The Ngas Tribe of Nigeria



A man with Ngas tribal marks

 Ngas people are found mainly in the state of Plateau in central Nigeria. Over the years, many have migrated to other states where they have become indigenes. These states include Bauchi, Kaduna, Nassarawa and Taraba States.

Beliefs based on legend suggest that the Ngas people migrated to Plateau State from the Northeastern part of Nigeria around Borno State and are actually relations of Kanuri people.

Basically, the culture of Ngas people is the same with those of most African tribes. In naming a new born for instance, consideration is given to the circumstance surrounding the birth of the child. Children are usually named by their own fathers or grandfathers. When permitted, a mother can also name her child.

Wong is an Ngas masquerade that comes out during festive occasions. A child born during such a festival is named Ngowong. The prefix “ngo” means “the one with” A male child born on a rainy day is named Ngofwan (the one with the rain) and Nafwan if the child is female. A name like Ngochuk (one with the knife) is usually given to a child that took an unusually longer period to urinate after he has been born. A knife becomes significant in the sense that if the situation persists, it will become necessary to use a knife to open up the urethra. Ngokwat (the hunter) is a name given to a boy that was born on the day of hunting or at a time when his father was always going to the bush to hunt.

Ngas people have a type of medicine known as mwolak. The mwolak of every family is unique and is meant to give protection to family members against evils. According to Ngas tradition, a man on a mission to fetch mwolak doesn’t talk to people he meets on his way. He gets to the bush, uproots the plant and comes back without saying a word to anyone. Before it is taken, mwolak is dissolved in a traditional brew in a fresh calabash that has not been touched by a woman. Members of a family take their turns to kneel down before the calabash with their hands held to the back while an elderly person dips a special straw into it and brushes it across the mouth. Later each family member again takes his turn to take a sip directly from the calabash. A child born at a time when this medicine is been administered is usually named Ngomwolak.

In Ngasland, parents usually contract marriage at a time when the kids are too young to understand what marriage means. The parents of a young child reserves a wife for their son from a family they hold in high esteem. The children are then informed when they are fully grown.

Paying for a wife involves farming for the eventual in-laws and lasts for as long the courtship lasts. There is also the offering of cakes of tobacco and salt for the father and mother of the girl respectively. In Ngasland, the parents of the girl don’t specify bride price. Traditionally, it is known that two goats are offered to the parents of the girl. One is for them and the second is to be taken to the maternal uncles of the girl. It is the formal way of informing them that their niece is getting married. When the use of money became relevant, it is offered in addition to the goats and is meant to assist the girl’s parents in the area of dowry. Again the amount of money offered is dependent on the financial strength of the boy’s parent.

In Ngasland it is customary for a mother to eavesdrop when her daughter attends to a visiting husband-to-be who usually stands and talks to the girl some meters away from her. The aim is to ensure that her daughter don’t get so close as to arouse temptation for the expression of sexual feelings. Where a girl makes the mistake of getting too close, the mother warns her against such carelessness after the boy must have gone.

Certain girls in Ngasland are usually set aside to be used for special rituals. It is a taboo and a grave offence for a man to even come in contact with such a girl as long as it is done with the intention of satisfying sexual covetousness. To save the man from tragic consequences, his family offers a goat and corn to be used in cleansing the girl. The goat is slaughtered and the corn is used in preparing a brew. These are offered to appease the gods in a shrine.

Another abhorrent thing in Ngasland is extra-marital conception. A girl that becomes a victim is not allowed to have her baby in the house to avoid defilement with the stain of her blood.

In the run up to a wedding, the eventual groom and bride join hands to build their own house. The boy with the help of his friends build the house and find the poles to be used in roofing while the girl with other women including her mother source for the grass to be used in roofing the house. The women also do the plastering of the house using mud derived by dissolving the anthills (luntezu) of tiny harmless termites (ntezu) in water.

When a bride (madzap) arrives her home, the first food prepared (ntanang) is special and is served to everybody in the house. The bride is nicknamed Ntanang as a result.

Situations do arise where a boy not engaged to a young woman by parents falls in love with her to a point that he wishes to have her as a wife. He then makes her his wife by compulsion. This is done with the help of his friends with whom he lays ambush on the girl on her way to the market or river. His parents immediately inform the girl’s parent that they shouldn’t worry about her whereabouts, indicating that she is in their custody. In some cases, the girl refuses and insists on marrying the man that has labored for her love. Where the girl wishes to remain, an arrangement is made for her sudden in-laws to pay the losing man by putting a commensurate amount of labor in their farm.

In the course of the year, Ngas people have two major festivals. There is the Moslum usually observed around March/April. During this festival, a local brew is prepared and is used in a ritual during which the people request the blessings of the gods for a good harvest. Moslum is celebrated in Lur which is a part of Kabwir district, Ampang, Munok, Mwel, Dungung, Kaler and surrounding neighbourhoods. Mustar, the second festival is performed around September to give thanks for a splendid farming season. It is celebrated in the villages of Dawaki, Gyangyan, Tablong, Seri, Shuwer, Gunji and environs. The people of Garam do have another festival that is peculiar to them.

Ngas people don’t practice inheritance as it is done in most African tribes. When a man dies, his land is not shared among his children. Whoever wishes to build a house, for instance, takes a portion of the land and builds his house on it. It is the same with regard to farming. Each son of a deceased man takes one of his father’s farms and uses it to grow his food. Since shifting cultivation is common in Ngas culture, he shifts to another piece of land when he so desires. Livestock belonging to a death man are also never shared but are taken and used to address the needs of any member of the family. This stands in contrast to the common practice of sharing them among his children as practiced in other cultures.

Offences are settled at the family level. Where this is not possible, it is taken to the palace of the king where the king passes his last judgment after hearing from the plaintiff, the defendant and their witnesses. Domestic animals are given as fines. Where the offence is involves murder, the offender is given away to the family of the deceased. He does all the work the deceased person would have done for his family and is thus compensation to that family for their lost one.

During their lifetimes, Ngas men often belong to different age groups. When a man dies, his spirit has to, in turn, be released by the different groups to which he belonged before his family can bury him. This ritual is a most as it is believed that anything contrary will set off series of heartbreaking events within his family. The dead in Ngasland are usually buried in vertical graves by placing them in sitting positions such that they rest their heads on their palms. A stone is placed on the entrance of the grave and covered with the excavated material. A small sign is placed on top, indicating that this is a grave. It is common for a relation to be buried in an old grave rather than have a fresh one dug. When one dies, the oldest grave is identified and the bones assembled and put aside to make way for the new corpse. There is however a single grave for kings within the same family in Ngasland. A king can be buried in a grave today and his successor buried in the same grave tomorrow if it becomes necessary.

Ibo Culture of Inheritance

The Ibo is a tribe found in the southeastern part of Nigeria and happened to be among Nigeria’s three major ethnic groups, the others been Yorubas and Hausas. The land area of Nigeria that constitutes Iboland is abysmally undersized for a tribe of their population. It explains why Iboland has one of the largest population densities in Africa. The implication is that land is most expensive than elsewhere in Nigeria and as a result one of most valuable assets that a man can own.

The Ibos are luckily adventurous people who love to travel widely for trade, their primary occupation. They are found to be trading in nearly every nation in Africa and have one of the largest young entrepreneurs on the continent. Thus the Ibos are by tradition, wealth creators outside of their ancestral home. This has worked to reduce the pressure on land resource back home.

Essentially, tradition in Iboland demands that when a man dies, what he owns in the land of his ancestors belongs to his first son. Whatever he owns elsewhere belongs to his younger children. If the father never owned anything outside of his village, the first son is still the primary inheritor and gives to the others as he deems fit.

Greedy elder brothers are known to give miserably smaller pieces of land to their younger siblings regardless of how big the land they inherited. It is the reason why the younger ones sometimes resort to begin their elder ones, with symbolic wine offered at times.

In contrast to what tradition demands however, a father has the prerogative to take decision that deviates from common practice. A father can for instance feel that every son is entitled to a fair share of what he owns. Furthermore, the first son can fell out of favor with his father for certain reasons. In some situations some fathers are themselves biased and choose the son they love the most as their major heir.

Tradition in Iboland demands that female children don’t inherit properties. This is because they are expected to marry outside the village and cannot take the property of the family to foreign lands. Extremely rare situations do arise, however, where a man is blessed with female children only. In that circumstance, his properties go to relations. Interestingly, the first daughter can decide to sacrifice marriage in view of so much wealth that would be left to sometimes, undeserving relations. She gets pregnant out of wedlock. Her male child now inherits the properties of his late grandfather. As weird as this may seem however, it is culturally acceptable.

The Berom People of Plateau State

The sad events in Plateau State Nigeria since 2001 have thrown up issues to the surface. A lot of people, particularly in southern Nigeria, who often thought that everybody in the north is Hausa have been pushed to begin to ask questions as to who the other tribes are. In answering such questions as it concerns Plateau State the Berom often come into the spotlight.

Da Paul Gyang, a traditional ruler of Vyara, in Jos South of the State, gave an insight into the Berom culture with the hope that it will answer some of the questions that have been on the lips of many regarding the identity of Berom people.

Academic works as to the origin of Berom are conflicting, but mythology has it that the Berom people are from the Congo area of Central Africa. Today, they are found in four of the seventeen local government areas of Plateau State that includes a large part of Barkin Ladi and Riyom, the whole of Jos South and some parts of Jos North. These local governments are all in the north of Plateau State, the most developed part of the state.

The Berom traditional culture, like those of most African tribes is at the danger of extinction to exist only in history. As a consequence, Da Gyang spoke of the culture only in retrospect. He blames the tribulations in the land for the increasing inability of the people to uphold ancestral ways of life. To him, successive administrative regimes must take a lion share of the blame for the gradual demise of the culture of the people. 

Gyang talked about traditional matrimony among the Berom people. Parents, he says, used to contract marriages between their songs and a girl from a family they hold in high esteem. An esteemed family is usually one that has a tradition of industry and without any abhorrent reputation. Tall girls are seen as those with little ability to carry heavy loads, while short girls with pronounced calves are considered strong and industrious. Secondary reasons for the choice of an eventual wife are also taken into consideration. The boy could check for what, in his eyes, constitutes beauty.

Once a boy has developed interest in a girl, the next thing is courtship. Courtship in native Berom culture involves a lot of commitment, usually in kind, from the side of the man. It is the reason why young Berom men, in those days, often tried to shorten the period of courtship as much as possible. Part of the commitment involved cultivating a piece of land for the family of the future bride every year, while the courtship lasts. Usually, parents get informed that their daughter is involved with a young man when it comes to their notice that an outsider is cultivating a piece of land for them. They would ask their daughter who will then confirm her romance with the stranger. The commitment also involves building a house for the in-laws. All these are in addition to shouldering the needs of the girl, which could also involve her cosmetics and occasional purchases of a goat.

The next step is the formal declaration of the intention of the boy. This is done through his parents who go to their in-laws-to-be to state that they have seen a “green leaf” and they have come to declare their interest in it. In Berom culture, even the declaration of intention for the wedding of a girl can be extremely expensive. There is usually a goat for the girl, and other presents to the parents that may include olive oil, goat, and a small pyramidal heap of beniseed, potash, etc. There is also a traditional brew by the name of vwere-berom.

The actual bride price involves giving a horse, a big ox and another goat, referred to as a rope to be used in dragging the ox. This is meant to be given to the mother of the bride.

On the wedding day, announcement is made by both families inviting their friends and relations. There will usually be food, meat, vwere-berom. The bride is dressed with native bandanna, bangles, nasal rings, spectacular earrings, shin wears and other paraphnalia. She is led by other women to her matrimonial home.

After the wedding the bride doesn’t commence sleeping with her husband immediately. Rather she sleeps with her mother-in-law for some weeks. Then, one day, she is told that she is going to sleep in her husband’s room. Most brides often find this decision difficult and will often refuse to cooperate, crying in the process. It takes a lot of persuasion. Sometimes the mother-in-law would suggest that the two of them should sleep in that room together. In the course of the night she would sneak out, leaving her daughter-in-law who is then joined by her husband. It is customary for people to eaves-drop to find out if ‘something’ did happen while the new couple was left alone. This day is also the day of virginity test. Earlier in the day, an animal is slaughtered and the hide is spread on the bed. After sexual intercourse, the groom throws a blood-stained skin outside so that people can see that the girl had, indeed, been a virgin. Where the girl has not been a virgin, and the groom is aware of his gilt, they could arrange so that the husband can inflict injuries on the delicate organs of the girl with his nail. Through this gimmick, the people are fooled.

The first blessings of marriage everyone will expect are children. When they come they are a confirmation that the marriage has indeed received the blessing of the people and even the gods. Children in Beromland are named after wild animals. Bot for instance is a frog, a name given to a pestering child who cries and swells up like a frog when desiring attention. Gyang is a male antelope. Names among the Berom are also given to record the circumstance surrounding their birth. Somebody born while the mother was on her way going somewhere is usually named ‘Gwong’ which means ‘road.’

Berom people have had a system of inheritance similar to that of the modern day. Fathers often make known the heir among their children. In addition to that, they often make apparent how their possessions should be shared among their children in the event of their death. It is therefore the responsibility of the heir to see to it that the will of his father is done. Where a man had no children or had only female children, his possessions are shared among his immediate relations.

Bareness or the exclusive birth of female children is usually seen as a tribulation resulting from disregard to the wishes of the gods or ancestors. One could plead for forgiveness by saying incantations and waving a small bunch of glowing grass around his face, after which he throws it to the ground with relatives throwing water on it, signifying that the issue has been buried.

In some African communities, tilling the soil is an area that is solely the jurisdiction of men. Among the Berom, however, tilling the soil by women is an intrinsic element of the culture. The Berom people take pride in the abundance of food in the house. That comes only when there are enough hands to till the soil and grow the crops. In addition to tilling the soil, women are also involved in harvesting and transportation of the harvest to the house. 

When one dies in Beromland, his uncles are the first to be told of the sad news. As a matter of fact uncles are so critical to the life of an individual that they are the first to be informed when he becomes critically ill. Wailing that always follows the death of an individual was the means by which such heartbreaking news often travelled far. Death persons in Berom culture are usually dressed with the coats of animals and laid in horizontal tunnels usually connected to the surface by a vertical shaft.

 The grave in Beromland is a means of establishing the cordiality or otherwise between a dead person and a living relations. Intimate relations would insist on reposing in the same grave. If there was a rift between a dead man and his living relation it comes to the surface when the living insists on having a private grave in the event of his death.

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Goodluck Jonathan and a Stormy Nation

When I was a kid I used to hear the story of persistent fighting in the Great Lakes region of Africa and thought the people of that region were created differently. In 2001 fighting broke out in Jos, the capital of my home state of Plateau in central Nigeria. I wasn’t in Plateau State at the time and called home to get details. To my amazement, the expressway at the exact location of our house separated the warring sides with the Muslims and Christians on the eastern and western sides of the road respectively. As it turned out, that very episode of the crisis in Jos was to become the beginning of chain of killings and mayhem in Plateau State. Sadly however, there is no sign that the fighting will ever end, despite the series of commissions that have been set up for subsequent episodes of the conflict. I have often wondered why our scarce resources should be spent on a commission whose report will not be used. As it stands now, the people of the Great Lakes region are thinking that we in Jos were created differently.

Politicians in Nigeria are like gods. Once an individual ascends to a certain critical position politically, he lives above the law. It explains why the problem in Jos has continued to recur as nothing happens when a commission submits its report. The Jos problem is clearly political. Following the bombing of Christmas Eve of 2010, people were lost as to who could be responsible. When the state authorities pointed their fingers on the political opposition however, people suddenly saw that it could indeed be true in view of desperation of the opposition in Plateau State. One would have expected the police to arrest some of these opposition leaders and detain them for questioning. Once this is done, then anything can be done in future. Avoiding this rational line of action is an indication that nothing will be done eventually.

Following the January 2010 crisis, Goodluck Jonathan as the Nigerian acting President at the time, set up the Solomon Lar’s Commission and vowed that the report of the commission will be acted upon no matter whose oath is gored. He failed to live up to his promise however.

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in my opinion is a man that has come to truly address the development challenges of Nigeria in view of what he has done so far. To a reasonable degree, his administration has demonstrated its functionality. I am however, afraid that the President would go down as the others before him. Past leaders in Nigeria have often failed to restore order as a consequence of the fear that the repercussion could prematurely end their reign. This single fact underscores the selfishness of our leaders and the same factor can mar the excellent intention of the Jonathan administration. This is because development is abhorrent of a hostile and chaotic environment.

Nigeria will only move on with a leader who is selfless and willing to sacrifice his reign to end the cycle of chaos we have seen in the last decade and half. This brings to mind a model that ought to be copied by the Jonathan administration, the British model under David Cameron. I want to believe that the political maturity of Britain is as old as the nation itself. One manifestation of an adult political environment is the marvelous correlation between promise and delivery. Cameron made it clear that the reason why he wants to become Prime Minister is to reverse the obvious path to which Britain is headed, the path of bankruptcy. As far as he is concerned, giving him the mandate is an indication that Britons want that to happen. When the moment of fulfillment came however, it was painful to Britons. British students had to hit the streets to demonstrate their displeasure on the decision that they will have to pay up to three times what they had paid as tuition fees in the pre-Cameron years. Cabinet members no longer have permanent official vehicles and chauffeurs. The message is, “if you don’t have a personal car with which to come to office, take a commercial vehicle as we want to cut down operating cost.” It is interesting to note at this point that following the last budget speech of Jonathan to the Senate, the question arose as to how to meet up the budget deficit. Looking critically, it came to notice that the operating cost of the Nigerian Government is one of the most irrational for a developing nation groveling under the weight of decaying everything. By now, a lot of Britons are regretting casting their votes to the Conservative Party. Cameron knows this and cares less even if that means the end of his administration. After all, his dad is said to be a wealthy guy. The reforms are the reason why he wanted to become British PM. Eventually however, Britons will come to accept the position of Cameron as it will be obvious that it is the only option they have if they want it good tomorrow.

It is possible that taking drastic decisions in Nigeria would have bitter outcomes but as long as the decision is just, the unraveling ends will eventually tidy up. One of Nigeria’s surviving nationalist, Yusuf Maitama Sule, has often said that Nigeria needs a revolution, albeit a bloodless type. Nobody understands how such a bloodless revolution would look like. I do think however that the bitter outcome will be mild. Should the authorities fail to trigger a revolution themselves, then it would perhaps come bitterly from Boko Haram Islamic Jihadists in Northeastern Nigeria.

Plateau United, Suffering from Polytics

Until the Nigerian Football League is cleansed and sanctified of dirty politics, local and international effort aimed at improving the standard of the league will continue to yield no satisfactory outcome. Politics and sports are practically immiscible as the mix breeds a scanrio where the worst is presented as the best.

Victor Wikadson, the team coach of Plateau United says his team has been a victim of these dirty games. The team has been playing in the professional division one for the past four seasons. In all the seasons the last few matches ruined the early efforts of the team and making it impossible for it to gain promotion to the premiership rung of the league.

Kadiri Ikana and his side kick who helped Kano pillars to win the 2007/2008 premiership season in Nigeria has left the club. The same thing happened with Ocean Boys coach after winning the FA cup. In both cases the coaches left in dissatisfaction after they were told that the cash of the club owners won the league and not their efforts. This prompted the Kano pillar’s coach to publicly complain of max fixing, leading to the inauguration of the Dominic Oneaya Committee to investigate the matter. Wikadson who seems to concur with Ikana says each time they lost the struggle for promotion at a critical moment it was a club owned by a member of the NFL that beat them to it. The open secret is that those board members of the NFL use their positions to pass instructions to referees as to who should win a given match.

If politics must come into football it should not be the raw type politics that used to usher councilors into local government council and so on. People who campaigned for Jang have often gone to him to say “bend down low let me tell you what I know”. When Jang comes close they will whisper “those men at the helm of Plateau United are not doing well and any money given to them will amount to waste”. The political gossipers also works hand to able to complicate red tape administrations a practice that made it impossible for the team to pay sign-on fees for the past two seasons,. This sometimes leads to an ebbed miracle in the camp. Then there are clubs like Kano Pillars and Ocean boys who take the cash to NFL and haggle for the title.

A NIGERIAN LEGISLATOR EARNS N160 MILLION

A lot of people have often seen the Nigerian houses of assemblies as more of financial institutions than democratic. There are more dealings regarding cash than those regarding legislations. The latest insult to Nigerians is the one oozing out of the Nigerian Legislature. It is the issue of the wages of legislatures. It is an open secret that the wages stand at between N160 and N90 Million ($ 1.07 and $600, 000 respectively) per annum for ordinary floor members in the senate and house of reps respectively. Where a legislator is a principal officer, such as a chairperson of any of the various house committees or a mere member of any of such a committee, his earnings go far beyond that by an outrageous amount.

Why is the issue of the wages of the legislators an ‘open secret’? All wages of public officials, either appointed or employed, are set by the National Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commissions. Any legal remuneration in Nigeria is a result of the recommendation of this commission and subsequent approval by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Portion of the wages of MPs in Nigeria that is an outcome of due process is nothing more than N10 Million per annum. It is this amount that a legislator in Nigeria quotes as his annual income, knowing that quoting everything will raise eyebrows.

The harmful consequences of this to the nation are the series of embarrassing events in the two legislative chambers. It is the reason why there have often been series of scandals about money or power leading to seven Senate Presidents in the last ten years. This means that there has been an average of one and half President of the Senate in every one year since 1999. Where money rules, there is little sanity. As a result there is no way we can have the best of legislation in the Senate and House of Reps. Money is also the reason why there have been cases of illegal arm importation to Nigeria prior to elections in 2011. Anybody that earns such an amount of money will want to do anything to defend it by hook or by crook to ensure that it keeps coming. Further more, the outrageous wages gives them the financial muscle to afford these weapons. Why do we need the houses of assembly? We need them for a democracy that is wholesome. The way things are going however, there is a chance we may end up losing the democracy if nothing is done.

What do we do? Since the issue of financial doping in the Senate and House of Reps have become a cause of sleepless nights for Nigerians who feel cheated, then there is the need for Nigerians to inform aspiring legislators of what they want them to do when they get there: ‘work towards the downward review of these mocking wages when you get there’, should be the condition. There are chances that politicians will promise anything just to get there. When this becomes clear, then the voters can consider choosing one of them and support him to get there with the sole aim of correcting this financial aberration.

By democracy, power devolves down to the ordinary man. For this to happen however, the democracy must be real where every vote counts and the people’s decision is taken into account. It is hoped that the huge promises of President Goodluck Jonathan and financial commitments by the nation towards a credible election should not end up as one of the series of failures of the nation.

Garri Proverbs in Nigerian Parlance

The word ‘garri’ has found its way into a few Nigerian proverbs such as:-

1. Throw “sand -sand into one’s garri.” This means to throw sand into one’s garri. When one throws sand into your garri, it means that he has spoilt that meal or denied you the chance of eating it. Thus throwing sand into one’s garri means ending one’s means of livelihood.

2. “Water don pass garri.” This means that the water is in excess of the garri. A meal of garri is made by adding the right quantity of garri into the right amount of boiled water. At times there could be a miscalculation leading to a little quantity of garri added into a disproportionately large amount of water. The outcome is a mess that isn’t pleasant to eat. It is a problem. This is a problem. Thus water don pass garri means that there is a problem.

Examples of usage of garri proverbs

1. “That oga wan throw sand sand for my garri.” This means that that boss wants to end my means of livelihood.

2. “When rubber challenge iron, you know say water don pass garri.” When rubber challenge iron you know that there is a problem.

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