Nupe

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Nupe

(self-designation, Nupesizi), a people living in Nigeria, mainly in the Northeast and Kwara states. They number about 1 million (1972, estimate). The Nupe language is one of the Kwa languages. Their religion is Islam, with partial preservation of traditional beliefs and cults. The Gbari and Igbira are close to the Nupe in culture and language. In the Middle Ages the Nupe founded a state that existed until the early 19th century. The main occupation of the Nupe is farming. Various crafts have long been developed.

REFERENCES

Ismagilova, R. N. Narody Nigerii. Moscow, 1963.
Nadel, S. F. A Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria. London [1961].

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References in periodicals archive ?

In the face of continued threat to their existence and survival, it is on record (15) that the Yagba people and the Okun in general openly solicited the intervention of the white man; they reportedly requested the British to come and shield them from the Nupe. For African scholars that are familiar with several instances of 'resistance' to colonial rule, the case of Yagbaland might sound as an antithesis.

The forces of the Royal Niger Company (R.N.C.) terminated Nupe imperialism in 1897.

It would be recalled that the Nupe wars had forced Yagba people to inaccessible places.

For West Yagba which came under Lafiagi-Pategi division, tax assessment and collection was systematized under a Nupe district head.

These clan settlements were disorganized and dislodged as a result of Nupe raids.

While it is true that colonial rule put an end to Nupe raids and heralded an era of peace, but the fear of the unknown and the memories of the harrowing Nupe experience might have been responsible for such an attitude.

As Yagba communities reacted differently to the Nupe raids of the late nineteenth century depending on the options opened to them, Amuro people were forced under that socio-political upheaval to move to the hill-top.

Nupe wars however disrupted these settlements in the 1890s and forced the people to seek hide-outs in the forests.

This reluctance is not unconnected with the fact that, the Nupe raids had made many to abandon their old clan settlements in the original site.

Igbagun initially was a refugee settlement of all Yagba people during the Nupe raids because its thick forest provided a hiding place for the people.

Settlements relocation in Northern Nigeria: a historical analysis of the colonial resettlement scheme in Yagbaland, 1900-1950

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