Nupe Kingdom

Nupe tradition credits the founding of the kingdom to Tsoede, described as a son of an Igala ruler at Idah who returned to Nupe country and united its towns. Tradition places this around the early sixteenth century, and the dating and details are uncertain; the connection it records with the Igala Kingdom is nonetheless a consistent feature of Nupe accounts.

The kingdom brought together riverain and inland Nupe communities under the Etsu, with a system of ranked titles and territorial officials. Its craft guilds in brass, glass beads, cloth and boat building were long established, and its position on the Niger gave it a permanent role in trade between the delta and the north.

Nupe controlled a stretch of the Niger above the confluence and taxed and protected traffic along it, moving cloth, salt, kola, slaves and later firearms. Nupe cavalry raided widely to the south, and the kingdom's craftsmen were sought across the region; Nupe glass beads and brass work circulated well beyond its borders.

In the early nineteenth century a succession dispute within the ruling house brought Fulani forces into Nupe politics, and the kingdom was incorporated into the caliphate structure as an emirate, with Bida founded as its capital. As Bida Emirate it remained one of the more powerful of the caliphate's southern emirates, extending influence over Kabba, Kakanda and Afenmai communities and over parts of the country west of the Niger.

Royal Niger Company forces attacked Bida in 1897 in a campaign over control of the Niger trade and over authority in the middle belt, and the emirate was subsequently brought under British administration. The Etsu was retained in office under indirect rule with reduced territory, and the tolls and raiding that had supported the state were ended.

Bida remains a centre of Nupe craft production, particularly brass work and glass beads, and Nupe title systems, Islamic scholarship and festivals continue. The kingdom's history is one of the clearer cases of an older southern kingdom absorbed into the northern emirate system and then into colonial Nigeria.

The Etsu Nupe presides over the palace at Bida and is recognised as the senior traditional ruler of the Nupe within Niger State, with customary and religious authority over chieftaincy and cultural matters. The office holds no political power.