Ancient & Pre-Colonial Nigeria
Histories of Nigerian kingdoms, empires, trade routes, and cultures before colonial rule, including Nok, Benin, Oyo, Sokoto, and Kanem-Bornu.
Iyake Lake in Ado Awaye, Oyo State, Nigeria
High above the town of Ado Awaye in Oyo State, south west Nigeria, Iyake Lake rests on the rocky summit known locally as Oke...
Kiriji War, the Sixteen Year Yoruba Conflict That Redrew Power in South Western Nigeria
The conflict remembered as the Kiriji War, also known as the Ekiti Parapo War, was one of the most consequential episodes in nineteenth century...
Oba Gbadebo I and Egbaland in the Early Colonial Era
By the end of the nineteenth century, Abeokuta had emerged as the political heart of Egbaland. It was more than a city, it was...
Argungu Fishing Festival in Northern Nigeria, History and Cultural Traditions
Every year in north western Nigeria, communities gather in and around Argungu for one of the country’s most enduring cultural celebrations, the Argungu International...
Agbogho Mmuo, The Igbo Maiden Spirit Masquerade and the Meaning of the White Face
In many Igbo communities, masquerade is more than spectacle. It is a public language through which ideas about dignity, beauty, and the unseen world...
Maybnee of Itsekiri, What the Archive Reveals About Nana Olomu’s Daughter
Maybnee is known today because her name survived on a photograph. Preserved in the British Museum, a single image records her identity, her appearance,...
The Women’s War of 1929, How Igbo Women Confronted Colonial Rule
In late 1929, a sweeping women led protest erupted across large parts of south eastern Nigeria under British colonial rule. Colonial officials commonly referred...
Remembering Chief Coco Otu Bassey of Old Calabar
A black and white photograph, widely circulated online and commonly titled “Burial Ceremony of the late Chief Coco Ota Bassey, Calabar, 1910s”, has become...
Nana Olomu of Itsekiri, Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta, and the 1894 Ebrohimi Expedition
Long before the Niger Coast Protectorate became a firm instrument of British rule, the Niger Delta was already a complex commercial world. River routes...
How Families Were Split From the Hinterland to Bonny and Old Calabar
Across the lands that make up modern Nigeria, the transatlantic slave trade rarely began at the shoreline. It began inland, in farms, compounds, market...