The Lunguda are a West African ethnic group living in Adamawa and Gombe States in northeastern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. They are the only known matriarchal tribe in Nigeria. The Lunguda consider

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

descent in many aspects of their social organisation more important than the

patrilineal Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritan ...

descent. Clan membership may even be counted on the mother line. This custom is not found with their other neighbors or in other tribes of

History and geography

The Longuda rulers default to the Kanuri style. The seat of the traditional ruler is in

Guyuk Guyuk may refer to: *Guyuk, Nigeria, a town * Uğurtaş, a town in Turkey, formerly called Güyük *Güyük Khan Güyük (also Güyug;; ''c''. March 19, 1206 – April 20, 1248) was the third Khagan-Emperor of the Mongol Empire, the eldest son ...

Adamawa State Adamawa state () is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Borno to the northwest, Gombe to the west, and Taraba to the southwest, while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon. It tak ...

. According to oral tradition, the Longuda parted from the Kanuri in Borno State.

Cuisine

Traditionally, the

staple crop A staple food, food staple, or simply a staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for a given person or group of people, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and ...

of the Longuda is Guinea Corn ('' Sorghum bicolor''). This used to be grounded on stone hand mill and cooked into a thick paste, ''"tuwo"'', then eaten with vegetable soup. Today, however,

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

, and millet form part of the staple of the Longuda. Guinea Corn still remains the dominant crop grown by the Longuda.

Marriage

The Longuda are primarily

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is marrie ...

. The different dialects of the Longuda people perform

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

rites differently. Traditionally, a young man courting a woman invited his friends on the night he wished to take her as his bride, without her prior knowledge. The man and his friends would abduct the woman to his cottage, often a forceful act. Once the woman spent a night in his cottage, his family and hers considered them married. The

bride price Bride price, bride-dowry ( Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dow ...

was usually paid afterwards. This abduction, which usually took place in the night, was not without resistance. The other young men in the woman's neighborhood would attempt to come to her rescue, and a free-for-all fight would ensue. The intending groom and his company usually had to win the duel in order to take the bride-to-be. However, in recent times, the influence of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and

cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural ass ...

of neighboring societies have altered this practice. A watered-down version of this is still widely used. In this case, a man asks a woman for her consent, the woman agrees, and on an arranged night, the groom's friends and bride's friends secretly picks her and her clothing up from her parents' house, goes over to spend the night in the groom's uncle's house, leaving behind a token at the position where they used to sit during courtship and that seals the union. Taking her clothes along with her is her indication to everyone that she has agreed to marry the man.

Publications

Newman, Bonnie. 1976. "Deep and surface structure of the Longuda clause."
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Newman, Bonnie. 1978. "The Longuda verb."
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Newman, John F. 1978. "Participant orientation in Longuda folk tales."
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Newman, John F. and Bonnie Newman. 1974. "Longuda."
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Newman, John F. and Bonnie Newman. 1977. Longuda dialect survey.
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Newman, John F. and Bonnie Newman. 1977. Longuda phonology.
{{authority control Ethnic groups in Nigeria Ethnic groups in Adamawa State