YAKURR ETHNOLOGY AND THE PROBLEM OF IDENTITY. By Eteng Obono Okoi.

The historical breakthrough in agriculture and government, that is, when man entered the stage of farmer-husbandman and dominated his natural environment made migrations a common aspect of human life, since the Neolithic civilization. This was the time man tends to provide for the basic goods of his daily life and turned to the outside world for the exploitation of nature. Human’s histories were dominated by migrations and Yakurr was not an exception. Yakurr like other nations of the world experienced dynamism in all aspects of human life. It is worthy to note that, the major causes of migration were influenced by a quest for farmlands, political motivation, harmful and unpleasant environment. It is also important to note that the idea for the formation of every society was pioneered and champion by one person. This was the case behind the formation of Yakurr society. The processes that resulted in the emergence and formation of Yakurr society are called ethnogenesis. The above survey introduces the Yakurr nation and the need to invest all their energies, strength and resources to know who they are, and connect to their source. The question most people often ask was, is Yakurr an ethnic group or sub-ethnic category? Oxford Advance Learners’ Dictionary defined ethnic group as a group of people who connected with or belonging to a nation, race or tribe that shares a cultural tradition. Therefore, ethnic group is a socially defined category of people who identified with each other based on share social experience or ancestry. Its membership tends to be associated with shared cultural heritage, ancestry, history, homeland, language or ideology and with symbolic systems such as politics, religion, mythology, ritual, dressing style and physical appearance. The above analysis and Yakurr ethnogenesis are interwoven. Yakurr as an ethnic group experienced cultural continuities over time. Although, some historians and cultural anthropologists have often documented that many of the values, practices and norms that imply continuity with the past are relatively recent invention. This may be coming from the Eurocentric point of view, because Yakurr, irrespective of the influence of western culture that disdained parts of her cultural values has not lost her national traits. Ethnic group differs from other social groups such as subcultures or sub-ethnic category as one may put it, interest group or social classes; because they emerged and change over historical periods. In a period known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry which has its root from the mythological nature of a founding figure. Oxford Dictionary further defined sub-culture as “a cultural group within a larger culture, often having belief or interest and dialect variance with those of the larger culture. The examples of sub-cultures in the political formation of Yakurr are Agoi, Assiga and Inyima.