GOGO HABIBA THE GREAT NUPE WOMAN Gogo Habiba is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, woman in the Nupe history of the Nupe-Fulani people. Hardly is there any other woman in the modern history of Nupe who have influenced and shaped the history of Nupe in modern times as did Gogo Habiba. Gogo Habiba was the daughter of Mallam Dendo. The mother of Gogo Habiba was given to Mallam Dendo by Etsu Majiya when Mallam Dendo was still staying at Dabban and in fact it was at Dabban that Gogo Habiba was born. When Mallam Dendo came to KinNupe he arrived with his first wives and eldest children including Mamman Majigi, Audu Gboya and Usman Zaki. It was, however, at Dabban that Mallam Dendo married Fatimako who was to become the mother of Mustapha, Mahmudu and Masaba all of whom were also born at Dabban. It was while Mallam Dendo staying at Dabban that he blessed and prayed for Etsu Majiya before Etsu Majiya embarked on a battle. When Etsu Majiya came back victorious from the battle he gave Mallam Dendo two women he got from the battle as war prisoners. Mallam Dendo kept one of the women to himself, married her, and she was the one that gave birth to Gogo Habiba. Mallam Dendo gave the other woman to Sultan Atiku as a gift. Sultan Atiku married her and she was the one who became the mother of Umaru Nagwamatse who was the Nupe prince that eventually founded the Kontagora Emirate. In any case Gogo Habiba was born at Dabban. But it wasn’t long afterwards before Mallam Dendo became a leading political factor in KinNupe and the Dendo family eventually moved to settle permanently at Raba. After the death of Mallam Dendo in 1832 the leadership of the Dendo family fell on the shoulders of his eldest son Mamman Majigi. Mamman Majigi was in point of fact the first Emir of Nupe at Raba but he died barely a year into his rulership as he returned from a coronation journey from Gwandu. After the sudden death of Mamman Majigi in 1832, his brother Usman Zaki was immediately turbanned as the next Emir of Nupe at Raba. This new Emir Usman Zaki was also a brother to Gogo Habiba. Incidentally it so happened that Gogo Habiba was very close to this her elder brother Usman Zaki even though they are of different mothers. But Emir Usman Zaki’s reign was cut short by the rebellious activities of Masaba the junior brother to Emir Usman Zaki. Masaba had incited the ancient Etsu Nupes against Emir Usman Zaki and had made rulership and life difficult for Usman Zaki. In the end, in the year 1841, Masaba and one of the Etsu Nupes, Etsu Tsado, besieged Raba with Emir Usman Zaki trapped inside. Usman Zaki ingeniously escaped from Raba in the dead of the night as Masaba and Etsu Tsado wait outside the walls of Raba with their gargantuan army. Emir Usman Zaki took along with him Umaru Majigi the son to the late Mamman Majigi. But Gogo Habiba and other members, mostly her nephews and nieces, of the Dendo family were all left behind in Raba. The next morning when Masaba and Etsu Tsado discovered that Usman Zaki had escaped they attacked and sacked Raba. They burnt the great city of Raba to ashes from which Raba have never recovered to this very day. Masaba then declared himself as the new Etsu Nupe that same year 1841 Masaba was a nice elder brother at heart to Gogo Habiba and he immediately took Gogo Habiba and all the other children of his brothers into his own care. So, Gogo Habiba did not experience much grief at all with the coming to power of Masaba. In fact Masaba established Gogo Habiba as a great trader and warrior. Masaba like Gogo Habiba, his sister, so much. And as the new Etsu Nupe Masaba did all he could to build Gogo Habiba into a prosperous and powerful princess. Being a very ambitious and hardworking lady, Gogo Habiba was able to use the position of her brother Masaba as the Etsu Nupe to immediately rise into a very principal figure in the Nupe polity of those days. It was said that Gogo Habiba was veritably the most beloved of Etsu Masaba’s siblings. In any case the two were really very close and Gogo Habiba was able to use this closeness to Etsu Masaba, as the almighty Etsu Nupe of the entire Nupe Nation, to build herself into a commercial and military success. But then, and barely two years unto power, Masaba was violently overthrown from power by his own very War General Umaru Bahaushe. Following a protracted argument between Masaba and his powerful War General Umaru Bahaushe, the latter turned upon Masaba and ousted him from power. General Umaru Bahaushe chased Masaba out of Lade, Masaba’s capital city, to Meri, to Lalagi and finally out of KinNupe. General Umaru Bahaushe then declared himself as the new Etsu Nupe of the overall Nupe Nation. That was in the year 1847. And for the next nine years General Umaru Bahaushe reigned supreme over the entire Nupe Nation without anybody being able to challenge his authority and power. But the reign if Umaru Bahaushe did not, as should be expected, favour Gogo Habiba. Gogo Habiba was said to have been at Raba when General Umaru Bahaushe suddenly ousted Etsu Masaba the Great from power and chased him out of KinNupe. From the moment General Umaru Bahaushe got to power everything became the other way round for the ambitious Gogo Habiba who was so prosperous under the reign of her brother Etsu Masaba the Great. In fact, and in the initial years into the reign of Umaru Bahaushe, Gogo Habiba had to go into hiding as there were rumours that General Umaru Bahaushe was out to kill or eliminate any member – children or grandchildren – of the Dendo dynasty that he could lay his hands on. In and out of hiding life became terrible and even dangerous for Gogo Habiba as General Umaru Bahaushe reigned for those harrowing nine years as the supreme Etsu Nupe. To make matters worse for Gogo Habiba is the fact that she was literally stranded as a lone member of the Dendo dynasty in KinNupe. All the other prominent and leading members of the Dendo Dynasty have all fled KinNupe. Usman Zaki and Umaru Majigi have fled to self-exile in Gwandu, Etsu Masaba the great have fled to Ilorin, and so on and on. Gogo Habiba was thus left alone at Raba wherein she have to be living the life of a fugitive least Umaru Bahaushe set his eyes or mind on her and decided to eliminate her. It was under these harsh and difficult conditions that Gogo Habiba lived for the nine years that General Umaru Bahaushe reigned supreme over the Nupe Nation. But then, and in the end, Gogo Habiba decided that she could not stand the harsh conditions under the reign of Umaru Bahaushe any longer. And so, from that her difficult situation in that desolate town of Raba she began to reach out to her uncles, brother and other Dendo relations within and outside the Nupe Nation. Gogo Habiba was the first to come up with the idea of finding an effective end to the menace of Umaru Bahaushe. Before she initiated the idea of bringing an end to the rule of Umaru Bahaushe everybody else have thought that it will be virtually impossible and clearly suicidal to think of attacking or overthrowing the all-too-powerful General Umaru Bahaushe who have became the self-declared Etsu Nupe of entire Nupe Nation. But Gogo Habiba was able to come up with the courage of convincing others that Umaru Bahaushe could be overthrown and ousted from powers. And this is despite the fact that she was the only female here. Gogo Habiba send secret emissaries too her brother Usman Zaki and brother Umaru Majigi at Gwandu asking them to return back to KinNupe to defeat Umaru Bahaushe. She also sent similar emissaries to her brother Masaba at Ilorin for him to also mobilise an army against Umaru Bahaushe. What we should note here also is the fact that Gogo Habiba was always appealing to the Fulani and the Dendo blood in all her brothers and relations. She kept on telling them that if they don’t come back to salvage the situation the Fulani stake and the Dendo blood in the Nupe polity will be completely and permanently wiped out by the Umaru Bahaushe reign. Gogo Habiba was thus the revolutionary, and a female one at that, who rose to the challenge of the Umaru Bahaushe Menace. After a series of appeals to her various brothers the entreaties of Gogo Habiba began to yield fruits. At Gwandu Umaru Majigi was able to marshal a gargantuan army of mercenaries who followed him into KinNupe to come and fight Umaru Bahaushe. In KinNupe many others joined the ever growing army of Umaru Majigi. From Ilorin Masaba was also able to raise another army against Umaru Bahaushe – though the army raised by Masaba wasn’t as big as that of Umaru Majigi. Umaru Majigi came into KinNupe with his army and headed for the camps of Umaru Bahaushe. He went and befriended the great General Umaru Bahaushe informing the latter that his expressed reason for returning back to KinNupe was in order to come and collect his siblings and cousins. Umaru Majigi then went to Raba and rescued Gogo Habiba and his other siblings and cousins. Befriending General Umaru Bahaushe was not that difficult for Umaru Majigi considering the fact that they both have Masaba as a common enemy. In fact Umaru Majigi and General Umaru Bahaushe became close friends and were roaming about the length and breadth of KinNupe together with their armies. That is until a great quarrel broke out between the two. The quarrel degenerated into a terrible battle at Zungeru were General Umaru Bahaushe was, incredibly enough, defeated and routed. Umaru Majigi then sent to his brother Usman Zaki at Gwandu and his brother Masaba at Ilorin to both return back to KinNupe to take over from the defeated General Umaru Bahaushe. By that time Gogo Habiba was already together with her beloved brother Masaba at Ilorin. But General Umaru Bahaushe went and recouped and bounced back with such vigour and such a gargantuan army that he repeatedly engaged and defeated Umaru Majigi at various battles until the young and inexperienced Umaru Majigi became a fugitive running from one place to another hotly pursued by a vengeful General Umaru Bahaushe. That was how Umaru Majigi suddenly found himself encamped beside the old walled Bini village of Bida on the Landzun river. And when General Umaru Bahaushe fell upon him there also, Umaru Majigi simply ran into the walled Bini village of Bida which General Umaru Bahaushe simply besieged. Luck and time both ran out for General Umaru Bahaushe, however, when Usman Zaki, from Gwandu, Masaba from Ilorin, and many other Etsu Nupes started arriving the Bida area with reinforcements of large armies to come and engage General Umaru Bahaushe. General Umaru Bahaushe eventually ran away in the face of the large concentration of armies marching against him from all directions. He got drowned in the Gbako River in the process of fleeing. After the defeat and death of General Umaru Bahaushe a Second Raba Convention was held whereby Usman Zaki was turbaned again as the Emir of Nupe. Masaba was made the Sarkin Fulani to Emir Usman Zaki at Bida. While her brothers were gathered at Bida and waiting for the rainy season to be over before they were to moved back to Raba, Gogo Habiba was already settled at Baddegi-Lapai. She didn’t attend the Convention at Bida because as a female member of the Dendo family she was not Islamically reckoned with in regard to royal tussles and the turbanning ceremonies. Incidentally enough the Dendo dynasts eventually decided to remain at Bida permanently and not to return to Raba. Emir Usman Zaki then chose Bida as his new capital city. That was in the year 1856. While her brothers decided to remain at Bida as the new capital of Nupe, Gogo Habiba simply remained at Baddegi as her own permanent base. She did visit her brothers at Bida frequently and kept on talking of her plans to also relocate to Bida but she continued to remain at Baddegi. It was there in Baddegi that Gogo Habiba’s fame and reputation grew beyond all limits. Everybody extolled her as the female lady who goaded her brothers into taking the decisive action against General Umaru Bahaushe now referred to as the Cursed Usurper. Gogo Habiba’s influence and fame even became greater upon the death of Emir Usman Zaki and the immediate appointment of Masaba as the next Emir of Nupe in the year 1859. Masaba liked Gogo Habiba so much and he accordingly gave her all the powers and license she needed to build herself into a woman of influence and power under his reign. Gogo Habiba subsequently became such a great power and such a wealthy woman that Bida became too small for her to relocate to so she remained permanently at Baddegi. The number of people at the courts of Gogo Habiba was such that she was literally another Emir at Baddegi aside from her brother Masaba the de facto Emir at Bida. In the beginning Baddegi was a small village comprised of Gbidigi people from the Jebba and Mokwa area. But Gogo Habiba’s settlement at Baddegi led to the growth of the village into a town of significance. At Baddegi the influence of Gogo Habiba grew even further. With her business partners, including Madam Tinubu, Gogo Habiba was able to amass stupendous wealth in merchandise business between KinNupe and the European traders at Lagos. In those days Etsu Masaba was doing everything possible to extend the commercial and mercantilic powers of the Nupe Nation down to the Coast on the Atlantic. Lagos, and the whole of Yorubaland for that matter, was part and parcel of the vast and expansive territory to the south that Etsu Masaba was conquering into his commercial fold with Lokoja as a launchpad to the South. Yes, Madam Tinubu the great grandmother of today’s Ahmed Bola Tinubu the former Governor of Lagos State. Tinubu was a Nupe woman and was indeed a blood relation, some say cousin, to Gogo Habiba. It was Gogo Habiba’s business enterprises that translocated Madam Tinubu from her homeland KinNupe to Lagos where we still see her descendants to this very day. In any case Gogo Habiba became the second wealthiest person in KinNupe after her brother Masaba the reigning Emir of Nupe... .... and, more disastrously, Gogo Habiba also became the second most powerful person in KinNupe after her brother Masaba the reigning Emir of Nupe. Of course it didn’t take long for Masaba to sense the danger in having his most beloved, but overly ambitious, sister Gogo Habiba as such the second most wealthiest and second most powerful person after him in the whole of the Nupe Nation he rule over. Despite his love for his sister the ever-power-mongering Masaba became suspicious and wary of Gogo Habiba. Furthermore his advisers and councillors rightly informed him that Gogo Habiba’s stupendous wealth and power posed a real threat to his sovereignty as the Emir of Nupe. They demonstrated to him, for instance, that at that particular time Gogo Habiba already has a standing army larger than his, Emir Masaba’s, own army! The advisers convinced Emir Masaba to recall Gogo Habiba back to Bida since it was obvious that her independent court at Baddegi-Lapai could at any moment organise a surprise attack or march on Bida to overthrow Emir Masaba from power. Back at Bida under the watchful eyes of Emir Masaba himself, Gogo Habiba’s life became intolerable. Thus there begun to ensue minor clashes but serious tensions between Gogo Habiba and Etsu Masaba. But the deep love and mutual respect that the two had for one another right from the days at Raba and Ilorin stopped the two from engaging in open confrontation. Yet the power and influence of Gogo Habiba continued to grow even as she lived uncomfortably under the control of Emir Masaba himself at Bida. There at Bida, and despite being under the Emir, Gogo Habiba was operating her own independent court as if she was another Emir on her own. She had an entire emirate council of her own: with her own title-holders, ministers, advisers and councillors exactly replicated along the same line of hierarchy as was obtainable in her brother Masaba, the Emir’s, court. All these led to further tensions and clashes between Gogo Habiba and Emir Masaba. In the end Emir Masaba came up with an allegation that Gogo Habiba was caught red-handedly involved with Etsu Baba to overthrow Emir Masaba from power. Etsu Baba was a Nupe dynast of Tsoede descents. Etsu Baba was definitely plotting to get Emir Masaba ousted from power but his secrets leaked and he was caught in the act. The only problem is the culpability of Gogo Habiba in the case. Did Gogo Habiba really plotted together with Etsu Baba or did the arch-schemer Emir Masaba simply roped Gogo Habiba into the failed coup of Etsu Baba as a convenient way of getting rid of the Gogo Habiba threat once and for all? Whatever the truth of the matter might have been, the story is that Gogo Habiba committed suicide rather than allowed herself to be disgraced by Emir Masaba Picture: Madam Tinubu the Nupe woman who was a cousin and a business partner to Gogo Habiba.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 17:51:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015