Minority Identities in Nigeria : Contesting and Claiming Citizenship in the Twentieth Century

Focusing on Niger Delta minorities, this book reframes Nigeria's nationalist narrative to understand these communities beyond their experience of crude oil politics. Oghenetoja Okoh explores how majority and minority identities were produced by the British colonial state, leaving Nigeria to inherit the violence that accompanies this dynamic.

Ethnic majorities and minorities are produced over time by the same processes that define national borders and create national institutions. Minority Identities in Nigeria traces how western Niger Delta communities became political minorities first, through colonial administrative policies in the 1930s; and second, by embracing their minority status to make claims for resources and representation from the British government in the 1940s and 50s. This minority consciousness has deepened in the post-independence era, especially under the pressures of the crude oil economy. Blending discussion of local and regional politics in the Niger Delta with the wider literature on developmental colonialism, decolonization, and nationalism, Oghenetoja Okoh offers a detailed historical analysis of these communities. This study moves beyond a singular focus on the experience of crude oil extraction, exploring a longer history of state manipulation and exploitation in which minorities are construed as governable citizens.