The Tiv of Central Nigeria by Laura Bohannan Paul Bohannan

Author:Laura Bohannan, Paul Bohannan [Laura Bohannan, Paul Bohannan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138239500
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Note

1 Bohannan, P., 1952; Bohannan, P. & L.; Bohannan, L., 1951; Akiga, 1939, pp. 66-90, 97-8, 347; Abraham, 1933, pp. 106, 212-19.

Migration and Expansion

One of the most important aspects of Tiv society is what can most briefly be called its nomadic nature. Though the movement is much slower and less cyclic, the expansion and contraction of Tiv social space is more nearly comparable to the conception of nomadic migration than to the usual notions of the land-bound peasant. Although a thorough investigation of migration and movement among the Tiv is a full-scale study, involving most aspects of the social structure and economy and many aspects of Tiv culture, no ethnographic report on the Tiv would be complete without some reference to migration. In a brief discussion the movement within some parts of central Tivland can be neglected; but when seen from the periphery, and more especially when seen from the viewpoint of the surrounding peoples, a centrifugal migration is the most important single factor about the Tiv. British administration encountered Tiv migration almost as soon as they encountered the Tiv, in 1912. As a result the “Munshi Wall” was built between Gaav of Jechira and the contiguous peoples of Ogoja, a wall meant to “keep the Munshi in his place—north of the wall” but which “the Munshi merely climbs over.”

Tiv legend is extremely rich in accounts of migration. In fact, Tiv legend consists almost entirely of various accounts of migration, the exceptions being largely accounts of disputes which led to fission of social groups which in turn led to the migration of one or more of the groups concerned. These legends can be collected and, if one discounts the violence done to the purpose for which Tiv use the legends, several fairly consistent stories can be pieced together, each of which accounts for the position of the various lineages as they are found today. Legends of movement, division, battles, and migration are closely associated with the genealogies which form the blue-print of Tiv social structure; the genealogies can be considered without the legends, but the legends are meaningless without the genealogies. Any raconteur of Tiv legend may at several points in his account change the frame of reference from the movement of social groups to “A begat B,” and back again to migration. The genealogies support the legends much as they support the ideas of social structure, and thus legends and social structure can each be cited as proof of the other.

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