Scholarly studies on the Igbo have been scanty and fragmented: Politics and Identity Formation in Southeastern Nigeria: The Igbo in Perspective fills an obvious gap. This book explores the social, cultural, economic, political and aesthetic traditions that distinguish the Igbo of southeastern Nigeria from their neighbors. It is both multi- and cross-disciplinary in scope, content and analyses, focusing essentially on experiences and forces that shaped the Igbo society, Igbo identity formation, and Igbo socio-cultural, political and aesthetic representations. The themes interrogated in refreshing fashion with an appreciable level of originality include the importance of Igbo names in understanding the people’s social, linguistic, religious, gender, and cultural identities, spiritual matters, Pentecostalism and their attendant social, political, and economic consequences for the Igbo, and textile and fashion museums of Igbo fabrics, attires, designs, patterns and colors.

Through in-depth, qualitative analysis of data from archives and research sites in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States, The Making of Mbano: British Colonialism, Resistance, and Diplomatic Engagements in Southeastern Nigeria, 1906-1960 argues that African people in Mbano consistently and fearlessly invoked their pre-colonial socio-cultural, political, and economic values in resisting, scrutinizing, and ultimately negotiating with the British colonial government. In investigating Africa's complex and diverse engagements with the British through the lens of the Mbano colonial experience, Ogechi E. Anyanwu highlights the fascinating intersection of foreign and indigenous notions of community, culture, political economy, religion, and gender in shaping the Mbano colonial identity. Anyanwu carefully introduces readers to a wider variety of people in colonial Mbano who contributed to the historical experience of Southeastern Nigeria and whose names do not appear in history books.

Through analysis of exceptionally rich data obtained from the Carnegie Corporation in New York, and from Nigeria's national archives, author Ogechi Anyanwu demonstrates how the pursuit of mass university education not only decolonized the elitist British education system but also ultimately reshaped modern Nigeria. More importantly, he argues that the impact of these policies cannot be fully understood withoutlooking closely at the intersection of domestic and external politics dictating the direction of higher education development as a vehicle for nation-building in Nigeria's pluralistic society. Although numerous studies have been made of Nigeria's higher education development in particular, and that of Africa in general, no work has placed the pursuit of mass university education (massification) at the centre of that country's postcolonial higher education reform or discussed it as a policy-driven and need-driven phenomenon. In The Politics of Access: University Education and Nation-Building in Nigeria, 1948-2000, Anyanwu undertakes a historical analysis of the diachronic impact of Nigeria's domestic socioeconomic, political, and ethno-religious forces, as well as external interests, on the country's policy initiatives, shifts, and outcomes of mass higher education policies.

This book provides a unique insight into understanding the Igbo social, economic, and political world through comprehensive analyses of indigenous and foreign religious practices, issues surrounding women, literature, language, sexism in musical lyrics, films, and community development and government. It also explores thought-provoking cultural practices relating to marriage and divorce, reincarnation, naming, and masquerade dance. The themes covered in the book help readers appreciate the often-neglected multifaceted local and external forces that continue to shape the Igbo experience in southeastern Nigeria.