Country Information

• The Size of the Country(923,770 sq km)
• The Population as of 1998 is an est.: 110,532,242;
• The birth rate: 42.2/1000 and Infant mortality rate: 70.7/1000;
• The Federal Capital : Abuja, 339,000

Languages:
• English (official)
• Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, and more than 200 others
• Ethnicity/Race: Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Ibo, Kanuri, Ibibio, Tiv, Ijaw
• Religions: Islam, 50%; Christian, 40%; indigenous, 10% Other Facts
• Literacy rate: 51%
• Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Traditonal Art and Culture

Some of Africa's best known singers come from Nigeria. Foremost among them are Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Sunny Ade. Sunny Ade is King of the extermely popular juju music, a style unique to Nigeria.

Fela stood out as Africa's most famous muscian. Imensely popular in Nigeria, he was also the most politically vocal, and various Nigerian governemnts took revenge. Traveling To Los Angeles in 1964, he met Malcom X who stirred Black consciousness in him. On the Music front he was heavely influenced by James Brown. Returning to Nigeria, he mixed Brown's soul music with the many cultural intricacies of Nigerian music to create Afro-beat.

Nigerian Art is seen as some of the finest work in the world. The Art must be viewd from a religious or occult presective which sees the living dynamic force behind all appearences. Each work has a purpose or function and artists were thought only to be meduims for transmissions from the creator.

Nigeria's vast arry art forms attests to the diversity of cultures, yet they all maintain the underlying themes of respect for life, unit of life, and unity of all things.

Perhaps the most well-known arts in Nigeria are the sculptures of bronze, terracotta and wood; the great expressions of the Yoruba, Nupe, Igbria, and Igala.

The People

Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups, most have their own language, but three stand out- the Hausa in the north, the ibo in the east and the Yoruba in the west. Nigeria's religious follow ethnic lines: Muslims dominate the north, Catholics the east, and animists the west.

Sports and Oil

Oil

The Oil BOOM came after Nigeria had gained its independence and the Civil War was over Oil production jumped sevenfold between 1965 and 1973, and world pricees skyrocketed. Overnight well-placed people became millionaries. By 1975 Nigeria found itself with a US$5 surplus. This was not to last.

Sports

Football has become Nigeria's national sports, with Nigeria getting to the quater final in the 1994 World Cup and the Second Round in the 1998 World Cup. The Team did Win the Olymipic Gold in football beating Barzil. Altheltes is another sport that is popular in Nigeria A suprise gold medal was won in the trip jump by a Nigeria Lady in the last olympics.

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Traveling To Nigeria

Round and About Nigeria

Nigeria Today

Tempertures In Nigeria