TSOEDE, KANTA AND ASKIA: HOW THE SONGHAI EMPIRE ORIGINATED FROM NUPE [Below is a summary of my book titled ‘Tsoede, Kanta and Askia: How the Songhai Empire Originated from Nupe:] The world is today not cognizant of the actuality that there is a profound connection between the ancient Songhai Empire and the Nupe Nation in bygone times. Conventional Western scholarship today is wholly oblivious of this relationship between the olden Songhai and Nupe nations in the past. The world is today ignorant of the fact that the ancient Songhai Empire originated from Nupe. How the Songhai Originated From KinNupe In discussing the origin of the Songhai people from Nupe we should mark the datum, right from the outset, that almost all the people of West Africa, from present day Nigeria right unto the west coast of the West African continent – that is from Nigeria to Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea Bissau – originated from KinNupe. Yes all the people from Nigeria to the Senegal originated from KinNupe and this is based on the authorities of two great virtuosi on West African ethnography and historiography, namely, Sir H.H. Johnston and Sir H.R. Palmer, who both demonstrated and documented the fact that the whole of the people of West Africa originated from KinNupe. Of course there are many other authorities who have authenticated that all the people of West Africa originated from KinNupe but we are presenting only Sir. H.H. Johnston and Sir H.R. Palmer here because they are two indubitable authorities in this regard. All the same, the Songhai people themselves firmly maintained that they originated from the KinNupe general area. To this very day the mythos of origin of the Songhai people maintain that they originated from today’s KinNupe general area on the very banks of the River Niger. It is so interesting to note the fact that many Songhai traditions categorically identified the KinNupe general area, around the Niger Bend inside the modern Nigerian border right here in Central KinNupe, as the original homeland of the Songhai people. The received wisdom of the Songhai people is that their ancestors were the Sorko and Gabibi people who first came from the banks of the River Niger in KinNupe. The Songhai legends are that their ancestors were Nupe fishermen and agriculturists on the banks of the River Niger in Central KinNupe and that it was along the banks of the River Niger that they moved northwest-ward through today’s Borguland until they found themselves outside the boundaries of today’s Nigeria. In those days the whole of the place were refer to as Borgu and New Bussa today were part and parcel of the Greater KinNupe of those days whch actually cut right across the modern Nigeran border unto the other half of the Borgu and Bussa kingdoms in today’s Benin Republic. As I discussed, in exhaustive details in my book ‘The Dohomean Connexion: How the People of Benin Republc Originated from Nupe’, the people of Borgu and Bussa are a Nupe people through and through until very recent times. Outside the boundaries of today’s Nigeria these Nupe Sorko people continued their migration along the banks of the River Niger until they were spread over the whole of the West African region and are to be found as different communities in different countries of West Africa to this very day. Among these they founded the city of Gao which became their enduring capital city for a thousand year or so. Gao or Gungu Kingdom Gao, located in today’s Mali, was the capital city of the Songhai people for a long time – from the days when it was known as the Gao Kingdom through those days when it was a subject city under the Mali Empire to the days when it became the capital city of the Songhai kingdom from the time of Sunni Ali onward. Albeit, and on the authority of Sultan Bello the first Sultan of the Sokoto Caliphate, Gao was at first known as Gungu. Gao was also pronounced, dialectally, as Gu. And this Gu was usually pronounced in a repetitive form as Gugu or Gungu. The interesting point here, however, is that Gungu was the national name of the Nupe Nation in the eighth century when the Songhai people, coming from KinNupe, first founded the city of Gao. By the time the Sorko Nupe people arrived today’s Mali general area and founded a town called Gao or Gungu KinNupe was already known as Gao or Gungu for over a century. So, these Songhai people coming from Gungu, that is venerable KinNupe, decided to name the first regional capital city they founded outside KinNupe as Gungu which was to be shortened in latter times, into just Gu, Gua or, as the Europeans came to transcribe it in latter times, Goa. This Gungu or Gao was the first capital of the Songhai people. The Songhai Nupe people founded Gao as a commercial city on the trail of timeworn caravan routes on the banks of the River Niger in the Niger bend area located in today’s Mali. They had come along the River Niger initially as fishermen and farmers but their warlike aristocrats have followed them later and finally founded and established the city which they named Gungu after the national name of KinNupe from which they came. It was in actual fact more or less an annex kingdom to the Greater Gungu to the south-west which is KinNupe in ancient Nigeria. The truth of the matter is that in those days there was already located in Central KinNupe the Old Songhai or Original Songhai kingdom knonw to Nupe historians as Sagara, Sugur, Zugur or Zugurma. This Zugurma, also known as Zungeru, was in actual fact the Original Songhai from which the latter Songhai Empire of history was to originate. As we shall discuss in exhaustive details in latter sections of this present work that Old or Original Songhai, knonw as Zugurma or Zungeru, was located right here in Central KinNupe. The capital city of that Old or Original Songhai here in Central KinNUpe was also known as Gao or Gungu or Kuka or Kukia and it was after that Old Gao that the Nupe Sorko people who went along the River Niger to today’s Mali named the first capital city they founded, as Gao, after. Soon this Gungu or Gao city grew into a powerful kingdom. This Gungu, called Kawkaw by the famous 8th century Islamic polymath who founded the mathematical logic of Algorithm, was already an almighty and superpower kingdom in the Central Sudan by the end of the 8th century. But then, and as we have mentioned before, Gao or Gungu was a derivative of the Greater Gungu which is KinNupe and in truth it has been said that there was actually no boundary between this New Gungu in today’s Mali and the Original and Greater Gungu, that is KinNupe, in ancient Nigeria. Veritably E.W. Bovil maintained that the Bussa rapids, abutting the boundaries of modern KinNupe, marked the southernmost limit of the Songhai Empire thereby, and in effect, pointing out that the Songhai Empire or Latter Gungu was indeed a geographical continuation, without any demarcation, of the Original Gungu, that is the Nupe nation. Admittedly the rulers of the Latter Gungu Kingdom or Gao were styled as the Za, Sa or Isa which was the same royal title with which the rulers of KinNupe, or Original Gungu, were also styled. Absolutely, and to this very day, a major section of the Nupe people are known as the Isa or Yisa Nupe people. The first dynasty to rule over the Gungu or Gao Kingdom was the Za or Isa dynasty. And this Za or Isa dynasty was one and the equal with the identical Za or Isa dynasty that was at that very time, that is contemporaneously, ruling back here in KinNupe over the Original or Greater Gungu or Gao Empire otherwise known, as we shall discuss in greater details later, as the Gunguma, Kangoma, Zugurma, Zazzau, Shango, Tsonga or Kotorkoshi-Kogo Empire. This Gungu Nupe Kingdom or Gao was to later on, in the 13th century, fall under the sovereignty of the emergent Mali Empire which took over from the Ghanata or Ghana Empire. It was this conquest of the Latter Gungu by the Mali Empire that eventually separated the Latter Gungu from the Original or Greater Gungu, that is, KinNupe. Nevertheless the Songhai Nupe people of Gao will not surrender fully to the reign of Mali over them. Various Gao kings unsuccessfully rebelled against Mali sovereignty until Sunni Ali came and succeeded in throwing off Mali sovereignty over Gao in the 15th century. Songhai Empire After its independence from Mali, Gungu or Gao subsequently grew into the Songhai Empire. However, at the very tail end of the 15th century the Sunni dynasty was overthrown by Askia Muhammad who established the Askia dynasty over the Songhai Empire. Sunni dynasty historians will say that Askia Muhammad is not a legitimate ruler of Songhai because he is not of the Sunni royalty. On the other hand Askia Muhammad in turn accused the Sunni dynasts of not being of the Za or Isa dynastic royal blood that at the outset established the Gao. Askia Muhammad demonstrated that the Za or Isa were the legitimate royalty of Songhai because they derived their royal bloodlines from the original Za or Isa dynasty that ruled over the Nupe Nation back here in KinNupe. The Za or Isa dynasts were members of the Isa or Yisa or Kisra Nupe people who established the Isa or Za (Zazzau) Kingdom back in KinNupe; the matching Isa or Za Nupe kingdom that became known as the Zugurma Empire in latter times. Askia Muhammad said he was returning the Songhai Empire back to its Za or Isa or Nupe Kisra roots by establishing the Askia dynasty. In actuality even the royal title Askia is the same as Saki or Sagi or Zegi which is the shortened form of Sarki or Saraki or Kisara or Kisra, which was the royal title of the Nupe kings in the days of the Nupe Isa or Za kingdom which was located on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central Kingdom. The Yisa Nupe People Now let’s come back to KinNupe itself and see how the Songhai people appeared in KinNupe in the first place. To do this we will have to go back to sometime circa the 7th century into the Christian Era which, according to Dr. P. Amoury Talbot, hallmarked the beginning of the influx of the Kisra or Sarki people into ancient Nigeria and KinNupe in particular. These Kisra people came from the outside world – from the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, Arabia and Asia Minor – and came and settled down on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central KinNupe. Dr. P.A. Talbot quoted passé Nupe oral literatures narrating that these Kisra people were practitioners of an primeval form of Christianity and that they actually referred to themselves as the Isa or Yisa people after the name of their God, Isa, which is the equivalent that is Semitised as Yashua and Latinised today as Jesus. These Kisra people actually introduced Christianity into KinNupe in the early part of the first half of the seventh century even before the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the latter part of the second half of the seventeenth century. For details on this interesting topic please read my book titled ‘Yisa The Nupe Emperor: The Kisra People And Early Christianity In Prehistoric KinNupe.’ Well, and anyhow, these Kisra or Yisa people ended up setting up their own Yisa Kingdom on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central KinNupe. It is the descendants of these Yisa peoples that were known in Nupe history as the Yisa Nupe people who were the other half of the Nupe people, as opposed to the Gwagba Nupe people, that we saw dominating Nupe history on the eve of the advent of the Fulani to KinNupe as late as the beginning of the 19th century. These hoary Kisra or Yisa Nupe people came and met a very primordial Nupe people in KinNupe called the Koro or Gara Nupe people. These Koro or Gara Nupe people derived their national name – Koro, Kwara, Gara, etc – from the name of the River Niger which is known to this very day as Kwara, Koro or Gara. The United Kingdom Of Zugurma The Kisra or Yisa people eventually acculturated and merged with the Koro or Gara autochthonous Nupe people to form the United Kingdom of Yisa-Koro or Isa-Gara. This antique national name YisaKoro or IsaGara was also pronounced in a multitudinous variety of synonyms including variously as Shango, Sango, Songa, Songhai, etc, etc. Yes, that was the origin of the name Songhai. This United Kingdom of Songhai was actually more popularly known in its days, and here in KinNupe, as Zugurma. The name Zugurma is actually another dialectal variant of the names Yisa-Koro or Isa-Gara. We can readily see that Isa-Gara is coequal to Iza-Guru or Zaguru. Zaguru was also pronounced as Zuguru or, simply, as Zugur. This Zugur was then compounded with the suffix ‘ma’, which is the Old Nupe for ‘nation’ to form Zaguruma or Zuguruma or, as we pronounce today, Zugurma which simply means the ‘Nation of Zugur’. So, we see, from all these that the Songhai people originated as a merger of the ancient Kisra or Yisa Nupe people with the primal Gara or Koro Nupe people into the United Kingdom variously known as Songhai, Zakzak (Zaria), Zungeru, Zugurma, etc, etc. In any case the United Kingdom of Zugurma or Zungeru became a powerful kingdom on the banks of the River Niger right here in Central KinNupe. From being a kingdom the United Kingdom of Zugurma then became an empire that spread its territorial tentacles over the whole of ancient Nigeria and thence the whole of ancient Central Sudan. Kotorkoshi-Kogo This Zungurma empire was the same that have survived in historical chronicles with various names including as Zakzak or Zazzau which we call Zaria today, as Zungeru, as Tsonga in today’s Kwara state, and so on and on. Zugurma was also known as Kotorkoshi-Kogo, an alias it had inherited from an earlier but then extinct kingdom due to its, Zugurma’s, location on the banks of the River Niger in Central KinNupe. This Zugurma or Kotorkoshi-Kogo was an almighty empire that engulfed virtually the whole of ancient Nigeria. One of its regional headquarters was located somewhere to the north-western fringes of today’s KinNupe – that is somewhere around a perimeter that will include the places we call Zungeru, Kontagora, Yauri, Birnin Kebbi, Gummi, Talata Mafara, Malumfashi, Kaura Namoda, Gusau, Funuta, Birnin Gwari, Kusherki, Pandogari, and back to Zungeru. Take a map of Nigeria and try to mark this area with a pencil – that will give you a good idea of the map of the regional state of Kotorkoshi-Kogo inside the Zugurma Empire or Greater Kotorkoshi-Kogo. The Nupe super empire of Zugurma was comprised of states much like the way that we have the Federal Republic of Nigeria comprised of 36 states today. As we have mentioned before one of these states was to the north-western fringes of today’s KinNupe. Howbeit in those days that state was actually a thoroughly Nupe state which was part and parcel of the Nupe Nation which was far larger than the pitiably small KinNupe we have today. So, in those days the people of Kontagora, Yauri, Birnin Gwari, and all the others we listed above, were a Nupe people through and through. Songhai Empire It was the whole of the Zugurma Nupe empire that used to be known as Kotorkorkoshi-Kogo yet with time it was this Zugurma sub-state to the north-western fringes of today’s KinNupe that became famous as Kotorkoshi-Kogo. This latter Kotorkoshi-Kogo became a powerful regional capital of the Nupe Nation in latter times. And it was from this Kotorkoshi-Kogo that the Songhai Nupe people or Zugurma Nation extended their sovereign powers across the borders of today’s Nigeria unto the places that we call southern Republic of Niger, Northern Benin Republic and Northern Burkina Faso today. The Zugurma Nupe nation first founded and established Dendi as a regional capital in what is today known today as the Niger Republic. According to the narratives of the Songhai people themselves this regional capital city was by origin known as Gungu, which was the national name of the Nupe Nation right into historical times. In effect, and in those very day, KinNupe, and the regional state of Kotorkoshi-Kogo, were also known as Gunguma, that is the ‘Nation of Gungu’, or Kangoma – Kango being merely a dialectal variant of Gungu. It was at Dendi that the Songhai Nupe people begun to lay the foundations of what to become known, in latter times, as the Songhai Empire. The founders of the Songhai kingdom, and latter empire, were Nupe people from the Zugurma or Original Songhai Empire here in Central KinNupe. The latter Songhai Empire, starting from Dendi in today’s Niger Republic, was nurtured from being a kingdom into an empire the its Zugurma Nupe overlords right here in KinNupe. For real the latter Songhai was a actually a satellite state or regional headquarters of the Zugurma or Original Songhai Empire which was located here in KinNupe. That was why the first capital city of the latter Songhai Empire, even according to conventional Western Scholarship, was known as Gao, Gungu or Gunguma which was the original national name of the Nupe Nation or Zugurma in those days. There is no way the founders of the Songhai Empire will name their first capital city after the national name of the Nupe Nation of Zugurma if they were not, from the beginning, governors from Zugurma. Whatever the case might have been the fact still remains that while the new Songhai kingdom was fast growing into an Empire, the Original Songhai Empire, that is, the Zugurma Empire here in KinNupe, was fast declining and collapsing back into history. Soon the new Songhai Empire was the singular superpower in the whole of West Africa and the Original Songhai, that is Zugurma, had sunk back into history. AtaGara As the Zugurma, Kotorkoshi-Kogo, Gunguma, Kangoma or Zazzau Empire – whatever you call it – was declining and collapsing back into history, however, a new power, called AtaGara, was fast emerging on the banks of the River Niger here in Central KinNupe. AtaGara was itself a United Kingdom of ancient Nupe peoples, the Akanda or Nda people and the Gara or Koro people, both of whom were part of the now collapsing Zugurma Empire. The Akanda people – remnants of whom are known variously as the Kakanda, Kyadya, Batati, subtribes of Nupe today – are one of the most primeval Nupe peoples autochthonous to KinNupe since time immemorial. The Gara, as we have discussed before, also predated Zugurma Empire as they were the selfsame people who merged with the Kisra or Yisa refugees to form the Isa-Gara or Zugurma United Kingdom. The Akanda and the Gara people merged to form the United Kingdom of the AtaGara. The AtaGara United Kingdom soon became a powerful kingdom on the banks of the River Niger in Central KinNupe. AtaGara began to take over all the former territorial possessions of the Zugurma Empire. And that brought AtaGara into direct contact and conflict with the Songhai Empire which have already conquered the western half of the Zugurma Empire’s territorial possession in the past. Songhai was a super empire while AtaGara was just a kingdom and so the clash between Songhai and AtaGara resulted in the subjection of AtaGara by Songhai. Many researchers are of the view that the Songhai Empire didn’t really or completely conquer AtaGara withal the AtaGara kingdom was forced to being a subject or vassal state of Songhai and the king of AtaGara, titled the Ata or Atagara, was forced to pay annual tribute to the Askia emperors of the Songhai Empire. Abd Al-Sadi, the author of the Tarikh al-Sudan, however, wrote that the Songhai Empire completely conquered and ruled over AtaGara. Nonetheless the Ata or Atagara king of the AtaGara Kingdom was never happy with being subjected to the Askias of the Songhai Empire because the AtaGara kingdom was actually growing into an empire on its own. Sir H.R. Palmer wrote that soon AtaGara revolted against Songhai. Mischlich wrote that it was said the Askia Muhammad himself led a battle of suppression against AtaGara in 1513. But, as Abd al-Sadi the official chronicler of the history of the Songhai Empire wrote, the Askia and his Songhai Empire forces were, incredibly enough, defeated by the Ata of the AtaGara kingdom. That was how AtaGara threw off the yoke of Songhai rule. And, with this new-founded reputation, the AtaGara kingdom immediately expanded, throw relentless wars, into an empire that conquered the whole of ancient Nigeria and parts of the Central Sudan under its fold. Kanta of Kebbi and Tsoede of Nupe The Kebbi epics are that their eponymous founder, called Kanta, was the particular AtaGara king who successfully defeated the Songhai army and threw off the yoke of Songhai rule from the neck of AtaGara. Kebbi was one of the states that went into the formation of the AtaGara Empire. In those days the Kebbi people were a Nupe people through and through. Certainly the Kebbi fables narrated that the first capital city of Kebbi was Gungu – remember, Gungu the national name of the Nupe nation; the Kebbi folklores were simply saying that the Kebbi were a Nupe people in the beginning. Please read my book, titled ‘Kanta was Nupe: How the Kebbi People Originated from Nupe’, for details on how the Kebbi and Nupe people used to be one and the same people in the past. Kanta and Tsoede And this Kanta of the Kebbi sagas was the same person that the Nupe traditions referred to as Tsoede. In my book, ‘Tsoede The Great’, we demonstrated in details the fact that the Tsoede of the Nupe tales and the Kanta of the Kebbi myths are one and the same person. It is so interesting to note the fact that the stories of Kanta the Founder of Kebbi and Tsoede the Founder of Nupe are virtually one and the same story told by two different peoples, the Kebbi and the Nupe peoples. Both Kanta and Tsoede were referred to as the ‘Foreign King’ by the indigenous people of the kingdoms they eventually ended up founding for the simple reason that, they they were both said to be indigenous to their kingdoms, they were brought up in a foreign land under a foreign king and foreign power before they grew into powerful warriors who gained and established independence for their peoples. Kanta was said to have been born in Kebbi but grew up in Songhai under the kings of Songhai. Tsoede was said to have been born in Biniland, Central KinNupe, but was said to have grew up under the king of Zugurma or Zungeru at AtaGara. Now, note the parallels here. Kanta was born in Kebbi or, actually, Ke-Bini while Tsoede was born in Bini. This, of course, means that both Kanta and Tsoede were Bini. The Bini are, to this very day, one of the most ancient form of the Nupe stock, they are the Nupe subtribe that speak a most ancient dialect of the overall Nupe language. As a matter of fact the very language we refer to as Nupe today – which is the Nupe dialect spoken in the Lapai-Agaie-Bida-Patigi-Lafiagi-Tsaragi-Mokwa-Katcha axis – is actually the Bini dialect which is simply one of the many other dialects – including, say, the Dibo, Kakanda, Gupa, Kame, etc, etc – that goes into the formation of the overall Nupe language. Kanta was Bini and Tsoede was Bini. It is not a coincidence that both of them are Bini – the truth is that Kanta and Tsoede are one and the same person. The Kebbi people called him Kanta while the Nupe people called him Tsoede. Now then, let’s continue with the parallels. Kanta grew up under the king of Songhai while Tsoede grew up at Zugurma. Interestingly enough ‘Zugur’ or ‘Zugurma’ was the Old Nupe name for Songhai. In fact Zugur or Sugur was the original name of Songhai and any student of linguistics can readily see that ‘Zugur’ or ‘Sugur’ or ‘Songhai’ are morphologically the same words. As we have already discussed in extensive details at the beginning of this present writeup, the Songhai empire originated from KinNupe and it was originally known as Sagara, Sagar, Sugur, Zugur or Zungeru in the days when it was initially located right here in Central KinNupe. Songhai was originally Zugurma, Zugur or Zungeru located right here in Central KinNupe and it was here in Central KinNupe that Kanta or Tsoede lived and flourished in that Old or Original Songhai. Another strong parallel in the stories of Kanta and Tsoede that corroborates the fact that Kanta and Tsoede are one and the same person is the fact that both Kanta and Tsoede grew up under the mentorship and tutelage of foreign kings. While Kanta grew up under the Askia king or Songhai, Tsoede grew up under the Aske or Iska king of Zugur. The kings of Zugur or Zugurma or Zungeru were known as the Nyizagi, Zagi, Zaki, Saki, Asaki, Aski or Askia. That is the origin of the Askia title that the kings of the Songhai empire, which originated from the Nupe Zugur or Zugurma, were to later on bear in history. So, we see that both the Kanta of the Kebbi traditions and the Tsoede of the Nupe traditions were brought up under the mentorship of the Askia kings, whether those of Songhai or Zugurma, against whom they were to rebel in the bid for the for the independence of their people later on. That both the Kanta and the Tsoede were brought up under an Askia or Nyizagi king and that they both rebelled against such their mentor-kngs later goes a long way to corroborate the fact that the story of the Kanta and the Tsoede are simply the story of one and the same person told by different Bini peoples. Both Kanta and Tsoede were pursued by their opponents out of the land where they were groomed and mentored into great warriors – Kanta from Songhai, Tsoede from Zungur or Zugurma. This is not a coincidence, it is simply a further corroboraton of the fact that the story of Kanta and Tsoede are one and the same and that Kanta and Tsoede are one and the same person. And the parallelism didin’t stop there. Both Kanta and Tsoede escaped from their pursuing enemies by paddlng on bronze canoes along a river. The Kebbi traditions narrated that Kanta was pursued by his enemies along the Argungu river while the Nupe traditions narrated that Tsoede was pursued along the River Niger. The common denominator here is that both Kanta and Tsoede were pursued out of their kingdom of sojourn back to their homeland kingdom along a river by their enemies. Then, of course, both Kanta and Tsoede performed the same ruse on their pursuers by hiding their bronze canoes at the bottom of their particular rivers. These are definitely not coincidences, of course! Kanta and Tsoede are the same person. But the curtainraser here is the fact that both the Kebbi and the Bini Nupe traditions narrated that their respective superheroes were assassinated by a missile flung by a heathen in a foreign land. The Kebbi traditions said Kanta was killed by a spear flunged at him by a peasant warrior hiding on a tree at the village of Rini na Ashita in the foreign land of Katsina. The Bini Nupe traditions said that Tsoede was killed by a hoe flung at him by a peasant warrior hiding on a tree in Kamuku. Then the Kebbi traditions narrated that the followers of Kanta made several mock graves and tombstones for him in order to hide his corpse from his enemies after his death. The Bini Nupe traditions similarly said that several mock graves were made for the corpse of Tsoede and that to this very day nobody knows for sure where Tsoede was truly buried. Whatever the case might have been the fact still remains that this Kanta or Tsoede was the one who, as the Ata or Atagara of the AtaGara Kingdom, rebelled against Songhai rule and after defeating the Songhai army headed by the Askia himself, eventually built the AtaGara kingdom into the AtaGara Empire. Tsoede and the Bini Confederacy Kanta or Tsoede was evidently a Bini Nupe man as both the Kebbi traditions and the Nupe traditions regarding him, as Kanta or Tsoede respectively, were related by the Bini people of Kebbi and the Bini people of Nupe. Kanta or Tsoede was a Bini man. And as we have mentoned before the Bini people form one of the oldest stock or subtribe of the Nupe people. The Bini were a very powerful people in the past of Nupe history. They founded and established a superpower Bini kingdom which eventually became an empire – the very one referred to as the famous Bini Confederacy of Professor S.F. Nadel. The Bini Confederacy was an almighty empire which expanded and extended its territorial tentacles over the whole of ancient Nigeria and even beyond to engulf virtually the entire place known to Colonial historians as the Central Sudan. The Bini Confederacy established colonial and vassal states in all the nooks and corners of the Central Sudan. And it was the fall and shattering of this same Bini Confederacy of the Nupe people that later on gave rise to the emergence of the daughter Bini kingdoms known to history today as the Kebbi, Edo-Benin, Kantana, Oyo, and so on and on. But this superpower Bini kingdom was ravaged and destabilized, in latter times, by the Koro people who established the Gara or Gubara kingdom which was to be known in historical times as Gubar or Gobir. The declne of the Bini Confedercay back into a small kingdom gave Tsoede, whose father was a Gara king and whose mother was a Bini queen, to conquer both his paternal Gara and maternal Bini kingdoms into the Gara-Bini or Gara-Ife united kingdom which was also knonw as the Gara-Ifa United Kingdom since the Bini people were at a time subjected to and identified as the Ifa, Ife or Nupe people. It was this Gara-Ife or Garafa United Kingdom of Tsoede that was also known as Korofa snce Koro is just another synonym for Gara. And it was this Korofa United Kingdom of Tsoede that the Hausa city chronicles referred to as Kororofa.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 19:38:42 +0000
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