"Predatory Sedentism": Intimidation and Intensification in the Nigerian Savanna

Abstract

While many studies have explored how agriculture changes when population density rises, this paper examines actions farmers may take to control whether population density rises. Using information from ethnographic fieldwork, colonial archives, and air photography, two agricultural groups migrating into an agricultural frontier in the Nigerian savanna are compared. Population density in Kofyar communities has risen to over 100/km2; Tiv communities, although older, have maintained population densities of around 50/km2, in part through intimidation of encroachers. This use of intimidation is a component of a distinctive adaptive strategy that includes settlement stability, high population mobility tied to witchcraft accusations, relatively extensive cultivation allowing considerable off-time, and reliance on social networks to facilitate residential mobility and land access. Population pressure must be seen as an integral part of this adaptive strategy, rather than as cause or consequence.