Birds of a Feather Flocking Apart: A Communication Infrastructure Study of Two Student Religious Communities on a Nigerian University Campus

Abstract

Studies of the relations and interactions between Christians and Muslims have predominantly emphasised the differences and antagonisms of the two groups. Few of such studies have taken off with expectations of the possibility of similarities. This study applied the assumptions and principles
of Communication Infrastructure Theory to study a Muslim group and a Catholic group in the University of Ibadan. With a focus on their communication infrastructure, the study sought to explain community attachment and civic participation within these groups. The paper also
investigated the identities constructed through community storytelling activities, and the extent to which the deployment of the communication
infrastructure promoted community engagement among members. Through a mixed methods design of survey, descriptive content analysis and
ethnographic fieldwork, the study found out that the communication infrastructures of both groups were similar; that their storytelling contents
were similar and that in both groups, communication infrastructure promotes civic engagement. Rather than being antagonistic groups with irreconcilably different aims and means, both were bi-worldly, anti-social vices, separatist and up against the same foes. Apparently different communities can have the same storytelling experience and comparable community identities.

Keywords: Nigerian Christian-Muslim relations on campus, MSSN/NFCS, Nigerian Catholics, communication infrastructure and civic engagement, student groups, youth communities