The Kofyar are a population in central
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
numbering around 50,000. After several anthropological studies, they provide good illustrations of how colonial authorities become unwittingly enmeshed in local politics; of sustainable subsistence agricultural production in crowded areas; of successful self-directed development of market-oriented agriculture; and of the use of "traditional" cultural resources to prosper in modern Nigeria.
Colonial history
The population known as the Kofyar actually comprises three different "tribes" as designated by British colonial officers: the Doemak (or Dimmuk), Merniang, and Kwalla. However the three groups have a common
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
, economic pattern, and origin myth, and had formed into a union called the
Koffyer Federation in the 1940s; they have therefore been referred to as a single group by anthropologists.
When first encountered by early British colonial authorities, they lived in the rugged hills in the southeastern corner of the
Jos Plateau
The Jos Plateau is a plateau located near the centre of Nigeria. The plateau has given its name to the Plateau State in which it is found and is named for the state's capital, Jos. The plateau is home to people of diverse cultures and languages ...
and in settlements around the plateau base. Their subjugation by the British was largely non-violent until 1930, when a young Assistant District Officer named Barlow was killed in the hill village of Latok by a rock thrown at his head. After this the residents of Latok and neighboring villages were forced out of the hills and made to live on the plains below for nine years. In an award-winning study, anthropologist Robert Netting explained how Barlow had been unknowingly used in a local political dispute.
Culture and agriculture in the Kofyar homeland
Robert Netting began anthropological research with the Kofyar in the early 1960s. In the Kofyar homeland population densities were high, approaching 500/km² in many areas. Netting's primary focus was on the Kofyar ecological adaptations, including the highly intensive agriculture being practiced and also the social institutions that were instrumental to sustainability. Much of the land was in annual cultivation, with animal herds providing dung
compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting m ...
for fertilizer, and steep hillsides were intricately terraced. Netting's ''Hill Farmers of Nigeria'', a classic book in the field of
cultural ecology
Cultural ecology is the study of human adaptations to social and physical environments. Human adaptation refers to both biological and cultural processes that enable a population to survive and reproduce within a given or changing environment. Thi ...
, showed how social institutions such as household form and land tenure had adjusted to the intensive cultivation system. Netting compared adaptations of Kofyar and their neighbors to demonstrate
Ester Boserup
Ester Boserup (18 May 1910 – 24 September 1999) was a Danish economist. She studied economic and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations, and wrote seminal books on agrarian change a ...
's thesis that agricultural intensification relates to the growth of increasingly dense population and decreasing per capita land area. Kofyar families farmed most intensively close to their homesteads while using less intensive bush and forest fallow systems, which required less investment, on more distant fields. Netting also observed that the Kofyar demonstrated a reversion to less labor-intensive long-fallow systems when land became available on the plains south of their traditional region. He further developed these ideas and placed the Kofyar within a much broader comparative context in his ''Smallholders, Householders''.
Economic and cultural change since the 1960s
During the 1950s, the Kofyar began to settle in the fertile plains of the
Benue Valley
The Benue River (french: la Bénoué), previously known as the Chadda River or Tchadda, is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months. The size of its bas ...
to the south of the Jos Plateau. Pioneering farms there used extensive
slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...
methods, but with rising population density and market stimulus, intensive methods were gradually introduced. By the 1980s, Benue Valley Kofyar were producing considerable surpluses of
yams,
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
,
peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...
s,
pearl millet
Pearl millet (''Cenchrus americanus'', commonly known as the synonym ''Pennisetum glaucum''; also known as 'Bajra' in Hindi, 'Sajje' in Kannada, 'Kambu' in Tamil, 'Bajeer' in Kumaoni and 'Maiwa' in Hausa, 'Mexoeira' in Mozambique) is the most w ...
and
sorghum
''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
using labor-intensive but generally sustainable methods – an interesting contrast to the externally supported agricultural development schemes in the region, which have generally failed.
As in the homeland, millet beer was found to play a key role not only in daily life but in the organization of agricultural production. The highly productive farming system ran almost entirely on human labor, with little external inputs, and a key strategy for mobilizing local labor was the "mar muos", a festive labor party at which all workers were served generous amounts of millet beer.
Although most Kofyars now live in the Benue Valley (or in cities), the Jos Plateau homeland is still inhabited largely because of the Kofyars' efforts to maintain it as a cultural and economic resource. Many Kofyar who live elsewhere still keep secondary homes in the homeland.
[Stone, Glenn Davis 1998 "Keeping the Home Fires Burning: The Changed Nature of Householding in the Kofyar Homeland". ''Human Ecology'' 26:239–265]
References
{{authority control
Ethnic groups in Nigeria
Chadic-speaking peoples