Ethnic Re-Empowerment: The Igbo Experience through Individual and Group Efforts in Modern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigates the re-empowerment of the Igbo after the losses of both their position and properties during the Nigerian Civil War and the aftermath of policies introduced by the Nigeria Government in the post war period. It explores the major factors that aided their re-empowerment in the post-civil war period. The paper argues that the Igbo were able to regain their economic footing because of entrenched ethnic predispositions that allowed for the employment of economically empowering institutions such as `ethnic unions,’ ‘master traders’ and the apprenticeship system. These institutions made possible the accumulation of capital and the development of the human resources that spearheaded the recovery of the impoverished Igbo in the post-civil war Nigeria.

Keywords: Impoverished, industry, conquered, migration, re-empowerment