Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0262/02620.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 30KB | 497 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02620}
$Pretitle{357}
$Title{Nigeria
Chapter 1A.   Historical Setting}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{century
trade
political
hausa
yoruba
north
region
fulani
ife
states}
$Date{1981}
$Log{Terra-Cotta Head*0262001.scf
Figure 2.*0262002.scf
Figure 4.*0262003.scf
}
Country:     Nigeria
Book:        Nigeria, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1981

Chapter 1A.   Historical Setting

[See Terra-Cotta Head: Nok terra-cotta head dating from the first millennium
B.C.]

     Like so many other modern African states, Nigeria is the creation of
European imperialism. Its very name-after the great Niger River, the
country's dominating physical feature, was suggested in the 1890s by British
journalist Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of colonial governor
Frederick Lugard. The history of Nigeria-as a modern political entity
encompassing more than 250 ethnic groups of widely varied cultures and modes
of political organization-dates largely from the consolidation of colonial
territories in 1914. But some of these people could trace histories in their
oral traditions that extended back for centuries before the earliest European
intervention. These histories, as well as archaeological evidence and written
documentation, indicate the existence of dynamic societies, some of which
possessed well-articulated political systems that were preserved under
colonial rule and continued as meaningful institutions after Nigeria became
independent. Nigerian history is fragmented in the sense that it evolves from
these contrasting traditions, but many of the most outstanding features of
modern Nigerian society reflect the strong influence of the three regionally
dominant ethnic groups-the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Yoruba in the west,
and the Ibo in the east.

     All evidence points to early migratory movements across the broad Sudanic
highway and along the river system that fed all parts of the region. Economic
ties were established with North Africa in antiquity through a complex of
trade routes along which Islam was later carried to the northern savanna and
adopted in the eleventh century. Otherwise separated by geography, politics,
and culture, the north and the south were closely linked by their economic
cooperation in the slave trade. A reorientation of that activity toward the
coast followed the establishment of the earliest European trading posts there
in the fifteenth century. British commercial interests, based on the slave
trade, were clearly dominant by the end of the eighteenth century. During the
nineteenth century Britain became deeply involved in the internal affairs of
the region as a result of its efforts to eradicate the commerce in human
lives and to protect legitimate traders and missionaries. The first British
colony in the region was established at Lagos in 1861. On the basis of a
previously established sphere of influence, Britain laid claim in 1900 to all
of the area that subsequently became Nigeria, adopting a policy of indirect
rule through which traditional rulers acted as agents of the colonial
administration.

     Because of striking differences in ethnic background, religion, and
sociopolitical values, two types of nationalism developed in the period
between the two world wars. Modern nationalism was usually manifested as
pan-Africanism or in the form of regional loyalties. After World War II
successive constitutions introduced by the colonial government moved Nigeria
toward self-government as a federal state with representative parliamentary
institutions. Full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations was
achieved in 1960, but from the outset the new nation was beset by ethnic and
regional divisiveness that complicated efforts to establish a firm basis for
constitutional rule.

     Leaders learned by cruel experience that real nationhood did not
necessarily come with independence. Military rule, punctuated by coups and
attempted coups, replaced the parliamentary forms bequeathed by Britain to
its former colony. The country went through the ordeal of a bloody civil war
in the late 1960s that tested the viability of its federal union. But
Nigeria's world political position was strengthened in the early 1970s when it
emerged as a leading petroleum-producing country. By 1976 federalism seemed to
rest on a more solid foundation than had existed before, and machinery was set
in motion that would return the government to civilian hands in October 1979
by a democratic process.

Early History

     The earliest known example of a fossil skeleton with negroid features,
perhaps 10,000 years old, was found at Iwo Eleru in Nigeria and attests to the
continuity of habitation in the region. Archaeological evidence is scanty,
however, for periods before the neolithic revolution when technological
advances encouraged a sharp rise in population. The neolithic cultures living
in the savanna and forests of the lower Niger basin adapted to ways of life
appropriate for their environments. Microlithic and ceramic industries were
developed by pastoralists on the savanna from at least the fourth millennium
B.C. and were continued by grain farmers in the stable agricultural
communities that subsequently evolved there. To the south, hunting and
gathering gradually gave way to subsistence farming on the fringe of the
forest in the first millennium B.C. The cultivation of staple foods, such as
yams, was later introduced into forest clearings. The stone ax heads,
imported in great quantities from the north and used in opening the forest
for agricultural development, were venerated by the Yoruba descendants of
neolithic pioneers as "thunderbolts" hurled to earth by the gods.

     The primitive iron-smelting furnaces at Taruga dating from the fourth
century B.C. provide the oldest evidence of metalworking in West Africa. The
transition from the Neolithic period to the Iron Age was apparently achieved
without intermediate bronze production. Some scholars speculate that knowledge
of the smelting process may have been transmitted from the Mediterranean by
Berbers who ventured as far as the forest region in search of wood for their
own furnaces. Others suggest that the technology moved westward across the
Sudan (see Glossary) from the Nile valley, although the arrival of the Iron
Age in the Niger River valley and the forest region predated the introduction
of metallurgy in the upper savanna by more
than 800 years. The usefulness of iron tools was demonstrated in the south for
bush cutting and in the north for well digging and the construction of
irrigation works, contributing in both regions to the expansion of
agriculture.

     The earliest culture in Nigeria to be identified by its distinctive
artifacts is that of the Nok people, skilled artisans and ironworkers who
flourished between the fourth century B.C. and the second century A.D. in a
large area above the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers on the Jos
Plateau. The Nok achieved a level of material development not repeated in the
region for nearly 1,000 years. Their terra cotta sculpture, abstractly
stylized and geometric in conception, is admired both for its artistic
expression and for the high technical standards of its production.

     Little is left from the "silent millennium" (first millennium A.D.) that
followed the Nok ascendancy. It is assumed, however, that trade linking the
Niger region with North Africa played a key role in the continuing development
of the area. Trade moved along a north-south axis with the savanna people
acting as intermediaries between the Berber traders and the forest people who
exchanged slaves, ivory, and kola nuts for salt, glass beads, coral, cloth,
weapons, brass rods, and the cowrie shells that were used as currency.

Yoruba Kingdoms

     As far as historical memory extends, the Yoruba have been the dominant
group on the west bank of the Niger. A black people of mixed origin, t