Nigeria, Dec. 14 -- On a windy Tuesday afternoon on 18 February, Akaninyene Nelson had just returned from tapping palm wine in a swamp several kilometres from Ikot Ebom Itam, a community in Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

Sitting shirtless on a wooden bench, the tapper danced with his head and hands to music from a rechargeable radio set on a rickety bamboo table and gulped palm wine from a calabash.

Known as "Inyang" in the community, the 52-year-old father of six took up palm wine tapping after his late father, who gave him the nickname, meaning Rivers in the Ibibio language.

"I was very close to my father. On several occasions, I would climb raffia palms alongside my father to understudy him. That is why I am the only ...