Makurdi: History
Makurdi, a town founded in the early 1920s, rose to prominence in 1927 when it became the headquarters of the Benue Province. As a river port, it drew the establishment of trading depots by companies like United Africa Company of Nigeria(UAC) and John Holt plc. Its commercial significance grew even more with the completion and opening of the Railway bridge in 1932.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Tiv people from nearby communities and towns moved to Makurdi, contributing to its distinct Tiv urban identity. This migration also fostered a growing sense of political awareness among the Tiv. Makurdi emerged as a developing colonial town situated along the River Benue, within Tiv territory.
In 1914, Audu Dan Afoda, a Nupe and Hausa-speaking Muslim who had worked as an interpreter and political agent for various British District officers, was appointed the Sarkin Makurdi (Chief of Makurdi). This decision to place a Hausa speaking Nupe in charge of the Tiv people in the Makurdi area highlighted the British commitment to using Hausa as a key principle of Indirect Rule in the Middle Belt. It supports Mahdi Adamu's claim that the Hausa ethnic unit…is an assimilating ethnic entity and the Hausa language a colonizing one.
More hausa speaking railway workers migrated into the small Makurdi village and it gradually transformed having Wadata area, a predominant hausa speaking section of Makurdi as the most developed part of the town.
Between 1914 and 1926, the British government worked to bring the surrounding Tiv districts under the leadership of Dan Afoda. In 1924, they approved the appointment of his hausa messenger, Garuba, as the Village Head of the important Tiv border town of Taraku.
By placing Dan Afoda in the top position of ruler of the Tiv, the British aimed to teach the Tiv about centralized emirate-style leadership. In 1926, D.F.H. Macbride, the Resident of Benue Province, emphasized the importance of this sub-colonial guidance, noting that Audu Dan Afoda's chieftaincy was still useful, as the expectation that it would exert an educational influence on the Tiv is being fulfilled.
In 1937, as calls grew for the appointment of a “chief of Tiv,” the Resident at the time expressed a similar educational perspective regarding Dan Afoda's role as a symbol and tool of political guidance. He felt that Dan Afoda's mission to politically educate the Tiv was still incomplete, noting that Central Administration was yet at its infancy in Tivland. However, he also believed that gradually, as higher education progresses alongside a growing sense of nationality, a true central administration may emerge as part of the journey toward political centralization. Following this, Dan Afoda gained further prominence by leading Tiv delegations to the regular meetings of northern Nigerian chiefs in Kaduna, the regional colonial center.
Unfortunately for the British, Audu Dan Afoda died in 1945, igniting a wave of demands from the Tiv for a Tiv successor to take his place as the supreme chief.
The British's initial attempt to appoint a relative of the deceased chief, another hausa along with the Tiv's perception that the hausa wielded excessive influence in colonial Tivland, led to street riots in Makurdi in 1946. …