Abstract: | While it existed, Kwararafa occupied vast territories of land in the Benue valley area of Nigeria which embraced a plethora of culturally distinct ethnic groups living side by side. Politically, it was a confederation with many centres of power, but the capital was situated in the southwestern area of Borno State. As a macro-State, it was first known and referred to as Kwararafa and dominated by the Abakwariga before it shrank in the seventeenth century to a micro-State which was dominated by the Jukun ruling elite. Finally, its first political elite were the Abakwariga, who were later replaced by the Jukun, whom modern scholars tend to refer to, incorrectly, as the founders of the ancient Kwararafa Confederacy. Note, ref. |