Nigeria 2

Nigeria

Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the ECOWAS, and OPEC. Nigeria is also a member of the informal MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globe’s next emerging economies, as well as the “Next Eleven” economies, which are set to become among the biggest in the world.

History:

Early History:

The Nok civilization of Nigeria flourished between 1,500 BC and AD 200. It produced life-sized terracotta figures that are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa and smelted iron by about 550 BC and possibly a few centuries earlier.

Nigeria 3
Nok Terracotta Sculpture

The Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo people consolidated in the 10th century and continued until it lost its sovereignty to the British in 1911. Nri was ruled by the Eze Nri, and the city of Nri is considered to be the foundation of Igbo culture. Nri and Aguleri, where the Igbo creation myth originates, are in the territory of the Umeuri clan.

The Kano Chronicle highlights an ancient history dating to around 999 AD of the Hausa Sahelian city-state of Kano, with other major Hausa cities (or Hausa Bakwai) of: Daura, Hadeija, Kano, Katsina, Zazzau, Rano, and Gobir all having recorded histories dating back to the 10th century. With the spread of Islam from the 7th century AD, the area became known as Sudan or as Bilad Al Sudan. Since the populations were partially affiliated with the Arab Muslim culture of North Africa, they started to trade and be referred to by the Arabic speakers as Al-Sudan (meaning “The Blacks”) as they were considered an extended part of the Muslim world.

Nigeria 4
Kanem Empire

There are early historical references by medieval Arab and Muslim historians and geographers which refer to the Kanem-Bornu Empire as the region’s major center for Islamic civilization.

Pre-Colonial Era:

In the 16th century, Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to begin significant, direct trade with peoples of Southern Nigeria, at the port they named Lagos and in Calabar along the region Slave Coast. Europeans traded goods with peoples at the coast; coastal trade with Europeans also marked the beginnings of the Atlantic slave trade. Some of the more prolific slave trading kingdoms who participated in the transatlantic slave trade were linked with the Edo’s Benin Empire in the south, Oyo Empire in the southwest, and the Aro Confederacy in the southeast.

Nigeria 5
Sokoto Sultanate

At the beginning of the 19th century, Usman dan Fodio led a successful jihad against the Hausa Kingdoms founding the centralized Sokoto Caliphate (also known as the Fulani Empire). The empire with Arabic as its official language grew rapidly under his rule and that of his descendants, who sent out invading armies in every direction. By the time of its break-up in 1903 into various European colonies, the Sokoto Caliphate was one of the largest pre-colonial African states.

British Colonization:

Britain intervened in the Lagos Kingship power struggle by bombarding Lagos in 1851, deposing the slave trade friendly Oba Kosoko, helping to install the amenable Oba Akitoye, and signing the Treaty between Great Britain and Lagos on 1 January 1852. Britain annexed Lagos as a Crown Colony in August 1861 with the Lagos Treaty of Cession.

Scroll to Top