Nigeria - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
168
Nigeria - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781857336306 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Kuperard |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2012 |
| Series: | Culture Smart! , #38 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 168 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Nigeria
By Diane Lemieux
Bravo Ltd
Copyright © 2011 KuperardAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-85733-630-6
CHAPTER 1
LAND & PEOPLE
GEOGRAPHY
Nigeria is located in the elbow of western Africa, just before the coast shoots south. It is a large country — nearly one and a half times the size of the state of Texas or the country of France. Its southern border is the Atlantic Ocean; to the west is Benin, and to the east is Cameroon. In the north it shares a border with the Republic of Niger, and in the northeastern corner is Lake Chad.
Nigeria's territory — roughly 700 miles (1,125 km) wide and 650 miles (1,045 km) long — contains a rich and diverse geography. Along the coast the tropical forests and agricultural lands of the west gradually change to the lush mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta in the east. The middle belt is dominated by hills and plateaus, and mountains in the east. In the north, dry savanna gradually gives way to the Sahel desert area.
The country is effectively divided into three by the Niger and Benue rivers, which create a "Y" slightly south of the territory's center. The Niger enters the country in the northwest and flows southeast; the Benue flows in from the east. The two meet south of the capital, Abuja, and flow south to the Niger Delta and into the Atlantic.
The territory contains many natural resources. Petroleum reserves and natural gas are its most plentiful resource, found both offshore and in the Niger Delta. In terms of minerals, Nigeria has coal, iron, tin, columbite, lead, copper, and zinc, most of these located in the hills of the middle belt. Agricultural lands are most abundant in the middle belt and the north; fishing and forestry are prevalent along the southern coast.
Climate
Nigeria's climate is hot and tropical all year round, ranging from around 71°F to 97°F (22°C to 36°C). The main variable in climate is the amount and frequency of rain. The coast has an equatorial monsoonal climate with little variation in seasonal temperatures, high humidity, and the highest amount of rainfall. The central region has a tropical humid climate, while the north is dryer and has the least rainfall. Throughout the country there are two seasons: the dry and the rainy. The duration and strength of the rains decrease as you go north. On the coast, the rains begin in February and peter off by August or September. In the northern regions, the rains fall from June or July to August. These regions also experience the largest range in temperatures: from around 110°F (43°C) in the dry months to the low 70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius) during the rains.
From September to November, most of the country experiences clear skies, moderate temperatures, and lower humidity. From December through February, strong, dry northeasterly winds known as the harmattan blow fine dust from the Sahara into a dense fog that coats windows and cars with sand. While the harmattan reduces the humidity, this period is also known as flu season, during which there are increased incidents of allergies and respiratory and eye irritations.
THE PEOPLE
Nigeria is Africa's most populous country. Its estimated population of about 150 million people is made up of more than two hundred and fifty different ethno-linguistic groups, each with its own history, culture, traditions, language, and identity. The three largest groups are: in the north, the Hausa-Fulani, who account for 29 percent of the population; in the southwest, the Yoruba, who account for roughly 21 percent; and in the southeast, the Igbo (pronounced "ee-boh"), who account for around 19 percent.
Other large groups include the Fulani, a pastoral people of the northern savannas; the Ijaw of the Niger Delta region; the Kanuri of the Lake Chad region; the Ibibio in the southeast, around the major city of Calabar; and the Nupe and Tiv of the middle-belt region.
There is also a large immigrant community, particularly from neighboring West African countries, as well as an important Syrian and Lebanese community that has been established for generations. Among the newer immigrant groups are significant numbers of East Indians, Chinese, and white Zimbabweans and South Africans.
Nigerians often find themselves hard-pressed to describe exactly what it is to be Nigerian: given the fact that the country was artificially created only a little more than seventy years ago, the concept of being Nigerian is relatively new. Furthermore, there is a significant difference in the cultural experiences of rural Nigerians (approximately 52 percent of the population), those of the lower and middle classes who work in the cities, and Nigeria's small wealthy elite, many of whom have lived and been educated abroad.
Language
It is estimated that there are five hundred and ten living languages in Nigeria, most of which fall within three major families: the Niger-Congo languages of the south, which include Yoruba and Igbo (both tonal languages); Hausa in the north, a Chadic group within the Afro-Asiatic family; and Kanuri, spoken in the northeast. English has been the official language of the country since independence in 1960 and is used in education, for business transactions, and in government. It is not spoken at all in some rural areas, however.
During the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries put indigenous languages such as Yoruba and Igbo into writing for the first time. They also developed the first written dictionaries in these languages and translated the Bible into local languages. In the 1930s the British colonial administration introduced a Latin-based alphabet called boko for the writing of Hausa. Hausa is itself a regional language as it is spoken in northern Nigeria and Niger, and in regions of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, Sudan, and Togo.
Most Nigerians are multilingual. They speak at least one native language (but most often they will know more than one) and English, as well as Pidgin (a combination of indigenous languages and English that is recognized as a separate language).
Religion
Around 50 percent of the population are Sunni Muslim. Most northerners, and approximately one-third of the Yoruba in the southwest, are Muslims. Christians make up roughly 40 percent of the population, mostly in the south and middle belt. Protestantism and the evangelical churches are strongest in the southwest, while the peoples of the southeast are predominantly Catholic. The remaining 10 percent of the population continue to practice indigenous beliefs that are basically monotheist — they believe there is one God who exists in the spiritual world and who created all things. The link between man and God is provided by the divinities and spirits, who are worshipped through elaborate rituals.
The Constitution of Nigeria formally separates religion from matters of the state, but since independence (and particularly since the return to democracy in 1999) there has been an increasing politicization of religion; religious leaders have become spokespeople on behalf of their followers in petitioning the government for resources. Furthermore, particularly in the middle belt of the country where communities of Muslims and Christians live in close proximity, religion has become mixed up in local power politics.
A BRIEF HISTORY
The history of modern Nigeria dates back to October 1, 1960, the date of its official independence from British rule. The history of the people currently regrouped within its borders goes back much farther. There is evidence of habitation as far back as 9000 BCE. During the first millennium CE, permanent agricultural and livestock-rearing settlements evolved.
The societies within the area of present-day Nigeria displayed a diversity of governing structures. In the south and eastern middle-belt regions of the country, decentralized community-based structures predominated until colonization. Politically these were organized along an age-based hierarchy, led by the elders of patrilineal lines. Villages were linked through a market, where trade and intercommunity matters were settled. Ethnic groups such as the Igbo, the Ibibio, and the Tiv were linked through a common language and religious beliefs, while trade connected them to the wider West African community.
In the southwest, powerful centralized empires developed. By the twelfth century, the city-state of Ife-Ife (commonly known as just Ife and pronounced "ee-fay") was a regional power and the ancestral birthplace of the Yoruba people. It was a major trading center and is famous today for its elaborate bronze sculptures. The power of the Ife king (or ooni) lay not in military power (the kingdom never had a standing army) but in his divine connection to the spiritual world.
In the 1400s, in the kingdom of Benin, the town's administration was run by local hereditary chiefs allied to Benin's king. The palace administration, on the other hand, was run by a small group of individuals whose positions were obtained through a system of meritocracy. Benin expanded into an empire through a series of wars, extending its lines of trade and influence late into the second millennium. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries several strong, centralized city-states arose in the north of what is now Nigeria, including Katsina, Zaria, Kano, and Gobir. These developed from their position in the shifting routes of trans-Saharan trade. Each state was independent politically, though they were united by a common Hausa language and the religion of Islam. Each was headed by a king (or emir), was managed through a large bureaucracy, and relied on agriculture and livestock for trade. Gold, slaves, and goods such as leather and leather products, weapons, horses, and textiles were the main commodities traded.
Islam in the North
Islam was first brought into the northern region in the late eleventh century by traders, missionaries, and the nomadic, pastoralist Fulani. The first Hausa ruler to convert to Islam was Yaji of Kano in 1370. For centuries, Islam coexisted with indigenous beliefs and practices. Then, in 1804, a Fulani cleric, Usman dan Fodio, declared a jihad against the corruption and un-Islamic practices of the ruling Hausa elite. By 1810 the Hausa states were united under the Sokoto Caliphate, a grouping of decentralized emirates all giving allegiance to dan Fodio, the first Caliph.
Thus, by the mid-nineteenth century, Islam had spread throughout the northern territories and was practiced exclusively by rural people and city dwellers alike. The creation of the Caliphate also ended the hundreds of years of interstate wars in the north and dramatically improved the economy and living conditions of the majority of the region's people. Culturally, it united the peoples of the north, creating a Muslim identity that had never existed before.
The Spread of Christianity
Christianity was introduced on the coast by Portuguese traders in the fifteenth century, but it is only from the 1840s that it started to spread throughout the country. Many Nigerian rulers began to see the new religion as giving them a spiritual and economic advantage over their rivals. Mission schools provided valuable language skills that improved their ability to trade with the British. They also hoped that through the missionaries they could obtain British military support against their competitors. However, it was the return of former slaves from Brazil and Sierra Leone that stimulated the growth in numbers of native African missionaries, causing Christianity to really spread in Nigeria.
The gradual replacement of the indigenous belief system by Christianity disrupted traditional and communal power and social structures. Christian churches promoted formal education and vocational training, thus creating a new political order in which the educated often had advantages over those favored by the traditional hierarchies. The churches also set out to influence indigenous practices such as polygyny (the marriage of one man to more than one woman), slavery, and sacrifices.
Slavery
Slavery and various forms of bonded labor existed in the territory of Nigeria before the arrival of Europeans. Slaves served primarily as a supplement to paid labor and as such could hold practically any job, from menial and household work to high administrative posts and even important military positions. Slaves normally lived as dependents within their owners' families, and were thus integrated into the larger society. Furthermore, the children of slaves were generally not slaves themselves.
The establishment of plantation labor in the New World in the sixteenth century and the rise of the British and Dutch commercial empires saw a dramatic increase in the trade in slaves — an event that produced massive social and political changes in most communities in Nigeria. In the Bight of Benin, in the southwest, local kings established royal monopolies that competed with one another for European trade. They purchased slaves through middlemen from states in the interior where the slaves were captured through wars or raids. For instance, the city-state of Oyo became one of the largest empires in Nigerian history largely due to its strategic position between the northern trans-Sahel slave trade route and the coastal European trade area.
Further east along the coast into the Bight of Biafra, on the other hand, decentralized political structures allowed the development of powerful commercial interests in the slave trade. In this region slaves were mainly obtained through judicial rulings or kidnappings, or on the order of an oracle who had demanded slaves for a favorable ruling. The rise of powerful local commercial organizations altered the balance of power away from the traditional rulers and social structures.
Abolition
The abolition of the slave trade in 1807 hastened the demise of the powerful Oyo Empire, which was slowly losing territory due to expansionist pressures from the Sokoto Caliphate to the north. Oyo's demise set off what are known as the Yoruba Wars of the nineteenth century, which destabilized much of western Nigeria.
The slave trade gave way to the trade in palm oil, which was valuable in the production of soap, candles, and industrial lubricants. In the Yoruba southwest, the production of palm oil was dominated by large plantations that required huge amounts of labor, particularly female. This industry actually increased the internal demand for (women) slaves. The industry was controlled by warlords whose dominion over their territories was largely outside traditional power structures.
In the southeastern regions of Nigeria, the palm-oil industry was decentralized in primarily family-based small farms. Again, this had a significant impact on women in the region, as most of the work involved in palm-oil production was done by women. Polygyny was a useful economic structure that enabled the increasing participation of women in the local economy.
Colonialism
During the mid-nineteenth century, Great Britain's domination of trade on the Nigerian coast was increasingly threatened by the ambitions of other European countries. The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 set off the "scramble for Africa," during which the British set out to establish a visible power base within the Nigerian territories. In the south the British established treaties of "protection" that varied from region to region to accommodate local traditions and structures. Local leaders signed these treaties in the hope that this would improve their trade position with the British or give them an advantage over their neighbors. In reality, however, they had little choice: the British military crushed any refusal or rebellion swiftly and unconditionally. Once they had gained control of the south, the British turned their attention to the Caliphate in the north. Here, stiff resistance forced them to overthrow the Caliphate and then capture by force each individual state, a process which took until 1903 to complete.
The British governed their Nigerian colony through "indirect rule." The goal, theoretically, was not to change existing political and social institutions but only to change those customs, traditions, and institutions that were thought to be harmful to Nigerian progress and British commercial interests. In the north, indirect rule was easily implemented: Britain obtained the political and commercial power it wanted, and left the daily administration of the people to the centralized control of the emirs. The lives of ordinary northerners changed very little. In the southern regions, however, a great deal of political change was required of the local systems of administration in order to accommodate the needs of the British Empire. For example, the chiefs appointed by the British became minions of the colonial power and were no longer perceived as true representatives of the people. Furthermore, the rapid imposition of a cash-based economy caused enormous social upheaval
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Excerpted from Nigeria by Diane Lemieux. Copyright © 2011 Kuperard. Excerpted by permission of Bravo Ltd.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Cover,Title Page,
Copyright,
About the Author,
Map of Nigeria,
Introduction,
Key Facts,
Chapter 1: LAND AND PEOPLE,
Chapter 2: VALUES AND ATTITUDES,
Chapter 3: CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS,
Chapter 4: MAKING FRIENDS,
Chapter 5: THE NIGERIANS AT HOME,
Chapter 6: TIME OUT,
Chapter 7: TRAVEL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY,
Chapter 8: BUSINESS BRIEFING,
Chapter 9: COMMUNICATING,
Further Reading,
Acknowledgments,