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Customs & sacred sites

Where festivals, masquerades, shrines and old customs really came from.

FolktalesLegendsLost historiesPeoplePlace namesCustoms & sacred sites

22 stories

01 Custom · Benue

The Stripes That Say Tiv

Tiv A'nger cloth →
02 Custom · Ogun

The week Ijebu women are told to stay indoors

Agemo, the masquerade women must not see →
03 Custom · Kwara

The Women Who Shape Ilorin's Clay

Dada women potters →
04 Custom · Osun

Ejigbo, the town that fights once a year so it can have rain

The Ogiyan festival of Ejigbo →
05 Custom · Kogi

The Night Ebira Ancestors Come Home

Ekuechi in Okene →
06 Custom · Benue

Did Spirits Teach Him This Theatre?

Tiv puppet theatre →
07 Custom · Kogi

The Igala Festival That Returned After Decades

Ocho festival, Idah →
08 Custom · Kogi

The Hands That Give Ogidi Its Colour

Ogidi among the rocks →
09 Custom · Ogun

The thank-you that became Ijebu's biggest party

Ojude Oba, Ijebu-Ode →
10 Custom · Ondo

Oke Maria, the windy hill in Oka Akoko where pilgrims climb to pray

Oke Maria, Oka Akoko →
11 Custom · Kogi

The Iron That Promised Freedom

Lokoja's Iron of Liberty →
12 Custom · Plateau

The King His Sons May Not Bury

Long Goemai of Shendam →
13 Custom · Niger

The Bida Families Who Turn Bottles Into Beads

Masaga glassmakers of Bida →
14 Custom · Ogun

Tea-chest tin, cassava paste and a king's jubilee

Adire, the indigo cloth of Abeokuta →
15 Custom · Anambra

The cow festival that comes once a generation, and the war it remembers

Igba Asara, Ukpor, Nnewi South →
16 Custom · Ebonyi

Okeaku, the Ezza new year that ends the hungry season

Ezza Ezekuna and the Okeaku festival, Ezza South →
17 Custom · Rivers

Ogbakiri, the feast that ended a war

The Oriko love feast of Ogbakiri, 2002 →
18 Custom · Kebbi

Yauri, where a new emir once sat on a hippo for his picture

The hippo of Yauri Emirate →
19 Custom · Katsina

Musawa, the town that gave its crocodiles names and its babies their mark

The lost crocodiles of Musawa →
20 Custom · Kebbi

Uhola, the Zuru festival where young men run to farm for their in-laws

The Uhola festival of Zuru →
21 Custom · Taraba

Pankya, the horseman who carries a Jukun king who does not die

Pankya ya Nando, the Aku Uka's last ride →
22 Custom · Gombe

Pissi Tangale, seven clans and a new year moved to December

Pissi Tangale, the Tangale Day →