Culture of Nigeria
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Culture of Nigeria |
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The culture of Nigeria is shaped by
Nigeria's other ethnic groups, sometimes called 'minorities', are found throughout the country but especially in the north and the middle belt. The traditionally
History
Major ethnic cultures
Bini culture[24]
The Binis, also called the Edo people,[25] are a people of the South South region of modern Nigeria; they are said to be around 3.8 million as of the 21st Century. They are ruled by monarchs, and are famous for their Benin Bronzes. In the pre-colonial period, they controlled a powerful empire.[26][27] They are an ethnic group that is primarily found in Edo State, and spread across the Delta, Ondo, and Rivers states of Nigeria in smaller concentrations. The language they speak is called the Edo language. The Bini people are closely related to several other ethnic groups that usually speak Edoid languages, for example the Esan, however it is important to address the fact that the name "Benin" (and "Bini") is a Portuguese corruption, which came from the word "Ubinu", which came into use during the reign of Oba Ewuare the Great, c. 1440. The word "Ubinu" was used to depict and portray the royal administrative centre or capital proper of the kingdom, Edo. The word "Ubinu" was later corrupted to Bini by a number of mixed ethnicities staying together at the centre, and it was then further corrupted to Benin around the year 1485 at the time when the Portuguese people started making trade relations with Oba Ewuare.[28][29]
Hausa-Fulani culture[30]
The Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups are said to be one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, if not the largest, with a population of over 20 million people. The
Long before the arrival of the Fulani people, the Hausa had already formed and made well-organised city states; some of these states include Katsina, Daura, Kano, Zazzau (Zaria), Biram, Gobir and Borno. However, some of these states were conquered, taken over and re-established by the Fulani people which then led to the formation of a few other kingdoms such as Katagum, Hadejia and Gombe. The arrival of the Fulani people into Hausaland brought about great changes in the land, which included the reformation of Islam. This then ended up playing a significant role in the social life and culture of the Hausa people. In education, dress and taste, the Hausa people and their counterparts the Fulani have become a significant part of the Islamic world; this said influence still remains until the current day.[31] The Fulani practice the art of whipping a suitor before giving his bride to him as part of their marriage obligation. This particular obligation has helped to increase the practice of monogamy among themselves, and it is called Sharo.[32] The Fulani people are also nomadic in nature; this nomadic lifestyle spread them into virtually all of West Africa. They are extremely tolerant of the languages of other people around them, leading to the suppression of theirs - especially in northern Nigeria by Hausa.[33][34]
The Hausas, on the other hand, are said to be very good merchants. This helped spread them to some areas around Nigeria.[35] They have monarchs, are known for celebrating the Hawan Sallah festival,[36] and are also followers of the religious teachings of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio.[37]
Igbo culture[38]
The Igbo people, commonly and often referred to as Ibo people, are one of the largest ethnic groups to ever exist in Africa; they have a total population of about 20 million people. Most people who are a part of this ethnic group are based in the southeastern part of Nigeria, they contribute to about 17 percent of the country's population. They can also be found in large numbers in Cameroon and other African countries. It is believed that the Igbo people originated in an area that is about 100 miles north of their current location at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers. The Igbo people share linguistic ties with their neighbours the Bini, Igala, Yoruba, and Idoma, with whom it is believed they were closely related until five to six thousand years ago.[
Ijaw culture
The Ijaw people are said to be a collection of people that are native to the Niger Delta area in Nigeria. Owing to the affinity they have with water, a significant number of the Ijaw people are discovered as migrant fishermen in camps that are as far west as Sierra Leone and as far east as Gabon.[44] With a population of about 4 million, the Ijaws inhabit the Niger Delta section and they make up about 1.8% of Nigeria's population.[45] From a historical perspective, it is almost impossible to give a precise and accurate account as to when and where the Ijaws originated; numerous different accounts have been given by many historians regarding this issue, but what is certain is that the Ijaws are one of the world's most ancient peoples. The Ijaw people are said by some to be the descendants of the autochthonous people of Africa known as the (H) oru. The Ijaws were originally known by this name (Oru); at least it was what their immediate neighbours assumed them to be. Although this was a very long time ago, the Ijaws have, however, kept the ancient language and culture of the Orus. Being the first to find a settlement in the Lower Niger and Niger Delta, it is possible that they may have started inhabiting this region as far back as 500 BC.[46]
Language and cultural studies suggest that they are related to the founders of the
Yoruba culture[50]
The Yoruba people are said to be one of the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, alongside the Igbo and the Hausa-Fulani peoples. They are concentrated in the southwestern section of Nigeria, much smaller and scattered groups of Yoruba people live in Benin and northern Togo and they are numbered to be more than 20 million at the turn of the 21st century.
Nigerian upper class
Ever since the country's earliest centralization - under the
Although chiefs have few official powers today, they are widely respected, and prominent monarchs are often courted to endorse politicians during elections in the hopes of them conferring legitimacy to their campaigns by way of doing so. Successful Nigerians, such as businessmen and the said politicians, typically themselves aspire to the holding of chieftaincies, and the monarchs' control of the honours system that provides them serves as an important royal asset.[60]
Literature
Nigeria is famous for its English language literature. Things Fall Apart,[61] by Chinua Achebe, is an important book in African literature.[62] With over eight million copies sold worldwide, it has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.[63][64]
Nigerian Nobel laureate[65] Wole Soyinka[66] described the work as "the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white man would see him."[67] Nigeria has other notable writers of English language literature. These include Femi Osofisan,[68] whose first published novel, Kolera Kolej, was produced in 1975; Ben Okri, whose first work, The Famished Road, was published in 1991, and Buchi Emecheta, who wrote stories drawn from her personal experiences of gender inequity that promote viewing women through a single prism of the ability to marry and have children. Helon Habila, Sefi Atta , Flora Nwapa, Iquo Diana Abasi Eke,[69] Zaynab Alkali and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,[70] among others, are notable Nigerian authors whose works are read widely within and outside the country.[71]
Apart from the speakers of standard English, a large portion of the population, roughly a third, speaks
Film
Since the 1990s the Nigerian
Because of the movies, western influences such as music, casual dressing and methods of speaking are to be found all across Nigeria, even in the highly conservative north of the country.[72]
Media
Sports
The
Supporters of
Other than football, basketball, handball and volleyball are also prominent in the Nigerian sports sector. Indigenous games such as loofball, dambe and ayo also have significant popularity among youths in Nigeria.
Nigeria is the country of origin for the sport Loofball. The game involves two teams of five, a ball, and a net. It is played by tossing the ball over the net to the opposing team's side of the court.[74] After July of 2021, the sport has been administered by the LSDI (Loofball Sports Development Initiative).[75]
Architecture
Food
Nigerian food offers a rich blend of traditionally African carbohydrates such as yam and cassava as well as the vegetable soups with which they are often served. Maize is another crop that is commonly grown in Nigeria.[76] Praised by Nigerians for the strength it gives, garri is "the number one staple carbohydrate food item in Nigeria",[77] a powdered cassava grain that can be readily eaten as a meal and is quite inexpensive. Yams are frequently eaten either fried in oil or pounded to make a mashed potato-like yam pottage. Nigerian beans, quite different from green peas, are widely popular. Meat is also popular and Nigerian suya—a barbecue-like roasted meat—is a well-known delicacy. Bushmeat, meat from wild game like antelope and duikers, is also popular. Fermented palm products make a traditional liquor, palm wine, and also fermented cassava. Nigerian foods are spicy, mostly in the western and southern part of the country, even more so than in Indian cuisine. Other examples of their traditional dishes are eba, pounded yam, iyan, fufu and soups like okra, ogbono and egusi. Fufu is so emblematic of Nigeria that it figures in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, for example.[78]
Nigeria is known for its many traditional dishes. Each tribe has different dishes that are unique to their culture. Yoruba people, for example, have different dishes like Amala, Ogbono, Moin Moin, Ofada Rice, and Efo Riro.[79]
Music
The
Traditional musicians use a number of diverse instruments, such as Gongon drums. The kora and the kakaki are also important.[81]
Other
Clothing
Women wear long flowing robes and headscarves made by local makers who dye and weave the fabric locally.[83] Southern Nigerian women choose to wear western-style clothing. People in urban regions of Nigeria dress in western style, the youth mainly wearing jeans and T-shirts. Other Nigerian men and women typically wear a traditional style called Buba. For men the loose-fitting shirt goes down to halfway down the thigh. For women, the loose-fitting blouse goes down a little below the waist. Other clothing gear includes a gele, which is the woman's headgear. For men their traditional cap is called fila.
Historically, Nigerian fashion incorporated many different types of fabrics. Cotton has been used for over 500 years for fabric-making in Nigeria. Silk (called tsamiya in Hausa, sanyan in Yoruba, and akpa-obubu in Igbo) is also used.[84] Perhaps the most popular fabric used in Nigerian fashion is Dutch wax print, produced in the Netherlands. The import market for this fabric is dominated by the Dutch company Vlisco,[85] which has been selling its Dutch wax print fabric to Nigerians since the late 1800s, when the fabric was sold along the company's oceanic trading route to Indonesia. Since then, Nigerian and African patterns, colour schemes, and motifs have been incorporated into Vlisco's designs to become a staple of the brand.[86]
Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups[87] and as a result, a wide variety of traditional clothing styles. In the Yoruba tradition, women wear an iro (wrapper), buba (loose shirt) and gele (head-wrap).[88] The men wear buba (long shirt), sokoto (baggy trousers), agbada (flowing robe with wide sleeves) and fila (a hat).[89] In the Igbo tradition, the men's cultural attire is Isiagu (a patterned shirt), which is worn with trousers and the traditional Igbo men's hat called Okpu Agwu. The women wear a puffed sleeved blouse, two wrappers and a headwrap.[90] Hausa men wear barbarigas or kaftans (long flowing gowns) with tall decorated hats. The women wear wrappers and shirts and cover their heads with hijabs (veils).[91]
Oral tradition
Oral traditions in Nigeria are part of a form of human communication in which knowledge, art ideas, and cultural materials are acquired, conserved, and conveyed orally from one generation to another.[92] It is one of the earliest works from Nigeria put into writing and entails several genres of indigenous knowledge production communicated to its adherents verbally.[93] It also encompasses the transmission of historical and artistic information from an initial witness through generation (the information is handled by skilled oral historians).
Traditions have evolved along with the societies and cultures that produced them. Oral traditions in Nigeria have played a very important role in preserving and transmitting historical information and its various functions. Historical information is usually transmitted through speech, songs, folktales, prose, chants, and ballads. Oral traditions in Nigeria are commonly used as a means of keeping the past alive.[94][95]
Resources
A very important source of information on modern Nigerian art is the Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art operated by the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos.
In addition, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, and Naija Invest Gateway, provide real-time information on the Nigerian business culture.
See also
- Architecture of Nigeria
- Festivals in Nigeria
- Gender roles and fluidity in indigenous Nigerian cultures
- List of museums in Nigeria
- Music of Nigeria
- Nok culture
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