The Igala kingdom
Date
1968
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ibadan: Oxford University Press
Abstract
Environmental Factors; The Perspective of Igala Oral Tradition; e The Hereditary Basis of Central Government; The Framework of Local Government; Igala Concepts of Kingship; Ekwe, the principal Igala masquerade; The Ata’s court at Idah in 1841; . A newly appointed chief rides in procession through his town; An Igala Elder; Women and children singing; Masquerades representing clan ancestors in Okula festival; A typical homestead; An Omonobule in a funeral procession; An owe group hoeing yam mounds; Invocation to an earth shrine;
Description
The Igala kingdom is skirted on two sides by the great waterways that divide Nigeria into its major natural and cultural regions, the river Benue and the river Niger. In shape it is roughly triangular, with the confluence of the two rivers
forming the apex and the base extending irregularly into Idoma and Ibo country. Its strategic situation is of key significance in the historical development of the kingdom. Their geographical position has brought the Igala into contact with a wide range of peoples and a great variety of cultures, including contact with the Ibo, the Yoruba, the Edo-speaking peoples, and the Jukun, to name only the principal groups. Idah, the Igala capital, is situated on the river Niger, and it is clear both from written records of nineteenth-century exploration and from the traditions of the many peoples who trace their rulers’ descent to Idah that the Igala kingdom has dominated the affairs of this riverain zone for many centuries.