AMALGAMATION OF NIGERIA
Amalgamation means bringing together two or more groups or territories under one administration. At the wake of the British conquest of the different parts of Nigeria, those territories were initially administered independently. This was because the territories were conquered at…
IGBO UKWU HISTORY AND CULTURE
Igbo Ukwu is located along the lower Niger River basin in Onitsha area. Igbo Ukwu sculptures and bronzes were unearthed by a man digging a well in 1939. More excavations were carried out by Professor Thurstan Shaw in 1960. Most…
HISTORY OF OLD OYO EMPIRE
The Old Oyo Empire is sometimes wrongly described as the state of the coastal forest. It was really a northern savannah state, with its capital near Nupe Kingdom. Oral traditions claimed that Ife was the most senior of the Yoruba…
IMPACT OF TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
The impact of trans-Atlantic slave trade on African societies can be viewed from many angles. Some Africa rulers used the weapons they acquired from the sale of slaves to expand their polities by raiding other kingdoms. This led to empire…
ABOLITION OF SLAVE TRADE
The first set of people who struggled for the abolition of slavery were the captives and slaves themselves, who adopted various methods of resistance throughout their enslavement, from their capture in Africa to their sale and exploitation on plantations in…
HISTORY OF NUPE KINGDOM
The origin of Nupe Kingdom is linked to Tsoede also known as Edeji. He was the hero of the Nupe people as well as the founder of the kingdom. Tsoede united all the Nupe people under his rule and won…
FACTS ABOUT TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
The trans-Atlantic slave trade refers to the sourcing, selling and buying of Africans as slaves and their transportation across the Atlantic Ocean, to be sold in other parts of the world. The Portuguese and Spanish voyages across the Atlantic Ocean…
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE KANEM-BORNO AND THE HAUSA STATES
The people of Hausaland shared a lot of relationships and interactions with the Kanem-Borno in the Lake Chad region of the north eastern Nigeria. Kanem-Borno is made up of the Kanuri speaking people. The Hausa states included the seven states…
EUROPEAN TRADERS
European traders were an important group in the series of European contacts and presence in Nigerian areas, before they subsequently conquered and colonized the areas. It is noteworthy that many Nigerian rulers felt the threat of colonialism long before it…
EUROPEAN MISSIONARIES
By the 19th century, Europeans missionaries had established their missions in Nigeria, but without making remarkable impact on the local communities. There were only a few communities that were directly affected by the activities of the Christian missions as of…
ROUTES FOLLOWED BY THE EUROPEAN EXPLORERS
By the 18th century, European travelers had mapped Africa’s entire coastline in detail. However, the interior of the continent remained largely unexplored. Many Europeans believed that the River Niger led to rich trading opportunities further inland. In 1795, Mungo Park…
EUROPEAN EXPLORERS
In 1788, the African Association was formed in England to promote the exploration of Africa in the hopes of locating the Niger. In 1795, Mungo Park (1771-1806), the Scottish explorer, travelled overland from the Gambia region and reached the Niger…
RELATIONS BETWEEN IFE AND BENIN
The people of Ife and Benin shared a lot of similarities. It was believed that the two groups had some ancestral connections. Traditions of origin indicate that the ancestor of the Yoruba came from Benin and migrated to Ile-Ife. Most…
EARLY EUROPEAN CONTACT WITH NIGERIA
The first European travelers to reach Benin in about 1485 were the Portuguese. The nature of the relationship with Europeans at the early stages of their visits was difficult to define. From the beginning, the first group of European visitors…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF OLD CALABAR
The people of Old Calabar are found in Cross-River State of Nigeria. They were originally called Akwa Akpa by the Efik people till the coming of Europeans, who first pronounced it as Calabar or calabash. The major towns and groups…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE TIV
The Tiv people are one of the major ethnic groups in central Nigeria. They are mostly found in Benue State. However, they can also be found in Nassarawa, Plateau and Taraba States. A very popular story about the origin of…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE IDOMA
The Idoma, are one of the ethnic groups in Nigeria. They are traditionally known to be hunters. The Idoma are found mostly in the western part of Benue State. However, there are other Idoma groups found in Cross-River, Enugu and…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE IJO
The Ijo or Ijaw speaking people are one of the major ethnic groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. They are found in Brass, Nembe, Kalabari, Bonny and Warri, which are spread today in states like Bayelsa, Ondo, Edo,…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE ORON
The Oron people are found mainly in present day Akwa-Ibom State. They represent the third largest group in the state and are closely linked to the Efik, Ibibio, Eket, Annang and Ibeno ethnic groups. The Oron are locally called Oro…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE IBIBIO
The Ibibio are found mainly in the coastal southern part of Nigeria. They share close connection with the Annang, Efik, Oron and Ibeno people who also speak varieties of closely related dialect. They are found mainly in Akwa-Ibom State. The…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE ANNANG
The Annang are one of the southern part of Nigeria, they are located mainly in Akwa-Ibom State. The Annang occupy eight of the thirty local government areas in Akwa-Ibom State. They were believed to have earlier stayed in Abak and…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE URHOBO
The Urhobo people are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. Geographically, they occupy the southern portion of Benin lowland and waterlogged areas of the oil rich Niger-Delta. Urhobo people are found mainly in Ughelli…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE IGBO
The Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria are one of the most populous ethnic groups in Nigeria. The Igbo people are mainly found in the five eastern states of Nigeria: Imo, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi and Abia states. The Igbo society is…
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANISATION OF THE EBIRA
The Ebira people are one of the ethnic groups in the Niger-Benue confluence area of Nigeria. They are currently found mostly in Kogi, Nasarawa and Edo states as well as the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. There are different Ebira…
NATURE OF TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE
Trans-Saharan trade was an economic activity in which different commodities were exchanged across long distances. It was a trade by barter because there was no standard medium of exchange such as currency. The North African traders brought commodities such as…
MEANING OF NON-CENTRALISED STATES
Non-centralised states were states that represented only small political units where powers were not concentrated under a single authority. They are also referred to as stateless societies. These states were organized in such a way that supreme power seemed to…
TRANS-SAHARAN TRADE
The trans-Saharan trade refers to the long distance trade carried out across the Sahara desert by the West African kingdoms. On the other hand, the trade from the West African kingdoms lives through North African States to Europe. The two…
COMPONENTS OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
A working GIS integrates these five key components: hardware, software, data, people and methods. Hardware: Hardware is the computer on which a GIS operates. Today, GIS runs on a wide range of hardware types, from centralized computer servers to desktop…
COMMUNICATION IN NIGERIA
Communication is the process of exchanging or transmission of meaningful information, feelings, opinions and ideas from one person to another or from one place to another. It is a two-way process which involves sending and receiving of messages. Communication has…
MEANING OF CENTRALISED STATES
The term centralised states means large political units, each of which covered large territorial areas and in most cases thousands of square kilometres. Each of such political units was controlled by large number of rulers, led by a king variously…
CLIMATE OF AFRICA
Factors Affecting the Climate of Africa Latitude: Latitude refers to the location of a place on the earth’s surface in relation to the equator. Tropical latitudes where the sun’s altitude is always high have hotter temperature than lower latitudes where…
CLIMATIC CHANGE
Climatic change is defined as a change in the statistical properties of the climatic system when considered over long periods of time. In other words, climatic change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns…
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM DATA
Data input refers to the procedure of automatization of the data and the conversion into forms that can be stored and analyzed in computers. This procedure is fundamental in every GIS and it differentiates depending on the model (vector or…
CLASSIFICATION OF SOIL
Several classifications of soil types exist. The zonal classification treated here is considered most appropriate at this level. The classification relates soil to the major climatic and vegetation zones of the world. The world’s major climatic belts have their distinctive…
SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING
Remote sensing is defined as the act of obtaining information about something without being in direct contact with it. Definition of Concepts Remote sensing: Remote consists of the main sources of digital data for input in a GIS. Remote sensing…
BASIC CONCEPTS OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS)
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. In other words, GIS describes any information system that integrates stores, edits, analyses, shares and displays geographic information…
APPLICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
The GIS has various applications to which it can be used. These applications include the following: Defence: Geographic Information System (GIS) plays a pivotal role in military operations as they are essentially spatial in nature. The concepts of command, control,…
VEGETATION OF AFRICA
Factors Affecting Vegetation The factors affecting the vegetation of Africa include: Climatic factors. Geomorphic factors. Edaphic factors. Biotic factors. Climatic Factors High temperature with low rainfall leads to sparse vegetation. The higher the rainfall, the denser the vegetation. High…
Study Guide
