Adebayo, Peter2021-04-202021-04-202014Adebayo, P.F. & Aboyeji Justus (2014) ‘The Role of Hunters in the formation of States in West Africa’, In Ijagun Journal of History and Diplomacy (IJOHID), Vol. 1No 1,1- 20.Published by Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State.2408-6207https://uilspace.unilorin.edu.ng/handle/20.500.12484/4744The roles of hunters in the formation of states in West AfricaThousands of years 'ago, all humans were believed to have subsisted by hunting and fruits-gathering, with little or no agriculture. Man, had thus found it both convenient and rewarding, from primordial times, to co-habit in social groups. He has immensely multiplied his predisposition to earn a living from nature; hunting and survival (i. e. the preservation of his existence from possible extinction) being two significant factors. A better appreciation of the importance of hunting among early humans, as now believed by many scientists, reveals that early humans both scavenged and hunted. Warriorhood, militarism and belligerency also came as a gradual transmogrification from the humble background of hunting. Being vulnerable to his immediate and older neighbors, the primitive hunting man grew as a child of necessity; necessity, being the mother of invention! Many of life's great discoveries came as accidentals—fire, farming, iron metallurgy, etc., ditto also for hunting. However, these accidental discoveries were often borne out of the necessity of the ages. Necessity, the mother of invention, has moved hunting from its humble beginning of /must enriching diets, providing security (via the development of social groups) and preserving humanity from possible extinction by antique dangerous monsters (via the evolution of the hunting man), to making hunters, in this regard, forms the main thrust of this expose.enHuntersWest AfricaArticle