The Religions of Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. K. Meek
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Southern Nigeria ◽  
The Times ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Master Builder ◽  
River Niger ◽  
Official Recognition

Opening ParagraphMost people are aware that Nigeria is named after the river Niger, but many may be surprised to hear that the word Niger is not derived from the Latin adjective niger meaning ‘black’, but from a Libyan and Sudanic root, meaning ‘water“or ‘river’. This word was used by the geographer Ptolemy some 1,800 years ago in the Greek form of ‘Niγɛιρ’, and it is used to-day by the tribes of lake Chad in the form of njer. But Pliny employed the form Nigris, and from very early times the land of the Niger was called Nigritia. The modern name of Nigeria was only invented forty-six years ago by Miss Flora Shaw, who became, quite appropriately, the wife of Lord Lugard, the master-builder of Nigeria. In a letter to The Times, written in 1897, Miss Shaw said, ‘It may be permissible to coin a shorter title for the agglomeration of pagan and Mahomedan States which have been brought, by the exertion of the Royal Niger Company, within the confines of a British Protectorate.’ Her suggestion that the new title should be Nigeria was at once accepted. But it did not receive official recognition until the territories of the Royal Niger Company were formally taken over by the Imperial Government in 1900, and were formed into the two administrations known as Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria. Fourteen years later these two administrations were amalgamated into a single Nigeria, which then became, next to India, the most populous dependency in the British Empire.

Of Man and Cattle: A Reconsideration of the Traditions of Origin of Pastoral Fulani of Nigeria

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Adebayo
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
The People ◽  
Southern Nigeria

The fair-skinned people who inhabit the Sudan fringes of west Africa stretching from the Senegal valley to the shores of Lake Chad and who speak the language known as Fulfulde, are known by many names.1 They call themselves Fulbe (singular, Pullo). They are called Fulani by the Hausa of southern Nigeria, and this name has been used for them throughout Nigeria. The British call them Ful, Fulani, or Fula, while the French refer to them as Peul, Peulh, or Poulah. In Senegal the French also inadvertently call them Toucouleur or Tukulor. The Kanuri of northern Nigeria call them Fulata or Felata. In this paper we will adopt the Hausa (or Nigerian) name for the people—Fulani.Accurate censuses are not available on the Fulani in west Africa. A mid-twentieth century estimate puts the total number of Fulani at “over 4 million,” more than half of whom are said to inhabit Nigeria. Another estimate towards the end of 1989 puts the total number of Nigeria's Fulani (nomads only) at over ten million. If both estimates were correct, then the Fulani population in Nigeria alone must have grown 500 per cent in forty years. The dominant factor in this population growth is increased immigration of pastoralists into Nigeria in the wake of the 1968-73 Sahelian drought.

Some Aspects of the Otu System of the Isa Sub-tribes of the Edo People of Southern Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-162
Author(s):  
H. L. M. Butcher
Keyword(s):  
Large Area ◽  
Benin City ◽  
The People ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Southern Nigeria ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
River Niger

Opening ParagraphThe Isa people are a sub-tribe of the Edo or Bini tribe, who inhabit a large area to the East of Benin City—their parent town—called ‘Esan’ or Ishan, which is bordered on the East by the River Niger. The language spoken is a dialect of Edo, and their customs are a development of those found in Benin. The people are organized into a large number of independent communities, some of which are true clans (according to the definition given in Notes and Queries on Anthropology), and others which can only be described as ‘Village Groups’. Each of these clans or groups has at its head a hereditary chief called Onogie (pl. Enogie), who traces his descent to the original founder from Benin or elsewhere, who was given the land by the Oba of Benin. The title of Onogie was also given by the Oba to recognize his right to rule over the community which was composed of his descendants and immigrants from other districts.

From Borno to Sokoto

2018 ◽  
pp. 18-32
Author(s):  
Murray Last
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
The West ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Lake Chad Basin ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
River Niger

Once Muslims took over from Copts the trade to the regions around Lake Chad c.1000 ad, the process of Islamization could begin in Kanem and Borno. The state of Borno by the sixteenth century had become dominant in the Lake Chad basin, and Borno’s ruler had been given the title of Caliph. To the west of Borno, under its suzerainty were the savanna trading cities of Hausaland, where the two main merchant networks, one from Birni Ngazargamu in Borno, the other (“Wangara”) from Jenne and Gao (on the River Niger), combined trade with scholarship. By the late eighteenth century, a shaikh of the Qadiriyya brotherhood, ‘Uthman dan Fodio, demanded local rulers be strictly Islamic; this gave rise to four years of jihad and its ultimate success in 1808 led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate, the largest precolonial state in Africa (much larger than today’s northern Nigeria).

The Shaping of Irish Presbyterian Attitudes to Mission, 1790–1840

2006 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW HOLMES
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Religious Conviction ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Recent Growth ◽  
Missionary Movement ◽  
Religious Factors ◽  
The Times

This article explores the various factors that both encouraged Irish Presbyterian involvement in mission and shaped how they understood their missionary calling. It contributes to the recent growth of interest in the Protestant missionary movement and takes issue with the predominant interpretation of Irish Presbyterianism offered by David Miller who misunderstands the complex relationship between traditional Presbyterianism, evangelicalism and modernity. After an overview of the main developments between 1790 and 1840, a consideration of the influence of the Reformed theological tradition, eschatology and the growth of evangelicalism is followed by an examination of the Enlightenment, the expansion of the British empire and the Presbyterian sense of patriotic duty. Though various non-religious factors shaped Presbyterian attitudes to mission, it will be argued that their active involvement was a product of sincere religious conviction and an eschatological reading of the signs of the times.

Recent Activities of the Literature Bureau, Zaria, Northern Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. East
Keyword(s):  
Main Function ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Education Department ◽  
District Officer ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe Literature Bureau was originally started, in 1930, by the Education Department of Northern Nigeria, as a Translation Bureau. Its main function at first was to produce Hausa text-books for use in schools, but in the years before the war it was trying to lay the foundation of a more general literature for the Hausa-speaking people. In January 1939 a Hausa paper was started with the title Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, and an Assistant District Officer was attached to the Bureau to supervise its publication and business side. But in 1940, owing to reduction in staff, such a man could no longer be spared, and the paper had to be run without him.

African Ethnographic Maps, with a new Example from Northern Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
R. Mansell Prothero
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Ethnic Differences ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThere is little evidence to show that ethnic differences in Africa result in problems of lesser magnitude at the present day than in the past. In recent years the problems of ‘minorities’ have had to be considered in Nigeria, while in the Republic of Congo (Léopoldville) ethnic conflicts and the reappearance of past tribal enmities have produced numerous tragic situations during the last twelve months. The frontiers of Africa were delimited by the European powers half a century or more ago and their absurdity in relation to ethnic groups has been demonstrated recently in papers by Barbour and Prescott. They were drawn in ignorance of the different groups of people through which they passed and have now been inherited by independent African governments who will have to face the problems which have been created. To solve them these African governments will need to know more of ethnic groups and their distributions than did their European predecessors and the need for more adequate ethnographic maps is likely to increase rather than diminish.

A Note on the Ethnic Interpretation of the Fulani Jihād

Africa ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 286-291
Author(s):  
Marilyn Robinson Waldman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Holy War ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
City States ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe religious government and society of contemporary Northern Nigeria have their historical roots in a jihād (Muslim holy war) which was waged there in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The leader of thai jihād, Usuman dan Fodio, sought to establish a Muslim form of government over the Hausa city-states of what is now Northern Nigeria; his movement had the effect of replacing most of the nonorthodox, and in some cases non-Muslim, Hausa rulers with orthodox Muslims who, like himself, were Fulani.

Some Structural Features of Ingessana Marriage and Affinity

Africa ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. Jȩdrej
Keyword(s):  
Structural Features ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Ethiopian Highlands ◽  
Principal Objective ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Bridal Chamber

Opening ParagraphThe Ingessana represent one of the archaic pre-Nilotic cultures on the Sudanese margins of the Western Ethiopian highlands and may be regarded as belonging to that complex of ‘montagnards paléonigritiques’ extending west by way of, among others, the Nuba Mountain peoples, the Hadjeray in Chad and the numerous hill dwelling peoples of northern Nigeria. The customs with which this article is primarily concerned, such as the avunculate, brideservice, mother-in-law avoidance, the construction of a special bridal chamber, are prominent features of this complex but they are neither universally nor exclusively so. Thus, although the principal objective is to contribute to the documentation and comprehension of the marital customs of this ethnological zone, judged to be ‘ancient and probably prior to bridewealth systems’ by Froelich (1968: 202), the analysis necessarily engages with more general and often controversial issues. Perhaps the most pertinent and least distracting approach in these circumstances is that which confines itself to delimiting the set of structural features which the subsequent account draws upon in comprehending the ethnography.

The Future of Native Authorities

Africa ◽  
1945 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-128
Author(s):  
Bernard Bourdillon
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Times ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphSome months ago, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts on the subject of ‘Partnership in Nigeria’, I called attention to the necessity for a closer connexion between native authorities and the central legislature. I went on to say that I did not consider the native authority system to be incompatible with self-government at the centre, and that I saw no reason why native authorities should not become an integral part of a representative government. I have been asked to enlarge upon these views, and am very glad to have this opportunity of doing so, particularly because a practical expression of them has appeared in the proposals for the revision of the constitution of Nigeria which have just been laid before Parliament and which, according to The Times, have received the unanimous and hearty approval of the unofficial members of the Nigerian Legislature.

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