Vol. XXXII, Issue 4: Fall 2025 - The Nigerian Ecosystem; Black Leadership; The British Museum Revisited

Table of Contents

Godwin Odeh - Banditry and Insecurity: Unintended Consequences for the Nigerian Ecosystem

Bernard Steiner- Black Leadership in the Making of Jamaican Reggae Artists, 1962-1987

Kwame Opoku- Dining and Dancing in the Presence of Stolen Gods and Looted Artifacts in the British Museum

Editorial

In this issue of Africa Update, the focus is on Nigeria, Jamaica, the African Diaspora, and the United Kingdom’s British Museum.

Dr. Godwin Odeh’s article focuses on Nigeria, and points to the on-going insecurity in the country, and the consequences of this insecurity for wildlife. That wildlife is beginning to prosper in the region is one of the unintended consequences, he points out. In this illuminating article, the reader is informed of various hunting traditions across the region with significant details about Nigerian wildlife. He explores the main reason for the on-going insecurity, in the region, namely banditry, and the toll this has taken on Nigerian citizens.

Reggae is linked to the rise of pan- Africanism and the contributions of activists, scholars and musicians argues Dr. Bernard Steiner, in his insightful contribution. Steiner posits that this musical genre must be seen as a culmination of decades of protests against racism and colonial and neo-colonial domination in Africa and the Diaspora. It intersects with extensive intellectual and activist activity by Black leaders and low income and marginalized Jamaicans. Reggae artistes succeeded in disseminating Pan-Africanism, far and wide, and globally, he points out.

The issue concludes with commentary on the British Museum by Dr. Kwame Opoku. Many of the 13 million items in the British Museum were looted during the era of colonial occupation, argues Dr. Opoku. He reminds the reader that the Charity Ball of October 18, 2025 and its ostentatious auctioneering activities are a cover-up for the British Museum’s refusal to return to Africa, thousands of stolen artifacts. In previous issues of Africa Update ( Spring 2011 & Summer 2021), the issue of stolen artifacts was clearly articulated by Opoku. Dr Opoku has been a vocal critic of the colonial expropriation of African artifacts and the refusal by erstwhile colonial occupiers to return national treasures - half a century after the official end of colonial rule. 

Special thanks go to the contributors to the Fall issue of Africa Update for their illuminating articles.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali

Chief Editor, Africa Update

Banditry and Insecurity: Unintended Consequences for the Nigerian Ecosystem

Godwin Onuh Odeh, Ph.D.,
Department of History and International Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
Sokoto State University, Sokoto-Nigeria 
godwin.odeh@ssu.edu.ng

Introduction

Banditry and insecurity are presently major issues in Nigeria’s security discourse. The phenomenal rise in banditry and insecurity has affected various aspects of human endeavor, including the environment and wildlife as well as hunting operations. The sharp decrease in hunting activity resulted in increased wildlife and improved ecosystem health across the thirty- six states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This underscores the fact that, though wars, conflicts and insecurity are essentially perceived negatively, they can have positive fallouts that are not in the agenda of the perpetrators and the belligerents.[1]

The point is, since the rise of banditry nearly a decade ago, millions have lost their lives, several communities have been displaced, and properties worth billions of Naira have been lost. But in the face of this predicament and trauma, there appears to be something blossoming: wildlife proliferation and natural healing of the ecosystem. The significance of this untended development arising from banditry and insecurity is the focus of this paper. 

Conceptual Clarifications

The concepts of banditry, insecurity, game hunting, wildlife (wild meat), and ecosystem require clarification. 

Banditry: Until very recently, the term bandit has been uncommon in Nigeria, gaining prominence only as crime and insecurity increased. The word bandit comes from the Italian, bandito, meaning “outlaw”, from the Vulgar Latin, bannire, meaning “to proclaim or proscribe”, or ban by Germanic origin.[2] Lawless and desperate marauders were known as brigands.[3] In modern usage, it could refer to a thief or a robber who engages in wanton killing, kidnapping for ransom, stealing of produce and farm animals, especially cattle.[4] This definition implies that the activities of some Boko Haram elements- who have shifted tactics to kidnapping for ransom- qualify as banditry. 

Insecurity: The term insecurity is derived from the concept of “security”, which comes from Old French securite and Latin securus,denoting “free” and “care,” respectively.[5] Security implies freedom from attacks and danger and protection of lives and property.[6] It denotes the preservation of independence and sovereignty, safety, and freedom from anxiety, such that the future is guaranteed.[7]A fundamental alteration of this balance- where freedom from danger, risk or loss and sovereignty are threatened- creates insecurity. This climate of tension leads to decreased game hunting activities, as will be discussed later.

Game Hunting: Hunting for game is an activity that is social, economic, and cultural in nature. Conceptualizing hunting is significant given its direct impact on wildlife and ecosystems. Hunting and hunter are referred to by different names in various Nigerian ethnic groups: for example, Orte/ Ofite and O’tote/Oy’fite among the Idoma;[8]Farauta and Mafarauci[9] in Hausa; Tato/Ikyov and Or-tato/Or-Ikyov[10] in Tiv; Ise ode and Ode[11] in Yoruba; and Igbanta and Ogba nta [12] in Igbo. These names across ethnic groups underscore how deeply rooted hunting is in the culture and tradition of the people. Hunting occurs both as a form of adventure and as an activity aimed at obtaining game for consumption and sale. It can be unorganized or organized (when groups or communities from neighbouring towns and villages hunt together). A popular example of organized hunting is the border hunting in Ogobia Ugboju (Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State), which takes place in February and March and draws hunters from multiple communities such as Akpachi, Ondo, Igaluwa, Illaba (Ai –ejeba), Odaubi, Jericho, Okoto, Okwudu, Efeyi, Nwaba, Ibaji, Adoka,-all in Otukpo LGA; and Omutele, Eboya, Onkpechi, Okete, Amla, Ehatukpe-all in Ohimini Local Government Area of Benue State.[13] People from Agatu, Apa, Okpiko, Otukpo, Igede, and Tiv communities engage in similar hunting operations in their domains. However, because Agatu is largely riverine, the Agatu people focus more on fishing than hunting.[14]

Nigerian ethnic groups such as the Hausa/Fulani, Igbo , Yoruba, Kanuri, Igala, Ebirra, Esan, and others of Edo, Berom, Ngas, Bachama , Zuru, Dakarkari of Kebbi, Eggon , Alago, Kienna and Doma people of Nasarawa State, Uhorbo, Ijaw, Ekpe hunters ( Efik and Ibibio), Anang, Itsekiri and ethnic groups of Asaba, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom all engage in hunting and fishing. Those in deep river area focus more on fishing. Among these ethnicities, the Yoruba, Idoma, Igbo, Hausa, Tiv, Igala, Ekpe (Efik and Ibibio) and Ogori (Ogori Magongo) are especially known for hunting. In most cases, organized hunting starts in the morning and lasts until evening. Hunters prepare by carrying water and food and often cheer when they find ripe fruits or stream along their routes. Hunters know their routes well, but these routes have now been completely taken over by bandits.

Hunting Tools and Techniques: Nigerian hunters across regions use a range of traditional and modern tools. Traditionally, hunters use and set traps (snare, pitfalls, etc.), bow and arrow (e.g, Daraji and Dullu in local languages­), dan gun (flintlock firearms), spears, dogs, catapults, cutlasses, knives, machetes, and similar weapons. With modernization, hunters have adopted, rifles (firearms), shotguns, compound bows, and hunting gear such as camouflage clothing, binoculars, and rangefinders.[15] Equally important are the strategies. Hunters may enter the forest at any time (day or night) armed with these weapons, employing techniques such as stalking (tracking game stealthily), ambush (waiting in hiding for the animals), driving techniques (flushing game towards a hunter or trap), and tracking (following footprints or signs to locate the game). These techniques have proven effective in traditional hunting.[16]

Wildlife (Game): The game animals are the prey that the predator (hunter) eagerly seeks in the bush. Wild animals live in forests, savannahs, and other habitats and are hunted for food and other products. They vary in size from small to large. Game meat is a source of protein and income and holds cultural dietary significance. It can be divided into categories such as Aves (birds), arboreal mammals, ground mammals, and rodents.[17]The table below shows some wildlife or game hunters goes after.

Source: The table was developed by the authors from a pool of animals names for enhanced understanding of hunting and wildlife. Note: Aves (birds) and reptiles have no gestation period; they have an incubation period.

Ecosystem: An ecosystem is a complex community of living organisms (plants, animals and microorganisms) that interact with each other and their physical environment (such as soil, water, air and sunlight) in a defined area. Ecosystems range in size from small ponds or forests to the global biosphere.[18] These interactions between biotic and abiotic factors shape the ecosystem’s structure, and influence processes such as energy flow (food chain), nutrient cycling, and population dynamics. Ecosystems provide vital services like air and water purification, soil formation and fertility, climate regulation, food production, and biodiversity conservation. The way in which the decline in hunting due to banditry has impacted wildlife, and how reduced human interaction with the environment has led to nature’s replenishment, brings the ecosystem concept into focus.

At this juncture, it is important to highlight the convergence of the concepts above: banditry, insecurity, hunting, wildlife (wild meat), and ecosystem. Banditry creates insecurity, displacing people and communities (including hunters) and making hunting a very dangerous endeavor. This greatly limits human interactions with forests and bushy areas. These factors cumulatively have led to increases in wildlife populations and to the replenishment of grasses, plants, trees, clean air, and other living organisms due to the land being left fallow.

Banditry and insecurity in Nigeria 

Banditry has triggered a wave of insecurity in Nigeria, although it is not the only cause. It appears to have originated in northwestern Nigeria and spread to other parts of the country, especially the north central region where rogue herdsmen are active. Bandits today are found in the southeast, southwest, south-south, and northeast. Researchers and security experts have yet to agree whether Boko Haram has shifted tactics to banditry, as some have suggested.[19] 

The history of armed banditry in the northwest predates modern colonial boundaries. In the late 18^th century, insecurity in the form of banditry and armed robbery obstructed commerce, following the collapse of Kebbi and Zamfara kingdoms. The jihad of 1804 and the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate brought relative peace and stability.^[20] Toward the twilight of the 19^th century, however, banditry reemerged, especially in the Sokoto Sultanate. Wars and raids from Zamfara and Kebbi into Sokoto led to the displacement of border communities (Sokoto, Kebbi, Gobir, Zamfara). This created vast uninhabited lands regarded as ungoverned spaces, which then-and still today-serves as hideouts for armed robbers, bandits, and outlaws.^[21] Colonial wars of conquest added to the insecurity in the early colonial era. Armed robbery and banditry resurged during the early decades of colonial rule in northwest Nigeria, especially in the Zamfara area, up to 1911 and beyond.^[22]

The colonial government eventually contained some of the armed banditry through local security arrangements and military force.^[23] However, at the beginning of the 21^st century (around 2011), cattle rustling and armed banditry surged again in northwest Nigeria, particularly in Zamfara state, while Boko Haram, which began 2009 in the northeast, continued to ravage its region and the entire country. Indeed, the contemporary insecurity in Nigeria, in the form of banditry, took root with cattle rustling in Zamfara, around 2011. The failure of authorities to act, allowed insecurity to engulf most parts of northern Nigeria, and eventually the whole country.^[24] This broadened the horizon of criminal acts- including kidnapping for ransom, rape, and murder of innocent citizens. 

This trans-border crime, though often associated with Fulani herders, has evidence of non-Fulani involvement as well. Sifawa argues that media and public perception have often misrepresented every act of bandit attack, armed robbery, or kidnapping as attacks by herdsmen.[25] In reality, not all banditry is perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen; internal and external collaborators may also play significant roles.

Factors responsible for the rise of banditry and insecurity in Nigeria include:

1. Ungoverned territories or spaces: Areas where criminal elements reside, plan, recruit, train and indoctrinate, and secure access to weapons and equipment;
2. Polticisation of security: secuitry issues being manpulated for political ends;
3. Porous broders: Easy cross-border movement of criminals;
4. Ethnic tensions: Conflicts among different groups;
5. Failed governance: Individual and group grievances due to broken promises , poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, discrimination, and injustice;
6. Economic marginalization: Lack of opportunities and wealth distribution;
7. Unresoloved  herdsmen- farmer conflicts;
8. Proliferations of Smalls Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs); and
9. Topography: Dense forests and reserves that provide hideouts.^[26]

Several major consequences have emerged over the years, including:

1.  Loss of lives and properties: Thousands have been killed , and property worth billions destroyed;
2. Displacement of communities: Many villages and towns have been evacuated or destroyed;
3. Decreased hunting for game: Hunters avoid the bush , greatly reducing hunting activities;
4. Increased wildlife populations: Wildlife flourish in the absence of hunting pressure; and
5. Ecosystem rejuvenation: Natural recovery of habitats due to reduced human interference. 

For example, from 2009 to 2017 over 50,000 cattle were lost to banditry and rustling.[27] In 2015 alone, well over 3,000 people from Zamfara communities became refugees fleeing the violence. In 2021, armed bandits killed over 2,600 civilians- an increase of more than 250 per over 2020. Since January 2022, over 250 persons have been killed. From 2011 to 2020, over 8, 000 people were killed by armed bandits (predominantly in Zamfara), and over 200,000 were internally displaced (60,000 fled into the neighbouring Niger Republic).[28] A 2024 report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) tragically indicated that 614,937 Nigerians were killed, and 2,200,000 were abducted by kidnappers in the past year, with 2.2 trillion Naira paid in ransom.[29] The number of victims indicated in the report is higher than the population of the following country: Lesotho (2,120,000); Slovenia (21,118,697); Latvia (1,871,871); Equatorial Guinea (1,669,000); Guinea Bissau (1,663,000); Estonia (1,360,546); Cyprus (1, 358,282); Mauritius (1,235,000); Djibouti (1,052,000); Comoros (860,600); Cape Verde (491,100); Sao Tome and Principe (228,300); Seychelles (105,000); Luxembourg (673,036); and Malta (539,607).[30]

Moreover, bandits have imposed levies on farmers before planting and before harvesting. Failure to meet these demands leads to crop destruction and mass killings of farmers and villagers. Bandits have effectively displaced traditional, peaceful herders, and now roam the countryside kidnapping, killing and maiming innocent people.[31] In this climate of insecurity, hunting for game across the country has become suicidal and extremely dangerous, as most forests and even bushy spaces are now occupied by bandits or terrorist groups.

Effects of Banditry and Insecurity on Wildlife Proliferation

To appreciate the effect of banditry and insecurity on wildlife proliferations, one must consider game hunting operations, because banditry and insecurity do not directly affect wildlife. In other words, the impact on wildlife is indirect, while hunting directly impacts wild animal populations. A review of the origins and early history of humankind reveals a progression from hunting and gathering of wild fruits to the domestication of animals and cultivation of plants as deliberate means of interacting with nature.[32] Three epochs are discernible in the history of game hunting in Nigeria: precolonial, colonial, and post-colonial.

Among the Dakarkari people of Kebbi (formerly part of Sokoto), hunting was regarded as a hereditary art, begun at an early age. It was both an economic activity and a part of traditional education. Implements used included the bow (Daraji) and arrow (Dullu).[33] Among the Yoruba, Ijala, is a hunter’s chant often recited as a funeral song when a hunter dies.[34] In precolonial Yobe, among the Bolewa, Ngamo and Kare-Kare peoples, hunters had a guild headed by a chief hunter and an assistant. Guild membership was hereditary, though a stranger could be accepted after one or two years on probation. These hunters used circular spiked traps to catch antelopes and giraffes.[35]

The principal game-hunting ethnic groups (Yoruba, Idoma, Igbo, Hausa, Tiv, Igala, Ekpe Efik and Ibibio and Ogori (Ogori Magongo) employed various techniques and the weapons mentioned above.[36] In traditional societies, when one heard gunshots, it meant game had been killed. Tragically, in the twenty first century, hearing gunshots implies that a human being has been killed by criminals. This raises a question: if one is not a game hunter, a vigilante, or security officer, why would they carry a gun, rifle, knife or axe? We are not are not like the United States, where civilians arms are legal and licensed. The answer highlights how deeply Nigeria is mired in insecurity. 

In the early colonial and early independence eras, herders- farmers co-existed peacefully. The Fulani herdsmen and farmers co-existed for a long time with only occasional misunderstandings (e.g., when animals strayed into fields). Such tensions were minor and usually amicably resolved. Due to peaceful co-existence and national security, by the 1920s cattle trade and other commercial activities expanded into Eastern Nigeria and beyond.[37] This underscores that there was little or no threat to national security or game hunting activities at the time. 

Interestingly, although European colonialism dealt a severe deadly blow to African traditions and cultures (including hunting) through westernization, and introduction of the cash-crop economy, game hunting has persisted. The traditional hunting practices of the Darakarkari, Bolewa, Ngamo, and Kare-Kare, are found among many Nigerian geo- ethnic communities, and hunting has remained integral to their economy and culture since the precolonial times. Among the people of north-central Nigeria, especially the Idoma, hunting is essential to annual festivals. Some wild meat used in festivals and rituals must come from the forest, and not from domesticated species. A bountiful hunting season is regarded as a supernatural blessing and favor from the Supreme Being.[38]

 From 1960 to 1999, Nigeria’s military-dominated political era coincided with a boom in game hunting, thanks to the improved security in forests. Anyone who dared challenge military would face maximum force. During this period, Forest Guards were established (1963) under the Federal Ministry of Environment to Nigeria’s 1,129 forests.[39] The Forest Guards in collaboration with other agencies, have recently been reported to focus on ridding the forests of terrorists and criminal elements. If successful, ensuring the safety of our forests would allow normal hunting activities and the wild meat trade to be fully restored and flourish.

Before the recent insecurity, areas like the Sambisa Forest and its environs- which are now dens of Boko-Haram terrorists were regularly visited by hunters seeking special catches.[40] The security of forests and bush during the military era greatly benefited hunting. During military rule, game meat from Maiduguri and the far north were common in markets across north central, northwest, southwest, southeast, and south-south, while those from the south were transported to other regions. The ease of hunting and transporting game, along with an abundance of wild meat, made prices affordable for consumers and retailers. Trucks and buses, fully loaded with dried wild meat, would travel through the night from Maiduguri and other northern towns to the north, central and south. On the return journey, they would carry products from the south to the far north, reflecting a kind of comparative advantage.[41]

The relatively secure and prosperous wild meat trade continued into the early years of Nigeria’s return to civil rule. Throughout Obasanjo’s tenure, conflict was limited to political assassinations rather than widespread threats to public security.[42] Thus, from 1999 to 2007, the security situation in the country was favorable for hunters, farmers, herders, and local communities. However, from 2009 onward-with the emergence of Boko-Haram in the northeast and the resurgence of banditry the northwest- the situation changed drastically. Before this era of intense insecurity, hunters would venture into the bush and forest alone or in groups, staying from morning till evening or even overnight, and returning with bags full of game. 

The casualties, carnage, and displacements caused by banditry and related threats have been enormous. Banditry and insecurity have effectively put hunters on indefinite leave. Many Nigerian hunters might say that the fear of bandits is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, the wisdom now means not entering the bush or forests to avoid being kidnapped or killed. The fact is that bandits, rogue herdsmen, and unknown gunmen occupy most bushland. Fear of being kidnapped or killed by the superior firepower of bandits has forced Nigerian hunters to take a de facto vacation. The inability of the government to address these challenges, despite military and police involvement, has led some hunters to solicit government support to clear forests of bandits, so they can return to their craft.[43] 

The consequences of reduced hunting due to banditry have been rapid wildlife proliferation. Hunters, traders, consumers, and observers attest that wildlife of various species have multiplied, often seen crossing roads, roaming freely in bush areas, and even venturing near human dwellings. Such frequent sightings of wildlife were not common during earlier periods of relative peace and security. The irony, however, is that despite wildlife abundance, wild meat prices remain high due to scarcity caused by insecurity. For example, one experienced hunter observes: 

Since we laid down our arms and weapons in recent years and stopped going into the bush and forests to hunt for game across on our diverse ecology, bush animals have multiplied dozens and even hundreds of times. We see them crossing roads, roaming the bush, and coming near homes. Yet, is very dangerous to enter any known hunting zone. The displacement from our homes and the occupation of our forests and bush by bandits have therefore, proven positive and favorable to bush animals. We hunters are missing our source of incomes and the sumptuous meals of wild meat.[44]

The above underscores the twofold effect of banditry and insecurity on game hunting: there has been an astronomical rise in wildlife populations, but livelihoods have been disrupted. Incomes from wild meat sales have dried up, affecting hunter’s families- some hunters relied on this income to send their children to school and pay other bills. Equally significant are the dietary implications. Wild meat contributes to the dietary balance for hunters, their families, and communities that consume it. A diverse diet- including wild meat—helps strengthen the immune system and ensures good health and sleep. 

Ecosystem Rejuvenation and Biodiversity Conservation 

The sharp decline in game hunting has not only led to wildlife proliferation, but also significantly to ecosystem rejuvenation. This natural replenishment has potential benefits for conservation and sustainable development. Recall that hunting and related human activities place great pressure on ecosystems, hindering or slowing down interactions among organisms and the physical environment. Hunting for game, human intrusion, bush burning, and indiscriminate tree felling all affect plant and animal life, soil, water, air, and other organisms. Fadare, emphasizes this:

Hunting activity depletes and dislodges the food chain in the ecosystem and has been responsible for the extinction of much wildlife.[45]

Orngu, likewise notes:

Most of the global system is committed to the preservation of wildlife and aquatic life. Hunting is gradually becoming a security threat to the survival of wildlife and aquatic species generally.[46]

Nigerian bushes and forests, taken over by bandits and criminals, have inadvertently allowed ecosystems to flourish. Banditry has reduced hunting activity. Orngu’s point underlines the fact that while hunting threatens wildlife and ecosystems, banditry also poses a threat to hunting itself. 

Conclusion

This essay has established the nexus between banditry, insecurity, and ecosystem renewal. The history, causes, and consequences of banditry and insecurity and their impact on the Nigerian environment have been explored. The paper notes that hunting in Nigeria dates to the origins of humankind and has evolved over the centuries. As an essential aspect of economic and social life and culture, Nigerian hunters have remained part of the narrative of human progression across time and space. The paper further observes that, just as other aspects of human endeavor have been affected by banditry activity and insecurity, so too has game hunting. However, it is argued that despite the presumed negative nature of banditry and insecurity, they have had some unintended benefits for the ecosystem: there has been an astronomical rise in the wildlife populations and ecosystem rejuvenation occasioned by the reduced pressure on the environment from hunters.

In sum, sustainable development and environmental conservation in Nigeria depend on policymakers and practitioners understanding the complex intersections among human security, wildlife conservation, and ecosystem health.

[47]

[1] O.O.Okpeh Jr., "Post-Civil War Reconstruction of Nigeria and Liberia" in War and Peace in Africa. T. Falola and R.C. Njoku (eds), Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2010, P. 325.

[2] M F. Usman and G O. Odeh, “ Implications of Contemporary Armed Banditry and Cattle Rustling on Intergroup Relations in Zamfara State” in Satiru International Journal of Peace and Security Studies- A Journal of the Dept. of History, Sokoto State University, ((1)2,2020, p. 141. 

[3] M F. Usman and G O. Odeh, “Implications of Contemporary Armed Banditry and Cattle Rustling on Intergroup Relations in Zamfara State” in Satiru International Journal of Peace and Security Studies,p. 141. Read also, A A. Sifawa, “The History of Violence: Banditry, Terrorism and Political Violence and Its Implication on National Cohesion” in G O.Odeh, E J. Ighodalo, C N. Chibueze (eds), Nigerian History and Development: Gedenkschrift in Honour of Paschal Francis Nwosu, PhD. Lagos and London: Bahiti & Dalila Publishers, 2024.

[4] M F. Usman and G O. Odeh, “Implications of Contemporary Armed Banditry and Cattle Rustling on Intergroup Relations in Zamfara State”. 

[5] E U. Olowu, G O.Odeh and A A.Sifawa, Terrorism and Insecurity in Nigeria: A Historical Criminology Analysis, Lagos and London: Bahiti & Dalila Publishers, 2022, pp.1-2. Read also, A A. Williams, W T. Adetayo s and O T. Abigail, “ Poetry as Tool for Promoting National Integration and Security: A Case Study of the Poem of Oladele Sangotoye “ Etutu Isokan” in S I. Odinye (ed.), Interdisciplinary Journal of African and Asian Studies , 1 (2), 2016.

[6] I. Atagher, “Democracy and Instability in Nigeria: Implications for National Security, Integration and Unity” in FASS (BSU) Journal of Faculty Arts Seminar Series, (2) 2004, 20. 

[7] B G. Aji, “Youth and National Development" in Constructive Engagement on National Security on the theme: Youth Empowerment and National Security: Options for Nigeria,(1),6. G.O. Olankewaju (eds). Journal Publication of Alumni Association of National Defence College (AANDEC/NDC), Abuja: National Defence College, 2014, XIX.

[8] Idoma, is of course the language and tribe of the author, who also participated in some hunting activities in his tender years.

[9] Interaction with Dr. Murtala Marafa, HOD, History and International Studies Sokoto State University, Sokoto.

[10] Interaction with Associate Professor C S.Orngu, a seasoned scholars with the Department of History, Benue State University, Makurdi (now, Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu University), Makurdi).

[11] Interaction with Dr. Fadare Nureni, who lectures in the Department English and Linguistics, Sokoto State University, Sokoto. He is currently on secondnment to Ladoke Akintola University of Science and Technology, Ogbomoso Oyo State.

[12] Interaction with Professor Dan O.Chukwu, Department of History and International Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. 

[13] E. Una, c. 70 years , Retired Soldier, and former head of hunters in Odaubi, Ugboju, Otukpo LGA, Benue State, Interviewed at Odaubi on 5^th , February, 2025. A. Ohagwu, c.70 years, former head of hunters, in Odaubi, Interviewed at Odaubi on 4^th, February, 2025. 

[14] Y. I. Onumiya, c. 44 years, ThisDay Correspondent, Sokoto, interviewed in Sokoto Metropolis on 24^th June, 2025.

[15] A. Ogbole, c.53 years; Veteran Hunter; Interviewed at Otukpo town, Benue State.

[16] A. Ogbole, Interview.

[17] A O. Edem, c.38 years, Agriculturist and house wife; Interviewed at Farfaru, Sokoto, on 26^th June, 2025.

[18] C Enuka, International Environmental Relations, Awka: Giniks Publishers, 2019, pp.59-62.

[19] Anonymous, Security Agent; Interviewed on 24^th March, 2025 at Gawonama Sokoto, Sokoto State. 

[20] See, A A. Sifawa, “The History of Violence: Banditry, Terrorism and Political Violence and Its Implication on National Cohesion” in G O.Odeh, E J. Ighodalo, C N. Chibueze (eds), Nigerian History and Development: Gedenkschrift in Honour of Paschal Francis Nwosu ,PhD. Lagos and London: Bahiti & Dalila Publishers, 2024.

[21] Sifawa, A. A.‘’The nature of Pre-colonial economy of Hausaland and Borno: Subsistence Economy Thesis Revisited’’, International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 2015, volume 08, no.1, pp. 610-611. For ungoverned spaces and its implications on insecurity in Nigeria , read, C M. Tella, E. Bulama and G O.Odeh, “Governance in the Ungoverned Northeast of the Sahel Region” The Military, State, Society and Security in Nigeria: Essays in Honour of Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, CFR (RTD). A A. Sifawa, G O.Odeh and M. Marafa (eds). Ahmadu Bello University Press, 2023.

[22] Rufa’I, M. A. “I am a Bandit”: A Decade of Research in Zamfara Bandit’s Den, A University Seminar Lecture under the Chairmanship of Professor Lawal Suleiman Bilbis, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Thursday 9^th September, 2021,pp.. 7-8.

[23] Sifawa, A. A. “The Role of Traditional Rulers in Addressing Security challenges: Reflections on Native Authority System in Colonial Sokoto, 2020, Vol. 8, No. 9, pp.510 – 524.

[24] Rufa’I, M. A. “I am a Bandit”: A Decade of Research in Zamfara Bandit’s Den …

[25] A A. Sifawa, “The History of Violence: Banditry, Terrorism and Political Violence and Its Implication on National Cohesion” …

[26] G O.Odeh, “Threats to Nigeria’s National Security in the 21^st Century: A Reconsideration”. Being the text of the paper presented at the 2nd International Research and Development Conference, held at the Kampala International University, Kampala (KIU), Uganda, from 14to 19 October, 2024, pp.12-14. O G. Uwa and G O.Odeh, “ Border Issues: Transnational Security Challenges in Nigeria” in Satiru International Journal of Peace and Security Studies- A Biannual publication of the Department of History, Sokoto State University, Nigeria (1)2,2020, 1-23. C M. Tella, E. Bulama and G O.Odeh, “Governance in the Ungoverned Northeast of the Sahel Region” The Military, State, Society and Security in Nigeria: Essays in Honour of Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya, CFR (RTD). A A. Sifawa, G O.Odeh and M. Marafa (eds). Ahmadu Bello University Press, 2023. R M. Olapeju and A O. Peter, The Impact of Banditry on Nigeria’s Security in the Fourth Republic: An Evaluation of Nigeria’s northwest. M A.Rufa’I “I am a Bandit”: A Decade of Research in Zamfara Bandit’s, pp.19-21. .S. Umar, The discourses of Salafi radicalism and Salafi counter-radicalism in Nigeria: A case study of Boko Haram. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, 2011, p. 156. E U. Olowu, G O.Odeh and A A.Sifawa, Terrorism and Insecurity in Nigeria: A Historical Criminology Analysis, Lagos and London: Bahiti & Dalila Publishers, 2022. E U.Olowu, G O.Odeh & O D.Ike, “Some Consequences of Terrorism and Insecurity in Nigeria” in Rima International Journal of Historical Studies 4 (1) 2019.

[27] A N. Liman and A S.Anka, “Failure of Conventional Security Measures in Management of Zamfara Un-ending conflict: The need for Review of State Socio-economic Policies”, in International Journal of recent Innovations in academic Research, (3)3, 2019, www.ijriar.com

[28] G O.Odeh, “Threats to Nigeria’s National Security in the 21^st Century: A Reconsideration”. Being the text of the paper presented at the 2nd International Research and Development Conference, held at the Kampala International University, Kampala (KIU), Uganda, from 14to 19 October, 2024, pp.12-14. 

[29] See front cover /cover page of Daily Trust Newspaper, Wednesday, 18 December, 2024. 

[30] See Daily Trust Newspaper, Wednesday 18 December, 2024.

[31] G O. Odeh, “The Resurgence of Atrocities of Killer Herdsmen in Benue State: What went wrong?” inThe Authority, 18 June, 2025, https://authorityngr.com.

[32] W. Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Nigeria: Panaf Press, 2009, p.3.

[33]NAK, Min. Prof. Dakarkari Tribe Anthropological Notes.

[34] Interaction with Dr. Fadare Nureni, a Yoruba man, who lectures in the Department English and Linguistics, Sokoto State University, Sokoto.

[35]”NAK, Ethnographic Notes on tribes in Bauchi Provinces”, K1119, 10. 

[36] Read E.O. Erim: The Idoma Nationality, 1600-1900: Problems in Studying the Origins and Development of Ethnicity, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1981.

[37] See, M H. Nyako, “ A Memo on General Insecurity in the North-East Political Zone of Nigeria, 3^rd Appril ,2011” in G O.Odeh (ed), Interrogating the PDP and the Rise of APC: Issues in the Selected Speeches of Murtala Hamman-Yero Nyako, Makurdi: Gwatex publishers, 2018.

[38] Pa. Odeh Adehi, c. 115 years, the eldest man and farmer; Interviewed at Odaubi Ugboju, Otukpo LGA, Benue State on 1^st January, 2022. He has severally shared his hunting experiences with the author on how he helped the Late Mr. Abutu Ajo, of Odaubi Ola Agwu, to killed a glasscutter (Thryonomys Swinderianus-greater cane rats) ,which appeared to be beyond the strength of the young man then. In his youthful age, Mr. Odeh Adehi, was extremely skillful in shooting bow and arrow, and hardly miss target even from a distant.

[39] G. Jagindi, “Securing Nigeria’s Forests: Beware of Scams , Forest Guards Initiative Different from Proposed Nigerian Forest and Security Initiative” , 24 June, 2025.Public Affairs Analyst and Digital Media Publisher, Abuja, via, jagindi2016@gmail.com

[40] Conversation with Professor C M. Tella, Department of Public Administration, University of Maiduguri, 26 June, 2025.

[41] R. O. Ogenyi, c.56 years, Business woman (Food stuff seller); Interviewed at Masaka Nasarawa State. She resides and sells in Maiduguri for several years before relocation to Masaka State. 

[42] G O.Odeh, “Historicizing National Elections and Their Implications on National Integration and Security in Contemporary Nigerian State: A Centenary Discourse” in International Journal of Art and Social Sciences, (8) 4, 2015, http://www.universitypublications.net/ijas/0804/index.html.,471-482.

[43] U. Ismaeel, O M. Lawal and G. Isenyo, “Banditry: Hunters Seeks FG Backing for physical and spiritual Warfare” in Punch, 26 April, 2025, https://punchng.com/banditry.. 

[44] Anonymous, c.48 years, Veteran Hunter from one of the most famous hunting tribes in Nigeria; Interviewed in Masaka, Nasarawa State.

[45] Fadare Nureni; Interview.

[46] Interaction with Associate Professor C S.Orngu, a seasoned scholars with the Department of History, Benue State University.

Black Leadership in the Making of Jamaican Reggae Artists, 1962-1987

Bernard Steiner Ifekwe, Ph.D
Department of History and International Studies
University of Uyo, Uyo
Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Introduction 

The Rastafarians are a politico-religious group which grew from the deprived areas of Kingston, Jamaica. The use of Reggae music to propagate their doctrines and political beliefs exemplified a new approach to Pan-Africanism through music. By the 1970s, many of these Reggae artists embarked on global tours which informed world opinion of a new social movement embedded in Black consciousness. This essay analyses this development from 1962, at the time of Jamaica’s independence, to 1987, when Peter Tosh, a major exponent of Jamaican cultural history was assassinated.¹

A major point of intersection between Black leadership and the Jamaican Reggae artists was in protest movements. Protest movements had dominated the landscapes of Black peoples in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States against slavery, racism, colonialism, discrimination and underdevelopment over the years.² With divergent ideologies at the core of these movements, many Black leaders propagated their ideas and strategies for the liberation of the Black race reeking from poverty and underdevelopment. From such trajectories, Reggae music developed in Jamaica where its artists graphically cast their lyrics to reflect the thoughts and activities of Black leaders who preceded them at different times and climes.

Among these Black leaders were intellectuals, activists, political leaders and millenarian advocates such as Edward Blyden, Sylvester Williams, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, Leonard Howell, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, Walter Rodney and many others. Theirs was a world of domination by White people and racism, discrimination, and other political and social vices. While participating at different fora, these Black leaders pursued their ideas for Black liberation. Their emergence within the twentieth century was of immense benefit to the Jamaican Reggae musicians whose compositions and exclusive tunes reflected the quest for Black identity. The thesis of this essay is that though these Black leaders and Jamaican Reggae artists lived at different times within the twentieth century, their ideas became a cohesive force in the making of social and political history of Africa and African Diaspora at the twilight of the twentieth century.

How the Path Began

The Black leadership which emerged at the turn of the twentieth century exerted much energy in the search for Black Identity. Their major activities were book publishing, lectures, radical journalism, conferences on Pan-Africanism, among others. They left much influence on Black protest thought, globally.³

Over the years, Black leaders had undertaken many strategies.⁴ By the twentieth century, these Black leaders from Africa and African Diaspora clamoured for unity between Africans in the homeland, and their descendants in the Diaspora. By doing so, they implicitly influenced many Jamaican Reggae artists who borrowed extensively from their ideas and wrote their lyrics to reflect the Black experience globally since the Atlantic Slave Trade.⁵ These Black leaders were mostly of radical orientation.⁶ Their activities influenced the methodology of Reggae music. Their stand on Pan-Africanism invariably was expressed by these Jamaican artists who used parts of their compositions as a reflection of Pan-African ideas.⁷ Olisanwuche Esedebe, the Nigerian historian defines Pan-Africanism as a:

…phenomenon which regards Africa, Africans and African descendants abroad as a unit. It aims at the regeneration and unification of Africa and the promotion of a feeling of solidarity among the people of the African world. It glorifies the African past and inculcates pride in African values.⁸

Against the above related developments, a cursory look at Edward Blyden as one of these Black leaders, reveals his role in Pan-African consciousness and implicitly on African liberation which the Jamaican Reggae artists equally expressed. Blyden was a Liberian nationalist, missionary and diplomat, who was described as “The First African Personality,” for his commitment in tackling “the problem of the identity of the African.”⁹ In this context, writes Robert W. July:

Blyden lived through an age when the African continent was not only being subjected increasingly to military conquest and political control but the African people were being told that they were basically inferior racially and culturally, and consequently their subservient position was natural and proper.¹⁰

Blyden’s writings and speeches debunked this belief and, with historical evidence, contributed much to the understanding of Africa’s social and political history.¹¹ He was called the “Father of Pan-Africanism.”¹²During Blyden’s lifetime, Pan-African Congresses began to articulate the plight of Black people globally. During the 1900 Congress for instance, sponsored by Henry Sylvester Williams, from Trinidad, the Congress protested against racism in the Caribbean and the United States. Equally discussed in the same Congress were colonial policies in South Africa and Rhodesia which were found reprehensible.¹² W. E. B. Du Bois’s prophetic statement that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour line”¹³ was made at that 1900 Congress. That statement became an integral philosophy of the Pan-African movement thereafter. W. E. B. Du Bois was a leading figure in Pan-African politics until his death in Ghana in 1963.¹⁴ As a citizen of the United States, Du Bois authored many books on the Atlantic Slave Trade, African history and Pan-Africanism. He was also a professor in many institutions in his country. He played active roles in the formation of Black Organisations such as the Niagara Movement, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples (NAACP), and edited its periodical, The Crisis for many years.¹⁵ He insisted that race relations in the United States, and its effect on Blacks had led to what he called the “double consciousness of the African-American” i.e. of one being an African and at the same time an American.¹⁶ His pursuit of radical ideas as a leeway to his Pan-African politics pushed him to embrace socialist ideology in his capitalist country, the United States. This radical leaning led to his persistent altercation with his country until he migrated to Ghana under the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah.¹⁷ In later years, Jamaican Reggae artists reflected some of Du Bois’s thoughts and activities in their music.

The Jamaican nationalist Marcus Garvey, was perhaps the greatest inspirer of these Jamaican Reggae artists through his political agitation, propaganda network and economic activities. In 1914, Garvey formed a Black organisation called the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and moved it to Harlem, the United States in 1916. After much difficulties in the United States which culminated in his deportation to Jamaica, Garvey between the 1920s and 1930s, devoted himself to tackling the Black predicament in Jamaica. Throughout this period, for instance, as a result of chronic poverty in this island nation, many rural inhabitants of Jamaica migrated to the urban areas and settled in underserved areas. Many of these migrants participated in Garvey’s UNIA programs and were inspired by his “Back-To-Africa Movement.” During one of his sessions in 1927, Garvey told his listeners about the coronation of a Black King in Africa who would deliver all Blacks globally from their bondage. When in 1930 Ras Tafari Makonnen, a Prince of Ethiopia, was crowned as Emperor Haile Selassie I, those Black Jamaicans concluded that this king was a deity. Consequently they formed a politico-religious movement called Rastafarianism and began to venerate this monarch.¹⁸ Rastafarianism became a syncretic religion which used the Old Testament of the Bible as a sacred text in conjunction with African traditional practises as modes of worship. A notable figure called Leonard Howell became its first “missionary”. During their “religious worships” they played African drums and asserted their African identity. The use of African traditional musical styles by the Jamaican Reggae artists began from this process.¹⁹

The independence of African nations particularly in the 1960s, and the radical roles played by the likes of Kwame Nkrumah strengthened Black leadership globally. As the President of Ghana, Nkrumah through book publishing, and conferences became an eminent Pan-African personality until he was ousted from power in 1966. Thereafter, other names such as Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, Jesse Jackson, among others, featured prominently in the alliance between Africans and their descendants in the Diaspora. In 1965, when Stokely Carmichael arrived in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in his Pan-African pursuit, he posed for the press and lifted a rifle high which signified his support for armed struggle in Southern Africa.²⁰ In 1968, Carmichael arrived in Conakry Guinea. He studied Kwame Nkrumah’s principles of Pan-Africanism and armed struggle. By then, Nkrumah’s book, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, which he dedicated “to the African guerrilla”, had examined post-colonial policies in Africa, neo-colonialism and racism in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and supported armed struggle for Black liberation globally.²¹

When the ideas of Pan-Africanism had permeated the global community from the activities of these Black leaders, another Black leader, much younger, emerged in the 1960s. His name was Walter Rodney, a Marxist university lecturer, and activist who was Guyanese. Rodney taught history at the University of West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica in 1963, from where he had a vintage view of the Rastafarians. These religious groups lived in underserved environments where their forebears settled after the internal migration of the 1930s. Successive governments, both colonial and post-colonial in Jamaica, hated these Rastafarians and raided their environments with a view to extirpate them but the group survived and remained resolute in its religious proclivity and political inclination and helped in the global spread of Reggae music.

As a Marxist scholar and activist, Rodney visited these underserved, deprived areas where he interacted with them and in a book he reflected on this encounter. According to him:

Those of you who come from Jamaica know those gully corners. They are dark, dismal places with a black population who have had to seek refuge there. You will have to go there if you want to talk to them. I have spoken in what people call “dungle”, rubbish dumps for that is where people live in Jamaica. People live in rubbish dumps. That is where the Government puts the people to live. Indeed, the Government does not even want them to live in rubbish dumps. I do not know where they want them to go because they bulldoze them off the rubbish dumps and send them God knows where. I have sat on a little oil drum, rusty and in the midst of garbage, and some Black Brothers and I have grounded together. Now obviously, this, first of all, must have puzzled the Jamaican Government. I must be mad, surely, a man we are giving a job, we are giving status, what is he doing with these guys…. What is he doing with them? So they are puzzled and then obviously after that suspicion, he must be up for something,…²³

Rodney became a voice of protest in Jamaica and inculcated the spirit of African resistance to these Jamaican Rastafarians. Since the post-colonial government in Jamaica hated them for their “weird” outlook and marijuana consumption, Walter Rodney became a major voice in their informal studies in Pan-Africanism. According to Rodney, after his meeting with them:

… we spoke about a lot of things and it was just the talking that was important, the meeting of black people. I was trying to contribute something. I was trying to contribute my experience in travelling, in reading, my analysis, and I was also gaining…[From these interactions].²⁴

Under such a setting, observes Horace Campbell, Rodney taught these Rastafarians, “his experiences of the black movement”, in Africa which enabled “them to understand “African and Ethiopian history”, as well as the various resistance movements against colonial rule in Africa. Rodney’s intervention “stressed that the black intellectuals must attach themselves to the black masses, in order to practice their craft later as Reggae artists within the twentieth century.”²⁵ 

Jamaican Black Artists and Reggae Music

Reggae music at its prime became a cultural variant of the Blackman’s search for his identity and a recourse to Pan-Africanism through music. Its importance is aptly explained by Ken Pryce:

Reggae is an urbanised form of West Indian pop music which comes direct from the slums of Kingston, Jamaica… Reggae is a music of protest and owes its existence to the abject condition of the poor in Jamaica and to the changing moods of people in the immediate post-independence period, when the music quickly established itself as a popular form of artistic-expression among the masses. Culturally, reggae erupted out of the syncretic Afro-Christian subsoil, which has the traditional basis of Negro culture in Jamaica. This subsoil consists of such elements as Bedwardism, revivalism, Pentecostalism and Garveyism.²⁵

The music grew from the ghetto environment where the Black artists had lived since their forebears had settled there following the internal migration within Jamaica in the 1930s. It was an experiment in self-abnegation among the Black populace against the racism and discrimination which pervaded the society before Jamaican independence in 1962. Consequently, from the lyrics of the music, and the statements and activities of the Black Reggae musicians, a new history was born which emphasised Pan-Africanism.

When Jamaica became independent in 1962, there were many of these Reggae artists and groups who included Max Romeo, Jimmy Cliff, Mutabaruka, I-Roy, U-Roy, Sly Dunbar, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Jacob Miller, and many more. Their groups included Mighty Diamonds 90⁰ Inclusive, The Revolutionaries, The Abyssinians, Black Uhuru, among others. Many graphics on their record albums, and their lyrical contents, had, in most cases, displayed their worldview on the Atlantic Slave Trade, racism, discrimination, colonialism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, and underdevelopment.²⁷ In so doing, they gravitated this musical genre along Pan-Africanism which was akin to the views and activities of Black leadership which preceded them. At the core of the activities of the Black leadership was the use of history as an ideological weapon against the plight of the Black populace. As James Turner explains:

Many Afro-Americans seem to realize that to deny black men a place in history was a means of keeping them down. They seem to construct a new understanding of the African past and to relate this history to Africa of the present. In so doing, they hope to erase the stigma of race.²⁸

Jamaica at independence, still grappled with problems of pluralism and inequality. As a country with a dynamic poor Black population who were ensconced within underserved environments a deplorable state, they turned their plights into a symbol of resistance through creativity in a musical form.²⁹ During these developments, a new variant of Pan-Africanism was globally expressed. In this historical journey, Chris Blackwell, who mentored these Black artists to prominence wrote thus:

I was very fortunate to connect with… [these] great individuals along the way: songwriters, artists, designers, producers, film-makers, recording engineers, video directors and many, many talented people who proudly worked at Island [Records] over the years to introduce and promote their work.³⁰

The above developments understandably contributed immensely to the global expansion of Reggae music with its philosophy of liberation, Pan-Africanism and Rastafarianism. Many of the Jamaican Reggae artists from then made extensive tours where their lyrics, press statements and views expressed the sentiments of the Black leadership who lived before them.

Between the 1970s and 1980s, decolonization movements in Africa had taken a cold war rhetoric where ideology and armed struggle had taken a dangerous stage. Reggae musicians joined in the fray by providing guerrilla fighters in Africa with lyrics which boosted their morale as combatants. Bob Marley’s classic “Zimbabwe” in the album Survival, was a link between Reggae music and decolonisation in Zimbabwe. Peter Tosh’s album, Bush Doctor, with its track, “Fight On”, showed a link between decolonisation and armed struggle.

Against the above related developments, Bob Marley in 1979 arrived in the United States to promote his album Survival. Arriving at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, he was struck by a statement made by W. E. B. Du Bois many years ago. The statement reads that “If the young Black American is going to survive and live a life, he must face the fact that however much he is an American, there are interests which draw him nearer to the dark people outside America than to his fellow citizens.”³¹

This statement aptly epitomises the message of these Jamaican Reggae artists including Bob Marley. By engaging in such global tours, these Reggae artists reiterated the messages the Black leadership provided through Pan-African Congresses, and reinforced them in their music. From Du Bois to other Black leaders, the spread of Black history with multiple themes emerged. For instance, Marcus Garvey and Walter Rodney added another dimension to this theme through the identification of Christianity as a major ideological weapon in the mental colonisation of the Black peoples.³² Thereafter through the compositions in Reggae music and the display of their portraits of Haile Selassie I as JAH Rastafari, and god of Africa, a variant of religion was created. Moreover, many of these Jamaican artists quoted extensively the works of Nkrumah, Rodney and Garvey in their lyrics. Others paid tributes to these Black leaders by writing songs which gravitated between the events in Africa and African Diaspora. Many of these Rastafarians and the Reggae artists echoed the names of these Black leaders as a defiant to the old order. In 1968, for instance, Walter Rodney was banned from re-entry into Jamaica as a University lecturer by the government of Hugh Shearer for teaching these Rastafarians African history. According to John Masouri:

When his students heard what happened to Rodney, they began demonstrating at the University gates…. Rodney’s teachings had made a great deal to them. They saw him as a symbol of resistance who stood up for what he believed in….

As the news of the students’ protest spread, full-scale riots broke out in other parts of Kingston, where buildings were torched and shops looted in an orgy of lawlessness…. The riots would last all day and well in the evening…. Three people were said to have died, and over £1 million worth of property had been damaged or destroyed.³³

The above incident, however, described a potent force of historical consciousness where the image of Walter Rodney loomed large. He was among the new generation of Black leadership in touch with intellectuals, activists, and Jamaican Reggae artists. Consequently, during their live concerts, these Reggae artists hung some of the portraits of these sages at the background as signs of tributes for their contributions to Black liberation. To this end, the impact of these Reggae artists to Black culture was instantaneous.³⁴ These events compelled Don Letts, a music critic, to aptly described Jamaica as “one island that has culturally colonised the world.”³⁵

The above analysis is significant for exploring the link between the ideas of Black leadership in the making of Jamaican Reggae artists. Through their concerted efforts in Pan-Africanism from 1900 to 1945, and other outlets which they used in spreading Blackman’s redemption, their Jamaican counterparts, mostly of lowly backgrounds, maintained that Pan-African philosophy by creating a cultural motif called Reggae. In 1962, Jamaica became independent and in 1987, Peter Tosh, a major Jamaican Reggae artist died. This period of research, therefore, witnessed a resurgence of Pan-Africanism from the context of Reggae music which Mike Alleyne described as “The Golden Age of Roots Reggae”.³⁶

Conclusion

This essay is an exemplification of the importance of Black leadership from Africa, the Caribbean and the United States in creating a major historical movement called Reggae music. Between 1900 and 1945, when they used the instrument or Pan-Africanism to drive Black redemption globally, their sentiments drove similar movements in Jamaica during the latter part of the twentieth century. 

Pan-Africanism as demonstrated by these Black leaders echoed much sentiments in the Black predicament since the end of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Through their Pan-African Congresses, publications, statements and other fora, their communique were platforms of protest where they advocated for race equality. Pan-African movement was a nexus to the protest which the Jamaican Reggae artists projected throughout their active years.

Against this background, it is to be noted that though these Black leaders and Jamaican Reggae artists lived at different times, their importance in this historical discourse is still resonating in African and African Diaspora histories even till today.

Notes

¹For details, see Martin Huisman, The Reggae Nation: The Global Legacy of Bob Marley and the Wailers (Steenwijk: Printsupport4U BV, 2021), 28-29; Christ Salewicz, Rude Boy: Once Upon a time in Jamaica (London: Victor Gollancz, 2000), 139-159; Horace Campbell, “Rastafari: Culture of Resistance,” Race and Class: A Journal for Black and Third World Liberation, Volume XXII, Number 1, Summer 1980; Mike Alleyne, The Encyclopedia of Reggae: The Golden Age of Roots Reggae (New York: Sterling, 2012); John Masouri, Steppin’ Razor: The Life of Peter Tosh (London: Omnibus Press, 2013).

²See Robert I. Rotberg and Ali A. Mazrui “Introduction”, in Robert I. Rotberg and Ali A. Mazrui (eds) Protest and Power in Black Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), xvii-xviii; August Meier, Negro Thought in America, 1800-1950(Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1988), 69-82; August Meier, Elliot Rudwick and Francis L. Broderick, Black Protest Thought in the Twentieth Century (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Educational Publishing, 1978), 3-74; Kwame Nkrumah, The Struggle Continues (London: Panaf, 2006), 5-8; James A. Michener, Caribbean (London: Mandarin, 1991), 743-807.

³For details, see W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Connecticut: Fawcett, 1961); Jacques Maquet, Africanity: The Cultural Unity of Black Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1975); W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, The World and Africa: An Inquiry into the Part which Africa has played in World History, (New York: International Publishers, 1980); Bill V. Mullen, W. B. B. Du Bois: Revolutionary Across the Color Line (London: Pluto Press, 2016); Francis A. Botchway, Political Development and Social Change in Ghana: Ghana under Nkrumah (New York: Black Academy Press, 1972); W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, The Negro (London: Oxford University Press, 1972); Amy Jacques Garvey (ed), The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, 2 Volumes (Dover: The Majority Press, 1986); Amy Jacques Garvey and E. U. Essien-Udom (eds), More Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, (Volume 3) (London: Routledge, 2010); Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah (New York: International Publishers, 1976); Walter Rodney, The Groundings with my Brothers (London: Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, 1983).

⁴See Howard Brotz (ed), Negro Social and Political Thought, 1850-1920: Representative Texts (New York: Basic Books, 1966).

⁵See Chinweizu, The West and the Rest of Us (London: Nok Publishers, 1978); Robert W. July, The Origins of Modern African Thought (London: Faber and Faber, 1968); Suzette Newman and Chris Salewicz (eds), Keep on Running: the Story of Island Records (London: Universal-Island Records, 2009).

⁶Cited in E. H. Carr, What is History? Second edition (London: Penguin, 1990), 11.

⁷See Bernard Steiner Ifekwe, “Rastafarianism in Jamaica as a Pan-African Protest Movement”, Yakubu A. Ochefu (ed), Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Volume 17, 2007/2008, 106-122; Bernard Steiner Ifekwe, “Reggae Music in Jamaica as a Form of Resistance, 1960-1987”, Ako Essien-Eyo (ed), Ndunode: Calabar Journal of Humanities, Volume 6, Number 1, January, 2005, 108-123.

⁸P. Olisanwuche Esedebe (ed), “Pan-Africanism: Origins and Meaning”, in Tarik: Volume 6, Number 3, 1980, 14.

⁹July, The Origins of Modern African Thought, 208.

¹⁰Ibid, 212.

¹¹ See Edward W. Byden “The Negro in Ancient History” in H. M. Schieffelin (ed), The People of Africa (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1974), 1-34.

¹²Colin Legum, Pan-Africanism: A Short Political Guide (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965), 25.

¹³ Cited in ibid.

¹⁴See Mullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, 57-151.

¹⁵See Kate Tuttle, “Du Bois, William Edward Burghadt”, in Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr, (eds), Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 635.

¹⁶See Du Bois, The Soul of Black Folk, 16-17.

¹⁷Mullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, 136-151.

¹⁸See Horace Campbell, “Garveyism, Pan-Africanism and African Liberation in the Twentieth Century”, in Rupert Lewis and Patrick Bryan (eds), Garvey: His Work and Impact (Trenton: Africa World Press, 1991), 167-188; Tony Martin, Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Dover: The Majority Press, 1986), 360.

¹⁹For details, see Helene Lee, The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2003); Chris Potash (ed), Reggae, Rasta, Revolution: Jamaican Music from Ska to Dub (London: Book with Attitude, 1997).

²⁰Walter Rodney “Southern Africa and Liberation Support in Afro-America and the West Indies”, Paper presented at a Conference on the Socio-economic Trends and Policies in Southern Africa, Dar-es-salaam, November 27-December 7,1975. MSS. This writer is grateful to David Johnson, from Trinidad and Tobago, for a copy of this paper as his lecturer at the University of Calabar, Nigeria.

²¹See Kibibi Mack-Williams “Carmichael, Stokely”, in Michael W. Williams (ed), The African American Encyclopedia, Volume I (New York: marshal Cavendish, 1993), 274-276; Kwame Nkrumah, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare (London: Panaf Books, 1974), 24-41.

²²See Lee, The First Rasta, 189-219.

²³See Rodney, The Groundings with my Brothers, 64.

²⁴Ibid.

²⁵Campbell, “Rastafari: Culture of Resistance”, 15.

²⁶See Ken Pryce “Black identity and the role of Reggae”, in David Potter et al (eds), Society and the Social Sciences: An Introduction (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981), 126.

²⁷Bernard Steiner Ifekwe, “The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Making of Jamaican Cultural History, 1914-1987”. MSS.

²⁸See James Turner “Afro-American Perspectives”, in John N. Paden and Edward W. Soja (eds), The African American Experience, Volume I: Essays (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1970), 594.

²⁹See Bernard Steiner Ifekwe “Black Creativity in Jamaica and Its Global Influences, 1930-1987”, in Abimbola Adelakun and Toyin Falola (eds) Arts, Creativity and Politics in Africa and the Diaspora (Gewerbestrasse: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 247-265.

³⁰See Blackwell, “Introduction” in Newman and Salewicz (eds), Keep on Running, 4.

³¹Cited in Stephen Davis, Bob Marley: the Definitive Biography of Reggae’s Greatest Star (London: Granada, 1985), 291.

³²See Martin, Race First, 67-80; Rodney, The Groundings, 33.

³³John Masouri, Steppin' Razor, 63-65.

³⁴For details, see Timothy White, Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley (London: Omnibus Press, 1991).

³⁵Cited in Salewicz, Rudeboy, 1.

³⁶See Alleyne, The Encyclopedia of Reggae for details.

Dining and Dancing in the Presence of Stolen Gods and Looted Artefacts in the British Museum

Kwame Opoku*

The British Museum has announced that it will be holding a charity ball on 18 October 2025 to collect funds to further, inter alia, its international partnerships:

Internationally, we are following the same approach of deep partnerships. There have been some extraordinary successes- but this is something I am determined to do more of in order to ensure we are living up to our ambition to make the British Museum collection the most accessible and most shared in the world. We are proud of our pioneering partnerships, from the Kumasi Palace in Ghana to the History Museum of Armenia, and the historic cultural exchange next year of the Bayeux Tapestry, which mean that some of our greatest treasures from Sutton Hoo will be seen by brand-new audiences in museums in Normandy.’(1)

The Manhyia Palace is called here simply Kumasi Palace, showing little concern for the significance of Manhyia, as the principal place of all Asante and its importance in the creation and survival of the Asante as a people. We cannot expect the great London museum to be bothered by such niceties. From being a rich people known worldwide for its riches, especially gold, Asante is now presented as an entity for which charity must be organised to support its museum. If the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Wallace Collection, and other institutions would restitute stolen Asante artefacts, we could manage our activities to gather funds. Those who stole our artefacts, and refuse to return them, now hold a charity ball to support us.

The British Museum announcement also declares that funds gathered will be used to support its excavation work in Benin City and support the new museum , Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City.

‘On top of this we are engaged in research projects in Girsu in Iraq, [and] an archaeological excavation in Benin City in collaboration with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA).’

Nigeria may wish to examine its complicated relations with the British Museum that boldly refuses to restitute Benin or other Nigerian artefacts, and still appears to enjoy relatively, good relationship with Nigeria. It is undertaking excavation in Benin City and can even afford not to respond to Nigeria’s request for restitution of Benin artefacts handed over by Prof. Abba Isa Tijani on October 26, 2021 when he was Director-General of the Nigerian Commission on Museums and Monuments (NCMM) (2).

The British Museum has announced a silent auction during the Ball of 18 October, but we do not know what objects will be auctioned. Would the auction involve Asante or other African artefacts such as the Benin bronzes? We should recall that many British museums bought looted objects from auctions. We recall also that the Victoria and Albert Museum claims to have bought its Asante golden artefacts from a London auctioneer.We know from the programme of the ball evening that the selected guests will be having dinner among the museum’s iconic artefacts. We do not know what artefacts have been chosen for this purpose. In his provocative and defiant statement in May 2025, we recall that Cullinan called the Parthenon Marbles ‘talismanic objects of the British Museum’.(3).

 Will they see any of the thousand human remains that the museum holds?

 Will the guests all feel well and have a good appetite, eating in a hall full of objects that are known to have been stolen and reclaimed by the owners, mostly former colonial subjects who were subjected to the cruel slave trade and colonialism?

Cullinan said:

 The British Museum is a living diary of humanity, whose story is still being written. We see our collection of eight million objects as ambassadors from our shared world, each with a story to tell and with a conversation to start.

Does Cullinan really believe all this? What would a diary of human cruelty look like if the British Museum were a diary of humanity? Ambassadors who are not free to return to their countries of origin, even when their governments and relatives request their return. The thirteen million objects in the British Museum are evidence of the oppressive might of the British Empire and its hold on the former colonies. These objects should have been returned on Independence. How many ambassadors does the British Museum receive? Does the British Museum also send ambassadors to countries where the objects come from?

The looted objects in the British Museum remind us more of prisoners of war than ambassadors. They are prisoners of war to whom the British refuse to apply the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War 12 August 1949, which in its Article 118 provides that ‘ 

Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.’ and the costs of repatriation are to be borne by the detaining power: Article 116 provides: ‘The cost of repatriating prisoners of war or of transporting them to a neutral country shall be borne, from the frontiers of the Detaining Power, by the Power on which the said prisoners depend.’

 Colonial wars ended long ago. 

If we accept the analogy of ambassadors, we must give artefacts in the museums some of the rights of ambassadors as contained in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,1961. Article 29 provides:

‘The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom, or dignity.’

Ambassadors cannot be arrested or detained and can thus, travel freely. Keeping looted artefacts in museum storage clearly does not look ambassadorial.

We cannot describe persons as ambassadors and deprive them of elementary rights of free movement. Before museum directors describe looted artefacts as ambassadors, they may reflect whether such a designation perverts historical facts and should be avoided.

We know from Dati Diop’s Dahomey  (2024) Nii Kwame Owoo’s  You hide me (1970), and Chris Marfker’s Les_statues_meurent_aussi that sculptures can also suffer when mishandled. If the looted objects in the museum were to tell their stories, we would be confronted with the various imperialist wars that enabled Britain to carry off the precious treasures of other peoples. We would hear the woeful tales from the sack of the Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860. The looting in Magdala in 1868 would appear different from stories from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The 1874 invasion of Kumase would explain why Asante cannot be happy with fake contracts of loan of her own artefacts from those who stole them. The 1897 Benin invasion would explain the immorality of a refusal to return the artefacts wrenched from the palace of Oba Ovonramwen. The British Museum is a scene of multiple brutal wars in Africa and Asia.

By sheer coincidence, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations is also holding its 2025 conference at Friends House, Euston Road, in London on the same day, 18 October from 10 am to 5 pm. Unlike the Ball in the British Museum that sends invitation to selected rich personalities, even though Cullinan says the British Museum was designed to be open and free to all, the Reparations conference is open to all who are genuinely interested in reparative justice and will include many personalities, activists and scholars urging Britain to correct her colonial wrongs.

We were surprised that a museum such as the British Museum that derives its strength and main attraction from the diversity of its objects would impose a dress code on participants in the Ball that appears to be based on Western conception of what is fine, reflecting the underlying ideology of European universalism that is now turning to Western unilateralism, echoing ideas gaining ground on both sides of the Atlantic; the idea that if we do not look alike, have similar noses and similar physical resemblances, we cannot live together. They are trying to turn the clock back to the period before 1945 and before the creation of the United Nations.

What makes London an attractive city is undoubtedly its diversity of people and cultures. If the British Museum is:  ‘a place uniquely able to tell a global story of our common humanity; a place where cultures meet, across geographies and generations, where people from every corner of the earth come to visit,’ should not all cultures be represented by their customary attire?

 I do not know whether any Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ethiopians, or other Africans have been invited, but should they attend, they could at least wear traditional attire, thus affirming the continued validity of our traditions, despite imperialism and colonialism that tried to force us to adopt European attire. They would also thus, affirm the diversity of humankind which some people are now discovering.

The rich and the prominent persons will be dining and dancing, surrounded by our looted artefacts that the British Museum refuses to return. Is this a definite message to all who demand the restitution of their artefacts: Chinese, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Ghanaians, Greeks, Indians, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Zimbabweans, and others?

 The woes of all those who cry and beseech the mighty citadel in London to return the human remains of their ancestors for proper burial after a hundred years, do not seem to count, and fall loudly on deaf ears. The dancing rich do not usually hear the cries of those not attending the party. The music silences all disagreeable sounds from outside.

*Dr. Opoku has fought relentlessly for the return of looted artifacts for decades. This article was first published in “modernghana.com.”

REFERENCES

1.  The British Museum Ball will celebrate the things that connect us https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/30/comment-british-museum-ballwillcelebrate-connections

   The British Museum Pink Ball https://bmball.britishmuseum.org/

   ArtNews, The British Museum Launches Inaugural Ball to Showcase London AND Fundraise for International Partnerships
   https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/british-museum-ball-international- partnerships-1234755018/

   Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/43869d54-9630-48bd-b16a-6ac0c908faa0 = Journal

   British Museum’s ‘pink ball’ criticised by climate campaign group https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2025/10/british-museums-pink-ball-criticised-by-climate-campaign-group/

2. Nigeria sends formal letter to British Museum demanding return of looted Benin Bronzes

   https://duckduckgo.com/?q=prof+abbou+ISA+tIJANI+WRITES+TO+BRITISH+M+USEM+ON+RESTITUTION+OF+BENIN+BRONZES&atb=v314-1&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https% 

   Kwame Opoku,  Berlin Plea For The Return Of Nigeria's Cultural Objects: How Often Must Nigeria Ask For The Return Of Its Stolen Cultural Objects?
   https://www.modernghana.com/news/182279/berlin-plea-for-the-return-of-nigerias-cultural-objects-ho.html

3. K. Opoku, Defiant and Provocative British Museum
   https://www.modernghana.com/news/1408424/defiant-and-provocative-british-museum.html

4. Nigeria sends formal letter to British Museum demanding return of looted Benin Bronzes
   https://duckduckgo.com/?q=prof+abbou+ISA+tIJANI+WRITES+TO+BRITISH+M+USEM+ON+RESTITUTION+OF+BENIN+BRONZES&atb=v314-1&ia=videos&iax=videos&iai=https%

   Kwame Opoku,  Berlin Plea For The Return Of Nigeria's Cultural Objects: How Often Must Nigeria Ask For The Return Of Its Stolen Cultural Objects?
   https://www.modernghana.com/news/182279/berlin-plea-for-the-return-of-nigerias-cultural-objects-ho.html

5. K. Opoku, Defiant and Provocative British Museumhttps://www.modernghana.com/news/1408424/defiant-and-provocative-british-museum.html

   Image

   

   Members of the notorious British Punitive Expedition of 1897 to Benin, Nigeria, proudly displaying their loot. The famous Benin Rap of the Benin artist, Monday Midnite: https://www.agpnmusic.com/1897

MULTIMEDIA SOURCES

News Articles (Online)

“British Museum’s ‘Pink Ball’ Criticised by Climate Campaign Group.” Museums Association. Last modified October 2025. https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2025/10/british-museums-pink-ball-criticised-by-climate-campaign-group/.

“Comment: The British Museum Ball Will Celebrate the Things That Connect Us.” The Art Newspaper, September 30, 2025. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/30/comment-british-museum-ballwillcelebrate-connections.

“The British Museum Launches Inaugural Ball to Showcase London AND Fundraise for International Partnerships.” ArtNews. Accessed [Insert Date of Access]. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/british-museum-ball-international-partnerships-1234755018/.

[Financial Times article]. Financial Times. Accessed [Insert Date of Access]. https://www.ft.com/content/43869d54-9630-48bd-b16a-6ac0c908faa0.

Note: The FT entry is incomplete as the original note lacks a specific article title and author. A full citation would require this information.

Websites

The British Museum. “The British Museum Pink Ball.” Accessed [Insert Date of Access]. https://bmball.britishmuseum.org/.

Opinion Pieces / Blog Posts

Opoku, Kwame. “Berlin Plea For The Return Of Nigeria's Cultural Objects: How Often Must Nigeria Ask For The Return Of Its Stolen Cultural Objects?” Modern Ghana. Last modified [Insert Date if available]. Accessed [Insert Date of Access]. https://www.modernghana.com/news/182279/berlin-plea-for-the-return-of-nigerias-cultural-objects-ho.html.

Opoku, Kwame. “Defiant and Provocative British Museum.” Modern Ghana. Last modified [Insert Date if available]. Accessed [Insert Date of Access]. https://www.modernghana.com/news/1408424/defiant-and-provocative-british-museum.html.

Multimedia / Other Sources

Midnite, Monday. “The famous Benin Rap.” AGPN Music. Accessed [Insert Date of Access]. https://www.agpnmusic.com/1897.