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
Igala
People of the Niger-Benue confluence whose Attah kingdom at Idah fought Benin and the Royal Niger Company, whose bronze and brass work belongs to the Lower Niger tradition, and whose princess Inikpi is remembered as having been buried alive for her country.
Identity
Population: Estimated 2 to 3 million
Location: Kogi State in central Nigeria, east of the Niger and south of the Benue, around Idah, Ankpa and Dekina
Language: Igala, closely related to Yoruba
Language family: Niger-Congo → Volta-Niger → Yoruboid
Traditional governance: The Attah Igala at Idah, one of Nigeria's senior traditional rulers, with a council of kingmakers and district chiefs; 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.
Igala of Idah
The kingdom's capital and royal centre on the Niger.
Igala of Ankpa and Olamaboro
Eastern communities toward the Enugu border.
Igala of Dekina and Bassa
Northern communities toward the Benue.
Igala Mela
The nine kingmaker lineages who install the Attah.
Culture
Clothing: Woven and imported cloth; the Attah's regalia of beads, coral and cloth; the ekwe and egwu masquerade costumes.
Food: Yam as the staple and the object of the year's principal festival, cassava, melon-seed soups, palm oil, river fish from the Niger and Benue, and palm wine.
Ceremonies: Ocho, the new yam festival at Idah; the Attah's installation with the Igala Mela; egwu masquerades; ancestral offerings; funerals with masquerade appearances.
Marriage customs: Patrilineal with bridewealth in goods and cash; the negotiation is staged and involves both lineages; royal marriages historically bound the districts to Idah.
Initiation rites: Entry into the masquerade societies, which is the significant male passage; the Igala did not practise the age-grade systems of their eastern neighbours.
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
InikpiFoundation tradition
Igala tradition holds that when the kingdom faced destruction in war with Benin, the oracle required the Attah Ayegba Om'Idoko to sacrifice what he most loved, and his daughter Inikpi offered herself and was buried alive with her attendants at Idah. The Igala won. A shrine and a statue at Idah mark the place, and Inikpi is invoked as the kingdom's protector. The story is the centre of Igala historical consciousness and is retold at every Ocho festival.
Idah, 1897Colonial history
The Attah's kingdom controlled the confluence and taxed the river trade, and it fought the Royal Niger Company for that control; company forces bombarded and burned Idah in 1897 under Sir George Goldie, in the same period as the Nupe and Ilorin expeditions. The kingdom's independence ended and the confluence passed to the company and then to the Protectorate. Idah's royal regalia and much of its material heritage were lost or removed in the burning.
The Lower Niger BronzesArt history
A body of cast bronze and brass objects from the Niger-Benue region — bells, figures, ornaments — has been grouped as the Lower Niger Bronze Industries, distinct from Ife and Benin and not securely attributed to any single people. Igala royal regalia includes pieces of this tradition, and Idah's casting is documented. The corpus is one of the outstanding unresolved problems in West African art history, and Igala material sits at its centre.
Proverbs
“Ọ̀nẹ̀ dú kí ẹ̀la ma dú.”
“One person's darkness is not everyone's night.”
A misfortune is not universal.
“The princess went into the ground and the kingdom stood up.”
On Inikpi.
“The river feeds two banks and belongs to neither.”
On the confluence and its trade.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Ọjọ (Ojo) as the high god; Ane, the earth, as a power in her own right and the guarantor of oaths; ancestral spirits appearing as masquerades.
Beliefs: Earth oaths and Ane's sanction; ancestral masquerade; Inikpi's shrine at Idah; Catholic and Anglican Christianity now dominant, with Islam present in the north of the territory.
Ancestors: Ancestors appear as egwu masquerades at festivals and funerals; the Attah's genealogy is recited at installation and is the kingdom's charter.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Ọjọ
The high god
Ane
The earth, guarantor of oaths and of the land's fertility
Inikpi
The sacrificed princess, venerated at Idah as the kingdom's protector
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Compounds of rectangular mud houses with thatch and now iron sheet, grouped by lineage; Idah with the Attah's palace and the royal shrines.
Building techniques: Mud walling with thatch and iron roofing; the palace built with courtyards and audience spaces; brass and bronze casting; masquerade costume making.
Village layout: Compounds around a lineage head's house with a shrine at a fixed point; the palace and Inikpi's shrine at Idah's centre.
Artifacts
Attah's regalia
Regalia
Beads, coral, cloth and cast metal insignia of one of Nigeria's senior traditional thrones.
Inikpi shrine and statue
Heritage site
The site at Idah marking the sacrificed princess of Igala tradition.
Lower Niger bronzes
Metalwork
Cast bells, figures and ornaments of an unresolved regional tradition.
Egwu masquerade costumes
Masquerade
Ancestral masks and dress appearing at festivals and funerals.
Historical Timeline
1400s–1500s
The Igala kingdom consolidates at Idah under the Attah; relations with Benin alternate between tribute and war.
1500s–1600s
The war with Benin in which Inikpi's sacrifice is placed; Igala authority extends across the confluence.
1800s
The kingdom taxes the Niger trade; European steamers reach the confluence from the 1830s.
1897
Royal Niger Company forces bombard and burn Idah; the kingdom's independence ends.
1960–present
Nigerian independence; Kogi State is created in 1991; the Attah remains among Nigeria's senior traditional rulers.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- British Museum — Lower Niger bronze industriesBritish Museum
Premium & scholarly sources
- Boston, The Igala KingdomJSTOR
- Ethnologue: IgalaSIL International