THE TSOEDE FACTOR IN THE EMERGENCE OF CENTRAL POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN NUPELAND, 1463 1591 AD

Abstract

This attempt is premised on the fact that the history of a people and their polity can never be complete without tracing and linking the early past with its subsequent and contemporary periods. The Nupe, being one of the major ethnics groups in Nigeria, which had evolved formidable politics in the past, requires the attention of researchers and scholars to create a historic link between its earlier past (pre-Tsoede period) on the one hand, and post-Tsoede and contemporary periods on the other.
The major task of this study is focus on the pre-Tsoede and Tsoede eras of Nupe history with a view to unearthing what life was then and how such facilitated subsequent developments. In this respect, the study will examine and re-examine the political, socioeconomic and cultural processes and practices in Nupeland prior to the emergence of Tsoede who was said to have established a Supra Nupe Kingdom around the 16^th century AD. The study will focus on the Tsoede factor in the emergence of central political organization in Nupeland as well as migration, expansion and consolidation, which became a building block between its past and contemporary period.