ABSTRACT
Sociologically, this is a process which is as significant in understanding modern African societies as that of political 'detribalization'. Indeed this type of political grouping can be found today as much in a developed society like that of the U.S.A. as in the developing societies of Africa. Theoretically, an ethnic group must be distinguished from an ethnic category. As Gluckman puts it, 'all culture tends to survive', and when men from one cultural group migrate to town they retain a great deal of their culture even without necessarily forming a corporate political group. The trade is organized on centuries-old lines. Long before the Europeans appeared on the scene, the West Africans had operated truly international trade, with developed systems of credit, insurance, brokerage, exchange of business information, transport and arbitration in business disputes. Law and order were normally maintained and strangers honoured their business obligations and deferred to the pressures of moral values and of moral relationships of all sorts.
