History of Nigeria

History of Nigeria

The history of Nigeria  can be traced to prehistoric settlers living in the area as early as 11000 BC. Numerous ancient African civilizations settled in the region that is today Nigeria, such as the Kingdom of Nri, the Empire. Benin Empire, and the Oyo Islam reached Nigeria  through the Hausa States  during the 11th century, while Christianity came to Nigeria  in the 15th century through Augustinian and Capuchin monks from Portugal. The Songhai Empire  also occupied part of the region. Lagos  was invaded by British forces in 1851 and formally annexed in 1861. Nigeria became a British protectorate in 1901. Colonization lasted until 1960, when an independence movement succeeded in gaining Nigeria its independence. Nigeria first became a republic  in 1963, but succumbed to military rule three years later after a bloody coup d'état. A separatist movement later formed the Republic of Biafra  in 1967, leading to the three-year Nigerian Civil War. Nigeria became a republic  once again after a new constitution was written in 1979. However, the republic was short-lived, when the military seized power again four years later. A new republic  was planned to established in August 1993, but was dissolved once again by General Sani Abacha  three months later. Abacha died in 1998 and a fourth republic  was later established the following year, which ended three decades of intermittent military rule.

Early History


Archaeological  research, pioneered by Charles Thurstan Shaw  has shown that people were already living in south-eastern Nigeria (specifically Igbo Ukwu, Nsukka, Afikpo and Ugwuele) 100,000 years ago. Excavations in Ugwuele, Afikpo and Nsukka show evidences of long habitations as early as 6,000 BC. However, by 9th Century AD, it seemed clear that the Igbos had settled in Igboland. Shaw's excavations at Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria revealed a 9th-century indigenous culture that created highly sophisticated work in bronze metalworking, independent of any Arab or European influence and centuries before other sites that were better known at the time of discovery. The earliest known example of a fossil human skeleton found anywhere in West Africa, which is 13,000 years old, was found at Iwo-Eleru in western Nigeria and attests to the antiquity of habitation in the region. [1] Microlithic and ceramic  industries were also developed by savanna pastoralists from at least the 4th millennium BC  and were continued by subsequent agricultural communities. In the south, gathering  gave way to hunting and subsistence farming  around the same time, relying more on the indigenous yam and oil palm than on the cereals important in the North. The stone axe heads, imported in great quantities from the north and used in opening the forest for agricultural development, were venerated by the Yoruba  descendants of [1] neolithic  pioneers as "thunderbolts" hurled to earth by the gods. Iron smelting  furnaces at Taruga  dating from around 600 BC provide the oldest evidence of metalworking  in Sub-Saharan Africa. Kainji Dam  excavations revealed iron-working  by the 2nd century BC. The transition from Neolithic times to the Iron Age  apparently was achieved indigenously without intermediate bronze production. Others suggest the technology moved west from the Age in the Nile Valley, although the Iron Niger River  valley and the forest region appears to predate the introduction of metallurgy in the upper savanna by more than 800 years. The earliest identified iron-using Nigerian culture is that of the Nok culture  that thrived between approximately 900 BC and 200 AD on the Jos Plateau  in north-eastern Nigeria. Information is lacking from the f irst millennium AD following the Nok ascendancy, but by the 2nd millennium there was active trade from North Africa through the Sahara  to the forest, with the people of the savanna acting as intermediaries in exchanges of various goods. 

To be continue........................

          By Olonade Olawale A. (Brain Feels).