Take a look at the Koma people of Adamawa State in northeastern Nigeria.

 

Meet the Koma people of Adamawa State in northeastern Nigeria, where cloth is a prized possession and a man is allowed to share his wife with guests or friends.

A year after Nigeria's independence, in 1961, the Koma people and the former Northern Cameroonian provinces were acknowledged as Nigerians. The seven districts of the Ganye local government in Adamawa State currently include Koma.

The Atlantika Mountains in Northern Adamawa, which shares a border with Southern Cameroun, are home to the ethnic group known as "oma," who live in relatively simple hill communities. The South and South-West of these mountains are home to numerous hill people, including many on the Cameroonian side.

On the Nigerian side of the Alantika Mountains, there are 17 Koma villages, and there are 21 Koma villages in Cameroon.

There are an estimated 61,000 speakers of Koma, the language of the Koma. It belongs to the Niger-Congo language family.

They are devoted to their ancient way of life. The women dress in fresh leaves, while the men wear loincloths. Comparatively speaking, Koma men are much more open to wearing modern clothing than Koma women.

It is still widely believed that if women wear clothing, the gods will punish them with either death or infertility.

The women covered the leaves with cloth wrappers only while they were in the market and removed them on their way back to the hills when the government authorities made it necessary for people to wear clothing in some markets.

A Koma man is allowed to share his wife with friends, especially guests, as a sign of acceptance and friendship.

Twins are so despised by the Komas as being evil that, until recently, babies of multiple births were often buried alive alongside the women who had the "misfortune" of being their mothers.

Among Komas who live in the plains, this repugnant custom of killing twins is out of style, but in the remote settlements on the hills, the age-old custom continues unhindered.