ABSTRACT
The period of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade probably put a stop to or slowed down the migration of the Tiv people in their gradual occupation of the Benue Valley. The rise of commerce in slaves and the attendant raids organized by kingdoms such as the Jukun and the Chamba drove the Tiv to the hills and retarded their movement in the Benue Valley. Tiv oral traditions state that "creation" took place somewhere to the southeast of their present location. The Tiv movement into the Benue Valley created a buffer state and stopped the earlier migrations of the Idoma and the Igala who spread toward the west from Kwararafa in the northeast. Ndera has undertaken a study of evidence for slavery among the Tiv from early times to the twentieth century. He is of the opinion that both oral and written information suggest that the Tiv practised domestic slavery long before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
