The '''Gbedegi''' or '''Gbede''' are one of the eleven or twelve traditional subgroups of the Nupe people of North Central Nigeria.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ethnic and cultural diversity in Nigeria |date=1995 |publisher=Trenton, N.J. : Africa World Press |isbn=978-0-86543-282-6 |page=92 |url=https://archive.org/details/ethnicculturaldi0000unse/mode/2up?q=Gbedegi |access-date=27 December 2025}}</ref> The Gbedegi were originally a Yoruba subgroup,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Temple |first1=O. |title=Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria |date=26 November 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-96938-6 |page=332 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Notes_on_the_Tribes_Provinces_Emirates_a/350uAgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Ilorin+sixteenth+century&pg=PA332&printsec=frontcover |access-date=15 January 2026 |language=en}}</ref> who lived on both sides of the Niger River's upper and middle stretch (above and below),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=Michael |title=Captive and Client Labour and the Economy of the Bida Emirate: 1857-1901 |date=1973 |pages=453–471 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/180541?read-now=1&seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents |access-date=14 January 2026}}</ref> but one which gradually went through assimilation and started shifting to the Nupe language, beginning in the period when Tsoede became the king of the Nupe people, and centralized the Nupe Kingdom in the 16th century.<ref>{{cite book |title=Groundwork of Nigerian History |date=1980 |page=157 |url=https://archive.org/details/ground-work-of-nigerian-history/page/156/mode/2up?q=Gbedegi |access-date=27 December 2025}}</ref>{{Sfn|Nadel|1965}}{{rp|p=19}} The distinct Gbedegi language continued to be spoken up until the turn of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blench |first1=Roger |title=Social Structures and the Evolution of Language Boundaries Nigeria |date=1982 |pages=19–30 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23816316?read-now=1&seq=9#page_scan_tab_contents |access-date=14 January 2026}}</ref>
thumb|Ketsa (Oke Osha), now called 'Juju Rock' in the middle of the Niger. British explorer Hugh Clapperton had earlier recorded the existence of the language, later on during the expedition down the Niger river in the year 1857, Crowther observed the priest of the local deity of the large rock in the middle of the river, called ''Ketsa'' by the Nupe (Okesha in Yoruba), propitiating or invoking it in a Yoruba dialect.<ref>{{cite book |title=History of West Africa |date=1985 |publisher=Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex, England : Longmann |isbn=978-0-582-64683-4 |page=293 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofwestafr0000unse_c5q1/page/292/mode/2up?q=kpaki |access-date=28 December 2025}}</ref> Decades later, the expert ethnographer and Nupe historiographer Fred Nadel reported that he was able to find one old man on Jebba Island who spoke a little Gbedegi in 1934/36.{{Sfn|Nadel|1965}}{{rp|p=23}} However, the language is now extinct and has become fully replaced by Nupe.<ref>{{cite book |title=Cambridge Anthropology |date=1980 |publisher=Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University. |page=27 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Cambridge_Anthropology/uwZ_AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Gbedegi&dq=Gbedegi&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref> The people have also become Nupe, although cultural retentions from their past Yoruba roots remain. Today, the Nupe dialect of the Gbedegi towns, together with that of Bida forms the basis of what is considered 'Standard Nupe'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crowther |first1=Samuel (D D., Bishop of the Niger |title=A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Nupe Language |date=1864 |page=2 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/A_Grammar_and_Vocabulary_of_the_Nupe_Lan/MgPQLe5JikUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Gbedegi&pg=PR2&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
The riverine community of Rabba on the Niger River, Mokwa, Gbajibo, Bele, Shonga, Ogudu and Tada all belong to the Gbedegi Sub-tribe of the Nupe people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bravmann |first1=René A. |title=Islam and Tribal Art in West Africa |date=31 May 1974 |publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=978-0-521-20192-6 |page=37 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Islam_and_Tribal_Art_in_West_Africa/eDY4AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Gbedegi&pg=PA37&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Marjorie H. |title=Borgu and Its Kingdoms: A Reconstruction of a Western Sudanese Polity |date=1993 |publisher=E. Mellen Press |isbn=978-0-7734-9412-1 |page=332 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Borgu_and_Its_Kingdoms/jLZWAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Gbedegi&dq=Gbedegi&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref> It was in the village of Jebba Gungu on Jebba Island that a sitting Bronze figure of Ife origin was found, while the closely associated bowman and large standing male figure (also of bronze) were found in the nearby village of Tada, 25 miles downstream.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fagg |first1=William |last2=Nimmo |first2=B. A. |last3=Smith |first3=P. J. |title=The Restoration of a Bronze Bowman from Jebba, Nigeria |date=1964 |page=51 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4422851 |access-date=27 December 2025}}</ref> According to locals of the area, these brazen figures were actually brought there by the people from Yorubaland in the 'olden times'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crowther |first1=Samuel |last2=Taylor |first2=John Christopher |title=Gospel on the banks of the Niger : journals and notices of the native missionaries accompanying the Niger expedition of 1857-1859 / |date=1859 |publisher=London : Church Missionary House |page=216 |url=https://archive.org/details/gospelonbanksofn00crow/page/216/mode/2up?q=brazen |access-date=29 December 2025}}</ref>
Similarly, the '''Ebe''' (who call themselves Asu), another subgroup found in the colonial district of Yelwa in the Northernmost sections of the Nupe also claim to be of Yoruba origin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Ethnographic Survey of Africa: Western Africa ... |date=1950 |publisher=International African Institute |page=19 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Ethnographic_Survey_of_Africa_Western_Af/qW6BAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Gbedegi&dq=Gbedegi&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
==Name== The name "Gbedegi" derives from the Yoruba expression ''"Gbọ Ede"'', which means {{lit}} ''"To understand a language"''. The suffix; '– gi', which means ''"little"'' in Nupe was later added. The Nupe people then used this term to describe/refer to people who understood only a little of the Nupe language as ''Gbedegi''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Church missionary intelligencer |date=1858 |page=72 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Church_missionary_intelligencer/MhcFAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Gbedegi&pg=PA72&printsec=frontcover |access-date=27 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref>
==Culture== The Gbedegi are unique among the Nupe. They are the only subgroup who use the 'Yoruba-esque' ''Elo'' and ''Mamma'' masks.{{Sfn|Nadel|1965}}{{rp|p=23}} as well as the ''Gungun'' masquerades. These masks have Yoruba tribal marks, including; three vertical lines on either side of the face, an oblique line drown from the nose to the cheek, and three 'cat whisker' marks on both sides of the face converging on the corners of the lip, marks which the Nupe later adopted.{{Sfn|Bravmann|1974}}{{rp|p=40}} The masks and their associated festivals also looks very similar to those of the Egungun and Gelede practice among the Yoruba.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stevens |first1=Phillips |title=The Nupe Elo Masquerade |date=1973 |pages=40–94 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3334800?read-now=1&seq=4#page_scan_tab_contents |access-date=27 December 2025}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last1=Nadel |first1=S. F. (Siegfried Frederick) |title=A black Byzantium; the kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria |date=1965 |publisher=London, New York Pub. for the International Institute of African Languages & Cultures by the Oxford University Press |page=23 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackbyzantium0000nade |access-date=27 December 2025}}
Category:Nupe Category:History of the Yoruba people