History as a Process: A Study of the Urhobo of the Midwestern State of Nigeria

Article based on available written records and on oral tradition obtained: during the fieldwork in 1967 and 1968 in addition to experience as a government administrative officer in the Midwestern State. ‘After a brief theoretical discussion on the applicability of the equilibrium theory (Radcliffe-Brown, a.o.) to ‘non-literate’ peoples and on the degree of the complexity of their political structures and systems, follows the political history of Okpe (the largest of the Urhobo indigenous states), a kingdom which manipulated its religious and kinship symbols to better face the disintegration created by the vulnerability of its political system and by the excesses of its principal actor, the king. Notes, map.