Kofyar hill settlement is located in Qua’an Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State, North central Nigeria. It is a hilltop settlement situated between range hills on the southern edge of the Jos plateau and punctuated by old volcanoes shelters. The boundary of the indigenous hill settlement contains features such as the unique circular stone architecture which is a testimony to megalithic living tradition which has disappeared in most part of the world; stone fort walls which are result of indigenous African fortification techniques; farm terraces constructed using locally available irregular dry stone walls making cultivable land space on the sloppy terrain; unique dry stone animal pens which are testimonies to their megalithic technique; stone paved roads; pyramidal stone graves where the local communities re-establish the mystic bonds between their gods and ancestors.
The Conservation and Historical Research of Kofyar Settlement, Nigeria (2020–2022)
Project Coordinator: Dr. Obafemi Alaba Olukoya
At a time when this form of traditional human settlements is under threat everywhere around the world, this indigenous landscape continues to survive since its first occupation during Acheulian between 200BC and 1000AD during the Nok culture.
However, in recent years, the indigenous landscape has been threatened by a complex of factors mainly; accelerated weathering, termite invasion, changes in the socio-cultural use of heritage and management factors. In this regard, since May 2020 till date, Gerda Henkel Stiftung under the program: Funding Initiative Patrimonies has funded the project titled: ‘Conservation and Historical Research of Kofyar Hill Settlements in Nigeria’. The implementation of the project objectives has been led by Dr. Olukoya Obafemi with the support of the Kofyar people and department of Heritage and Archeology at the University of Jos.
The main project objectives are:
- Documentation of the heritage attributes conveying the values of indigenous landscape
- Conduct capacity building and training of the community members
- Engage in awareness raising and educational program
- Conduct restoration and rehabilitation works on the damaged vernacular buildings
- Exhibit and disseminate the results of the entire project objectives
This video gives an impression of some of the ongoing activities since 2020 till date.
You can watch a television interview session with the project leader Dr Olukoya which was shown on Straight Talk on BRTV (TSTV AFRICA) on 2022 here: