Implications of Colonially Determined Boundaries in (West) Africa: the Yoruba of Nigeria and Benin in Perspective

ABSTRACT This study analyses the Nigeria – Benin international boundary, around the Yoruba geo-cultural space. The primary research question, which the study is centred on, is the assessment of the impact of partition on the Yoruba identity and group relations The study relies on the multidisciplinary approach in the analysis of the boundary and the people it partitions. Multidisciplinarity is particularly required for such a study as this in order to accommodate the various nuances, which a specific disciplinary approach would not be able to adequately cater for. The methodology utilised in answering the research question was the historicised case-study, which relied on field work in the specific borderland communities astride the Nigeria – Benin boundary as well as archival research. It also relies on a content analysis of the news media as well as government publication. The secondary sources of data are collected from extant literature on the theme of African boundaries. The study finds that contrary to the expectation in the research literature that the partition would have a disruptive effect on the Yoruba, the peculiar characteristics of the group created a buffer, which resisted change. Thus, the Yoruba identity has remained relatively unscathed by the forces of colonisation and contrasting socialisation processes