[3] The people worshiped family idols, but also believed in a supreme being who created the world and brings health, rain and the harvest.

They were ruled by a paramount priest king, the Kwe Kukwen, selected by a council of elders representing the different Kuteb clans.

Most live in what is now Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria, although there are a few Kuteb villages in Cameroon.

[3] Under the British, who took control around 1900, the Kuteb were subject to the first-class Jukun ruler, or "Aku Uka" of the Wukari Federation.

[4] This change was resented by other ethnic groups of Hausa, Tiv, Chamba, Kukuns and Ichen, who forced the Ukwe Ahmadu Genkwe to leave Takum and reside elsewhere.

[4][6] The earliest direction for every activity in Kuteb land revolve round the theocratic role of the Kwe Kukwen, Akwen and Council of elders called Ndufu who represent the major known sub clans and extended families.

However, such power ended where collective interest and programmes of the entire nation was to begin and where the settlement of disputes between individuals and clans were brought before the Kwe Kukwen.

[8] This law was changed by the governor Joseph Gomwalk in 1975, withdrawing the sole right of the Kuteb to select the holder of the Ukwe Chieftaincy stool of Takum from one of their two royal families.

The justification was the changing demographics of Takum, but the result was disturbances that caused the government to ban the traditional annual Kuchichebe festival when the land is blessed to ensure the next harvest will be fertile.

[10] In 1998 the Taraba State Government also set up a Peace Committee which managed to negotiate a truce between the ethnic groups.