Ebira

Agriculture is the main occupation of most Ebira. Yams are their staple food crop. They also export palm kernels, cotton, and tobacco and grow beans, Millet , and corn (maize). Rivers are used for both fishing and transport. Women do most of the trading and sell both their own and their husbands' produce.

Ebira households were traditionally based on extended families composed of close Patrilineal relatives under the authority of the oldest male member. Inheritance and clan membership were reckoned patrilineally. Ebira could marry outside their clans, which were kinship groups represented by Totemic animals such as the lion, the crocodile, the leopard, and the python. A key institution of social control was the ''iregba,'' a shrine where decisions on religious matters or social offenses were made.

Groups of Ebira villages (wards) drew their chiefs in alternation from branches of ruling families. Village councils could settle disputes, sometimes in collaboration with the chiefs or with councils of other villages involved in the cases. The specifics of chief selection or succession varied between areas within the Ebira region. The Ebira kingdoms of Panda and Koton Karifi were small independent states for about 100 years, until their conquest in the mid-19th century by the Fulani . British administration through traditional rulers began in the early 20th century.

The traditional beliefs of the Ebira centre on Hinegba, the supreme god, who is benevolent, resides in the sky, and controls the universe. Hinegba is approached through intermediary spirits, who are connected with such natural objects as trees. Ebira ancestors are also viewed as agents of Hinegba. Since the early 20th century many Ebira have been converted to Islam and Christianity.

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Ebira