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
Ogoni
Farmers and fishers of a small, dense territory in the Niger Delta whose campaign against Shell and the Nigerian state cost Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others their lives in 1995, and whose land the UN found would take thirty years to clean.
Identity
Population: Estimated 1.5 to 2 million
Location: Ogoniland in Rivers State, Nigeria — Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme local government areas, about 1,000 square kilometres east of Port Harcourt
Language: Khana, Gokana, Eleme and Tee — four related but distinct languages
Language family: Niger-Congo → Cross River → Ogoni
Traditional governance: Village councils and gbenemene paramount chiefs in each kingdom; the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People and successor bodies as political vehicles; Rivers 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.
Khana
The largest group, of Khana local government area.
Gokana
Communities of Gokana, the most heavily oil-affected.
Eleme
Communities nearest Port Harcourt, with the refineries and petrochemical plants.
Tai and Baan
Smaller groups with their own speech varieties.
Culture
Clothing: Contemporary and Nigerian ceremonial dress; the karikpo antelope masquerade costumes; wrapper and beads at festivals.
Food: Yam and cassava, plantain, periwinkles and shellfish from the creeks, fish, palm oil, and the palm wine that was once tapped from groves the spills have killed.
Ceremonies: Karikpo masquerade with its acrobatic antelope-masked dancers; the Ogoni Day commemorations each January; new yam festivals; funerals with masquerade.
Marriage customs: Patrilineal with bridewealth in goods and cash; the negotiation involves both lineages over an extended sequence.
Initiation rites: Entry into the masquerade societies and age grades; the karikpo dancers train from boyhood in an acrobatic tradition that is physically demanding.
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
The Ogoni Bill of RightsPolitical history
In 1990 Ogoni leaders issued the Ogoni Bill of Rights, demanding political autonomy, control of a fair share of the oil revenue from their land, and the right to protect their environment. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, with Ken Saro-Wiwa as its most visible figure, mobilised an estimated 300,000 people in a single demonstration in January 1993 — a substantial fraction of the entire population. Shell withdrew from Ogoniland that year and has not produced there since.
The NinePolitical history
In 1994 Saro-Wiwa and others were arrested after the killing of four Ogoni chiefs, tried before a special military tribunal widely condemned as lacking basic fairness, and hanged on 10 November 1995 despite international appeals. Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth. Saro-Wiwa's last words at his trial — that the ecological war against the Ogoni would be the subject of a later reckoning — are quoted throughout the environmental justice movement. Shell settled a US lawsuit brought by relatives in 2009 without admitting liability.
Thirty Years to CleanEnvironmental history
The UN Environment Programme's 2011 assessment of Ogoniland found hydrocarbon contamination in soil and groundwater far above Nigerian and international limits, benzene in drinking water at over 900 times the WHO guideline in one community, and mangrove and creek systems severely damaged. It estimated that a full clean-up would take 25 to 30 years and recommended an initial billion-dollar fund. HYPREP, the body created to carry it out, began work in 2018 and its pace and quality have been persistently criticised.
Proverbs
“The land is not the property of the living alone.”
A formulation central to the Ogoni environmental argument.
“The fish knows which creek is poisoned before the fisherman does.”
On what the environment signals first.
“A small people shouting together is heard.”
On the 1993 demonstration.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Bari as the high god; the earth (kpa) and the water as powers requiring observance; ancestral spirits appearing as masquerades; sacred groves and creeks with prohibitions.
Beliefs: Earth and water observances; ancestral masquerade; sacred groves, several of them now oil-damaged; Anglican, Catholic and Pentecostal Christianity dominant, with the older observances continuing.
Ancestors: Ancestors appear as masquerades and are addressed at lineage sites; the desecration of sacred groves by spills and flowlines is stated in Ogoni argument as a religious injury as well as an ecological one.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Bari
The high god
Kpa
The earth, requiring observance and guaranteeing oaths
Water and creek powers
Presences of the delta's waters, addressed before fishing
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Dense villages of rectangular houses among oil palm and farmland on some of the most crowded rural land in Africa, with creeks and mangrove beyond.
Building techniques: Mud and block walling with iron roofing; canoe building for the creeks; fish trap and net making; palm-wine tapping equipment.
Village layout: Compounds along a road or path with farms behind, the sacred grove left uncleared, and the creeks and flowlines beyond.
Artifacts
Karikpo masquerade
Masquerade
Acrobatic antelope-masked dance, the Ogoni's best-known performance tradition.
Ogoni Bill of Rights
Political document
The 1990 statement of Ogoni demands for autonomy, revenue and environmental protection.
UNEP Ogoniland assessment
Scientific record
The 2011 report establishing the extent of contamination and the scale of clean-up required.
Abandoned flowlines and wellheads
Industrial heritage
Oil infrastructure left in place after production ceased in 1993.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1900
Ogoni communities occupy the eastern Niger Delta as farmers and fishers.
1958
Oil production begins in Ogoniland at Bomu; flowlines and flare sites proliferate.
1990–1993
The Ogoni Bill of Rights; mass mobilisation; Shell ceases production in Ogoniland.
1995
Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others are executed; Nigeria is suspended from the Commonwealth.
2011–present
The UNEP assessment; HYPREP begins clean-up in 2018 amid sustained criticism of its pace.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- UNEP — Environmental Assessment of OgonilandUN Environment Programme
- Amnesty International — Niger Delta oil pollution reportingAmnesty International
Premium & scholarly sources
- Ethnologue: Khana, Gokana and ElemeSIL International