The Story of the Origins of the Bura/Pabir People of Northeast Nigeria: Language, Migrations, the Myth of Yamta-Ra-Wala, Social Organization and Culture

© 2014 Ayuba Y. Mshelia. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/15/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0432-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0431-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-0428-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014906875

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CONTENTS

Dedication

List Of Figures

List Of Tables

Preface

Chapter 1   Prologue

Chapter 2   African Language Groups

Chapter 3   Afro-Asiatic Languages

Chapter 4   The Nilo-Saharan Languages

Chapter 5   The Kanem Empire

Chapter 6   Bornu Empire

Chapter 7   The Mandara Kingdom

Chapter 8   The Bura-Pabir {Babur} Origin

Chapter 9   Bura-Pabir Cultural Subtleties

Chapter 10   Tribal Household

Chapter 11   Native Industries

Chapter 12   Religion

Chapter 13   Witchcraft And Charms

Chapter 14   Marriage

Chapter 15   Children

Chapter 16   Social Organization

Chapter 17   Death And Burial

Chapter 18   Epilogue

Appendix A: Chronological List Of Chieftancy Of Biu Succession

Appendix B: Distribution Of Kwararafa Peoples In Nigeria By Heriatage Magazine Jos 2005.

References

Bibliography

Websites

About The Author

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the past Bura and Pabir peoples who upheld and promoted its culture, the present who continue to disseminate its noble ideals and their posterity who must not only preserve and perpetuate it but propagate and defend it so long as… .

"The soul takes nothing with her to the next world but her education and her culture. At the beginning of the journey to the next world, one’s education and culture can either provide the greatest assistance, or else act as the greatest burden, to the person who has just died".

By

Plato: The Republic of Plato

LIST OF FIGURES

1.   Figure 1 A African Language Family Group

   Figure 1 B African Language Family Groups

2.   Figure 2 Migration route of R1b R-V88 DNA into Africa

3.   Figure 3 Distribution of Afro-Asiatic Language Map

4.   Figure 4 Distribution of the Nilo-Saharan Language

5.   Figure 5 Pre-Pabir Kingdom Map

6.   Figure 6 Bura Man

7.   Figure 7 Pabir Kingdom Before the arrival of the British

8.   Figure 8 Tribal Marks

9.   Figure 9 A Pabir Woman Carrying a Baby shielded with danbulam

10.   Figure 10 A Pabir Woman displaying her Danbulam

11.   Figure 11 Bura Man wearing danchiki

12.   Figure 12 Pabir Hair Style

13.   Figure 13 Bura Water Pot-Ghulam

14.   Figure 14 Young local Bura girls Carrying Water from the Hawul river

15.   Figure 15 Cutting tribal Marks

16.   Figure 16 Woman Flailing Corn

17.   Figure 17 Miscellaneous Bura Items

18.   Figure 18 Early Garkida Mission School

19.   Figure 19 One of the first students at Garkida with his Friends

20.   Figure 20 First Family Hearing the Gospel under a tree

21.   Figure 21A Old Biu Division Map

        Figure 21B Administrative map of Biu

LIST OF TABLES

1.   Table 1 Select Monthly rainfall distribution

2.   Table 2 Woviri Dynastic Headquarters Movements

3.   Table 3 African Language Family Groups

4.   Table 4 List of Chadic Languages

5.   Table 5 Biu-Mandara Language sub-branch List

6.   Table 6 West Chadic Languages

7.   Table 7 List of Nilo-Saharan Languages

8.   Table 8 Bura-Kilba-Marghi language Similarities

9.   Table 9 Traditional Titles of the Woviri Royal Family

10.   Table 10 Percent Distribution of Religion affiliation

PREFACE

The insatiable urge to write something about the Bura for me began a long time ago, when I was still in primary school. I’ve always envisaged a time when I’d be proficient enough in my writing and with the appropriate language skills to put down what was burning inside me on paper. Over the years however, the voice inside became more silent and remote as more urgent demands took precedence in my time and ability to put down my thoughts about the twin tribes—Bura/Pabir—that belong to the two sides of my gene pool.

Some of those urgent demands have included the need to complete my academic studies, help my children grow and go to university and pursue their own interests, and, last but not the least, my personal desire to grow and reach a professional academic goal that I set for myself many years ago. I’m now satisfied that most (if not all) of these aspirations have been accomplished, (with varying degrees of success), and now I have time, ample time, to listen and respond to the remnant of that subdued childhood voice still echoing inside. I have already used some of the freed-up time at my disposal to publish several books (mostly stories but also academic studies).

It is from this perspective and the ever-insatiable urge to write that I venture to write about what has gnawed at me since my childhood—why my Aunt Karu sounded so very different from my mother, her sister, when she spoke. Why were the sisters different in their phonology and, indeed, in their mannerisms? Every time I asked my aunt why her pronunciation was often so clearly different from my mother’s, and most definitely from most people in Garkida, she would just smile and say, "Your mother has been here (at Garkida) for a long time, and has lost some of her Pabir ways, including accent and intonation. Pabir ways"! That was the weirdest thing I’d ever heard. Who are the Pabirs/Baburs? I would demurely ask, and who am I?

The present book is an attempt to investigate who the Pabirs are, and, more broadly, to help answer some questions about the origins of the Bura. Some have classified them as of Bantu origin, based on their phonology (Meek 1931), but I’ve always had some reservation about that claim, principally, because of the absence of click and guttural when they speak, which is one of the main characteristics of the Bantu language. But if they’re not Bantu in origin where did they come from? I remember my uncle, Yerima Tapchi, attempting to answer the same question several times, both at home and while on the farm, by simply stating from the east. And if I asked him further, where in the east?, he would gently raise his head up, look up, placidly, still with the hoe in one of his hands, the other, resting on his bent knee, continue to till the ground around the young guinea-corn plants and groundnuts, and just point to the cardinal east. That was it, no further questions asked. Any further questions would elicit a response such as Stop this laziness and excuses! This piece of land has to be completed before we go home today! Consequently, one of the purposes of this book is to try and locate a more definitive, rather than the amorphous, answer that I’ve always heard to this question that I’ve struggled with since I was a child.

Lastly, but not the least I want to document, and if possible promote, some of the tribe’s social and cultural practices for the younger generation. I want my children, if they care to, to read about the practices of their ancestors and appreciate the vastly changed environment they now see around them (see also The Village Boy by Ayuba Mshelia, 2009; and Suksuku, 2010, by the same author). We can only appreciate what we have today if we know what our parents and grandparents didn’t have. If we let our culture diminish or vanish (including our language and social conventions) without preserving them, then we’re no longer Bura/Pabir, we lose our very identity—and any ethnic group that loses its identity is sure to be forgotten, eclipsed, lost in the ash-heap or dustbin of history forever.

In writing the book I’ve made reference to numerous primary and secondary sources and to various knowledgeable individuals in order to present a balanced and accurate perspective in the final product. One of the sources I use extensively is J.G. Davies’ The Biu Book, which is an unpublished collation and general reference tome on the Biu division (written in his spare time as a Northern Nigerian Government civil servant (Divisional Officer) not on behalf of the Government). I also wish to express my gratitude to Columbia University in New York City for their arranging for my friend and colleague Dr. Nii Nartey to borrow the book (inter-library loan) from Harvard University for a week. Another important source is Charles Kingsley Meek’s book, Tribal Studies in Northern Nigeria, first published in 1931 and then reprinted in 1956. I’m indeed indebted to the Crown Agents, especially the Assistant Company Secretary, Mr. Ken L. Ball (whose headquarters is located at St. Nicholas House, St Nicholas Road, Sutton, Surrey, and London, England), for giving me the permission to use some images from Meek’s book. My sincere and ever—grateful gratitude is also duly expressed to Mr. David Greendonner of Baker’s Publishing Group for the permission to use images from In Sunny Nigeria, 1926, by Albert D. Helser, one of the first two Christian missionaries to arrive in Garkida, on March 8, 1923. I’m also indebted and grateful to Rev. Jack Wulari K. Mbaya (as well as Mr. Kermon Thomasson, my former Teacher at Waka, for his profound kindness and willingness to share his only surviving copy with me) for allowing me to use some maps from his unpublished thesis; The Establishment of Pabir Hegemony over the Gongola-Hawal Plateau, submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, ABU, Zaria, 1972. And, yes, what would we do these days without Wikipedia (tho’, rest assured, I have drawn from its insights and information, discriminatingly).

For some advertent or inadvertent comment to help me decide on whether or not one argument is better than another, I depended on several people, in such instances, to help clarify my thought-processes. I must in this context, express my sincere gratitude to my old university-days friend, Mr. Mustapha H. Balami for his ever-ready willingness to respond to my many idiosyncratic calls and demands, (despite the fact that there was a time-differences between us—these calls often required his confirmation or verification of the veracity of certain historical facts, or verification of context-appropriateness usage). I’ve also depended upon Rtd. Col. Markus Y. Mshelia as a sounding-board for testing the veracity of certain information pertaining to the social and cultural practices of the Bura people, just as I have done with Mr. Balami; this is in addition to requiring him to run some local errands relevant to the production of the book; for all of these and many more I owe him my gratitude. I also offer my paternal gratitude to my son Bilar A. Mshelia for his down-to-earth corrections and comments about the quality of the work, most especially as it relates to the African Language family groups and most specifically how the Central-Chad sub-branch of Biu-Mandara fits in the narrative and research. I must also acknowledge further contributions of my friend Dr. Nii Nartey for his invaluable assistance with the technical aspect of the book, especially with the different photos. At this juncture I must acknowledge the contribution of Mr. Simon Pettet who painstakingly and single-handedly edited the whole manuscript and collated the book with literate intelligence and uncanny sensitivity, shaping it into a unified and succinct tapestry, pleasurable to read.

Last but not least, I must express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to my wife, Wahir Mshelia for her genuine, unsullied and untainted criticisms and suggestions about certain aspects of the book, especially the social and cultural life of the Bura people. I must also express my indebtedness to my cousin and elder, Mallam Bittinger Mshelia for his invaluable input, especially with regards to certain Bura words or names, and he’s always answered my questions even if it means contacting his friends. Finally, I must express my gratitude to Mallam Tawhi Tarfa for promptly responding to my numerous requests through his friend Mallam Bittinger. I’m indebted to many more people whom I cannot all list here, but who have made invaluable contributions to the book, which, in the end, renders it even more enthralling and readable, across the board.

Finally, this book is not The story of the Bura People, that will probably come later. This is only a story of the Bura people. The complete history of the Bura/Pabir would require significantly more scholarship and historical or linguistic expertise in order to collate all the disparate parts or gestalt into a unified whole. This book, however, is a beginning and a challenge to the present generation to get involved in their tribes’ social and cultural life – now, without delay, before all is lost!

Prof. AYM

New York, 2014

CHAPTER ONE

PROLOGUE

I was always intrigued as a child by Aunt Yakaru (Karu), who still lived at Galdimare quarters in Biu whenever she visited her elder sister, my mother, at Garkida. The two sisters always sounded to me a bit different in their pronunciation,—for example, they would say wajiri instead of the Bura wagiri—and even in their mannerisms. The reason for these subtle differences were, in part, due to the fact that, my mother, being the elder daughter, was given to the 25th Emir, Ali Gurgur (1935-1951) as a wife; a year after the Emir had bestowed my maternal grandfather the official royal title of Birma (Vizier). However, when it didn’t work out for my mother in the royal household, she left and moved to Garkida, where she met my father. The subtle difference in their speech and manners, besides their religion was, I surmise, due to fact that my mother had been away from the Pabir customs and mores for most of her adult life. This simple but dynamic circumstance that I encountered in my immediate family during the formative and most impressionable period of my development, helped captivate my attention and sparked my curiosity to search for the fundamental reasons why the different ethnic or tribal groups within my immediate background might differ so in their phonological patterns (their languages and dialects), and how—or why—they arrived and settled at their present particular locations. The two tribal groups I’m specifically interested in are the Bura and Pabir of Bornu and Adamawa States; both of which I inherit in my gene pool.

I became enthused since early childhood with a powerful cognitive curiosity, or what can be described as "an insatiable need to unravel the roots of these subtleties. Putting aside my inadequacy in history and the concomitant fear of failure that this engenders, I nonetheless decided to search for such subtle but dynamic differences as exist between the two tribes through migration and proto-linguistic patterns (in Africa in general, but West Africa in particular). Thus, in pursuance of my stated goal, I decided to examine the broad spectrum of language families/phylum or classifications and their origin and patterns of migrations in the different regions of West Africa, especially the Mandara and Lake Chad regions. A second rationale (in conjunction with, and duly related to, the first) for producing this work is to make an attempt to understand the origins and dynamics of those proto-languages that eventually led to the production or classification of the languages into the different language family groups that we have today. A third, but equally powerful, rationale for this project is to make an attempt to explain the existence, or non-existence, of some social and cultural differences that may or may not exist between the two ethnic groups, then and now.

However, before we continue in our search for the sources of the subtle differences between the two tribes, I would like to take a brief diversion, and examine the environmental milieus in which the two tribes live, the milieus that sustain their existence.

Topography

Topographically, the dominant feature of the district, as stated by Davies (Davies 1956), is the Biu plateau (and the Biu plateau and plains can be regarded as a unit on its own). Davies observed that the plateau has a scarp all round it which, in places, slopes gradually off to the north and has steep precipitous escarpments to the south. To the east and west, it falls down in steps, and to the west around the Tera district, it falls eight hundred feet lower than the Biu highlands.

The most distinctive precipitous region, according to Davies, is the southern part, especially from Buma to Kwajaffa where the precipitous escarpments and hills produce a fine rugged landscape around the river Hawul. South of the division, on the other side of the river Hawul, is the majestic Adamawa State Inselberg landscape. To the west is the river Gongola, one of the Largest Rivers in Nigeria. However, to the north and east of the division lie the dull and monotonous plains of Bornu proper.

The plateau is a volcanic one, and in the south are many flat-topped hills showing its previous level. Some of these have well-developed craters with breached rims and steep sides, but the best known, and an attraction to visitors is the Tilla which is notable for its crocodile-infested lake. Throughout the division are a number of prominent hills that can be seen for some distance, such as Walama, Marama and Vidau.

Vegetationally, the plateau, including the area of Ǵarƙida, is orchard—orchards and bush on the boundary of the Sudanian Savanna and the Guinea Savanna. A good deal of the division has been denuded of thick forests as a result of moderate erosion and by a moderately dense population growth.

Geographically both Nigeria and Cameroon, according to The Biu Book by Davies, are estimated to be around three hundred and seventy three thousand square miles, (out of which Northern Nigeria is comprised of 281,782 square miles). Biu Division lies between latitudes 10⁰ and 11⁰ 15’ N and longitudes 11⁰ 30’ and 13⁰ E, with Biu Township being on latitude 10⁰ 36’ N and longitudes 12⁰ 13’ E. The official area of Biu division is 3,764 square miles, (compared with 32,855 square miles for Bornu and Dikwa which is 5,045 square miles. In brief, the geology of Nigeria as a whole, including Bornu, but most specifically that of the plateau, was formed mostly during the Archaean (Pre-Cambrian) period of a base complex of granites, gneisses, and schists. These were probably formed about six hundred million years ago and then developed through three periods of submergence—firstly the Cretaceous period, (about ninety million years ago, much of which was later eroded), secondly, the Eocene period, and, last but not least, the Chad group of sediments, which do not extend as far as Biu.

The pre-Cambrian basement complex rocks form the oldest rocks in Nigeria, and cover about half of the country. These ancient rocks cover about thirty-five percent of the whole Biu Division, appearing in Shani (now independent from Biu) and in the Tera districts. Some outcrops appear, for example, around Walama, at Kwaba or near Kwaya Tera.

Davies estimates that the Cretaceous formations cover about fifteen percent of the division, and can themselves be divided into three sub-groups—the Bima sandstone, the limestone-shales and the Gombe sandstone. The Bima sandstone is variable, but may be up to four thousand feet thick in some areas and is terrestrial in origin. They outcrop along the Gongola valley, where they form the Wangeri, Wadai and Bima hills, and extend north-east from Gasi to Bila. There’s also a visible outcrop at Pieta which forms the rock bed of the River Moksa near Kimba/Gur. They are usually white and purple in color. The Bima sandstones merged into the limestone-shales, which are about five hundred feet thick in some places. Outcrops of limestone-shale can be seen in the Gongola valley west of Balbiya, Gasi, and near Kubo. These often appear yellow or grey. The limestone-shales pass transitionally into the Gombe sandstone, which is in most places about seven hundred feet thick.

The plateau itself Davies further argues is formed of basalts, which cover up approximately