Middle Belt

Middle Belt (also written Middle-Belt) is an informal term, not officially recognized by the federal government of Nigeria, that is used in human geography to designate the region stretching across Nigeria longitudinally and forming a transition zone between Northern and Southern Nigeria. It is composed of the southern half of the defunct Northern Region of Nigeria, now comprising mostly the North Central and parts of the North East and North Westgeopolitical zones, and is characterised by its lack of a clear majority ethnic group. It is also the location of Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory.

Some scholars argue that the concept of the Middle Belt reflects not only a geographic region but also a religio-cultural coalition of minority groups in Northern Nigeria, many of whom are predominantly Christian and non-Hausa in origin

The presence of many minority groups, to some degree, constitutes an ethno-linguistic barrier in the country and draws a separation between the principally Muslim North and the mainly Christian south. The region is a convergence of these cultural domains and maintains a tremendous degree of ethno-linguistic diversity. Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Niger–Congo languages are all spoken, which are three African language families. In the 1920s, it was described by Melzian (1928:496) as the "Middle Zone" although he seems to be using 'Zone' simply as a synonym for 'Belt'.

The earliest sources for the phrase seem to be in linguistics. Bernhard Struck's annotated bibliography uses the term for the belt of semi-Bantu languages (as they were then called).

Soon after (1913) Northcote Thomas also uses the term in a discussion of the linguistic context

Forde and Scott used the term 1946: 180ff in a more geographical sense for Nigeria.

The geographers Gleave and White generalised from Nigeria to West Africa and the Sahel in 1969