Tiv people: Traditions and origin

According to history, their ancestor was a man named TIV. He had sons called ICHONGO and IPUSU. All TIVS were descendants of either of these two sons of the man TIV.

A similar version said TAKURUKU was the founding father of Tiv, Takuru had two sons,Ichongoa and Ipusu .

Ichongoa had seven two sons which were Gondo, Ikyura, Nongo, Ihar, Mase and Turan, his brother had three children, these were Shitire, Kum, and Kpar.

The Tiv people came from these ten children, all Tivs had just one language which gave room for unity.

Furthermore, the Tiv originated from Bantu-speaking people of the present day democratic republic of Congo, having moved through many places from the central Africa through Savannah land of west Africa,they eventually came to Benue valley around 1750AD.

SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF THE TIV:

Tiv like the Igbo, was a stateless society without strong centralized administrative and judicial systems.

Three major factors determined leadership, these were age, influence and affluence.

Leaders duties included settling of disputes among the people within their lineage, maintain good behavior among them,sitting on kmoots and leading their people in internal and in precolonial days. Tiv society had segmentary lineages in which every Tiv was a member. The smallest of these was Ityo.

The pre-colonial administrative system had the following components;

1]The Orya: Orya means head, each compound was named after its head, senior male members of the compounds usually formed a council which looked into the administration of the compound,

The Oryas as the head of the council performed the following duties;

ensuring the well being of every member of the compound,

1. Ensuring peaceful co-existence among people in the compound,
2. Ensuring peaceful co-existence among people in the compound
3. Settling disputes

To carry out his functions the head was given powers to

1. Administer justice within the compound,
2. Determine sites for new buildings,
3. Distribute farmlands,
4. Identify burial ground
5. Admit, entertain and expel visitors as the case may be,

2] The Ityo:

This body was supreme and patrilineage. It discharge its duties according to tradition of the land. It was made of representatives of difficult families [ sublineage] that made up particular lineage,its decision was binding on every member of the group .

3] The Kwav [age trade] here, there were different age grades or group or groups,the age groups assisted in fighting against witchcraft, helping each other in farming,

4] The Kur: He was the Tiv military head. His responsibilities were: to lead people in war, to defend people against external aggression,

5]Tthe drum  chief [ Tor-agbana]: He was in charge of drum group. He had no political or control.

6] Igba[ maternal clan]: This was the woman in charge of protecting young girls or ladies in times of sickness and death.

CLASSWORK:

1] locate the Tiv on Nigeria map

2] trace the origin of the Tiv

3] mention at least three main leaders in Tiv society in pre-colonial days.

Assignment:

Narrate the story of IDIOM