Ancient & Pre-Colonial Nigeria
Histories of Nigerian kingdoms, empires, trade routes, and cultures before colonial rule, including Nok, Benin, Oyo, Sokoto, and Kanem-Bornu.
The 1929 Women’s War: How Igbo Women Rose Against British Rule
In November 1929, a dispute over the counting of households in Oloko, in present day Abia State, sparked one of the largest women's uprisings...
Ooni Luwo Gbagida: Why Did Ife Crown a Woman, and Why Did It Never Happen Again?
Long before modern Nigeria was created, before the Yoruba kingdoms took the political forms by which they are known today, Ile-Ife had already developed...
Human Zoos: When Humans Were Put on Display Like Animals
Imagine walking into a zoo and seeing people instead of animals.A crowd gathers around a fenced area. Children point. Adults stare. Some take photographs....
Chinwuba Onumba: 7 Seeds and the Enduring Story of an Aguleri Afa Diviner
Chinwuba Onumba occupies an unusual place in the remembered history of Aguleri, an Igbo community in the Anambra River basin of present-day Anambra State....
Bamidele Areogun: The Powerful Story Behind a 1974 Epa Sculpture and a Yoruba Carving Legacy
Bamidele Areogun appears in one of the most revealing photographic records of twentieth-century Yoruba carving. In 1974, American scholar and photographer John Pemberton III...
Funmilayo Ranco: The Woman Who Fought Men in the Ring and Played Men on Stage
There were places in Nigeria where a woman could attract attention simply by walking into a room.Funmilayo Ranco found her way into places where...
The King Who Changed Ilaro: Farming, Punishment and the Origin of “Oko Oba”
The history of old Ilaro was not written only in royal palaces, wars and the names of kings. It was also written in the...
The Prince Who Died on His Way to Become King of Ilaro
There was supposed to be a new king in Ilaro.The order had come from Oyo, the great imperial centre whose influence stretched across much...
The Warrior Who Fought His Own People After Returning From Beneath the Earth
The chain was never supposed to be a toy.According to the oral tradition of Ilaro, it was the last physical link between the living...
The Warrior Who Disappeared Into the Ground: The Mysterious Legend of Oronna of Ilaro
There are stories of warriors who died in battle, kings who were buried with great ceremony and heroes whose names survived in songs.Then there...