The Igala kingdom divided

Overview

When Britain took over from the Royal Niger Company in 1900, it cut the Igala kingdom in two along the line between its new protectorates: Idah and the southern districts, shelled from the river in 1896, went to Southern Nigeria’s Onitsha Province; the north went to Northern Nigeria, where the district chiefs were cut off from their king. The north was then taken by force, Dekina in 1903 and Ankpa in 1906, and shared out again by the Attah’s account: Dekina with Nassarawa, and Ankpa, the British base for the patrols into Idoma land, with Munshi Province. The vassal lands were scattered further: the northern Igbo towns to the Nsukka Division, western Idoma to Munshi Province, and Lokoja, the first capital of Northern Nigeria, to Kabba Province. At the Attah’s request the districts were rejoined under Northern Nigeria in 1918.^{[1],[2],[7],[3],[5],[4]}Medium confidence

The two halves follow Clifford (1936) as quoted by Abdullahi (2016) and the LGA list given by later Igala writers. The vassal pieces show where those lands went, simplified to today’s LGAs; colonial boundaries moved several times.

Who took part

• British forces· Colonial force
• Igala Kingdom· Defended

What happened

1. 1 January 1900 · Lokoja

   Northern Nigeria proclaimed at Lokoja

   The Protectorate of Northern Nigeria is proclaimed at Lokoja, on land the Attah had ceded in 1841.

2. 1900 · Idah

   A king without his chiefs

   Clifford, Resident in the 1930s, wrote that the district chiefs were “effectually cut off from contact with their suzerain, whilst he himself was given no part in the administration of the moiety which had been left to him.”^[1],[2]

3. 1906 · Ankpa

   Ankpa joined to Munshi Province

   Ankpa, conquered in 1906 and made the British base for the patrols into Idoma land, is put with Munshi Province rather than with the rest of Igala land.^{[3],[4],[5],[6]}Disputed

4. 1918

   Rejoined

   The Attah and the Igala-Mela ask to be joined to their kin in the north. Under Lieutenant Governor Richard Palmer the halves are reunited, but the Attah never regains his old powers.^[1]

Kingdoms involved

• Igala Kingdom

Sources

Every claim carries a confidence level: high (well attested), medium (one source or approximate) or disputed (sources disagree).

1. Abdullahi, Musa Yusufu. (2016). Colonial Administration and the Re-organization of Igala Pre-colonial Political System. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa 18(3)
2. Clifford, Miles. (1936). A Nigerian Chiefdom: Some Notes on the Igala Tribe in Southern Nigeria and Their "Divine King". Journal of the Royal African Society 35 (cited in Yusufu 2020 for the Jukun tradition of Abutu-Eje) (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
3. Ineke, Ugbede Joseph. (2025). The food economy of colonial Igalaland, 1900–1960. Economic History of Developing Regions 40(2): 126–142 (Igalaland “subdued with the bombardment of Idah in 1896 by the Royal Niger Company and the conquering of Dekina and Ankpa in 1903 and 1906”; read in a search extract) (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
4. Resistance and Rebellion to British Colonial Domination in Idoma Land (“Northern and Central Idoma land was subjugated by the British patrols operating from their base at Ankpa”; read in a search extract) (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
5. Monarch laments tragedies in Igala nation (the Attah: Idah District put in Onitsha Province, Ankpa District in Munchi Province, Dekina District in Nasarawa Province, reunited in 1918; read in a search extract). The Guardian (Nigeria) (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
6. Direction from the HistoNaija owner: Igala land was shelled and a garrison mounted at Ankpa, and that is why Igala land was divided
7. Igalaland: past, present and future. Kogi Reports (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
8. HistoNaija owner. (2026). Owner's notes on the reach of Igala, Benin, Oyo and Aro, the British conquests, and migrations (hintsPrompts/doc1.md)