Eggon Language

Eggon Language

Eggon (also Egon, Ero, Mo Egon, Hill Mada, or Mada Eggon) is one of the Benue–Congo languages spoken in Nigeria.

The Eggon language is spoken by a large number of people in Nassarawa State in Central Nigeria. These represent the modern Local Government Areas of Akwanga, Lafia and Nassarawa-Eggon. The main towns of the Eggon people are Akwanga, Nassarawa-Eggon, Kagbu and Wana. They stretch as far south as Lafia and west of Akwanga as far as the railway line. They are bordered on the north by the Mada and to the south by the Migili and the Doma.

In much of the colonial literature, the Eggon were known as the 'Hill Mada' in contrast to the 'Plains Mada', the people known as Mada today. The Eggon lived in the Mada hills south of Akwanga in the pre-colonial period, but there is no connection between the groups that would justify these terms and they have now been discarded.

The exact number of speakers is unknown but it is unlikely to be less than the estimate of 200,000 given by Sibomana (1985). Ames (1934) gave a figure of 41,276 for the 1920s, but this is likely to have been substantially underestimated. Welmers (1971) estimated 52,000 although this may have been only a projection from Ames. Very little has been written about Eggon society and Temple (1922) and Ames (1934) are the only sources that contain any descriptions of Eggon social organisation.