The Ancient Nok Culture Kaduna

The little settlement called Nok village is located in Jaba Local government down in the southern part of Kaduna State, up in northern Nigeria, which frequently attracts visitors. There is no doubt as to Nok's universal fame, across the academia and all over the world. Antiquities from Nok adorn great museums and galleries across the globe in different parts of the world. But despite the coveted place of Nok history in world culture of first African civilization, the little village in whose honour the famed artifacts are named remain a rustic hamlet to this day.

For a first time visitor to Southern Kaduna, the first point of call may, perhaps, be Nok village which hosts a government established museum where casings containing unique terracotta carvings and antique objects are kept.This passion to visit the village widely acclaimed for its massive quantities of ginger plantations and breathtaking mountains is understandable. Right through history, Nok culture has taken the form of the heady attraction which exists naturally between a bee and a honey comb.

Tourists from around the world have taken the pains to take a trip into the rural enclave to see, firsthand, the globally acclaimed site of Africa’s first civilization and perhaps the spot where life sized terracotta carvings were first discovered.Textbooks have been written about Nok culture that serve as a source of cultural instruction and inspiration for thousands of Nigerian students and their counterparts from around the African continent.

Entire websites have been dedicated to projecting the image of Nok which has been seen in many quarters as the root of the black man’s romance with the first impressions of modern technology. The view perhaps has received a national stamp of authority with the sitting of a modern structure to accommodate some of the relics of this unique culture which has escaped the pilfering fingers of art thieves and corrupt collectors.



But in the midst of the massive volume of information about the Nok culture that presently exists in numerous institutions, museums, web sites, text books and literature around the world, no one seems to have spared an thought for Chori, a little sleepy village enclosed warmly within an imposing range of massive rocky formation that leaves one with an enchanting sense of awe at the workmanship of a supreme being who till date still keeps peeping excitedly at the aesthetic beauty his work exudes.

With its exquisite and precious antiquities as well as tales such as this, it is easy to understand why foreign tourists and scholars flood Nok. Several Archeologist including German researchers, Professor Peter Bronnick and Dr. Nikol Robb have worked at Nok for a month . The Nok Museum have great potentials endowed with 10 archaeological sites under Nok, and can easily boasts of the greatest collections of artifacts.” with the host of a mini-gallery, where priceless antiquities are kept.