовских албанцев) и среди людей, живших в Косово до 1999 г. (в основном косовские сербы), а затем уехавших из страны в Сербию (Белград, Ниш и т. д.) или за границу. Моя статья направлена на изучение существующих воспоминаний, образов и стереотипов, разделяемых нынешними и бывшими гражданами Приштины – как албанцами, так и сербами – по отношению друг к другу и своему городу. В работе используются основные инструменты исследования культурной памяти, в их применении к анализу существующих местных нарративов в современных албанских и сербских общинах, которые когда-то были частью одного и того же города Приштина. В своей статье я буду обсуждать противостояние между городской и сельской моделями мышления в изменении Приштины и его важность для понимания некоторых предпосылок этнического конфликта в Косово. В качестве базовой социальной единицы для своего анализа я выбрал этнически смешанный район и его память в связи с тем, что эта социальная и пространственная сущность функционировала как основное условие и источник взаимодействия, взаимного знакомства и сотрудничества как в периоды мира, так и во время войны. Эмпирические данные были собраны в 2010-2020 годах во время моих коротких визитов в Приштину и Ниш.Różnorodne głosy przeszłości: historia i pamięć w zróżnicowanych etnicznie dzielnicach PrisztinyOdwołując się do terminu polifoniczności, zaproponowanego przez Michaiła Bachtina i opracowanego przez Anthony’ego Smitha, w niniej­szym artykule przeanalizuję liczne i czasem wewnętrznie sprzeczne narra­cje, wspomnienia i stereotypy, sformułowane w codziennych rozmowach o wspólnej przeszłości w Prisztinie, które dziś można usłyszeć w powo­jennym Kosowie (w środowisku kosowskich Albańczyków) oraz pośród ludzi mieszkających w Kosowie do 1999 roku (przede wszystkim wśród kosowskich Serbów), którzy wyjechali do Serbii (Belgrad, Nisz itd.) lub za granicę. Mój artykuł ma na celu zbadanie wspomnień, obrazów i ste­reotypów, podzielanych przez obecnych i byłych obywateli Prisztiny, za­równo Albańczyków jak i Serbów, w stosunku do siebie nawzajem oraz do samego miasta. W pracy nad analizą lokalnych narracji we współczesnych wspólnotach albańskich i serbskich, które kiedyś były częścią tego samego miasta – Prisztiny, wykorzystuję podstawowe instrumenty badawcze dla dziedziny pamięci kulturowej. W artykule będę omawiać sprzeczność mię­dzy miejskim a wiejskim modelem myślenia na temat przemian Prisztiny, akcentując jego istotną rolę w rozumieniu niektórych przesłanek konflik­tu etnicznego w Kosowie. Jako podstawową jednostkę społeczną dla mo­jej analizy przyjąłem etnicznie różnorodną dzielnicę wraz z jej pamięcią, ze względu na to, że ta społeczna i przestrzenna jednostka funkcjonowała jako podstawowe źródło wzajemnych wpływów, znajomości i współpracy, zarówno w czasie pokoju, jak i wojny. Dane empiryczne zostały zebrane w latach 2010-2020 w czasie moich krótkich wizyt w Prisztinie i Niszu.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 30-40
Author(s):  
Bolu John Folayan ◽  
Olumide Samuel Ogunjobi ◽  
Prosper Zannu ◽  
Taiwo Ajibolu Balofin

In public relations and political communication, a spin is a form of propaganda achieved through knowingly presenting a biased interpretation of an event or issues. It is also the act of presenting narratives to influence public opinion about events, people or and ideas. In war time, various forms of spins are employed by antagonists to wear out the opponents and push their brigades to victory. During the Nigerian civil war, quite a number of these spins were dominant – for example GOWON (Go On With One Nigeria); “On Aburi We Stand”, “O Le Ku Ija Ore”. Post-war years presented different spins and fifty years after the war, different spins continue to push emerging narratives (e.g. “marginalization”, “restructuring”). This paper investigates and analyzes the different propaganda techniques and spins in the narratives of the Nigerian civil in the past five years through a content analysis of three national newspapers: The Nigerian Tribune, Daily Trust and Sun Newspapers. Findings confirm that propaganda and spins are not limited to war time, but are actively deployed in peace time. This development places additional challenge on journalists to uphold the canons of balance, truth and fairness in reporting sensitive national issues. The authors extend postulations that propaganda techniques, generally considered to be limited to war situations, are increasingly being used in post-war situations. Specifically, they highlight that journalists are becoming more susceptible to propaganda spins and this could affect the level of their compliance to the ethics of journalism.


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