List of cultural
practices in Nigeria
- Nigerian language
- Food culture
- Clothing culture
- Religious culture
- Traditional belief
- Traditional music
- Traditional dance
- Traditional ceremonies
- Traditional arts
- Traditional medicine
- Traditional market
- Traditional industries
- The family and inheritance culture
Nigeria is a multi
cultural state with over 250 languages spoken over the country. Some of the
languages are Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Edo, Ijaw, Isoko, Urhobo, Calabar,
Kanuri, Tiv, Idoma, Iteskiri.
Some of these languages are spoken outside the country and serves as means of identification of Nigerians in any part of the world. Example, Yoruba language is widely spoken in Brazil owing to slave trade.
Some of these languages are spoken outside the country and serves as means of identification of Nigerians in any part of the world. Example, Yoruba language is widely spoken in Brazil owing to slave trade.
Food culture:
Despite the influence
of western civilization on dressing culture in Nigeria, the Nigerian people
still wear their traditional dresses. Thus Nigeria dresses have served as a
means of identifying Nigerian people within and outside the country.
In the Northern Nigeria, Agbada, Kaftan with cap to match and long gown with veil to cover the head and part of the faces are popular among the males and females respectively.
In Eastern Nigeria,
jumpa with wrapper or jumpa with a pair of trouser with red fez cap or Okonko
cap are mostly won by the men while the female folk wears blouse and double
wrappers with head tie, called “ichafu” in Igbo.
Even the people of
Eastern Niger Delta region dress almost the same way like their Eastern
neighbours, except that the men wear bowl hat to match the jumpa and trouser.
In the Western Nigeria,
Agbada made from Ashoke fabrics with cape to match the blouse and buba with
head tie to match are common among the males and females respectively.
Edo people tie wrapper
at the waist, leaving upper region of their bodies bare with heavy beads around
the neck and on the wrist for the male and females.
In whichever way
Nigerians dress, they always look gorgeous, in traditional outfit.
Unfortunately, because of western civilization and influence, our youth shun
their tradition wears in preference for European mode of dressing.
Also, the demand of
white collar job for corporate dressing has affected those in paid employment
who would have preferred to wear the traditional attire.
Religious
Culture:
African traditional
religion is the way of life among Nigerian people. This was formed in the
earliest time of the evolution of their cultures.
The religious cultures
of the people resemble each other, at least in some of their ideas of worship.
The African traditional religion believes in the existence of Supreme Being who
is invisible.
He is the source of
life and existence and must be venerated or worshipped through the lesser gods
and goddesses by means of sacrifice, rituals and ceremonies.
The indigenous
religious practice has been referred to as idol worshipping or paganism by
Eurocentric writers because it relies on the worship of stones, rivers etc.
this description was not acceptable to Afro-centric historians and writers.
The African Religion
had before the 16th century, grown into form of religion before the
arrival of foreign religion- Christianity and Islam.
Going further, Davidson
asserts that like Europeans of the middle age (AD 800-1350) Africans lived in
age of faith in the indigenous religions. They believed that political
authority came not from men but from God and spirits.
Those who exercised
power on earth could do so, only if they were accepted as speaking and acting
with the good will of the departed ancestors, who in turn were men’s protectors
and helpers in the world of the spirits.
Rulers could rule only
if they are appointed to do so; and their subjects obeyed them not simply from
respect for the king’s power and law but also for reasons of religion.
Therefore, indigenous
religion, like other religion helped men to live together, express their higher
hopes and aspiration and linked the individual to the community.
Like all other religion
of the age before science, they include much magic and witchcraft and rituals.
They also worked out their own body of thought about the beginning and growth
of mankind and about the working of the universe into which mankind was born.
Traditional
Belief:
The African traditional
religion believes in reincarnation which holds that human beings can go through
circle of birth, death and rebirth. This belief is reflected in the names given
to new born babies in some Nigeria ethnicity.
For instance in Yoruba
land, the name Babatunde means my late father has come back to life. In Igbo
land, Nnenne and Nnenna mean the rebirth of one’s mother and father
respectively.
Traditional
Music:
Music is a widely
practiced tradition in Nigeria; music is a system of expression which uses
sound, rhythm and time composed by man to achieve certain emotional ends.
Traditional music is
played with traditional instrument such as metal gong, wooden drum or leather
drum. Popular traditional music in Nigeria is Atilogwu.
Traditional
Dance:
Music and dance goes
together, dance is the movement of the body to the rhythms or lyric of music. Nigeria
traditional music is used for ceremonies, entertainment and amusement or adding
to the fun of daily life.
The popular dance in
Nigeria is Yoruba bata dance, Atilogwu of the Igbos and kwahil dance of the
Tivs. Some of these dances are exported during international cultural exchange
and serves as sources of tourist attraction.
Traditional
Arts:
Traditional arts in
Nigeria are as old as the origin of the people of the country. Early in their
history, they tried to depict their aesthetic feelings and what they have seen
in drawing and painting and in carving.
The Igbo-Ukwu people in
Igboland presented an astonishing discovery of ancient works of art such as
ornaments, bells, chains and anklet, staff heads, bronze altar and bronze vase.
Benin is also famous for carving terracolta heads.
Unfortunately some of
the ancient’s works of arts were carted away by colonial masters during slavery
and colonialism in Africa.
Oral literature is an
important aspect of the people’s culture. In every home, after the night meal,
children are assembled in the compound under the moon light by an elder and
told epic stories about legendary figures, animals and life.
Traditional
Medicine:
Traditional medicine is
part of Nigeria culture that has not been eroded by the influence of western
culture and civilization. Traditional medicine was in existence before the
introduction of orthodox medicine.
Like western medical
practice, before treatment is embarked upon, there is consultation or
divination during which the herbalist or native doctor tries to diagnose the
cause of illness.
The people believe that
every sickness has a cause, this could be pathological or biological or it
could be caused by microbes or spiritual. This could be established by
observation or consulting the gods.
The treatment involves
the use of herbs, leaves, bark of trees etc and is carried out by making
incision marks on the body and robbing the medicine in powdered form in the
body. If the cause of illness is spiritual, treatment could take the form of
sacrifice or ritual cleansing.
Traditional
Markets:
Market is an economic
institution that brings the people together for the purpose of buying and
selling goods and services. There are two types of market in the Nigeria traditional
societies; these are the general market and the special market.
The traditional markets
are held daily while others are held periodically. In this type of market all
the goods available in the community are sold. Example, food stuff, household
item, farm implement, building and construction equipment.
While the special
market deals with one or two goods. Example of special market is fish market,
palm wine market, vegetable market, fruit market, cattle market.
Traditional
Industries:
The availability of
fertile soil for cultivation of crops made agriculture the major economic
activity of Nigeria. Crops were grown mainly for self subsistence. This
necessitated the growth of traditional agro-allied industries.
The blacksmith
or metal industry was developed to produce metal work such as hoes, cutlasses,
sickles, knives, axes, etc for farming. The major materials used for the
production of these iron technologies are the iron ore.
The ion industry
provided the traditional communities with instrument of defense such as spare
and arrows, swords and local rifle of which Awka is famous.
The
Family and Inheritance Culture:
The family structure in
traditional Nigerian societies can be described as polygamous. That is the
culture that allows men to marry many wives as he can cater for. The man and
his wives live in the same compound as a nuclear family.
In some traditional
societies, when a man dies, his male children will inherit his properties. In
Igboland and some other ethnic groups in Nigeria, the female children are
considered as visitors who will eventually go to where they belong when they
are married, which is their husband family.
In Yoruba culture, the
traditional inheritance law allows the girl child to share in her fathers
property with the male counterpart. The Hausa-Fulani inheritance practice is
guided by the Islamic code of law.