THE HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF LAFIA AND THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS

Written by Samuel AKala Daniel

samakalathevet@gmail.com

+123-8144935686

The area now known as Lafia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious city with over
509,300 projected population. Being the capital of Nasarawa State, its strategic location, rich
agricultural land, economic potential, and security architecture has attracted migrants, investors,
and power brokers who now outcompete the original inhabitants. As a metropolitan area, Lafia
continues to attract and play host to both indigenous and non-indigenous populations, whose
values are cherished and promoted.

Although it is predominantly agrarian, there is increasing urbanization and industrialization in

the capital city. Historically, Lafia is very stable and has not experienced ethno-religious
conflicts of any magnitude, especially when compared to other regions since its inception.

During the colonial era, Lafia Division covered the areas that are now called Doma, Keana, Obi,
and Awe Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State. The earliest traceable ethnic groups to
have arrived in Lafia region include Migili (Koro), Alago, Kanuri, Tiv, Eggon, Akye, Hausa,
Igbo, among others.

While the socio-economic status of Lafia continues to trend on the global map, it is important to
trace its historical origin, especially in this contemporary time. There are deliberate attempts to
reconstruct the history of Lafia, which has led to a series of distortions, most of which contradict
empirical evidence that even stares the generation in the face. Ordinarily, and in such a tricky
situation, each person should be allowed to hold his/her position of advantage in the argument -
knowing that those who require more information and knowledge have unhindered access to
history books and other sundry materials that place facts in their proper perspective.

Unfortunately, such a compendium is a luxury in our environment and, therefore, people stand
history on its head for personal convenience and ethnic relevance. Every human being is a
sculptor of history, and people who have an advantage are those who could place their

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documents within the arm’s reach of the world and humanity. Be that as it may, posterity will
judge us harshly if we look on while facts are slaughtered or re-modeled into incomprehensible
shapes that may mislead generations yet unborn.

Furthermore, when the history of Lafia is open to public discourse, it should not be found on
shaky ground. By implication, tracing the origin of Lafia without referential credence to the
Migili-Koro people is nothing but grave injustice and mere pretense to common knowledge and
facts.

Lafia was formally called Nene (Anene or Anise, especially by non-Migili-Koro native
speakers), a word that stands for 'sweet' in Lijili (the language of the Migili people). It was
founded by Muguni, which is one of the 13 clans of the Migili people, who arrived in the area
around circa 1139 AD.

In the International Journal of African Historical Studies published on Political and Economic
Changes in Colonial Lafia, Nigeria, 1900-1950, Sir Dickson Eyoh was quoted to have averred
that ‘Mythologies of ethnic genealogies and favored narratives of migration intimate a complex
pattern of regional settlement. Oral narratives, conveyed through official colonial ethnographies
and more recent limited historical studies, indicate that the first inhabitants of Lafia (whose claim
is undisputed by other groups) were the Migili. The Migili migrated into the area from
Kwararafa in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century...’ This assertion is also supported in
the book Reminisce of Jonah Ogbole. The author posited that ‘Migili were the first people to
settle in Lafia before the arrival of Alago...’

A cursory glance at the history of the Migili people of Anene now Lafia revealed that they
migrated en mass from Kwararafa kingdom along with other clans due to a succession dispute,
which took place between Koro (Migili) and Jukun, their brothers. Zhe (King) Zige led Muguni
and other clans of Migili people through the southern bank of river Benue, where they crossed at
Akwanaja. They continued their journey from Akwanaja northward and arrived in the present
day Lafia which was formally known as Nene (Anene).

The region began to experience an influx of migrants around 1770 when the Kanuri people from
Borno, led by Dunama, believed to be the son of Mai Ali Bin Haji Dunama. They left Borno
through Kano, Zaria, and Bagaji near Keffi to Nene (Lafia), the site of the present Doka Quarters

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of modern Lafia. The Kanuri migrants arrived in Lafia during the reign of Zhe (King) Gli, who
was the 12th Zhe (1746-1801) in the ancient Migili Kingdom, which had Nene as one of its
providential cities. The Kanuri migrants were gladly received by the Migili-Koro to settle at the
outskirts of Nene to separate the Migili people from the Kanuri with a line demarcated by the
Nene people to keep the Migili people away from the Kanuri settlement. This line of
demarcation is the area now referred to as Angwan Doka in the present-day Lafia town.

In his book " History of Koro", D M Igube argued that "Migili-Koro were part of the Kwararafa
or Kororofa, who once lived in Bornu before shifting to Apa, where they founded the Kororofa
Kingdom. This Bornu connection made the Koros allow the Bornu elements, the Kanuri
migrants, to settle in Anene in the spirit of their long-standing cordiality".

It is important to stress that the Bayero war of 1872-1874, which was targeted at wiping the
entire Migili-Koro people, exposed them to fear of premonition. This caused their relocation to
the present Anene, located 2 kilometres Southwards of present Lafia, leaving the Kanuris to
settle in their (Migili-Koro) Lafiya, i.e., ‘in peace’. Dunama, the leader of Kanuri, later died in
1809, and was succeeded by Musa his son.

Moreover, Lafia became the capital of a prominent local chiefdom in the early 19th century.
During the rule of Mohamman Agwai (1881–1903), it also became one of the most important
commercial towns in the Benue Valley in which a trade route was opened to Loko, a Benue
River port at a time.

In 1903, the British, who controlled Northern Nigeria, recognized Chief Musa as Lafia’s first
Emir. The emirate formed the major part of the Lafia Division of Benue Province. In 1967, the
town became part of Benue-Plateau State, and in 1976, it became part of Plateau State. On
October 1, 1996, the Late General Sani Abacha, the then Military Head of State, announced the
creation of Nasarawa State out of Plateau State, with Lafia as its capital.

Today, the internet is filled with the works of self-acclaimed scholars, who derive pleasure in
feeding unsuspecting and uninformed members of the public with clearly and consciously
distorted accounts of the origin of Lafia. Many have even gone further to trace its origin to ‘…
the site of Anane, a small town of the Arago people...’ This is not only ridiculous, but to say the
least, misleading and egocentric in its entirety.

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The 'Arago people' this Britannica blunder is referring to have no any ancestral community
called Anane in Lafia and its environs, neither are they ignorant of the common and popular
knowledge of history, which recognizes Migili-Koro as the first ethnic group to arrive in the
present day Lafia. The only known 'Anene' in the goggle map is an ancient Nene community,
which originally was the name of modern Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State in Central Nigeria.

On a final note, the general public is encouraged to guard against elements, who attempt to trace
the origin of Lafia, and the real owners based on their ill-conceived motives aimed at promoting
the interest of their ethnic group.

© Akala Samuel,

June, 2024.

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