22/08/2019
There are two versions of descent of the Emir of Bussa. One claims that he springs from Kisra’s half brother by the same mother and a different father, who was the person left in charge at Kisra’s death. The other tradition maintains that he is descended from Kisra’s second don, brother to the first chef of Nikki, and uncle to the chif of Kaiama. The latter view finds support in the custom whereby the chief of Bussa at Karibondi on his appointment to the throne and vice-versa. This tomb of Karibondi, believed to be the chief of Bussa who received Kisra, is along with the stones marking the doorway of his house, still visible. The Bussawa today disclaim any relationship with the Kaiama people who they refer to as Bokoboro and acknowledge as having come from Zamfara. This was substantiated in the 1962 census, when the Kaiama people requested the N. A. that they should be registered as Bokoboro and not as Bussawa. The chief of Bussa claims distant relationship with Bornu, with whom he is said to have exchanged gifts annually up to the end of the eighteenth century. This practice was momentarily revived in 1928. Nikki in time past has had greater territory, following, and wealth than Bussa, but has never denied the latter first place.
Kisra was well received by the inhabitants, who few and far between. There were a few hunters living in small villages, and a number of Yoruba the out posts of the Yoruba Emirate to the south, already founded, according to Borgu tradition, by lamurudu. There is a story an attempt to convert Kisra to Islam, which proved only half successful. It is interesting in so far as it explains a custom maintained to this day. The malamai, sent by the Prophet, had succeeded in persuading Kisra to prostrate him twice, when the latter put an end to the proceedings by entering his house, then mounting a horse and galloping out. He ordered his war drums to be beaten, and holding his spear in his hand said that twice a year would he consent to prostrate himself, but no more. The malamai returned whence they came, and the Prophet had to be satisfied with this partial conversion. A custom symbolic of the king’s original disinclination is enacted to this day. When the Salla moon is seen a man with a spear enters the Emir’s house and brings him out with a simulation of force to show him the moon. Twice the moon is pointed out to the Emir by the refuses to see it. At the third time, however, he agrees that it is the Salla moon and then the rejoicings begin. A relic said to hail from Kisra days is a large brass drum shaped like a tympanum which is beaten at Salla and on the death of an Emir. It was beaten at Salla and on the death of an Emir. It was beaten when news of the late King George’s death reached Bussa in 1952. The drum is beaten by strips of hippopotamus hide and is reported to bring death on any one seeing inside it. If it is necessary to reskin the drum, it is done by men with their backs to it working with their hands behind them.
From the death of Kisra until the middle of the eighteenth century a gap exists. The names of one or two Kings are remembered, such as Kitoro Fulani, but the dates when they reigned are now forgotten. It is said in Bussa that all the records were destroyed when the town was sacked by Gajere, its own king, in 1845. The first king from whom the succession can be traced is Kiseru Brudi. Whose son Yerima Bussa defeated the Habe in the Zabayi war of c. 1750, so called from the war- camp near Bussa where the Hausawa camped.
It was during the eighteenth century, too. That Kaiama was founded. The word means ‘come and rest’. Of the history of Kaiama, the following story was related by an old Bornu malam, of Zamfara ancestry, at the end of the last century. The chief of Nikki had two sons, who went hunting, while they were away hunting, their father died. They could not be found by the slaves sent out for them, so a younger brother, born in their absence, was made king. When at last this news reached the two brothers, one said, ‘Let us fight for the throne’. But the other replied, ‘No’ since it is out father’s son who has been made chief of Nikki, we must go elsewhere and become kings there.’ So one brother went to Bussa and the younger to Kaiama, where they were made chief.
An event of interest in the history of Bussa is the visit of Mungo Park in 1806, just before he died in the raids either there or at Tsulu. Kitoto I was king of Bussa at this time. For many years it was believed that the huge silver medallion which has been carefully preserved by succeeding Kings of Bussa and mounted as a ring, was a gift to the king from the explorer. Current historical researched, however, suggests that this is not so and that the medallion was in fact a present from the Lander brothers. On Jebba island stands a simple obelisk dedicated to the Niger explorer:
To Mungo Park, 1795, and Richard Lander, 1830, who traced the course of the Niger from near its source to the sea?
Both died in Africa for Africa.
During thelater part of Kitoro’s reign, soon after 1820, Borgu was involved in war with the Fulani. The country was invaded by the Fulani under the direction, some say, of the Emir of Gwandu, while other Borgu historians accuse an unidentified son of Malam Dendo of Nupe. Twice they were heavily defeated, but finally they attacked and conquered Illo. They never penetrated as far as Bussa, though on one occasion they occupied Luma, only twenty miles away. The practical results of this invasion are not clearly known, but it was probably responsible for the Borgawa sending a large army a few years later to assist the Alafin of Oyo against the Fulani of Ilorin. It was an effort on the part of the combined Borgawa and Yoruba to stem the increasing power of the Fulani in the south.
This war known as the Eleduwe war in Yoruba land was the greatest in the history of Borgu, but it had an unhappy outcome, for the Yoruba were not united: discord reigned among the allies and mutual recriminations ensured. During the final assault upon Ilorin the king of Nikki was killed, as were the Alafin and many other chiefs, the war proved an unparalleled disaster to Nikki and Kaiama, from which they did not recover for years. It is said locally that not a single Borgu aman returned alive from this war. The friendship with Oyo has, however been maintained, and for many years it was customary for the Borgawa to visit Oyo at the annual Bere festival. Gwandu historians also record a war with the Borgawa in 1835, when the Borgu army attacked kaoje and dilled the Emir of Gwandu’s brother. Curiously enough, there is no memory of this campaign in Bussa, and it may be that the attack was carried out by Nikki and that Bussa was not involved.
In the reign of Gajere the hostility between Bussa and Wawa (visited by Clapperton and Lander, with whom the widow Zuma fell in love) was finally resolved and Wawa henceforth followed Bussa. Gajere also led a war against Kaoje to revenge an atrocity committed on a Bussa girl who had both her ams cut off at the elbow in order to remove the ornaments with which they were loaded. This unfortunate woman, Na-iya, was living at Bussa in 1950. On Gajere’s death in 1862, the rightful heir, Kikwassai, was killed by one Dan Toro. His son Kuarraced to Bida and Dan Toro usurped the throne. In his time Etsu Baba of Nupe was finally defeated by the Fulani at Leaba in Zugurma. Some Nupe were allowed by Bussa to settle and found Leaba in Bussa territory. This event happened about 1882. A few years earlier Bussa had joined forces with Yauri to crush the independent riparian town of Gebi, seventy miles north of Bussa and a noted haunt of canoe pirates. This alliance was followed by an unexpected war between the Bussawa and Yaurawa, which required the peaceful intervention of the Emir of Gwandu to settle.
