Examining the Research Gap in Comparative Studies of Tiv Oral Literature and West African Epic Tradition

The oral literature of the Tiv people of Benue State in North Central Nigeria represents a rich but academically marginalised literary tradition whose relationship to the broader West African epic and oral narrative tradition has never been systematically studied. This study examined the research gap in comparative studies of Tiv oral literature by conducting a scoping review of publications from 2010 to 2024 and a preliminary comparative analysis of available Tiv oral narrative materials alongside comparable West African epic traditions. A scoping review methodology was employed, searching six databases for publications on Tiv oral literature and supplementing with grey literature from Nigerian university repositories and the Folklore Studies Association of Nigeria archive. Fifty-two publications were identified, of which only eight engaged with Tiv oral literature as a comparative literary phenomenon. The preliminary comparative analysis drew on available Tiv narrative materials and compared them with Mande, Yoruba, and Igbo epic traditions, examining hero typology, narrative structure, cosmological frameworks, and the social function of praise poetry. Results showed that Tiv oral narrative tradition shares significant structural features with Mande epic in its treatment of warrior heroes and political legitimacy but has distinctive features in its cosmological framework and its use of women protagonists in specific narrative forms. The study identifies five priority research gaps and recommends the establishment of a Tiv Oral Literature Archive at Benue State University as a prerequisite for systematic comparative scholarship on this tradition.

Keywords: Tiv oral literature, West African epic, research gap, North Central Nigeria, oral narrative