Abuja & the Middle Belt

The Middle Belt holds some of the oldest evidence of art in West Africa. The Nok culture, which may have emerged around 1500 BC and lasted until about 1 BC, left terracotta heads and figures that have been found across the central plateau and neighbouring areas. In later centuries the region's many small peoples lived between the great states to the north and south, and its river valleys were home to the Nupe kingdom, with its capital later at Bida, and the Kwararafa confederacy along the Benue valley.

In the early 19th century the Fulani jihad of Usman dan Fodio reached the region. Ilorin, a frontier town of the Oyo Empire, became an emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate, and Bida became the seat of a Fulani-led Nupe emirate. Many peoples of the plateau and the Benue valley resisted incorporation and later embraced Christianity, a history that helps explain the region's name and its sense of distinct identity.

The British established themselves at Lokoja on the Niger–Benue confluence, which served as an early administrative centre, and from the early 20th century tin mining transformed the Jos Plateau, drawing workers from across the country. After independence the area was split among many states, and in 1976 the federal government chose a site in the centre of the country for a new, ethnically neutral capital. Abuja replaced Lagos as the seat of government in 1991. Since the early 2000s, violence in Jos and rural Plateau, farmer–herder conflict in Benue and elsewhere, and banditry in Niger State have killed thousands.

The Middle Belt is a mosaic of peoples: the Tiv and Idoma in Benue, the Berom, Ngas and many smaller groups on the Plateau, the Nupe and Gbagyi in Niger State, the Igala and Ebira in Kogi, and Yoruba-speaking communities in Kwara. Hausa serves as the common language in much of the zone, alongside English. Christians and Muslims both form large communities, and religion often overlaps with ethnic and political divides.

The Tiv are known for their dances, the kwagh-hir puppet and masquerade theatre, and the black-and-white striped cloth called anger. In Ilorin, the emir's court reflects the emirate's northern ties, while its Yoruba culture is seen in Ilorin's traditional pottery, made in the country's biggest pottery workshops. Bida is known for its Nupe brass and bronze work, and the Plateau's many communities hold harvest and masquerade festivals.

Abuja has a cosmopolitan culture of civil servants, diplomats and migrants from every state, with churches, mosques, markets, restaurants and weekend events at its parks and lake.

Abuja and its satellite towns have grown rapidly to several million people, making the Federal Capital Territory one of Africa's fastest-growing urban areas. Jos, Ilorin, Makurdi, Minna, Lokoja, Lafia and Keffi are the other main towns. Much of the population is rural, living in farming villages.

Government is Abuja's main industry, along with construction, services and trade. Benue is a major producer of yams, rice, soybeans and oranges, growing most of Nigeria's soybeans, and the whole zone produces grains and tubers. The Plateau grows potatoes and vegetables for the cities, the Kainji and Jebba dams on the Niger generate hydroelectric power, and Kogi has iron ore, coal and the long-delayed Ajaokuta steel works.

Rural life follows the farming seasons, with markets on fixed days and harvests from August to November. Insecurity has displaced many people into camps, disrupted farming and pushed up food prices, and disputes over land between farmers and herders are one of the zone's defining political issues. In Abuja, traffic between the satellite towns and the city centre shapes the working day.

The Middle Belt eats from both the north and the south. Pounded yam, with its dense, stretchy texture, is central in Benue, where yams are grown in huge quantities, and is served with egusi or other soups. Tuwo, a stiff porridge of maize, millet or sorghum, is common in the north of the zone, eaten with miyan kuka, a baobab-leaf soup.

Acha, known in English as fonio, is a tiny ancient grain grown on the Jos Plateau and cooked as a porridge or like rice. Suya grills line the streets of Abuja and Jos in the evenings, and roasted corn and yam are sold at roadsides. In Ilorin, Yoruba dishes such as amala and ewedu are staples alongside northern foods.

Drinks include kunu, a millet drink, zobo, and fura da nono, balls of millet dough crumbled into fermented milk, sold by Fulani women. Burukutu, a sorghum beer, is brewed in villages across the zone.

Abuja is a planned city laid out beneath Aso Rock, with the National Mosque and the National Christian Centre facing each other across the central district, the Millennium Park, Jabi Lake and the arts and crafts markets. Zuma Rock, a vast monolith in Niger State just outside the Federal Capital Territory, stands beside the road north, and Gurara Falls, in Niger State, pours over wide rock shelves, fullest in the late rainy season.

The Jos Plateau offers cool air and rocky scenery. In Jos itself are the National Museum, with its collection of terracottas and traditional architecture, and the Jos Wildlife Park; around the city are the Shere Hills, the balancing rocks of Riyom, the Kurra and Assop falls, and old tin-mining ponds. Much of rural Plateau is currently unsafe for visitors.

Lokoja, in Kogi, sits where the Niger and Benue rivers meet, and the view from Mount Patti takes in the confluence, with colonial relics in the town below. In Kwara, Ilorin has the Emir's palace and the Sobi hill, and Esie is known for its museum of hundreds of old soapstone figures. Kainji Lake National Park on the Niger protects savanna and wildlife, and Bida keeps its Nupe crafts.