GOBIR WAS NUPE Gobir is listed as one of the Hausa Bakwai city states founded by Bayajida. But then Gobir was actually founded by Nupe peoples and as a Nupe settlement. This, of course, goes to corroborate the fact that Bayajida was a Nupe man. As is the case with all the other Hausa Bakwai city states, Gobir was originally located in Central KinNupe and it was only with time that it gradually migrated out of KinNupe to its latter location where we saw it at the advent of this historical era. Original or Old Gobir was located in KinNupe. Leo Africanus wrote that as late as the 13th century Gobir was actually known as Gobara or Gubara. Of course this Gobara or Gubara was the same as Gu-Ibara whereby, as Professor Roger Blench point out, Ibara was the national names of KinNupe in former times. The ‘go’ or ‘gu’ in Gobara or Gubara is just a dialectal affix and the real word in ‘Gobara’ or ‘Gubara’ is actually ‘Bara’ or ‘Ibara’. And, as we just quoted the authority of Professor Roger Blench, Ibara was the national name of the Nupe people in former times. Also, Bara, another form of Ibara, was suffixed with the tribal ‘ni’ article to give ‘Bara-ni’ or ‘Barni’ or ‘Barnu’ which we pronounce today as ‘Bornu’ or ‘Borno’. So, KinNupe was also known in former times as Bornu. In fact KinNupe was Original Borno. This Ibara or Original Borno located in ancient KinNupe was the mother or super kingdom which gave birth to smithereens of daughter kingdoms many of which eventually migrated out of KinNupe to all the nooks and corners of ancient Nigeria. Some of these daughter kingdoms of the ancient Nupe kingdom of Ibara or Original Bornu include today’s Borno, the Igala, the Oyo, the Gbagyi, etc, etc, and, of course, the Gobir. This is how Gobir originated from ancient Nupe. So, the Gobir and the Nupe people used to be one and the same people in the past. In fact Dr. Olumide Ogunremi wrote that in former times the Yoruba people actually referred to the Nupe people as the Gobir. In other words the Nupe people were known former times as the Gobir and the Gobir were known as a Nupe people simply because the two, Gobir and Nupe, were one and the same people. Researchers have also observed that the Gobir and Nupe share so much in common in terms of culture and general sociology that they just have to be one and the same people in the past. It is on this note that Professor Dierk Lange wrote that the Gobir people practise the Gani festival which we see practised at Kutigi in KinNupe to this very day. Then, and of course, we shouldn’t forget the fact that the Gobir and the Nupe peoples share the same cat-whiskers tribal marks until very recent times. The founder of Gobir, known as Mai Gitti, has also been demonstrated to be the same person as Tsoede the founder of Nupe. In fact the names Gitti and Tsoede or Tsudi are more or less one and the same name. Gitti is the same as Gidi which is the mirror-image of Digi which was the name nickname, as Edigi, of Tsoede.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 03:17:54 +0000
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