The Tiv people of Benue State have one of the best cultural beliefs in the World. They regard strangers as gods, and in some cases, protect their visitors with their lives. The Tiv’s kindness to strangers is Legendary, but unfortunately, this kindness was seen as weakness and taken for granted.
However, over the years there have been misconceptions about the length a Tiv man would go to keep his visitor comfortable. One of such popular misconceptions is the belief that a Tiv man often offers his wife up for the ‘entertainment’ of his guest.
While this continues to be the mentality of many people about the Tiv tribe, it is pertinent to understand while the Tiv people are often friendly towards visitors, a typical Tiv man does not joke with three things: his meat, his alcohol, and most importantly, his woman.
One of the things the Tiv people are known for when it comes to food is their love for yams. It is often said that a Tiv man can comfortably have fried yam for breakfast, yam porridge for lunch, and pounded yam for dinner.
Their love for yams reflects in the fact that pounded yam and a native soup known as ginger (it is said to be medicinal and sharpens one’s thought process) is regarded as the staple in a Tiv home and often served at traditional functions.
The Tiv people are also known for their love for bushmeat, especially the bush rat. There is a custom Tiv people have when they finish their meal. Instead of regular a ‘thank you’, they say “u yôô”, which can be translated as ‘you have cooked’ which is more or less ‘well done’. The primary occupation of the Tiv People is farming and their strengths are a mystery.
A Tiv man will cultivate 100hectares of farmland with the help of his family, using primitive farm tools. That’s why in the olden days, a Tiv Man will marry up to 6wives, in order to produce children that will help him in the farms.
A Tiv man loves his wives and children, and also protect them with his life…because his life and wealth lie in them. Gbango yams gained a lot of popularity and there became an influx of traders into the Tiv Land to buy and transport the yams to other places in Nigeria.
The headquarters of production, and also the highest concentration of the Tiv People, before the eventual spread, was at Zaki-Biam.
In Tiv Marriages, just like most cultures in Nigeria, the groom comes with his family members to see the bride’s family for an official introduction. They are usually required to come with salt, palm oil, a bottle of wine, hot drinks (spirits), and any other thing requested by the family of the bride.
The date for the traditional wedding ceremony is fixed and The List is given to the groom’s family. On the day of the ceremony, the groom and his family come with the items requested on the list.
After the payment of dowry, the list of gifts is presented to the bride’s father. This is a very important part of Tiv traditional marriage.
Here we have the usual example of bride price list: pig, local gin plus additional alcoholic drinks (which is often expected in the form of money), azenga (cowries) Matches, Danchiki (an attire for the bride’s father). Though this isn’t a requirement, the groom is expected to give money to the youth of the bride’s community after the ceremony.
While this can be a fun game of cat and mouse between the youths and the groom, it can sometimes get heated, and more often than not, the groom ends up appeasing the youths before he is allowed to take his bride away. If the groom is also Tiv, his family will await the arrival of the bride in their hometown with Tiv traditional music and dancers. This process is called the ‘Kwase kuhwan” which loosely translates to ‘celebration of wife’.
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