What does Nigeria mean?

People keep asking What does Nigeria mean, Nigeria is a country on the coast of West Africa; the population of above 150,000,000 (est. 2009); languages are English (official), Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and others; capital, Abuja.

The name was coined in the 19 century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Baron Frederick Lugard, a British colonial administrator(the Governor General of both the Northern and Southern Protectorates).

Flora Shaw combined the words “Niger” known as country’s longest river and “Area”  means its environs to get the word “Nigeria”(referring to the area surrounding the river Niger). The adjectival form is “Nigerian” referring to or means people from the River Niger Area(Nigeria).

Nigeria is an amalgam of the words: ‘River Niger Area’. The predominantly North and South were formed into one country for administrative ease. Although the benefits seem to be wise at times debatable, nevertheless the decision brought into existence the largest Black African nation on earth.

However, Niger in Latin means black and surprisingly enough for a lot of people Nigeria actually means Black Area- which is ironic since it is the most populous black nation in the world.

Nigeria is the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practicing indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms. Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960.

Question: What does Nigeria mean?……Answered above

Leave a Reply
