ABSTRACT
The 1952 census emphasizes the religious pattern of the Province: a Muslim minority ruling over a pagan majority which is slowly turning to the socially advantageous creeds of Islam and Christianity. It is reckoned that in Adamawa 30 per cent, of the inhabitants profess Islam and 67 per cent, are pagan. The history of the Jukun empire is of more concern to Benue than to Adamawa Province. The war routes of the Jukun armies on their expeditions against the Hausa states and Kanem led through what is now Adamawa, and as late as 1908 trees that had grown up from the stakes which the warriors had thrust into the ground as tethering posts were still pointed out. After the establishment of the Marghi in northern Adamawa, another tribe, the Higi, invading from the east, occupied the central massifs of the Mandara range and drove the Marghi from its western slopes.
