nigeria

Official title: Federal Republic of Nigeria

 Capital City:  Abuja (new federal capital) (Lagos/former capital - main port)

Official Language: English, although Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo are widely spoken

Currency: Naira (N) = 100 kobos

Cash crops for export: Cocoa, coffee, cotton, rubber, palm oil, palm kernel, livestock and poultry

Food crops: Maize, sorghum, rice, millet, wheat, yam and groundnuts (peanuts)

Total land area: Approximately 924,600 sq. km

Facts about Nigeria:

Nigeria took its name from the River Niger, which is an important lifeline not only to Nigeria but to other African countries through which it flows: Sierra Leone, where the river rises, Guinea, Mali and Niger.

Like many coastal West African countries, Nigeria suffered under the slave trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the Portuguese, British and other European nations established slave-trading stations in the rich delta of the Niger, the largest in Africa. These coastal stations served as collection points and embarkation stations for the slave ships journeying across the Atlantic to the Americas and West Indies.

Each area has its own regional favorite dish depending upon tradition, custom religion and availability. Available food varies according to the season: the 'hungry season' is before the rains arrive in March to May; while the 'season of surplus' follows the harvest in October and November.

The Northern (and mostly Muslim) peoples have diets based on beans, sorghum and brown rice; the eastern, largely Ilbo-speaking people, eat gari (coarse cassava powder) dumplings and yam; the people in the south-east largely prefer a seafood and yam stew; while the mainly Yoruba people in the south-west eat gari with local varieties of spinach and okro (okra) in stews or soups.

Urban dwellers tend to buy their food on the streets from 'chop bars', street stalls, hawkers or from restaurants. The most popular foods are dishes based on cassava, yams, okro (okra), beans, plantains or skewered meat dishes.