THE KJEDE: A RIVERAIN STATE IN NORTHERN NIGERIA
By S. F. NADEL
7. Introduction
'"pHE Kyedye or Kede,1 with whom this paper is concerned, -L are a section of the large Nupe tribe of Northern Nigeria, whose general culture and social organization I have described elsewhere.2 The Kede have many cultural traits in common with their mother tribe; their kinship system is the same; they speak the dialect which is spoken to-day by the majority of the Nupe sub-tribes and has become the acknowledged language of the Emirate, Nupe 'proper*; they have also adopted the religion of Nupe kingdom, Islam. Yet combined with this cultural affinity we find certain marked divergencies. The Kede are a riverain group—the only purely riverain group among the various Nupe sub-tribes. Their economic pursuits and general social life centre round the river on which they live and from which they derive their livelihood. This means already that their social and cultural life must present certain features which are absent in Greater Nupe. Their political organization, moreover, contains certain distinctive and unusual traits—unusual even for Africa at large. It is for this unusual nature rather than for its relation to practical problems of African administration that I have chosen the political organization of this small Nigerian sub-tribe for the subject of this contribution.
//. Demography
The main body of the Kede lives to-day on the Rivers Niger and Kaduna between 8° 30' and 9° 40' North Latitude, inhabiting a narrow strip of land on both banks. The Kede share their territory with a number of other tribal sections of the Nupe, which lead a semi-riverain life, pursuing—unlike the Kede—agriculture
1 The proper Nupe name is Kyedye. But the Hausa, Yoruba, and other neighbouring groups (as well as, to-day, Government officials) prefer the more easily pronounced Kede. We shall adopt, for the sake of simplicity, this latter name.
2 See Africa, viil, 1935, and also my forthcoming book, A Black Byzantium.