More Tiv Dances: Kpingi, Ngigh-Ngigh, Animal Dances, Takera and Others

Tiv dance has never stood still. Scholars of Tiv performance stress that a Tiv dance is usually created collectively rather than by one choreographer: as the dance scholar Tijime Awuawuer wrote in 2025, most popular dances in Tivland come and go as fashions, changing so much over time that their creators are hard to name. This article gathers dances not covered in the articles on swange and on the older dances. The later forms of swange Swange kept changing after Yamuel Yashi's time. Awuawuer traces its course from gbangi to swange, then to kpingi, to ngigh-ngigh, and most recently to baka, which is danced in night clubs, while the classic swange is now kept alive mainly by the Benue State Council for Arts and Culture troupe in Makurdi and other theatre groups. The 2013 book Tiv Swange Music and Dance lists further forms, among them tyôlyu, ayev, agbuu and apolo pue teratar, and names the musicians associated with newer styles. Kpingi was the creation of Solomon Doki, known as King One Abua, from Mbakaange in Vandeikya. According to the 2013 book, he trained in Orshio Ada Kever's swange band, brought the first women dancers into it, and in 1974 formed his own band, Abua Young Stars, with western instruments bought for him by a patron; he called his style kirzongu at first and renamed it kpingi on 14 February 1975. Kpingi was danced above all by its women dancers, Gbagir Asawa and Juliana Jam, with energetic hip movements, and it dominated Tiv popular music for about a decade, from 1974 to 1984. Students of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, gave Abua the title "King One" in 1975. Kpingi was also controversial: the book records that it was kpingi, not swange, that the Tiv Native Authority objected to. Ngigh-ngigh followed. Mike Mbatyelevde started his band in 1977 and released his first ngigh-ngigh album in 1978; the book credits the style's conception to the composer Udoo Mbalagh and argues that ngigh-ngigh kept swange alive at a time when kpingi threatened to eclipse it. Mbatyelevde performed abroad in Algeria, Canada, Ethiopia and Israel. Dances that imitate animals Some Tiv dances are modelled on the movements of animals. Awuawuer describes hinga, the squirrel dance; gbasela, the wolf dance, created by hunters; and tswue-tsele, the cat dance, which stands apart because it is danced solo. Tswue-tsele imitates the gentle jumping of a cat, an animal the Tiv regard as mysterious; its origin cannot be traced, and it is danced by young and middle-aged people at funerals and wakes, in beer parlours and at political rallies. Takera Takera is among the Tiv dances most often named by scholars. The 2013 book records that in 1969, when the Benue-Plateau government asked the Tor Tiv to send performers to represent Nigeria abroad, the Takera troupe from Ipav was chosen, together with an ingyôugh troupe from Shangev-Tiev and the bands of Tarker Golozo and of Orshio Ada Kever, for a journey to Algeria and Canada. Ibumegh, the jesters' dance The Benue State cultural guide I am Benue describes ibumegh as a dance of jesters whose name means "foolish dance". Men and boys perform it, impersonating, among other things, soldiers on parade, and it is being popularised by the Achana Akupa group from Mbagen district in Buruku. Anchanakupa, which appears in scholars' lists of Tiv dances, may refer to this group and its performance. Older music: gbange and ishen The 2013 book describes gbange, a music played on the gbange xylophone with the akya pipe, which was performed above all on the farms while people guarded the ripening millet; it flourished until the 1950s, and King One Abua's father was one of its best-known players. The book also names ishen (shen) among the older song forms of Kunav. Dances still to be documented The Tiv theatre scholar Tor Iorapuu lists among the popular Tiv dances gberchul, takera, ange, dansanda, igough, anchanakupa, manyi, ihinga, tsough, jiga, kwaza, girinya, gbangi and swange, and writes that each has a symbolic story behind it. Dansanda (dasenda), igough (ingyôugh) and kwaza (kuza) are described in the article on older Tiv dances, and gberchul, or gberichul, is one of the dances drawn into kwagh-hir puppet theatre. For several of the others, including manyi, ihinga, tsough and jiga, no published description has been found. If you know one of these dances, its story or its songs, please share it through the contribution form. Sources: Tijime Awuawuer, "Conceptualizing the choreographic and authorship of dance composition amongst the Tiv people of central Nigeria", International Humanities Studies 11(1), 2025, citing Gbilekaa (1993) and Iorapuu (2007); Richard A. Tsevende, Tim C. Agber, Don S. Iorngurum and Nancy N. Ugbagir, Tiv Swange Music and Dance (2013); I am Benue, "Benue Cultural Dances"; Wikipedia, "Kwagh-Hir".