THEY DID NOT GIVE US ANY COWBy Maik Ortserga

Centuries before Nigeria came into existence through colonial apparatus, the Tiv people in their wanderings are said to have come into contact with the Fulani cattle herders. According to the lie as peddled by several sources, the two groups became friends, and as a mark of their friendship, the Fulani gave their Tiv friends a cow before they departed the Tiv enclave. When they came back years later, hoping to see the cow multiplied, they were surprised that the Tiv could only say ‘‘munchi’’ a word meaning ‘‘we have eaten’’ in Hausa language. This episode is said to have earned the Tiv the name ‘‘Munchi’’ from their Fulani friends. What if you realize now that all you have been told about this Tiv-Fulani story is a sham?
History sometimes can be mischievous. I do agree with the theory propounded by writers like Kpamor J.T Orkar and Dr. Moses Tsenongu that the Fulani at no point in our history gave us their agundu cow. I find it difficult to believe that the Fulani who attach so much value to their cows, rating one cow above hundreds of human lives, the same Fulani who as experience has shown would hardly give out any cow except it is dead, would graciously have given the Tiv a cow.
And come to think of it. The Tiv of the yesteryears would hardly kill any domestic animal and eat it for mere fun. Although they were breeders of chickens, goats, ducks etc., they would hardly kill any for consumption unless they had a visitor, how much more killing a whole cow merely for eating sake. I take this with a pinch of salt.
Even the fact that they chose a Hausa word instead of a word in their own Fulfude language to call us ‘‘Munchi’’does not hold water. More so, this event is said to have taken place before the colonialists came to elevate the status of Hausa above other languages. My friend Iorliam Shija, the historian will attest to this fact.  Why then would the Tiv fail to learn a smattering of the Fulani language enough to have use it in response to their friend instead of the Hausa word ‘‘Munchi.’’
What happened to our bua-Tiv that we would have gone for the Fulani’s agundu? I want to state here that they did not give us any cow.