Tiv people

History

The Tiv came into contact with European culture during the colonial period. During November 1907 to spring 1908, an expedition of the Southern Nigeria Regiment led by Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Trenchard's came into contact with the Tiv. Trenchard brought gifts for the tribal chiefs. Subsequently, roads were built and trade links established between Europeans and the Tiv. But before construction of roads began, a missionary named Mary Slessor went throughout the region seeing to the people's needs.

The geographical position of the Tiv, according to Laura Bohannan and Paul J. Bohannan (1969: 9) and Rubingh (1969: 58), is between 6° 30' and 8° 10' north latitude and 8° and 10° east longitude. The Tiv shares borders with the chamba and the Jukun of Taraba State in the north-east; Alago in the north, with the Yala, Gakem and Obudu of Cross River State in the South; and the Idoma and Igede of Benue State to the west. There is also an international border between Nigeria and Republic of Cameroon that passes within the tiv territory. They are among the majority ethnic groups in Nigeria, ranking as the fourth most populous ethnic group.

There are numerous submissions about the origin of Tiv people. We are, however, in agreement with Torkula (2006: 1) that: “Although different views are held about the Tiv origin, the version that commands popularity and currency is that which traces their origin to the Bantu people who once inhabited the central african kingdoms, in the Shaba area of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo.” The popularity and currency of this version is due to the assorted pieces of evidence supporting it. One of such piece of evidence is linguistic. R. C. Abraham (1934: 6–7), for instance, compiled a list of 67 Tiv words and juxtaposed them with the words of bantu nyaza showing a striking similarity in both phonetics and semantics. Based on that, Abraham (1934: 5) concluded that the Tiv were "Bantu people" and subsequently that they came from the Congo. Another linguistic piece of evidence has to do with the present writer’s family name of Tsenôngu which is Tiv and which when ended with an “o” (as done by many Tivs without any semantic harm) is the name of a town of 300 000 people in the present Democratic Republic of the Congo. Such pieces of linguistic evidence testify to the fact that the Tiv actually migrated from the Congo; from there they passed through several places before settling in the Benue Trough, their present location. Also, most tivs born in the early 20th century had a special dance routine their parents brought from their place of origin which was called the congo dance. The main occupation of the Tiv is subsistence farming. They regard yam farming as their birthright and commit themselves to its work with religious dedication and are in most states of Nigeria farming.

As for their social organization, traditional Tiv society was completely egalitarian. There was no central authority. They had no king so every man was ruler of his own house. They lived in compounds administered by the oldest man. Many compounds formed clans and districts that were variously divided and sub-divided. The elders of the various clans (upyaven) and districts (ityar) met and discussed issues at those levels and arrived at democratic decisions that bound their sections. If an issue involved the whole ethnic group, the elders of the various sections and districts met and took a decision. This situation obtained until 1946 when the colonialists established a Tiv central authority by creating the office of a paramount ruler. The paramount ruler (Tor Tiv) lives and administers the people in Gboko, their headquarters town, which was built in 1932. Ascendancy to the Tor Tiv throne is not hereditary.

Leo Frobenius, the German traveller, for example, declared them (the Tiv people) as the “best storytellers in Africa” (Keil 1979: 20). Laura Bohannan too has, under the pseudonym of Elenore Smith Bowen, often been referred deservedly to for her admiring description of a Tiv tale-telling session in her autobiographical novel, Return to Laughter. Commenting on Bohannan’s book, Frances Harding (1992: 156) has said that: “So important does Bohannan consider storytelling in Tiv life that not only is its performance the occasion of the laughter which gives the novel its title, but it is recognized as a healing, binding force in the community.” Indeed, Keil (1979: 57) was right in his submission that “qualitatively, all visitors to Tivland agree that storytelling can be a very dramatic event.” But it is not just in storytelling that members of the ethnic group have made their artistic mark; they are known for their dance craft, poetic creativity and general aesthetic profundity. To provide just one example relating to their dance repertoire, in 1973 the ethnic group alone accounted for fifty-four of the one hundred and eighty-eight dances performed at the “Festival of 200 Dances of the Benue-Plateau State” held in Jos, Nigeria. The then Benue-Plateau State comprised more than thirty ethnic nationalities. This is statistical testimony to the dancing skills in Tivland. Indeed, the ethnic group is generally artistically active. And one of the avenues where this artistic activity exhibits itself is in nuptial poetry.

The Migration of Tiv People into the Benue Valley

The understanding of Tiv migration to their present location is based on Oral tradition. To this, various scholars documented these migration stories for easier understanding as observed by Awai, G.K. According to (Rubingh 1969:62), the Tiv all agree that their original home was inside and/or the south of Cameroon. The Tiv are uncertain as to the time when they began their migration northward, but it was probably about eleven generations ago, this according to Rubingh. He cites Downes that, the really general migration into the present tribal area began around 1800, and Tiv were present south of the The Benue River in large numbers by 1850. The various clans shifted position until 1890 when the boundaries were rather well-established and permanent settlement undertaken. Much lore of the Tiv stems from this stupendous sojourn northward, though the point of departure is itself no longer known. Rubingh (1969: 63), further cites R. Abraham and Downes thus; They feel that Tiv began to move down from the Sonkwala hills where they were living at that time. These hills are located a few miles southeast of Obudu town…East and Akiga located Swem Hill (which is the Tiv name for the hill so revered in their history) about thirty-five miles further southeast from Sonkwalla and they feel that the Tiv moved from here on to Ibinda hills, the next stage on their journey.

In a recent study conducted by Akpenpuun Dzurgba (2007: 28) about the Tiv nation, he identified Swem as the place where the Tiv migrated from to their present location in Benue State. Dzurgba said, of the three Cameroonian sub-divisions, Akwaya sub-division is probably the land to which the Tiv refer to as Swem which they claim is their ancestral home land. Akwaya sub-division or Akwaya Local Government is located in the South-west Province or Southwest State in Southern Cameroon. Akwaya sub-division has been revealed and identified by the study as the ancestral homeland of the Tiv. Swem has also been revealed and identified. Swem exists in Akwaya sub-division, or Akwaya Local Government Area. In Akwaya, there are a range of mountains and one of them is the highest of them all. This highest mountain is called Swem even by the people of Akwaya. The study has therefore, confirmed the Tiv’s claim that they had once lived as a single community on a mountain called Swem. The location of Swem that had been vaguely indicated as lying to the south-east of Tivland has been revealed and identified as Akwaya sub-division in the South-west province in South-Western Cameroon. Swem is a real mountain which is located in Akwaya sub-division in South-west province in South-Western Cameroon.

Dzurgba further stated that Swem was flat at the top and crops were grown on it. Because Swem was a long mountain range with a flat top, the Tiv, as a single community, would settle on top of Swem for security reasons. During the period of migration or human movements worldwide, war was the only means of diplomacy or negotiation. Territorial integrity and security of life and property depended largely on military victory. These were probably the reasons why the Tiv settled on the long flat top of Swem. Dzurgba explains further that when the population grew and became too large for the Swem settlement, the Tiv had to move down to look for an agrarian land, but that was not immediately available in the Swem vicinity. That, in addition, other racial groups had already settled around the mountain ranges in Akwaya in particular and South-west Cameroon in general. It was on this note that, the Tiv followed River Katsina Ala from Cameroon down to the Benue trough where they found enough agrarian land for themselves (Dzurgba 2007: 29). To this, the Tiv finally migrated from Swem in Akwaya sub-division of Cameroon and finally settled in the Benue Valley of Central Nigeria. Scholars of Tiv nation documented that in course of the Tiv migration to their present place of stay, they came in contact with different ethnic tribes who already occupied the present Benue Valley. the Jukun, Etulo, the Chamba, the Idoma, the Igede and other tribes were the original occupants. But because of the Tiv military strength, they overcame these tribes, captured and shared the land amongst the sons and daughters of Tiv.

Marriage in Tivland

The tiv families mostly preferred marriages from the village of the grooms mother. But not any close relation. Tiv marriage forms can be seen through four basic phases. The earliest was yamshe, marriage by exchange: a man who needed a wife located another man who had the same need. They then exchanged their sisters or daughters as wives. Next, there was the kwase-ngohol / tsuen / kôrun, marriage by capture. This was divided into two. There was, first, the forceful snatching of a woman from her parents house, market or during travelling is what is known as /tsuen kwase/ migration, caused many “inter tar [that is inter-clan] wars” in Tivland (Makar 1994: 141, see also Akiga 1939: 137). It therefore became necessary to have the second form of this type of marriage. Akiga (1939: 141) has referred to this form as the “honorable marriage by capture: the iye.” Wegh (1998: 55) correctly describes it, though inexhaustibly, thus:'iye' began with a young man accompanied by his friends going into another country [district] to find a wife. The target in this case was no longer married women, but the unmarried girls. There the young men stayed with a man whose mother was from their own country [district]. They then sent out friends, or relatives, as gobetweens, who scouted for girls of marriageable ages, and selected one for the young man. Once the young man had received all necessary information, he made the initial contact with the girl. [Now he visited the girl’s house,] then the wooing of the girl began. This could go on for months. Ierve (s.d.: 25) too has added to our insight of iye by noting that usually the young men that formed this group and went to another district were, often, each looking for a wife. They also always went with dances. The girls who came to watch the performances often indicated their interest in some of the young men by choosing to dance with them. Ierve goes on to note that if an iye outing was successful, sometimes one man came back with many wives. But most of the times, the girls did not elope with their fiancés immediately. Whenever they finally eloped, however, the father or brother of the girl was usually compensated later with a girl. Thus, the iye marriage type was eventually like the yamshe exchange marriage.

The third phase and form of Tiv marriage was what Rupert East (in Akiga 1939: 159) said the Tiv used to call kwase u sha uikya, marriage by purchase. Akiga (1939: 159) explained this further: a woman was “bought as a slave and then married. Women of this kind were mostly purchased from the Utyisha, from the Dam, and from more distant clans.” Finally, the Tiv married by kwase-kemen, that is, marriage by bride price. This came about in 1927 when the colonial administration abolished all other forms of marriage and insisted that marriage should strictly be by the payment of bride price. Thus, a man, on choosing a girl, would demonstrate his marital intentions to her and her people by taking gifts to them and providing other needful services to them as well. This went on till the girl’s family, satisfied with the suitor’s cumulative goodwill, asked him to come and pay the bride price. Today, this form of marriage has developed into quite a number of processes unnecessary of enumeration here. Whatever the processes in any district, the marriage contract is based on bride price. It needs to be added that in many cases, especially now, the suitor often elopes with his fiancée. The bride price and other things are usually done afterwards.

Incest avoidance rules:
“Two individuals who have a common grandparents must not have sexual relations. […] The marriage ward group may include only the descendants of one father or those of one father’s father’s father’s father.” “The marriage-ward group [recognizes that] sexual relations between members of a ward-sharing group are prohibited and are considered incestuous.”

The Tiv traditional marriage dance:

Whatever type of marriage was done, there was always an artistic celebration of the matrimony. There were two types of marriage dances. The first was the one that took place immediately a bride was brought to the groom’s place. This was usually called kwasekuhan or kwasegeren (literally, celebrating the bride or ululating for the bride respectively). This can still be found, though in a less zealous form, in some Tiv villages. But the second type of the marriage dance is, in my estimation, 99% extinct. This was the dance that took place much later when a man decided that he should demonstrate his wealth by hosting the Ivom or Dam ceremony. This was a nuptial dance done only by men who were wealthy. Even then it was not every wife that attracted this dance. Unless a woman came from a particularly long geographical or cultural distance from her husband’s, this dance was not organised in her honour. The Ivom or Dam marriage dance was therefore not for every woman. And definitely, not every man had the wherewithal to marry from a geographical or cultural distance long enough to host the dance; besides, the hosting cost for the occasion was rather forbidding. Our focus here is not on the Ivom or Dam marriage dance. We are concerned only with kwasekuhan, the marriage dance performed immediately a bride was brought to the house of the groom’s age mate or the groom’s house.3 This dance was the most common and the most important. Whoever married and did not host it was usually disregarded in his community. Besides, the dance was also an honour to the bride. It was an artistic way of welcoming her to her new home and getting her acquainted with the environment. Thus, failure to host a marriage dance for a bride was a shameful thing for her. It disabled her from holding her head high among her fellow women. This dance was therefore a necessary tradition. Indeed, it was impossible to think of marriage without it.

The dance usually took place at two settings. First, it was done in the house of an age mate or distant relation of the groom to whose house the groom took his wife for that purpose. The bride passed the night there but hardly slept at night because singing and dancing were on until dawn. There was more singing, drumming and dancing when the bride was, in the evening of the following day, taken to the groom’s house. Brides were customarily brought home at evening, when people had taken their dinners and were relaxing outside to while away time before going indoors to sleep. This was when the angwe proclamation was heard at the top of the announcer’s singsong voice.

The angwe, having fixed wordings with only the names of the persons mentioned in it changing to suit different marriage situations, was nuptial news stating who had married. It was the Tiv traditional system of mass communication specifically for marriage. So the angwe [tidings] announcer always went slightly ahead of the party coming with the bride. The following were the words of the angwe: Tidings gbeee … tidings! Chief! Tidings ooo … Tidings! Whose tidings is it? It is the tidings of Tako Gbor Ndor Kunya! It is the tidings of Achulu Gbor Ndor Kunya! Whose tidings is it? It is the tidings of Iornenge Akpa! Tidings walk about gbee … gbee … gbee … (Ululations).4 The ululations concluding the announcement were usually done by the group (made up mostly of women and girls) escorting the wife, a bit in front of whom the tidings announcer was going. This group started performing some nuptial poems right there on the way. People from surrounding compounds now rushed to the road where the angwe was heard and joined the party. Others went to the house of the groom and waited there, singing and dancing. They knew the groom by the names in the angwe. For example, lines 4, 6, and 8 above contain the names of elders whose son has married. It would therefore not be difficult to trace the groom’s house. In some places, there were no musical instruments at all but in others, the following made up the nuptial musical ensemble: the indyer or ilyu (jumbo or medium-size) slit-log drums, the open-ended gbande drum, the double-ended genga drum, the kwen metal gong, the gida woodwind, the tsough rattles etc. These instruments notwithstanding, singing, and not musical instrumentation, was the most important aspect of the Tiv marriage dance.

Kinship systems

Sibling classification system:
“Tiv terms of consanguinity are characterized by a distinction of the lineal from the collateral. […] A man addresses as ‘my sibling’ every collateral relative, no matter how remoter and therefore irrespective of generational differences between the speaker and the addressed. […] Within the ityo, however, when there is a considerable disparity in age between two men, the elder tends to address theyoung as ‘my child’ rather than ‘my sibling’; the younger, however, calls the elder ‘my sibling,’ though he may qualify it as ‘senior sibling’.” “People who share both a father and a mother at any level are called angbian--as is anyone with whom a kinship relationship can be traced by two paths.”

Sororate, levirate:
The Tiv were not levirate, but often, in the case of widows, they will go to a brother of the deceased. “The person who inherits the widow is almost always within the same compound as the late husband. Some lineages allow sons to inherit their father’s wives, others admit brothers only; of these latter, some prefer that the widows go to half-brohters, others to full brother as it is felt full brohters will take better care of the children.”

Adornment

Piercings:
“Both sexes used to pierce the ears at a very early age—between six and twelve—but nowadays only the women wear earrings.”

Haircut:
“Hair may be braided close to the head, hanging down the neck, puffed into balls, or combed over a pod on the top of a woman’s head. Men may shave all the head, leave a stiff crest running down thecentre from forehead to neck, wear a pigtail, or, more usually, just close cut. The face may be completely shaven (including the eyebrows); mustaches are common. [Sideburns are also seen.] Many old men wear beards. […] Ornaments are often worn in the hair, especially by women.”

Scarification:
“Public opinion finds scarification both attractive and, as distinctive of Tiv, something to be proud of.”

Adornment (beads, feathers, lip plates, etc.):
Men and women would wear armbands; ivory was the most desired. Women would sometimes wear brass anklets and beaded necklaces. Men sometimes carry tongs, metal adzes, and scepter-like rods. Dyed leather bags were seen as “a prized possession.”

Sex differences in adornment:
Women would wear adornment for fashion purposes, whereas men, in addition to such, also adorned their tools and weapontry. “Blacksmiths’ tongs (often elaborately ornamented and attached to a long string of heavy beads) may be worn over the shoulder by men of substance and importance. Such men would carry elaborate metal adzes and occasionally almost scepter-like rods. Men carry bags sometimes made of bush-car fur, moreoften made of leather dyed red with guinea corn, incised, and ornamented with tassels. Half the men who use a walking stick use a spear, generally of the type with a slender, twister point; […] they are sometimes ornamented by being incised over black bands. Young men often carry fly whisks…hung from the waists or neck; the sheaths of daggers and matchets vary from the most utilitarian makeshift to highly finished and elaborately engraved wood and leather-work.

Beliefs and rituals

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob:
The tivs were considered as pagans by the Europeans. But the tivs believed in one God. They called him "Aondo u Abaver, Aondo u Gbirekpev, Aondo u Yorkov" which translates to God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Some other older tiv men would refer to God as "Aondo u Abaver jua" meaning God of circumcision or Aondo u akum a sha, meaning God of heavens. He was believed to be the creator of all and would be consulted by older men especially during excess rainfall and apparent danger.

Tsav:
They acknowledge ancestral spirits and, sometimes, make offerings to them—but do not pray to them or regard them as either good or evil. Evil is to be found in the hearts of human beings—it is called tsav. Tsav, set in motion by evil men using forces that the Tiv call akombo, causes misfortune.

Akombo:
Each akombo is a disease or symptom, as well as being a set of special symbols. The ritual task is, by sacrifice and medicines, to keep the akombo repaired.

Swem:
SWEM is a Mountain in the Republic of Cameroon and not a pot or calabash or any other object. It is been historically adulterated by a tiv elder called Karagbe thus introducing a new type of swem to the Tiv people named after him as Karagbe`s Swem (what is popularly called Swem Karagbe). After returning from the errand on behalf of his people, he told the Tiv people that he had brought SWEM (their God or Aondo) to them and so they didn't need to go to SWEM Mountain to meet God(Aondo) thereafter. This is the origin of the current object in the Tor Tiv's(Tiv King) palace called SWEM (u Karagbe). SWEM was considered a Holy Mountain, Nothing unclean could approach it and live. When the Tiv people came into present day Nigeria from the Cameroon, they chose and dedicated SWEM Mountain as a holy place. It was to serve as the Holy of Holies where they will meet with their God(Aondo): the God of Abaver (Abraham), the God of Gbirekper (Isaac) and the God of Iyorkov (Jacob). Tradition holds that Whenever the land faced drought, famine, war, pestilence or any serious adversity, holy men would be selected to go to SWEM Mountain and commune with God(Aondo) and bring back answers and solutions. This was the original Tiv lifestyle before the colonization. Reasons why Karagbe(a MINDA elder and leader of this group) turned back from this journey to SWEM Mountain has not been clearly explained for historical documentation. Witchcraft and magic were abominations in Tiv culture. Culprits were paraded, punished, disgraced and banished where necessary.

Ikyarem:
The story about the evolution of Swem is similar to what is today called Ikyarem the snake. Originally it was Ikyarem the friend. Tiv history and culture does not show any form of snake worship or any lower animal at any point at all. It is recorded that the Ikyarem—the friend helped the Tiv people cross the river when they were chased by their enemies and not Ikyarem—the snake. The exact details of the account is not fully recorded as the surviving versions of the belief is mostly oral history.

Passage rituals (birth, death, puberty, seasonal):
“The birth of a child is a time for rejoicing, and drumming and singing almost always take place.” Women are marked with scars along their abdomen to represent womanhoo. when they begin menstrual cycles.

circumcision:
Circumcision is performed on boys; the time in which is performed varies greatly. “Most boys are circumcised between age six and thirteen.” Circumcision takes place anywhere from eight days after birth to four years. “The object of performing the rite by is a stream, so that ‘ Evil may flow away with the water.’” Tiv people look down on the neighboring tribes who do not circumcise and consider them as uncircumcised and unhygienic.

Cannibalism
Cannibalism is not practiced among the Tiv, and their attitude toward those who do so is a negative one. To the tiv man, “Cannibalism is a metaphor for antisocial misuse of other people, their property, and substance.”

Village and house organization:
“Tiv domestic building are divided into three main types: sleeping-huts (iyou), reception huts (ate) and granaries. […] The [sleeping] huts are thatched with sword grass braided into long strips which are wound around the conical roof frame from bottom to top. The mud floor is pounded to a smooth polished surface by special hardwood paddles. The door is generally the only opening; it is closed by a double mat of guinea-corn stalks.” The reception or communal huts exist in three varieties: the tsum, ate, and dwer; the name varies depending on the number of entrances and walls the hut has, as well as whether or not it contains posts to support its structure. “Within any of these reception huts there may be a large platform (dzal) built above the central fire; it is actually used for the storage of many types of food, but it is particularly associated with the storage of millet.” “The placing of people in the compound is correlated with the genealogical relationship of the adult males living within the compound. The reception huts are the visible keys. A man lives closer to his full brother than he does to his half-brother, and loser to his half-brother than to his father’s brother’s son.[…] Reduced to its simplest terms, and in Tiv ideal, the compound is arranged physically according to sets of full siblings at the varying generational levels. […] People who are not kinsmen of any adult male within the compound are placed besides an age-mate or a man whose mother (father’s mother, father’s father’s mother, or mother’s mother) was a woan of the stranger’s agnatic lineage (at any level).” “A compound may contain as few as two or three or as many as forty or more huts.”

Specialized village structures (men's houses):
“The reception huts are usually associated with the men. […] Elderly or senior women occasionally have reception huts, but usually only when two living wives of a living man each have adult sons.”

Place of sleep:
The tivs do not sleep on the floor, as is evident in Tiv men’s refusal to marry a woman of a tribe considered MbaShoSho (“one who does not wear clothes and sleeps on the ground”). Beds are crafted by men.

Burial in TIV Land

The Tiv people attach great significance to the burial of their loved ones. The burial is steeped in their local customs. The process starts with the sending of messages to Takurudu who is regarded as the ancestor of the Tiv people. This is usually done with the aid of musical instrument such as Idya or Ilyu. He is informed of the death of the person and told to await the arrival of the dead in the ancestral world. On the day of the burial, the corpse would be washed by an elderly woman and wrapped in Anger, Tugudu or Gbagir attire. Usually the dead is buried within 24 hours and no coffin is used.

Social and Political Organization

Most Tiv have a highly developed sense of genealogy, with descent being reckoned patrilineally. Ancestry is traced to an ancient individual named Tiv, who had two sons; all Tiv consider themselves a member either of Ichongo (descendants of son Chongo) or of Ipusu (descendants of son Ipusu). Ichongo and Ipusu are each divided into several major branches, which in turn are divided into smaller branches. The smallest branch, or minimal lineage, is the "'ipyaven'". Members of an ipyaven tend to live together, the local kin-based community being called the "tar". This form of social organization, called a segmentary lineage, is seen in various parts of the world, but it is particularly well known from African societies (Middleton and Tait 1958). The Tiv are the best-known example from West Africa, as documented by Laura Bohannan (1952) and by Paul J. Bohannan and Laura Bohannan (1953); in East Africa the best-known example is the Nuer, documented by E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1940).

The Tiv had no administrative divisions and no chiefs or councils. Leadership was based on age, influence, and affluence. The leaders' functions were to furnish safe conduct, arbitrate disputes within their lineages, sit on moots, and lead their people in all external and internal affairs.

The Tiv ethnic group is the fourth largest Ethnic group in Nigeria after the three major Ethnic groups.

These socio-political arrangements caused great frustration to British colonial attempts to subjugate the population and establish administration on the lower Benue. The strategy of Indirect Rule, which the British felt to be highly successful in controlling Hausa and Fulani populations in Northern Nigeria, was ineffective in a segmentary society like the Tiv (Dorward 1969). Colonial officers tried various approaches to administration, such as putting the Tiv under the control of the nearby Jukun, and trying to exert control through the councils of elders ("Jir Tamen"); these met with little success. The British administration in 1934 divided the Tiv into Clans, Kindreds, and Family Groups. The British appointed native heads of these divisions as well. These administrative divisions are gradually assuming a reality which they never had originally.

MUT

Members of the Tiv group are found in many areas across the globe, such as the United States and United Kingdom. In these countries they hold unions, known as MUT (Mdzough U Tiv, which rhymes with Mutual Union of Tiv in English), where members can assemble and discuss issues concerning their people across the world, but especially back in Nigeria. The arm of the MUT serving the United States of America is known as MUTA(Mzough U Tiv ken Amerika, or Mutual Union of the Tiv in America), for instance.

NKST

N.K.S.T stands for the "Nongu u Kristu u i Ser u sha Tar," translated "Universal Reformed Christian Church," a Christian Reformed church based in Nigeria. The church has its headquarters in Benue state but has spread all over Nigeria. The members are predominantly the Tiv speaking tribe but other tribes in Nigeria belong to this church. It was first introduced in Sai in 1911 a village in Katsina Ala local government area of Benue state, Nigeria.[1] Although its headquarters is now at Mkar, Gboko Benue State . The church is the fruit of missionary work undertaken by the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. Work began in 1911 among the Tiv people in Gongola and Benue States. The beginnings were slow — only 25 baptized Christians in 25 years. In 1960, due to the apartheid system, the South African missionaries were no longer tolerated in Nigeria and had to leave. In their place the SUM–Christian Reformed branch related to NKST and gave it strong support until about 1985. In 1957 the church was formally organized as an autonomous, self- supporting, and self-propagating church with four Nigerian pastors. A full translation of the Bible into Tiv was completed in 1964. The church also has a synod that meets twice in a year. The Church has seven institutions of higher learning: 1.The Reformed Theological Seminary Mkar, 2.Reformed Bible College Harga, 3.School of Nursing Mkar, 4.College of Health Technology Mkar 5. School of Laboratory Sciences Mkar, 6. School of Midwifery Mkar, 7. and more recently a university The University of Mkar. The NKST church has over a Million followership and over 127,115 baptised and professing members. It has a well organised Women Fellowship with 44,514 members. The women fellowship has built one of the most beautiful guest houses in Benue State at Mkar near the Church Sacretariat. NKST church has 674 pastors since inception with 557 who are still alive, and about 117 have rested in the Lord. NKST has 3,891 churches all over Nigeria, with 353 well established congregations. Some of the congregations conduct their services in English, e.g. NKST ANglo- Jos, Plateau State.It also has 53 classis. The church also has 9 hospitals, and 123 primary health centers. It has 50 secondary schools and 500 primiry schools. The President of NKST now is Rev. Ayohol Ate who took over November 2011 from Rev. J.T.Orkuma as president. The General secretary is Rev. Peter Gwaza Azuana assisted by Rev. Ephraim Mbateren Shir.It has about 20 different departments such as Media, Mission, Education, Agriculture, Works, Diaconal ministry, Sunday School, Choir etc. which are headed by well dedicated Christians. The Church has recently finished revising the Tiv Bible and has since been sent down to the Bible Society of Nigeria for the final professional work. It has also recently started a Mission station near Abeoukuta in Ogun State with the aim of reaching the Yoruba tribe with Reformed Faith.

The Roman Catholic church

The catholic church came to the tiv land firstly as the makurdi DIocese. The Makurdi Diocese was part of the newly formed catholic mission of the lower Niger between 1889 and 1920. The lower Niger mission covered the populations within the river Niger down to the south of river Benue. The first missionary priests to evangelize in this area were mostly French in 1880 and later joined by Irish priests who made direct contact with the tivs in 1911. Thus creating the tiv mission Joseph Shanahan, the Vicar Apostolic, for the Tiv project visited Pope Benedict XV in September 1920 and presented Pere Douvry who the Holy Father gave special blessing for the Tiv Mission. Father Pere Douvry was the father incharge of the tiv mission and was later succeeded by Father Eugene Groetz. In 1929 Father Joseph Soul one of the General Councillors, came to the Vicariate for an official visitation. At the end of his visit he found time to spare, so he visited Obudu and from there moved into Tivland. Soul spent a short time among the Tiv, but impressions he had did not leave him when he returned to Paris. He kept thinking about the abandoned state of the Tiv and all other people of Northern Nigeria.

Father Soul's visit to Tivland was however providential. The accidental visit resulted in the Spiritans finally deciding to make some serious attempt to evangelize the people of the lower Benue, the Tiv, Idoma, Igala and other smaller groups. The task was taken up by German Spiritans, and by 1930 the first contingent of four priests and two brothers arrived, exactly 45 years after Joseph Lutz and his companies established themselves at Onitsha. Their Apostolic zeal and energy were such that by 1934 the areas of the civil territory of Benue province, Northern Nigeria was made into the Prefecture Apostolic of Benue with its centre first at Makurdi, and later at Otukpo. The German priests and brothers made tremendous efforts and covered the whole area from Idah on the River Niger to Wukari near the boundary of Benue and Adamawa provinces. A major setback though came following the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 as all the priests and brothers being German nationals were obliged by British authorities to leave Nigeria. By 1945 when the German fathers were replaced by those from the English province, Bishop Heery described the Benue as the most promising Mission in all of Nigeria after Onitsha-Owerri.

In 1959 Monsignor James Hagan, the Prefect Apostolic of Otukpo was made a Bishop and in 1960 he transferred his Cathedral seat to Makurdi, thus becoming the first Bishop of Makurdi. The Tiv Mission project had metamorphosed into the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi. Ill-health however, obliged him to resign in 1966. This led to the emergence in January, 1968 of Bishop Murray as the second Bishop of Makurdi.

For 21 years that Bishop Murray administered the Diocese the church experienced phenomenal growth in various aspects of ecclesial life. This is evident in the increase in the numbers of religious, diocesan priests, and seminarians. The hope of a truly indigenous Church became more realized when the then Father Athanasius Usuh was ordained the first co-adjutor Bishop of the Diocese. Since Bishop Usuh was installed on 21 October 1989 as the Bishop of the Diocese after the retirement of Bishop Murray, the Church in the Diocese within his jurisdiction has continued to experience tremendous growth in terms of manpower and general development. This is evident in the creation of Otukpo Catholic Diocese in 1995 and Lafia Catholic Diocese in the year 2001. On November 28, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Msgr. William Avenya as the Auxiliary Bishop of Makurdi Diocese. On December 29, 2013 Pope Benedict XVI created Gboko and Katsina-Ala Dioceses out of Makurdi with Bishop William Avenya and Monsignor Peter Adoboh as local ordinaries. Yet there are six deaneries comprising eighteen (18) parishes, seventeen (17) Catholic Missions, and ten (10) Chaplaincies, most of them covering a vast area in the Diocese.

Today the Diocese has a total number of Forty Nine (49) indigenous priests and five (5) deacons and thirty-two (32) Seminarians. Most of these priests work within the Diocese, while others are pursuing further studies in Rome, USA, and Nigeria. Some are teaching at the major seminary in Makurdi, the Benue State University, and colleges, while some have been assigned to pastoral work in Abuja Archdiocese and Lafia Diocese.

First Mass in the Diocese - 1930
First Missionary - Revd Fr J. Kirstein
First Bishop - Rt Revd J. Hagan, CSSp
Second Bishop - Rt. Revd D. Murray, CSSp
Bishop Emeritus- Rt. Revd A. A. Usuh
Current Bishop Most Revd. Chikpa Wilfred Anagbe, CMF
Area - 23,150 sqm km
Population of Diocese - 978,188

Tiv Music and Communication

Locally made musical instruments were traditionally used for political and ceremonial communication. The key instruments are as follows:

Kakaki
This is an instrument used to convey specials messages to the people of the community, such messages as the newborn child of the King, his naming ceremony, the crowning of a new king, to gather people together during the marriage ceremony of the king and the king’s son’s marriage ceremony. This instrument was used to convey all the messages to the people to assemble at the square for the ceremony, as well as when there is an enemy attack on the community, a warning sound of the kakaki is blown to alert those whom can defend the society and every citizen to be alert.
Ilyu
A light wooden instrument, it was used to pass messages to the people of the village, probably for the invitation of the people for a particular meeting of the elders at the king’s palace or for the people to gather at the market square for a message from or by the king.it is now used as an instrument to indicate the death of someone.

Imar
Instrument made of wood and named by the number of holes on the face of the instrument.

Indyer
A heavy wooden instrument carved out of mahogany trunk. It is used especially during festivals of masquerades, yam festivals with music to pass messages for the ceremonies, celebration of good harvest for the year.

Akya
It is used together with agbande (drums) combined with ageda at festivals to pass a message across to the people for a call for the display of culture. it is believed to have originated in the early 1950s but was made popular at about the late 1970s.

Adiguve
It’s an instrument like a violin, used for music and dances in conjunction with agbande (agbande) at festivals and dance occasions, sometimes to announce the death of a leader or an elder of the community, during this period it is played sorrowfully for the mourning of the dead, most time it is played funerals.

Gbande
Agbande (plural), a set of crafted wooden musical instrument used to compliment agbande at festivals, this is particularly large and it is played by the young men of the community, the special drum beats communicates special messages and music for the festivals to come and during the festivals, for instance, signifies a royal occasions such as the coronation and funeral.

Ortindin (Ortyom)-Messenger
Usually he is chosen by the elders of the community to do errands for the elders and the leader of the community. He is sent out to the heads of the neighbouring families for a crucial meeting at the head of all the leaders of the community.

Kolugh ku Bua-Cow Horn
This is an instrument made out of cow horns, like in my community, there are farmers' associations that use this instrument when they have job to do, probably they are invite to make ridges on a piece of land, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the association will use this medium to wake up the members for the work they have for that day.

Indigenous communication is not only vertical, from the rulers to the subjects, it is also horizontal. Individuals communicate with society through physical and metaphysical means. A farm owner, for example, may mount a charm conspicuously on his farm in order to stress private ownership and to scare off human intruders.

Unlike the mass media, access to the native media is culturally determined and not economic. Only the selected group of young men or the elders can disseminate information generally. The young only disseminate general information about events and the social welfare of their communities using the media mentioned above.

The Tiv people of Benue state still practise some of this traditional system of communication, using the kakai'S, agbande, indyer, adiguve and ilyu etc., nevertheless the increase in the western world media is threatening the cultural communication system.

Many of the communities in Benue state still use these instruments to convey messages to the people of their community, and it is helping a great deal, since there is a language barrier to the people with the introduction of the western world means of communication, using the western language (English) to convey information.

politicians and activists

Jerome Tilley-Gyado—business-man and philanthropist
Joseph Tarka—politician, human rights activist
Barnabas Gemade—former pdp party chairman
Aper Aku—politician
George Akume—former senate minority leader
Iyorchia Ayu—former senate president
Terngu Tsegba .... former Nigerian speaker pro-tempore
Chaha Biam..former speaker house of representative
Gabriel Suswam---politician
James Ayatse—Tor-tiv
Daniel Saror—former minority leader
Michael Aondoakaa—former attorney general of Nigeria
Moses Adasu---politician
A.I. Katsina-Alu—former chief justice of Nigeria
Paul O. Orhii--- former nafdac boss
Godwin Dabo---politician

Military and law enforcement

Gideon Orkar
Victor Malu----former chief of army staff. War general
General Gabriel Kpambeh---ECOMOG commander
Joseph Akahan---former chief of army staff
Joseph Akaagerger
John Mark Inienger---former commander ECOMOG
Farida Mzamber Waziri---former efcc boss
John Kpera
Abraham I. Akpeh--- Nigerian Prison boss

Sports icons

Terna Suswam---soccer player
Dominic Iorfa---soccer player
Timothy Anjembe---soccer player
David Tyavkase----soccer player
Dominic Iorfa (footballer, born 1995)
Jeff Varem---NBA D-league player
Terna Nande---American football player
Uhaa Nation---WWE wrestler
Francisca Ordega---Nigerian national team soccer player
Fanendo Adi
Barnabas Imenger Jr.---- Nigerian super eagles striker
Emmanuel Chagu----- Nigerian basketballer and former coach

Genetics

No genetic studies have been carried out on any Tiv population yet. Studies on linguistically related populations by Cruciani, Fulvio et al. in 2002, however indicate that the paternal lineages of the Bantoids/Southern/western Cameroon contains 5.6% Haplogroup B-M60, 93.3% E-M2 (formerly E1b1a) and 1.1% Haplogroup R1b.

Other historical accounts

"Although known by the surrounding tribes and officially as Munshis, they themselves use the word Tivi as the name of their tribe, and Dzua Tiv (Munshi mouth) as the name of their language. Although divided up into clans, their language shows very little dialectical difference in the various clans. As a people they consider themselves superior to the surrounding tribes: consequently a Munshi woman may not marry out of the tribe. It would lower her. A man, on the other hand, may take wives from other tribes, and by so doing he raises the woman. "—Notes on the Munshi Tribe and Language by A.S. Judd Journal of the African Society (1916/17)

“The Tiv say they emerged into their present location from the southeast. "Coming down," as they put it, they met the Fulani. The earliest recorded European contact was in 1852, when Tiv were found on the banks of the Benue. In 1879 their occupation of the riverbanks was about the same as in 1950. British occupying forces entered Tivland from the east in 1906, when they were called in to protect a Hausa and Jukun enclave that Tiv had attacked. The Tiv said in 1950 that they had defeated this British force, [and] then later invited the British in. The first British patrols of southern Tivland did not occur until 1911, which the southern Tiv refer to as the British "eruption." This year also marked the first arrival of Dutch Reformed missionaries from South Africa; they were joined, and then succeeded, by US Protestants in the 1940s and 1950s. Catholic missions arrived in the 1920s. The early administration, coming as it did from the east where Tiv had come under the influence (but not the hegemony) of Jukun and Hausa kingdoms, established "District Heads," who were influential men to whom the British gave authority in which other Tiv did not concur. That system was extended beyond the area of Jukun influence to other Tiv, causing disturbances. Beginning in 1934, the administration created Tiv experts—men who learned the Tiv language and stayed for far longer periods of time than most colonial officers stayed with any given people. Their reports provided a firm basis for administrative reform.”

The Munchi
At the end of January, I left for the frontier post of Takum, which lies in the corner between Southern Nigeria, Northern Nigeria and the German Kameruns. To get there I had to pass through several villages of the Munchi tribe. These Munchis form one of the largest tribes of Nigeria[, and are not yet properly brought into subjection]. They have repeatedly attacked stations of the Niger Company, destroyed them and killed a number of the officials. ... The Munchis wear, beside sword and spear, curiously shaped handknives, which are secured by an iron ring around the palm of the hand. Money is unknown amongst them. When on my last journey through Northern Nigeria in 1905, I offered pieces of silver to a Munchi on the banks of the Benue in exchange for his handknife, he, with supreme contempt, turned his back on me, scorning the white man's money. The white man is not the demi-god among the Munchis, such as he feels himself to be among other pagan tribes in Northern Nigeria. Government officials and traders have to walk " softly, softly,'" among them.

From Hausaland to Egypt, through the Sudan by Kumm, Hermann Karl Wilhelm Published 1910

They have often been compared with the Zulus, many of their customs being similar.

The majority of their laws are identical with the old Levitical laws, and are said to have been framed by Kuroka, a powerful chief, some hundred years ago. Their villages, unlike those of most other West African tribes, are well built and clean.

The men are brave in war and industrious in peace. They have always kept aloof from other tribes, with whom their women are not allowed to intermarry.

Several cases are known, however, of Munchi women being sold as slaves to Hausas, but it is probable that these were either bad characters or of weak intellect, and that this was a convenient way of getting rid of them. ...

The principal weapons of offence are bows and arrows, the arrows being poisoned with a compound of crushed and boiled strophanthus seeds, snakes heads, and poisonous plants, etc., which when freshly made is very potent, the slightest scratch causing a man to die in agony in twenty minutes.

The fumes from this poison, when it is being boiled, are very deadly, even in the open air.

The mixing is always done by one of the numerous ju-ju men, who profess to have antidotes, both external and internal, but there is no authenticated case of a cure having been seen by a European up to date. ... All the Munchis met with were perfectly friendly, and besides clearing camps and building houses for the Commission, brought in large quantities of supplies.

The Geographical Results of the Nigeria-Kamerun Boundary Demarcation Commission of 1912–13 by Captain W. W. Nugent, R.A.

Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, March 9, 1914

In any case Munchi or Mitshi is a foreign name.

The people call themselves by quite another appellation, namely Tivi. As to this name tradition again has something to say.

All human beings are descended from a certain Tukuruka and his wife Yulen.

From this union sprang three families of men, which are the Nasra or white race, the Tivi, and the Uke, which last comprises all other families of the human race.

The Tivi, apparently, have ' a guid conceit o' themselves ' : all other black races are classed together under the category Uke, i.e. ' barbarians.'

--Thrice through the Dark continent by Du Plessis, Johannes (1917)