ZARIA WAS NUPE Zaria was also a Nupe settlement. In fact Zaria was never a Hausa settlement as is wrongly and mischievously alleged by the Hausa Bakwai-Banza Bakwai propagandists. It is in this regard that Sultan Bello wrote that Zaria was originally a colony of Nupeko or Kororofa Nupe peoples. And Professor Elizaebth Isichei wrote that the Nupe peoples were intricately and intimately involved in the early history of Zaria. The Zaria traditions are that Zaria was founded by Queen Amina of Zaria whose parents or ancestors were Bakwa Turunku and Bakwa Gunguma. But, and as we have discussed in an earlier part of this present work, the term ‘Bakwa’ is a national name of the Nupe people in ancient times. We saw this term Bakaw, as ‘Bakwai’, also in the Hausa Bakwai-Banza Bakwai story wherein, as we demonstrated, it referred to the Nupe people as Bako or Bakoro because they came from the River Niger which is known as Koro. So, Ba-Koro or Bako or Bakwa simpl means ‘A Person from the River Niger’. In substantiation of this is the fact that the Zaria traditions categorically narrated that both Bakwa Turunku and Bakwa Gunguma, the ancestors of Queen Amina, came from the south, that is, KinNupe. The story is that Zaria was originally located to the South and that it was in a gradual manner that it migrated upwards to its present location. Actually even the names of the ancestors of Queen Amina, who were said to have come from the south, KinNupe, were the names of the Nupe peoples. Taking Bakwa Gunguma for instance, we see that it is completely and totally an ancient Nupe name. As we said before, Bakwa is a national name of the Nupe people in former times as it refers to the River Niger on which the Nupe Nation is located. Gunguma is also national name of KinNupe in former times. Sir H.R. Palmer and Professor Alan Ryder have both demonstrated the fact that KinNupe was also known in former times as Gungu. It was this Gungu that was also, dialectally, pronounced as ‘Gunguma’ which we saw as the surname in the name Bakwa Gunguma. This Gunguma is the same that Leo Africanus and Mungo Park heard pronounced as Gungura or Gwangara as the national name of KinNupe in fomer times. So, Bakwa Gunguma, the mother of Queen Amina, was a Nupe woman through and through. And the Zaria traditions did maintain that Bakwa Gunguma actually came from the south, that is, KinNupe. In fact variants of the Zaria traditions also indicated that both Bakwa Turunku and Bakwa Gunguma never got to or lived in Zaria. The Zaria traditions narrated that it was a sister to Queen Amina, and not her parents Bakwa Turunku or Bakwa Gunguma, that founded the city state of Zaria which was later on ruled over by her sister Queen Amina. So, Bakwa Turunku and Bakwa Gunguma, the parents of Queen Amina, were Nupe people who were born, lived and died here in Central KinNupe and not in Zaria. Sir H.R. Palmer and Sir C.R. Niven both wrote that Zaria was originally located in the south and that the ancestors of Queen Amina, that is people like Bakwa Turunku and Bakwa Gunguma, who initiated the slow movement of Zaria from the south to its present location. Bakwa Turunku, another one of the parents of Queen Amina, was also a Nupe person. The name Bakwa Turunku is a Nupe name. Turunku is the same as Tukuru which is just another variant of the name Tagara or AtaGara. In any case the Kano Chronicle categorically wrote that Queen Amina died at AtaGara which was the super power Nupe kingdom that was located on the banks of the River Niger right here in the heart of KinNupe in very ancient times. The truth of the matter is that Queen Amina was born, lived, flourished and died here in Central KinNupe. She never lived in, or even visited, the Zaria kingdom of today. In fact the Hausa traditions refer to Queen Amina as ‘the daughter of Nikatau’. But Nikatau was simply another Hausa corruption of the Nupe national name ‘Atagara’. Zaria was originally founded as a united kingdom of the Yisa ancient Nupe people and the Gara ancient Nupe people right here in the heart of KinNupe. It was the Yisa and Gara Nupe peoples who merged to form the united kingdom of Yisa-Gara or Isagara which was also known as Sagara or Saga or Sagwa. Sagwa was also pronounced, repetitively in the usual Kwa linguistic manner, as Sagsag or Zagzag which was also pronounced as Zakzak or, as we transcribe it today, Zazzau. This derivation have been demonstrated by James Rhodes Wilson-Haffendon. This Original or Old Zaria, which was a merger of the ancient Yisa and Gara Nupe people and which was also located right here in KinNupe, was variously known as Zungeru, Wushishi, Abuja (today’s Suleja), Asokoro, etc, etc. All these are also remnants of the original Zazzau or Zaria kingdoms which are still located in KinNupe to this very day. That Zaria originated from KinNupe is also attested to by the fact that when the Zaria kingdom was threatened with extinction by the Fulani Jihadists the rulers of Zaria simply ran back to KinNupe, there original homeland. It was to the Zuba- Lapai area that the rulers of the Zaria kingdom fled when Zaria was attacked by the Fulani. The rulers of Zaria actually settled in a place not far away from Old Lapai before they eventually relocated to the place where Abuja (today’s Suleja) was located to this very day.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:29:00 +0000
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