Culture of Nigeria

The culture of Nigeria is shaped by Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups. The country has 527 languages, seven of them extinct.[1] Nigeria also has over 1150 dialects and ethnic groups. The four largest ethnic groups are the Hausa and Fulani in the north, the Igbo in the southeast, and the Yoruba predominate in the southwest. File:Hausa_warrior_outfit_for_durba.jpg

The Edo people are most frequent in the region between Yorubaland and Igboland. Many of the Edo tend to be Christian. This group is followed by the Ibibio/Annang/Efik people of the coastal south southern Nigeria and the Ijaw of the Niger Delta.

Nigeria's other ethnic groups, sometimes called 'minorities', are found thoughout the country but especially in the north and the middle belt. The traditionally nomadic Fulani can be found all over West and Central Africa. The Fulani and the Hausa are predominantly Muslim while the Igbo are predominantly Christian and so are the Efik, Ibibio, and Annang people. The Yoruba are equally likely to be be either Christian or Muslim. Indigenous religious practices remain important to all of Nigeria's ethnic groups, and frequently these beliefs are blended with Christian beliefs, a practice known as syncretism

Nigerian literature

Nigeria is famous for its English language literature. Things Fall Apart, an important book in African literature.[2] sold over eight million copies worldwide and was translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.[3][4]

Nigerian Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka described the work as "the first novel in English which spoke from the interior of the African character, rather than portraying the African as an exotic, as the white man would see him."[5]

But apart from the speakers of standard English, a large portion of the population, roughly a third of the country's population, speaks Nigerian pidgin, which has a primarily English lexicon, so this has become a common lingua franca. Pidgin English is a simplified form of the language, for instance "How you dey" means "How are you". Since the 1990s the Nigerian movie industry, sometimes called "Nollywood" has emerged as a fast-growing cultural force all over Africa. Because of the movies western influences, including music, dress and movies are be found all across Nigeria, even in the Islamic and highly conservative north of the country.

Sports

Supporters of English football clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea often segregate beyond the traditional tribal and even religious divide to share their common cause in Premier League teams. The Nigerian national football team, nicknamed the "Super Eagles", is the national team of Nigeria, run by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). According to the FIFA World Rankings, Nigeria ranks 22nd and holds the third highest place among the African nations behind Cameroon (11th) and Côte d'Ivoire (16th). The highest position Nigeria ever reached on the ranking was 5th, in April 1994.

Food

Nigerian food offers a rich blend of traditionally African carbohydrates such as yam and cassava as well as the vegetable soups with which they are often served. Maize is another crop that is commonly grown in Nigeria.[6] Praised by Nigerians for the strength it gives, garri is "the number one staple carbohydrate food item in Nigeria"[7] a powdered cassava grain that can be readily eaten as a meal and is quite inexpensive. Yams are frequently fried either fried in oil or pounded to make a mashed potato-like yam pottage. Nigerian beans, quite different from green peas, are widely popular. Meat is also popular and Nigerian suya—a barbecue-like roasted meat—is a well-known delicacy. Bush meat, meat from wild game like antelope and giraffes, is also popular. Fermented palm products make a traditional liquor, palm wine, and also fermented cassava. Nigerian foods are spicy, mostly in the western and southern part of the country, even more so than in Indian cuisine. Some more examples of their traditional dishes are eba, pounded yam, iyan, fufu and soups like okra, ogbono and egusi. Fufu is so emblematic of Nigeria that it figures in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, for example. Achebe's magnum opus is the most widely read book in modern African literature.[8]

Music

The music of Nigeria includes many kinds of folk and popular music, some of which are known worldwide. Traditional musicians use a number of diverse instruments, such as Gongon drums.

File:Hausa_warrior_outfit_for_durba.jpg Other traditional cultural expressions are found in the various masquerades of Nigeria, such as the Eyo masquerades, the Ekpe and Ekpo Masquerades of the Efik/Ibibio/Annang/Igbo peoples of coastal southeastern Nigeria, and the Northern Edo Masquerades. The most popular Yoruba wooden masks are the Gelede masquerades.

For a foreigner who might be interested in watching Nigerians films also known as Nollywood should go for Tunde Kelani films especially Saworoide or Tade ogidan films. And for modern music with genres of pop, hip-hop or rap, D'banj, P-Square, Ice Prince, 2face Idibia, Naeto C, M.I, Olamide and Phyno should be the artistes to search for among others like the old singers and folklords.

A very important source of information on modern Nigerian art is the Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art operated by the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos.

In addition, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, and Naija Invest Gateway, provide real time information on the Nigerian business culture.

Clothing

Women wear long flowing robes and headscarves made from local markets who dye and weave the fabric locally. Southern Nigerian women choose to wear western-style wear. People in urban regions of Nigeria dress in western style, the youth mainly wearing jeans and t-shirts. Other Nigerian men and women typically wear a traditional style called Buba. For men the loose fitting shirt goes down to halfway down the thigh. For women, the loose fitting blouse goes down a little below the waist. Other clothing gear includes a gele, which is the woman's headgear. For men their traditional cap is called fila.

See also

durba eid

References

  1. ↑ Lewis, M. Paul; Gary F. Simons; Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2016). "Nigeria". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (19th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International Publications.
  2. ↑ Booker, p. xvii.
  3. ↑ Yousaf, p. 34.
  4. ↑ Ogbaa, p. 5.
  5. ↑ "Chinua Achebe of Bard College". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. 33 (33): 28. Autumn 2001. doi:10.2307/2678893. JSTOR 2678893.
  6. ↑ Akarolo-Anthony, Sally (2013). "Pattern Of Dietary Carbonhydrate intake Among Urbanized Adult Nigerians". International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. uos
  7. ↑ Agricultural Society of Nigeria (2016). "Producing Garri for export". Setting Agricultural Standards. Unknown parameter |duplicate_url= ignored (help)
  8. ↑ Ogbaa, Kalu (1999). "Understanding Things Fall Apart". Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press isbn=978-0-313-30294-7.

[1][2]

  1. ↑ "Interesting Facts About Nigerian People and Culture". Answers Africa. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  2. ↑ "People & Culture". ourafrica.org. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.