Tiv (Tiv in Hausa – munshi, munchi, mbitsi), a people in north-central of Nigeria. They live along the middle Benue River and in the basin of the Katsina-Ala River (eastern Benue State, western Taraba State, southeastern Nasarawa State, southern Plateau State, and northern Cross River State, as well as the eastern part of the Federal Capital Territory and Abuja).
They are divided into the Tiv proper, Iyon, Ugbe, Utange (Utanga, Otank), and Undir (Ndir).
Their population is 4.63 million (2022, estimate). They also live in southwestern Cameroon (2,000 people; Manyu Department in the northern part of the Southwest Region). Additionally, they reside in Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the USA, the UK, and other European countries.
The total population is no less than 4.7 million people. They speak the Tiv language, while Hausa is also widespread. The majority are Christians (Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists), while some are Sunni Muslims, adherents of Afro-Christian cults, and practitioners of traditional beliefs.
According to one version, the ancestors of the Tiv came from the southeast at the beginning of the 19th century, while another theory suggests they came from the north under pressure from the Fulani.
Their traditional culture is typical of the Sudanese subregion of West Africa. They practice manual agriculture (yams, cassava, sorghum, rice, cotton), hunting, and fishing, as well as crafts such as weaving, pottery, blacksmithing, and basketry. Labor migration is also common.
Their settlements are scattered, with round mud houses topped with thatched roofs. Clothing consists of a piece of fabric wrapped around the waist and reaching the knees, featuring black and white stripes (similar to a “zebra” pattern); men wear turbans.
Traditional social organization is based on extended family communities (tar), age groups (kuav), secret societies (mbatsav), and mutual aid societies (adashi, dinna). Kinship is patrilateral, and the kinship terminology is of the bifurcate type. Levirate marriage, bride kidnapping, and bride price payments are practiced.
Communities are governed by elders and bigmen. Traditional practices included male circumcision, tattooing and scarification, and tooth extraction or filing. Traditional beliefs feature ancestor worship, faith in magical power (tsav), the human shadow-double (djidjingi), and fetishism (akombo). Cosmogonic and ethnogenetic myths are widespread.
Between 1949 and 1953, Paul Buchanan and his wife Laura spent several field seasons among the Tiv. Based on field observations, they developed ideas such as the autonomous existence of market and gift-exchange economies, various forms of economic practices depending on a person’s rank, the incompatibility of local legal norms with European law, as well as identifying features of homicide and suicide.
