Dufuna boat was discovered in 1987 by Malam Yau, a Fulani herdsman in the Yobe State region that borders Niger. It is eight meters long and it’s made from black African mahogany. According to the Radiocarbon dating done on a nearby sample of charcoal at the site, the boat is estimated to be 8500 to 8000 years old.
The Dufuna boat ranks as the third oldest boat in the world after Noyan-sur-Seine in France and Pesse, Netherlands. It was unearthed following a joint effort of Nigerian and German archaeologists in 1994 in Dufuna.
Dr Omotoso Eluyemi notes that, “The discovery of this boat is an important landmark in the history of Nigeria in particular and Africa in general”. The Dufuna boat belongs to the Late Stone Age period. This is a period when humans stopped roaming the face of the earth as hunters and became herdsmen and cultivators.