science

Sukur

Sukur is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sukur rather than just read about it. In short: Sukur or Sukur Cultural Landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on a hill above the village of Sukur in the Adamawa State of Nigeria. It is situated in the Mandara Mountains, close to the border with Cameroon.

Key takeaways

Sukur belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sukur to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sukur from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sukur or Sukur Cultural Landscape is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located on a hill above the village of Sukur in the Adamawa State of Nigeria. It is situated in the Mandara Mountains, close to the border with Cameroon. Its UNESCO inscription is based on the cultural heritage, material culture, and the naturally-terraced fields. Sukur is Africa's first cultural landscape to receive World Heritage List inscription.

Etymology 'Sukur' means "vengeance" in Margi and Libi languages. It also means "feuding" in the Bura language, a neighbouring and mutually intelligible language the Sukur people.

History

Iron Age relics found in the form of furnaces, ore, and grindstones at the site have been established to be of pre-Sukur existence. There are also some finds from the Neolithic period. The recent history is traced to the Dur dynasty of the 17th century. The Dur established the region as a major supplier of raw material for iron manufacture to northeastern Nigeria; this was perpetuated to the first decade of the 20th century. From 1912 to 1922 Sukur was ravaged by the invasions of Hamman Yaji, the pullo Lamdo (chief) of Madagali. These wars resulted in the decline of iron smelting till 1960, a period which witnessed people migrating to the plains situated towards north and south of Sukur. The British colonising the region from 1927 did not make any difference to the cultural styles of this settlement. Nic David and Judy Sterner gathered information of the generally unknown site and many more publications are being compiled to make this site better known to the outside world. Its inscription by UNESCO, done under the Criteria of iii, v and vi in 1999, is based on the cultural heritage of the Hidi's Palace complex and village, material culture, and the natural terraced fields, which are in an intact condition. These aspects are cited in the citation which states it as “The cultural landscape of Sukur is eloquent testimony to a strong and continuing cultural tradition that has endured for many centuries.” Sukur is one of the country's two UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Features

The settlement is in two parts. The upper part, where the palace is located, is called the Sakur Sama and the other is Sakur Kasa. The palace located on the hilltop, in a large enclosure has residence of the Hidi (chief). It is a circular structure built from local granite made into dry stone walls and niches. The enclosure also includes a pen for bulls and a horse stable. A harem building located near the palace is in ruins. The entrance to the palace grounds has many gates and one gate is flanked by two large monolithic granite blocks and is fitted with gates. The access path paved with granite stone slabs is from the north and east and is paved; it is of 5.7-metre (19 ft) width. Looking down the hill, the plateau is seen laid into extensive terracing for agricultural farming which is one of the unique features of this site and termed as of "a sacred quality". The palace continues to house the chief of the clan and his wife. In the lower part of the settlement, village huts are simple circular structures of common folk. They are built of clay with roof of thatch, and with woven floor mats. A group of such houses are surrounded by a compound wall of low height. The burial grounds located near the palace are simple stone structures representing cemeteries, exclusive to clans and social groups of the settlement. Another integral feature, with each house of a person practicing smithy of the settlement, is the ruins of iron-smelting furnaces, which are shaft-type furnaces provided with bellows. All the above features of the settlement presents a heritage status of the political and economic structure of the Sukur people.

Popular culture In her travel book, Looking for Transwonderland, writer Noo Saro-Wiwa visits Sukur and describes its impact on her.

References

External links Sukur Cultural Landscape Sukur: A Culture of the Mandara Mountains

Illustrations

Sukur: Village hut and Sukur people — Village hut and Sukur people

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sukur

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sukur claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sukur before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sukur ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sukur

In research: Sukur appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sukur in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sukur is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Adamawa State, World Heritage Sites in Nigeria, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sukur outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sukur in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sukur means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sukur out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sukur in simple terms?

Why does Sukur matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sukur?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sukur.