StapleNigeria
Pounded Yam and Egusi Soup
White yam pounded to a smooth elastic mound with a soup of ground melon seeds, greens and meat. The centrepiece of Yoruba and Igbo tables alike.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 30 minutes
Ebira (Igbirra)
Weavers and farmers of the Okene highlands west of the confluence, makers of the hand-woven cloth that clothes half of Nigeria's ceremonies, and holders of the ekuechi masquerade in which the dead return once a year to speak in their own voices.
Identity
Population: Estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million
Location: Kogi State in central Nigeria around Okene, Ajaokuta and Adavi, west of the Niger
Language: Ebira (Igbirra)
Language family: Niger-Congo → Volta-Niger → Nupoid
Traditional governance: Clan and lineage authority historically without a paramount ruler; the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, created in the twentieth century, now the senior traditional office; Kogi State administration.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (4)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups (clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes), each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Ebira Tao
The Okene highland majority.
Ebira Koto
Riverine communities on the Niger's banks.
Ebira Etuno
The Igarra community in Edo State.
Ebira Panda
Communities in Nasarawa State to the north-east.
Culture
Clothing: Ebira hand-woven cloth in indigo, white and red stripes — itagi and other named patterns — worn across Nigeria at weddings and funerals; the masquerade costumes of the ekuechi season.
Food: Yam and cassava as staples, melon-seed and okra soups, palm oil, guinea corn, and the palm wine and locally brewed drinks of the festivals.
Ceremonies: Ekuechi, the annual return of the dead, held over several nights at the year's end; ekuedi and other masquerades; funerals; the yam harvest.
Marriage customs: Patrilineal with bridewealth in cloth, goods and cash; woven cloth is itself a standard element of the settlement.
Initiation rites: Entry into the masquerade societies; boys learn weaving or farming as the practical passage; girls learn the loom from their mothers.
Food & Recipes
Every dish the Atlas publishes for Nigeria, at national rather than community level — 10 in all: the staple a household eats daily, the dish the country names as its own, street food, what is cooked for a wedding or Eid, regional specialities and a drink. Quantities and method are given for every one, so these are recipes rather than descriptions, and each has a photograph from Wikimedia Commons. The Food page carries the whole continent, searchable by country and by ingredient.
StapleNigeria
Tuwo Shinkafa
also Rice swallow
Soft short-grain rice cooked and beaten into a smooth mound, the northern Nigerian staple eaten with miyan kuka or miyan taushe.
Serves 6 · 45 minutes
National dishNigeria
Nigerian Jollof
Long-grain rice cooked in a reduced pepper and tomato base until the bottom of the pot lightly scorches, which is where the smoky flavour comes from and is not a mistake.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 20 minutes
National dishNigeria
Miyan Kuka
also Baobab leaf soup, Luru
Dried baobab leaf powder cooked into a dark, faintly slippery soup with dried fish and locust bean. The Hausa soup of northern Nigeria, eaten with tuwo.
Serves 6 · 50 minutes
Street foodNigeria
Suya
Thin beef skewers rubbed in yaji, a groundnut and chilli spice mix, grilled over open charcoal by Hausa mallams and served on newspaper with raw onion and tomato.
Serves Makes 12 · 40 minutes, plus 2 hours marinating
Festival & feastNigeria
Ofe Nsala
also White soup
A pale peppery soup of catfish thickened with pounded yam and scented with uziza and ehuru. Made in Anambra for a woman who has just given birth, and served at important occasions.
Serves 6 · 1 hour
Regional specialityNigeria
Moi Moi
Steamed bean pudding of peeled black-eyed peas, peppers and onion, wrapped in leaves and studded with egg and fish. Eaten alone or beside jollof at every party.
Serves 8 · 1 hour 30 minutes, plus 4 hours soaking
Regional specialityNigeria
Efo Riro
also Yoruba spinach stew
Shredded greens cooked into a base of blended pepper, onion and palm oil with assorted meat and stockfish. The Yoruba vegetable soup, and the one Lagosians argue about most.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes
Regional specialityNigeria
Banga Soup
also Ofe akwu, Palm nut soup
Palm nut pulp cooked with catfish and the Delta's particular spices — beletientien, oburunbebe stick, ataiko — into a thick orange soup. The Urhobo and Isoko signature.
Serves 6 · 1 hour 15 minutes
Drink & sweetNigeria
Zobo
Hibiscus infused with pineapple, ginger and clove, bottled and sold cold at every Nigerian gathering. The non-alcoholic drink of choice at weddings.
Serves 8 · 40 minutes, plus chilling
Stories & Oral Literature
EkuechiFestival tradition
At the end of the Ebira year the dead return: masquerades appear at night, speak in altered voices reported to be those of specific deceased relatives, deliver messages, admonish the living and receive complaints. Women do not see the night masquerades and remain indoors, singing from the compounds. The festival runs several nights and is the axis of the Ebira ritual year. It is among the most fully preserved ancestral-return festivals in Nigeria, and its accommodation with Christianity and Islam is negotiated household by household.
The Looms of OkeneCraft economy
Ebira women weave on the broad upright loom, producing striped and patterned cloth that is a standard of Nigerian ceremonial dress and is sold in Lagos, Abuja and beyond. The industry is domestic, entirely in women's hands, and has survived the collapse of Nigeria's factory textile sector; it now competes with imported imitations printed in Asia. Okene's cloth is one of the few West African handweaving traditions that is still a mass-market commodity rather than a heritage craft.
The Steel Mill That Never RanEconomic history
The Ajaokuta Steel Company, begun in 1979 on Ebira land with Soviet technical assistance and intended to be Africa's largest integrated steel plant, has never produced commercial steel. Several billion dollars have been spent; the plant is reported at over ninety per cent completion and has been for decades; successive governments have announced its revival. It stands as Nigeria's most expensive unfinished project, on ground taken from communities who were promised an industrial future and got a compound of rusting machinery.
Proverbs
“The dead speak once a year and are listened to all of it.”
On ekuechi.
“The loom feeds the house the farm cannot.”
On weaving as women's income.
“A furnace that has never been lit is still called a factory.”
On Ajaokuta.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Ohomorihi as the high god, associated with rain; ancestral spirits who return at ekuechi; the earth as guarantor of oaths.
Beliefs: Ancestral masquerade as the central institution; earth oaths; divination; Islam is the majority religion in Okene with Christianity substantial, and both coexist with the ekuechi calendar.
Ancestors: The ancestors are not distant: ekuechi is built on the premise that they come back, are recognised individually, and have things to say.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Ohomorihi
The high god, associated with rain
Ancestral dead
Returning annually at ekuechi to speak to the living
The earth
Guarantor of oaths and of boundaries
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Compounds of rectangular mud houses grouped by lineage on the Okene highlands, with weaving sheds and shaded loom spaces.
Building techniques: Mud walling with thatch and iron roofing; the broad upright loom set under shade in the compound; masquerade costume construction; indigo dyeing.
Village layout: Compounds around a lineage head's house with the loom space and the shrine at fixed points; the masquerade grove outside the settlement.
Artifacts
Ebira hand-woven cloth
Textile
Striped and patterned cloth woven by women on upright looms and worn across Nigeria.
Ekuechi masquerade costumes
Masquerade
The night masks and dress of the annual return of the dead.
Upright loom
Craft
The broad women's loom on which Ebira cloth is produced.
Ajaokuta steel plant
Industrial heritage
Nigeria's largest unfinished industrial project, begun in 1979.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1800
Ebira communities settle the highlands west of the Niger-Benue confluence.
1800s
Nupe and Fulani pressure from the north; Ebira communities consolidate in defensible highland settlements.
1900s–1950s
British administration; the Ohinoyi office is created; weaving expands with the growth of Nigerian ceremonial dress.
1979–present
Ajaokuta Steel is begun and never completed; Kogi State is created in 1991.
1990s–present
Ekuechi continues alongside Islam and Christianity; imported imitations pressure the handweaving trade.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- National Bureau of Statistics, NigeriaGovernment of Nigeria
Premium & scholarly sources
- Picton, Ebira masquerade and cloth studiesJSTOR
- Ethnologue: EbiraSIL International