Utanga, an indigenous Tiv community in Cross River state, Nigeria, has a holiday resort friendly atmosphere with a calm weather, beautiful vegetation and landscape.

The community is close to Obudu Mountain Resort in Obudu.

Both Utanga and Obudu are similar in weather and other natural endowments.

Utanga (known as Utange by other Tiv people) is another Tiv nation.

Located in Cross River state’s Obanliku local government area, near Obudu mountains and the Tiv mytical Swem Karagbe mountains in the Cameroon, Utanga was earlier a Tiv clan but later become a nation with its dialect, among other things.

Obanliku local government area is in Cross River state’s Northern Senatorial District . Obanliku has both an inter-state and international boundary. It is bounded in the north by Kwande Local Government of Benue State, in the east by the Republic of Cameroon, the west by Obudu Local Government Area, and in the south by Boki Local Government Area.

Though Obudu Mountaain Resort bears Obudu, a nearby local government, it is actually located in Obanliku, at the border with Cameroon.

Part of Utanga clan is located in Ushongo local government area of Benue state. The one in Ushongo is called Utange, the name majority of Tiv people chose.

Bessenge is the headquarters of Utanga nation

Utanga people speak the Utanga dialect. The dialect is similar to Tiv’s.

The Utanga people usually sing in Tiv language.

According to history handed down by ancestors, the Utanga linguistic group took the same migration pattern as Tiv – from Cameroon through Swem Karagbe mountains to Nigeria.

Liam Atsete, an Utanga person who’s an evangelist in NKST Church narrates:
“Just as a you start to learn to eat, you start to pick up the Tiv language. Basically, Utanga are of the Tiv ethnic group, God just ordained that some of us should be in Cross River”①

Also, the catechist at St Anthony Parish, Bessenge, Cosmos Ikwogah said he was taught the Catholic Catechism in Tiv language.

According to him, the difference between Utanga language and Tiv is a matter of dialectal variation, insisting that Utanga and Tiv are one homogeneous ethnic group.②

Ref
①, ② dailytrust.com/amp/utanga-the-forgotten-tiv-community-of-cross-river