7 Books to Read if You Didn’t Study Nigerian History in School

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In 1977, the late professor of history, Obaro Ikime, delivered a lecture under the auspices of the Department of History at the University of Calabar. Titled ‘History and the Changing Cultures of Nigeria’, Ikime’s paper responded to the reservations expressed by Alhaji Shetima Ali Munguno, one of the community leaders who attended a 1976 meeting of the Academic Planning Committee of the National Universities Commission, which visited new Nigerian universities, including Maiduguri. At the time, Alhaji Munguno was pro-chancellor and chairman of council of the University of Calabar. In the meeting, Ikime wrote, Alhaji Munguno, ‘dwelt at length on the need to ensure that the University of Maiduguri reflected the culture of the people in whose locale it was situated.’ He also expressed horror at what he had seen at the University of Calabar, where students and teachers went about wearing ‘all sorts of trousers and high-heeled shoes.’ Alhaji Mungono hoped that ‘no such evil would afflict the University of Maiduguri.’

Professor Ikime found Alhaji Munguno’s disgust with staff and students’ dressing style to be ‘evidence of cultural intolerance, for it must be clear that the dress style of any group is tied up with the cultural influences to which that group has been exposed.’ For Professor Ikime, this incident—and the tendency of Nigerians to speak disparagingly about the values and cultural traits of fellow citizens from other groups—inspired his presentation. One of Nigeria’s greatest problems, he argued, is our ‘inadequate knowledge of history and the ways of life of the various groups or people that make up Nigeria.’