Exploring the history of ethnic, regional, and religious diversity in Nigeria, this volume traces most of the country's current problems to its colonial exploitation.

Plagued by ethnic divisions, economic inequality, and corruption, Nigeria appears to conform to the stereotypical view that Africa's problems are mostly the result of primitive tribalism. But as Nigeria's Diverse Peoples demonstrates, most of Nigeria's problems today were set in motion by Europeans during the slave trade and colonial eras.

Focusing on three main ethnic groups (Hausa-Falani, Yoruba, and Igbo) and ranging from precolonial times to independence in 1960 to the present, this breakthrough study portrays a Nigeria now striving to make a unified nation of itself. Offering a fresh understanding not just of Nigeria but of Africa as well, readers will enter the richly complex world of Nigeria's ethnic history.