NIGERIA THE NEGRO ARTISTIC GENIUS

The art and culture of Nigeria encapsulate the clear picture of the Nigerian lifestyle joined with the glorious history of the past. One of the real parts of Nigerian art and culture lies in the way that they draw their motivation from the traditional folk heritage of the region. 

The tale of Nigeria as an entity started under two hundred years prior. European forces started to investigate Africa in the fifteenth century, however, their exercises, mostly exchange, were bound to the waterfront regions. As these European forces experienced expanded financial issues intensified by political contentions late in the nineteenth century, they started to search externally to Africa for part of the arrangement. The owning of states brought the desire of benefit from financial exercises and in this manner, the augmentation of authoritative reaches turned into a fixation. New markets were required for getting crude materials for assembling, and thus, made merchandise required new markets to abuse. This brought about what came to be known as "The Scramble for Africa". In a gathering in Berlin, Germany, in 1884-5, Britain, France, Germany and Belgium self-assertively partitioned the mainland into their separate ranges of authority by essentially drawing lines on the guide to shape new regions. England was relegated the territory that ended up known as Nigeria, named after the River Niger. The nation was first controlled as two separate Protectorates; the Northern and the Southern Protectorates were bound together into one nation in 1914, with Sir Frederick Lugard named as Governor.

About four times the size of Great Britain, Nigeria is often referred to by writers as a "Giant in the Sun". It is a land of contrast and abundance. This is evident in its size and population, the number of languages spoken, and its vast economic assets. Its abundance and variety are also manifested in the field of arts and culture. Fifty years ago, the well-known British art historian William Buller Fagg described Nigeria as the "cultural fulcrum" of the west coast of Africa and her art as "almost a microcosm of the continents". "It is to Nigeria", he went on, "that all the African nations must look at the principal trustee of the Negro artistic genius".