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Abstract
There is hardly any study of pre-colonial Africa examined through the
prejudiced lenses of European scholars that did not downplay the existence of any
history of interaction. Hitherto, theoretical analysis of inter-group relations in precolonial
Africa was one that embraced a verdict of non-existence. For these
scholars, pre-colonial Africa was bereft of any meaningful cultivation of
interaction, and should it be credited for such, it was one replete with incessant
hostilities amongst ‘natives’ and ‘tribes’. That is such assessment usually
emphasized isolation and hostility. However, this raises the question: In a world
wherein relations eminently necessitate survival, how possible is it to exist in
isolation? As the axiom goes; no nation is an island – Undoubtedly, no human
society notwithstanding its level of development is all-sufficient. Variations in
natural endowment, for example, breeds an inevitable need for inter-group
relation.2 All groups are mutually inter-dependent and same holds true for precolonial
Africa societies.
prejudiced lenses of European scholars that did not downplay the existence of any
history of interaction. Hitherto, theoretical analysis of inter-group relations in precolonial
Africa was one that embraced a verdict of non-existence. For these
scholars, pre-colonial Africa was bereft of any meaningful cultivation of
interaction, and should it be credited for such, it was one replete with incessant
hostilities amongst ‘natives’ and ‘tribes’. That is such assessment usually
emphasized isolation and hostility. However, this raises the question: In a world
wherein relations eminently necessitate survival, how possible is it to exist in
isolation? As the axiom goes; no nation is an island – Undoubtedly, no human
society notwithstanding its level of development is all-sufficient. Variations in
natural endowment, for example, breeds an inevitable need for inter-group
relation.2 All groups are mutually inter-dependent and same holds true for precolonial
Africa societies.
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