Max Siollun: Every Northerner is Hausa (Y! History)

by Max Siollun

Hausa-Fulani-People

There is a tendency among southern Nigerians to ignorantly refer to any northerner as “Hausa”. A few years ago there was a massive ethnic controversy when sectarian violence (and murders) rocked Jos (as usual) as Muslim Fulanis and Christian Biroms killed each other. 

I was speaking to some friends recently and they pointed me to some online debates among Nigerians who “refused to believe” that there are 250 ethno-linguistic groups in Nigeria. Even those that concede there are 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, do not realise that a great many of those 250 are in the north. The “250 languages in Nigeria” stat is actually a gross undercount. There are over 500 (yes I said over FIVE HUNDRED) indigenous languages spoken in Nigeria: http://www.ethnologue.com/country/ng/default/***EDITION***

There is a tendency among southern Nigerians to ignorantly refer to any northerner as “Hausa”. A few years ago there was a massive ethnic controversy when sectarian violence (and murders) rocked Jos (as usual) as Muslim Fulanis and Christian Biroms killed each other.  As dead bodies piled up in Jos an explosive debate raged with many Christians, middle belters and southerners accusing Major-General Saleh Maina (then the GOC of the army’s 3rd armoured division in Jos) of being pro-Fulani, and of not doing enough to stop the murder of Christians and Biroms because he is “Hausa-Fulani”. Even General  Domkat Bali (a retired General from the middle belt) joined in with mis-characterising Maina’s ethnicity. The ignorance of the furore was palpable, because Maina is NOT Hausa or Fulani. He is Kanuri, but fell victim to the generic Nigerian mindset of “every northerner is Hausa”.

WHO IS HAUSA?

Many southern Nigerians ignorantly label Nigeria’s past northern leaders like Abacha, Babangida, and Abubakar as “Hausa” when in fact NONE of these men was Hausa. The issue is compounded by the fact that the concept of who/what is “Hausa” is an exceptionally complicated one. “Hausa” colloquially refers to more than an ethnic group. It is also used as a general term to describe anyone who can speak Hausa (whether or not they are ethnically Hausa). The casual misuse of the term “Hausa” has led to middle belt ethnicities like the Tiv, Angas, Jukun, Nupe, Gwari, Gbagyi etc being referred to as “Hausa” in southern Nigerian discourse.I am sure that many are also unaware that Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark (i.e. citizen no. 3 in Nigeria is from the Idoma ethnic group in the middle belt.

THE KOMA AND ALL THOSE “MINORITIES”

I hope readers will be enlightened by the diversity in Nigeria – especially in the north. A few sobering statistic (I know some of you
do not like stats, but I cannot help it right now):

1) About 700-800 languages are spoken in Nigeria and Cameroon alone. Two countries with less than 3% of the world’s population speak over 10% of ALL languages in the world.

2) Which is the most linguistically diverse region in Nigeria? The North.  Many do not realise that there are states in northern Nigeria where one encounters different ethnic groups/languages as one moves from one town to the next. Some groups like the “Big Three”, and the Tiv, Kanuri and Ijaw number in the millions. However, others are in the mere thousands and are so obscure that the federal government might not even be aware of their existence.

3) States like Adamawa, Bauchi, Plateau and Taraba are reputed to have over 50 (yes, I said FIFTY) ethnic groups EACH.

4) The former Governor of Adamawa State once said that there are individual Local Government Areas in his state where 30 separate languages are spoken.

5) Who reading this has nostalgic memories of the Koma people?  With approximately 50,000 people, this was the ethnic group that remained “undiscovered” in the mountainous highland area to the north-east, living a naked Pagan lifestyle up in the mountains with no interaction with modern society. They were “discovered” in 1986 during the administration of Colonel Yohanna Madaki – then Military Governor of Gongola State. Early missionaries who tried to convert them had to go naked so as not to make them feel uncomfortable around clothed strangers.

CHRISTIAN NORTH, MUSLIM SOUTH

A few years ago, Libyan leader Colonel Ghaddafi (in response to religious violence in Nigeria) advocated splitting Nigeria between
Muslims and Christians. Sounds plausible right? Should be an easy task since the “north is Muslim and south is Christian”?  Wrong.  The Muslim north/Christian south discourse has been a massive myth for decades. Some northern states like Kaduna, and southern states like Oyo have mixed Muslim and Christian populations. Let’s not even mention Kwara state. Aside from having sizeable Christian and Muslim populations, no one can even agree whether it is in the north or south!

Ask anyone about the far north western corner of Nigeria, and they are likely to think of it as the home area of former Presidents Shagari and Yar’Adua former Head of State Muhammadu Buhari. It is also renowned as the area of Nigeria where Muslim Sharia law started. Zamfara state in the far north west was the first Nigerian state to adopt Sharia law when it was governed by Ahmed Sani. Yet right next door to the first footsteps of Sharia in Nigeria, there is an indigenous Christian minority ethnic group. Who remembers Colonel Dauda Musa Komo – former Military Governor of Rivers State and nemesis of Ken Saro-Wiwa?  Komo, and other famous individuals like Sani Sami, Ishaya Bamaiyi and Tanko Ayuba are from the minority Zuru area in what is now Kebbi State which has a minority Christian population. Even the “Bokostan” areas plagued by the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency in north-eastern Nigeria have Christian populations (the fact that many of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls are Christians is a case in
point).

Nigerians are unaware of the diversity in their own country because many do not have experience of interaction with the numerically smaller ethnicities. Most Nigerians who travel outside their home areas do so to get to big cities like Abuja and Lagos. It is rare (except for NYSC) to find Nigerians living in the rural/local parts outside their home area.

NIGERIA – EARTH’S TOWER OF BABEL

Nigeria is Earth’s answer to the biblical Tower of Babel. A kaleidoscope of different cultures, languages and labyrinth diversity. Let us open our eyes and minds to the breathtaking diversity of the area called Nigeria. Before you call that fellow across the road an [Hausa][Fulani][Yoruba][Igbo], have a hard think, you might be surprised at what you find out….

Till next time,

Max

———————

Max Siollun tweets from @MaxSiollun

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Comments (2)

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail