Gazetteers of the northern provinces of Nigeria vol. I-IV.
Date
1972
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
London: Frank Cass and Company Limited,
Abstract
The hausa emirates; The eastern kingdoms; The central kingdoms; The highland chieftaincies;
Description
The Gazetteers now grouped together comprise those relating to the Provinces which may, for ease of reference and research, and without any institutionalizing intent, be characterised as the Central Emirates of Northern Nigeria. They include not only the lesser Hausa kingdoms of Keffi and Nassarawa, the three remnant states of the mediaeval Banza Bakwai (see Prefatory Note to Volume 1, p. XXIV and the latter-day Fulani emirate of Kontagora, but also the rive rain kingdoms of the Niger-Benue confluence, notably the Igala and the Igbirra, and the major trans-riverain bloc of the Idoma. The Tiv, because of the provincial organisation in force at the time the Gazetteers were published in the early 1920s, were included under Muri Province in Volume II and not here as would be their logical location. What ethno-political unity there is, then - and none is claimed as an overall binding element, given the vast range of kingdoms contained in this third and final collected volume of the original Gazetteers - is confined to the Nupe and Yoruba emirates. Here Fulani leadership and court hierarchy encountered in each case such stubborn resistance to easy assimilation from peoples already endowed with a similarly ancient history and an established culture of their own, that Islam made only gradual progress and the process of ‘Hausafication’ even less. Hence the aboriginal Nupe and Yoruba elements have been readily apparent in the values and perspectives of daily life, sometimes alongside and on occasion subordinate to orthodox Islamic practice. Elsewhere - for instance among the Igala, Igbirra, Idoma, and Jukun - there runs a vigorous tradition of culture and historical eminence, each rightly demanding that its ethnic whole be studied sui generis. Nor are the Fulani emirates included here necessarily or exactly classifiable with the classical emirates grouped in Volume 1. For Provincial and Divisional checklists supplementary to the Tables overleaf, see pp. XV and XVI of the General Introduction in Volume I. Leaving aside the body of vernacular publications and linguistic studies, the authorities cited below are likely to be of immediate value to a researcher working in the Central Kingdoms. This preliminary ‘library’ is restricted to books in English, and no account is taken here of the important literature of articles in learned journals or of chapters in symposia.