¹ While assuming full responsibility, I wish to thank Professor J. Peterson, Dr R. Tangri, Dr Adrian Edwards, and Dr J. Kaufert for their comments and criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper presented in Feb. 1972 at the Institute of African Studies, Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone.

² Gough, K., ‘Anthropology; Child of Imperialism’, Monthly Review, xix (04 1968), 12–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarGoddard, D., ‘Limits of British Anthropology’, New Left Review, LVIII (1969), 79–89.Google ScholarBanaji, J., ‘The Crisis of British Anthropology’, New Left Review, LXIV (1970), 71–85.Google Scholar

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⁴ For an historical analysis of the colonial administration see, Dorward, D. C., ‘The Development of British Colonial Administration among the Tiv, 1900–1949’, African Affairs, LXVIII (1969), 316–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ Baikie, W. B., Narrative of an exploring Voyage up the Rivers Kwo' ra and Binue in 1854 (London, 1856), 102, passim.Google ScholarSamuel, Crowther, Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers in 1854 (London, 1855), 63.Google ScholarThomas, J. Hutchinson, Narrative of the Niger, Tshadda and Benuë exploration (London, 1855), 90.Google ScholarEd., Robt. Flegel, ‘Der Benuë von Gande bis Djen’, PetermannsMittheilungen, XXVI (1880), 220–7.Google ScholarMosley, H. L., ‘Regions of the Benue’, Geographical Journal, XIV (1899), 630–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Leo Frobenius offers an amusing insight on early ethnographic research, ‘Hätte ich nur einrnal jene klugen Verurteiler der Muntschi in meiner Hütte haben können, wenn diese Leute urn mich versammelt waren und ibre Legenden und Geschichten vortrugen! Da brauchte ich nicht erst lange zu drängen und zu quälen: “Erzählt! Erzä! Erzählt!’ Ich brauchte nur zu sagen; “Eine gute Geschichte zwanzig Brasstangen, eine schiecte fünf oder nichts und eine sehr gute vierzig, funfzig and mehr!’ Leo, Frobenius, Atlantis: Volksmärchen und Volksdichtungen Afrikas, xi (Jena, 1924), 242.Google Scholar Max Gluckman has criticized early accounts as ‘… superficial observations collected, largely through interpreters, of people making unco-ordinated observations of tribal life’. Moreover explorers were not simply dispassionate observers, they were writing with a political view in mind. Max, Gluckman, ‘Ethnographic Data in British Social Anthropology’, The Sociological Review, n.s., IX (1961), 6.Google Scholar

⁶ The use of the derogatory term ‘Manshi’, the Hausa name for the Tiv, was common throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the notable exception being Koelle, who referred to the language as ‘… Tiwi, called “Midsi” or “Mbidsi” by the Kurorofas and Hausa…’ Koelle, , Polyglotta Africana (London, 1854), 20.Google Scholar

⁷ Major, Claude MacDonald, ‘Exploration of the Benue and its Northern Tributary, the Kebbi’, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, VIII (1891), 450.Google ScholarMocklerFerryman, A. F., Up the Niger (London, 1892), 65.Google Scholar For a candid, less one-sided, account see William, Hewby, ‘Notes on the Munshi’, 1 01. 1909, Palmer Papers, Jos Museum, Nigeria. Hewby was Senior Executive Officer on the Benue for the Royal Niger Company.Google Scholar

⁸ Akiga, Sai, ‘The History of the Tiv’, p. 274, MSS, Africana Collection, University of Ibadan Library. Lugard, Report on the Munshi Campaign, 4 07 1900, C.O. 446/10/25250.Google Scholar

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Annual Report for Northern Nigeria, 1900–1901, Cd. 788–16.Google Scholar

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¹² Annual Report for Northern Nigeria, 1902, Cd. 1768–1914.Google Scholar The accounts of the Bauer and Alexander-Gosling expeditions, which visited the Benue during this period, merely repeat the stereotype of the treacherous, cannibal Tiv warrior. Fritz, Bauer, Die Deutsche Niger-Benue-Tsa Expedition, 1902–1903 (Berlin, 1904), 6.Google ScholarBoyd, Alexander, From the Niger to the Nile, I (London, 1907), 31–2.Google Scholar

¹³ Annual Report for Northern Nigeria, 1904, Cd. 1684–1922.Google Scholar

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¹⁶ Lugard, to C.O., 3 01. 1906, C.O. 446/52/526. Lugard to C.O., 17 01. 1906, C.O. 446/52/5752.Google ScholarHasler, , Operational Report on the Munshi Expedition, 10 03. 1906, C.O. 4467sol;53/19599.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Lugard's handling of the Abinsi affair and the discrepancies in the various despatches form a complex story, beyond the scope of this paper.Dorward, D. C., ‘A Political and Social History of the Tiv People of Northern Nigeria, 1900–1939’ (London, Ph.D., 1971), 123–35.Google Scholar

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¹⁹ Those aspects of Tiv social organization, which Sahlins has argued facilitated Tiv military success against similarly fragmentary societies such as those of the Idoma and Udam peoples, were of little advantage when confronting a disciplined, better armed, and largely self-sufficient fighting force such as the West African Frontier Force. However Tiv tactics used against the W.A.F.F. and the political problems to a military solution may help to explain Tiv pre-colonial relations with such powerful neighbouring states as the Jukun kingdom of Wukari and Muri Emirate. Sahlins, M.D., “The Segmentary Lineage; An organization of predatory expansion”, American Anthropologist, LXIII (1961), 322–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁰ Eckersley, , South Bank Munshi Campaign, 7 07 1901, C.O. 446/16/34437Google Scholar

²¹ For a more detailed treatment of ‘peaceful penetration’ of Tiviand see, Dorward, D. C., ‘The Development of British Colonial Administration Among the Tiv, 1900–1949’, op. cit.Google Scholar

²² Gordon, Notes on the Munshi Tribe, 1907, N.A.K., S.N.P. 5313/1907.

²³ Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E., African Political Systems (London, 1940), 15–16.Google Scholar

²⁴ To retreat momentarily into anthropological models or typology, Tiv society at the beginning of the colonial era seems to exhibit characteristics associated with Group II, as well as Group I of Middleton and Tait's scheme. Middleton, J. and Tait, D., Tribes Without Rulers (London, 1958), 12–13.Google Scholar

²⁵ Hewby, , ‘Notes on the Munshi’, 1 01. 1909, Palmer Papers.Google Scholar

²⁶ Based on a broad sample of Tiv ‘traditions’ recorded at various stages throughout the colonial era. The Kogi example was taken from Walter, Watt, Diary, 6–9 11. 1907, Rhodes House, Oxford.Google Scholar

²⁷ Akiga, Sai, Akiga'sStory(London, 1939), 382–3.Google ScholarMosley, L. H., ‘Regions of the Benue’, 635.Google ScholarEduard, Robert Flegel, ‘Rob. Ed. (sic) Flegel Reise Adamaua, März 1882 bis März 1883’, Petermanns Mittheilungen, XXIV (1883), 247.Google Scholar

²⁸ Political power through the control of meat was initially suggested to me by Dr Adrian Edwards, who has done extensive fieldwork among the Tiv, while the idea of access to women as a mechanism of Tiv political control was posited by Dr K. Hart of the University of Manchester. Large numbers of wives also provided a successful elder with the necessary labour force required to prepare cotton yam, which the elder then wove into strips for tugudu and other Tiv cloths. There was a considerable Tiv cloth trade with Hausa merchants, thereby generating an economic base for political power. The author is currently engaged in research on the problems of pre-colonial trade and currency among the Tiv.

²⁹ Povedin to Commissioner Eastern Province, 11 04. 1911, C.O. 520/104/18566.Google Scholar

³⁰ Ruxton, Annual Report for Muri Province, 1907, N.A.K., S.N.P. 786/1908.Google Scholar

³¹ It would appear that this image of the colonial officer as arbiter has passed into Tiv tradition, for the Bohannan's recorded, ‘…the Tiv claim that… they were not conquered by the Europeans but invited them in to settle disputes’. Bohannan, L. & P., The Tiv of Central Nigeria (London, 1953), 13.Google Scholar

³² Annual Report for Northern Nigeria, 1907–8, Cd. 4448–3. The passage is a paraphrase of Ruxton's report cited above. Bohannan has misattributed the description to Lugard.Google ScholarBohannan, , Tiv of Central Nigeria, 37.Google Scholar

³³ C.O. to Girouard, Dec. 1907, C.O. 16/65/38462.

³⁴ Ruxton, , Quarterly Report for Muri Province, 12. 1908, N.A.K., S.N.P. 471/1909.Google Scholar

³⁵ Governor Bell minuted on the above; ‘… the rule of an autocrat, and I trust that he will not be too despotic, would be best’. Bell, , Minute, 03 1909, N.A.K., S.N.P. 471/1909.Google Scholar

³⁶ For an analysis of the cultural milieu see, Felix, M. Keesing, Culture Change (Stanford, 1953);Google ScholarEvans-Pritchard, E. E., Social Anthropology (London, 1951), 21–42.Google Scholar

³⁷ Owing to the absence of chiefs, near anarchy was assumed to be the normal condition of life.

³⁸ By ‘marginal men’ I mean those individuals who are marginally located in the social structure, those who ‘… have been imperfectly socialized into the dominant value system [of the indigenous culture] and therefore have no [or least] vested interest in maintaining it’. In other words, those who have the least to lose and potentially the most to gain by changes in the established order.Edwards, J. M. B., ‘Creativity: Social Aspects’, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, David, L. Sills ed. (N. Y., 1968),Google Scholar in, 8. For a study applying the concepts of marginality see, Dickie-Clark, H. F., The Marginal Situation: A sociological study of a Coloured Group (London, 1966).Google Scholar

³⁹ Based on a sample of twenty-six Assessment Reports compiled between 1982 and 1917.

⁴⁰ Girouard, to C.O., 29 07 1908, C.O. 446/74/31808.Google Scholar

⁴¹ They were the Reverend Bargery, Cooling, H. G., East, Rupert and Phillips, H. R.; Nigerian Gazette, 12 10. 1922, 8 05 1924, 2 10. 1924, II 03. 1926, 19 05 1927.Google Scholar

⁴² Akiga, , Akiga's Story, 383–93, passsm.Google Scholar

⁴³ Palmer, to Monk, , 24 07 1926,Google Scholar N.A.K., S.N.P. 11160, vol. I. Palmer's interest in the Jukun dated from his early days in Katsina (Palmer, H. R., ‘Notes on the Kwororofawa and Jukon’, Journal of African Studies, XI (1912), 401–15Google Scholar), however his Hamitic image of the Jukun took form as a result of an interview at Ibi in 1921 with unspecified Jukun ‘chiefs’, though not the Aku Uka. The result was two extensive reports in which Palmer argued that the Wukari ruling house had been founded by a branch of the pre-Islamic dynasty of Kanen, which had been founded by refugees from Meroe; ‘… the “religion” of the ruling classes at Wukari is in its main, essentially the worship of Ammon, Isis, and Osins’ (Palmer, , Minute, 9 09. 1921,Google Scholar N.A.K., S.N.P. 3847/1921). The Jukun ruling class, being a noble line possessing ancient traditions, was worth preserving but, ‘It is… useless keeping a governing caste unless we allow it to govern something…’.… (Palmer, , ‘Some Notes on the Jukun of Wukari’, 9 09. 1921, N.A.K., S.N.P. 4049). In 1921 Palmer's policy was blocked by C. F. Gordon, then Resident of Munshi Province, who like so many other administrators before him had concluded that the restoration of the Aku's authority would not warrant the effort. In 1907, Gordon had written; ‘It appears that there is little chance of the Jukun Kingdom being much use in the administration of the [Tiv] country… (It would be difficult to get the Tiv to recognize the authority of the Aku.) Further, before this were undertaken it would be necessary to regenerate the Jukun themselves’ [Gordon, Notes on the Munshi', 1907].Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Meek, C. K., A Sudanese Kingdom (London, 1932).Google Scholar Written at the behest of and with a long introduction by Palmer, H. R., A Sudanese Kingdom and in particular its focus on parallels with Ancient Egypt drew cautious criticism from Meek's contemporary Nadel.Google ScholarNadel, S. F. ‘Review’, Africa, V (1933), 503–3.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Bohannan, P., ‘Extra-Processual Events in Tiv Political Institutions’, American Anthropologist, LX (1958), 1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarDorward, D. C., ‘The Development of British Colonial Administration Among the Tiv’, op. cit.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Downes, R. M., The Tiv Tribe (Kaduna, 1933) 1passim.Google ScholarAbraham, R. C., The Tiv People (Lagos, 1933), 2, passim.Google ScholarAbraham, R. C., The Grammar of Tiv (Kaduna, 1933).Google Scholar An equally interesting, though unpublished and thus less influential contemporary report was Dewar, K., Notes on Witchcraft, 3 12. 1933, N.A.I., C.S.O. 29073.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Levy-Bruhl, L., How Natives Think (London, 1926).Google ScholarEvans-Pritchard, E. E., ‘LevyBruhl's Theory of Primitive Mentality’, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 1 (1970), 39–60.Google ScholarAbraham, , The Tiv People, 57–58.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ibid. 59.

⁴⁹ Dowries, , The Tiv Tribe, 6–10.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ SirHarry, H. Johnston, A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages, II (Oxford, 1922), 175.Google Scholar

⁵¹ SirDonald, Cameron, Principles of Native Administration and Their Application (Kaduna, 1930).Google Scholar

⁵² Though Abraham makes passing reference to Malinowski (pp. 27, 28), neither he nor Downes were decidedly influenced by any ‘school’ of anthropology. This is equally true of a more concise work on Dowries's image of Tiv religion which has been posthumously published. Downes, R. M., Tiv, Religion (Ibadan, 1971).Google Scholar

⁵³ Abraham, , The Tiv People, 34.Google ScholarDownes, , The Tiv Tribe, 24–38.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Abraham, , The Tiv People, 162.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Pembleton to Secretary, Northern Provinces, 27 04 1932, N.A.K., S.N.P. 17404.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Bohannan, , The Tiv of Central Nigeria, 39.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Emberton to Secretary, Northern Provinces, 30 06 1936, N.A.K., S.N.P. 25651.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Abraham, , The Tiv People, 162.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Bohannan, , The Tiv of Central Nigeria, 39.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Gordon, , Notes on the Munshi, N.A.K., S.N.P. 5313/1907.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Abraham, , The Tiv People, 149–56.Google ScholarDownes, , The Tiv Tribe, 29–30, 32.Google Scholar

⁶² Dent, M. J., ‘Elections in Northern Nigeria’, Journal of Local Administration Overseas I (1962), 213.Google ScholarDent, M. J., ‘A Minority Party–The UMBC’, Nigerian Government and Polities, ed. John, P. Mackintosh (London, 1966), 467, 477.Google Scholar

⁶³ Wallace, J. G., “The Tiv System of Election”, Journal of African Administration, X (1958), 63.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Minutes of the Tiv Central Council Meeting, 05 1934, N.A.I., C.S.O. 28416. Emberton to Secretary, Northern Provinces, 22 08. 1934, N.A.K., M.A.K.P.R.O.F. 705.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Martin Dent has referred to these differing conceptual images of chieftaincy in, Dent, M., ‘A Minority Party—The UMBC’, 466.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ One of the accusations against those who agitated for a Tor Tiv was that they were ‘…seeking personal advancement’. Minutes of the Tiv Central Council, Feb. Feb., 1937 N.A.I., C.S.O. 28416.

⁶⁷ Casalegglo, E. N., Die Land Sal Sy Vrug Gee (Cape Town, 1965), 182.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Beck, , Annual Report for Benue Province, 1938, N.A.K., S.N.P. 30844.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Bohannan, , ‘Extra-Processual Events…’ 10.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Casaleggio, , Die Land Sal Sy Vrug Gee, 114.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Beck, Annual Report for Benue Province, 1939, N.A.K., S.N.P. 32056.

⁷² Casaleggio, , Die Land Sal Sy Vrug Gee, 114–15. W. A. Maiherbe, ‘Sendingwerk in Tiviand’, Nederduits Gereformeerd Kerk Archives, Cape Town, 15/9/9/8.Google Scholar

⁷³ Beck, Annual Report for Benue Province, 1939, N.A.K., S.N.P. 32056. Beck, Annual Report for Benue Province, 1940, N.A.K., S.N.P. 33216.

⁷⁴ MacBride, , Tiv Tribal Administration Progress Report, 6 05 1941, N.A.K., S.N.P. A.R.7sol;I.N.T./T/40.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Ibid.

⁷⁶ Bohannan, L., ‘A Genealogical Charter’, Africa, XXII (1952), 314.Google ScholarGoody, J. and Watt, I., ‘The Consequences of Literacy’, Literacy in Traditional Societies, Goody, J. ed. (Cambridge, 1968), 32.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Based on conversation with Beck, D. M. H., 7 05 1969. Pembleton, Minute, n.d., N.A.K., S.N.P. A.R/I.N.T./T/40.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Bohannan, , Tiv of Central Nigeria, 40.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ The best-known example is Akiga's Story, though most of the original flavour has been lost in translation and Dr East, by rearranging extracts, imposed his own historical interpretation. Akiga, , Ahiga': Story, passim. An unexpurguted translation of Akiga's original Tiv manuscript has recently been completed, under the auspices of the Institute of African Studies, Ibadan, and it is to be hoped that a publisher will soon be found.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Tiv society was not without internal conflicts, clashes between interest groups within Tiv society contributing to the dynamics of cultural change. There were sporadic signs of such tension during the 1940s, e.g. Tor Msor in 1944 ‘… initiated by disgruntled elements [who], failing to secure office under the District Head, sought to demonstrate their power of organization and leadership by imposing a parallel structure.…’, Kumendur in 1945, and Garyo in 1948, However, the government, after its experience with Haakaa and Nyambua, was quick to suppress such movements, the ‘ringleaders’ being tried in the Native Courts, thereby strengthening or reinforcing the authority of the patriarchs, and such movements rarely attracted more than a parochial following. Adamu, H. R., ‘Atem Tyough; The Tiv Revolt of 1960–1966’, Pan-Africanist, I (1971), 21.Google ScholarMacBride, , Annual Report for Benue Province, 1948, N.A.K., S.N.P. 45595.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Akiga, , Akiga's Story, 2.Google Scholar

⁸² D.O. Tiv Division to Resident Benue, 19 Sept. 1946, N.A.K., S.N.P. A.R./ I.N.T/T/40.

⁸³ The two classics on chief less societies are African Political Systems and Tribes Without Rulers, which contain chapters on the Nuer and Tiv, respectively. Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E.E., eds., African Political Systems (London, 1940).Google ScholarMiddleton, J. and Tait, D., eds., Tribes Without Rulers (London, 1958).Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Apthorpe, J., ‘The Introduction of Bureaucracy into African Politics’, Journal of African Administration, XII (1960), 130.Google ScholarGluckman, M., Politics. Law and Ritual in Tribal Society (Oxford, 1965), 191–213.Google Scholar For a survey of the analytical ambiguities of political anthropology see, Easton, D., ‘Political Anthropology’, Biennial Review of Anthropology (1959), 210–47.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Dent, M., ‘A Minority Party—The UMBC’, op. cit.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Dent, M., ‘Tarka and the Tiv; A Perspective on Nigerian Federation’, Nigeria, Melson, R. and Wolpe, H., eds. (Michigan, 1971), 451–452.Google Scholar Tarka's repeated electoral successes have been depicted as a break with the tradition of rotation of office or ‘eat and give to your brother’, an example of the pervasive power of models. Ibid. 450.

⁸⁷ Dent, M., ‘The Military and Politics; A Study of the Relations between the Army and the Political Process in Nigeria’,Google ScholarIbid. 388, 399.

⁸⁸ The myth of Takaruku's skull was related to me by Dr Adrian Edwards, who recorded it while in Tivland during the civil war and who has generously given me access to his notes.

⁸⁹ Goody, J. and Watt, I., ‘The Consequences of Literacy’, 30.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ MacBride, , Tiv Tribal Administration Progress Report, 6 05 1941, N.A.K., S.N.P. A.R./I.N.T./T/40).Google Scholar