Artistry, slavery, colonialism shaped past, present of Africa’s most populous country

Skilled artistry, the slave trade, colonialism and brutal civil wars have all helped shape Nigeria into what it is today. With the largest population of any nation in Africa, Nigeria has a rich and varied history. But much of that history remains shrouded in mystery, waiting for discovery by archeologists and historians. 
   
The known history of Nigeria goes back more than 2,000 years, when the Nok people worked with iron and produced elaborate sculptures in terra-cotta. The first millennium, however, is often called “the silent millennium” because of the near-total lack of information available from the period.  
   
By the second millennium, trade routes running north to south through Nigeria had developed, involving inhabitants in the exchange of such items as ivory and kola nuts for salt, glass beads, cloth, weapons and cowrie shells, which were used as currency. Slave trading also began during this period. 
   
Although precise dating is difficult, historians believe that several states developed during the early part of the second millennium. Some of them — such as the Hausa cities; the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, which was founded about 1400; Nupe; and the Edo kingdom of Benin (not the same as the modern-day Republic of Benin) — developed into highly structured political states. 
   
According to the Library of Congress, the origins of modern-day ethnic groups can be traced back to these and other states that flourished during that time. 
   
By the late 1400s, Portuguese traders had discovered western Africa. Initially their goals centered around getting involved in the fabled Saharan gold trade, establishing a sea trade route around Africa to reach India and locating a rumored Christian nation ruled by an emperor known as Prester (or Presbyter) John.  They experienced some success with all three goals and soon discovered a fourth enterprise: the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Establishing ties with the court in Benin, the Portuguese traders first bought slaves to trade for gold on the Gold Coast of the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa. They then began supplying African slaves to the Americas. 
   
In 1807, Britain declared the trans-Atlantic slave trade illegal and placed blockades off the Nigerian coast to enforce the ban. 
   
The slave trade, however, continued to the Americas and other parts of the world until the 1860s. During this 300-year era of slave trading, an estimated 3.5 million slaves were sent from Nigeria to the Americas, according to the Library of Congress.
   
As the slave trade collapsed, civil war broke out in parts of Nigeria. Britain, which had established a large and growing trade base for commodities such as palm oil and palm kernels, attempted to intervene in the wars. 
   
Gradually expanding their influence as they brokered peace treaties and established relationships with tribal chiefs, Britain’s leaders formed protectorates through the region as the 19th century waned. They unified the diverse areas and ethnic groups and created the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914, which was to become the current nation of Nigeria.
   
During the years that followed, the British introduced Western political, economic and cultural ideas to the unified nation, gradually giving power to the Nigerian people until 1960, when Nigeria was granted full independence. 
   
According to the U.S. State Department, the new nation was troubled from the beginning, at least in part because of the differences in ethnicity, religion and economic conditions between the Southern and Northern regions of the country. By 1966, the animosities boiled over, leading to two successive coups, several assassinations and a large-scale massacre of the Igbo people.
   
Seizing control of the government, the military divided the nation into 12 states to give greater autonomy to minority ethnic groups. The Igbo resisted the new government, eventually attempting to secede in 1967 and declaring their autonomy as the Republic of Biafra. 
   
That began a bloody three-year civil war in which between 1 million and 3 million people died. The war ended when Biafra was defeated. 
   
As the country reconciled, it began to focus on economic issues. By this time, oil had been discovered in the country, and the high oil prices of 1973 and 1974 poured money into the government’s coffers.
   
Even with the newfound prosperity, it took nearly three decades for the government to stabilize. A series of coups and attempted coups and many years of military rule ended in 1999, when Olusegun Obasanjo, a Baptist, was elected president. 
   
Since Obasanjo began his presidency, the State Department has reported improvements in human rights and freedom of the press. He was re-elected in 2003, but a third-term re-election is prohibited by Nigeria’s constitution. The next elections will be held April 2007.