Totems in Idoma History

Abstract

This paper examines the breakthrough in the usage of totems in the reconstruction of the histories of village-size chiefdom which, Idoma people of North Central Nigeria are example. The reconstruction of Idoma early history like most ethnic nations of Africa has been made difficult due to dearth of documentary evidence and lack of archaeological data result of inadequate support.  This challenge become worrisome arising from the heated debate over the utilitarian value of oral tradition as sources of history despites its worldwide recognition decades ago. The debate is yet to fully simmer down. The emergence of totems as one of the methodological devices in handling pre-colonial history saves scholars of Idoma extraction from the Eurocentric absurdity of bastardizing the histories of the people as the society possesses wide-range of totems which are amenable to historical scholarship. This paper notes and concludes that where  totems has not undergone fundamental changes it remained the oldest form of identification of a group and therefore a veritable tool in the reconstruction of local history.