Igala

The Igala live mainly in Kogi State, east of the Niger-Benue confluence, with Idah as their historic capital. They speak Igala, a language closely related to Yoruba within the Yoruboid group, and are historically associated with the Igala kingdom, one of the significant precolonial states of the Niger-Benue confluence area. The kingdom, headed by the Attah Igala, engaged extensively in regional trade along the Niger and Benue rivers and had a long, complex relationship of both trade and conflict with the neighbouring Benin kingdom and other confluence peoples.

Oral tradition holds that the Igala kingdom was founded by a ruling dynasty whose origins are remembered variously as linked to Jukun, Yoruba or local confluence-area ancestry, with the office of Attah developing into a centralised kingship by around the sixteenth century. Some historians argue for strong early ties to the Jukun-centred Kwararafa confederation, while others emphasise Igala's own independent state-building along the Niger-Benue confluence. Igala oral tradition also preserves an account of a major war between Igala and Benin, remembered as the Idah war, generally placed in the sixteenth century; because it is documented only in oral tradition and later Benin court accounts rather than any contemporaneous written record, its precise causes, course and outcome remain a matter of differing interpretation between Igala and Benin traditions.

The Igala kingdom is headed by the Attah Igala, a hereditary monarch based at Idah, supported by a hierarchy of titled chiefs drawn from senior lineages, including councils historically responsible for choosing and installing the Attah. Igala territory was traditionally organised into districts under appointed or hereditary chiefs answerable to the Attah, a structure that shaped the kingdom's later role as an intermediary in regional trade along the Niger and Benue rivers.

Igala traditional religion recognises Ọjọ (or Ọchọ) as a supreme being, alongside ancestral spirits and deities associated with the Attah's ancestors and with the land, honoured through shrines and royal ritual. These beliefs and associated royal ceremonies continue to be practised by some alongside a Christian and, in some communities, Muslim presence.

The Ocho festival, marking the ceremonial renewal of the Attah's authority and honouring royal ancestors, is among the most significant Igala cultural events, drawing masquerades, music and large public gatherings at Idah. Igala masquerade traditions, including the Egwu-Ojo, mark funerals and festivals in many communities.