Tiv

The Tiv are the largest ethnic group in the Middle Belt, concentrated in Benue State and extending into Taraba, Nasarawa, Plateau and Cross River. They speak Tiv, a Tivoid language of the Benue-Congo family, and are known nationally for large-scale yam, soya, benniseed, citrus and rice farming that has given Benue State the label 'food basket of the nation'. The swange dance performed to drums and the kakaki horn, and the black-and-white striped a'nger cloth, are widely recognised markers of Tiv identity. Most Tiv today are Christian, though Tiv traditional religion continues to be practised by many households alongside church membership.

Oral tradition holds that the Tiv descend from a single ancestor named Tiv, who is said to have had two sons, Ichongo and Ipusu, from whom the two major branches of the people trace their descent. Some historians argue instead for a gradual coalescence of related farming communities that migrated from the Swem hills area, possibly from the Congo basin region, into the Benue valley over several centuries, arriving in their present territory by around the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Before British colonial administration the Tiv had no centralised kingship; authority was diffused through lineage elders (mbatarev) and age-grade associations. The British, seeking a figure through whom to administer indirect rule, created the paramount stool of Tor Tiv in 1946, based in Gboko; the office has no precolonial precedent but has since become the recognised cultural and political head of the Tiv nation.

Tiv society is organised through a segmentary lineage system in which every individual can, in principle, trace their place on a single genealogical map (the tar) linking them to the founding ancestor. Kinship groups are ranked by genealogical depth, from the ipaven (minimal lineage) up through larger tar segments, and this genealogy historically regulated land allocation, marriage and the settlement of disputes between segments. Age-grade associations and lineage elders exercised local authority, while the Tor Tiv and a hierarchy of district and clan heads created under colonial and later Nigerian administration now provide formal traditional leadership above the lineage system.

Tiv traditional religion centres on Aondo, a supreme being associated with the sky, and on the belief in tsav, a spiritual force said to reside in certain individuals and linked to both healing and witchcraft accusations. Ancestral spirits and various akombo (ritual objects and associated afflictions) are addressed through diviners and ritual specialists who diagnose misfortune and prescribe remedies. These beliefs and practices continue alongside Christianity, which is now the majority religion among the Tiv.

The swange is a popular recreational dance performed communally to drumming and the kakaki trumpet, and has spread beyond Tiv areas as a symbol of Middle Belt culture. The a'nger cloth, woven in bold black-and-white stripes, is worn on ceremonial occasions and has become a widely recognised emblem of Tiv identity nationally. Marriage traditionally involved exchange arrangements between lineages, and yam festivals mark the farming calendar. Benue State's farmland lies on a frontier between cultivation and seasonal cattle movement, and herder-farmer tension has repeatedly affected Tiv communities in recent decades.