Pick up a packet of salt in any supermarket today and you probably will not give it a second thought. It is one of those everyday items that always seems to be there.

But there is a town in Nasarawa State where salt is much more than something people sprinkle into food. It is history, culture and a source of livelihood that has been passed from mothers to daughters for centuries.

For hundreds of years, the women of Keana have produced salt using methods that have changed very little over time. With nothing more than naturally salty soil, water, firewood and years of experience, they turn brine into white salt crystals using techniques that existed long before factories or modern processing plants.

Many Nigerians have never heard of Keana, yet the town has earned a name that tells you almost everything about it: Nigeria’s Salt City.

A town that grew because of salt

Keana, home to the Alago people, sits on one of Nigeria’s few inland salt deposits. Unlike coastal communities that obtain salt from seawater, Keana’s salt comes from saline springs and mineral-rich soil formed within the Benue Trough, one of the country’s best-known geological formations.

According to local tradition, the salt deposits were discovered around 1232 by a hunter named Akyana Adi. Historians cannot confirm every part of that story, but they agree on something more important: Keana has been producing salt for centuries and grew into one of the most important inland salt-producing communities in what is now Nigeria.

Before imported salt entered West Africa, traders travelled from Kano, Bauchi, Zaria and other commercial centres to buy Keana salt. They exchanged livestock, textiles and other goods, turning the town into an important stop along the Central Sudan trade routes.

At a time when salt preserved food, seasoned meals and served as one of the region’s most valuable commodities, Keana had something many communities did not: a dependable source of it.

The women who kept the tradition alive

What makes Keana’s story stand out is not only the salt but the women behind it.

For generations, they have been the custodians of the craft. While men traditionally cleared production sites and gathered firewood, the knowledge of turning salty earth into usable salt has remained largely in the hands of women.

A visit to the salt village today feels like stepping into another era. Large metal pots sit over open fires, while women carefully collect saline soil or brine, filter it several times and boil it for hours until salt crystals begin to form. No machines are telling them when the process is complete.

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Everything depends on experience gained over many years. They know when the brine has reached the right concentration, when the fire needs to be adjusted and exactly when the salt is ready to be removed. It is knowledge that has been handed down through families rather than learnt in classrooms.

For many households, making salt is not simply a way of preserving tradition. It is still an important source of income.

An ancient industry still standing

Salt once occupied the kind of economic position oil holds today. Communities depended on it, traders travelled long distances to buy it, and entire local economies were built around its production. Keana was one of those places.

Historical records suggest that the town and neighbouring salt fields produced hundreds of tonnes every year before imported European salt gradually changed the market during the colonial period. Factory-produced salt became cheaper and easier to distribute, pushing many traditional producers to the margins.

Yet Keana’s salt industry never disappeared; instead, it adapted.

Today, researchers from Nigerian universities continue to study the town’s geology, the mineral composition of its salt and the traditional methods used to produce it. Some have explored ways to improve the refining process to meet modern food safety standards without losing the knowledge that has kept the industry alive for centuries.

Beyond the research, Keana is also attracting attention as a heritage destination. Visitors come to watch a manufacturing process that has survived for generations with remarkably few changes.

In countries such as Japan, Switzerland and Italy, centuries-old industries have become major tourist attractions. Keana offers Nigeria something similar. It is one of the few places where people can still watch an ancient craft being practised much the way it was hundreds of years ago.

The story of Keana is not simply about salt. It is about local knowledge that refused to disappear, women who quietly kept an industry alive across generations and a community that built an economy from a resource many people would have walked past without noticing.

Nearly 800 years after traders first came in search of its salt, Keana is still producing it, proving that some of Nigeria’s oldest industries have not disappeared. They have simply been waiting for the rest of the country to pay attention.

Cynthia Nwanonyiri