Nigeria’s Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, recenlty declared in an interview that he is not Igbo but Ikwerre. This declaration of identity by the prominent politician has attracted much comment. Nigerians who willingly identify as Igbo have continued to protest the denial of Igbo identity by the Delta and Rivers communities, citing historical, geographical, and cultural reasons why the Igbo identity must be embraced by the alleged deniers.
The aim of this piece is not to dive into that exhausted discussion. Our aim is to broaden our gaze to explore the slippery and deceptive nature of what we hold on to as ethnic identity in Nigeria. We raise questions around the presumed uniformity of culture ascribed to various ethnic groups. We further examine the integrity of our words when we ascribe predetermined behavioral traits to ethnic groups. We conclude by submitting that Nigerians need to emancipate themselves from the simplistic illusion of assumed familiarity with other human beings with whom we share a common geographical space. We must rediscover openness, diversity and curiosity in our interpersonal relationships with every Nigerian, one person at a time.
Are you like your siblings and cousins?
Within nuclear families, we see how vastly different we are from our siblings in personality, attitude toward life, and even character. When we venture into our extended family relationships, the gap widens until we can hardly recognize any traits of ourselves in many of our extended family members. The fact that in a small unit of social organization, such as the nuclear family, we have dissimilar individuals who hold onto different ideals—how then do we think that a whole ethnic group of millions of people can be simplistically ascribed certain traits or dispositions?
This simplistic classification is known as stereotyping. Stereotyping is the reduction of individuals or entire groups to a set of oversimplified traits. Stereotyping can take the form of painting a positive picture of a group. These traits are often inaccurate even when they are presumably positive in nature. Positive stereotyping can lead to a false sense of grandiosity on the part of the stereotyped group, like the Nazis who Hitler convinced to believe they were better off than the rest of humanity.
Stereotyping can also take the form of classifying an entire group as predisposed to certain negative traits. Negative stereotyping is the more harmful of the two practices. Negative stereotyping can have, and has had, disastrous consequences for all of humanity. Think of the Holocaust, the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Stereotyping and the death of openness
Negative stereotyping reinforces prejudice. Ideally, when you meet another human being, there should be a healthy dose of curiosity. You are meeting a fellow mortal who grew up in a different family unit or even locale, and has had different experiences than yourself. Ideally, there should be an openness to getting to know this other person, their perspective on life, or certain areas of mutual interest. What ethnic stereotypes do is block that curiosity.
We stereotype when we meet a person from a particular ethnic group, and assume that we already know what their people are like.” But we do not. If we have the courage to be honest with ourselves, based on our own nuclear and extended families, we understand that the terms “their,” “them,” “they,” or “us” are at best, often loose and inadequate to be used as social classification terms, and at worst are controversial, and should be used sparingly, if at all.
When we attribute a general trait to the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Tiv, Igala, and all the other ethnicities in Nigeria, we are lying. We are lying about the effect of upbringing on individuals. We lie about the effects that education, life experiences, personality, and even spirituality can have on the character of people who otherwise belong to the same ethnic group.
One resultant effect of prejudice is the erasure of the diversity and different expressions that exist in even the smallest social organizations. It is these diversities that serve as the building blocks of communities. Just as we need teachers, lawyers, engineers, nurses, doctors, tailors, carpenters, and other career tracks, so are diversities of personalities needed to strengthen communities.
As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie notes in her essay “The Danger of a Single Story,” the danger of a single story about the Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Tiv, Igala, Urhobo, and other ethnicities in Nigeria is that it denies the richness and diversity of human experiences within these superficial enclaves we have created. When only one narrative is allowed to dominate, it limits the possibilities for people to tell their own stories, to construct their own identities, and to challenge the stereotypes that are imposed upon them.
Emancipating ourselves from stereotypes
Emancipation from stereotypes requires a conscious, collective effort to challenge and dismantle the narratives we believe about others and those that have been imposed on us by external forces. First and foremost, it begins with self-awareness and the intentional rejection of one-dimensional portrayals of identity. As individuals, we must embrace the complexity and diversity of our own experiences while also acknowledging that stereotypes of us and others are based on oversimplifications and biases.
Education plays a crucial role in this process. By learning about the historical, social, and cultural factors that have shaped stereotypes, we can better understand how they persist. Additionally, we must actively seek and create spaces for authentic representation. This involves amplifying voices that challenge dominant stereotypical narratives and celebrating the richness of diverse identities, whether through literature, art, media, or public discourse. Ultimately, emancipation from stereotypes requires a collective commitment by Nigerians to see each other as multifaceted, evolving individuals rather than static, preconceived notions.
Nyesom Wike and every Nigerian are free to embrace any ethnic identity they choose, for ethnic identity is at its core a social construction. It should not be imposed but voluntarily embraced by an individual or a community.
