This book examines the economic, political and socio-cultural relations of the Tiv people of Benue State with their southern neighbours, the Bette, Bekwarra, Bendi, Utange and Becheve of the Cross River State of Nigeria from the 1890 to 1990. In the pre-colonial times, the Tiv experienced land hunger because of their practice of swine cultivation. They obtained additional farm lands by displacing their southern neighbours and settling on these. Unknown to them, their adversaries stealthily began to send small teams of Ogirinya headhunters that beheaded any lone Tiv farmer or woman. The demand for Tiv skulls rose as each successful member was richly rewarded. His social status shot up from a nobody to a somebody entitled to a royal burial with a fresh human head. The Tiv answer to their steady loss of lives in peace times was to adopt Ogirinya and turn the heat on their opponents. Clandestine mutual headhunting became a standing blood feud that escaped the notice of the colonial administration. During an official inquiry into the causes of the 1985 Tsar-Obudu War, both parties confessed that Ogirinya was the main cause of their inter-ethnic wars. Once the leaders of the neighbouring local government areas agreed to ban Ogirinya and to set up a joint monitoring committee, peace returned to the borderlands. You are invited to read about the intermarriages, friendships, pacts, and palm wine drinking orgies of these interdependent peoples. This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History, University of Texas at Austin.