Ethnicity and Markets in Plateau State: A Study of Mangu Maize Market Association

Abstract

This study examines how the market associations as institutions in Plateau State in central Nigeria have been
imbricated in the politics of ethnicity. These local marketplaces exist in a context of widespread and recurrent
incidents of communal violence since 1994, in which marketplaces are often burnt down. While existing
scholarship on communal violence in the region focuses on ethnic, religious, and economic factors, it overlooks
the political significance of marketplaces and, by extension, market associations. By analysing the historical
development of the Market Association in the Mangu Maize Market in the Mangu Local Government Area, we
demonstrate how this economic space became a site of contested power and a locus for the emergence and
evolution of ethnic divisions between Indigenous groups and those perceived as outsiders. Our analysis
highlights the intricate interplay between politics and economics in shaping intercommunal relations in Plateau
State. This study is entirely qualitative in orientation, combining historical and ethnographic methodologies. It
combines observational data and oral sources with textual or documentary materials drawn from library
research and newspaper collections.