A study of the origin of an indigenous community in central Nigeria: interrogating Akpoto-Igala phenomenon

Abstract

The Igala lives in a deciduous forest belt to the south and open savannah vegetation to the north. They occupy a triangular tract of land located at the confluence of rivers Niger and Benue. The Igala, like many other ethnic groups in Nigeria, holds several myths and traditions concerning their probable place of origin. Various attempts at tracing the origin of the people have elicited as many traditions as are scholars who attempted to unravel the origin of the people. This paper is therefore, an attempt to examine the various arguments on the origin and the place of Akpoto in the traditions of the people.