PEOPLE AND CULTURE OF NIGERIA (SOC 105)

CULTURE
Culture is the way of feeling, thinking and belief of a people. It means the customs and activities of
life of the people. It deals with the manifestation of mankind. It touches the foundations of
humankind. Culture was defined by Taylor as the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief,
arts, laws, moral custom as well as other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of the
society”.

Though this definition was widely acclaimed it can be rightly criticized as laying too much emphasis
on the immaterial aspects of culture while neglecting the materials artifacts.

Another widely acclaimed definition of culture is that of firth, cited by leach which identifies culture
as “the component of accumulated resources immaterial as well as material which people inherit,
employ, transmit, add to and transmute.

With leach’s definition, one can rightly end the British unwritten-constitution of United Kingdom as
an example of their immaterial culture which they “inherited added to transmitted and transmuted”

Kroeber defined culture as “the mass of learned and transmitted motor reaction, habits, techniques,
ideals, values and the behaviour they induces”.

Considering all the authoritative and well acclaimed definition of culture cited above, one can infer
that culture signifies the total material and non-material endowments of a people, its belief, ideas,
laws, customs, morals, traditional science technology, folk laws and norms, all that bear the stamp of
humankind. Thus the behavior of an individual is strongly influenced by the culture it manifests in
human behavior. It is the totality of the disposition of the sum of the members of a society.

Culture is an inheritance of a society. It has some distinguishing qualities or characteristics. An

attempt will be made in the subsequent underlying paragraphs to identify and amplify these
characteristics.

Culture is a “learned and transmitted motor-reaction”. Culture is not instinctive. It is not a biological
endowment of man. Culture is acquired by man by virtue of his membership in human groups.
Furthermore, culture is acquired by man by virtue of his membership in human groups. Furthermore,
culture is transmitted from one generation to the other. Man is hair to social tradition. It represents
dour social legacy as contrasted with our organic heredity. Culture permits each new generation
spring from the achievement shoulders of the preceding one.

Culture is socially shared. Cultural patterns are shared by human beings living in organized groups
and are kept relatively uniform by social pressures. In other words, cultural patterns constitute group
habits. Culture represents the ideal form of behavior. The group habits that comprise the culture are
viewed as ideal patterns of behaviours.
The members of the group are expected to confirm to them, their group expectations. Culture is such
that one derives some sort or satisfaction or pleasantness by conforming to it. For instance, in Yoruba
land, it is considered that a son of an Oba who is not “born on the throne” is not eligible to succeed his
father. So to think otherwise is abomination.

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The culture-area is often determined by the ecology and weather condition of the area. Hence, culture
is adaptive. For instance, the type of technology needed for agricultural practices in an area is
determined by the topography of the area in question. Thus Egypt had to vent canal-dredging and
complex irrigation system early because of the aridity of her land.

It can further said that culture has traits and complexes which develop through innovation and spread
through diffusion. This generates into culture integration. In the words of William Graham Summer,
the parts are “subject to a strain of constituency with each other”. In discussing the characteristics of
culture, one cannot over-emphasize the dynamism of culture. Culture is neither static nor is it
homogenous. It is continually changing. For instance, the political system of Nigeria took a different
dimension from the previous ones we have been operating. Indeed, daily, a society is lending and
borrowing cultural traits though the medium of social interaction. Culture, like the word “gravity” is
an abstraction. Through the observation of the composition of people’s artifacts and dispositions, we
can speak of some systems called African Culture, English culture’ or Indian culture’ in fact, culture is
manifest in human dispositions.

Culture has a profound impact upon what triggers emotions within us and how we express and
experience our emotions such as fear, sympathy, pity, hatred, anger, love, contempt and envy. The
same set of conditions may elicit dramatically opposite emotions in differing cultures. For instance,
the arrangement of a plural wife to a American woman is a thing viewed with contempt and is
instinctively abhorrent. They feel woman should be naturally jealous and uncomfortable if she must
share her husband with other women. Yet in Siberia, Koyak women find it hard to understand how
women can be so selfish and so undesirous of feminine companionship as to
Wish to restrict their husband to but one mate.

The Formation of Culture

Culture is made up of different elements; these include value, norms, culture, statuses and role.

Values
A cultural value is something that is widely believed within a given collectivity to be desirable for is
own sake. Value is an idea share by the people in a society about what is good and bad, right and
wrong, desirable and undesirable. Values are general abstract ideas that shape the ideals and goals of a
society. Values are usually emotionally charged and it provides the basis for person’s behavior
(Williams, 1970).

Values may be categorized into terminal values (preferred states of affairs) and instrumental values
(preferred modes of behavior)n Hilliard, 1950; Love Joy, 1950). In this classification,, terminal values
are stimulus events that an organism would preferentially work for, whereas adjectival or instrumental
values are values in term of those responses that an organism would preferentially emit in the face of
possible alternatives..
The main values of a culture are passed on through is symbol systems from adults to children and from
adults to adults. Values may be portrayed in folklore, mythology, art, entertainment or some other
medium of communication.

Values vary from one society to other. Some societies value neatness more than others, and there is
also a great deal of difference on the emphasis placed on honesty, purity, respect dignity of laboour,
equality, self reliance, reverence for God, democracy and other values.

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The values of a culture typically come in pairs, so that for every positive one there is a corresponding
negative one. For every admired quality there is one that is disapproved of for example, if culture
values bravery, it will also repel cowardice.

Norms
Norms are rules that tell people how to behave in particular situations. In any society or group, there
are rules of conduct.

Norms are values put into practice. They are specific rules of behavior that relate to specific social
situation, and they govern all aspet of human behavior. For example, norms govern te way we dress,
the way we prepare food and how we eat tat food, our toilet behavior and so on.

Customs
Customs are traditional and regular ways of behavior association with specific social situations, events
and anniversaries which are often accompanied by rituals and ceremonies. For instance in Yoruba
land, it is the custom of the Yoruba people to celebrate new yam festival “Odun Ijesu” and this usually
involves rituals or sacrifice, eating new yam and so on. It is also the social custom to mourn for the
death at funerals, and this usually involves an elaborate set of ritualistic norms and a ceremony. For
example it is generally expected that people war black or white at funerals.

Statutes
All members of society are given position by their culture. These positions are known as statutes
sociologists distinguish between ascribed statues and achieved statutes. Ascribed Statutes fixed at
birth, usually by inheritance or biology. For example, gender and race are fixed characteristics which
may result in women and ethnic minorities occupying low-status roles in some societies statutes over
which individual have control are achieved. In Western Societies, such statutes is normally attained
through education jobs and marriage.

Roles
Society expects those of a certain status to behave in a particular way, a set of norms is imposed on the
status. These are collectively known as a role. For example, the role of a medical doctor is
accompanied by cultural expectations about patient confidentiality and professional behavior.

All the roles we adopt in relating to other people are called our role set, and the people we relate to in
each situation are called ‘role others’.

Many of the roles we adopt are ascribed; that they are determined in advance or without regard to our
wishes- we have the status of a child or we become an Ear when our noble fathers dies. Other roles
are ‘achieved’ that is, we earn them in some way; we rob banks and earn the role of criminal. We can
also earn the role of a justice.

An American Sociologist Williams Graham Sunner made a distinction between two of norms on the
basis of their relative seriousness to the group.

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SOCIETY
Unlike culture, there is no clear-cut agreement on the word society. Instead, we shall examine the
various meaning give to the term and examine the use of which they have been put. The conceptual
differences noticed among the authors show they may be emphasizing different phenomenon.

In its most general usage, society refers to the basic of human association. For examples, the term has
been employed in the highest sense to include any type of relationship enter into by man. Organized
or not, direct or indirect. Conscious or unconscious, cooperative or antagonistic. It includes the
“whole tissue of human relations and is without boundary or assignable limit. This view thus gives
rise to numerous specific overlapping and interconnected society but is not exhausted b them. This
conception which could also denote a meaning compassing all of humanity and mankind serve to
focus our attention upon broad range of conception centered towards human relation in the cause of
the group life. The concept for this is “social relationship” and it is based upon the other persons.
Human beings do not only live together and share common opinion, values, beliefs and customs, they
also continually interact responding to one another and shaping their behavior and interest the subject
of his affections in a variety of exotic ways and actions or the politician’s efforts to interest the
electorates.

The above conception of the society, that is as the ‘whole tissue’ or the whole complex scheme” of
social relationship can be distinguish from those specific societies in which men group themselves. In
some definition however, he emphasis is frequently upon the persons rather than upon the structure of
relationship. Thus George Simmel considered a society to be “a number of individuals connected by
interactions” while Ralph Linton, an Anthropologist, identified a society as any group of people who
have lived and worked together long enough to get themselves organized and to think of themselves as
a social unit with well defined limit.

This view of society is of value in directing attention to the network of relationship which hold
together specific aggregation of people. However, it is too general to be useful. As thus defined, it
could include the multiplicity of groups found among men such as National Association of Nigeria
Student (NANS), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT),
Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Parents Teachers Association (PTA).
Palm-wine drinkers club, National Sociology and Antropological Students Association (NSASA) and
others. Ely Chinoy contends that society is the group within which men can live a total common life
rather than organizations limited to specific purpose or purposes”.

From those points of view, society consists no only of individuals connected to one another but also of
interconnected overlapping groups. Thus the Nigerian society composes of 120 or more million
people tied together in a complex network of relations with millions of family of urban and rural
communities, political parties, unions, business organizations and the infinite number of organizations
into which the population is divided. On other hand a single society like any Nigeria village
population organized into local groups could be found within larger ones and individuals belong
simultaneous to various groups. A society then can be analyses in relation to one another.

NIGERIA NORMS AND VALUE

Norms and values are essential components of our socio cultural system. The Nigerian society is
currently undergoing rapid socio economic and political changes that are bound to affect the status quo
of the presently existing normative and value system in the nation. The objectives of this essay are to
enable students to know what norms and values are, the relationship between norms and values, types
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of norms and values, the roles of conformity and sanctions and the impact of norms and values to
national development.

Definition of norms and values

Norms may be referred to as rules or regulation guiding the societal shared standards of behavior.
Human beings are born into an ongoing society which has already institutionalized patterns;
individuals in the society are constantly involved in social interaction through what is known as social
action.
When social action is put in place, there are required behavioral patterns which must take into
cognizance the expectations of others with whom we are acting. Through the existence of norms, we
are able to predict the response of others. A rewarding or appreciative behavior towards another is
likely to attract, a positive reciprocal response. Similarly, a negative or hostile behavior towards
another with whom we are interacting is likely to attract a negative response. In their discussion of
ideal norms, Otite and Oginowo (1979) believed that norms involve performance of prescribed
behavior in a certain situation and the imposition of sanction on omission of such behavior. Take for
instance, conduct of examination in all Nigerian universities. There are standards guiding it. Equally,
the Nigerian highway codes have down norms to check the behavior of road users. Erring drivers have
various sanctions imposed on them. The political, economic, educational, religious, and legal systems
have specified norms regulating the behaviors of actors or participants acting within. All over Nigeria,
there are specific norms in respect of how the dead should be buried, (burial rites), how to start a new
family (through marriage), how to acquire wealth, and how to obtain university degree.

The concept of values may be defined as beliefs, standards, ideas about what is desirable or a good
behavior, and what an undesirable is or bad behavior (Krech et al, 1992). Values are the most general
component of social action. They state in general terms the desirable end which acts as a guide to
human endeavors (Smeister, 1963). Values are found in every culture. They are socially defined aid
are meaningful to group existence, moral or ethical values are necessary for the fostering of group
harmony and the promotion of group welfare. Examples of moral values which are core to societal
integration and development include honesty, integrity, truth, obedience, loyalty, kindness, purity or
chastity etc. Our goals or objectives in life are usually defined in terms of the value system.
Education, religion, politics and economics are highly valued in Nigeria. The acquisition of wealth is
also valued in Nigeria today no matter how crude, and inimical to the procedure that are employed in
acquiring it. The government seems to be worried about the present status-quo of our societal norms
and values. This government seems to be worried about it hence the launching of the war against
Indiscipline and Corruption in Nigeria. The major objective was to infuse or inject sanity into the fast
decaying Nigerian value system.

Relationship between Norms and Values

Norms and Values are attributes of the cultural system. Both are part and parcel of the non-material
culture of the society. Though values are more abstract and general in nature than norms, both
complement one another. In other words, where there are identified values, there must also be rules or
regulations (norms) guiding their realization. For example, democracy is a political value. In order to
set in motion democratic practices in Nigeria, there are rules or regulation (democratic norms) which
must be followed meticulously. The formation of political parties and electioneering procedures are
some of the norms which must be adhered to in order to attain the political values of democracy. It is
interesting to note that our Education system is based on the recognition given to it by the Federal
government. No wonder the National Policy on Education stated among other things that the quality
of instruction at all levels of education in Nigeria is oriented towards achieving the following values.
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a. Moral and Spiritual values in interpersonal and human relations.
b. Respect for the work and dignity of the individuals
c. Faith in man’s ability to make rational decisions
d. Shared responsibility for the common good of the society
e. Respect for the dignity of labour and
f. Promotion of the emotional, physical and psychological health of all children.

In order to achieve these laudable goals or objectives (values), qualified teachers have to be recruited
at all levels to give sound instruction that are both relevant to the course content, and necessary for the
graduation of students.

Types of Norms and Values

Norms are usually divided into two. This is based on the strength of sanction it carries. The
obligatory norms usually have harsh sanctions for their violations. They are referred to as mores. The
mores are the ‘must do’ of the society. All members of the society must conform to them or face
disapproval and sanctions. Mores are regarded as essentially good for the group survival. Taking
another man’s life and incestuous relationship are prohibited in our society. Some of the sanctions are
backed up by documented laws and violators are normally prosecuted in the Court of Law. The
second category of norms are generally overlooked. Folkways are practices conventionally accepted
and deemed appropriate but ‘violations or deviations are not sanctioned or punished. For example,
every University Undergraduate (Year One) is expected to participate in matriculation ceremony but
failure to do so does not attract sanction. On the other hand, some values which were in the time past
highly respected in the society have become obsolete. For example, a virgin (bride) was highly valued
and respected in the traditional society. Similarly, many wives and many children were economic
assets in the traditional system. Today, none of these are required as significant in modern society.
This shows that values and norms are subject to socio-economic and political changes in the society.

Norms and Values in a Changing Society

No society is static in nature. It is always undergoing some forms of social process. A change in one
segment of the social system will invariably bring about a corresponding change in another part.
Because of the functional interdependence of social institutions (economic and political, social,
religious, educational and legal), a change in the political arrangement will affect the economic and
educational systems. For example, if the Nigeria society now gives premium to the rule by the non-
educated individuals, the educational norms and values will be adversely affected. Also, the
introduction of a Communist type of ideology will adversely affect the present ‘Nigerian type’ free
enterprise and freedom of worship.

In recent times, we have witnessed changing norms and values especially in the areas of fashion and
design, music, leisure, sexual relationships, women liberation, ways of speaking, dancing, etc. Norms
and Values have also changed in areas of traditional burials and marriages. It is also true that the
Norms and Values in the typical rural areas of the country are conflicting with those of the urban
centers. Some of the factors responsible for the changing norms and values are:
1. Changing economic and political conditions
2. New world economic and political conditions
3. Modern technological development
4. Wars
5. Mass Media effect
6. Liberation movements
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Though norms and values are bound to change in a dynamic society, there is the general tendency for
individuals to conform to whatever norms and values that are prevalent within the groups.
Conformity and Sanctions

These two concepts are very important to the discussion of norms and values. Though there are
always conflict and consensus in the society, people tend to agree rather than disagree most of the
time. To conform means to agree with societal norms and values. If one does fail to conform, he is
termed a social deviant. Sometimes, non-conformists are always labeled as revels. Most people tend
to conform to the societal norms and values because of the following reasons:
1. Groups pressure and prestige
2. Existence of sanctions
3. Group identification.

The failure to conform brings about social sanction. A sanction is a societal tool of social control.
Social sanctions are important societal tools for the regulation of modes of behavior. Sanction takes
the form of a reaction of a considerable number of members of the group towards another member’s
behaviours which is either approved or disapproved. We have both negative and positive sanctions.
Negative sanction shows disapproval while positive sanction indicates approval. Behaviors that are
positively sanctioned usually go with acceptability, honour, rewards or awards. Similarly, behavior
that are negatively sanctioned bring about shame, ridicule, ox-communication, fines, trial sentences,
ostracism, etc. It is however, important to note that the government has the power to apply any
coercive’ measure necessary to bring about conformity in the society.

The Roles of Norms and Values to National Development

Norms and values are very important to national development. Since development has to do with
societal improvement, growth both mentally or intellectually, economically, socially and politically
the norms and values define the objectives or goals, and the directions or path it should follow. The
failure of any society to follow the identified positive norms and values will bring about retrogression
in its developmental part. Norms and values have the power of social integration in the society. Both
have the force to unite various groups within the society. The society will immensely benefit if its
moral norms and values are intensively promoted. There seems to be huge cry today by all concerned
Nigerians about the present state of corruption in the nation. Wealth without hard work, honesty,
integrity seems to be highly valued today. This has actually discouraged many Nigerians from giving
their best in service to the nation. Where norms and values concerning fundamental human rights in
both public and private places have been violated, the people and government tend to live in an
atmosphere of instability and insecurity. Both factors (instability and insecurity) do not promote
national development.

Nigerian Peoples and Culture

Nigeria is made up of over 150 million people organized into social groups with different cultures.
These societies and cultures require some measure of integration. Nigeria as one society came into
formal being on January 1, 1914 when the Northern and Southern Provinces were united before 1914,
there were aspects of culture shared most people who are now grouped into Nigeria. There has been
internal movement of Nigerians from one place to another. Such people learn the cultures of other
Nigerian languages originated from three main language families. There is the Niger-Congo from
which such languages originated from three main language families. There is the Niger-Congo from

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which such language as Bariba, Chamber, Edo, Idoma, Efik, Igbo, Ijaw, Jokun, Kambari, Tiv, Yoruba,
etc. originated.

Then we have the Afro-Asiatic from which such Nigerian language as Angas, Bachama, Bura, Hausa,
Higi and Shuwa originated. There is the Nilo-Saharan language group from which such language as
Dendi and Kanuri originated. From this three points Nigeria is not totally artificial. All the people
and culture have many things in common, for instance, those of one language group share many
aspects of their culture. They lived together as one people several centuries ago. Those who now
speak different language had lived together as neighbours and borrowed from one another certain
aspect of their culture, for example, dances, the making of pots, the manner of eating and religious
practices. Thus after several centuries of living together most Nigeria shared in the culture of other
Nigerians. Moreover, even before the Europeans came, Nigerians trade with one another attended
distant markets and maintained political and economic interests in each other. For example, there
were links between the Hausa State and the Nupe, and the Empire of Oyo and Benin. These links
were sometimes showing through treaties and visits and through the political dominance of one group
by another.

Nigerian culture is as multi-ethnic as the people in Nigeria. The people of Nigeria still cherish their
traditional languages, music, dance and literature. Nigeria comprises of three large ethnic groups,
which are Yoruba, Hausa-Fulani and Igbo. However, there are other ethnic groups as well. Thus
culture in Nigeria is most positively multi-ethnic.

Culture of Nigeria gives a lot of value to different types of arts, which primarily include ivory carving,
grass weaving, wood carving, leather and calabash, pottery, painting, cloth weaving, glass and metal
works.

There are more than 250 languages spoken in Nigeria. English is considered to be the official
language. However, it is notable that not more than about 50% of the populations are able to speak in
English. Every tribe has got its own language, which they prefer following as the standard mode of
communication among themselves. Nigeria culture includes varieties in types of clothing as there are
different groups of people living in the country. What is common in their dressing style is the
conservativeness.

Nigerian culture gives a lot of importance in treating the guests with utmost care and warmth. The
hospitality of people represents this tradition. That is why people are not supposed to say thank you,
when they are offered food. Among the games, the Nigerians enjoy soccer the most. Polo, cricket,
swimming and swimming and wrestling are popular among the affluent classes. Nigerian culture is as
old as 2000 years and what makes it stand out is its diversity.

The culture of Nigeria is shape by Nigeria is multiple ethnic groups. The country has over 50
languages and over 250 dialects and ethnic groups. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa-
Fulani who are predominant in the North, the Igbo who are predominant in the South-East and the
Yoruba who are predominant in the South West.

The Edo people are predominant in the region between Yoruba land and Igbo land. Much of the Edo
tends to be Christian while the remaining 20 percent worship deities called Ogu. This group is
followed by the Ibibio/Annang/Efik people of the coastal southeastern Nigeria and the Ijaw of the
Niger-Delta.
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The rest of Nigeria’s ethic groups (sometimes called ‘minorities’) are found all over the country but
especially in the middle belt and north. The Hausa tend to be Muslim and the Igbo are predominantly
Christian. The Efik, Ibibio, Annang people are mainly Christian. The Yoruba have a balance of
members that are adherent to both Islam and Christianity. Indigenous religious practices remain
important in all of Nigeria’s ethnic groups, these beliefs are often blended with Christian beliefs.

Nigeria is famous for its English language literature and its popular music. Since the 1990s the
Nigerian movie industry, sometimes called “Nollywood” has emerged as a fast-growing cultural force
all over te continent. All over the country, and even increasingly in the conservative north, western
music, dresses and movies are ever popular.

Football (soccer) is extremely popular throughout the country and especially among the youth, both
field soccer and professional international soccer, has developed into a cult of unity and division.
Supporters of English football clubs Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea often
segregate beyond the traditional tribal and even religious divide to share their common cause in
Premier League teams. The Nigeria National Football Tem, nicknamed the Super Eagles, is the
national team of Nigeria and is controlled by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). According to the
FIFA World Rankings, Nigeria ranks 22nd and holds the third highest place among the African nations
behind Cameroon (11th) and Cote d’Ivoire (16th). The highest position ever reached on the ranking
was 5th in April, 1994.

Nigerian food embellishes a rich blend of traditionally African carbohydrates such as Yam and
Cassava as well as vegetable soups made from native green leaves. Praised by Nigerians for the
strength it gives, Garri is a powdered Cassava Grain that can be readily eaten as a meal and is quite
cheap. Yam is either fried in oil or pounded to make a Mashed Potato like Yam pottage. Nigerian
beans, quite different from green peas, is widely popular. Meat is also popular and Nigerian Suya, a
barbecue like method of roasting meat, is a well known delicacy. Bush meat, meat from wild game
like deer and giraffes is also popular. Fermented palm products is used to make traditional liquor,
Palm Wine, as is fermented Cassava.

The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music, some of which are known
worldwide. Traditional musicians use a number of diverse instruments such as the Gongon drums.

Other traditional cultural expressions are found in the various masquerades of Nigeria, such as the Eyo
masquerades, the Ekpe and Ekpo masquerades of the Efik/Ibibio/Annang/Igbo peoples of coastal
South-Eastern Nigeria, and the Northern Edo masquerades. The most popular Yoruba wooden masks
are the Gelede masquerades.

THE YORUBA SOCIETY

The movement of populations into present Yoruba land appears to have been a slow process that
began in the northeast where the Niger and Benue rivers meet, and spread south and southwest.
Archaeological evidence indicates Stone Age inhabitants were in this area between the tenth and
second centuries BC, by the ninth century AD, blacksmithing and agriculture had emerged at Ife, a
settlement that reached an artistic and political zenith between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries and
is mythologized as the cradle of Yoruba peoples. Political development also appears to have been
slow and incremental. Never unified politically, the Yoruba at contact were organized in hundreds of
minor polities ranging from villages to city states to large kingdoms of which there were about twenty.
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Expansion took place through the federation of small communities and later through aggressive
conquest. The famed kingdom of Oyo, which emerged in the fourteenth century, relied heavily on
trade and conquest to make it West Africa’s largest coastal empire. At its peak in te late seventeenth
century, seventy war chiefs lived in the capital city. For many Yoruba, urbanism was a way of life.
Europeans learned of the city of Ijebu Ode early in the sixteen century, when they exchanged brass
bracelts for slaves and ivory. The Ijebu Yoruba were, and continue to be known for their business
acumen. Commerce with Europe expanded in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as the New
World demand for slaves increased. This lucrative trade stimulated competition, a thirst for increased
power, and a rise in internal warfare that laid waste to the countryside and depollated vst areas. Oyo
declined in the late eighteen and early nineteenth centuries but urban populations expanded and two
new states emerged, Ibadan and Egba, founded by wartime refugees.

Following the abolition of the slave trade, missionaries arrived in the 1840s and Great Britain annexed
a small strip of the Yoruba dominated coastland the settlement of Lagos in 1861. Gradually, British
forces and traders worked their way inland; by the dawn of the twentieth century, all Yoruba were
brought into the empire. Early exposure to Christian education and economic opportunities gave the
Yoruba an advantage in penetrating European institutions. By the time of Nigerian independence
(1960), they had taken over most high administrative positions in their region, making theirs a
relatively smooth transition to a Westernized bureaucratic government.

Religion Beliefs
The ancient Yoruba religious system has a pantheon of deities who underpin an extensive system of
cults. Rituals are focused on the explanation, prediction, and control of mystical power. Formerly,
religious beliefs were diffused widely by itinerant priests whose divinations, in the form of verses,
myths, and morality tales, were sufficiently standardized to constitute a kind of oral scripture. In
addition to hundreds of anthropomorphic deities the cosmos contains a host of other supernatural
forces. Mystical power of a positive nature is associated with ancestors, the earth, deities of place
(especially hills, trees, and rivers), and medicines and charms, power of an unpredictable, negative
nature is associated with a trickster deity; with witches, sorcerers and their medicines and charms; and
with personified powers in the form of Death, Disease, Infirmity, and Loss. Individuals inherit or
acquire deities through divination or inspiration. Christianity was introduced from the south in the
mid-nineteenth century; Islam came from the North in the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Today
Yoruba allegiances are divided between the two global faiths, yet many simultaneously uphold aspects
of the ancient religious legacy. Syncretistic groups also blend Islam or Christianity with Yoruba
practices.

Religious Practitioner
Priests and priestesses exercised considerable influence in pre-colonial times. They were responsible
for divining, curing, maintaining peace and harmony, administering war magic, and organizing
extensive rites and festivals. Many duties of political and religious authorities overlapped. Rituals are
performed largely to appease or gain favor. They take place at every level, from individuals to groups,
families, or whole communities. In addition to rites of passage, elaborate masquerades or cific
festivals are performed for important ancestors to celebrate harvest, or formerly to bring victory in
war.

Arts: The Yoruba are known for their contributions to the arts. Life-size bronze heads and terracottas,
sculpted in a classical style between A.D. 1000 and 1400 and found at the ancient city of Ife, have
been widely exhibited. Other art forms are poetry, myth, dance, music, body decoration, weaving,
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dyeing, embroidery, pottery, calabash carving, leather and beadworking, jewelry making and
metalworking.

Medicine: Yoruba medicine involves a full spectrum of ritual, psychological and herbal treatments.
Rarely practiced in isolation, curing is as dependent on possession, sacrifices or incantations as
medicinal preparations. Curing is learned through an apprenticeship and revealed slowly, because
treatments are closely guarded secrets.

Death and Afterlife: Each individual is endowed with an inner force that determines his or her
destiny. It is part of one’s “multiple soul”, which after death either resides in the sky with other
mystical powers or is reincarnated. As ancestors, the dead influence the living, and sacrifices are
made to gain their favor. Funeral rites are commensurate with one’s importance in life – simple for
children but elaborate for authority figures.

Kin Groups and Descent

Descent groups are important in marking status, providing security and regulating inheritance. There
are strong bilateral tendencies, but agnatic ties are emphasized among Northern Yoruba, among whom
descent groups once were largely conterminous with residence, but not among Southern Yoruba, who
tend to have more dispersed residences and stress cognatic ties. Descent groups have names and
founding ancestors, and in some cases they own chieftaincy titles. Women rarely succeed to the titles,
although their sons maintained internal discipline. Elder male members still act as decision makers,
adjudicators, and administrators; formerly, they served as representatives in civic affairs.

Extended-family relationships are individually cultivated and are important for mobilizing various
types of support.

Kinship Terminology: The few basic kinship terms are applied in a classificatory manner. Except for
mother/father, grandmother/grandfather, and wife/husband, there are no gender-specific terms; senior
siblings are distinguished from junior siblings; no cousing distinctions are made; and all children are
addressed by the same term regardless of sex or age. To indicate more precise relationships,
descriptive phrases must be used.

Social Organisation
Social status was and still is determined according to sex, age, descent group, and wealth. These
features determine seniority in social relationships and govern each actor’s rights, obligations, and
comportment vis-à-vis others. In the past, elder makes ideally held most positions of civic authority,
although senior women were known to do so. Emerging class distinctions are calculated according to
wealth, education, and occupation. High prestige also goes to people who are generous, hospitable,
and helpful to others.

Political Organisation
The indigenous political system consisted of a ruler and an advisory council of chiefs who represented
the significant sectors of a society; descent groups, the military, religious cults, age grades, markets,
and secret societies. Such representatives advised, adjudicated, administered, and set rules. The ruler
performed rituals, conducted external affairs, kept peace, and wielded general powers of life and death
over his subjects. Palace officials acted as intermediaries between the king and chiefs of outlying
towns and tributary holdings. The political structure of each village or town replicated, in similar
scale, the structure of the capital, kingship and some chiefships were hereditary. Primogeniture was
11
not practiced, rather, branches of a ruling house were allowed to choose, in turn, from among
competitor members. Other titles could be achieved or bestowed as an honor.

Today the ancient political systems survive with new functions as arms of local government.

Social Control
Depending on gravity and scale, disputes or crimes were judged by descent group leaders, chiefs,
rulers, or secret societies. Order was maintained by these same authorities and their aids. Deterrents
included fear of harsh punishment, supernatural retribution, curses, ostracism, and gossip.

Marriage
Marriage is prohibited among people who can trace a biological relationship. There are no ideal
partners. First, marriages still may be arranged by elders, who assess the suitability of spouses in
terms of mental and physical health, character, or propitiousness of the union. Some marriage
alliances were arranged for political or economic reasons. The type of ritual and amount of bride-
wealth depended on the status of the partners. Marital residence was patrilocal but in the late
twentieth century has become neolocal. Men traditionally married, and some continue to marry,
polygynously. Increasingly since the mid-twentieth century, marriages between educated men and
women reflect personal choice. Divorce is now common, although it is said to have been rare in
precolonial times.

Domestic Unit: Agnatically related men often shared the same large compound, taking separate
sections for their wives and children. Each wife had a separate room but cooked for and made
conjugal visits to her husband in rotation. Until the age of puberty, children slept in their mothers’
rooms; youths moved to a common room, and girls soon moved to the compounds f their husbands.

Inheritance: Landed property is inherited corporately following descent-group lines; other property
such as money or personal belongings is divided among direct heirs, with equal shares going to the set
of children born to each wife. Nothing is passed to a senior relative or wife unless there is a will.
Wives and slaves were once inherited by junior siblings.

Socialization: The closest ties are between mother and child. Mothers indulge their children, whereas
fathers are more remote and strict. A child is treated permissively until about age 2, after which
physical punishment and ridicule are used to regulate behavior. Pre-Western and pre-Islamic
education stressed economic and psychological independence, but not social independence. Children
learned occupations from parents of the same sex by participating from age 5 or 6 in their work.
Imitation and games played a large part in socialization.

THE IGBO SOCIETY

The Igbo are the second largest group of people living in Southern Nigeria. They are socially and
culturally diverse, consisting of many subgroups. Although they live in scattered groups of villages,
they all speak one language. The Igbo have no common traditional story of their origins. Historians
have proposed two major theories of Igbo origins. One claims the existence of a core area, or “nuclear
Igboland”. The other claims that the Igbo are descended from waves of immigrants from the north and
the west who arrived in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Three of these are the Nri, Nzam, and
Anam. Igboland is located in southeastern Nigeria, with a total land area of about 15,800 square miles
(about 41,000 square kilometers). The Igbo country has four distinct areas. The low-lying deltas and
riverbank areas are heavily inundated during the rainy season, and are very fertile. The central belt is
12
a rather high plain. The Udi highlands are the only coalmining area in West Africa. It is difficult to
obtain accurate census figures for either the Igbo or for Nigeria as a whole. The Igbo population is
estimated to be between 5 and 6 million. The Igbo language belongs to the Niger-Congo language
family. It is part of the Kwa subfamily. A complicated system of high and low tones indicates
differences in meaning and grammatical relationships. There are a wide range of dialects.
The Igbo have a system of folk beliefs that explains how everything in the world came into being. It
explains what functions the heavenly and earthly bodies have and offers guidance on how to behave
toward gods, spirits, and one’s ancestors. The Igbo believe the world is people by invisible and visible
forces; by the living, the dead, and those yet to be born.

Reincarnation is seen as a bridge between the living and the dead.

Contemporary views in Igbo Scholarship dismiss completely earlier claims of Jewish or Egyptian
origin – that is, “the Hamitic hypothesis” – as “the oriental mirage”. Instead, there are two current
opinions as a result of evidence derived from several sources that take into account oral history,
archaeology, linguistics, and art history. One suggests the Awka-Orlu uplands as the centre of Igbo
origin, from which dispersal took place. The second and more recent opinion suggests the region of
the Niger-Benue confluence as the area of descent some five thousand years ago, and the Plateau
region, that is, the Nsukka-Okigwe Cuesta, as the area of Igbo settlement. This first area of settlement
would include Nuskka-Okigwe and Awk-Orlu uploads. The Southern Igbo would constitute areas of
later southward migration.

Until about 1500, major economic, social, and political transformations led to continuous outward
migrations from overpopulated and less fertile Igbo core area to more fertile lands, particularly east of
the lower Niger River. The Igbo had cultural relations with their various neighbours, the Igala, Ijaw
(Ijo), Urhobo, Edo, and Yoruba. From 1434 to 1807, the Niger coast was a contact point between
European and African traders. This was also the period of trade in slaves; this activity resulted in the
development of more destructive weapons of war. The Portuguese came to Nigerian coastal towns
between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; they were the first Europeans to make contact with the
Igbo. The Dutch followed in the seventeenth century, and the British came in the eighteenth century.
In the late nineteenth century, mission Christianity and colonialist interest worked together for the
colonization of Igboland. The Church Missionary Society and the Catholic Mission opened their
missions in Onitsha in 1857 and 1885, respectively.

Marriage
Marriage is not a matter for the man and woman alone; it concerns the close kin of both groom.
Marriage arrangements are negotiated between the families of the prospective bride and groom. With
regards to the paternity of the wife’s children, they belong to the lineage of the husband. When a
woman has children out of wedlock, however, they belong to her natal lineage, and not to that of the
children’s father. Igbo have also institutionalized marriage options permitting “female husbands” in
woman-to-woman marriages, in special circumstances. Some daughters with a male status (i.e. “male
daughters”) do not even have to marry to procreate.

Although females are brought up looking forward to this dual role, it would be misleading to think that
the major roles of women in Igbo society are as wife and mother, since Igbo women are prominent in
public life as an organized force in both economics and politics. A significant part of a young girl’s
man’s childhood training is geared toward their future roles in the family and as useful and responsible
citizens. Women are fully involved in matching and usually participate directly or indirectly in the
actual negotiations of marital arrangements for their sons or their daughters, in cooperation with the
13
male members of the families concerned. Women have powerful and active behind the scene roles in
seeking out the girls they would like their sons to marry. The approval of the mother is vital because
the young bride is generally expected to live with her mother-in-law and to serve her for the first few
months of marriage, until the new couple can set up an independent household and farmland.
Domestic Unit: Most Igbo lived in villages made up of dispersed compounds. A compound was
typically a cluster of huts belonging to individual household units. The typical Igbo village consisted
of loose clusters of homestead scattered along cleared paths that radiated from a central meeting place.
The village meeting place usually contained the shrines or temples and groves of the local earth
goddess and also served as the market. Large communities often had two such units. Most local
communities contained anywhere between 40 and 8,000 residents. Homesteads were generally
comprised of the houses of a man, his wives, his children and sometimes his patrilineal cousins. They
were often surrounded by mud walls and were nearly always separated from neighboring homesteads
by undergrowth or women’s gardens. Northern Igbo women normally decorated the mud walls of
their houses with artwork. In the south, houses were made of mud on a stick framework; usually
either circular or rectangular, the houses were thatched with either palm leaves or grass and were
floored with beaten mud. Co-wives had their own rooms, kitchens, and storerooms. Young children
and daughters usually stayed with their mothers, whereas the males lived in separate houses.
Population pressure and European architecture has forced significant changes in these old settlement
ideals, introducing (cement) brick houses lacking aesthetic appeal.

Inheritance: The bulk of inheritance allotments are granted to the eldest son, who, at the time of the
inheritance, becomes responsible for the welfare of his younger siblings. If the eldest son is a minor at
the time of his father’s death, a paternal uncle will take charge of the property and provide for the
deceased brother’s family. There is also marriage by inheritance or levirate – a widow may become
the wife of her brother-in-law. In some localities, widows may become the wives of the deceased
father’s sons by another wife.

Religious Beliefs
Although many Igbo people are now Christians, traditional Igbo religious practices still abound. The
traditional Igbo religion includes an uncontested general reverence for Ala or Ana, the earth goddess,
and beliefs and rituals related to numerous other male and female deities is sought through oracles and
divination. The claim that the Igbo acknowledge a creator God or Supreme Being, Chukwu or
Chineka, is, however, contested. Some see it as historical within the context of centralized political
formations, borrowings from Islam and Christianity, and the invention of sky (Igwu) gods. The
primordial earth goddess and other deified spirits have shrines and temples of worship and affect the
living in very real and direct ways, but there are none dedicated to Chukwu. Al encapsulates both
politics and religion in Igbo society by fusing together space, custom, and ethics (omenala); some refer
to Ala as the constitutional deity of the Igbo. The Igbo concept of personhood and the dialectic
between individual choice/freedom and destiny or fate is embodied in the notion of chi, variously
interpreted as spirit double, guardian angel, personal deity, personality soul, or divine nature. Igbo
have varied accounts of myths of origin because there are many gods and goddesses. According to
one Igbo worldview, Chukwu created the visible universe, uwa. The universe is divided into two
levels; the natural level, uwa, or human world and the spiritual level of spirits, which include
Anyanwu, the sun; Igwe, the sky, Andala (or Ana), the earth; women’s water spirits/goddesses, and
forest spirits. Through taboos, the Igbo forge a mediatory category of relations with nature and certain
animals such as pythons, crocodiles, tigers, tortoises, and fish.

Religious Practitioners
14
There are two different kinds of priest, the hereditary lineage priests and priests who are chosen by
particular deities for their service. Diviners and priests – those empowered with ofo, the symbol of
authority, truth, and justice – interpret the wishes of the spirits, who bless and favour devotees as well
as punish social offenders and those who unwittingly infringe their priviledges, and placate the spirits
with ceremonial sacrifices.

Death and Afterlife: The living, the dead, and the unborn form part of a continuum Enshrined
ancestors are those who lived their lives well and died in a socially acceptable manner (i.e. were given
the proper burial rites). These ancestors live in one of the worlds of the dead that mirrors the world of
the living. The living pays tribute to their ancestors by honouring them through sacrifices.

Economic Organisation
Substance and Commercial Activities: Substance farming characterizes agriculture among traditional
Igbo people. The chief agricultural products include yams, cassava, and taro. Other important
subsidiary crops include cocoyam, plantains, maize, melons, okra, pumpkins, peppthe Ikwo and ers,
gourds and beans. Palm products are the main cash crops. The principal exports include palm oil and
to a lesser extent, palm kernels. Trading, local crafts, and wage labour are also important in the Igbo
economy.

Trade:
The Ikwo and Ezza in the Abakaliki Division of Ogoja produce a substantial surplus of yams for trade.
Women dominate rural retail market trade. Trading is a major social and economic function of fomen
in traditional Igbo society. Women engage in all sorts of economic activities to make money to
purchase the essentials they need. They make mats and pottery and weave cloth. Women do most of
the petty trade, which is very active. The manufacture and trade of pottery are almost exclusively the
domain of women. Igbo also process palm oil and palm kernels, which they market with the surplus
crops from their farm stock, and generally monopolize the sale of cooked foods. They mine and sell
salt.

Division of Labour: There is a sexual division of labour in the traditional setting. Men are mainly
responsible for yam cultivation, and women for other crops. Usually, the men clear and prepare the
land, plant their own yams, cut stakes and train the ya vines, build the crops,” which include cassava,
cocoyams, pumpkins, and peppers. They also weed and harvest the yams from the farm. With regard
t palm products, the men usually cut the palm fruit and tap and then sell the palm wine. They also sell
palm oil, which the women prepare. In general, women reserve and sell the kernels.

Land Tenure: Most farmland is controlled by kinship groups cooperatively cultivate farmland and
make subsequent allocations according to seniority. To this end, rights over the use of land for food
cultivation or for building a house depend primarily on agnatic descent, and secondarily on local
residence. It is Igbo custom that a wife must be allocated a piece of land to cultivate for feeding her
household.

Social Organisation
Traditional Igbo social life is based on membership in kinship groups and parallel but complementary
dual-sex associations, which are of great importance to the integration of society. The associations
take several forms, including age grades, men’s societies, women’s societies and prestige-title
societies such as the Nze or Ozo for men and the Omu, Ekwe, or Lolo for women. The interlocking
nature of these groups prevents the concentration of authority in any one association. Age sets are
15
informally established during childhood. Respect and recognition among the Igbo are accorded not
only on the basis of age, but also through the acquisition of traditional titles. In Igbo society, an
individual may progress at least five levels of titles. One coud liken the acquisition of titles to the
acquisition of academic degrees. Titles are expensive to obtain, and each additional title costs more
than the preceding one; they are therefore considered a sure means to upward mobility.

Political Organisation
The basic political unit among the Igbo is the village. Two types of political systems have been
distinguished among the Igbo on both sides of the Niger River: the democratic village republic type,
found among the Igbo living to the east of the Niger River and the constitutional monarch type, found
among Igbo in Delta State and the riverine towns of Onitsha and Ossomali. Most of the villages or
towns that have the latter type of political system have two ruling monarchs – one female and one
male. The Obi (male monarch) is theoretically the father of the whole community, and the Omu
(female monarch) is theoretically the mother of the whole community; the duties of the latter,
however, center mainly around the female side of the community.

Women engage in village politics (i.e., manage their affairs, separately from the men). They do this
by establishing their own political organisations, which come under an overall village or town
Women’s Council under the leadership of seasoned matriachs. It was this organizational system that
enabled Igbo women and Ibibio women to wage an anticolonial struggle against the British in 1929
known as the women’s war (Ogu Umunwayi).

Both types of political systems are characterized by the smallness in size of the political units, the
wide dispersal of political authority between the sexes, kinship groups, lineages, age sets, title
societies, diviners, and other professional groups. Colonialism has had a detrimental effect on the
social, political, and economic status of traditional Igbo women, resulting in a gradual loss of
autonomy and power.

Kin Groups and Descent

Igbo society places strong emphasis on lineage kinship systems, particularly the patrilineage, although
some Igbo groups, such as the Ohaffia, have a matrilineal descent system, whereas groups like the
Afipko Igbo have a double descent system. In all the Igbo groups, one’s mother’s people remain
important throughout one’s life.

Kinship Terminology: The umunnna, children of one father or a localized patrilineage, is made up of
specific compound families, which consist of even more basic matricentric household units of each
mother and siblings. The Umunna is made up of both mae and female cognates of an Igbo man’s
father’s lineage. All blood-related kinship groups are bound in the morality or ethnics of Umunne, the
ritualized spirit of a common mother. Ndi-Umune, or Ikwunne, is the term used to describe the
mother’s agnates.

THE HAUSA SOCIETY

The Hausa, numbering more than 20 million, are the largest ethnic group in West Africa. They are
widely distributed geographically and have intermingled with many different peoples. Islam arrived in
the area by the fourteenth century. By the fifteenth century, there were a number of independent
Hausa city states. They competed with each other for control of trade across the Sahara Desert, slaves
and natural resources. In the nineteenth century, the region was unified by a Jihad (Islamic Holy War)
and became known as Hausaland. The British arrived and colonized the area in about 1900. Even
16
during colonial times, the city-states and their leaders maintained some autonomy. Many Hausa
traditions were preserved until late in the twentieth century.
The Hausa people are concentrated mainly in northwestern Nigeria and in adjoining southern Niger.
This area is mostly semiarid grassland or savanna, dotted with cities surrounded by farming
communities. The cities of this region- Kano, Sokoto, Zari, and Katsina, for example are among the
greatest commercial centers of Sub-Saharan Africa (Africa South of the Sahara Desert). Hausa people
are also found living in other countries of West Africa like Cameroon, Togo, Chad, Benin, Burkina
Faso, and Ghana. Hausa is the most widely spoken language in West Africa. It is spoken by an
estimated 22 million people. Another 17 million people speak Hausa as a second language. Hausa is
written in Arabic characters, and about one-fourth of Hausa words come from Arabic. Many Hausa
can read and write Arabic. Many can also speak either French or English.

According to tradition, Bayajidda, the mythical ancestor of the Hausa, migrated from Baghdad in the
ninth or tenth century AD. After stopping at the kingdom of Bornu, he fled west and helped the king
of Daura slay a dangerous snake. As a reward, he was given the Queen of Daura in marriage.
Bayajidda’s son, Bawo, founded the city of Biram. He had six sons who became the rulers of other
Hausa city-states. Collectively, these are known as the Hausa bakwai (Hausa seven). Hausa folklore
includes tatsunya – stories that usually have a moral. They involve animals, young men and maidens,
and heroes and villains. Many include proverbs and riddles.

Linguistic Affiliation: A Chadic language, Hausa is related to Arabic, Hebrew, Berber, and other
Afroasiatic Family members. Proper tone and stress are imperative. Hausa, which was originally
written in Arabic script, has a centuries old literary tradition, but it is also the language of trade and
next to Swahill, is the most widely spoken African language.

Religion
Most Hausa are devout Muslims who believe in Allah and in Muahmmad as his prophet. They pray
five times each day, read the Koran (Holy Scriptures), fast during the month of Ramadan, give alms to
the poor and aspire to make the pilgrimage (Hajj) to the Muslim Holy land in Mecca Islam affects
nearly all aspects of Hausa behavior, including dress, art, housing, rites of passage, and laws. In the
rural areas, there are communities of peoples who do not follow Islam. These peoples are called
Maguzawa. They worship nature spirits known as bori or iskoki.

Economic Organisation
Subsistence and Commercial Activities: Agriculture is the main economic activity. Grain is the staple
diet, including Guinea Corn, millet, maize, and rice. The Hausa also grow and eat root crops and a
variety of vegetables. Cotton and peanuts are processed and used locally but part of the harvest is
exported. The Hausa practice intercropping and double-cropping; their main implement is the hoe.
The Cattle Fulani provide the Hausa with meat, yoghurt and butter. Most men also practice a second
occupation; astrictive and ranked, these include aristocratic officeholder, scholar, Islamic cleric
(Imam), artisan, trader, musician, and butcher. As good Muslims, the urban women are in seclusion
(rural women much less so), and therefore dependent, upon their husbands for their maintenance; they
are economically active from behind the compound walls, however, primarily in order to finance their
daughters’ dowries. Their work, which includes sewing and selling prepared food and jewelry, is an
offshoot of their domestic personal.

Industrial Arts: There are full-time specialists only where there is an assured market for craft
products. Men’s crafts include training, leatherworking, saddling, weaving, dying, woodworking and
17
smiting. Iron has been mined, smelted, and worked as far back as there are Hausa traditions.
Blacksmiths have a guild like organization, and many are hereditary.
Trade: Trade is complicated and varied. Some traders deal in a particular market, as distinguished
from those who trade in many markets over a long distance. This dual trade strategy, augmented by
the contributions of the Cattle Fulani, enabled the Hausa to meet all of their requirements, even during
the nineteenth century. The markets are traditional to Hausa society and carry social as well as
economic significance; male friends and relatives meet there, and well-dressed marriageable young
women pass through, to see and be seen. The Hausa differentiate rural from urban settlements in
terms of the size and frequency of the markets. There is also customary exchange that takes place
outside of the market. Gift exchanges are practiced at life-cycle celebrations such as childbirth,
naming, marriage, and death; other exchanges are framed by religion (alms, tithes, fixed festivals and
politics (expressing relations of patronage / clientage).

Division of Labour: Hausa society traditionally observes several divisions of labour; in public
administration, it is primarily men who may be appointed, although some women hold appointed
positions in the palace. Lass determines what sort of work one might do and gender determines work
roles. When women engage in income producing activities, they may keep what they earn. Because
of purdah, many women who trade are dependent upon children to act as their runners.

Land Tenure: The rural householder farms with his sons’ help; from the old farm, he allocates to
them small plots, which he enlarges as they mature. New family fields are cleared from the bush.

Religious Beliefs: About 90 percent of the Hausa are Muslims. The traditional Hausa way of life and
Islamic social values have been intermixed for such a long time that many of the basic tenets of Hausa
society are Islamic” (Adamu 1978, 9). Islam has been carried throughout West Africa by Hausa
traders. Adherents are expected to observe the five pillars of Islam profession of the faith, five daily
prayers, alms giving, fasting at Ramadan, and at least one pilgrimage to Mecca (the Hajj). Within
Hausa society, there are sects (brotherhoods) of adherents; of these, the Tijaniya, Qadriya, and
Ahmadiyya have been important. Wife seduction is basic to the Hausa version of Islam, although it is
believed that the institution is more a sign of status than of religious piety.

Even among some Muslims, as among the Maguzawa pagans, spirit cults persist. One, the Bori, has
more female than male adepts; cultists are believed to be possessed by particular spirits within the Bori
pantheon.

Ceremonies: Men are enjoined to attend Friday prayers at the mosque. Men and women celebrate the
three main annual festivals of Ramadan, Id IlFitr, and Sallah, Life-cycle events – birth, puberty,
marriage, death – are also marked.

Arts: The arts are limited to those forms allowed by Islam; the Hausa use Islamic design in their
architecture, pottery, cloth, leather, and weaving. Music is an integral part of Hausa life and can be
classified in terms of function and audience; for royalty, for dancing pleasure, and for professional
guilds. Each category has its own instruments, which include drums as well as string and wind
instruments. Poetry exists in an oral tradition, as practiced by the praise signers and the oral
historians, and also in the written tradition of the learned.

Medicine: There is a tricultural system that consists of strong traditional roots set in the framework of
a predominantly Islamic mode, now augmented by western medicine. The Bori spirit-possession cult
18
is relied upon for various kinds of curing, and this involves diagnosing the particular spirit giving the
sic person trouble.
Death and Afterlife: Burial is in the Islamic manner. Upon death, the individual passes on into the
realm of heaven (paradise) or hell, consistent with Islamic teaching.

Social Organisation
One of the most salient principles in Hausa society is the segregation of adults according to gender.
Throughout Hausa land, seclusion of marked women is normative, and the extra domestic impact of
sexual segregation and stratification is that women are legal, political, and religious minors and the
economic wards of men. Although women are central to kinship matters, they are excluded from extra
domestic discussion and decision making. Both within the household and n the public domain,
patriarchal authority is dominant and reinforced by spatial separation of the sexes.

The senior wife of the compound head, the Maigida, is the Uwargida, she may settle minor disputes
among residents and give advice and aid to the younger women. Domestic authority rests with the
male head of compound/household.

From childhood, males and females develop bond friendships with members of the same sex, a
practice continued into adulthood and marked by reciprocal exchanges. Given their seclusion, women
tend to formalized their bond ties more than men do. Formal relationships that emphasize differences
in status (patron/client) are also established by women, as they are by men.

Political Organisation
Organizational structure is hierarchic; the centralized kingdoms, known as emirates, are the primary
groupings; districts are secondary and village areas tertiary. The institutions of kinship, clientship, and
office (and in the past, slavery) in the emirates, have provided the fundamentals of Hausa government
from the sixteenth century until the middle part of the twentieth century. Rank regulates relations
between commoners and rulers. “Traditional and modern government proceeds through a system of
titled offices … each of which is an theory a unique indissoluble legal corporation having definite
rights, powers and duties, special relations to the throne and to certain other offices, special lands,
farms compounds, horses, praise songs, clients, and formerly, slaves” (Smith 1965, 132). In most
states, major offices are traditionally distributed among descent groups, so that rank and lineage
intertwine. The traditional offices differed in rewards, power, and function, and were territorially
based with attendant obligations and duties. Within communities, the various occupational groups
distribute titles, which duplicate the ranks of the central political system.

Clientship links men of unequal status, position and wealth. It is a relationship of mutual benefit,
whereby the client gains advice in his affairs at the minimum and protection, food and shelter at the
maximum. The patron can call upon the client to serve as his retainer. In applying his notion of
government to Kano, the Fulani religious and political leader Usmandan Fodio, when he launched his
successful Jihad against the king of Gobir in 1804, he followed the basic premise of a theocracy within
a legalistic framework, government and its Chief agent, the Emir, were perceived as an instrument of
Allah.

Social Control
Legal affairs fall under the jurisdiction of the Emir, and he is guided by Islamic law. The Quran, the
word of Allah, and its hadith, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammed, along with the dictates of
secular reasoning provide answers to legal questions. The Sharia, the canon law of Islam is
19
fundamentally a code of obligations, a guide to ethics. Sanctions of shame and ostracism compel
conformity to Hausa and Islamic custom.
Conflict: When disputes arise, the Hausa may opt to go to court, submit to mediation, or leave it to
Allah. The basic process involves difference to mediation by elders.

Marriage
Adult Hausa society is essentially totally married, Ideal marriage is virilocal/patrilocal, and it is
polygynous: man is allowed up to four wives at a time. The term in Hausa for co-wife is Kishiya,
from the word for “Jealousy,” often but not always descriptive of co-wife relations. Once men begin
to marry, they are rarely single despite divorce because most are polygynous; nearly 50 percent of the
women are divorced at some point, but there is such pressure to be married and have children that they
tend not to stay unmarried long. Important social distinctions identify women in terms of their marital
status. But custom, girls marry at the age of 12 to 14. There is some disagreement in the literature
regarding the respectful nature of singlehood. Divorce is a regular occurrence, not surprisingly, given
the brittle and formal relationship between spouses. Both men and women have a right to divorce, but
for men it is easier. After divorce, most weaned children are claimed by their father.

Marriage is marked by bride-price, given by the groom’s family to the bride, and a dowry for the bride
provided by her family. Marriage is classified according to the degree of wife seclusion and according
to whether it is a kin or non-kin union. Bilateral cross-cousin marriage is preferred.

Kin Groups and Descent: Although the domestic group is based on agnatic ties, and even as Hausa
society is patriarchal, descent is basically bilateral; only the political aristocracy and urban
intelligentsia observe strict patrileality, everyone else practicing bilaterality.

Kinship Terminology: Hausa kinship terminology cannot be classified according to standard

anthropological categories because of the number of alternative usages. For example, a man’s siblings
and his parallel or cross cousins are called yanuwa (children of my mother); cross cousins, however,
are also referred to and addressed as abokanwasa (joking relations) and special terms distinguishing
elder and younger brother and sister may also be applied to both parallel and cross cousins.

Domestic Unit: The ideal household is the agnatically based gandu (family farm), formed by a man
with his sons and their wives and children. After the senior male’s death, the brothers may stay on
together for a time. More frequently, each brother’s household becomes a separate economic unit.

Inheritance: Consistent with Islamic Practice: A woman can own and inherit in her own right, but her
inheritance rights are subordinate to those of men. All of the wives married to a man at the time of his
death are entitled, together with their children, to share one-quarter of his total estate if there are no
agnatic descendants or one-eight of his estate if there are agnatic descendants. Women own property
such as houses and land together with consanguines, even after marriage, and they inherit only half as
much as their brothers. Succession to leadership of the agnatic group and leadership of the compound
is collateral. Farmland is inherited in the male line, the gandu being collectively owned by brothers.

Socialization: Women observe a postpartum taboo on sexual intercourse for a year and a half to two
years, during which time the child is breast-fed. Toddlers are weaned onto soft foods and then to the
standard diet. An older sister caries the infant on her back when the mother is busy, which extends
into a special attachment between an adult man and his elder sister. From infancy, boys and girls are
treated differently. Boys are preferred; as they age, they learn that they are superior to girls and
20
consequently to distance themselves from them and identify with things masculine. It is imperative
for boys to separate from their mothers. Girls are trained to self-identify in terms of their sex role:
domestic (female) skills are taught to young women as they mature. They are admonished to be
submissive and subordinate to males. As children, boys and girls are rigidly sex-stereotyped into
appropriate behavior.

The Kanuri People

Although there are semi legendary views about early Kanuri roots in Yemen, little is known of the
earliest phases of Kanuri culture, contemporary Kanuri are the descendants of the ruling Saifawa
family of the Kanem Empire. As a result of civil war, this family left Kanem in the fourteen century
and, after nearly a century of internal strife, established a new empire southwest of Lake Chad. This
empire was and is known as Bornu, although Borno is now its official name. the area to which the
Saifawa moved was inhabited by various peoples about who little is known. Now they are known
collectively as the Sau – reputedly a race of giants. For a period of several centuries, the efforts of the
Saifawa to consolidate their power and expand their kingdom’s boundaries led to the incorporation of
many distinctive groups within Kanuri society. This process has not ended. Intermarriage, commerce,
politics, and other factors have combined to produce a people who are culturally heterogeneous. The
Kanuri have had a strong influence on surrounding peoples, which include the Bodum of Lake Chad,
the Mandara and Kotoko (or Mogori) who live southeast of the Kanuri, the Marghi of the Damboa
district, the Babur in the hills south of the Kanuri, the Bolewa located southwest of the Kanuri, and the
Bede of Gashua, within the Kanuri territory. All of these groups have acquired various aspects of
Kanuri culture, mainly the Kanuri language and Islam. Many including the Hausa, were at one time
subjects of the Kanuri Empire.

Socio-Political Organisation
The Kanuri live in settlements ranging in size from the large city of Maiduguri which is the capital of
Borno and has a population of 80,000 to tiny hamlets of three or four households, about two thirds of
the population lives in villages of from 1,000 to 5,000 people. About one quarter live in cities of more
than 10,000. Hamlets are found about every 1.5 to 3 kilometers, and larger villages every 8 or 10
kilometers. Settlements are composed of walled compounds, made up of mud – or grass-mat-walled
houses, with thatched conical roofs. Farms extend in a circle from the settlement, with scattered
farms, pastures, and free land beyond.

Before European contact, Bornu was a feudal state, with royal lineages, a landholding aristocracy,
peasants, and slaves. Today, in almost all cases, important political leaders are descendants of the
aristocratic lineages, but popular elections have added commoners to their ranks. When the British
took control at the beginning of the twentieth century, they abolished slavery and took over the top
decision-making positions, but they left most of the social system intact. In small villages, there is
little or no labour specialization, and differences in wealth are slight. In towns and cities, however,
social stratification is pronounced, and differences in wealth may be great. New trading opportunities,
western education, and political power through election and financial support of others have all served
to create a situation in which there are commoners who have become as wealthy as the aristocrat.

THE IBIBIO
The name “Ibibio” identifies the largest subdivision of people living in southeastern Nigeria, in Adwa-
Ibom State, and it is generally accepted and used for both ethnic and linguistic descriptions. Like their
Igbo neighbours, the Ibibio people originally shared no common term that identified them as a whole.
The name “Agbisherea” was first used by European explorers in the nineteenth century to describe
21
Ibibio inhabitants, but apparently died out soon after. Some Igbo speaking people refer to their Ibibio
speaking neighbours as “Mong”; others call them “Kwa”.

The Ibibio are located to the south and southeast of the Igbo, in southeastern Nigeria. This includes
the former Calabar Province (the ItuMbuzo subgroup is in the Bende Division).
Owerri Province, and certain villages of the Obong. The Eastern Ibibio or Ika, have attached their
village groups to the Ndokki Igbo of Owerri.

The Ibibio numbered over two million in the 1963 census and fell into the following six major
divisions; Riverain (Efik), Northern (Enyong), Southern, (Eket), Delta (Andoni-Ibeno), Western
(Anag) and Eastern (Ibibio proper). These main groups are further divided into groups that are
identifiable by geographical location. The Efik reside mostly in the Calabar Province, and are divided
into Enyong (Aro), Calabar, Itu, and Eket groups. The Riverain area also includes the Cameroons,
inhabited by the Kumba and Victoria groups. The Eyong are vided into the Enyong (Aro) and
IkotEkpene of Calabar Province and the Bende division of Owerri Province. The Eket division resides
in Calabar Province. The Adoni-Ibenoare divided into the Eket and Opopo of Calabar Province. The
Anang are divided into the Abak and IkotEkpene of Calabar Province, and the Aba of Owerri
Province. The Ibibio proper are divided into the Uyo, Itu, Eket, IkotEkpene, Enyong (Aro), Abak,
Opopo, and Calabar groupings. They also make up the Aba division of Owerri Province.

Linguistic Affiliation: The Ibibio speak dialects of Efik-Ibibio, a language of the Kwa Branch of the
NIger-Congo Family. being The best known dialect, Efik has been established as the literary
language, and is understood by most educated Ibibio. Because of its remarkable assimilative power,
Efik spread throughout the Cross River area and even into the Cameroons.

The most basic difference among the many dialects of Ibibio is in the vocabulary. To a lesser extent,
the sound system, tone, and grammar can be distinguished. Comparative studies have shown
considerable similarity between the Efik and the Ibibio proper, Oron, Eket, Anang, and Ibeno dialects.
Historical records indicate no traditional migratory pattern among the Ibibio proper and the Anang,
they appear to be longtime occupants of their present habitat. All of the other Ibibio speaking groups
were derived from the Ibibio proper. Direct references to the Ibibio are found in early historical
records. This is presumably because of their activity in the slave trade. Their history is associated
with the Calabar and Efik of the lower Cross River area. (The name “Efik” refers not to the Ibibio
subdivision, but to the indigenous groups among whom the Efik Ibibio settled).

Economic Organisation
Subsistence and Commercial Activities: Like their Igbo neighbours, the Ibibio are primarily rain-forest
cultivators of yams, taro, and cassava. They engage in subsistence agriculture. Other food crops
include plantains, chilies, maize, beans, and pumpkins. Most of Ibibio wealth comes from the expect
of palm oil products, distributive trading among themselves, and town wage labor.
Industrial Arts: The Ibibio, especially the Anang, are well known for their skill in wood carving and
are considered masters of an adroit professional technique. Weaving is generally done by Youths of
both sexes, whereas women are responsible for mat making.
Trading: The Efik engage in trading fish and palm oil in considerable amounts.

Division of Labour: As with the Igbo, yams are traditionally considered to be the Chief crop of men,
and cocoyams the chief crop of women. Men do most of the clearing, planting, and harvesting of the

22
yams. Women weed, plant, and tend other crops. They also collect the harvested yams into baskets
and carry them to the market.

In collecting the produce from palm trees, man generally do the climbing and the women collect and
carry the fruit to the market. The extracting and processing of palm oil is usually done by women,
who retain the palm kernels. Also, raffia palms may be tended by men, but are usually owned by
women, and are used to make wine, mats, and poles.

Land Tenure: With a strong emphasis on the patrilineage, the make members from the dominant
snucleus of the hamlet and have collective rights to its land. The lineage head allocates the land for
farming among its members on a year basis (see also “Social Control”).

THE EDO BENIN SOCIETY

“Edo” is the name that the people of the Benin kingdom give to themselves, their language, and their
capital city and kingdom. Renowned for their art of brass and Ivory and for their complex political
organization, the Edo Kingdom of Benin is one of the best known of the pre-colonial kingdoms on the
Guinea Coast of West Africa. From at least the fifteenth century, the Benin Empire held varying
degrees of authority over neighbouring peoples, including the Western Igbo, northeastern Yoruba, and
various related Edo- speaking groups. In 1897, British-colonial forces conquered the kingdom and
made it part of the Niger Protectorate. Today it is incorporated into the modern state of Nigeria.

Accurate population figures are difficult to obtain for this area, particularly outside the capital city. In
1963 a Nigerian census indicated that Benin City had a population of 100,694. The urban population
was estimated at 201,000 in 1972, and by 1976 at 314, 219, indicating a growth rate of 8.5 percent for
that period, on the basis of which Ikhuoria (1984, 177) estimated the city’s 1980 population – of which
the Edo comprised the largest number at 425,000. Migration to Benin City continues to increase its
population, which doubles in size every decade, as young people from the rural areas, as well as from
different ethnic groups, come to seek employment.

Linguistic Affiliation: Edo belongs to the Edoid cluster of languages that is part of the Kwa Language
Family and the Niger-Kordofanian Superfamily. Edo-speaking peoples include not only the Edo
proper but also the Ishan, the Etsako, the Ivbiosakon, the Akoko Edo, the Ineme, the Urhobo, and the
Isoko. Many contemporary Edo speakers speak English as well as languages of neighbouring
Nigerian groups.

Religious Beliefs
In the traditional Edo view, the universe is divided into two planes of existence: the visible tangible
world of everyday life (agbon) and the invisible spirit world (erinmwin) created by Osanobua and
inhabited by him, other deities, ancestors, spirits, and supernatural powers. These are two parallel,
coexisting realms; their boundaries, however, are not inviolable, as gods and spirits daily intervene in
the lives of humans, and particularly powerful humans draw upon the forces of the spirit world to
transform daily experience. The creator og, Osanobua, is rather remote; worship is more frequently
directed toward the other deities, who are his children. The most important of these according to
Benin notions of seniority – is Olokun, his oldest son. Olokun, the ruler of the global waters and the
provider of wealth and fertility, is the most widely venerated deity in Benin, especially among women
who join local congregations to pray and sacrifice for children. Ogun, the god of iron, is the concern
of all who deal with metal, including taxi drivers and mechanics. Other deities include Osun, the
power inherent in leaves and herbs, the special concern of herbalists; Ogwu, the god of death; and
23
Obienwen, the goddess of safe delivery. Yoruba deities such as Eshu, the trickster; Sango, the god of
thunder, and Orunmila, the deity of divination, have been incorporated into Edo religion.
Congregations of worshippers and shrines dedicated to these deities are found in both the villages and
the city, although Osanobua, Osun, and Ogiuwu had central shrines and chief priests in Benin City
only.

An urban-rural area dichotomy of religious worship was maintained through the exclusion of certain
cults from the capital city. Such cults were dedicated to culture heroes-once-famous warriors,
magician, and court figures that came into conflict with the king. Fleeing from the capital, they sought
refuge in their home villages and were transformed into natural phenomenon, mainly rivers. The
villagers worship these culture heroes as protective deities who are concerned with fertility and health.
Aspects of the human body are endowed with spiritual power and often have shrines where they are
propitiated. Important among these are the head-the locus of a person’s intelligence, will, and ability to
organize his life and that of his dependents –and the hand- source of the individual’s ability to succeed
in life in the material sense.

When the Portuguese arrived in Benin, they tried to introduce Christianity. In 1516 they built a church
in the capital city and taught the king’s senior son and two important chiefs how to read. Their efforts
to spread the Christian faith were not successful. Missionary efforts increased substantially with
colonialism, and today there are churches of every conceivable denomination in Benin City, including
Hare Krishna, and some missionary outposts in the village. Church participation frequently occurs side
by side with indigenous ancestral and herbal practices.

Religious practitioners: there are two main categories of religious specialists: priest (ohen) and
diviner/herbalist (obo). A priest, who can be either male or female, undergoes a long series of
initiation rites before specializing in performing a wide variety of ceremonies and communicating
directly, often through trance, with his or her patron deity. Such priests can be found presiding over
congregations in cities and villages, as well as in the country side. The diviner/healer usually male,
specializes in some branch of magical activity such as curing, diving, handling witches, or
administering ordeals.

Ceremonies: in pre-colonial times there was a royal cycle of ceremonies, one for each of the thirteen
lunar months. Some were of a private nature, such as the sacrifices the king made to his head or his
hand, others were public. Oba Eweka ii curtailed many of the private ceremonies in the palace, and his
son, Akenzua ii, reduced and limited the public ceremonies to the Christmas vacation in order to
facilitate attendance. The most important of these are UqieErha Oba, which honors the king’s ancestor,
and Igue, which strengthens his mystical power. Domestic ceremonies mark the life cycle and the
private worship of various deities and ancestors.

Arts: the Benin kingdom is well known for its brass and ivory sculpture, which is found in museums
throughout the world. These objects were produced for the king and the nobility by members of craft
guilds in Benin City. Among the most famous Benin works of art are the brass (often mislabeled
bronze) commemorative heads topped by elaborately carved ivory tusks that are placed on the royal
ancestral altars and the rectangular brass plagues depicting court ceremonies and war exploits that
used to decorate the pillars of the palace. In the villages, devotees of local deified culture heroes
perform rituals employing a variety of different kind of masks some of wood, others of cloth or red
parrot feathers, to honor these deities and appeal for health and well-being.

24
Medicine: The Edo distinguished between common and serious illnesses. The former can be treated at
home or by western- trained doctors, the latter must be treated by specialists in traditional medicine,
whether priests or diviner/healers. Serious illness (childhood convulsions, smallpox, etc.) are believed
to be caused by witches or by deities angered over the violation of a taboo. Traditional medical
practices centers around belief in osun, the power inherent in leaves and herbs that grow in the bush.
Moat adults have a basic knowledge of herbalism, which helps them to care for their immediate
families, but there are also specialists, both priest and diviner/herbalist, who treat a variety of illnesses.
Edo today distinguish between white man’s medicine, for the treatment of diseases such as measles
and Edo medicine, which is still used for problems such as barrenness or illness created by witches.

Death and Afterlife: death is seen by the Edo people as part of a cycle in which an individual moves
between the spirit world and the everyday world in a series of fourteen reincarnations. Each cycle
begins with an appearance before the creator of God, at which time a person announces his/her destiny
or life plan. The person’s spiritual counterpart (ehi) is present and thereafter monitors the person’s
adherence to the announced plan. After death, the person and his/her ehi must give account to the
Creator God. If the account is acceptable, the person joins the ancestors in the spirit world until the
time has come to be born again. In the spirit world, the ancestors live in villages and quarters similar to
those in the world of everyday life. From there, they watch over the behavior of their relations in the
everyday world, punishing transgressions such as incest. Their descendants perform weekly and
annual rituals to placate and implore the ancestors to bring benefits of health and fertility.

The Edo have undoubtedly lived in the same area for many centuries. Connah’s archaeclogical
investigation (1975) at a site in what is today Benin City suggests that a large population with a degree
of political organization may have existed as early as the end of the late eleventh century but was
certainly in place by the end of the fifteenth. (Connah’s radiocarbon dates from this site are 1180 +
100 to 1310 + 100). Oral traditions include references to early dynasty of kings called Ogiso (a tern
that can apply to the dynasty as a whole or to individual rulers within that dynasty), which ruled, it is
suggested, until the twelfth or thirteenth century, when Oranmiyan dynasty, of Yoruba origin, took
over. The fifteenth and sixteen centuries were an age of conquest and cultural flowering . many of the
sculptures for which Benin is famous were created for the monarchs Ewuare, Ozolua, Esigie,
Orthogbua, and Ehengbuda. Under the rule of these kings, the empire imposed varying degree of
domination over neighbouring Yoruba, Igbo and Edo speaking populations and even extended its
influence to Badagry and Ouidah (now in the Republic of Benin, which was called Dahomey until
1976). This expansion was in process when Portuguese explorers arrived in the third quarter of the
fifteenth century. They were interested in spreading Christianity and developing commerce. Trade
with the Netherlands, France and England followed. Oral traditions and European records indicate
that the power of the kingdom fluctuated over the centuries. A dynamic crisis in the seventeenth
century led to a civil war lasting from about 1690 to 1720, which disrupted the political and economic
life of the kingdom, but peace was restored by kings Akenzua I and Eresoyen in the mid-eighteenth
century. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Benin came into conflict with the British, who
viewed the kingdom as an obstacle to their economic and political expansion in the area. In 1897 a
British consular official insisted on visiting the city in spite of requests by the king to delay until the
completion of important religious ceremonies. The consul and his party were ambushed and most of
them were killed. The British immediately assembled the “Punitive Expedition,” a retaliatory force,
which attacked and captured Benin City in February of 1897, setting fires throughout the urban area
and taking as war booty thousands of brass and ivory sculptures. The reigning king, Ovonramwen, was
sent into exile, where he died, and the Benin kingdom was incorporated into the Southern Province of
the Nigerian Protectorate. In 1914 the British amalgamated the Southern and Northern protectorates
25
into the new country of Nigeria. In the same year, they restored the monarchy in Benin allowing
Ovonramwen’s son, Eweka II, to assume the throne. They instituted a system of Native
Administration (a form of indirect rule), introduced a uniform monetary system and direct taxation,
established government schools, and built a communications network of roads and railways. Early in
the twentieth century, the Church Missionary Society and the Society of African Missions arrived in
Benin, but they had less success there than in other parts of Nigeria. Nigeria gained independence in
1960, and at that time the kingdom became part of the Western Region. Over the years, the modern
political boundaries of the territory and its names have changed several times. In 1963, it was
separated from the Western Region and called the Midwest Region, and then, in 1976, it was renamed
Bendel State. In 1993 Bended State was split in two, and today the Benin kingdom is part of Edo
State.

Economic Organisation
Subsistence and Commercial Activities: The basis of the economy is farming, with the main food
crops being yams, cassava, plantains, and cocoyams, as well as beans, rice, okra, peppers and gourds.
Oil palms are cultivated for wine production and kola tress for nuts for hospitality rites. Farming is
not an exclusively rural occupation, as many city dwellers own farms on the outskirts of the capital
and commute regularly to work on them. Domestic animals include cattle, goats, sheep, dogs and
chickens. Most villages have markets, and there are also several large regional markets supplying
Benin City and the other towns. In the precolonial period trade was in foodstuffs and locally
manufactured products, but in the colonial period, cash crops were introduced; but World War I Benin
had begun to prosper from the commercial growing of timber and rubber trees. Whereas shifting
cultivation used to prevail, with the introduction of cash crops it has begun to disappear in favour of
crop rotation. Today, all farmers grow food crops for their own consumption as well as cash crops.
Rubber processing and the preparation of tropical hardwoods are major industries in the state. As
Makinwa notes (1981, 31), Benin City’s unique position as the state capital, coupled with the
discovery of oil and a tremendous increase in its production in the late 1960s and early 1970s, drew
financial resources and industries to Benin.

The urban economy is dominated by government in the formal sector and trade in the informal one.
Because Benin is the capital of Edo State, the government and its agencies are the main employers for
the wage-earning portion of the population. At least half of the urban work force is in clerical and
especially, sales-and-service professions. Men are typically involved in tailoring, carpentry, or
electrical and mechanical repairs, and women tend to be hairdressers, and petty traders. Women
dominate in the street and local markets in the city. Youth unemployment has become a growing
problems as the influx of migrants from the villages and other parts of Nigeria steadily increases.

Industrial Arts: According to oral traditions, craft guilds have existed since the Ogiso period.
Members of these guilds (carpenters, carvers, brass casters, leatherworkers, blacksmiths, and weavers)
live in special wards of Benin City and produce ritual, prestige, and household objects for the king and
court. In the villages, there were also smiths, carvers, potters, wavers and basket makers who created
ritual paraphernalia like masks, cloth, and utensils. In the twentieth century, local production of cloth,
baskets and other useful items has almost died out because of competition with European products.
The changing social and economic situation has adversely affected the patronage of many of the
traditional crafts, although some guild members, especially the carvers and casters, have made a
successful transition to production for tourists and the Nigerian elite.

26
Trade: Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of long-distance trade from at least the twelfth
century, but the best documentation commences with the arrival of the Portuguese in the second half
of the fifteenth century and spans from that time until the present. Throughout the history of European
trade, one of the sources of the king’s wealth was the monopoly that he held over ivory, pepper, and
certain other exports. His control extended to the markets and trade routes, which he could close
whenever he wished. High-ranking chiefs of the Iwebo Palace Society administered European trade
for the king, and various trading associations controlled the routes to the interior that brought products
to Benin for export these exports varied over time but also included cloth, mirrors, coral beads, and
brass and other metal objects. Since the colonial period, Benin has been tied in to the Western
capitalist system.

Division of Labour: In pre-colonial and colonial villages, adult men tended the principal crop, yams,
clearing and working the land together with male relatives, affines, or friends. Women cared for their
households and grew subsidiary crops. Marketing, at least in pre-colonial times, was entirely in the
hands of women. Within the city, the labour was divided in a similar way, that is, male guild members
did the craft or ritual work, and women sold some of the products of the guild in the market. Since the
colonial period, men and, to a lesser e extent, women have been involved in the administrative and
economic sectors of what became a regional capital.

Land Tenure: The king is considered “the owner” of all the land in the kingdom. Although this
prerogative has mainly symbolic significance, the king could actually revoke rights to land in cases of
insurrection or treason. Today, he plays a role in the allocation of building sites in Benin City and the
use of land and resources by strangers in the Edo region. The actual landholding unit is the village, its
elders act as the custodians. Approval must be sought from the elders and chief for the right to use
certain plots. Land is abundant, and new settlements are still being founded in the reserves of wooded
land. Patterns of land use are changing, however, and, especially in the city, individual purchase is
increasingly common.

The Tiv People

Tiv are an ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in West Africa. They constitute approximately 2.5%
of Nigeria’s total population, and number over 5.6 million individuals throughout Nigeria and
Cameroon. The Tiv are the 4th largest ethnic group in Nigeria. Tiv language is spoken by about 6
million people in Nigeria, with a few speakers in Cameroon. Most of the language’s Nigerian
speakers are found in Benue State of Nigeria. The language is also widely spoken in the Nigerian
States of Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa as well as the FCT Abuja. It is part of the Southern Banthoid
Tivoid family, a branch of Benue-Congo and ultimately of the Niger-Congo phylum. In precolonial
times, the Hausa ethnic group referred to the Tiv ‘Munchi’ a term not accepted by Tiv people. They
depend on agricultural produce for commerce and life.

The Tiv came into contact with European culture during the colonial period. During November, 1907
to spring 1908, an expedition of the Southern Nigeria Regiment led by Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh
Trenchard’s came into contact with the Tiv. Trenchard brought gifts for the tribal chiefs.
Subsequently, roads were built and trade links established between Europeans and the Tiv.

Social and Political Organisation

Most Tiv have a highly developed sense of genealogy, with descent being reckoned patrilineally.
Ancestry is traced to an ancient individual named Tiv, who had two sons; all Tiv consider themselves
a member either of MbaCongo (descendants of son Chongo) or of MbaPusu (descendants of son
27
Ipusu). MbaChongo and MbaPusu are each divided into several major branches, which in turn are
divided into smaller braches. The smallest branch or minimal lineage, is the “Ipaven”. Members of an
Ipaven tend to live together, the local kin-based community being called the “tar”. This form of social
organization, called a segmentary lineage, is seen in various parts of the world, but it is particularl well
known from African societies (Middleton and Tait 1958). The Tiv are the best known example from
West Africa, as documented by Laura Bohannan (1952) and by Paul and Laura Bohannan (1953); in
East Africa the best known example is the Nuer, documented by E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1940).

The Tiv had no administrative divisions and no-chiefs or councils. Leadership was based on age,
influence, and affluence. The leaders’ functions were to furnish safe conduct, arbitrate disputes within
their lineages, sit on moots, and lead their people in all external and internal affairs. The Tiv ethnic
group is the fourth largest ethnic group in Nigeria after the three Major Ethnic Groups.

These social-political arrangements caused great frustration to British colonial attempts to subjugate
the population and establish administration on the lower Benue. The strategy of Indirect Rule, which
the British felt to be highly successful in controlling Hausa and Fulani populations iin Northern
Nigeria, was ineffective in a segmentary society like the Tiv (Dorward 1969). Colonial officers tried
various approaches to administration, such as putting the Tiv under the control of the near by Jukun,
and trying to exsert control through the councils of elders (“Jir”); these met with little success. The
British administration in 1934 divided the Tiv into Clans, kindreds, and Family Groups. The British
appointed native heads of these divisions as well. These administrative divisions are gradually
assuming a reality which they never had originally. Members of the Tiv group are found in many
areas across the globe, such as the United States and United Kingdom. In these countries they hold
unions, known as MUTA, where members can assemble and discuss issues concerning their people
across world, but especially back in Nigeria.

Before the introduction of printed material, radio, film and television, mass communication in Nigeria
was done through the indigenous people with the use of traditional political systems of
communication. The rulers and the chiefs governed their ethnic communities and communicated with
them through various channels.

THE IDOMA PEOPLE

The Idoma are an ethno-linguistic group that primary inhabits lower and western areas of Benue State,
Nigeria and kindred groups can be found in Cross Rivers and Nasarawa State in Nigeria. Idoma is
classified in the Akweya sub-group of the Idomoid languages of the Volta-Niger family. The Akweya
subgroup is closely related to the Yatye-Akpa sub-group. The bulk of the territory is inland, south of
river Benue, some seventy-two kilometers east of its confluence with river Niger. The Idoma are
known to be warriors’ and ‘hunters of class, but hospitable and peace loving. The greater part of
Idomaland remained largely unknown to the West until the 1920s, leaving much of the colorful
traditional culture of the Idoma intact. The population of the Idoma is estimated to be about 3.5
million.

The history of the Idoma people precedes the history of Benue State (created 1976) and the history of
the Republic of Nigeria (created 1960). Oral tradition is the primary method of which history has been
passed in Idomaland and is considered a central cultural institution. From a young age Idoma children
usually learn from their elders stories of old and are brought up around extended families, which make
multiple historical resources available. When prompted Idomas generally will proudly tell you where
they are from, and its not uncommon for Idoma to be able to recite at least four generations of their
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progenitors. Historically, being unable to answer the emblematic question “who is your father?”
disqualified one from important roles and titles in Idomaland. Quite naturally, a number of villages
trace origins to single ancestors and further, several Idoma groups trace their heritage to one common
ancestor, considered the “father” of the different groups. According to traditional history, Iduh, the
father of the Idoma had several children who each established different areas. Hence the expression:
“Iduh the fater of Idoma,” “Iduh who begot all the Idoma he also begot the following children:
Ananawoogeno who begot the children of Igwumale; Olinaogwu who begot the people of Ugboju;
Idum who begot the people of Adoka; Agabi who begot the people of Otuipo; Eje who begot the
people of Oglewu; Ebeibi who begot the people of Umogidi in Adoka, and Ode who begot the people
of Yala “while there may be some truth to the above, the Idoma cannot be said to have a unitary
origin. Many Idoma groups and village subsets have their own histories complete with stories about
how their people arrived at their current location. As one can imagine, the every-changing of people
through time makes it difficult to study Idoma history.

History
Scholars have combined oral history with genealogical data and analysts of kinship totems to trace the
roots of the Idoma people as a whole. One notable Idoma scholar E.O. Erim cites genealogical data,
collected from most modern groups in Idoma suggesting that they derive from several ethnic groups,
each with different historical origin. Furthermore, the available genealogies indicate the existence of
diverse ethnic groups who descended from ancestors other than Idu. In several of these cases, the
claim of common descent is backed by both extensive genealogical connections and possession of
common kinship totems. Erim contends that WileIdu was certainly a migration leader- he was not the
“father” of the Idoma in the sense implied in the above traditions. These two considerations make it
difficult to simply accept the view that every group in Idomaland is descended from Idu. Many Idoma
kindred claim an ancestral homeland called Apa, northeast of present day Idomaland due to pressures
of Northern invaders as recently as 300 years ago. The historical Apa was part of the ancient
Kwararafa kingdom (Okolofa Kingdom), a confederacy of several peoples. Informants in other ethnic
groups have corroborated existence of this kingdom, chiefly the Jukun who also believe they once
ruled a confederacy called Kwararafa. In the Hausa book Kano Chronicle, it is mentioned that Zaria,
under Queen Amina conquered all towns as far as Kwarafara in the 15 th century. At present, there is a
Local Government Area in Benue State called Apa and is said to be the home of those who made the
first migration from the historical kingdom. For many Idoma nationalists today, the name Apa elicits
sentiments of a past glory, and some in the political sphere have gone as far as suggesting it should
become the name of a new Idoma State. Other scholars point to historical and linguistic evidence
that suggests that Idoma have ties with the Igala people to the west, concluding that the two nations
came from a common ancestor. Among this groups, there are those who believe both ethnic groups
fled the same kingdom at some point in history. It is interesting to note that many traditional Idoma
spiritual chants and “secret” tongues spoken during traditional ceremonies are actually Igala dialects
and there are some Idoma themselves who assert their Igala ancestry. There are yet other Idoma
groups notably in the southern regions, which claim their ancestors arrived at their present location
from Northern fringes of Igboland as a result of land disputes. Scholars believe these people had most
likely fled Apa too, settled and resettled. As suggested, a number of factors make it difficult to study
Idoma historical origins of the Idoma people as a whole. In any event, it difficult to study Idoma
historical origins of the Idoma people as a whole. In any event, it could be said that despite their
heterogeneous origins, trading, marriage, language and other interactions among the Idoma have
cultivated traditions and shaped a rich cultural identity distinctly their own.

Economic Organisation
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Most Idoma are farmers. Their staple crops are yams and taro, known locally as cocoyam. Harvesting
is a time for great celebration. Yams are produced efficiently enough to export them to their
neighbours. They also harvest the fruit of the oil palm which is processed into oil and exported to
Europe in large quantities, making it a fairly profitable cash crop. Other crops of importance include
maize, manioc, peppers, peanuts, tomatoes, squash, and sweet potatoes. Goats, sheep, chickens and
dogs are kept by nearly everyone. Although hunting no longer provides a substantial contribution to
the local economy, fishing has remained very important throughout the region.

Political System
The Idoma may live iin compact villages or in relatively dispersed family homesteads. Political ties
exist primarily on the community level with a headman, or chief, who inherits his position along
patrilineal lines. Royal succession among the Idoma often alternates between two patrilineal lines, to
some extent weakening the power of the ruler. The chief usually consults a council of elders before
making any important decisions. In the past age-grade societies and the related making traditions
contributed to social control.

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