Accepting that the Land Question was only limited to former settler colonies in Africa such as Kenya and Zimbabwe, dominant opinion in the literature has tended to trivialize the bitter struggles for land, many of which began during the colonial dispensation in many African nations. With globalization, democratization, structural adjustment and intensification of identity politics, many of these land conflicts have lingered. Yet studies of the conflicts, as in the case of Aguleri/Umuleri, have been scanty and almost ignore their historical and colonial roots. This paper explores colonial foundations of Aguleri/Umuleri conflicts, colonial policies designed to manage them and why they failed.
AkeC (1985) Political Economy of Nigeria. Lagos: Longman.
2.
AlbertO (1993) Inter-ethnic relations in a Nigeria City: A historical perspectives of the Hausa-Igbo conflicts in Kano, 1953–1991. IFRA Occasional Publication2. University of Ibadan.
3.
AustinG (2009) Cash crops and freedom: Export agriculture and the decline of slavery in colonial West Africa. International Review of Social History54(1): 1–37.
4.
BassettJ (1993) Introduction: The land question and agricultural reformations in Sub-Saharan Africa. In: BassettJCrummeyD (eds) Land in African Agrarian System. Madison, WI: University of Winconsin Press, 3–31.
5.
BerryS (2002) Debating the land question in Africa. Comparative Studies in Society and History44(4): 638–668.
6.
ChinwubaR (1981) Legal Essays on Otuocha Land Case. Enugu: Star Printing and Publishing Company.
7.
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) (2004) Land in the struggle for citizenship, democracy and development in Africa. CODESRIA Multinational Working Groups. Call for Proposal. Dakar: CODESRIA.
8.
ColemanJ (1986) Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Benin City: Broburg and Wistrom.
9.
EgwuS (1998) Agrarian question and rural ethnic conflicts in Nigeria. In: NnoliO (ed.) Ethnic Conflicts in Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA, 53–77.
10.
EkehP (1975) Colonialism and the two publics in Africa: A theoretical statement. Comparative Studies in Society and History17(1): 91–112.
11.
FagbemiKNwankwoO (2002) The Aguleri and Umuleri violence. In: Centre for Law Enforcement Education and World Organisation against Torture (eds) Hope Betrayed? A Report on Impunity and State-Sponsored Violence in Nigeria. Lagos and Switzerland: Centre for Law Enforcement Education and World Organisation against Torture, 51–66.
12.
FernandesWBarboraS (2008) Land, People and Politics: Contest over Tribal Land in Northeastern India. Assam and Copenhagen: North Eastern Social Research Centre and International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs.
13.
FlintJ (1960) Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria. Ibadan and Accra: Oxford University Press.
14.
HobsbawmE (1999) The Age of Revolution 1789–1848. London: Abacus.
15.
IdigoM (1990) Aguleri: History and Culture. Lagos: Bantam Press.
16.
ImobigheT (2003) Civil Society and Ethnic Conflict Management in Nigeria. Ibadan: Spectrum.
17.
JacksonA (2008) War, Violence and Peace in Africa. Journal of Southern African Studies34(4): 969–979.
18.
JegaA (2003) Identity Transformation and Identity Politics under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. Uppsala and Kano: Nordic African Institute and Centre for Research and Development.
19.
KayG (1975) Development and Underdevelopment: A Marxist Analysis. London: Macmillan Press.
20.
KymlickaW (1999) Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
21.
LentzC (2006) Land rights and the politics of belonging in Africa: An introduction. In: LentzCKubaR (eds) Land and the Politics of Belonging in West Africa. Leiden: Brill, 1–30.
22.
MafejeA (1999) Imperatives and Options for Agricultural Development in Africa: Peasant or Capitalist Revolution? Unpublished essay.
23.
MafejeA (2003) The agrarian question, access to land and peasant responses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Civil Society and Social Movements6 (May). UNRISD Programme Papers on Civil Society and Social Movements.
24.
MbajekweP (2002) Debating land policy in colonial Nigeria. In: FalolaT (ed.) Nigeria in the Twenty First Century. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 263–279.
25.
MoyoS (2007) Land in the political economy of African development: Alternative strategies for Reform. Africa DevelopmentXXXII: 1–34.
26.
OdoemeneC (2002) The Management of Aguleri and Umuleri Communal Conflicts in Nigeria 1914–1999. MA Dissertation, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
27.
OnwuzuruigboI (2009) Causes and Management of Intra-ethnic Conflicts in Aguleri and Umuleri Communities, Southeastern Nigeria. PhD Thesis, Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
28.
OnwuzuruigboI (2011a) Horizontal inequalities and communal conflicts: The case of Aguleri and Umuleri communities of southeastern Nigeria. Africa81(4): 567–587.
29.
OnwuzuruigboI (2011b) Old wine in new bottle: Civil society, Iko Mmee and conflict management in southeastern Nigeria. African and Asian Studies10(4): 306–322.
30.
OtiteOAlbertO (1999) Community Conflicts in Nigeria. Ibadan: Spectrum.
31.
PhillipsA (1989) The Enigma of Colonialism: British Policy in West Africa. London: James Currey.
32.
ShentonR (1986) The Development of Capitalism in Northern Nigeria. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
33.
ShivjiI (1975) Peasant and class alliance. Review of African Political Economy2(3): 10–18.
34.
StoneBG (1932) Intelligence Report on Umueri Villages, Awka and Onitsha Province. CSE 1/85/4880, National Archives Enugu (hereafter NAE).
35.
UchenduV (1966) The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
