The Aro of Southern Nigeria: a socio-historical analysis of legends of their origin

There are two groups of speculations on the origin of the Aro: 1) produced by the Aro themselves, 2) produced by European officials of the British colonial government in an attempt to understand and solve the ‘Aro problem’. On the surface these men sought to get to the root of the question of Aro origin, but in reality they were comparable to any of the factions in Aro Chukwu who were concerned not to attain an objective account to their traditional history, but to construct social charters that would serve their own purposes. In this sense these speculations are treated as legends of Aro origin and subjected to the same process of socio-historical analysis as the oral traditions collected from Aro Chukwu. Part 1: the traditions of the Aro Chukwu. Part 2: European speculations on Aro origin and the author’s tentative suggestions on the matter. Notes.