April 5, 2010
In 1958, Alhaji Abubakar Dokaji, the Late Wazirin Kano, wrote what is arguably the most comprehensive and authoritative book on the history of Kano and its people in Hausa language titled Kano Ta Dabo Cigari. The book captures graphically the political, economic, cultural and religious evolution, transformation and development of Kano and Kanawa since its pre-Habe pagan days before the ascension of King Bagauda son of Bayajidda. Today, Kano has come a very long way from its pagan heritage depicted by the author in its first days of founding.
In 1958, Alhaji Abubakar Dokaji, the Late Wazirin Kano, wrote what is arguably the most comprehensive and authoritative book on the history of Kano and its people in Hausa language titled Kano Ta Dabo Cigari. The book captures graphically the political, economic, cultural and religious evolution, transformation and development of Kano and Kanawa since its pre-Habe pagan days before the ascension of King Bagauda son of Bayajidda. Today, Kano has come a very long way from its pagan heritage depicted by the author in its first days of founding.
A particularly interesting, some may say instructive, chapter in the pagan period of Kano history that bears uncanny resemblance to political reality in the evolution and transformation of the Nigerian state in contemporary period is the story of Tsumburbura and Barbushe. Tsumburbura was an oracle atop the Dala Hills who the pagans of ancient Kano believed to be a god. Every year the people of Kano would converge at the foot of Dala Hills on an annual pilgrimage and festival to make sacrifices and offerings and to seek his blessings. No one had ever seen him but he had an able assistant in the person of Barbushe who was his Chief Priest. Barbushe had the task of carrying the offerings to the Oracle at the top of the hill and at a specified time would conveniently come down with the words, blessings, judgments, wishes, and orders of Tsumburbura. For the next 365 days, everyone within the boundaries of Kano was bound by what the Chief Priest said to be the WILL of the higher oracle. Disobedience meant certain death. It was reported that the words of the Oracle spoken through the mouth of the Chief Priest carried the sanctity of divineness.
It is easy, after centuries of enlightened civilization, to dismiss those practices as the yoke of unenlightened barbaric practices, occultic and pagan superstitions. For it has always been the iron-cast rule of history to consider as archaic, primitive and barbaric, any culture or civilization that does not conform to contemporaneous expectations. Any time we failed in trying to decipher the myth of history, we dismiss such as entirely inconsequential. This sweeping condemnation I think is terribly wrong. It is wrong for several reasons. The least I could easily remember is that history, we are always told, is a cycle that come full round eventually. This aphorism has found graphic illustration in modern times not in the studios of Hollywood, Bollywood, and Nollywood but in the very theatres of our social and political existence; on how we live, interact and even define our social and political spaces.
The episode of Tsumburbura as an oracle and that of Barbushe as the chief priest ably assisted by other priests or cabal if you like, is today being enacted in Nigeria albeit with all the sophistication and advancement which our civilization offers. The president is believed to be sick and probably incapacitated. But he is not accessible to most of his family members, retinue of aides, political associates or even his countrymen. He is only accessible to his wife who could be described as the chief priestess and likened with Barbushe. Very much like Tsumburbura. And like the Kano Oracle, the President it is said, is still alive and getting better. He has not seen it fit and proper to address his people because there is no need just like Tsumburbura who never considered it expedient to address the people directly. In this is a similarity of chilling magnitude. Both probably considered it demeaning to the exaltedness of their higher offices to talk to the people or even appear publicly. Or perhaps, to guess wildly and outrageously, both deities were actually the creation of the vile Chief Priests and their cohorts acting as the grand puppeteers. Gods and oracles don't talk with the people; they only talk to the people and always through a medium like a chief priest, a cabal or any other name the medium chooses to be known with.
To complete the transformation of Umar Yar'adua from a president to an oracle, he needs his chief priest. This he has in his wife, Turai. The only person in the whole world with unfettered and unrestricted access to the President. Was it not reported that Barbushe was the only mortal who had access to Tsumburbura? It was reported so and even more: he was the sole conveyor of all the wishes of the Oracle to the people just like Turai is today the only medium between Umar and Nigerians. Our own Chief Priestess like the ancient Chief Priest is being assisted by a small cycle of trusted and reliable lieutenants who have the responsibility of translating often by guile, intimidation, blackmail, and threats the wishes of their oracles as communicated through the medium of their chief priest or priestess as is the case today. To Yar'adua, shaking hands and raising same in prayers with some pre-selected Ulamas beautifully completes this reincarnation.
Nigeria is today a witness to several instances that lend credence to this transformation process. The President signed the supplementary budget on his sick bed. But none had seen him do it. Troops were deployed without the knowledge of the AP simply because there could not be divided loyalty: the Brigade of Guards swore loyalty to the person of the president not the Constitution or even the country. The Governors' Forum has transformed itself into a secret society, just like in the days of Tsumburbura, as the custodian of the status quo order. And the Ulamas have the joined choir as chorus singers. Meanwhile, a lesser mortal like the AP Goodluck, and the rest of over hundred million Nigerians cannot and would not see the president.
By the way, I almost forget to mention that Bagauda later burned the Kano Oracle, put to death the Chief Priest and the other priests and priestesses, destroyed the cult and its followers, and established Kano as one of the enduring and most powerful city-states in all of the Sudan for a thousand years. The question therefore is: who is going to be our Bagauda?
Aliyu Mukhtar Katsina
[email protected]
A particularly interesting, some may say instructive, chapter in the pagan period of Kano history that bears uncanny resemblance to political reality in the evolution and transformation of the Nigerian state in contemporary period is the story of Tsumburbura and Barbushe. Tsumburbura was an oracle atop the Dala Hills who the pagans of ancient Kano believed to be a god. Every year the people of Kano would converge at the foot of Dala Hills on an annual pilgrimage and festival to make sacrifices and offerings and to seek his blessings. No one had ever seen him but he had an able assistant in the person of Barbushe who was his Chief Priest. Barbushe had the task of carrying the offerings to the Oracle at the top of the hill and at a specified time would conveniently come down with the words, blessings, judgments, wishes, and orders of Tsumburbura. For the next 365 days, everyone within the boundaries of Kano was bound by what the Chief Priest said to be the WILL of the higher oracle. Disobedience meant certain death. It was reported that the words of the Oracle spoken through the mouth of the Chief Priest carried the sanctity of divineness.
It is easy, after centuries of enlightened civilization, to dismiss those practices as the yoke of unenlightened barbaric practices, occultic and pagan superstitions. For it has always been the iron-cast rule of history to consider as archaic, primitive and barbaric, any culture or civilization that does not conform to contemporaneous expectations. Any time we failed in trying to decipher the myth of history, we dismiss such as entirely inconsequential. This sweeping condemnation I think is terribly wrong. It is wrong for several reasons. The least I could easily remember is that history, we are always told, is a cycle that come full round eventually. This aphorism has found graphic illustration in modern times not in the studios of Hollywood, Bollywood, and Nollywood but in the very theatres of our social and political existence; on how we live, interact and even define our social and political spaces.
The episode of Tsumburbura as an oracle and that of Barbushe as the chief priest ably assisted by other priests or cabal if you like, is today being enacted in Nigeria albeit with all the sophistication and advancement which our civilization offers. The president is believed to be sick and probably incapacitated. But he is not accessible to most of his family members, retinue of aides, political associates or even his countrymen. He is only accessible to his wife who could be described as the chief priestess and likened with Barbushe. Very much like Tsumburbura. And like the Kano Oracle, the President it is said, is still alive and getting better. He has not seen it fit and proper to address his people because there is no need just like Tsumburbura who never considered it expedient to address the people directly. In this is a similarity of chilling magnitude. Both probably considered it demeaning to the exaltedness of their higher offices to talk to the people or even appear publicly. Or perhaps, to guess wildly and outrageously, both deities were actually the creation of the vile Chief Priests and their cohorts acting as the grand puppeteers. Gods and oracles don't talk with the people; they only talk to the people and always through a medium like a chief priest, a cabal or any other name the medium chooses to be known with.
To complete the transformation of Umar Yar'adua from a president to an oracle, he needs his chief priest. This he has in his wife, Turai. The only person in the whole world with unfettered and unrestricted access to the President. Was it not reported that Barbushe was the only mortal who had access to Tsumburbura? It was reported so and even more: he was the sole conveyor of all the wishes of the Oracle to the people just like Turai is today the only medium between Umar and Nigerians. Our own Chief Priestess like the ancient Chief Priest is being assisted by a small cycle of trusted and reliable lieutenants who have the responsibility of translating often by guile, intimidation, blackmail, and threats the wishes of their oracles as communicated through the medium of their chief priest or priestess as is the case today. To Yar'adua, shaking hands and raising same in prayers with some pre-selected Ulamas beautifully completes this reincarnation.
Nigeria is today a witness to several instances that lend credence to this transformation process. The President signed the supplementary budget on his sick bed. But none had seen him do it. Troops were deployed without the knowledge of the AP simply because there could not be divided loyalty: the Brigade of Guards swore loyalty to the person of the president not the Constitution or even the country. The Governors' Forum has transformed itself into a secret society, just like in the days of Tsumburbura, as the custodian of the status quo order. And the Ulamas have the joined choir as chorus singers. Meanwhile, a lesser mortal like the AP Goodluck, and the rest of over hundred million Nigerians cannot and would not see the president.
By the way, I almost forget to mention that Bagauda later burned the Kano Oracle, put to death the Chief Priest and the other priests and priestesses, destroyed the cult and its followers, and established Kano as one of the enduring and most powerful city-states in all of the Sudan for a thousand years. The question therefore is: who is going to be our Bagauda?
Aliyu Mukhtar Katsina
[email protected]
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