Bayajidda (
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
* ...
: Bàyā̀jiddà) was, according to the legends surrounding most West African states before the 19th century, the founder of the Hausa states.
Most accounts say that Bayajidda came from
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
. Bayajidda came first to Borno where he was given one of the Mai's daughters as a wife, and then later lived for a while in Hausa land where he married the Queen of Daura, who also gave him a Gwari mistress as a reward for slaying "''Sarki''", said to be a great snake which deprived her people of access to water. By the Queen of Daura, Bayajidda had a son called Bawo, another called Biram by the Borno princess, and yet another son, Karbagari, by his Gwari paramour. Bawo is said to have succeeded his father and had six sons who became the rulers of
Daura
Daura is a town and Local Government Area in Katsina State, northern Nigeria. It is the spiritual home of the Hausa people.
The emirate is referred to as one of the "seven true Hausa states" (Hausa Bakwai)
because it was, (along with Biram, Kan ...
,
Katsina
Katsina, likely from "Tamashek" eaning son or bloodor mazza enwith "inna" otheris a Local Government Area and the capital city of Katsina State, in northern Nigeria. ,
Zazzau
The Zazzau, also known as the Zaria Emirate, is a Nigerian traditional state, traditional state with headquarters in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The current emir of Zazzau is Alhaji Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli who succeeded the former emir, l ...
,
Gobir
Gobir (Demonym: ''Gobirawa'') was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the 11th century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly 700 years. Its capital was the ci ...
,
Kano
Kano may refer to:
Places
*Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria
* Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State
**Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries
**Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...
and
Rano
Rano is a Local Government Area and headquarters of Rano Emirate council in Kano State, Nigeria. Rano is a local government area in Kano State with administrative headquarters in the town of Rano. Rano local government area is a Hausa-Fulani com ...
. These, together with
Biram, which was ruled by the son of Bayajidda and of the Borno Princess, formed the "''Hausa Bakwai''" or the "Hausa 7". However, Karbagari the son of the Gwari mistress had seven sons too who ruled
Kebbi
Kebbi state ( ha, Jihar Kebbi; Fulfulde: Leydi Kebbi 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤫𞤦𞥆𞤭) is a state in the northwestern Nigeria, Kebbi state is bordered east and north of Sokoto and Zamfara states, and to the south by Niger state while i ...
,
Zamfara
Zamfara (Hausa: Jihar Zamfara Fula: Leydi Zamfara 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤶𞤢𞤥𞤬𞤢𞤪𞤢) is a state in northwestern Nigeria. The capital of Zamfara state is Gusau and its current Governor is Bello Matawalle. Until 1996, the area was ...
,
Gwari
Gbagyi or Gbari (plural - Agbagyi/Agbari) is the name and the language of Gbagyi/Gbari ethnic group who are predominantly found in Central Nigeria, with a population of about 1 million people. Members of the ethnic group speak two dialects. While ...
, Jukun,
Ilorin
Ilorin is the List of capitals of states of Nigeria, capital city of Kwara State in Western Nigeria.. Retrieved 18 February 2007 As of the 2006 census, it had a population of 777,667, making it the List of Nigerian cities by population, 7th ...
,
Nupe Nupe may refer to:
*Nupe people, of Nigeria
*Nupe language, their language
*The Bida Emirate, also known as the Nupe Kingdom, their former state
*A member of the Kappa Alpha Psi
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African Amer ...
and
Yauri which are referred to in this tradition as the "''Banza Bakwai''" or "Illegitimate seven"
His hero's legend
The hero's departure from Baghdad and his stay in Borno
According to the legend, Bayajidda was a prince from
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
(the capital of modern-day
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
) and son of King Abdullahi, but he was exiled from his home town after Queen Zidam,
also known as Zigawa, had conquered the city.
Once he left Baghdad, he traveled across
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
with numerous warriors and arrived in
Borno.
Once in Borno, tales differ as to what caused tension with the local king. According to one story, Bayajidda realized his forces were stronger than those of the king; because of this, he planned to overthrow him. However, the king heard of the plot and, after consulting with his advisors, gave Bayajidda his daughter, Magaram (also known as Magira), in
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
.
Later, when the king attacked and took over several towns, he tricked his new son-in-law into leaving his own men to guard the towns, thereby decreasing the number of men Bayajidda had at his disposal. Bayajidda realized that he was being tricked when he had only his wife and one slave left; during the night, they fled to Garun Gabas, now situated in the
Hadeja
Haɗejiya (also Haɗeja, previously Biram) is a Hausa town in eastern Jigawa State, northern Nigeria. The population was approximately 105,628 in 2006. Hadejia lies between latitude 12.4506N and longitude 10.0404E. It shared boundary with Kiri Ka ...
region.
While there, Magaram gave birth to Bayajidda's first child, Biram, the eponymous ancestor of the petty kingdom of Gabas-ta-Biram ("east of Biram").
However, according to another version of the story, Bayajidda was welcomed into Borno, married Magaram and became popular among the people. Because of this, the king envied him and plotted against him; upon being informed of this by his wife, he fled Borno with her.
Arrival in Daura and slaying of the serpent
Bayajidda left his wife and child in Garun Gabas and continued on to the village of Gaya near Kano - which others believe to be
Gaya in modern
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...](_blank)
s make him a knife.
He then came to the town of
Daura
Daura is a town and Local Government Area in Katsina State, northern Nigeria. It is the spiritual home of the Hausa people.
The emirate is referred to as one of the "seven true Hausa states" (Hausa Bakwai)
because it was, (along with Biram, Kan ...
(located in modern-day
Katsina State
Katsina State ''(Hausa: Jihar Katsina) (Fula: Leydi Katsina 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞥁𞤭𞤲𞤢)'' is a state in the northwestern geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Katsina State was created in 1987, when it split from Kaduna State. Today, K ...
), where he entered a house and asked an old woman for water. She informed him that a serpent named Sarki (''sarki'' is the
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
* ...
word for
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
) guarded the well and that the people were only allowed to draw water once a week. Bayajidda set out for the well and killed the serpent with the sword and beheaded it with the knife the blacksmiths had made for him, after which he drank the water, put the head in a bag, and returned to the old woman's house.
(The
Kusugu Well where this is said to have happened is nowadays a tourist attraction.)
The next day, the people of Daura gathered at the well, wondering who had killed the snake; Magajiya Daurama, the local queen, offered sovereignty over half the town to whoever could prove that he killed the snake. Several men brought snake heads forth, but the heads did not match the body. The old woman, owner of the house Bayajidda was staying in, informed the queen that her guest had slayed it, after which Daurama summoned Bayajidda. Having presented the snake's head, proving to her that he was the one who had slain Sarki, he turned down the offer of half the town, instead requesting her hand in marriage; she married him out of gratitude for slaying the serpent.
Relationship with Magajiya Daurama
Because it was against the custom of the people of Daura for their queens to marry, Daurama made a compromise with Bayajidda and said she would only have sexual intercourse with him later; because of this, she gave him a
concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubi ...
named Bagwariya. (According to the oral palace version of the legend, Daurama gave him Bagwariya because she wanted to break her "queenly vow to remain a virgin," but had to undergo rituals to do so.)
Bagwariya had a son fathered by Bayajidda and she named him ''Karap da Gari'', or ''Karbagari'' which means "he snatched the town" in
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
* ...
. This worried Daurama, and when she had a son of her own (also fathered by Bayajidda), she named him ''Bawo'' which means "give it back".
Two groups of descendants
Throughout his life, Bayajidda is said to have fathered three children with three different women.
Bawo fathered six of his own sons, whose names were Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, and
Zazzau
The Zazzau, also known as the Zaria Emirate, is a Nigerian traditional state, traditional state with headquarters in the city of Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The current emir of Zazzau is Alhaji Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli who succeeded the former emir, l ...
.
Together with Biram, the son of Magaram, these seven went on to rule the seven "legitimate"
Hausa states
The Hausa Kingdoms, also known as Hausa Kingdom or Hausaland, was a collection of states started by the Hausa people, situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). Hausaland lay between the Western Sudanic kingdom ...
, the
Hausa Bakwai
The Hausa Kingdoms, also known as Hausa Kingdom or Hausaland, was a collection of states started by the Hausa people, situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). Hausaland lay between the Western Sudanic kingdoms ...
.
(Some versions of the tale leave Bawo and Magaram out entirely, with Biram, Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, and Zaria being the sons of Bayajidda and Daurama). Karbagari's descendants, meanwhile, founded the seven "illegitimate" states, the
Banza Bakwai
The Hausa Kingdoms, also known as Hausa Kingdom or Hausaland, was a collection of states started by the Hausa people, situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). Hausaland lay between the Western Sudanic kingdoms ...
.
The Hausa kingdom began as seven states founded by the Bayajidda legend and the six sons of Bawo and himself, in addition to the hero's son Ibrahim of an earlier marriage.
Social context
Social embeddedness of the legend
The different figures of the Bayajidda narrative were embodied by precise officials of the former Daura kingdom: the king represented Bayajidda, the official queen mother Magajiya Daurama and the official royal sister Bagwariya.
Re-enactment during the Gani/Mawlūd festival
Formerly the celebrations of the ''Mawlūd'' or ''Gani'' festival consisted in the re-enactements of the major details of the legend: departure from Iraq, slaying of the snake in the well and marriage between the hero and the queen. The royal sword and the knife are still believed to have been those ones used for the slaying of the snake and the cutting of its head.
Repercussions on other regional traditions
The Bayajidda legend is widely known at the courts of the "Seven Hausa" kings where it is considered to correspond to the oldest known history of Hausaland. As already observed by the traveller
Heinrich Barth
Johann Heinrich Barth (; ; 16 February 1821 – 25 November 1865) was a German explorer of Africa and scholar.
Barth is thought to be one of the greatest of the European explorers of Africa, as his scholarly preparation, ability to speak and wri ...
the basic division between the Seven Hausa and the Seven Banza is used among the
Songhay to distinguish between the northern ''hausa'' and the southern ''gurma'' side of the River Niger.
Historical meaning
There are a variety of views on the Bayajidda story, with differing opinions on the meaning and historicity of the tale. Some scholars suppose that Bayajidda is a historical person, the founder of the Seven Hausa states, and contemporary Hausa royals - especially those in Daura and Zaria (Zazzau) - trace their lineage to and draw their authority from him (see
Kano Chronicle
The ''Kano Chronicle'' (''Tarikh arbab hadha al-balad al-musamma Kano'' in Arabic) is an Arabic-language manuscript that lists the rulers of Kano.
Summary
The ''Kano Chronicle'' is a list of rulers of Kano stretching back to the 10th century A ...
). By contrast, others claim that Bayajidda never existed.
Medieval history
W. K. R. Hallam argues that Bayajidda represents a "''folk personification''" of the supporters of
Abu Yazid
Abu Yazid Makhlad ibn Kaydad (; – 19 August 947), known as the Man on the Donkey (), was an Ibadi Berber of the Banu Ifran tribe who led a rebellion against the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya (modern Tunisia and eastern Algeria) starting i ...
(a tenth-century
Kharijite
The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the c ...
Berber rebel), whose followers fled southwards from
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
after Yazid's defeat by and death at the hands of
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dy ...
s. According to this theory, the Hausa states would have been founded by Kharijite refugees in the tenth century CE.
Elizabeth Isichei, in her work ''A History of African Societies to 1870'', suggests that Bayajidda's stay in Borno prior to arriving in Hausaland is "perhaps a folk memory of origins on the Borno borderland, or a reflection of Borno political and cultural dominance."
Symbolical history
One view is that the story of the marriage of Bayajidda and Daurama symbolizes the merger of
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
and
Berber tribes in North and West Africa.
Biblical Anthropologist, Alice C. Linsley, maintains that Bayajidda's closest biblical counterpart is Cai
Cain is said to have fled from his father, married a princess whom he met at a well, and was involved with metalworkers. Most of the heroes of Genesis met their wives at sacred wells or springs. Abraham married Keturah at the Well of Sheba (Beersheva). Issac (Yitzak) found a wife at a well in Aram. Moses encountered his wife at a well sacred to the Midianites and won her hand after he delivered the women and flocks from Egyptian raiders.
In his 1989 book ''An Imperial Twilight'', Gawain Bell suggests that the marriage of Bayajidda and Daurama signals a "change from a matriarchal to a patriarchal system."
In literature and media
Bayajidda's story inspired a comic book adaptation titled "Bayajidda: An African Legend" adapted/written by Claude Opara and drawn by Ibrahim Yakubu under the 'An African Legend' comic series. The comic was published in 2018 using the popular
bande dessinee style. A French translation was later released the following year.
Bibliography
* Barth, Heinrich: ''Travel and Discoveries in North and Central Africa'', 3 vols., New York, 1857-9.
*
* Hogben, S. J. and
Anthony Kirk-Greene: ''The Emirates of Northern Nigeria'', London 1966 (p. 145-155).
* Lange, D.
"The Bayajidda legend and Hausa history" in: E. Bruder und T. Parfitt (eds.), ''Studies in Black Judaism'', Cambridge 2012, 138-174.
* Nicolas, Guy: ''Dynamique sociale et appréhension du monde au sein d'une société hausa'', Paris 1975.
* Palmer, Herbert R.: ''Sudanese Memoirs'', Bd. 3, Lagos 1928 (Bayajidda-Legende, p. 132-146).
* Smith, Michael: ''The Affairs of Daura'', Berkeley 1978.
Notes and references
External links
* (Includes audio file of pronunciation of Bayajidda.)
Map showing Bornu and the Hausa Bakwai*Hausa language version of the Bayajidda tale
Part IPart II* English translation of the palace version of th
Bayajidda legendin Lange, ''Ancient Kingdoms'', Dettelbach 2004, 289-296.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayajidda
African mythology
Hausa
Legendary progenitors