Inter Community Relationship

  Communities in the world are many and they vary in population, size and functions. Some communities are endowed with more resources than others. In some communities there are more social amenities such as roads, hospital, schools, banks, communication systems etc than in the others. Because of the reasons above, some communities are able to perform certain functions better than others.

 Therefore, communities depend on other communities for any function which their communities cannot perform. In other words no community is self sufficient. People in the forest area produce forest products to exchange for products not available in their areas.

Fisherfolks sell their fish to other people in other to use their cash to buy their basic needs. Different communities produce  different goods and products for exchange  through trade and commerce.

   For us to understand inter community relationship, let us group the community relationship into three broad categories. They are : urban rural, rural rural and urban urban relationships.

Urban rural relationship

There are urban and rural communities all over the world. A lot of difference exist between these communities.

However , it is necessary to Note that an urban community Developed from the rural stage.

   Several rural communities could join together to form an urban community.

   Urban communities may differ from one to the other but they have some peculiarities.

  An urban community is made up of large number of people occupying a large area of land. Most are industrial and commercial societies. Educational institutions of different grades and social amenities Luke good roads, telephones, community halls , pipe borne water, electricity , hospitals etc, are provided in urban communities.

Apart from these, there are different types of beautiful buildings which serve as offices, hotels etc.

The communities are usually government administrative centres with federal , state and local council offices established all over the place.

 The rural communities, however , are mostly agricultural communities. Rural people of Nigeria make use of well and stream water instead of pipe born water in the villages and towns. They depend in kerosene lamps, lanterns , wick lamps  and at times gas lamps for their sources of light at night.

They often lack amenities like hospitals, courts, good roads, and libraries etc. In the Villages, shrine where villagers worships their ancestors are built. 

  Beside farming, people in rural area engage themselves in trading, fishing, traditional arts and crafts such ad tailoring , blacksmithing, pottery and carving. Hunting is not usually done as a full time job but as hobby by most farmers at their leisure time. Some farmers produce agricultural and food crops and above their needs in order  to sell surplus to the urban community members. Urban and rural community members trade together. Rural people buy manufactured products from the urban communities. Also urban area offer job and educational opportunities to the people from the rural settlements.

Apart from that , the rural dwellers got to know of important information from those coming from the urban Urban communities.

Rural Rural relationship

   Different rural districts are not endowed with the same natural resources, therefore , each rural district concentrates on what it can produce and buys what it cannot produce. Their is a trade between different rural communities. Inequality of mental , physical and natural resources of the members of different rural communities results in the exchange of ideas , services and products.

Relationship among rural communities could be in areas of religion, politics, marriage and social sphere. Inter community marriages often occur between members of different rural communities. Thus, some kingship arise between one  rural community band the other.

   When rural districts happen to be members of the same political organization, members see themselves as belonging to one another.

  At times , two different rural communities may have similar social organizations. Such organizations or association make people to think of themselves as having common origin. For exams , there are certain organizations or association which are typical of Yoruba , Hausa , igbo etc.

Compound buildings of Hausa rural areas are often of flat top. This is unlike that of the Yorubas in the forest areas and Igbo's whose houses have thatched roofs of either bamboos, palm fronds or leaves of trees.

  Bonds of friendship exist between members of rural communities because of the relationship listed above and some others we cannot, mention here. You are therefore, requested to find out some of these relationship your selves.

  Despite these relations, there is bound to be some conflicts as it is typical of all human relationships. Conflict could stem from struggles between different rural communities to acquire more resources at the expense of the others, for example, competition over fishing in a particular stream, river pond.

Competition over Land, chieftaincy etc may bring about conflicts and, in some serious cases, result into physical combat or clashes which could cause loss of life and property. For instance , when a local government headquarter is to be located  or other social amenities are to be sited, one cannot rule out the possibility of conflict among the communities concerned. 

One village may want pipe borne water and electricity when it had secured a community health center. This could annoy members of the other villages which have not yet secured any amenities at all. This is one of the causes of conflicts in rural rural relationship. Since all rural communities cannot boast of being self sufficient; co operation Is very important between two or more rural communities. Hence, the needed for cooperation is always their primary concern. Thus, there is always cooperation and competition among them.

Urban urban Relationship

As earlier indicated in this write up and previous, an urban community could be made up of a large number of rural communities joined together. Such a community could perform administrative, commercial or industrial functions. Ibadan is a commercial and administrative centre.

Abuja is an administrative centre while Lagos is Both an administrative and industrial centre. Where people of two commercial centre sells the same products competition arises. The commodities available in each urban centre may differ hence there is need for inter Urban trade exchange. Nevertheless, some Urban centres act as link between the rural producers and industrial centres.

If it happens that there are two close Urban communities, the growth of one may lead to the decline of the other. In other words, the growth of one urban area may serve as an attraction to people in other urban areas who may withdraw from where they live to settle in more developing urban area. This is because there is supposed to be better opportunities economically, socially and politically in the more developed urban area. Two urban centres can be under the same administration. For instance, Lagos and Ikeja are under the Lagos state government, ogbomoso and Ibadan under Oyo state government, Auchi and Benin city under the Edo state government etc