Waja

Early Migrations and Group Relations in the Confluence Region

of Nigeria: Okunland as a Case Study

Clement Olumuyiwa Bakinde
Department of Archaeology
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.Nigeria
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
From a number of sources such as oral traditions, the peopling of the central
Nigerian region has been dominated by themes of migration from a number of
centres most especially the Middle East. Thus, this paper examines the role of
migration in the peopling of the confluence Nigerian region. It also looked at the
role played by migrant groups in the evolution of the state system within that
area. The paper is of the opinion that the most important factors in the early
history of the people of the confluence area are the need for economic subsistence
and security. These two factors are very significXant in intergroup relations of the
various groups in the confluence area from the earliest times to the present. In
arriving at these conclusions the paper depended on a number of sources such as
oral traditions, ethnography, linguistics and archaeology.