A Linguistic Tour in Southern Nigeria. Certain Problems Re-stated

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-97
Author(s):  
Ida C. Ward
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Southern Nigeria ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Future Work

Opening ParagraphA six-months' tour in Southern Nigeria has afforded a valuable opportunity for review of certain questions about the chief languages of this part of West Africa and for a re-statement of the problems connected with them. The main questions are:1. With what success can one dialect be used as a literary medium?2. Is the new orthography suggested by the Institute suitable for the purposes for which it was designed?3. Are educated Africans interested in their own language and its development?4. Can Europeans learn to speak these languages with any degree of accuracy ?5. What are the present needs, and what lines should future work take?I can here express on these points only my own views, based on the experience of my tour and my work previous and subsequent to it. The two districts with which this article is mainly concerned are the Efik and Ibo speaking areas in Southern Nigeria.

1787–1887–1987: reflections on a Sierra Leone bicentenary

Africa ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Fyfe
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Forest Belt ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Language Pattern ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphSeen in the widest perspective, 1787 is only one date among the uncounted tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of years during which the present Sierra Leone has been inhabited. Archaeologists have done disappointingly little work there. But it is clear from their findings (and by implication from findings in the rest of forest-belt West Africa) that people have lived there a very long time. Though traditional historiography always tends to present the peoples of Sierra Leone as immigrants from somewhere else, the language pattern suggests continuous occupation over a very long period. As Paul Hair (1967) has shown, there has been a striking linguistic continuity in coastal West Africa since the fifteenth century. Nor is there evidence to suggest that before that period stability and continuity were not the norm.

Craft Organization in Yoruba Towns

Africa ◽  
1953 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lloyd
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Sewing Machine ◽  
Western Economy ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
People Today ◽  
Economic Agreement ◽  
Window Frames

Opening ParagraphEverywhere in West Africa contact with Western economy has brought changes in the technology of the indigenous people; today, side by side with the old man chipping away at a block of wood, making an image or a mask, and the weaver with his horizontal loom producing yard upon yard of narrow cloth strips to be sewn together into huge, flowing robes, sit the tailor making khaki shorts on his treadle sewing-machine and the carpenter nailing together planks for doors and window frames. In the traditional craft industries a father hands on his knowledge and skill to his sons; thus some crafts become the preserve of certain lineages. The sudden impact of the new technology did not give the craftsmen an opportunity to adapt their work to the new machines and tools; new men were recruited who had never been craftsmen and thus today the numerous tailors, carpenters, builders, and their like are not related to their fellow workers by blood ties; but, independent as these workers may appear, they are usually united to their fellow craftsmen by bonds of economic agreement whereby their work is strictly regulated. This study will attempt to describe the organization of the traditional crafts in some Yoruba towns and to show how the new crafts have formed guild organizations which preserve many of the functions of the older craft organization, but have a structure based not upon the lineage but upon the territorial divisions of society.

Patterns of Authority in West Africa

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 261-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Brown
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political System ◽  
West African ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Comparative Review ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Size And Structure

Opening ParagraphThe development of large centralized states in West Africa has long been recognized. The complexity of organization of the few well-known kingdoms, but not their differences in size and structure, is constantly emphasized in the literature. The number and variety of West African groups which have not developed states have, on the other hand, frequently been underestimated. In a comparative review by Professors Fortes and Evans-Pritchard two types of political system, centralized and segmentary, have been described for Africa as a whole, with examples of each in West Africa. A survey of West African societies suggests, however, that finer distinctions are possible and that not all these societies can be placed in one or other of these two categories. In particular, this classification omits consideration of ‘stateless’ societies in which associations, rather than a segmentary lineage system, regulate political relations; and it fails to distinguish different types of authority and political structure in states.

Kinship, Emigration, and Trade Partnership among the Lebanese of West Africa

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuad I. Khuri
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Greek Orthodox ◽  
Kinship Structure ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Kinship Ties ◽  
Upper Volta

Opening ParagraphThis article describes the kinship structure of some Lebanese communities in West Africa, and the resemblances they bear to the communities from which they originated in Lebanon. It also shows the extent to which kinship ties promote emigration, and the kind of trade partnership normally practised by kinsmen. Two communities are considered: the Greek Orthodox community in Ouagadougou (Upper Volta), and the Shi'ite Muslim community in Magburaka (Sierra Leone).

Social Administration of the Kru. A Preliminary Survey

Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Scudder Mekeel
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Preliminary Survey ◽  
The South ◽  
North West ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Physical Type

Opening ParagraphThe Kru, a West African Negro group, inhabit the central and southern part of Liberia. They are surrounded by the Basa peoples to the north-west, by the Grebo to the south-east and by the Putu to the north-east. The informant, Thomas Tarbour (Sieh Tagbweh), from whom the following material was derived, was a native of Grand Cess (Siglipo), a large coast town near the border of the Grebo country. The Kru, along with other related groups in that part of West Africa, have a tradition of having migrated from far to the north-east. The physical type is that of the short, stocky Bush negro. No archaeological work has been done in the region, and such ethnological material as has been collected is a mere beginning.

Sheep and Sheep-Herders in South Africa

Africa ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Willcox
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Hair Sheep ◽  
South West ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphIn a recent paper Mr. C. K. Cooke, F.S.A., discusses the questions of the introduction of sheep into Africa and their arrival in southern Africa (Cooke, 1965).Mr Cooke quotes Zeuner's conclusion (Zeuner, 1963) ‘that the first sheep in Africa were screw-horned hair sheep from Turkestan or Persia which reached lower Egypt about 5000 B.C. and Khartoum by 3300 B.C. This breed disappeared with the Middle Kingdom when it was replaced by a wool sheep and the fat-tailed sheep reached Africa only from the Roman period.’ Zeuner further asserts thatOne breed of sheep descended from the Egyptian hair-sheep had reached South-West Africa before the arrival of the Europeans. In these animals the profile is convex, the eyes are placed high on the skull and close to the drooping ears. The rams carry thick horns and a long ruff on the throat.

Proverbial Lore and Word-Play of the Fulani

Africa ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Arnott
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
General Study ◽  
Word Play ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Tongue Twisters ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Selection Of

Opening ParagraphThe wit and wisdom of the Fulani, as of other African peoples, are expressed most characteristically in their proverbs and riddles. Their proverbs are amply illustrated by the collections of H. Gaden and C. E. J. Whitting, and a selection of riddles appeared in a recent article in Africa by M. Dupire and the Marquis de Tressan. But there are other types of oral literature—both light and serious—which various writers have mentioned, without quoting examples. So Mlle Dupire refers to formes litteraires alambiquées and ritournelles des enfants bororo, and G. Pfeffer, in his article on ‘Prose and Poetry of the Fulbe,’ speaks of jokes and tongue-twisters. The aim of this article is to present some examples of these types of proverbial lore and word-play—epigrams, tongue-twisters, and chain-rhymes—which were recorded, along with many more riddles and proverbs, in the course of linguistic research during a recent tour of the Fula-speaking areas of West Africa, and to consider their relation to proverbs and riddles. These types of oral literature are of course by no means peculiar to the Fulani, and a number of the examples here quoted may well have parallels in other languages of West Africa or farther afield. But an examination of such pieces in one language may perhaps contribute something to the general study of this kind of lore.

The Winged Solar Disk or Ibo Itεi Facial Scarification

Africa ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. W. Jeffreys
Keyword(s):  
Solar Disk ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Southern Nigeria ◽  
Nigerian Government ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThis article is based on researches, undertaken in 1930-1 at the request of the Nigerian Government, into the magico-religious beliefs of the Umundri group of Ibo in the Awka Division, Onitsha Province, Southern Nigeria. Umundri means ‘children of Ndri’ (a ‘Sky-Being’).

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document