Dawn Osakue

Ethno-religious conflicts: between two religious blocs of different ethnicities seem to have become a major bane of international peace. They are the little drops preventing the general peace, but oftentimes remain ignored for more obvious conflicts. Why is this cycle so intense, so hopeless, and so endless? What does it mean in a country of intense ethnic divisions when blocs of such divisions adhere to different faiths? What do the people of Jos want? Is the conflict ethnic, or is it religious? What are religious leaders doing and what are they supposed to be doing? What is the cause of the conflict and what factors are keeping it kindled? It is time to take a pause in the blind search for solutions, and look towards the root of this complex crisis. Understanding, must precede lasting solution.

Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs) are organisations that include at least three states among their membership, that have activities in several states, and that are created through a formal intergovernmental agreement such as a treaty, charter or statute.”  They serve a wide variety of functions and may be geographically placed or not, they may be driven by a single purpose, or could be multi-tasking organisations

This paper presents the relationship between religion and political power, based on a study of Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas. It presents a brief etymological analysis of religion and political power, then goes on to discuss how these concepts stem from each other. Examples from the bini and Yoruba cultures of Nigeria serve to throw more light this relationship.

This paper seeks to find the relationship between the ethnic and the sacred. Its starts off by reporting the results of a small-n interview, then continues by discovering what ethnic means through analyzing classic conceptions of ethnicity. Based on what the ethnic is and the lay perspectives discovered during the interview, a hypothetical relationship is drawn up between the ethnic and the sacred.

Max Weber sought to answer the question: “why were the districts of highest economic development at the same time particularly favourable to a revolution in the Church?” Closely linked to the answer of the question, he found, was the higher wealth of ascetic Christians relative to Catholics, and a higher concentration of these Protestants in capitalist-focused endeavours.

A summary of Emile Durkheim’s findings and argument on the relationship between anomie and both institutional integrity and dissolution: “But society is not only something attracting the sentiments and activities of individuals with unequal force. It is also a power controlling them.”