Live performance of different cultural dance of tribes in Nigeria.

Yesterday being the weekend was one of the social activities in the Nysc Camp and it was all about the cultural dance of different tribes. This activity also was done in all 36 states in Nigeria where all graduates are camped. Just 10 tribes performed yesterday since we all were grouped in 10 with platoon numbers 1-10. I am in platoon 4 and I enjoyed all the tribes being performed. I was only able to video 4 tribes who performed their cultural dance.

The first which is the Zulu tribe is from Kebbi state which is the North where I am serving. Zuru is a bastardisation of A'zuguru or A'zurannu Darkkarkari which means "warriors". According to research, the Zuru tribe became prominent when the white colonial masters could not pronounce the name, so it was shortened to "Zuru" for easy pronunciation. The language they speak is called C'Lela.

The second is the Tiv tribe. Tiv makes up 2.5 per cent of the national population. This tribe lives in the Eastern central state of Taraba in the valley of the Benue River.

The third is the Edo or Benin tribe. The Edo are referred to as the Bendel people. They are the Edo-speaking ethnic group.

The fourth is the Ibibio tribe. This is my platoon group and they performed nicely too. The Ibibio are people from the south-eastern mainly Cross River state. Their dialect is Efik-ibibio which has been grouped within the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family.

Yesterday's activities including cooking competition were interesting and I was able to recognise different tribes with their ways of dressing and dancing plus their food. At the end of the dance, the Zuru tribe which is represented by Corp members from Platoon 1 took the first position while in the cooking competition, platoon number 6 took the first position. They were so happy when they were announced as the winners.

One of the aims of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is to bring people from different ethnic groups to interact and form great friendships. This is the reason why we are being posted to all the 36 states in Nigeria including the FCT (Abuja) where we meet ourselves and understand people's opinions and perspectives. It was a great moment being among other people who are from different tribes and having fun together as one.

I hope you enjoy the dances in the video.

_{Both images are originally mine and taken with my Samsung Galaxy A14}