Cultural Identity-Induced Social Exclusion of an Ethnic Minority Group and Communal Conflicts in North-Central Nigeria

Qualitative research has suggested that minority groups suffer discrimination. Some had focused on the effects of discrimination and prejudicial treatments of groups that are referred to as socially-devalued. This has also provoked greater interest in theorizing on the relationship between explanatory causal factors of discrimination against these groups. This study contributes to this body of research findings by focusing on an ethnic minority group that has been subjected to various discriminatory treatments on the basis of ancestral/historical difference. It examines the relationship between some exclusionary ethno-cultural variables and their effect on conflict occurrence. Conflict is depicted here as the dependent variable while the ethno-cultural variables- exclusion, deprivations, identity formation, and migration are considered as independent variables. This study adopts the quantitative approach using the Chi-Square analysis to investigate the relationship between these variables based on the Mean of the responses from the administered questionnaires, while Regression analysis was used to examine the impact of the independent variables (cultural identity formation, social exclusion, migration history, deprivation, and segregation) on the dependent variable (communal conflict). The findings from the regression analysis show that a significant relationship exists between all the independent variables and the dependent variable, while from the Chi-square analysis, the findings reveal that except for deprivation, all other independent variables have a positive relationship with the dependent variable.