Territorialization of History and the Historicization of Space: Ethnic Relations and the History of Ijaw Petro-Militancy in Warri, Western Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

The article interrogates how ethnic groups' unequal access to, and/or nonparticipation in the global capitalist economy in the sixteenth to mid-twentieth
century (pre-colonial and pre-oil era) created unequal power relations among ethnic groups in Warri. The paper argues that conflicts in Warri are embedded
in questions on autochthony (first settler), politics of place, belonging, identity and contested citizenship. In addition, conflicts arising from autochthonous claims and counter-claims by these groups on the ownership of Warri are compounded by an ethno-politically motivated change in chieftaincy nomenclature and demands for political citizenship. The contemporary conflict (popularly called oil-conflict) in Warri is layered on, and cannot be appropriately explained outside the pre-oil and colonial-era conflicts in the Region. The discovery and exploration of Oil in Warri and environs reconfigured pre-oil crises and created new forms of conflicts through varied and complex processes of primitive accumulation and dispossession. Methodologically, it draws on primary and secondary data sources and makes extensive use of archival materials to elicit the historical and contemporary dimensions of the conflicts, while using the resource curse narrative as a theoretical framework.