Ethnonyms: Nupe, Nupeci, Nufawa / Nupawa, Tapa, Abawa, Anupeyi, Anufawhei, Anupecwayi
Total population: 2,076,000
Ethnolinguistic classification: Niger-Congo → Atlantic-Congo → Volta-Congo → Benue-Congo → Nupoid → Nupe-Nupe-Tako
Homeland: Nupeland
Regions with significant populations: the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Federal Capital Territory, Bida, Minna, Niger state, Agaie, Lapai, Mokwa, Jebba, Edu, Pategi.
Languages and dialects: Nupe-Nupe-Tako, Nupe central, Nupe Tako, Gupa-Abawa
Religion: Islam, Christianity, traditional / ethnic religions
The Nupe are a major ethnolinguistic people of west-central Nigeria, historically centered near the confluence of the Niger and Kaduna rivers, and they speak Nupe, a Nupoid language in the Benue-Congo branch of Niger-Congo. Their society has long been organized into closely related territorial groupings, especially the Beni, Zam, Batache (Bataci), and Kede (Kyedye), with the Kede and Batache traditionally associated with the riverine zone, where fishing and trade were important, while many of the other Nupe were farmers cultivating millet, sorghum, yams, rice, peanuts, cotton, and shea nuts through shifting cultivation with the hoe as the basic tool, and with men doing most of the fieldwork while women prepared and marketed crops. Nupe craft life has also been especially distinctive: blacksmiths, brass smiths, weavers, and tailors worked through highly developed guild organizations, and the Nupe became widely known for glass beads, fine leather and mat work, brass trays, and fine cloth. In settlement and politics, they lived in villages and towns of varying size under chiefs advised by councils of family heads, while the older Nupe kingdom had a more elaborate structure with four governmental zones, ranked officials owing allegiance to the Etsu Nupe, and several titled classes above commoners; some groups, including the Beni and Kede, were organized as kingdoms within the larger Nupe polity. Nupe historical traditions also credit Tsoede, an Idah prince, with conquering and refounding the kingdom and, in the Nupe tradition recorded by later writers, introducing bronze casting. Religiously, most Nupe are now Muslim, although older ritual forms remain, including beliefs in a sky god, ancestral spirits, and spirits linked to natural objects.
