International Journal of Arts and Humanities (IJAH)

Hunger is a universal phenomenon which affects humans and animals. Closely related to this is the issue of thirst which also affects man, plants and animals. The paper discusses the phenomenon of hunger among the Tiv and how they responded to the threat of hunger affecting their kith and kin as well as neighbours. The study is motivated by the threat of hunger in the world today and unwillingness of the Tiv to be their brother’s keepers as was the case in the not too distant past. Both the primary and secondary source of data collection was employed. The paper established that the Tiv hate hunger with a passion and in response engage in large scale farming to alleviate hunger. In addition, there were other practices like twar that ensured that farmers cultivated their farms and left remnants for the less privileged to sustain theirselves. Above all, the Tiv ate in the ate and in doing so invited passersby to join them in a meal. This greatly reduced the threat of hunger and minimized social vices like petty theft. The paper calls on the Tiv to return to the status quo by observing the hungwaja karen nyigh ga phenomenon which emphasised that the cricket no matter how small it might be will be bitten by a tooth demonstrating the need to share no matter how small a thing may be; in this case food.