History
Chronologically located between 1500 BC and 500 BC The Nok culture resided in northern Nigeria above the Niger and Benue rivers. Which is famous for its terracotta figures with peculiar characteristics such as its triangle-shaped eyes. Its disappearance is a mystery to historians and archaeologists.
Although initially made up of a number of kingdoms and states with a multi-ethnic base, the area of modern Nigeria came under British rule around 1906.
The 1 of October of 1960 became an independent nation within the Commonwealth. As a country located in Africa according to ALLPUBLICLIBRARIES, Nigeria was ruled by the military from 1966 to 1979, following a period of tension between its ethnic groups, especially the Yoruba in the southwest, the Ibo in the southeast, and the Hausa and Fulani in the north.
Between 1967 and 1970 the Ibo peoples of the southeast tried unsuccessfully to secede from Nigeria by forming the republic of Biafra. The period of civil mandate (1979 – 1983) ended with a coup. Since then, a military government with different leaders has been maintained; the last attempt to return civilian rule to Nigeria led to the annulment of the results of the elections in August of 1993y to a military coup in November that year.
Yorubas States
In the 10th and 13th centuries, the Yoruba cities achieved their greatest height, they had a centralized monarchical organization and in the cultural order the most important were Ifé (Sacred City) and Benin; which eventually became the capital of the entire empire until its destruction in 1897 by the British invasions. The Yorubas constitute the largest ethnic group in southern Nigerians (15 million 200,000), also representing one of the most flourishing sub-Saharan cultures (History of the Yoruba people).
Sacred city
The sacred city of Ifé arose between the 10th and 11th centuries, although later the city of Oyó (belonging to the kingdom where Chango was king) and which had extended its borders to the Gold Coast, took the predominant role within the empire. Already in the 19th century, the Yoruba states were attacked from the north by the Jausas, leaving the cities of Oyó and Llorún under the hegemony of the Fulbé dynasty of the Osmán Dan Fodio clan.
Military Activity
Military activity was deeply rooted, tribal wars contributed to the political-economic consolidation of the states and their territorial expansion. In periods of peace there was a boom in trade (precisely with the Jausas and the Nafé). The commercial exchange with these two empires, influenced the penetration of the Muslim religion in their territories. The regions of Ghana, Benin and Togo ; As well as coastal areas of the Gulf of Guinea are populated by a large number of Yoruba, it is worth noting that this population is descended from the former slaves who, after the abolition of slavery, returned from America to their homeland of Origin (including many Cubans).
Linguistic and idiomatic training
This language is made up of 20 dialects, the most important of which are: Oyó, Ifé, Iyesá, Ilá, Iyebú, Ekiti, Ondó, Egba and Ovó (nucleated together) so that communication in any of them is accessible to all individuals. The dialect of Oyó (or true Yoruba) is the most widespread because it contains elements of all the others. The Yoruba alphabet was produced by Nigerian Catholic monks, while the first dictionary was published in the mid-19th century (1843). Samuel Crowter, a former slave and later the first Catholic bishop of Sub-Saharan Africa, translated the Bible into Yoruba as Martin Luther did much earlier.when translating it into German; contributing to the expansion of Catholicism to all corners of the planet.
Main cities
The capital is Abuja and Lagos is the largest city.
The most populated cities are Ibadan with more than one million residents and with more than 225,000 residents Aba, Abeokuta, Ado-Ekiti, Ede, Enugu, Ifé, Ila, Ilesha, Ilorin, Iwo, Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Mushin, Ogbomosho, Onitsha, Oshogbo, Port Harcourt and Zaria.
Culture
Foods
The main foods in the Nigerian diet are yams, cassava, and rice, and people like food that is spicy and spicy. Meals are usually accompanied by a pepper sauce with fish, meat or chicken.
The main meal of the day is eaten in the evening. The diet is complemented with a varied selection of fruits and vegetables. Due to the tsetse fly, which transmits a fatal disease to animals, dairy cattle are rare in coastal regions, so packaged margarine, cheese and powdered milk are consumed as alternatives.
Parties
National holidays include New Year’s Day (January 1), Labor Day (May 1), and National Day (October 1).
In addition, the main religious holidays, both Christian and Muslim, are celebrated throughout the country. The Muslim ones vary according to the lunar calendar and are the Maulid an-Nabi, which is the anniversary of Muhammad’s birth and takes place in September or October; the Idul Fitr, a three-day festival that ends the fasting month of Ramadan ; and the Idul Adha, which commemorates the faith and obedience of the prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), who was willing to sacrifice his own son.
Idul Adha is usually celebrated in June or July. The Christian holidays are Easter (from Good Friday to Easter Monday), Christmas (December 25) and Boxing Day (December 26), a day that is currently dedicated to visiting and that comes from an ancient British tradition according to which servants and merchants collected the Christmas gift in small clay boxes on the day after Christmas.
Languages
The official language is English. The most widespread language, especially in the north, and spoken by the Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri and Tiv, is Hausa, a lingua franca of West Africa.
Religion
48% of the people of Nigeria are Muslim and the majority live in the Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri areas in the north. About 34% of Nigerians are Christians; Catholicism is centered in the Southeast, while Methodists and Anglicans have a greater influence in the Southwest. The rest of the population follows traditional religions, which are mostly concentrated in western Nigeria.
