Bayajiddah: Who were we...?

[Ibro2g]

Actually there is a similar thread like this in the history sub-forum, I'm not sure if this one belongs there, here or the general forum. So the Admin in his grace will sort this out.
This is Kanoonline/Hausafulani online and there is one matter I would like us to discuss. First take a look at this post.

http://kanoonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=2685.0

You could reply here or there, wherever the Noble Admin decides.

Bayajiddah was a myth like many other myths, it was a way of keeping history down through time. To engulf everything in a metaphor and pass it down as stories.

We were terrible when it comes to documentation and preserving history, we still are. And the real accord of Bayajiddah may never be found. However, it may have been a man, not necessarily a prince, who defied a King(the snake) in his Kingdom(the well) being so cruel as to not let his people drink from the well, or was just cruel in other ways. And this man(the prince) fought the king, probably killing him in a coup. With so many plots involving the towns men and the kings...probably...youngest wife. After dethroning him, and the then Hausa kingdom, he then married the youngest wife, appointed himself King and sent down his generals or advocates to the other major cities to rule.

This theory is opened to suggestions. Some body please lay down know facts about Bayajidda for us, and then mythical stories too. Somebody please tell me when this allegedly happened, age or era.

Finally it is wrong to call him the father of Hausawa...afterall we did exist and speak and coexist b4 bayajidda, we were a nation before him, we do have a prior history than that...again open to discussions

If we want to know who we were, we have to reconstruct it with known facts, known legends, known myths, and our creative minds. We did exist ladies and gentlemen, can u answer me, who were we?

may Safety and peace be upon you all.

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[Konan]

sooooooooooooo interesting i wonder if ders ne history behind my family

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[Ibro2g]

This is what the world thinks about Bayajidda.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayajidda

It will be most interesting to note the Analysis of the story there. The time of event is I understand is somewhere at 1870 or so. I need someone to correct my timing please.

This shows we did exist before bayajidda, he didnt give birth to us.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/03/NE_600ad.jpg

This is a map of the region 600 AD. It shows the Tuareg nimadic tribes and the Sao civilisations were there, but its known that the Songhai civilisation got to Arewa too. And the Nok were there 500 BC to about 200 AD as they just disappeared.

(I'm sleepy)
Safety and peace

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[Fateez]

Actually there is a similar thread like this in the history sub-forum, I'm not sure if this one belongs there, here or the general forum. So the Admin in his grace will sort this out.
This is Kanoonline/Hausafulani online and there is one matter I would like us to discuss. First take a look at this post.

http://kanoonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=2685.0

You could reply here or there, wherever the Noble Admin decides.

Bayajiddah was a myth like many other myths, it was a way of keeping history down through time. To engulf everything in a metaphor and pass it down as stories.

We were terrible when it comes to documentation and preserving history, we still are. And the real accord of Bayajiddah may never be found. However, it may have been a man, not necessarily a prince, who defied a King(the snake) in his Kingdom(the well) being so cruel as to not let his people drink from the well, or was just cruel in other ways. And this man(the prince) fought the king, probably killing him in a coup. With so many plots involving the towns men and the kings...probably...youngest wife. After dethroning him, and the then Hausa kingdom, he then married the youngest wife, appointed himself King and sent down his generals or advocates to the other major cities to rule.

This theory is opened to suggestions. Some body please lay down know facts about Bayajidda for us, and then mythical stories too. Somebody please tell me when this allegedly happened, age or era.

Finally it is wrong to call him the father of Hausawa...afterall we did exist and speak and coexist b4 bayajidda, we were a nation before him, we do have a prior history than that...again open to discussions

If we want to know who we were, we have to reconstruct it with known facts, known legends, known myths, and our creative minds. We did exist ladies and gentlemen, can u answer me, who were we?

may Safety and peace be upon you all.

Where on earth did you hear that version from Ibro?

1.   The story of Bayajidda HAS been conserved in writing and passed down for centuries.

It is written in ancient Ajami and available (not to everyone though) in the palace of the emir in Daura.


2.   The Snake was NOT a King! The snake was just called Sarki. That time Daura was only ruled

by Queens (Magajiya) and the Kingdom was not a well. The kingdom was land which by the way still

exists - see tsohon birnin Daura (not the present Daura but the ancient one on the way to Mai Aduwa).

The well was just the only source of water and the snake that was called Sarki only allowed people to

fetch water once a week.



3.   There was no coup. The Queens of Daura all vowed celibacy and never married. However,

Daurama was impressed by his bravery and she gave up her throne and that was what made Daura

a patrilineal Kingdom. The office of Magajiya still exists in modern Daura and she is still a vital part of

the decision making process. In fact, if you’ve noticed hawan Sallah in Daura you’ll see that after the

Eid prayer, they all report to Gidan Magajiya to pay their respect and then she’ll give the go-ahead for

them to parade the town.



4.   Yes, Bayajidda is not the father of hausawa however; he is the origin of the Habe states. He

only made the Hausa kingdoms an establishment if you like. Similarly, Nigerians existed before 1960 but

don’t we all say Nigeria is 47??



5.   The time of event was not 1870. As at 1870 the Fulani jihad had already happened! In fact, by

1870, Daura was ruled by the 6th Sarkin Fulani (Sarki Muhammad Altine). While the exiled Hausa Emir was

Sarki Dan Aro who ruled in Zangon Daura.



6.   I happen to have a comprehensive list of all (I mean ALL) the Queens and Emirs that have ruled

Daura and approximately how long they ruled for (I must say they did have some very interesting names).

If you add all the years together, it’ll add up to almost 2000 years. You can even tell that this was way

before Islam came to the region from their names. You can see where the Muslim names started kicking in

that was around the 28th Emir.



7.   If you want more information, go to the the Kusugu well Monument in Daura around the Area you’ll

see a school called Islamiya Primary School. Go there and ask for the delightful Mallam Mamman Siya Abubakar.

He is the official historian of Daura. Have a nice chat with him, it’ll clear everything.


 

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[arubuta]

nicely told fateez
from daura? or a historian

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[Ibro2g]

She is probably Both
Thanks Fateez, However I have two question. I do know that Daura was governed or ruled by Qeens then, all Hausa states even. But How can a snake decide when water is to be fetched. A single day in a week, do u think such a beast is capable of such intelligence. The serpent must be a metaphor in my own suspiscion. What do you think?

Then Allow me to quote from the history page, I saw something interesting there

IN THE BEGINNING...

There were people living in the Savannah regions of Northern Nigeria and Southern Niger.

Those people were speaking diffrent dialects that are closely related....a linguist should say Chadic Languages of Afroasiatic group.

The Afroasiatic family is divided into six branches: Egyptian, Semtic, Berber, Cushitic, Omotic, and Chadic. According to one theory, the languages of the Afroasiatic family are thought to have first been spoken along the shores of the Red Sea. That time when Sahara Desert was a fertile wet land. When the land was incresingly becoming dryer, the people move Northward and southward away from the desert to a greener land. The people now known to be chadic move to the the area around the present day Lake Chad (remember..Lake Chad was the remains of the Great Sahara Sea that dried up...long long time ago)

From there people kept dispersing and occupy the vast savannah. This is evident from the fact that many languages in the present day Bornu-Yobe-Bauchi-Plateau-Gombe and some part of Adamawa belong to the same group as Hausa...The Chadic Group! Note that Kanem, Kanuri and Shuwa Arab are non Chadic Language.

I have reasons to believe that the wide area now covered by the Hausas was previously occupied by the same race speaking diffrent Chadic Languages (of which the then Hausa might just be one of those smaller dialect) as their cousins in the Plateau Highland and Lake Chad Basins.

THE ARRIVAL OF BAYAJIDDA...

The people were living, you might similar to the way their cousins on the plateau (there might not be people at all on the plateau then!) and the Lake Chad Basin. There arised a King from a small setlement of Daura! His stories differs: People like Mohammad bello bn Usman bn Fodio relates that he (Bayajidda) might be a servant of the Kanem-Bornu King.

Kanem-Bornu was a civilised kingdom to the East of the Chad Basin, that conqured some part of the Basin and established its capital to the west of Lake Chad (right into the Chadic Group teritories). Going by Mohammad bello's theory, the King might have just sent Bayajidda to conquer the remaining part of the Basin that was not under his control for expansionism attitude of most civilised kingdoms then (Even now..just look at United States).

Another theory, that rhythms most with the oral tradition is: He could just come from anywhere most likely a rebel warrior from Bornu(whatever he definately passed through Kanem Bornu Empire). he arrive a small settlement called Daura where he might have killed the Snake or whatever.

THE SNAKE AND THE WELL OF DAURA..

The story of the Snake is an interesting one. Most people of Red Sea origin were known to be attributing some supernatural and magical power to snakes. They almost all have some stories about snakes (the most feared god in ancient egypt was called Ra...a snake god..or is it snake headed???) Remember how Tsumburbura was found according to Kano Chronicles holding a snake in its hand? also when one king of kano was reverting to Paganism he was asked to sacrifice a snake...and .?

The people of Daura were worshipping the snake. Considering the location of Daura at the fringe of the desert, one can easily see that water is scarce there. The oral tradition narrates that the new arrival was looking for water but was told that water can only be fetched on a certain day (reference to Friday is definately the influence of Islam..so it might not be true) when a sort of sacrifice must have been performed to their god-snake whom the oral tradition said they called Sarki.

Bayajidda being a non chadic might not have respect for their diety, so he defied and killed it. When the people saw what he did they were awed and might have consider him as a god too. They gave him the name Sarki and made him a ruler over them. (it is only natural, isnt it?)

This Hausa Language might be the Language of the tribe that settled in Daura.

THE SPREAD OF HAUSA AND HAUSA STATES

Bayajidda now established himself in Daura. Since the story said he camee to Daura alone so we assume he now learned the Daura language (or should I say Hausa..that was not existing as it is now) He now wants to expands his Kingdom. The children of Bayajidda or his liutenants or even his slaves were dispatched for the purpose. They conquered the neighbouring tribes as far as Kano and Founded the Hausa States.

The story of Banza Bakwai is not true at all. It was probably devised by the Jihadist to create a Sense of Unity among the citizens of the caliphate. Just look at it, the Hausa Bakwai are the roughly the Hausa Speaking Emirates of the Caliphates and they mostly are part of the Eastern Caliphate while the Banza Bakwai are the non Hausa Speaking Emirates ithat formed the Western Caliphate ncluding Yoruba of Illorin!

Any tribe from the so called Banza Bakwai will hiss if you tell him this story as there was no evidence that they know Bayajidda or have any link to him.

As tribe by tribe fall to the kingdom of Daura, they culture and the language of the conquered and conqueror intermiggled with definately an upper hand for the Daura dialect. With time the tribes were assimilated. Some tribes moves further into the Mountaineous regions to the south and to the west. to avoid the expansion. The Hausa Language was most probly the dialect of the daura settlement with many borrowed word from the conquered tribes (Tribes that lived around Kano mentioned even in Kano ta Dabo Cigari and other tribes occupying the Lake Chad Basin, Zagzagawa Gobirawa and the rest). The conquest and the expansion was to the south and the west probabaly to avoid clash with mightier Kanem Bornu, thus sparing the people of Yobe-Bauchi and Beyond the Plateau.

THE NEW RELIGION: ISLAM

Mohammad Bello confirmed that at the time of the Jihad they Hausa States were paying tributes to the Bornu Kings. He drew his conclusion of the Bayajidda Bornu theory from that. There was no direct reference to any conquest of the Hausa States by the Bornu King, so Mohammad Bello could nt see any reason why it should be so.

Whatever, if we assume Bayajidda was a Borno escaped warrior (or even prisioner charged with treason), we will be lead to assume later the Hausa States were faced with a threat from Bornu which the Hausa probably repelled with a promised of paying annual tributes...it was a very common practice in the past. The Hausas were conquered by other expanding tribes like the Jukuns thou the conquest was not permanent...reason? ask the Jukuns   . It can be safely be concluded that each state was autonamous, thou they were all looking at Daura as thier spiritual home before all Pagan ties were dissolved with the coming of Islam.

Bayajidda being from or passed through Bornu..if he was correctly fixed in the time frame..must have known about Islam or could have been a Muslim himself even thou nominal. His conquest although seen as politically motivated was the last blow on the Paganism in the savannah. He destroyed the natives deities and left them with no religion except reverance for the king 'Sarki'. so when Islam arrives it was readily accepted. We must not forget that the natives accepted Islam but the memories of their gods destroyed by the Hausa (Daura) conquerors was still fresh. They tendency was the mixture of the two religions. The situation remain so until the advent of the Jihad.

The coming of Islam further enriched the Hausa Language with Arabic and Tuaregs languages. Althought even before the Hausa tribal Languages must have consist of words that are similar from the said two languages since they all belonged to the Afroasiatic Languages.

THE JIHAD EXPANSION

The Jihad of Dan Fodio that was for the separation of Islam and the native worship brought to the scene another completely non chadic elements to Hausa Language, The Fulani Elements. At the same time it helped in spreading the Hausa Language to the areas unconquered by Bayajidda's liutenents. The Fulani swordmen ravage the whole savannah and brought to an end the dynasty in the mighty Bornu Empire. The ventured even far into the Forst region and add ilorin to their map. More smaller tribes were pushed further into the mountain to preserve their heritages as fulani cavalry couldnt penetrate the mountain.

The Fulani adopted the Hausa Language for running the administartion of the Caliphate. hence more people who were not Hausas until then were assimilated. While some, like the Nupes, Gwaris and even the Kanuris adopted it as a second language.

The Jihad brought the Hausas to the Bauchi-Gombe-Adamawa-Taraba Regions. The tribes of Bauchi were slowly absorbed into the Hausa fold. The Zazzau kingdom was displaced by the jihadist to the south into Abuja Regions. Later Hausa and Fulani adventurers founded the Hausa Emirates of Lafia, Nassarawa, Keffi on the lower plateau, Wase, Dass and formerly Jos on the upper plateau thus pushing the unconquered tribes further into the mountains. To the north the kings of Daura nad Katsina were pushed to the fringe of the desert into the south of Niger abandoning their cities.
The tribes of Jamaare-Hadejia Basin formerly under Bornu were curved out and they were made into Hausas.

THE BRITISH CONQUEST AND POST INDEPENDANCE

The conquest of the caliphate by the British and the indirect rule further unite the people now speaking the Daura dialect..ouch! I mean Hausa dialect. The british consolidated the caliphate and the hithero unconquered tribes were conquered by the British and merge with the caliphate. Although they were given a seperate identity by the British - Christianity- as opposed to the Islam of the Hausas, they adopte as a second language and Hausa is now doing to their dialects as it did to their cousins almost a thousand years ago!

The British Conquest also took the Hausa Back to near its Original Home. The Red Sea Coast, with Emigration of many people running away from the british rule and settling in central African countries with many of them reaching the red sea. The Hausas living in the central Africa didnt succeed in Hausanizing any tribe but their Language was rather facing extinction there, and it was badly influence and corrupted by Arabic in about 8 million Hausas in Sudan. But atleast they were not there as conquerors but rather poor immigrants!

CONCLUSION

It could be seen that there were people in the Savannah of Northern nigeria even before the coming of Bayajidda or the Pureheart's Ethiopians.

The people now calling themselves Hausas were actually a mixture of many tribes settling in the vast presently called Hausa and immigrant from beyond and may come as settlers or imposing themselves as kings.

Concluded.
Abubakr Mohammed Manzo
 

Fateez, may u please post ur list of emirs and queens.[/color]

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[amira]

I've heard this story but bits and pieces of it, although i heard that he bayyajidda was from
baghdad and his real name is/was abu yazid if am correct.
Yes and he came to slay sarki the snake at a well called rigiyar Kusugu in daura and he had seven
children boys that have the name of the hausa bakwai thats why the states, katsina, kano, rano, zaria,gobir and daura were named after them well something like that.
I think the next time i go to naija i will go to daura and check this place.

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[waduz]

Please we want to know, because those of us not counted there have no problem with sorting out our historical backgrounds. Ko ba haka ba, DBN?

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[Fateez]

nicely told fateez
from daura? or a historian

Hehe, Yeah. I am from the Heart of Daura ~ Kangiwa.

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[Fateez]

She is probably Both
Thanks Fateez, However I have two question. I do know that Daura was governed or ruled by Qeens then, all Hausa states even. But How can a snake decide when water is to be fetched. A single day in a week, do u think such a beast is capable of such intelligence. The serpent must be a metaphor in my own suspiscion. What do you think?

Then Allow me to quote from the history page, I saw something interesting there

The snake part of the story is probably the easiest to interpret. Now I’m no

Zoologist, but even in documentaries I have seen there are certainly many

members or the serpentes Suborder that only need to feed once a week.

These are snakes that swallow their food in extra-ordinarily large quantities.

The types that swallow food as little as eggs to those as large as animals

and when this happens, it takes a few days  to even complete peristalsis let

alone metabolize the bolus.

In the Daura context, the snake lived in a little burrow beside the well and

probably only left the burrow to look for food. So in a sense, it’s not a matter

of the snake being intelligent, rather it’s the biological cycle and feeding pattern

that determined this behaviour.


About that looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong quote, I wouldn’t believe

everything I read online, especially the ones that have no bibliography, no references

and hence, no validity. Once again, I advice you to speak to my buddy, Mallam Abubakar

Mamman-Siya. If you have the chance, that is. He’s a wonderful man.


About the list, InshaAllah I’ll post it soon. I’m currently not strong enough to start typing four A4 pages…

 

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[Ibro2g]

Looking forward to the list fateez, but still I dont buy the whole Snake charade. Even from ur biological analysis, it may take em a week or so, but....How do u expect a "Snake" to guard a "human" Well, probably the only source of water for a whole "Town". And will only let people come to it "Once a week", not everyday but the day he feeds, not everytime he is hungry...once a week. If he is a python, he injests something, once. it may take him a week, or even up to a month before he wakes from his slumber.


I await ur list when u r comfortable fateez, thanks


Safety and peace

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[*~MuDa~*]

@ both Ibro and Fateez...

Look guys, deconstructing history of such nature (oral tradition) which happens to be a myth is not just something you do based on assumptions, you base it with facts, if at all there was a snake who existed in Daura and a man called Bayyajida came from baghdad and killed it then we will have the remains of the snake's head or skin for historical purposes in the museums or royal houses. Again, basing on facts, history is researched by rational thinking and factual evidence, how can you suggest that an animal such as a reptile prevented the whole population of a particular Kingdom to drink from its only well except on fridays? Let us not be superstitious, there is no room for that here. So does that then mean the whole people of Daura drank from one well only on Fridays sufficiently? No, so the story of the snake is just a make up concocted by people and praise singers to make Bayyajidda famous and hero-like.

We have to be very concious in deconstruction of history, without the very facts we are just beating about the bushes or trying to walk on water. the history of Bayyajidda is a myth portraying not the fact that bayyajidda was the father of Hausa people, because he was not, it is just some sort of proof that the Hausa people emerged from the east. This is a well known fact that the Hausa people in the western Sudan emerged from the east thousands of years ago.

If the well in Daura does exist, that is not to be capitalised as the proof that it was the well where the snake dwelled, it may just mean it was the oldest well in that emirate, how can one snale prevent a whole Kingdom to drink from a well? Are you telling me that there were no enough warriors in Daura? According to History, Daura use to be a very strong kingdom, infact, we know that Daura was defeated most of its neighbors as a result of warfare and expantion, so how in the world am i suppose to believe that there was no any warrior strong enough to defeat the snake at the time in the kingdom and the neighboring towns of Daura as well? Cause according to the myth there was a succulent reward attached to the victor of such adventure right? That reward was encouraging enough to attract the warriors of western Sudan to come and take care of that snake in due time. Think about it!

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[gogannaka]

Fateez has more points guys.
Present your facts just like she presented hers.

Kudos Fateez.

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[*~MuDa~*]

lol ...this is history, and we are talking about deconstruction here...get it?

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[Ibro2g]

No NO NO reconstruction muda. I feel we could get onto something

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