Craig White's Literature Courses

Historical Backgrounds

Colonial-Postcolonial

History of Nigeria

Named for the Niger River, Nigeria since 1960 is an independent nation of West Africa opening to the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Coast. As with many nations of postcolonial Africa, European (British) colonists created and defined Nigeria with geographical boundaries that drew together diverse peoples, many of them ancient rivals or having distinct cultural institutions and values. At Independence, Nigeria had 60 million people from more than 300 distinct ethnic or cultural groups who spoke more than 500 languages.

As of 2008 Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has an estimated 151 million people.

Nigeria is the ninth most populous country in the world. One-sixth of African peoples are in Nigeria.

Population from 1990 to 2008 increased by 57 million, a 60 percent growth rate.

The United Nations estimates the population of Nigeria will reach 440 million by 2050. Nigeria will then be the third most populous country in the world. At current rates the population of Nigeria will reach 914 million by 2100.

Nigeria is among the largest, most dynamic, and most critical nations in Africa. Many African Americans are descended from peoples taken from West Africa including Nigeria. The nation's decolonization by England was peaceful and gradual compared to many other former colonies.

Nigeria has struggled because its artificial boundaries force together diverse cultures and languages that do not think of themselves as a single people with common national interests. In some respects Nigeria's internal conflicts resemble those of artificially constructed nations of the Middle East like Iraq, or of Eastern Europe like the former Yugoslavia. As in those countries, democracy has struggled to establish national legitimacy and escape tribalism, nepotism, corruption, secession movements, and religious fundamentalism. 

Also like post-colonial nations in the Middle East, Nigeria maintains high birth rates even as infant mortality rates improve. Half of the country's population is 14 years old or younger, the highest ratio of young people of any nation. Such rapid population growth creates increasing numbers of young people needing education and jobs, who often emigrate to First-World nations for employment, opportunity, and human rights.

Nigerians are the single largest contemporary African immigrant group in the United States. Nigerian immigrants have the highest education attainment level in the United States, surpassing every other ethnic group in the country, according to U.S Bureau Census data. Many Nigerians immigrate also to Australia and Canada.

Nigeria's three major ethnic groups:

• Hausa-Fulani (northwestern Nigeria, Islamic, 28-30% of population),

• Yoruba (Oye kingdom?)

• Igbo (or Ibo).

Igbo people of note: Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) is Igbo; his novel Things Fall Apart represents traditional Igbo society. In 1967-70, the Igbo region in southeast Nigera sought to secede as the Republic of Biafra in the Nigerian Civil War. (see obituary for Odumegwu Ojukwu [1933-2011], Igbo-Biafran leader)

Yoruba people of note: Wole Soyinka (b. 1934), Nobel Prize for Literature 1986 (Death and the King's Horseman);; Hakeem Olajuwon (University of Houston & Houston Rockets basketball star); Afro-British pop singers Seal (b. 1963) and Sade (b. 1959) are of Yoruba descent.