who named Nigeria and in what year! Discover the person who came up with this
particular name for such a huge country! Dive into the biography of this person with
us! Continue reading to learn more!
The Person who named Nigeria!
The root for the name “Nigeria” lies within the river Niger. It`s interesting that the
honor of naming our massive country was given to a woman. Her name was
Flora Shaw. This country`s name was coined in the late 19th century.
According to historical sources, this happened in 1897.
What is so special about the question 'who named Nigeria as a country'?
It`s all related to the colonization era of the whole continent.
Nigeria got its name during the period of colonization.
Majority of the African countries had not existed at that time. Nigeria
was one of these examples. It was named, at first, as a geographical location
and not as a country. It consisted of many tribes that were very different when
it came to culture, language and tradition. The colonization era made a lot of
changes to the face of Africa.
One of these significant changes was the centralization policy of colonial powers.
This policy largely affected Nigeria, which was divided into 370 tribes.
Still, it`s now a major problem for Nigeria.
Some of our politicians have said that Nigeria or Nigerian is not a nationality,
but a definition of a citizen who lives in this certain territory.
Today, Nigeria has over 500 spoken languages, but English serves as lingual franca
for all of them. There are three major tribes in Nigeria: Hausa Yoruba and Ibo.
They have a distinctive culture, language, and tradition.
Most of the conflicts in the country are as a result of the competition between
these three tribes.
Who Named Nigeria and Which Year?
READ ALSO: History of political parties in Nigeria since 1960
Flora Shaw was the woman who gave Nigeria its name. In 1886, she was a
British journalist who covered Anti-Slavery Conference in Brussels.
Also, she was the only woman representative at that conference.
In addition, she worked as an editor of The Times.
In 1897, she created the name Nigeria for this particular British Colony.
Who named country Nigeria? And do you know the previous name of Nigeria?
What was its name before Nigeria?
The former name for Nigeria was the Royal Niger Company Territories.
It does not sound like a country name at all!
The name Nigeria was replaced and preserved up until today.
Still, it was not a name for a nation, but merely a name of the territory.
At the same time, the name was not entirely made up by Flora Shaw.
She suggested that this name was largely based on the Niger River.
Lady Shaw was very close to the Nigeria history! She even married the colonial administrator of Nigeria after which she changed her name to Flora Lugard.
She accompanied her husband when he was the Governor of Hong-Kong and
after that the Governor-General of Nigeria.
Lady Shaw was a fantastic woman who helped to found universities,
hospitals and schools in a lot of places of the world.
It`s truly interesting that the person who named Nigeria was not Nigerian
or even African. This name was artificially created!
The history of Nigeria remembers a lot of notable persons. Nevertheless,
all Nigerians must know the person who named their country.
It was Flora Shaw/Lugard! She was a fantastic woman who was opportune
to pick the name for this huge country!
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