A brief walk into the homeland of one of Africa's bravest people

November 16, 2017 11:46 PM

Another interesting fact about Chibok is that it is the very last place in Nigeria to submit to British rule.

Chibok is not a tribe. It is a land in the eastern part of Borno State, which houses one of Africas bravest people: The Kibaku people.

According to oral tradition, the Kibaku is an ethnocultural fusion of Babir/Bura, Kanuri, Kilba, Margi, Shuwa, and Fulani. They came to Chibok Hills from about 18th century when the Kanem-Bornu empire was disintegrating.

The 19th-century jihad and slave raids would force many ethnic groups to move away from their original locations to new ones. And as a result, the Chibok Hills came to be inhabited by the Pulai/Warga who came all the way from Viyu Kithla (Biu) and Kwanda who came from Konduga, Tstitihil from Maiva, Karagu from Birnin Ngazargamu and other locations.

With an estimated population of twenty thousand as of 1968, the Kibaku people which are naturally fearless and brave are made up of thirty-eight different clans and sub-clans which includes Pulai, Mungai, Tsitihil, Whuntaku Pirkiu, Midiraku, Kagyau, Karagau, Kwapul, Kwangwala, Gaskil, Ngiwar, Kwapurai, Njir-Dawa, Aduwarama and Hirpaya.

It is these different groups that formed the Kibaku ethnic group and developed the Kibaku language. However, they were not governed by a particular authority. They simply lived in self-autonomous communities.

And talking about the bravery of these fearless people, oral tradition has it that during the olden days, when a chief in Biu dies, the new chief that is to assume the position of the departed was taken to Chibok for a kind of rite before an installation can take place.

Upon his arrival, he would be helped by a "Chibok girl" to mount a rock (called ‘Muyar Patha’) in Wantaku and an exhortation would be made about him before being taken back to Biu for the coronation.

Another interesting fact about Chibok is that it is the very last place in Nigeria to submit to British rule. And to the Kibaku people, this is a source of pride.

The Kibaku people have one special story they've carried for long.

It's about a king whose dwelling place was in the mountains and had a rock throne that his subjects were allowed to approach only by sitting down facing away from it.

They never looked at him.

When it became glaring that Chibok could no longer withstand the might of the British, this king decided to disappear into the mountains permanently rather than cede to a colonial power.

"If a king cannot be a king like a king should be a king, there should be no king at all," he said.

However, it is important to note here that the early kings of the Kibaku people were called “Mai.” And amongst the early mais were Mai Jatau, Mai Njaba, Mai Gana.

But presently, the mais have been reduced to district head under the Borno Emirate Council.

And like most ethnic group across Nigeria, clan leadership among the Kibaku people is based on age.

ALSO READ: A brief walk into the lives of one of Nigeria's most interesting people