Ancient & Pre-Colonial Nigeria
Histories of Nigerian kingdoms, empires, trade routes, and cultures before colonial rule, including Nok, Benin, Oyo, Sokoto, and Kanem-Bornu.
Obon Procession at Big Qua Town, Calabar, 1959
In 1959, a ceremonial procession moved through Big Qua Town near Calabar, in what is now Cross River State, Nigeria. The image, preserved in...
Igbo Masquerade in the 1930s, The Festival, the Photographer, and the Image That Endured
In southeastern Nigeria, masquerade festivals were never staged for photographs. They were public celebrations shaped by music, movement, and community order, long established before...
How Britain’s Anti Slave Trade Campaign Reshaped the Nigerian Coast, 1807 to the 1880s
Britain’s decision to prohibit its own involvement in the transatlantic slave trade in 1807 is often remembered as a moral milestone. Along the West...
Okoshi Festival in Imakun Omi, Ogun Waterside
In the riverine stretch of Ogun State where lagoons and creeks shape daily movement, celebrations often mirror the environment that sustains the people. Imakun...
Northern Nigeria Between Empires, Drought, and Revolution, 1500–1804
From the sixteenth century onward, northern Nigeria stood at the centre of a vast West African system where authority moved along rivers, caravan roads,...
Madam Efunroye Tinubu, How a Yoruba Merchant Woman Rose to Power in Lagos and Abeokuta
Madam Efunroye Tinubu, who died in 1887, was one of the most powerful women in nineteenth century Yorubaland. Her life unfolded during an era...
The Nwékpé Masquerade of Arochukwu
Arochukwu’s Ikeji festival unfolds across several carefully ordered days, each devoted to a particular section of the community and expressed through movement, costume, sound,...
How Benin and Portugal Built an Early Trade Corridor on the Bight of Benin
When Portuguese ships began moving steadily along the West African coast in the fifteenth century, they entered a region shaped by long-standing commercial routes...
Ère Ìbejì, Sacred Twin Figures of the Yorùbá
Across south western Nigeria and neighbouring parts of Benin, twins occupy a powerful and intimate place in Yorùbá life. In some communities, twin births...
A Century in a Cylinder, An Igbo Vocal Ensemble Recorded at Umucuku in 1911
In April 1911, a brief musical performance was recorded in Umucuku, Nigeria. The archive description identifies it as an “Ibo vocal group with leader...