This chapter explores how aspects of culture informed the compositions of Nigeria’s various precolonial and colonial societies. These happenings will be shown through several unique customs and practices, such as dance, music, and art. The second part of the chapter explains how the onset of colonialism shifted the cultural landscape of Nigeria. These cultural transformations are framed in three primary ways: the often racist and violent diffusion of Western culture, the retainment of Indigenous cultures, and the fusion of the former and latter. The social, economic, and political ramifications of these transformations will be detailed, along with the subtle, often insidious role colonialism and Western culture had to play in the changing mental constructs of the Nigerian people, most prominent amongst the growing class of Western-educated elites.