Lebanese Nigerians (Arabic: نيجيريون لبنانيون) are Nigerians with Lebanese ancestry, including Lebanese-born immigrants to Nigeria. With a population approximated between 30,000 and 100,000, the group form one of the largest communities originally from outside Nigeria.[1][2]
Lebanese immigration to Nigeria started in the late nineteenth century, with migration from Ottoman Syria to the protectorates that later formed British Nigeria. The immigration — mainly from Lebanon but also from other parts of the Lebanese diaspora in West Africa — increased in the early twentieth century after the end of the first World War, being concentrated first in Lagos then in other urban areas throughout colonial Nigeria.[3] While some Lebanese Nigerians have left Nigeria — either permanently or temporarily for education or work — and reduced the original community's size, the further waves of immigration to Nigeria occurring amid the Lebanese Civil War and ongoing Lebanese liquidity crisis have added to the community since the late twentieth century.[4][5][6]
Identity
During the first waves of Lebanese immigration to Nigeria (and West Africa more generally), modern-day Lebanon comprised part of Ottoman Syria and later the French mandate; due to this political situation, early Lebanese immigrants were grouped together with immigrants from Syria and denoted as "Syrians" in colonial reports.[7] Additionally, immigrants from other parts of the Arab world — including Libya, Morocco, and Yemen along with Mizrahi Jews — often entered into the community. Later estimates from the 1960s approximate that 3% of the community originate from modern Syria with the remainder coming from either Lebanon or other parts of the Arab world.[8] By the mid-twentieth century, "Lebanese" replaced "Syrian" as the predominant identification term for the community. Alternatively, some communities (especially in French West Africa) used variants of "Libano-Syrian" as to include the Syrian community while other sources used and continue to use "Levantine" or "Syro-Lebanese" as umbrella terms.[3]
Additionally, research notes the relative lack of cohesion in the Lebanese community in the first half of the twentieth century, with internal divides based on sectarian, ideological, religious, and subethnic differences.[2] However, there were some collective organisations — such as the Lebanese Union of Nigeria, largely to lobby colonial officials on the community's behalf; these organisations became the precursors to modern Lebanese Nigerian civil society and identity.[2] In post-independence Nigeria, Lebanese identity formed amid racialization, communal tensions, and community-building.[9]
History
Colonial era
People from Lebanon first migrated to West Africa in the 19th-century to flee oppression and economic crisis in the Ottoman Empire.[8] Reportedly, the first Lebanese immigrant to Nigeria was Elias Khoury who migrated from the Lebanese village of Miziara to Lagos in 1890.[10] Later Lebanese migrants often originally intended to reach Brazil or the United States, but many were stranded in West Africa due to financial problems.[8] Other Lebanese migrants to West Africa mistakenly believed they had traveled to a vague geographic region called "Amerka" (misspelling of "America"), due to either their lack of education or deception by ship captains.[11] Nigeria received a significant amount of Lebanese settlers due to its coastal city of Lagos serving as a major point of transit between Lebanon and the Americas.[8] Many of these early Lebanese migrants to Nigeria came from the villages of Miziara and Jwaya.[8] The two villages continue to rely on remittances from Lebanese Nigerians into the modern era.[10]
Contemporary
Nigeria continues to receive a significant influx of Lebanese immigrants seeking to escape political and economic turmoil in their homeland. It is estimated that more than 250,000 Lebanese live in West Africa majority in Ivory Coast.[5] In February 2022, the Nigerian government granted citizenship to 286 foreign nationals, 108 of whom were Lebanese.[12]
Culture and Society
Language
As typical with immigrant communities in Nigeria, Lebanese Nigerians often speak both English and the community's native language — Arabic (more specifically, the Lebanese variety). However, many Lebanese Nigerians also speak the indigenous Nigerian languages depending on the dominant language of their home regions. Additional research contends that this "linguistic adaptability" has been a key asset of the community for generations.[8]
Religion
Reports show that the Lebanese Nigerian community contains adherents of all three of Lebanon's largest religious sects — Maronite Catholicism, Shia Islam, and Sunni Islam — in addition to much smaller communities of other Eastern Christians, Druze, and (historically) Lebanese Jews.[13][14][8] The two largest religious groups have long been the Maronite and Shia communities, with research from the 1960s estimating that Lebanese Nigerians were 60% Christian (mainly Maronite) along with 40% Muslim/Druze (mainly Shia).[8]
While the Lebanese Nigerian community itself consumes traditional Lebanese food, it has also introduced Lebanese cuisine to Nigeria.[17] There are numerous Lebanese restaurants and food shops in Lagos, primarily in Victoria Island. Additionally, there are also Lebanese cuisine options in other cities with sizable Lebanese populations like Kano and Ibadan.
Politics
During the first half of the twentieth century, the main interactions between the Lebanese community and governments were various attempts by groups to lobby colonial administrators.[3][8] However, reports show a more direct role in politics being played by Lebanese community leaders by the late 1950s, with a notable incident in 1959 with the heavily disputed establishment of an "Oriental Branch" of the Northern People's Congress by Lebanese, Syrian, and Yemeni community leaders in Kano.[8] After independence, some individual Lebanese Nigerians took prominent roles in politics including Abbas Hajaig — an engineer who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Jigawa State in 2007 — and Gilbert Chagoury — a businessman known for his close connections to military Head of State Sani Abacha and President Bola Tinubu.[18][19][20]
There is also involvement in Lebanese politics from the community with Nasserism being a major ideology among Lebanese Nigerian youth in the mid-twentieth century.[8] In 2019, there were demonstrations in Lagos in solidarity with the 17 October Revolution.[21] Several thousands in the community are registered to vote in Lebanon and on an individual level, there are various Lebanese Nigerians who later became politicians in Lebanon, including former Member of Parliament Anwar M. El-Khalil.[22]
Impact on Nigerian society
Tinubu Square, an open space landmark in Lagos, was donated by the Lebanese community as a gift for Nigeria upon Nigerian independence in 1960.[23] The Lebanese Community School is a private school in Lagos operated by the Lebanese.
