A Comparative Study of Traditional Crafts and Industries in Nsukka and Awka

Abstract

This research report though primarily designed to reveal traditional crafts and industries in Nsukka and Awka in its comparative contexts. It is an attempt at reconstructing an aspect of the economic history of Nsukka and Awka people, the impact it made on the people and on the Igbo, as well as neighbouring non-Igbo societies in general. This research work will seek to explore the nature and level of traditional Igbo civilization in the both study areas as the two sub-cultural groups have lived and interacted with each other for centuries. It is therefore not impossible that there have been frequencies of cultural hybridism between the two groups. This is evident in the socio-cultural similarities, especially in their technical process of crafts that attest to the historical and cultural links between them (Nsukka and Awka). Also, they had mutually existed and interacted well which encouraged exchange of cultural borrowings among them. Be it as it may, it is not impossible that one or two crafts traditions may have originated from the Nsukka Igbo and diffused to Awka or other neighbours through bilateral cross cultural interactions. In conclusion, this research work will examine the growth of the local industries in the study areas and ways in which the potentialities of the local crafts industries can be harnessed for tourism development and promotion.