In the northern parts of Nigeria the inhabitants are of more mixed blood, owing to the invasion of Fula, Berber and Arab or Arabized people. But the bulk of the people are negroes. The most important of these negro peoples are the Hausa (q.v.), among whom the superior classes adopted Mohammedanism in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Hausa are keen traders and make excel lent soldiers. The Fula tribe, besides providing the ruling fami lies in many of the Hausa States, form a separate caste of cattle rearers. Arab merchants live in some of the larger Hausa towns.
In general, the people living in the river valleys have been little or not at all affected by Muslim propaganda, either in blood or religion. Thus along the banks of the Niger, Benue and other streams, the inhabitants are negro and pagans, and generally of a primitive though often rather fine type. Of these the Munshi, who inhabit the district nearest the junction of the Benue with the Niger, were long noted for their intractability and hostility to strangers, whom they attacked with poisoned arrows. The Yorag hums, their neighbours, were cannibals. Nearer Yola live the Battas, who also had a bad reputation. In the central hilly region of Kachia are other pagan tribes. When first met by Europeans they wore no clothes, and their bodies are covered with hair. South of the Benue, near the Niger confluence, dwell the Okpotos, Bassas and other tribes, which had a reputation for savagery and war-lust. In the districts of Iliorin and Borgu, west of the Niger, the inhabitants are also negroes and pagan, but of a more ad vanced type than the tribes of the river valleys. According to some native traditions, the people of Borgu claim to have a Coptic origin. In Bornu (q.v.) the population consists of (I) Berberi or Kanuri, the ruling race, containing a mixture of Berber and negro blood, with many lesser indigenous tribes; (2) so-called Arabs, and (3) Fula.
A complete list of the tribes in Nigeria would run into many scores, and each has its separate language. In the old province of Bauchi alone as many as 66 different languages are spoken. The most widely diffused languages are Hausa and Yoruba. Arabic is the court and official language in the Fula emirates. In the ports many natives speak English.
The European inhabitants number (1929) some 5,000. They are chiefly officials, traders and missionaries. On the tin-fields are some 700 whites including over ioo women.
the Niger, where on the west bank is Akassa (14 ft. of water). East of the Nun mouth are Brass town (on the Brass river) and Bonny, at the mouth of the Bonny river. The three last-named ports, once flourishing, are now little used. Some 4o m. up the Bonny river is Port Harcourt (q.v.), second in importance of the ports of Nigeria. Farther east are Opobo (13 ft. of water), on the Imo river, richest of the oil-rivers of Nigeria, Degema (18 ft.), and Calabar (q.v.). On the river Niger, at the head of the delta, are Asaba (west hank) and Onitsha (east bank) ; farther north is Idah (east bank) in the palm-oil zone; Lokoja (q.v.) is at the Niger-Benue confluence; Baro, 70 m. above Lokoja, is on the railway system; and still farther north, on the river, are Egga, Jebba and Bassa (q.v.).
The largest cities are found in Yorubaland. Of these Ibadan (pop., 1931, 387,133), the largest native city in Africa, Ilorin and Abeokuta are separately noticed. Other Yoruba cities are Og bomosho (pop. 86,744), Oshogbo (pop. 49,599), Iwo Ede (52,392) and Ogo (48,733). Other towns in the south are Benin (q.v.), west of the Niger and Bende, and Enugu, east of the river. Enugu (pop. 40,878) is the centre of the Udi coalfield.
In northern Nigeria, where the larger towns have generally a population of from 40,000 to 50,000, the chief city is Kano (q.v.), the commercial capital, situated in 12° N., 8° 32' E. Sokoto, the religious and political centre of the Fula, is some 220 m. W.N.W. of Kano. Katsina (q.v.), near the frontier and 84 m. N.W. of Kano, has a reputation as an educational centre ; other chief Hausa towns are Zaria (q.v.), Bauchi (or Yakoba) ; Beda; and Yola (q.v.). The chief towns of Bornu are Kukawa or Kuka (q.v.), near Lake Chad, Maidugari and Dikwa (Dikoa). The administra tive capital of northern Nigeria is Kaduna ; Jos, a modern town with European amenities, is the centre for the Bauchi tin-fields. Communications.—Railways are now the chief means of transport, the shallowness of the Niger and Benue for a large part of the year rendering them an uncertain means of communication. There is still, however, a considerable river traffic, and in the delta the rivers remain the great highways. There is a regular steamer service between Forcados and Lagos, and between Lagos and Dahomey by the lagoons. From Forcados two steamers ascend the main Niger to Jebba, a distance of 53o miles. On the Benue there is steamer traffic as far as Yola. But between May and October navigation is only possible to vessels drawing not more than 3 ft. of water. There are navigable stretches of several other rivers—the Cross river can be ascended for 24o miles. For the main part the river services are (except in the delta) auxiliary to the railways.