The sociocultural perspective of farmers-herders conflict and national integration

Abstract

: Globally, sociocultural component of social relations weaves into shades of interactions including one existing between Farmers-Herders in their agricultural engagements to generate value that strengthens national integration. Migration pattern and choice expose mi-grant’s cross-cultural contact without insulating both sides from confl ict which however, is a social fact and reality of all social relations. Drawing from the foregoing, the study argues that there is confl ict of culturally derived identity interest among returning and settler’s migrants in fi rst contact like in the case of Farmers-Herders, however, is largely a major confl icts driver that endangers sense of patriotism needed for national integration. It further argues that interest quest enables national consciousness and cultural chauvinism and that determines access and denial. However, while a lot of researches have gone into Farmers-Herders contact and confl icts, little of the sociocultural context of their interactions is known in northeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Hence, the focus of this study is to examine the sociocultural perspective of farmers--herders confl ict as a challenge to national integration. Using Frustration-Aggression theory as framework, the exploratory research adopted qualitative approach to gather data via the conduct of 18 in-depth and 18 key informant interviews on purposively selected respondents two each from the 18 senatorial zones of six states in in North East Nigeria.