Constructions of Belonging: Igbo Communities and the Nigerian State in the Twentieth Century (review)

The Igbo of southeastern Nigeria have become something of a cultural archetype in contemporary debates on African modernity. While some regard them as icons of ethnic entrepreneurship and indigenous democracy, others represent them as culturally disposed to criminality and violent vigilantism. Axel Harneit-Sievers cuts through these divergent perspectives in an insightful and historically detailed examination of Igbo identity formation from precolonial times to the present. His new book, Constructions of Belonging, considers how precolonial social organization has intersected with colonialism, Christianity, postcolonial state formation, and the legacy of defeat in the Nigerian Civil War to shape the fractious dynamism of contemporary Igbo society. Focusing on the interplay of culture, agency, and historical change, the author traces the ways in which the segmentary institutions of a stateless society have responded to the imposition of a modern state by "appropriating" it in their own way to achieve a form of "autonomous integration." Following the lead of Peter Little's analysis of Somalia, this book argues that, in an era of authoritarian and nonperforming states, segmentary societies can provide valuable institutional resources for the development of a resilient and democratic civil society.

Complex questions of culture, political intervention, and institutional change are dealt with in a clear, meticulously researched, and well-structured narrative. In four sections the book covers the nature of precolonial organization; the external influences generated by colonialism, Christianity, and the postcolonial state; the internal transformations wrought through hometown associations and chieftaincy institutions; and a set of case studies of different Igbo communities that illustrate the complex and varied ways in which historical and contemporary influences have been woven together in the construction of Igbo identity. The case studies offer rich accounts of the interaction of institutional dynamism, political opportunism, and organizational fragmentation, which have underpinned the contemporary history of the Igbo. Throughout the book, the institutions of Igbo society are treated as changing historical artifacts that have arisen in varied forms, have been altered, created, or abolished by colonial administrations, and have remained sites of struggle among Igbo politicians, historians, and a variety of "cultural workers." Yet amid this constant flux of historical and political forces, Harneit-Sievers manages to convey a sense of social identity—an adherence to norms and institutions that are not just sites of manipulation but also moral barometers and living frameworks of identity formation. Equally striking is the way in which the author emphasizes not just the historicity of Igbo identity, but its historiography as well. Attention is drawn to the ways in which some Igbo historians have highlighted the hegemonic role of the precolonial Nri and Aro systems in the service of contemporary projects of Igbo ethnicity, while local historical writing is shown to play a role in struggles over political office, chieftaincy, and land rights in individual communities.

Perhaps understandably, the focus on the vibrant character of Igbo society tends to obscure some of its deeper frailties. There is a tendency to overstate the agency and autonomy of Igbo communities and the representative character of hometown associations and "traditional" rulers, while deemphasizing their vulnerability to marginalization, manipulation, and temptation at the level of the Nigerian state. Analyses of local developments often ignore the ways in which changes within communities are shaped by power relations at the regional and national levels, often compromising rather than reinforcing the autonomy and legitimacy of local officials and institutions. The author tends to mistake the fractious tendencies of Igbo elites for an inherently segmentary orientation within Igbo society. This glosses over repeated evidence of more integrative social tendencies, demonstrated in the legitimacy of Nri and Aro hegemony, the absorption of other ethnic groups—such as Ibibio and Igala settlers—into Igbo communities, and the ease with which communities have federated into larger units when encouraged to do so by the structure of political incentives.

Nonetheless, this book provides an important contribution...