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Urhobo
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Urhobo

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Urhobo, a people of the northwestern part of the Niger River delta in extreme southern Nigeria. They speak a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The term Sobo is used by ethnographers as a cover term for both the Urhobo and their neighbours, the Isoko, but the two groups remain distinct from each other. Their local communities are different in economy, social organization, dialect, and origins.

Under the influence first of European traders and then of the British colonial administration, the Urhobo and other peoples began to grow oil palms, and later rubber, as cash crops. Yams and cassava, as well as corn (maize), beans, peppers, and peanuts (groundnuts), are the Urhobo’s major staple crops. The Urhobo also fish and are known for their canoes, sacred mud sculptures, masks, figures, bronze jewelry, and stilt and masquerade dances.

Property duties and rights descend patrilineally. The extended family, living in a compound of dwelling structures, is the basis of town or village wards. The Urhobo traditionally worship Oghene, the Supreme Creator, who is connected with the sky. Individuals may also worship personal or ancestral spirits and supernatural powers. Christianity and its clash with existing institutions has resulted in some social problems among the Urhobo. Since the 1960s the Urhobo homeland has been one of Nigeria’s main petroleum-producing regions.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Elizabeth Prine Pauls.