'I need to get to Kano': The unmaking and remaking of an Igbo migrant community in northern Nigeria, 1966-1986

Ethnic Igbo migrants from southeastern Nigeria to predominantly Hausa northern Nigeria played key symbolic and political roles in events leading to Nigeria's 1967-70 civil war. The organized, violent expulsion of Igbos from northern Nigeria in 1966 served elite political and economic interests, but many Hausas protected Igbos from harm. With wartime changes in the political landscape and inter-regional and inter-ethnic balances of power, Igbos ceased to represent threats to elite northern interests and came to be seen as assets; this change is seen in official images of Igbos and in the handling of abandoned property. Igbos were able to return to Kano and other northern cities after the war, reclaim much of their property, and resume economic activities which contributed to the north and helped to rebuild Igboland. Upon their arrival most Igbos were welcomed by northerners, reflecting both northern recognition of Igbo economic roles and a willingness to reconcile with Igbos, previously viewed as arrogant, and now humbled by military defeat and impoverishment.;While this dissertation disregards primordialist assessments of ethnicity, and views ethnic categories as historical constructs, it nonetheless accepts that ethnic categories are powerful social forces. Ethnic difference alone does not explain Igbo-Hausa violence; rather, ethnic consciousness masks more immediate political divisions rooted in British colonial influence. The dissertation argues that Igbos were seen as surrogates for British colonial influence.