Culture

Tiv culture

Tiv culture grew out of a farming life in the Middle Benue Valley and a society organised around family lines rather than kings. Kinship, land and the obligations between families run through almost every custom documented here, from how a child is named to how a marriage is arranged. This section records those customs as they are practised and remembered, including how many of them have changed over the past century.

Land, farming and food

Most Tiv families have lived by farming, and Benue State is still one of Nigeria's major food-producing regions. Yams, cassava, millet, sorghum and beniseed have long been central crops, and the farming year sets the rhythm of work, gatherings and celebration. The foods collection describes traditional dishes, and the plants collection records the plants used for food, medicine and building.

Marriage and family

A Tiv marriage joins two families, not only two people. The older form of marriage, yamshe, was an exchange between families. It gave way to marriage by bride price (kem), which is traditionally paid in stages rather than settled at once, so the tie between the two families stays active over time. Read about marriage customs.

Cloth, dress and identity

The black-and-white striped cloth known as anger is the most recognised mark of Tiv identity. Families wear it at weddings, funerals, festivals and public occasions, and it often shows up today in modern tailoring as well as traditional wrappers.

Performance, music and dance

Tiv performance traditions are lively and closely tied to storytelling. Kwagh-hir, a form of puppetry and masquerade theatre, brings tales and social commentary to life before village audiences. Songs and dances such as swange accompany celebrations and carry their own commentary on everyday life.

Names, festivals and beliefs

A Tiv name often records the circumstances of a child's birth, a family hope or a saying. The names collection gives the meaning behind each one. The festivals collection covers harvest, community and cultural celebrations, and sacred places such as Swem, the ancestral hill, still hold meaning in Tiv belief and oath-taking.

Customs differ from clan to clan and from family to family, and none of these pages claims to be the only correct version. If your family practises a custom differently, or knows one not yet recorded here, please add it through the contribution form below.