Category: Culture – Others

Urhobo people

Culture – Language, Culture – Others, Language, Social – Tradition, Tradition – Customs

Urhobo is the majority tribe in Ughelli North of Delta state, Nigeria, occupying the southern part of the Benin lowland and the floodplains swamps of the petroleum-rich Niger Delta. With a population of over 3 million people, the Urhobo people are among the eight largest ethnic groups in Nigeria and constitute the largest single ethnic…
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Charles Phillips

Culture – Others, History – Civilization, Religion

Charles Phillips was the 19th Century Head of the Church Missionary Society in Ondo, whose parents were Yoruba Sierra Leonean returnee. At Ijaiye Charles’s father, known by same name, was a church catechist. Charles Phillip, born in 1847 to Egba parents is remembered for his effort in negotiating a truce as an emissary of the…
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Ayo Opon

Culture – Others, Social – Relaxation

Ayo opon, or Jonda, is a two-player African board game of strategy, popular among Yoruba people in the Western part of Nigeria, and Igbos in the East, where it is called nchorokoto. Two persons play in the Ayo game, with the board, a plank of wood consisting of two rows of pits containing seeds of…
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Gerontocracy

Culture – Others, Government

Gerontocracy is a government consisting mostly of elders. This system was prevalent in antiquity, in the southwest of Nigeria, where much credence is paid to the belief that maturity and wisdom comes with age. Age was the first qualification which a prospective member of the town’s administrative conclave of ancient time, the Ogboni, must acquire.…
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Idejo

Culture – Others, Tradition – Customs

Idejo chiefs are according to Lagos tradition, the original land owners of the island of Lagos, being descendants of Olofin who first colonized Iddo Island of Lagos. Some members of the Idejo aristocracy, the Elegushi for example, have had their status elevated to that of an Oba. The thirty-two children of Olofin (some of who…
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Intelligence Report

Culture – Others, Linguistics, Literature – Non-Fiction

Intelligence Report in colonial Nigeria was a document outlining the history and the administrative culture of the people as constructed from oral traditions and in some cases, other trusted written accounts. The main objective of the Intelligence Report was to show how far the executive and judicial practice is in conformity with the indigenous institutions,…
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Isaac Oluwole

Culture – Others, Religion

Isaac Oluwole, Bishop of the Anglican Church, was born June 5, 1852 in Abeokuta to Ijesha parents.With the nomination of J.B. Wood, Bishop Oluwole was among the first batch of three students who took a Bachelor’s degree at Fourah Bay College in 1879. In same year, he became the second Principal of CMS Grammar School…
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Ìwòfà

Culture – Others, Social – Welfare

Ìwòfà, translated as ‘pawning’, was the system of constrained labour used in offsetting debts of different kinds in the 19th and 20th Century south-west Nigeria. In ancient times where a family had not the money to meet the funeral expenses of a relative, the members would sell the slaves they had or place themselves, their…
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Gender

Culture – Others, Philosophy – African, Social – Tradition

Gender as a concept is described by Marjorie Mclatosh as the differing roles and expectations a given society imposes upon women as opposed to men. It has been argued by one Oyerone Oyewunmi that the contemporary concept of gender which seem to place primacy on the man was alien to Yoruba consciousness. This allusion has been…
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Jaguna

Culture – Others, History – General

Jaguna was an Egba military rank that existed prominently in the pre-1827 times. This was before the tribe fell under the influence of the Oyo/Ibadan army under the warlord, Maye who acted like the Field Marshal in the war against the tribe. The Jaguna title is virtually exclusive to the Egba, but it has lost…
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