ABSTRACT
Ethnologically Nigeria may be divided, like the rest of the West Coast of Africa, into two main groups; the peoples of the coast and forest region and those of the more open country behind it – the Western Sudan. During the last nine hundred years Muhammadanism has spread gradually over the greater part of the latter area until today it consists mainly of more or less highly organized Muhammadan states (or Emirates). ere are, however, scattered throughout the Northern Provinces several small pagan tribes which have managed to survive the attacks of their Muhammadan neighbours owing to the inaccessibility of the country in which they live. e nomadic Fulani herdsmen are to be found wherever there is good grazing for their cattle. In the south one / passes from the progressive and highly organised Yoruba peoples of the west to the tribes of the Niger Delta and the eastern provinces who, protected from aggression by the thick forests and swamps which form their environment, have been able to survive and multiply despite an exceedingly backward and undeveloped organisation. Many of these tribes particularly on the coast have been in contact with European in uence from the 16th century and the whole region presents a most unexpected blend of sophistication and primitiveness.
