In the first 12 months after the introduction (in 1999) of a Moslem theocratic state in Nigeria (secular in its governance from the colonial period) at least 15,000 lives were lost in religious conflict. These were not just Moslems and Christians, but also many Jukums, Tivs, Bornos and others of the traditional faiths - orisa, ancestor or nature worship, etc - of that part of Africa. They were caught in an arena of dispute between the two assertive faiths, which through their binary nature are condemning the anterior faiths to invisibility.