Gbari

The Gbari, who also call themselves Gbagyi and were known to their Hausa and Fulani neighbours as Gwari, are a farming people of the Middle Belt of central Nigeria, settled around Minna and Suleja and the lands where Abuja was later built. They speak two dialects of Gbagyi, a Niger-Congo language akin to Nupe.

Their society is patrilineal: each settlement is led by an Osu, or king, assisted by a council of elders, and villages are kept small so that farmland stays within reach. Traditional religion honours a high god, Shekwoyi, alongside lesser spirits.

The Fulani jihad that began in 1804 overran the northern Gbari country, displacing many communities and opening the way for Islam, while groups further south kept their older beliefs.