Remodelling Themselves. Language Shift, Islamisation and Ethnic Conversion among the Maaka

TOPICS IN STUDIES Multilingual Settlements in a Convergence Area Case Studies from Nigeria Volume 34 edited by 2014  Jungraithmayr 166 fiir Festschrift A. Klingenheben, pp. 173-207. Hamburg: Deutsches Institut Afrika-F orschung. Newman, Paul. 1974. The Kanakuru Langu age. Leeds: University of Leeds, in y. association with the West African Linguistic Societ Schuh, Russell. 1978. Bole-Tangale Languages of the Bauchi Area (Northern REMODELLING THEMSELVES Nigeria). Berlin: Reimer. LANGUAGE SHIFT, ISLAMISATION AND ETHNIC t in Jukun. In P. Zima, J. Jenik & V. Storch, Anne. 2003. Layers of language contac Prague: SOFIS. CONVERSION AMONG MAAKA Tax (eds.), Dynamics o,f Systems, pp. 176-196. der Morphologie der Bole-Tangale­ Zoch, Ulrike. 20 I O. Vergleichende Aspekte . des Verbalsystems. PhD thesis, Sprachen mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. 1 Introduction When we started our research among the Maaka in 2011, the processes of language shift and ethnic conversion were more advanced than we had expected. In each of the two settlements where Maaka/Maha used to be the dominant language, there were less than a hundred fully competent speakers left. In Bara, where we focused our research, the indigenous population has become a minority. Until the end of the 1990s, Bara was a village of perhaps one thousand inhabitants. Its citizens were used to accommodating migrants from neighbouring ethnic groups, but the influx of strangers has accelerated since 1996, when Bara was made the administrative centre of a newly created local government area. Among the strangers who poured in were civil servants who only came to work in Bara temporarily. Most of the newcomers, however, were fanners who have made Bara their home. The Maaka classify them in ethnic tenns; the most numerous groups are the Babur, Fulani and Karekare. The Babur have been living in this region for generations, while the Fulani have settled here in large numbers only since the 1970s. The Karekare, whose home area is around Potiskum, more than a hundred kilometres away, form the most recent 'settler' community. Since the 1990s, hundreds ofKarekare have built houses on the n01ihern outski1is of town. The relationship between the Maaka and their fellow­ citizens has deteriorated because farmland has become scarce. Nearly all the uncultivated tracts of bush have been cleared, yet 'strangers' are still trickling in. Although there are only a few Hausa living in Bara, their language has become dominant. Hausa serves as the lingua franca, and it has been adopted as a mother tongue by many Maaka, especially the younger ones. The traditional ruler of Bara, Mai Barde, and his predecessor, Mai Toto (who became my main infonnant), bemoaned the fact that the Maaka language may die out, yet at the same time they "',.,,.-t-0•·-.·0r1 to Hausa with their families. of our interlocutors assumed that without a language of their own the Maaka will cease to exist as a 'tribe', and its members will become part of the most populous group in northern 1 I am grateful for comments by J6rg Adelberger on an earlier version of this chapter.  Harn ischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 169 168 The process of becoming Hausa has gone hand in hand with a �·apid Islamisat on. � Gulani's dominance began to wane, however, when Nigeria's military rulers processed to then ancestral shnnes rearranged the administrative structure of the region and created, in 1996, an Some twenty years ago, community leaders still Maaka are Muslims, and they claim additional district, called Gulani Local Government Area. The inhabitants of Gulani on Buna Mountain and prayed for rain. Today all my first stay, none of the elders expected their town to become the administrative centre of the new political unit, but that they have never had any other religion. During about possession cults and secret this was contested by the other major settlement in the area, Bularafa, which is gave me the names of ancient deities, or spoke Islamic people who had come from mainly inhabited by Babur (or Pabir). Neither of the two contenders gave in, societies. They insisted that the Maaka were an . When their ancestors arrived at the therefore a rather insignificant village between them was chosen, namely Bara. For outside Africa: from Y emel (Yemen) or Mecca ago, the first building they erected the Maaka in Bara, this was an unexpected victory; for the Maha in Gulani, it was a present site and founded Bara, 300 or 700 years humiliation. was a mosque. the Maaka have ceased to On the basis of their common origin and geographical proximity, Western For a social anthropologist it is unfortunate that ctive, however, it makes sense to observers have labeled the original inhabitants of Bara and Gulani a 'tribe' and a remember their 'pagan' past.2 From their perspe et as a crude and uncultured way of 'language group' (or 'language community'). But these tem1s do not correspond with conceal what other people in Bara might interpr of them have little formal education local perceptions. The two groups have little feeling of belonging together, because life. As the Maaka are few in numbers and many (the primary school was only built in 1973), they only play a marginal r?le n the . � they have experienced quite different fates. In precolonial times, the Maaka in Bara local government administration. The only way to gain respectab1hty is b � were a subjugated people, tributaiy to the kings of Borno, while the Maha in Gulani inunigrants. Like the Kamm, operated, at least for a period, an independent chiefdom strong enough to raid remodelling themselves along the lines of the Muslim Hausa, who established emirates in settlements to the south and force a few of them into submission. Moreover, Bara who have dominated the Borno Empire, and the as carriers of an ancient Islamic has maintained close contact with the Bole, who speak a West Chadic language very northwest Nigeria, they present themselves As such, they cannot be looked closely related to Maaka, while Gulani has strong links with the Babur, their civilisation, with a long succession of kingly rulers. neighbours to the east, who speak a Central Chadic language. Most people in Bara upon as primitive. . . in Bara tend to compa re themselves with the Maha m Gulam, some stated, in interviews, that they had no conunon origin with the Maha in Gulani. A The Maaka nes' of Gulani call their language few assumed that both groups, before moving to their present settlements, had lived twenty-five kilometres to the south. The 'indige spoken in Bara. Both groups see together on a nearby hill, forming one single people, yet they conceded that the Maha, but it is basically the same as the Maaka owns the land and that has to assert Gulani were not pure Maaka because they had intermingled with the Babur long themselves as the autochthonous population that s'. However, the common threat of before colonial times. its rights v;s-6-v;s a growing number of 'settler not brought the two groups closer Research by Cohen, an expert on Kanuri history who made a shmi survey of being dominated by larger ethnic groups has colonial period, when Bara was Gulani in the 1970s, corroborates that a section of the town is of Babur descent together. Animosities go back at least to the early placed under the administration of the chief of Gulani (from 1906 to 1914). At the among them the royal family. These Babur stemmed from Mirnga, an influentia l the more imp01iant settlement and chiefdom fifty kilometres to the east. When they arrived in the Gulani area in around time of the British conquest in 1903, Gulani was lost its status of an administrative 1800, they encountered Maha speakers who had settled there during the course of was made a district headquarters. The town soon position by acquiring Western the eighteenth century. As the Babur immigrants were fewer in numbers, they centre but its inhabitants defended their leading school was built in 1950. gradually adopted the language of the indigenes, and by the end of the nineteenth ; educa ion earlier than the people of Bara: their first century had made it their mother tongue. Yet despite their numerical inferiority they managed to subdue the original inhabitants and took over the chieftaincy. The Maaka is scarcely available. The most In the ethnographic literature, information on the Northe rn Nigeria' (Meek 1950): does not present chief is the twenty-sixth ruler of a dynasty that traces its descent to the detailed survey of the area, 'Tribal Studies in 'Maga' is contain ed in a compilation of colomal reports inm1igrants from Mimga (Cohen 1981: 101-105). When stayed in Gulani for eight mention them. A short note on the by Temple (1965: 263; see also J.G. Davies 1954-5 6: 116). He relates tl� e story of a days, its inhabitants talked openly about their diverse origins: three clans belonged 400 years ago, but tlus sto� does mythical hero from Deraland who founded the Maga to the original Maha speakers; another three were of Babur and a seventh affiliati on, as it is at variai ce with �he not help us to understand their origin and ethnic . � clan encompassed the Hausa, Fulani and Babur who had settled there in recent There is, howeve r, some unpubl ished mforma t�on linguistic evidence (Newman 1965). es Kaduna. The mo st exha� st1ve decades. Cohen had been told that the original Maaka speakers had fonnerly lived on Bara in colonial reports, kept in the National Archiv . on the Gujba District of Borno State', by R.S. Davies, Ass1st�nt in Fika, a Bole kingdom, but when I asked the elders about this, they disavowed any accoun t is the 'Report 10-125P/1919 (quoted as R.S. Davies link with the Bole. The Wati clan traced its origin to the Manga people, who used to District Officer, in National Archives Kaduna, SNP remark s on Bara and Gulani fill approximately four live at the fringe of the Sahara, more than two hundred kilometres to the north· the 1919). In this 60-page document, ' pages.  Harn;sc�feger Language shift, lslam;satfon and ethnic conversfon among the Maaka 171 170 a Empire that Bahamma clan claimed to be from Pindiga, an outpost of theKwararaf from the common language. And even the language does not act as a strong unifying clan hailed from was dominated by speakers of Hone, a Jukun language; and the Bata bond. The Maaka have debated at public meetings how to preserve their language Yet these clans had hardly preserved and some elements of their culture, but have been unable to agree on a common a group ofKanuri-speaking people to the north. any knowledge about these foimer places of residence. course of action, as they are deeply divided among themselves. The main rifts are . foundmg father As the three original Maha clans traced their roots not to a Maha between old and young, between illiterates and Western-educated, and between more learned to speak but to other ethnic groups, it remained a mystery where they had traditional Muslims and Islamic reformers. have lived togethe r for some tim� with Sect�on .3 looks at the way Bara formed as a multilingual settlement through a Maha. I suggested that their ancestors may utors mled this out. successive mflux of settlers. Most towns and major villages in the Gongola region the ancestors of the Maaka speakers in Bara, but my interloc in Bara nor None of their ancestors had lived together with the Bara people, neither were conglomerates of clans and lineages with diverse ethnic and linguistic the l�nguage in any earlier settlement. Thus they had no explanation for the fact that backgrounds. These clans, sub-clans and extended families tended to live in their they could fully �ompre� end it. own quarters, where they continued to speak their own language and regulated their spoken in Bara was so close to their own that . losmg their ethmc and affairs, as much as possible, autonomously. Strangers were welcome, as they Both groups, the Maaka and the Maha speakers, are compar the e linguistic identities, but they are doing so in different ways. I shall not stren�thened a settlement. In a time of slave raids and imperial conquests, the history has two but will restrict myself, in this aiiicle, to Bara. Knowledge of Bara's secunty of a town or village depended on the number of people it could attract. how the village looked in precolo �ial Ho':ever, the indigenes, while welcoming strangers and giving them land, were become so scanty that I cam1ot reconstruct forgotte n. Losmg times. Instead I will focus on the question of how the past has been anx10us to preserve control over 'their' settlement and keep newcomers from g elements of one's recollection is an active process which involves excommunicatin political decision-making. The rivalry between first-comers and later immigrants one's present the past and replacing them with others which are more in line with was a constant source of tension that weakened a settlement and could ultimately interests and aspirations. lead to its disintegration. In Bara we could only find traces of these conflicts. When . ethmc and The following sections will discuss the main aspects of this process of di�cus�ing family histories, the elders no longer upheld the official myth of a joint religious remodelling. nugration from Yemel to Bara. Most of them remembered non-Maaka origins. From . m the Section 2 discusses the quasi-official version of Bara history that emerged their stories it appears that immigrants suffered very different fates, as there existed elves vi�­ 1990s. Today,3 all segments of the 'indigenous' population present them� various modes of integrating them, depending on the size and origin of an immigrant Maaka did not mix a-vis outsiders as members of a homogeneous ethnic group: 'We group. If they did not get along with the 'owners of the land', they might leave Bara The various with strangers since we left our ancient home in Yemel or Mecca'. or be expelled. Hence they had strong incentives to preserve their distinct languages narrate their individu al origins; instead they and keep in contact with relatives, friends and in-laws in their former places of Maaka clans and kin-groups no longer compris es little more than the residence. have adopted a stereotyped version of histmy, which ), they migrate d to Section 4 explores the most impmiant institution that links the Maaka with their claim to a common migration. Starting from Yemel (Yemen Chad. From past, the chieftaincy. The chieftaincy still plays a role in village politics, because Gazargamu, a forn1er capital of the Borno Empire to the west of Lake route, settling for a while in a number of places traditional mlers have been integrated into the local government administration, there they followed a southeasterly Moidom , Mount Buna and although on a subordinate level. With the rise of democracy and party politics, Bara's situated in today's Yobe State: Damatum, Gujba, Mount �roup with a chiefs have lost much of their power. However, other traditional institutions which finally Bara. Attempts to present themselves as a homogeneous ethnic , m part, as a might have helped to keep the Maaka together have declined even fmiher. Half a common language and history are a recent phenomenon that emerged rs of the century ago, Bara had a shrine that could be consulted by all villagers. It was not reaction to the massive and uncontrollable influx of strangers. Membe that they are the owners of the linked to a particular ward or kindred, so it could be invoked as an impartial oracle 'indigenous' population want to defend their claim ng that they to decide village disputes. Until the 1990s there were also male and female singers land and this can best be done by acting as a united group. Admitti different times who composed songs about village affairs and exposed wrong-doings; and there the selves were just a conglomerate of settlers, who came to Bara at � ne their claims to autochth ony. However, were spirit mediums who confronted the chief and the whole community with and from different places, would undermi that keeps them together , apart prophetic messages. In addition, village elders may have operated a secret society as behind the fac;:ade of tribal unity, there is not much a forum in which to meet and discuss crucial decisions. Such a society, called ns I encountere in I shall use the present tense when describing the persons and institutio . � angiramta, existed in Gulani, where it was dissolved by the village authorities in of my stay m Ba�·a, captun�1g 1950. In Bara, however, any knowledge of angiramta has been lost or 2011 and 2012. This present tense only refers to the period ation. Much of what I recorded will look qmte a brief phase in a process of rapid transform excommunicated, whereas conflicts between rival sections of the 'royal' family are different in a decade or two.  Harnischfeger Language sh(ft, lslamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 173 172 utes (in Sections 4. 1 �nd 4.2) is .a against tr�ops of the B�rno En�pire, fo: they were few in numbers, and their village well remembered. Discussing chieftaincy disp �ad a �aJor weakness: 1t was situated 111 the open plain. Their neighbours in Gulani ge politics, becau�e the chi�fs and their convenient way of learning more about villa d to non-royal village sect10ns. At the hv�d m a more hilly terrain, and it seems they were more successful in defending rivals within the ruling house have been allie their autonomy. �selbergs and mountain ranges, which were difficult to conquer by l kingmakers picked a successor, they death of a chief when the council of non-roya the mounted armies of the Borno and Sokoto Empires, had been the favoured a chief who was in league with a part could shift the balance of power by installing locat�o�� of ethn�c minorities. All accounts of Maaka history that we collected agree ginalised. Since the chi�fs used to s�r�e of the population that had hitherto been mar etimes acted despoticall_Y, and it �s that nutially their ancestors had also lived on a hill, called Buna Mountain about as an instrument of imperial rule, they som ei�ht ��lometres away from Bara. 4 On top of it, the remains of a few buildi1�gs are moners as a g:·oup of ahe�1, Kan�n­ possible that they were imposed on the com cy also fu�ctione� as an mte�rative still visible, and next to them stands a mighty Baobab tree that once served as a place speaking rulers. Neveiiheless, Barn's chieftain lved all major sect10ns �f the vill�ge. of worship. force, because competition over the throne invo �lthough prec�lo�ial Bara had been inhabited by less than a thousand people,5 sfonnatio� of t�e chiefdom smce The third part of Section 4 analyses the tran my 1�terlocutors msisted that the village had never been conquered. One elder rnment officials with a very humble colonial times. The chiefs have become gove This loss of authority is not just t�e explamed that t�e Maaka possessed a spirit that made the village invisible, while role in the local govermnent administration. authorities. It reflects a power s�1ft another elder said that 'our Maaka shaitan [pagan deity] made us look like many result of a conflict between traditional and state rs have challenged the present chief people'. It was only by chance that I learnt, in an interview with Baba Goji, an old within Maaka society. Some Maaka c01mnone ele�hant hunter, t�at Bara had been tributary to the Shehu of Bomo. My interpreter, r ethnic groups. . by forming alliances with politicians from othe youn g and old, . whic h is Mama Hassan, said that he had never heard about this before, yet after a few days he nal confl ict betw een Section 5 looks at the generatio and others began to talk openly about this period of servitude. Kanuri mle had been young people supp�1� the lzala, an articulated mainly in religious te1111s. Most har�h. When � Bara man was unable to pay his tax, he risked being deported to t adherence to relig10us laws. All Islamic refom1 movement that demands stric GuJba, an ancient Kanuri settlement, ninety kilometres away, where an official of formed in accordance .with the rules spheres of public and private life shall be trans the � orno king resided. In Gujba, the Maaka man would be put in jail, and if his all over the world. Tlns attempt at a of Sharia which are the same for the faithful . relative� did not come �o pay the outstanding tax, he would be sold into slavery. For ity aims at eradicating all tribal radical r�fonn of one's society and personal rs are not attracted by thi� message. the subjugated population, the chiefs of Bara did not play a benevolent role. They differences that keep people apart. Maaka elde . had to exact tnbute and smTender those of their subjects who did not comply with Tijaniyya, a long-established Sufi Most of them attend the mosques of the the dema�ds of the Kanuri authorities. When the British occupied the area, slavery rds things traditional. brotherhood with a more relaxed attitude towa was abolished, but Bara remained, most of the time, under Kanuri mle. As the colonial authorities did not have enough staff to administer the vast country directly, 2 4 The first narratives wer� �ollected by Hemn�1m Jungraithmayr and Rudolf Leger 2.1 A new Hf'87f'71' £D1fnio � . between 1991 and 199 . Jibnl Jatau did the recordmg and translated the texts into English. ka rests on three principles, whi�h The most compreh�ns1ve of these narratives is a ten-page 'History of Bara', told in 1998 The present-day self-representation of the Maa � was never ??nq�1e�ed. Thus its ?Ytwo elder�, ama Maraya and Malam Garba, both of non-royal clans. Their text is complement each other: ( 1) Precolonial Bara Important as It is the first recorded document that fonnulates a kind of official Bara his­ land. (2) All families hvmg t�ere v:ere � � � inhabitants were the undisputed owners of the tory. It pos ts that all �ak� migra ed togetl�er from�em�l - � claim that is asserted today The Maaka have be.en Muslims smc� Maaka. They did not mix with strangers. (3) by all sect10ns of the md1genous populat10n. Earlier histoncal accounts differ consid­ of saying that they did not need Kanun they leftyemel or Mecca. This is another way erably, as they contain iriformation on the multiple origins of the Maaka. The most in­ structive of these early narratives is the one given in 1991 by Ulu Bulan, a 75-year-old or Hausa tutelage to become a 'civilised' people. woman. All these nairntors were already dead when I first came to Bara. Their accounts . Let us take a closer look at these claims will be p u lished in a book on 'Maaka folk tales and proverbs' (Suzzi Valli, forthcoming). ? . walls which protected its inhabitants All other mhabitants of Bara quoted here were iriterviewed between January and March 1. Precolonial Bara was f01iified with created fi.elds 2011 and January and March 2012. against slave raiders and other aggressors. With . had in its. walls people A census in 1926/27 put the total population of Bara at 183 8 persons, but this figure m­ d withstand a sieg� for a long tune. and gardens, and had dug a well . Thus they coul cluded all s�ttlements that belonged to the Bara village unit, such as Badugo, Duchi and s' asserted that then an�estors were Members of the royal family and other 'indigene Gagure (Milroy 1927: 15). Moreover, many of those counted for the tax census were were able to defend then settlement recent refugees, some of whom stayed in Bara only temporarily. As the population fluc­ never defeated. Yet it is unlikely that the Maaka tuated, the annual census figures in the 1920s varied between 1400 and 1800.  Harniscl�feger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 175 174 stmcture. The chief of B�ra .continu�d Ba�a must have been a multilingual society long before it became an admi­ they tried to preserve the established power . mst�ative centre. Code switching was common, and people were constantly delivered the rest to the distnct head m to collect taxes, kept a share for himself and re�1�nded of where they stemmed from. Even the leading families were of mixed head, who happened to be a son of the Gujba. If he failed in his duties, the district ong111: The present chief, Mai Barde, has a Babur mother and a father who was half Borno king, could depose him. . . inha bited by Maa ka. The y did not take 111 Kanuri, half Maaka; and Ciroma, the leader of the largest ward, is the son of a Tera 2. Bara, we were told, had only been intermany with them. It was only after father and a Babur mother. People's pedigree was not decisive in defining who was members of other ethnic groups, nor did they . a Maaka. Smee the Maaka have multiple origins, they can best be defined as a rnment administration that strangers Bara became the headquarters of the local gove numbe� o� indivi �uals (or kin groups) who claim to be the 'indigenes' of Bara. Indi­ we learnt, of course, that non-Maaka. had moved in. In the course of our interviews speakers of alien tongues ha� come i� as geneship 1s associated with exclusive rights: with ownership of land and some form been accommodated for a long time. Some ered, although people av01ded tall��ng of seniority in politics.8 In order to defend this status, people have to act as a united slaves; their ethnic origins were still rememb a voluntarily, for example Baba GoJi, a �rou�. Admitting tha� a se�tion of them came from Babur would weaken their posi­ about it. Others had come to settle in Bar ugh his Kanuri father in Gujba. !he tion; it would m�ke 1t easier for the Babur, who dominate adjacent settlements, to blacksmith, who had learnt his craft thro immigration of individual persons and fam�lie� was fa�ilitat�d by comn�on relatives also lay some claim to the ownership of Bara. Political expedience demands that the . allia nces and JOkm g relat 10nships which l111ked whole Ma�ka do n?t present themselves as a conglomerate of migrants that came to Bara and in-laws, or by poli tical . existed, above all, with the Bole, at �ifferent tunes. In order to avoid any hints at their multiple origins, it is convenient settlements to each other. Cordial relations dom in Boleland. Some acco�mts of to impose on all segments of Maaka society a uniform version of history: all of us especially those in Fika, the most impmiant king s ago the Ma�k� and the Bole migr�ted came from Mecca, and we always worshipped the same god. Maaka histmy point out that hundreds of year Social anthropologists look for characteristic features that distinguish one ethnic , and only spht 111 Damaturn or Gu�ba: together into the area of today's Yobe State g�·oup f�om anot�er. The Maa�rn, however, have little interest in discussing the ntain, while the Bole left f�r Damsk1 From there, the Maaka proceeded to Buna Mou distance (of about se�e�� kilometres) smgulanty of thelf ancestral hentage. They want to tell their history and culture in a Mountain (close to Fika). Despite the long d in steady contact, VlSltmg each other way that resembles other people's hist01y and culture. Claiming an origin from between Bara and Fika, both groups remaine Mecca, Yemen or Baghdad, and taking pride in having been Muslims since time exchanged daughters, and some Bole and attending each other's festivals. They also t Bara men over. the age of fi� have immemorial, has become a common practice among the Hausa, Kanuri and many men came to stay in Bar a. I was told that mos speak Kanun and Babu�-. These �ther groups. In the ca�e of the Maaka it is difficult to tell to what extent they believe learnt to speak Bole, and many of them also 111 the myth of an ancient, homogenous people with their own independent kings. on. The village of Ga�a1, twenty languages have a long presence in the regi The elderly remember, of course, many details which are at odds with the official as the oldest settlement 111 southern kilometres nmihwest of Bara, which is regarded version of history. But do their grandchildren still have an idea of the 'pagan' past? used to speak a Chadic language but Yobe State, was founded by Ngazar, who And what do the non-Maaka know about Maaka history? Since Babur and Kanuri the nineteenth century. A few Babur gradually adopted Kanuri during the course of r than Bara. Be�ore the advent of the villages to the north and east are also olde the nearest major Ba�ur settlements, British, the area was sparsely inhabited, and region, whereas Kanuri influence from Borno had only been sporadic: "the imperial thrust ten to twenty-five kilometres away. Bumsa, Dokshi and Bursali, were as far as was not an�icable, Maa�a p�ople of �orno had been to the west and north", where it tried to control the trade routes to north Although the relationship with these villages Afnca an� to the Hausa st�tes: "The areas south of Borno had for centuries been the object living in Bara smce precolomal times. . concede that a number of Babur have been of slave raids, and a cm1:1bmat101� of the desrre to preserve these domains for the harvesting r, was largely uninhabite�, except for o� the human comrn ? d1ty, cons1dered so essential to the Borno economy, and the sheer The area to the west, towards the Gongola Rive _ and mountainous areas had hindered er wrote in 1919 that the Ei:rnr of Gomb�, d�ffic�lt� of conquenng those hilly expansion in that a few Fulani hamlets. A British district offic , nineteenth century, until �bba Rufa1, drrect10n (Brenner 1973: 23, �5). In the second half of the nineteenth centmy, however, a Fulani rnler, had controlled Bara in the mid- after Bomo had lost control of 1ts western and northern provinces, it expanded southwards d it. The present population of Bara, a brother to Shehu Umar of Barno, conquere and an:1exed large tracts of land to the east of the Gongola. Bara, and for a shorter period however, has no recollection of this period.7 Gulam, must have served as border posts to secure the Bomo Empire against the Fulani _ . Enmate of Adamawa spreadmg from the Benue region in the south. Clain�s �f indigeneship, altho�gh ill-defined and contested, are recognised in Nigeria's speak a cmmnon language. However, the In linguistic terms, the Babur (Pabir) and Bura Maaka make a sharp distinction between the two groups. m . co�st1tut10n. M emb�rs of �thmc groups that 'belong' to a certain state or local government . �nJ?Y prerogatives .111 theu. �ome area. ��ey are entitled to discriminate against non­ 1804, Gulani was conq uered by Buba Yero, a leader of the Fula . pos1t10ns, allocating agricultural R.S. Davies 1919: 43. ln In the md1genes when fillmg adnumstrabve land, and granting be (J.G. Dav�es 1954-19�6: 36). . jihad, who later founded the Emirate of Gom scholarships (Bach 1997: 337-342). iga had been the dommant power m the Gongola decades before, the Jukun town of Pind  Harn ischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 177 176 es since precolonial times, they must be communicate properly with their children. Others lamented that their children were have been living in neighbouring villag was once under the kings of Borno . And assuming not just a foreign tongue but also alien habits and traits of character. aware that the whole area, including Bara, en used to live in Bara, long before it However, th� Maaka have few opportunities for debating their fate. They meet they may remember that some of their kinsm . that they do not openly dispute what occas10nally m front of the palace, when important social and political issues arise. became an administrative centre. Yet it seems by But this occurs only at veiy irregular intervals. At a meeting in January 2011, which official version, which has been affirmed the Maaka state about their hist01y. The widely accepted. When talkin g to some was attended by about a hundred men and a few women, the question came up of all sections of Maaka society, is apparently �hat could be done �o preserve the language, though this was not the main topic living in Bara for a couple of years, I asked civil servants and artisans who had been discussed at the meetmg. The Maaka are less perturbed by the gradual loss of their Bara was an ancient Maaka settlement and them about local hist01y and was told that language than European observers might expect. Only a few assumed that their others. that the Maaka had not been subjugated by mother tongue will vanish completely. One of the reasons normally given for 3. Bara appears to be an intensely Islam ic place, with a sharp gender separation language loss is the exposure of Maaka children to the school milieu, where Hausa Maaka in town are Muslims and have and strict adherence to religious rituals. All repudiated their pre-Islamic past. When I asked � Mai Toto about ancient cu t centres, dominates and languages are mixed. Another reason is the inclination of Maaka men t to marry non-Maaka women. In such mixed maniages it is common that Kanuri or not have other places of worship excep he disallowed my question: 'We did told me that the first mosque was built Babur wives speak to their children in their mother tongue or teach them Hausa. In mosques'. After a couple of weeks, an elder order to counter this trend, some Maaka suggested, during that meeting, that they then, a small group of Muslims, not more in the 1950s, when he was a boy. Until of worship, although improvised and should stop taking non-Maaka wives and giving their daughters to non-Maaka than thirty, had prayed under a tree. This mode perhaps since the period when Bara � as husbands. Others objected, arguing that everybody should be free to select the wife informal, may have gone on for a long time, or son-in-law he wished. Those who insisted on their right to marry non-Maaka were chiefs of Bara, who had to get along with incorporated into the Borno Empire. The found it convenient to profess Islam, as �ai�ly the edu �ated ones who had attended secondaiy schools (and te1iiary the Muslim authorities in Gujba, may have . mstitut10ns) outside Bara. As they have more contact with the outside world, they their Kanuri overlords. All over northern this facilitated the communication with ? 1is, but their Islamic de�11e� nour id n �t are aware that a local language spoken by perhaps one or two thousand people (in Nigeria, chiefs were among the first conve ial rep01i on Gujba D1stnct, wntten m Bara and Gulani together) cannot compete with Hausa. Investing in the language much affect the life of commoners. A colon es at the southwestern fringe of the would not pay in the long run. Thus it is not worthwhile to restrict one's freedom of 1919, listed Bara as one of the "pagan" villag may have looked like Muslim rulers, choice and forego the economic, political and religious advantages that might accrue Borno Empire (R.S. Davies 1919: 25). Its chiefs traditional fe1iility rites. Some of these from marriage-alliances with non-Maaka. but they continued to play a crucial role in the present chief, Mai Barde. At e�ch The disagreement between the minority of Western-educated Maaka and the rites were still performed, until recently, by rst seeds and to harvest the first fruits. majority, who are more inward-looking, has not been solved. The Maaka cannot agricultural season, he was to plant the fi cted with his office, he still betrays re�ch a consensus on basic issues. As they are losing their ability to act as a group Although he has shed most of the taboos conne with a common will, identifying with the Maaka community and speaking its features of a sacred king. Mai Barde is a poor Muslim. langua �e becomes less attractive. Despite this inability to pursue a common policy, From the perspective of religious orthodoxy, no faction has suggested that controversial matters be decided by majority vote. Islam are spearheaded by a Wahabi or­ Attempts to purify a lax and adulterated Eradication of [ un-Islamic] I�ovation s, Voting at public meetings would not make sense, since the Maaka no longer possess ganisation called Izala, the 'Society for the . m Bara, institutions that could enforce majority decisions. In former times the chief and his has found many adherents 111 and the Establishment of the Sumrn'. It ted, who blame the elder � for not b�ing counsellors were in a position to formulate and execute a common policy, but the paiiicular among the young and educa ions. Whatever remams of the tnbal chieftaincy has lost much of its authority, while other traditional institutions which thorough in their rejection of un-Islamic tradit of life based on the precepts of Islam used to help to coordinate Maaka politics have gone completely. the loss of cultures should be replaced by a unifonn way institutional coherence, the Maaka are an increasingly imaginary community. Re­ (more on this in Section 5). s01iing to majority decisions in order to determine a common course of action would jeopardise the little solidarity that is left among them. Any section that found itself outvoted might threaten to withdraw from common meetings. participants in a social transformation Izala followers and other Maaka are active Another matter which the Maaka have debated in front of the palace is the validity language and culture. At the same tim �, that will eventually lead to the loss of their of social customs. Some elders have suggested that the Maaka should not follow the ss it, although only casually, at public most of them deplore this loss, and discu Islamic way of paying bride price, but should stick to the old system, which demands ination that fathers could no longer meetings. One Maaka elder called it an abom  Harniscl?feger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 179 178 the parents of his bride - a practice 3 Becoming Maaka that the future husband take over fa1m work for that allegedly strengthens cooperation between in-law s. Others h ve defended the � a smalle r financial burden on the 3.1 Islamic regulations, which are simpler and impose bridegroom. A modest bride price is, of course, advan � ageous fo1 young en who : n� Since precolonial times Bara has been divided into two halves, which today are Given the divergent mterests have difficulties raising the means to get a bride. called Gala Dima and Gala Ciroma. These terms are of Kanuri 01igin and used to on a common procedure that between young and old, the discussants cam1ot agree signify officials at the imperial court, with different ranks and different spheres of would facilitate marriage arrangements. responsibility. In Bara, these terms were employed to designate administrative units. Those who publicly defend the customs of their � ncestors do ot appeal to ? Gala means 'ward' and at the same time the people living in it. There was no need feelings of nostalgia or ethnic pride, but adduce pragm atic reasons. his wa also t e � � ? to distinguish between the physical location and its inhabitants, for whoever moved _ towards ancestral mstI tutions with case when Maaka people discussed their attitudes _ into a ward became a citizen of it. Today, Bara is composed of several wards, most , was lauded because it u�ed to be me. The old rite of 'asking for rain', yakka yamba of them established by recent immigrants at the outskirts of the ancient village, but more effective than the Islamic rituals practised nowadays. Th Mushm rga­ � � a few decades ago, Bara had a dual structure. The Dima ward encompassed the whole nisations, which ostracise the 'pagan' practices, have introduced a kind f substitute, � northern part of the village, while Gala Ciroma comprised its southern half; and all was told - do not achieve results: communal prayers to Allah, but these prayers - I those living in Bara were either called Gala Dima or Gala Ciroma. With the creation people came back from Buna 'It does not work. But the old rite worked. When of these administrative units, citizens of Bara were defined by their place of [where they visited ancient shrines], it was alread y raining' (Lengi, a old w01 1an). � : residence, not by their ethnic or linguistic background. However, within Gala Dima been conducted m an abridged In recent years the yakka yamba procession has only and Gala Ciroma, a system ruled which ranked the inhabitants according to their fonn, without walking to the sacred sites on Buna _ �� Mount 1 . It staiis at a ho y place � origin. A certain family, which had founded the Dima ward, had the privilege of that v1s1ts other sacred s1.tes, but in Bara, the oldest well in town, and follows a route _ producing its leader, who bore the name of the ward and of the people he represented: Baobab trees whose spmts used today most of them are just vi1iual cult places. The Yeldima. He was the main adviser to the chief, and was one of the kingmakers. When or have been felled to make way to be worshipped at these spots have rotted away a chief died, the Yeldima had the right to rule Bara dming the short interregnum (of sion are a few elderly men and for a highway. Those still paiiicipating in the proces only three days) until a new chief was proclaimed. Other kin groups or clans living women, accompanied by a horde of children. Howev � er, t ey have found some in Gala Dima or Gala Ciroma also had titled representatives. The Gala Yekku group, unexpected support in a rain-making procession of � ocal �ularn, mostly women, who for instance, produced the Yerbna (again a term used in the imperial administration dress in male clothes, canying bows and arrows Just hke the _M aaka women, who of Borno). But the Yerima was not attached to the chiefs court, and he was not one _ when praymg for ram. also have a habit of wearing their husbands' dresses _ of the kingmakers. If he wanted to approach the chief, he had to go through his al culture is the loss of land. A more pressing problem than the loss of their ancestr superior, the Ciroma, who represented the ward and its inhabitants in all dealings It would be in the collective interest of the Maaka to preserve control over s i uch � � with outsiders. Like the chief, the Ciroma had his own court with a few titled strategies to asse1i their nghts land as possible. However, they cannot openly discuss officials. From here he communicated with the chief in a formalised way by sending are attende d not only by Maaka but against the 'settlers'. The meetings at the palace his messenger, although his house was just fifty metres away from the chiefs palace. also by some 'non-indigenes'. A few Babur, Kanuri and ulam _ �unde1 stand enough � By strictly observing the courtly etiquette, the title-holders confirmed the uneven Maaka to follow the deliberations. For others, the debate is translated nto Hausa _ �. If status of the village segments they represented. Late-comers generally had a lower address the meetmg m Hausa. they want to contribute to the discussion, they can rank, though there were different ways of integrating them, depending on the size of Apaii from the irregular meetings in front of the � pal ce, the Maaka have n oth r � � a group and its origin. Let us have a brief look at four groups of settlers who sought _ mterests. On one occas10n, m arena in which to aiiiculate and organise collective . _ incorporation into Bara: 2011, they convened a meeting exclusively for Maaka� _ � but det ils of the d1scuss10n 1. Jibril Jatau, a member of Gala Yekku, remembered that his father and were leaked to outsiders. The decline of traditional inst1tut 10ns is not he only reaso 1 � � grandfather still spoke Tera. His ancestors had lived in a Tera settlement, yet I heard for the inability of the Maaka to act in defense of their own common nterests. . � The r � a dispute between two elders of Gala Yekku as to whether their clan was of Tera or main problem is the deep division between various segments f th ir � soc1 � ty. This � Bole origin, because the small group that came to settle in Bara in precolonial days precolomal history will show. inner disruption was not a new problem, as a review of had arrived from a village n01ih of Teraland, in a Bole-dominated area, where the minority of Tera speakers have gradually been absorbed into Bole (Newman 1969/70). Moreover, the male members of this small kin group - just a Tera father, his Bole wife and some married sons - had inte1married with the Bole so that both  Harnischfeger Language shift, lslamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 181 180 languages must have been spoken among them. � At their arrival i Bara th y wer e� � moving to Bara in early colonial times, they had lived in a Bole settlement near Fika sent to the head of the Ciroma ward, who gave them a plot on which to bmld their though obviously not for long enough to tum into Bole. Their main external contact � compound and a piece of uncultivated land which � : �� they could c ea to star armi g. � remained with those Babur-speaking groups with whom they had lived together in By placing them in Gala Ciroma, they were squeez ed � into the exist ng admrmstratlve Bantine. Some of these former co-residents had migrated to Bumsa, Bularafa and but were supervised by the leader other Babur locations close to Bara; thus the Gala Data people were linked to a structure of Bara. They retained some autonomy accommodating a clan, a lineage or cluster of nearby allies on whom they could lean in times of crisis. It was common of the ward. This was a normal procedure when an extended family. In the case of individual persons seeking shelter i 1 Bara, . � for village segments to keep in touch with friends and relatives in former settlements. often adopted by an md1genous These links gave them some sense of identity and belonging, and nurtured ethnic different strategies were employed. They were playing their familial roles they sentiments. However, in the framework of multi-origin villages, ethnic sentiments family and treated as junior sons or daughters. By control. did not work as Europeans normally assume: as a unifying force that welded local were assimilated and placed under a regime of tight Today, Gala Yekku is a sizable group, with fifty to one hundred men bers. :i communities together. In Bara and other settlements they rather had a destabilising . entativ e at the chiefs council and effect, because they tied rival sections of a village to their (putative) kin in distant However, they have not managed to get a repres are not directly involved when a new chief is elected � . Instead they hav assumed � pl ces. These relatives might be called in when one needed help against one's village s from the Bomo capital, where neighbours. Each group in this microcosm of village rivalries had its own network imp01iant rihrnl functions. When a chief-elect return a representative of the emperor has invested him with the insignia of his new po ers, w_ of external alliances. In the contest for status and power, each actor used ethnic . Yekku block the entrance to the palace and only allow him m when he gives loyalties and a shared language as resources to mobilise outside support: from the Gala at the death of a chief, of washing Kanuri-, Bole- or Babur-speakers, depending on where a person or group came from. them a present. In addition, they have the duty, the corpse and preparing it for burial. No reason was given as to why they ha e been : People with whom they had fonnerly lived together might offer material and ritual nship to the royal family was help, military assistance, trade contacts, marriage partners - and a place of refuge, in entrusted with these functions. Maybe their relatio the rite of blocking the palace gate case things went wrong in Bara. In Gulani, for instance, a contender for the chief's similar to what has been observed in Fika, where the commoners. office brought in his maternal relatives from Kupto, a village on the other side of the was performed by a section of town that represented . . did not always run so smoot hly. When some families Gongola River, in order to occupy the throne by force, and another aspirant tried to 2. Integrating newcomers an-ived from Buraland, they were also accommodat � � ed in the Ciroma ward n placed conquer the throne through the help of Gunda, a related Babur village. In the case of under the authority of the ward head. In order to create space for them w1th11 Gala : Gala Data, their attempts to take over the chieftaincy in Bara failed, but they became had to be extended. In this way a serious challenge to the established authorities. In order to appease them, they were Ciroma the wall at the southern edge of the village and at the same time put under given recognition as owners of their own independent ward, together with a seat in w' the ne comers were protected from outside attacks � villagers said that the Bura ad the royal council. Mai Toto, who granted them this concession during his reign the surveillance of the indigenous population. Some . come as refuge es in precol onial times and had returne d to Buraland after the Bn 1sh : (1966/67-1980), did so for various reasons. For him it was, among others, a means . had brought peace. Others held that they had an-ived after the colornal occu atlon.� to weaken the ruling family of Gala Dima, in the northern half of Bara, who had not ten or fifteen years. Mai Toto supported his bid to become chief. By elevating Yeldala, he strengthened the main In any case, most of them did not stay long, just . Maaka. Others added that it was internal rival of the Yeldima and split his ward. The Gala Dala section was no longer complained that they had been reluctant to learn difficult to get along with them: 'What Maaka people � do not eat, ura people ea , : a sub-unit, answerable to the Yeldima, but gained the privilege of its leader becoming even go to their houses . Their one of three ward heads, who could directly approach the chief. Despite this con­ because some of them are Christians. You do not spirits are different from gengen [the spirits that used � to guard Maaka com ou� s]. � cession, Gala Dala remained hostile and tried to undermine Mai Toto's rule by steal.' A fewBurn are still hvmg sending petitions to the Borno authorities to have him deposed. In They can send their spirits to enter your house and . Mai plots to bmld houses. Through Toto regretted that this Babur group had ever been allowed in: 'All trouble in this at the place where their forefathers were once given years, though most of them only town comes from Gala Data.' their mediation, more Bura have turned up in recent stay during the rainy season. They live in crude huts, working their fields, and re m � 4. A group from Gabai that came to Bara in precolonial times may have been I was told, that after harvestmg speakers of Kanuri or of Ngazar, a Chadic language. They set up houses at a to their own place after harvest. They are so poor, home. provisional site outside the village, but were never incorporated. Some sections of their millet and sorghum, they carry even the stalks back . g 3. The leadin family of Gala Daia - today an indepe � ndent ward, bt t at i s � Bara took offence at the if not aggressive behaviour of the newcomers. It e, a Babur settlement. Agam, their was feared that they could bring in reinforcement from Gabai and overpower the inception a part of Gala Dima - hail from Bantin y from Baburland . Before indigenes. The leader of Gala Ciroma warned the chief: 'Your enemy is not far from origin is a bit ambiguous, as they did not come directl  r Harnischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 183 182 many in number, one day you will regret it' � : Bu a's mo e into the plain may have gone hand in hand with the acceptance of your house. If these people become Kanun suzeramty. Although Buna Alali, like Bara, was surrounded by a wall and The group from a in their 'History of Bara', 1998). (Maina Maraya and Malam Garb ka could not get rid of them com pletely. The � t us protected fro � raiders, it would not have been strong enough to withstand a Gabai was told to leave, but the Maa siege by the Kanun army. No reason was given why some of the hill dwellers had had lost out in a not return to Gabai, where he leader of the group, Mai Hassan, did left Buna :�fountain. My impression is that the little hill, although it permitted an ment on the bor­ his own semi-independent settle chieftaincy tussle, but founded � excell nt view over the surrounding plain, may have offered little protection. An d for slaves, and From here he occasionally raide derland between Bara and Gabai. elevat10n of less than one hundred metres in height and three hundred metres in ing their field s outside the farmers who were work he did not spare Bara, waylaying � length, t must have been suited to a camp of hunters who were mobile, but was less village. . . appropnate for a larger population of peasants. When the number of inhabitants . t10n, and nce of pow er with in the villa ge depended on its ethmc compos1 The bala increased, it must have been difficult for the Maaka (or whatever their name was e out who y. Thus, it is not possible to figur this composition changed constantl . then) to find a more suitable place. The nearest hills are at least fifteen kilometres unt, the colo mal report most detailed written acco inhabited the ancient village. The away, and they had already been occupied by other groups such as the Babur and the re in it at all: ription, as the Maaka do not featu of 1919, gives a bewildering desc Maha of Gulani. is principally lets in the unit. The population 'Bara is a walled town, with 13 ham Bara, like Buna Alali, does not have any geographical features that would shield ed here recently with Balawa andKanuri who settl Mangawa and Babur intermixed, its inhabitants from outside attacks. From the histories we collected it is not clear ives from the fami ne of 1913' (R.S. (1) as fugitives from Rabeh and (2) as fugit , some of � why ome Maaka prefened this location and gave up their residence in Buna (be it nial report does not mention them Davies 1919: 43). Although the colo the lull settlement or Buna Alali). The first group that split from Buna and moved the language the 'real' Maaka, who had learned Bara's inhabitants must have been eight kilometres away to today's Bara was led by oneKasama. It is said that he was Buna, who the true Maaka were the people from from their forebears. I was told that a son of the chief of Buna, though some informants maintained that Buna had had was just a com pany of found Bara. At first, it had moved down from their hill to place no chief. Kasama and his followers built their houses at the spot where today's Gala foun d the of today's Bara, but since they hunters, who camped at the site Dima is situated. By clearing the bush they became the owners of the land and could ws from Buna anent settlement, and their fello appealing, they established a perm d out not to be true. The two settle ments, una � decide at least in the early years, which settlers should be allowed in. Today, Gala .' joined them. However, this story turne . Duna is the smallest of the three Maaka wards, yet its head is still regarded as senior must have been stramed , and their relationship and Bara, had existed at the same time to those of Gala Ciroma and Gala Dala. He is no longer autonomous, since he a hill; some of t more than a small settlement on and sometimes hostile. 'Buna' mean � � recognises the uperiority f the Mai Bara, receiving from him the emblem of power, ge at the foot the plain and had established a villa its inhabitants had moved down to . a turban. Yet his status 1s higher than that of the other ward heads. On assumption of yed some unded by a wall and thus had enjo of Buna Mountain. It had been surro _ office, when he 1s turbaned by the chief, he has to give a cow in return while the measure of autonomy. Cirom � only gives �alf a cow, and the Yeldala even less. All who particip�te in these � tur amng ceremomes thus acknowledge that the Yeldima is entitled to privileges 3.2 � � � � this way the rite enacts a social charter, a basic village wh1c n body should to ch. I mbered in all Buna only ceased to exist in early colonial times. Thus it is still reme � constitution hat makes 1t easier for the heterogeneous segments to get along. have largely the histories we collected, although the antagonistic aspects of the story Another 11np� 1iant group of settlers, which arrived after the Kasama people, ka settled on one of many stations where the Maa been erased. It is presented as just allegedly also hailed from Buna. They did not join theKasama people, however, but . While living on the hill, they were � a sm ll group � separate hamlet some two hundred metres to the south, on the site of today's their long trek from Y emel to Bara formed aban done d shnnes and , who showed me the of hunters. Musa, a son of Mai Toto Gala Czroma. A wall that surrounded both habitations and turned them into one other relics of human habitation, estim ated that the hill settlement com prised not � � vi lage wa only built later. In between these two hamlets stood the chief's 'palace' Buna had been Gulani I learnt that the hunters on more than a hundred inhabitants. In (his recept10n room) and his compound (where he lived with his wives and children), cted in early Tera and others- a view that is refle a mixed crowd ofKanakurn (Dera), � plus the houses of other members of the royal lineage. With the advent of further , Maa ka spea kers mu t colonial reports (Temple 1965: 263) . At some point in time immigrants, the empty space between the two original settlements was filled with uage . This language became the broker lang have become predominant so that their houses so that the residence of the rulers no longer stands isolated; it is still regarded, still on the hill, or later, after som �� e of tl e 1 had � may have happened while they were howe er, as a separate entity that does not belong to either of the two village sections, case, 1t is not the settlement on the plain. In any moved to Bara and to Buna Alali, but bndges them. Its northern part belongs to Gala Dima, its southern part to Gala arriv ed in the area. came from and when they known where these Maaka speakers Ciroma. Today's inhabitants no longer remember (or no longer tell) whether Barn's  184 Harnischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 185 rnlers once belonged to one of the two early wards or whether they came as outsiders, faction to move to a more distant place. Alternativ � � perhaps as foreign invaders, sent by the king of Bomo n order o colo ise the area � � a cept a subo:dinate role and ely, if it settled nearby, it had to and subjugate its population (a possibility that will be discussed m Section 4.1). refrain from plotting the downfall of the ruli ng Disaffected villagers who group. Settlers from Buna were just one stratum of settlers, though a significant one, planned to leave had prin cipally two options: 1. They could start their own little sett since their language prevailed.9 They maintained strong links with Buna, as Mai Toto lement close to Bara. As abundance, emigrants just there was land in explained. His great-grandfather had been born in Buna, and also his grandfather had to choose a pie ce of wilderness and clea r it. living apart in a hamlet or However a small village was risky, Mai Madi, who only left his native village upon becoming chief in Bara. Giv n this � overpowered by attackers. In case of grave danger, as its inhabitants could easily b� close relationship, it is strange that Mai Madi played a leading role in breakmg p � and seek shelter behind the they had to abandon their walls of Bara, the local pro houses Buna. Our collection of narratives contains only a few hints about this dramatic tector. Satellite villages a radius of ten kilometres within event, when Maaka people fought each other. Ulu Bulan said that Buna people 'fled' could not break free from Bara's superior power. depended on the goodwill They to Bara while Kaka Awa held that they were coerced by Bara: 'People on of its chief, who was emp the owered by the Kanuri auth to administer not only Bar orities i mounta n were reluctant, but our ancestors advised: bring all Buna people to Bara, if sending a part of it to Gujba. a but also the surroundin g hamlets, exacting tribute and necessary by force'. I learnt that a dispute over the chieftaincy in Bar had fueled�t e � � . 2. Groups th t wanted to leave Barn's sphere of conflict. The contender who lost the dispute left Bara and moved with some of influence completely had his migrate a few kilometres to fuii her, but here they came under � suppmiers to Buna, where he attracted more and more discontents. he chief of Bar , � . chiefs, namely those of Gul the authority of other Mai Madi who saw the number of his subjects dwindling, had to mtervene lest ani, Gabai or Bularafa, who se village areas bordered his ? f Bara. � � ul rafa was dominated by Babur, but like most oth that rival, ope1:ating from a new power base, gained the upper hand. Mai Toto explained er tow m the reg10n it was a conglom ns and vill ages that his grandfather followed the advice of his ma/am (a spiritual adviser), who urged erate of successive groups of settlers, including Kan and others (R.S. Davies 191 uri him to act quickly before Buna became so big that it swallowed Bara. What exactly 9: 45). Speaking a different languag for prospective immigrants; e was no impediment yet there were other dra happened remains a mystery; we are left with a mythical story about hor e hat � � � accept the conditions offered wbacks. Newcomers had to by the owners of a village brought disaster over Buna. Mai Madi's malam, who sent the horse on it m1ssi01 , � � shaking off their subord inate position. They kne , with uncertain prospects of loaded it with a charm, so that it ran without a rider straight to Buna Alah. There w that they might suff 1t humiliating treatment by er a found its way into the village - the gate was open - and jumped into the village well. the mling section and that they could easily be expelle case of conflict. Thus they d in The well went dry, and the villagers abandoned Buna, scattering in various had to be prepared to retu di­ rn to their former abode try their luck elsewhere. Giv or to rections. Some returned to Bara, while others went the opposite way and established en these risks, it was adv isable to preserve their dist language(s) and their con inct a small settlement outside Bara's jurisdiction, in Biu district. Some of the Maaka tact with friends and rela tives they had left behind with other potential allies or (and families which founded this place of refuge are still living there, although they protectors). To be sure, emi have grants had often left in ang so there would be little trus er, turned into a minority (of some fmiy people) and their children see themselves t between them and many as of their former co-residents However, all sides tended . Babur rather than as Maaka. Yet a handful of elderly persons speak Maaka fluently, to be pragmatic. The circums tances which had set them against each other might hav and they corroborated what we had heard in Bara: that Buna had been deserted e changed. Yesterday's foe s are today's allies. The were no deep religious or re because of a spell. Until today, it is not possible to find water there, no matter ideological rifts which wou how ld have created lasting em1 (Ardener 1993). All populat 1ity deep one drills a well. ions in the Gongola region were part of one "ecumene ... (Kopytoff 1987: 10). As they " Destroying a rival village was an extreme measure. Norn1ally, hostilities shared a large repertoire ended of rules for organising thei social and religious life, mig r when a defeated group moved away. The problem with Buna was that it was rants found it easy to fit into situated various ethnic and linguist settings. ic too close to Bara and that it grew too strong. An empire like Bomo could tolerate Each segment of a village some independent towns within its territory without feeling threatened, but federation was free to mo for a ve away. This set limits the despotism of a chief and to gave marginal groups som small polity like Bara, an expanding village like Buna posed an existential t reat � � stren th of a village depend ed on the number of its inha e bargaining power. Since the . (Kopytoff 1987: 30f.). In order to avoid a confrontation it was better for a d1ss1dent bitants, the chief had to kee the village segments together p and grant concessions to thos e who threatened to leave. The bargaining power of a group depended upon For European observers it appears strange that a language with such a lir its exit options. If it was :1ited cir�ulation connected to a range of outs well­ spoken by less than a thousand people in Bara and by a fe w mor�e m Gulam ide allies, it had a better was standing in village politics Hence it paid to cultivate one . . accepted as lingua j/'anca. However, it was still common prac � 1ce 's multi-lingual competence until twenty years a�o . Communicating in two or that speakers of Bole, Kanuri or Babur who made Bara their home became more languages was a mat fluent rn ter of daily routine, as villa gers talked to neighbours, Maaka. Of course, language attitudes differed, as the case of the Bura settlers family members and outside shows. visitors. Different spheres of life were associated with ·-------��- Harnischfeger Language shifi, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 187 186 rtance of one's mother tongue, and a�archy: 'By the time they killed him, there was no law. Everybody was ruling different languages. This reduced the impo himself. The brea�-down of the established order must have been a traumatic people in Bara, language and culture were probably also its emotional appeal. For the . of Europeans (of my generation), who have expenence, somethmg that should never happen again. It is important to remember not as closely linked as in the experience t�at the who�e community suffered when village factions failed to settle their h with a unique culture that developed learnt to associate French, Gern1an or Dutc y dispu�es. A village weakened by strife exposed itself to the aggression of outside of Bara, who are described retrospectivel over hundreds of years. The 'indigenes' . They enemies. The Maaka have to be reminded of these frightening lessons of the past; at and no distinct culture of their own as a single people, had no c01mnon history . the same time, story-tellers have to avoid opening old wounds, so their natTatives worked their own fanns and lived in their consisted of largely unrelated groups who �ave be�n purged of references to existing village factions. Given the lack of possible to decide things for themselves. own quarters, where they tried as much as ways of dressing or contracting matTiages, mformat10n, we cannot reconstruct why Barn's citizens resorted to violence. We can Each segment may have observed its own ral repertoire which helped villagers to o�ly speculate about possible scenarios. Kogi, the oldest man in Bara, gave some but otherwise shared with others a wide cultu . hints, though his statements were unreliable as he mixed up names and events and linguistic background was. This may get along, no matter what their ethnic and . often cotTected hnnsel�. H� mentioned that a ruling dynasty was toppled when Mai eive the loss of their language as such a explain why present-day Maaka do not perc not mean that a cultural universe comes Balbal assumed the chieftamcy. He was, according to Kogi, not of royal descent and dramatic event. Losing one's language does only c�me to �ower because his people were so strong. to an end. . Chieftai�cies were not the only institutions to maintain a political order. People could do without them. Some of the populations that were free to decide how to . o�·gamse themselves � such as the Tangale or Chibuk, who were not subjugated by yet did not split. For those who had Many settlements witnessed intense rivalries, re either the B?mo En:ipire or the Fulani emirates prefetTed other means to regulate it often seemed better to stay and endu . . . . mstltutions lost in a dispute and felt marginalised, Wha t help ed communal hfe. Their mam for settling internal disputes were councils of staii in another locat ion. insults and discrimination than to risk a new e�ders who, however, did not possess the means to enforce decisions. This made it the pros pect that the balance of power might dif�cult to contain violence and prevent feuds between neighbouring wards. The to keep discontents within a polity was tion of a successor. Disaffected village . shift with the death of a chief and the selec Chibuk fo� mstance, who live in a hilly terrain to the east of Bara, were just a loose two options: they could bow to authority factions who decided not to pull out had confederat10n of twenty-two clans that had alTived from Borno, Marghi, Biu and it out. The histories of Bara recall some and wait for a better a chance - or fight other places. Although they are seen today as an ethnic group with its own language ts largely avoid naming the village they hard�y possessed any political structures that encouraged cooperation betwee� episodes of in-fighting, although informan most spectacular event was the murder factions that h1rned against each other. The them. Without a cen�ral authori� that would check mutual aggression, every . All narratives describe him as a wicked of Mai Bawa Kimba, a precolonial ruler segment had to guard its own temtory: 'The most basic law of Chibuk was that of legitimacy to the chiefs who occupied person who deserved to be killed. They give tres�ass. Any adult from one ward caught on the lands of another ward could be about those village segments that the throne after his murder and keep mute p�mshed, even killed, with impunity and no compensation should be claimed or d by his death. Instead of talking about suppmied Mai Bawa Kimba and felt aggrieve given. Any child doing the same could be taken as a slave. [ . . . ] Visiting in another ict is reduced to a confrontation between rival clans fighting for supremacy, the confl ward had to be done caret:illy. Compounds had multiple exits in order to go out or of the town called a meeting about how s �nd �ut to check on the s1�e and for�e of a visiting group well before they atTived, an evil ruler and his subjects: 'The people ya and Malam Garba, 'History of Bara', . they are going to kill him' (Maina Mara 01 while they were kept waitmg outside the compound. People never used the same and execute their ruler because he 1998). The citizens of Bara were forced to unite ro�tes to go �nd return from visiting or trading; alternate routes were the rule to avoid lured the children of the village into his committed heinous crimes. It is said that he bemg waylaid from ambush' (Cohen 1981: 108). into a fire. Such strange behaviour does house and killed them by putting "pepper" A central authority could make village life safer, but a monopoly of power was Linking the chief to a monstrous crime . not make sense as a means to secure his rule. d1ffi �ult to establish. The chief of Bara was less a ruler who could command Mai Bawa Kimba did was so outrageous was meant to convey something else: what obedience than a leader with unruly followers. In order to his village federation a right to blame his murderers and lay a that nobody could defend him. Nobody had together, he had to negotiate with the leaders of Gala Dima, Gala Ciroma and Gala ede that the chiefs who came after him . claim against them. All Maaka had to conc Dai�� who Jealously guarded their internal autonomy. When rivals challenged his were the legitimate rulers of Bara. It set village pos1t10n, he had to s�ow strength and determination, and when collecting tribute on did not bring . Kanun overlords, he sometimes employed force. However, he also However, the downfall of the "wicked" mler behalf of his not agree on establishing a new political factions against each other so that they could needed the power of persuasion, because the people he wanted to rule had an exit ediately after the popular rebellion as order. Ulu Bulan described the period imm  Harnischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 188 189 option. They could choose under which chief they wanted to li�e; thus t�ey were not, Some of the Maaka chiefs were remembered as ruthless, like Mai Hassan, who strictly speaking, a subjugated population but rather clients, alhes an� nvals. A well­ had tax defaulters tied and beaten, or sold into slavery. These despotic traits did not administered community attracted people and grew stronger, while other com­ disappear under colonial rule, when the "native administration" came under the munities dwindled and were abandoned. Since a chiefs prestige and power rested supervision of British officers. Kaka Awa, a woman in her seventies, remembered largely on the number of people he could attract to his village, he was consta�tly th�t Mai Tata, who ruled from around 1930 to 1959 or 1960, 'used to beat people . . engaged in negotiations. Keeping a federation of rival groups from dismtegratl�g w�th a lash. �e� yo� had cultivated your farm, he came to the field and told you: . demanded diplomacy and communicative skills. Multilingual competence, m this is yours, this is mme'. Since Bara was under Kanuri rule, it is possible that the . particular, was a precious resource. It helped in culti:ating lin�cs with distant allies royal family was of foreign origin. When the British district officer visited Bara and . . talked to its chief, Mai Madi, the grandfather of Mai Toto, he learnt that Bara had or rulers (such as the Kanuri in Gujba), and it helped m achievmg an understandmg among the diverse populations within one's own home village. been founded by the Manga people, a sub-group or "tribe" of the Kanuri. A group of Manga, under their leader Mai Dengibe, who became the ancestor of the Bara chiefs ' had left Gazargamu, the old Borno capital, before it was destroyed in 1809: Mai Dengibe the ancestor of the present Village Headman [chief of Bara] left Gasr Gomo before the sack of the city with a band of 4.1 rule followers on a hunting expedition, and after going to Kuka Buni in last in a list of fomieen Mai Barde, who assumed office in 1987, claims to be the Geidam came to Badogo, in the present Bara Village area, on the 1 addressed as �awan, �ut chiefs, all from the same 'royal family' . 0 He is sometimes Gongila. Thence he went to Buna (in Bara) and finally founded the is Mai. Until the mid­ the title more often used when talking about Bara chiefs present town of Bara about the year 1846. His house, the best I have Mai, and this title was also nineteenth century, the kings of Borno were dubbed seen in the District, seems to sh[o]w that here the Manga have not chiefs of � ara called employed by other rulers in the region. Whether the precolonial quite lost the skill of the builder of old 'Birni' [Gazargamu]. It is v Nachtlgal (1987: themselves Mai (or were called so by others) is not clear. Gusta interesting to note that the Mangas of Bara as often as not speak of 222, 224) noticed during his voyage in 1871 that the title Mai was reserved for th�se themselves as Maaka (R.S. Davies 1919: 12). indep endent rulers. If a cl11ef tributary chiefs who belonged to a family of fonnerly Our field research produced some evidence which seems to corroborate this version Lawan �r Bullama, had been installed by the Kanuri auth01ities, he was simply called of Bara history: 120). The cl11efs �f Bara head of a town or a major village (Brenner and Cohen 1978: The family of the present chief calls itself Gazargam. in Gujba, who 111 t_L1rn had administered their subjects on behalf of the authorities Ulu Bulan said in 1991, about the origin of the people of Bara, that 'they area which the Bara cl11efs were answerable to the Shehu in the Borno capital. The came out from the Manga tribe'. Baba Goji and others added in 2011 that the and its immediate sur­ had under their control was not just the village of Bara etres, wh�ch included a name Maaka (sometimes pronounced Maga) derived from Manga. roundings, but a teITitory of several hundred square kilom po ulat10n. Tl:e � a�ur 01:1e . of the three "original" Maga clans in Gulani claims to be of Manga couple of other settlements, mostly inhabited by a non-Maaka � taxati on and J_ �nsdict�on ongm. and Kanuri living here may have resented being under the the Bara. ch�efs, which During the rain-making procession that led along village shrines and the of Bara, but they had to acknowledge the superior power of the Distnct H�ad of graves of former chiefs, participants sang a song whose lyrics were paiily in was backed by the Kanuri authorities in Gujba. In some cases, Bara and adjacent Maaka, partly in Kanuri. Gujba interfered directly and adjusted the boundary between chiefdoms. 11 Mai Dengibe, the Manga leader, who, according to the colonial report, founded Bara and its ruling dynasty, appears in the lists of chiefs that we colle�ted. N?thing was known (or revealed) about him; the elders simply 10 son of Mai Toto and an aspirant to the mentioned hnn as one of seven or eight precolonial chiefs. Infonnation about Our research assistant, Maina Hassan, the eldest . '. For the rule1:s of a �1llage that u�ed the sequence of these early chiefs was contradictory, but Mai Dengibe was throne, spoke indiscriminately of 'chiefs' or 'kings , chief· Otherwise, only use the title to have less than a thousand inhabitants, I shall never placed at the beginning of the list. If he really had come from the sugges ted by our interpreters, who talked of a 'royal however, I will adopt the terms ancient city of Gazargamu or from the Manga region, he must have family' and their 'palace'. 11 Under British rule, Gujba District comprised � a territory of seven thousand ve hundre d overthrown the indigenous and usurped the throne. This is, of course, en "villag e areas" or "villag e umts" such as not in line with Bara's official history, as it is told today, and it contradicts square kilometres, subdivided into fourte 1919: 1, 15, 28, 41, 43). Bara, Gabai, Gulani and Bularafa (R.S. Davies  _._....--------.,.r------------------------------ , I Harn iscl�feger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 191 190 s, who claim that their status depe�ded upon :he wh�ms ?� the colonial administration, would have had a the self-representation of Mai Toto and the other royal str?ng motive fo� tracmg then �ngms to the former imperial city. In their villa e family had always mled Bara. his elder brothers and umt, at the margm of the Empue, the chiefs of Bara had been placed above t�e Mai Toto has Kanuri marks engraved in his face, like leaders of a few �ther settlem�nts, but this paramount position was contested. The he was young, for his sisters. This form of scarification was given up when headman �f Duchi, some ten lalometres away, claimed that he was superior to Bara s suggested that the younger siblings received different cuts. Some elder and that his se�lement sh?�ld be ii:iade the headquarters of the village unit, but he Gulani: a cat whiskers Maaka had their own marks which were the same as in could not ��nv1�ce �he Bntish admm1�tration of his seniority (Milroy 1927: 16). . signs on the body are pattern at the comers of the mouth. However, the . . officer had the impression . g a number of old The Bntish distnct that Mai· Mada and his 1am1·1y were difficult to decipher. Kanuri marks can be found amon .c. · . · used to be underKanuri . d of their northern pedigree, which distinguished them from their subjects. Mai prnu people in Bara, Gulani, Bularafa and other places that the perso n wearing them was Toto, �y con:r�st, v�hemently denied having Manga ancestors. For our reading of mle. These marks may only have indicated that ensla ved. Moreover, so­ Bara h1�tory it I� not imporiant whether the royal clan had imposed itself on the local protected by the Borno Empire and must not be Baburs of Bularaba called "tribal" marks varied within ethnic groups: 'The populat10n as ahen rulers or whether its members had been 'true Maalea'. Tl1e crucia . . . ·1 Bara and Gulani have generally take the Kanuri tribal marks while those of pomt is that the chiefs acted as representatives of the Kanuri authoriti'es. As 1ong as · . the head and face and the Tera marks, consisting of downward cuts all over they del'ivered the reqmred tnbute, they had the backing of their overlords, even I'f under the eyes'. 'In Gujba District there are but a few Maga outside Gulani they tumed agams · � �ommoners with massive force. Bomo's revenue collection cteristic tribal marks, village area. They are mostly pagan and have no chara system was "d�spotlc . The ruler could grant 'special rights of taxation to a favourite using indiscriminately those of the Kanuri, Fulani or Babur' (R.S. Davies often one of his ow� sons who [ . .. ] could then go to stipulated villages and forcibl; ined tribal marks. Some 1919: 20, 15). It is also possible that people comb take revenue for himself, "rolling" the people's possessions in their mats for transport �o his o:-vn household' (Brenner and Cohen 1978: 123). , claiming that these . Maaka showed me an ornamental pattern on their belly hidden scarifications were a sign of Maaka identity. Kanun suzera111ty may have been established in various ways: The evidence is not conclusive, but I assume that some of Mai Madi's ancestors had After �he 1820s, when the wars with the Sokoto Caliphate had ended and the from the Borno capital indeed been Manga, though I doubt that they had come Fulan� had retreated to the east of the Gongola River, Borno sent colonists to . northwestern periphery of the Gazargamu. The majority of Manga used to live at the establish outposts, which guarded its southern borderland against possible t. In the second half of the Empire, beyond the Yobe River, close to the deser encroachments by Fulani warriors. Among those colonists may have been a eg raiders and most of them eighteenth century, they came under the attack of Tuar group of Manga that Borno forces installed as rulers in Buna or Bara. in Gulani, which professed a moved southwards (Lavers 1975: 208). The Wati clan The immigrants from Man?aland may have lived in Buna and Bara before Manga origin, may have derived from these refugees. In their ancient homeland, the t�ese settlei_nents became tnbutary to Bomo. In a situation of strife with rival Manga had spoken one or several Chadic languages, but as they had been subject to v1llage sec�10ns, they may have approached theKanuri in Gujba and received uri language and culture. . Borno mle for centuries, they had gradually adopted Kan assistance 111 the form of warriors, who regarded the Manga as local allies ged to get control of the Hence it is conceivable that a group of Manga that mana that could be used to bring the Maaka under controI. Mangaland but from the chieftaincy in Bara would have claimed to stem not from The Maaka, after mo�ing down from Buna Hill, may have placed themselves famo us political or religious centre of the Empire. Claiming a distant origin from a :nore or l�ss volunt�nly under the protection of Bomo, for their settlements ria. And Gazargamu, the centre was not unusual for ruling groups all over Nige 111 the plam were difficult to defend. If they had already had a chief before al of the oldest and mightiest purp01ied cradle of the Bara dynasty, had been the capit accept111g Bomo dominion, this indigenous ruler and his family would have , speaking a Kanuri dialect, . . power and officially empire in the Central Sudan. Maybe some Bara chiefs been left m recognised by the Kanuri. stand ing relationship with the asserted vis-a-vis their subjects that they had a long- city had vanished in 1809, imperial establishment in Gazargamu. The legendary 4.2 The device essed villagers in the Bara though the prestige associated with it may still have impr report of 1919 suggests, the �lthough the chiefs �f Bara had �o take orders from Gujba, they were not just an area a hundred years later. As the quote from the district 111str�ment �f oppression and foreign rule. The chieftaincy institution played a vital ess British colonial officers. pretence of originating from Gazargamu did at least impr role i� keepmg th� Maaka together. This i�ay appear paradoxical because disputes nt dynasties, and in particular British rule sought to consolidate the authority of ancie o:e1. rnyal succ�ss1011 generated much enmity and intrigue. Mai Toto blamed these d Lake Chad for a thousand that of the Bomo Empire, which had ruled the area aroun disputes on the nvalry between two branches of the royal family, Balbal andKasama. g chiefs of Bara, whose years. Given these British predilections, the Kanuri-speakin  Harnischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 193 192 who had fought over the chieftaincy, protect its citi�ens, new c�alitions and systems of patronage emerged. Bara's The division had started with two half-brothers . population and its rulers cultivated strong links with' among others, Fika, the maJor ilities, although all of them were · and whose descendants continued these host . Bole langdom. UluBulan n�rrated that formerly the chiefs ofBara, before assuming that even bad rulers, likeMaiBawa members of the same family.Mai Toto explained . office, h�d travelled to the king ofFika to be turbaned. If this is true, it might indicate line with the offi.cial history ofBara, Kimba, belonged to his own kingroup. This is in that sectio�s of the Bara people derived from Boleland or that they had some other l family and gives them a Maaka which treats all chiefs as members of one roya long-s�andmg r�lationship with it. However, it is also possible that the rite of a �ould be o�s�rved in ma�y identity. What today's elders allege about Bar �rbamng ':a� simpl� a.m�ans of sealing a temporary alliance which profited both a pohty were spht mto two hostile settlements of northeast Nigeria. The rulers of sides. Receivmg �he �nsigma ?f �ower from the hands of the Bole king symbolised, rged through a split within the royal sections and these sections had sometimes eme of course, subordmatlon.But it did not imply that the chiefs ofBara had been forced and Balbal may indeed have been �n family. In Bara, the conflict between Kasama to pay homage. F�r the leaders of a peripheral village, it brought prestige and two did not have the same ethmc inter-familial affair, yet it is more likely that the . . . protection to ? e alhed with a maJor regional power. It established a relationship of a common ancestor from whom all and linguistic background. If there had been p�tronage which they may have entered into voluntarily. In the second half of the mbered.But nobody told us who had chiefs had descended, he would have been reme the Maaka. Moreover, there was �meteenth century, the kingdom of Filca was a f01midable force that defended its founded the royal house and how it came to rnle mdependence against the two big empires that vied for supremacy in today's to which of the two bran�hes the only vague and contradictory information as . nmiheast Nigena: . · theBorno Empire and the Caliphate of Sokoto. In 1872/73, troops more than two groups mvolved fourteen chiefs belonged to.12 There may have been fr�m Borno and the Gombe Emirate, a vassal of Sokoto, joined to subdue Fika, but rs would have belonged to the same in chieftaincy disputes, and not all contende ba with the Man�a and remarke? failed to conquer the town (Lavers 1972: 7, 9). Two decades later, theBorno Empire ruling clan. Ulu Bulan identified Mai Bawa Kim collapsed under the onslaught ofRabeh az-Zubayr, aMahdist leader from Khaiioum, were also Kai�u�1-speakers, yet it that 'Manga are wicked'. Perhaps his antagonists . two thousand kilometres to the east, who led a ragtag army of raiders with divers ur orMaaka ongm. . is likely that at least some chiefs had aBole,Bab . ethnic and linguistic backgrounds: not just speakers of Arabic, Nubian and Kordofa� grou p of ruler s to another may have gone hand m hand with a The shift from one the area was connected to a network languages, ?ut a�so Chadic speakers from Wadai, Baghirmi and many other places shift inBara's foreign policy. Each settlement in through which his marauders had passed on their way to Borno. Old people inBara a new ruling group came to power· of allies and these links could be disrupted when nanated that Rabeh, when passing through the region, caught many slaves and sphere of Borno dominion, it was Given B ara's geographical location within the the Ka1�uri in. Gujba. . The � orno branded them "with fire" on their upper aim. Yet he was not depicted as a major important for its rnlers to be on good terms with threat to Bara. It seems that the village went through these turbulent times without relled with ne1ghbounng villages authorities sometimes interfered when Bara quar was a vassal chiefdom, i�s le�ders too much suffering. This may have been due, in part, to Bara's rapport with Fika over boundaries and taxation rights. Since Bara . whic? sought t? extend its influence into areas formerly controlled by the Born� ations this placed on their action�, had to accept the suzerainty ofBorno and the limit Empire. Searchmg for loca� allies east of the Gongola, theBole king cooperated with though on a far smaller scale, th�u but under the cover of imperial rule they pursued, . sphere of in�uence, clas�ed with M�lam Zai, a local Mahdist leader and occasional ally of Rabeh. Together they own empire-building. They sought to extend their raided for slaves. When conducting raids intoBabur- andBuraland, Malam Zai used with them. With a population of a neighbouring chiefs and were drawn into "war" Bara as a transit cai:np, where his fighters received food and were given guides who centre. Ulu Bulan, who had grown thousand people or less, Bara was a local power showed them the villages they could plunder. Gulani was not part of this alliance tic account of Bara's grand�ur: up in the household of Mai Madi, gave an enthusias but was in league with some Babur chiefdoms. The people of Gulani tried to ward . ] . EvenBularafa could not do thmgs 'FormerlyBara was the big town in all Gujba [ . . off Rabeh and his Mahdist successors, but suffered heavy losses. The town was .' without asking permission from the chief ofBara parily burnt and two hundred of its inhabitants were taken prisoner (R.S. Davies As the chiefs acted as governor s for the Born o rulers, they could normally rely , the end of the �inete�nth c��tury 1919: 26 and AppendixF), while Bara remained untouched. on support by the imperial authorities. However tegrated. As it lost its ab1hty to Precolonial Bara was forced to pay tribute to the authorities in Gujba, who was a period of tum10il, for the Borno Empire disin fmwarded the proceeds to the king ofBorno and, from 1893 onwards, to Rabeh. This b ·anches of the myal does not rule out, however, that some chiefs simultaneously paid allegiance to Fika. 13 a conunon ancestor for the two � 12 It would have been easy to invent e for such a founding figur . They snnply p:trporte �zs­� . family, but the Maaka had no need w1 thout givm g 13 The Babu� villages nortl� of Bara, though they were subject to Gujba, acknowledged at nt chief had always ruled Ba.ra, it-vis outsiders that the family of the prese t1011 . this state ment . the same tnne the authority of the king of Biu, the most senior Babur ruler: 'the grapher, non-Maaka did not ques further details . Apart from the ethno of former rulers and did not ask to whic h bran ch of the . . � Village Head of Bulara a, Umar, received his title of Galadima not more than four years They did not care about the names ago from Mm Am of Bm' (R. S. Davies 1919: 17). royal house they had belong ed.  Harnischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 195 194 lation must have had an interest to be on friendly normalcy which may never h ve existe � � inBara. Judging by the stories we collected, A substantial section ofBara's popu there was no orderly succes 10n, � �s MmBawa Kimba was not the only chief whose taining such m was an important means of main teims with the Bole. Multilingualis � rule ended prema � rely. Mm Madi, who came to power in the late 1890s, abdicated ionships. T ese was the cultivation of joking relat political alliances. Another means after thr � � e years m offi e - allegedly voluntarily, at the advice of his ma/am. The ons from F1ka, encouraged a flow of migrants. Pers facilitated marriage coalitions and � rule of his successo �� m Hassan lasted for only six years, because Hassan fled at the even if they had ad found easily refuge inBara, who were regarded as "playmates", approach of the Bntish, who brought Mai Madi back into office. After the British n of faka some crime: 'No matter what a perso to leave their hometown because of � patrol had left, the conflict re-emerged, as Hassan reclaimed the throne but was if he had kill d a was no more talk about it. Even . . . had done, if he ran to Bara, there ' i_ed. It was m t his situation that he and his followers pulled out ofBara leavmg rebu f':C ome, provided (UluBulan). Newcomers were welc person, nobody would touch him' ' · Mm Mad'I with a decnnated population. WhenBuna fell, due to Mai Madi's eharm, and not a rival village section. · · · . they strengthened one's own group . ge impe rialis m, an ambitious chief need.ed a popu lat10 that� Hassan did not return to Bara, as many of his supporters did, but placed himself . of villa In the purs uit by faction fighting. Forgmg a stron g villa e � under the protection of theBabur king ofBiu, who gave him pennission to establish was numerically strong and not torn � � a s all se lement withinBiu district, right on the border with theBara village area. , as a cluef groups required some show of force . . alliance out of semi-autonomous � � Mm M di s son Tata was made chief agamst the wishes of a large pmi of the men t purs uing i s his village or any nearby settle could not tolerate any quarter of time he had to grant his citizens some ay 111 � �opulation. �en he re�rned fr?m the turbaning ceremony in the Borno capital, own antagonistic policy. At the same s in Gujba allowed conquer d popu � lations a many people attacked him on his way to the palace ('History ofBara', 1998). His public affairs. The imperial authoritie successor m . � J\ bba was duly elected but died seven years after his inauguration own town and including the right to choose their high degree of internal autonomy, course, restricted, as only "pri � ces" , i.e. sons of a under dub10us circumstances (he was paralysed). His son Adamu, whom he had village heads. This choice was, of groomed to take over his office, was bewitched and fled Bara, never to return. Mai to woo the , in order to be elected, a pnnce had fonner chief, were eligible. However ? Toto, who su ceeded in his stead, was forced out of office by politicians, and his ed an alliance ers, so each of the contestants form . . "kingmakers", who were common � success r Mm Ciroma was sacked five years later by the military (see Section 4.3). of these sect1 0ns. When promoted the interests with non-royal village sections and A chief who wanted a son or a brother to succeed him tried to form coalitions (as it used to be l procedure of selecting a chief Mai Toto explained the traditiona with the kingmakers and their families. However, it was rarely possible for a chief aspects and s), he emphasised the normative before the intermingling of politician to draw the representatives of all village sections to his side. His enemies might push it was up to rnm1ing process. According to him described it as an orderly, smoothly- . a prince from the rival clan to contest for the office. The leader of Gala Ciroma said a succ esso r for a dece ased chief. If ly to deter mine the members of the roya l fami (which was the rule), the kingmak ers were c� led � that his family had tended to ally with the Kasama branch of the royal family, while they could not agree on a candidate � the eader of Gala IJ_ ima spoke of a close relationship with Balbal. One way of personalities: These kingmakers were important . in and chose one of the contenders. � � � forgi g an lhance w th members of the royal family was by giving a daughter into ed the chiefs ma and Gala Dala, who also form the heads of Gala Dima, Gala Ciro marnage with the chief or a prince. All sons of a chief possessed the title Maina r villa ges that belonged some hamlets and mino advisory council, plus the heads of 'prince', and were eligible for the throne. Thus the leading families of Gala Ciroma u of Borno, e had to be confirn1ed by the Sheh to the Bara village unit. Their choic and Gala Dima could hope that the next chief would be one of their "sons", i.e. a kingmakers ning at the imperial comi. If the who invited the chief-to-be for turba . � � pnnce borne y one of their da ghters. By pushing for a son to assume the highest the imperial idate, they submitted the case to could not settle on a common cand the aspirants. The new chief had to � liste 1 to his office, they tned to use the cl11ef's power to further their own sectional interests. administrators, who picked one of � From their perspective, the dispute over royal succession was a contest between Gala se 11m. The led to veto his decisions or to depo counsellors, but they were not entit Dima and Gala Ciroma. sentative of the Borno capital, made him a repre turban, which he had received at the A pmiy that lost the contest had no possibility of voting the new Mai out of office. a chief was the power to remove him. Normally, imperial authorities, who alone had To be sure, a chief was expected to take major decisions in consultation with all of ant for the throne - Hassan - himself an aspir meant to rule for a lifetime, as Mai �ut a chief :"ith a forceful personality did not bother about reaching assumed office, there was 'no p � ssibi lity to his counsellors, pointed out. As soon as a chief had a consensus. M_m Toto, for mstance, subscribed to the maxim: 'With turbaning, you ty to move liked. People only had the opportum control him. He could do what he � �ecome king._ You do not follow any orders'. Although he was cautious during h ve away'. to the old his �eign not to �nve away any of the inhabitants of Bara, his actions were openly tion process largely conforms Mai Toto's description of the selec ns, which sought to codify th o ficia l pr ctice � � � paii1san, weakenmg the Gala Dima section, which had opposed his bid to become colonial regulations. These regulatio chief. Compared with kingdoms and chiefdoms in other areas, the citizens of Bara ed role 111 the moners a well-defined though lnmt in precolonial Borno, gave the com . possessed very limited institutional means to interfere with the decisions of their tiona l rulers. How ever , Mai Toto's model assumed a k111d of nomination of tradi  Harnischfeger Language shift, Jslamisation and ethnic conversion among the lvfaaka 196 197 . chief. In the famous k111gdom of rnle Kwararafa' as in many otheacte rs polities that had communicate with the new chief for three years, and some of the discontents from r had .a mm.e sacred char r' and was more Gala Dima migrated to a village beyond the jurisdiction of Bara. defended their· 111dependence' the esen · tatives of majo r clans and ethnic groups When a prince and his followers had lost out in the contest for the highest office like a constitutional monarch. Repr . . ence. on dec1sion-making' and theyAyehadde,thein and formed a settlement a few kilometres away, or when they joined a settle within the kingdom had a stronger influ . city-state of beyond the Bara village area, they did not normally break with their home villag ment right to rid themselves of a bad or 111�t ffi ��1ent kings�agInethe bers of his but stayed in touch with its rnler. A chief whose subjects had moved away loste yorubaland, it was sufficient to . send e cmg a m . . n the mem e . Whe that he had to prestige and resources, so he had an interest in negotiating with the break-away council. sent. .h1m a ea1abash with redIn parr ot £eathers. 111 ' 1t he knew ·. .109). Barn. where . the chief was the repr esen tative segment and luring it back. When offered better conditions, an estranged group com1111t sm�1de (Apter 1992 . hardl any legal means of controllithe distr.ictIf ng him might be ready to recognise the authority of the incumbent. Mai Madi, for instan ce, of an impenal power, his subjects had cou l/d was to write a petition to es were could convince most of the hundred citizens, who had pulled out of Bara after his they wanted to get rid of him, all they 0 ever; the impe · na . · 1 authoriti assumption of office, to return within one year. In other cases, an alienated or hostile head in Guj_ba or to _ the . comi of B..s,01:�·lonHow g as th tax was duly paid. The lackgers of faction stayed aloof for decades, but the persons in exile could still hope to return reluctant to mterfere m village affanlatio. n enco ed violence·' desperate villa a prince close to them was made the next chief. In this way, the chieftaincy institutionif legal safeguards to pr�tect the poput1us. 11appenedurag only once' in the case of Mai Bawa worked as an "anti-fission" device (Cohen 1976: 206). The fight over control of the might kill a chief, but it seems that royal office kept rival sections of the population together. Their willingness to Kimba. . r �a1 u cession would have been toandagrethee preserve a common polity, although they might suffer under its actual ruler, must The best way .of defusing tensions othver �ro�ate between the Kasama ' . 1 have made life safer for them, at least in precolonial times when it was important to on a power shanng £ormula and letentenoeefi1ce ded t.rnst Ceding power to one(and s nva ' fonn large political units in order to defend themselves. Balbal linea . ges.. Such an arrangem a roya l linea ge the because it �as his ir_n, would. only . have been accept�ble for Mai , chos en coul.d have trnsted that a new them. Such h village sections affiliated to it) if they 4.3 as state from the rival segm ent, would no\�buse l11s power nd disp turn it against The rivalry between Balbal and Kasama has ended. The last Balbal chief died in . trust, it seems, d d not exi· st in BaranewAsch"arf;1efas11asucc ess�on utes were remembered 1966/67; his branch of the royal family has become insignificant, and its most senior I (i.e. unt1·1 1900)' the choi. ce of a. make:;� andd atalway s led to bitter contestations. · members have left Bara. The antagonism between Gala Dima and Gala Ciroma was Candidates soug�t to bnbe th� k111g f B ' by Main times their followers came c1ose still discernible when I talked to their leaders, but it was dwarfed by other, more to physical fight111g. The 'History o ;d. aro�1d 1930 a Maraya and Malam Garba recent conflicts. Thus the institution of chieftaincy was no longer needed to keep the narrates a kind of rebellion that occ� when Mai Tata was pro­ rival sections of Maaka society together. Nevertheless, the office of the chief has claimed the new c�ief by the Shehu �lles:��i1e �athe ki�gmakers had not been able survived and has become the main institution linking the Maaka with their past. One to agree on a candidate, they had trav h h d 1 pital and presented the case to the would expect the chief and the princes to have a strong interest in preserving the the backing of Gala Ciro ma. To king. Mai Ta�a was cho�en, a�thmt;hSl�eh: al�� �dly ' Maaka community, because their authority in Bara rests on their role as re­ those who objected to this chmce, ,�s When T�a retusaid : 'You who don t like Mai presentatives of the indigenous population. However, this community is waning, so Tata, leave Bara , settle elsew here. . rned to Bara, 'many peo�le the chiefs are having to redefine their role. According to Nigeria's constitution, attacked' him . on the road ' before he reached his P. alace · They could not prevent him chiefs and kings are obliged to protect their peoples' traditions, but the rnlers of Bara, , d"d1 not from occupying his office, but the nva1 candidate' living in the Dima ward . like other traditional rulers, have played an active role in the remodelling of their ----------- - society. Although they have sometimes posed as defenders of the ancestral heritage, - 14 . . In Gulani, a power shanng mecha�11sm had nerged �� between the two rival segments b Some and of arafa, they have also had a rather ambivalent attitude towards Maaka language and culture. the royal family: 'The legend de_scn bes a co t between two � �� rother s � su orters fought a bl ody battle K outside Let us have a closer look at the way the royal family has coped with change. over the throne. Each of the clann ants and 1 e Under British rule, the chiefs of Bara were made salaried officials of the "native the village. ver time this tal um, r <? r, � �����:�� � ?i\r � 1o l .t beca ' 1 me custo tri 1 ea segments. Sometimes mary between the the fight administration". Their rank was that of a village headman, charged with collecting leading candidates from s. ome s an k' was settled by force sometimes by ta mg um t �l n the latter case the t aku m simp ly became tax and keeping law and order in Bara and some surrounding settlements. The (Cohen colonial administration had eased the tax burden imposed by the Borno rulers, but it - a peop le outsi de the village' e peop e an K raf a set of negotiations betwe�n Som 1981: 102). South ofGulam, m Tera . � land, many vi· 1� es had arrangem ents that . Davi es succ ession -65: had little means of controlling the village and district heads, who continued to push een two 01 . m0. rnya1 families (J.G 1e � 1954 to the chief's office alternated betw 206-207). . Tata. 15 According to Mai Toto, son of Mai 198 Harniscl?feger Language shift, Islamisa tion and ethnic conversion among the Maaka their subjects around and to �xto1i more tax than the official tax rate allowed £OI.. 16 submit their disputes come to them 1 99 . . voluntarily and are free to reject This highhandedne�s _was s�1l� notic�able the 1970s when Mai Toto toured the given by a chief or an imam. For a ver the decision . dict to be valid, both parties hav settlements under his Junsd1ct10n. His ann:�l tax colle�tions were staged like raids. they do not, they may tum to a higher e to agree. If . authority, such as the district hea Riding on horses, he and his retinue stormed Illto a VIl' lage took from the frightened agreement is reached, the matter goe d. If again no ' s to a state court. In Bara this is the inhabitants wlrnt they deemed fit and returned loaded with booty Mai Toto's Court. When handled by such courts, Upper Area . . ' the litigation becomes more exp counterpart m Gu1am, Mai Ali was even more notonou · s.. 'He did what he liked and takes longer, but does not necessarily ensive and · ' . lead to more equitable results. Thu nobody could stop him � . Alt�Ol1gh he_ was u t third class chief on the same level all over Nigeria have a strong incentiv s, litigants . . ��� e to accept the mediation by traditio as other village heads m GuJba �istnct, e u tivated the imag� of a high-handed and other persons with a reputation of nal rulers . being efficient arbiters. ruler. When he attended t�e big 1 k t Teteba he came on horseback, The chiefs in Bara have suffered from accompanied by other horse nders. At · a ri ��: � ::i a gunshot was fired, indicating that administrative reforms in various . The sphere of jurisdiction given to them ways. no one else was allowed to do shop mg While eve1ybody waited he walked has also been reduced tenitorially. from the late 1980s, some satellite vill Starting � ages that had been part of the Bara along the market stalls, bought goo s w���·he ic had loaded in a car that followed were extricated and turned into indepe village unit ndent village units under their own him, and left again on his hors�. heads. The inhabitants of Duchi, Gag village ore, Diwi and other settlements had The colonial times - as Mai Tot� remembered them_ 'were better' than the later autonomy, because it gave them the call ed for right to control the distribution of decades under Afncan mle. With mdependence and democracy traditional rulers around their villages and to decide who fannland . ' _. though this was a long drawn out process. During might settle among them. The decisio · lost much ?f theu au�honty, create smaller administrative units n to has been accompanied by an infl Nigeria's Fust Republic, from 1960 to 1966 the ·uling N01ihern People's Congress traditional titles. The district head of ation of ' Gujba has been promoted to the pos still leaned heavi·1Yon chiefs emirs and other mem I hers of the native administration, emir, and a giant new palace for him ition of . was under construction in 2011. Thi protectmg tlieu p1·ivileges It was on Y m 17 1 1976 under military mle, that loca1 splendour, however, does not reflect s outward . . ' a rise in power. The traditional ruler · · administrations were given a demociatic struct u ·e r by putting them under legis· 1ative· is no longer a Kanuri prince, chosen by in Gujba · · . '. the king of Borno, but a crony of the . councils with democratically elected representatives (Bello-Imam 2007: 31-36). governor of Yobe State, Dr. Bukar former . Abba Ibrahim (1999-2007), who sele Each of these local parliaments elects a chan:m�n who acts as .the chief executive of obscure village headman and placed cted an tlie commiss10ners who du.ect the various de- him above all other traditional rule the admimstration, superv1smg · former Gujba District. Under the new rs in the . . emir, many new posts of village and . partments. Traditional rulers have a ve1y 1'm:nted role in this new setting. They heads have been created. In Gulani district · . . . Local Government Area alone (i.e. continue to advise theu· sub JeCts and arb1trate m l oca1 co11fl1·cts Most legal cases in southern half of the former Gujba Dis in the . .. trict), the actual figure in early 2011 northern N1gena are handled by trad1t10na1 authon't1e' s and other non-governmental four district heads (Hakimi) and stoo d at · . . . . forty village heads (Lawan). Throug · inst1�t10ns. Nigen·�ns are f:ee to present theu cases to a wi'de variety of arbitrators: proliferation of offices, the chief of Bar h this _ . a has been reduced to one among man to chiefs and emus, Chnstian past01s . and shrine priests, Muslim imams a�d par with the village heads of Duchi, y, on a . ffi Badugo, Gagure and other settlements traditional oracles. Mai Toto, �ho l�st l s o ice as chief of Bara in 1980 is still had fonnerly been under his jurisdic which · � visited each day by people seekmg his a v1ce or wanting him to decide fan�ily and administration is very low, since a vill tion. His rank as a member of the local age headman (or third class chief) earn village d.isputes. ffis authority however has been curtailed Traditional rul . ers are no a salaiy of Level 18 Above him in s only . ' · the local government hierarchy is 4. longer allowed to deal with senous cmnes, � 1ch as cases involving the shedding of head of Bara a Maaka, although not the district of royal lineage. He was given this ' . .· blood. Moreover, they do not have the powe1 �o enforce their judgments. Clients who created position in 1996, under the regi newly me of General Abacha. With the transitio democracy in 1999, he became a stau n to nch supporter of the All People's Part -------- ----- later ANPP), which has ruled both Gul y (APP, . ani Local Government 16 A chief of Gulam, who had been m , .g . chcu f Gulani town and the whole Gulani Dist�ict, and State . �:posed in 1911 and imprisoned f01: extort10�1 . ever since. As a henchman of the loca l govermnent chainnan, he has backed with more than a hundred villages, was His successor di·d not b ehave much better tl1ere1ore c Gulani District was dissolved m policy of creating new village units. In the early 2011, during our first visit, a : . c additional settlements were just about of 1914; its southern parts were pl.aced un�e1 B d Gombe while the village areas of to become independent, so the territ01y . �� left Bara and Gulani came under Gujba Distnct (J . . under the Bara chief was contracting avies 195 1956: 48, 56-57, 63, 66- 4- even furiher. The decision to f01m add village units lies with the local governm itional 67). ent council and has to be approved by 17 The party apparatus of the Northern Peop1e's Congress was firmly in the hands of the the i tl1e N 01 ·l1er Region was elected in 1961, £ n Fulani aristocracy. When a parliament . . or aristocrats emerged as �l�e dommant orce.. fort �ercent of the delegates were members � (� of the Fulani royal families, a further tw nty-e g t percent belonged to other noble fam­ 18 Mai Toto's son Musa, who served as an agricultural ilies, and only two per-cent were descen ed f·rom slaves (Whitaker 1970: 322). officer in the local gove ministration, was classed rnment ad­ in Level 9, his son Hassan, a senior accountant, in Lev el 12. 200 Harn;sc�feger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic convers ion among the Maaka . . � parliament m he state capital. The ANPP politicians dominating both institutions . Ciroma also regrets the loss of autonomy. As a kingm 201 . are generally m favour of new apphca _ . . � ions, because they have the final say when entitled to elect the next chief, but their decision may aker, he and othe be overturned by p r elders are selecting new village heads. By appomtmg then. cromes, they can extend ANPP with no roots in Maaka oliticians society. People are fed influence into remote settlements. up with "democracy" politics. They complain tha and party t everything had become Members of Barn's i:oy�l fam1·1y, h e discussing the administrative reforms, politicised: the distrib jobs, the sale of subsidised ution of fertiliser, and the appointme � were �nnoyed tha the distn ct head, t u i: � a Maaka supported the splitting up of Whatever resources state offi cials are dishing out is turn nt of village and war d heads. � �: � the chie dom. Mai Toto assumed tha h e istrict hea did this out of greed, because d political patronage. Mai Tot o, for instance, los t his offi ed into a means to build up the candidates for the new posts of vil age headman bribed him to get his support, as ce because he suppor wro ng political party. In ted the they allegedly also brib� the loc � � go t h · rman The district head even bac ked the NPN, which con 1979, at the beginning of trolled mo st of northern Nig Nigeria's Second Rep ublic, he endorsed a proposal to divide Bara ��:r:: �;� i . e. 1a � he lit le smrnunding farml�nd GNPP won the election, and its officials installed one eria. In Born o, howe ver, the which is l eft of the former, much larger Bara villa e unit - into two administrative of the ir supporters as Bara: Mai Ciroma, a cousin chi ef of _ to Mai Toto. Ciroma lost . � units. Mai Barde should mle only one lrnlf of tow and a second village headman militaiy rule, when the mil itary governor replaced him the office five years late r, under � should be appo nted for th� other. I _ b l � th t splitting the chiefdom would 1987 the office was handed over to Mai Toto's younge with a sole administrator . In _ _ subve1i the ancient mstitutwn and l a c : �� � � ��� position of the district head, who so far survived militaiy and civilian regimes, as he is cau r brother Mai Barde, who has · � would be the only one o supervise the town as a wh o1e. M ai· Toto felt bitter about in power. Since the return of democracy in 1999, he tious not to antagonise those � this perfidy and com�lamed tha the d . . .·et headshi had been filled with the wrong supp01i for the ruling party in Yobe State. At each elec has publicly demonstrated his � person: a poo: ma frnm an ordmary _ _ ;:�� � l who h d never played a prominent role to the polling station, he tick ed ANPP on his ballot pap tion, when he led his foll owers in village politics. 9 In this �ontex . . sanctified by tradit10n, while the �i������ S . hea ointed out that the Maaka chiefs were owed his rise solely to the favour of This conformism, however, The most recent evidenc has not earned him much er and showed it to all aro patronage by political lead und. ers. e of his political marginalis ANPP politicians, or ?etter: . . self -m to then �� . t er. t. The local government chailman new palace that the local government is supposed ation is the controversy ove r a kept the district head m office because h e cou use him to gain influence in Bara to build. During our first Bara, all Maaka were inv stay in ited to a meeting to discuss politics how to respond to what they saw as the provocative beh . . . aviour of the local governm Mai Toto detests political app�mt . �es hke the dist ·ict head whose authority is not ent chairn1an, Dr. Ahmed Musa Gulani. He had promis I l"t" ed the chiefs of Bara, Gul �� h rooted in tradition but rest on the mtn�ues of pa1iy po i i s T e ANPP officials who ani, Bularafa and Gabai that he would build them larg er, more impressive pala installed the district head e a� sack hnn 1 hus he is not free in his ces. But when most of the palace in Bara had been dem old . judgments. He has to please his patrn�s ii o ·��:;i ���;:� � e nment administration who to build all four palaces as olished, he disclosed that there was not enough mon ey . planned. For Bara he mad are mainly Babur and Maha (Gularn _ ol"t" ii \fA small group like the Maaka, more humble building, whi le in his hometown Gulani, e arrangements to constru ct a whose members are seen as educationa bac i �::; d have little influence in the state was a little bigger. Membe rs of the royal family and the new palace that he erec ted administration. No Maaka heads a loca governme t department or has any say in � infuriated by this show of contempt. Mai Toto interpre many other Maaka were .c 20 ted it as an affront by a man · the secunty 1orces In the local government counc1·1 , Bara has only one of twelve who was close to the roy . al family in Gulani becaus · seat is shared between M aak a and Babur ' who let the delegate rotate seats, and this e he had man-ied a daughte the former chief.21 What r of . made matters worse was . ht that the chief of Bara cou at each election. Thus, speakmg on behalf of the Maaka does not carry much we1g vent his anger by joining the ld not political opposition against any more. the chairman and his ANPP administration, even thou . gh it was election time and . Mai Toto is con:inced that trad1ti �� n 1 autho ··ty would be more beneficial in the there was a chance of voti the ruling party out of offi ng ce. Everybody expected a _ . � ;� administration of his hometown, Yet 1e mo s at traditions have lost their weight the senators and other incumbe tight contest, so the governo nts toured the countryside in r, : � and do not provide much protect10n a am t t e intrusion of politicians. Members of and election promises. Yet they did not deem it necessa order to ry to make concessions to mon ey the royal family are not the only Maa a w 0 feel disempowered. The leader of Gala chief of Bara and his people. the The chief was not offered a better palace, and his people had to accept that their tow n was starved of funds. The --- -------- state government no long 19 The district head .is a member of Gala provided fuel for the gen er y�'1 '1 - - who have a joking relationship with the erator which had been inst . nu, ff . alled to provide Bara with royal Gazargar�1 clan, �et �t the he�ght oft1e c ct Mai T oto - as he told me -publicly electricity. Some Maaka sug gested that one should vote thre�tened to kill the d1stnct head if l e _w � a �� � � ith his plans. en bloc for the oppositiona l 20 Havmg the patronage of army �fficers is ��\t im ortant in Nigerian politics. The Maaka, � however, had only seven of thell' sons working i the police and am1y, posted elsewhere 21 His case has often been add uced to illustrate the viciousn in the country. None of them was above the rank of corpora1. _ the chairman was, through his ess of the Maha in Gul ani, yet . father's lineage, a Hausa.  Harn ischfeger Language shift, lslamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 203 202 ition was too risky, as his � Moreover, it brought material benefits because the new farmer ga e ten p erc ent PDP, but the chi ef shie d awa y from such a move. Oppos if the politicians sacked him. . their harvest to the Maaka chief, in appreciation of h'is le . ;� : { _v of g antmg them land. In people could not defend him size retrospect, his land policy looks like a big mistake aa rn have lost all land , because the diminished The humiliation of their chi ef affected all the body in town the diminis Ma aka hed role which the Ma aka now . ; . reserves. Farmers can no longer clear bushland and shi their c lt1 vat10n, but have . . . � of the palace showed any , as there was nothing they to work their fields in perpetuity' with only bnef penods of lettmg 1 and rIe fallow y felt helpless and abased . . . s ome impovenshed families have sold all their lots leavm the . sons desperate t o. in Bar a pol itic s. The � � ; · played uary ring their meeting in Jan n ision of the chairman. Du could do to reverse the dec "se nio r spe cial beg land from relatives or lease it from stranger To ards t e end of the dry season, ANPP man (a a and another prominent some Maaka have just one meal a day' or a mea I eve1y second day ' 2 2 D'isputes over 2011, the district head of Bar influential Maaka pol itic ian ) and, as such, the most . . adv iser" to the cautioned the audience to gov ern or, accept the inevitable. The Maaka were too insigni s. Ho wev fica er, nt, one permission, when their fathers grow infirm � � ;�; � 1 and set family members against each othe S ns t1y to s�ll family land without t t am ontrol o er the land even in the arena of loc al politics, to put pressu re on politic ian eed that a part of the old pal ace by seeking comi injunctions which incap cit te � : �� r; . e a : ers. athers, m tum, sell by those present. They agr . decision at least was taken e col umn s ancestral land without regard for the future of their children. served, namely the massiv . . ich had not yet bee n destroyed should be pre chi ef Even the chiefs, who invited more and more "settlers "' feel bitter about the conse- wh e meant to show that the and the wooden roof at its entrance. These relics wer this par t was also quences. Much of the land they gave . � ay s no 1 onger under their administration. residing here was the anc ient ruler of town. A yea r later, howeve r, As most outlying settlements have gai :':i �� � . my, e1 r inhabitants no longer feel tom down, like the rest of the old building. aka, as many felt that the y obliged to send a share of their harvest t � �� i o o or . ai Barde. Most have stopped The palace controversy had a unifying effect on the Ma as the paramount ruler of tow n. . � . . paying them or just give a token amount. f:Even n Bara it has become difficult for the should side with their chi ef and defend his status run dee p, because chief to assert his authority. The bi �:� � � t a ' Kar ka e, who arrived i 2002 or However, this solidarity with the chief and his fam ily does not rests. Mai Barde doe s not care 2003, harvests a thousand bags of let���I � � al y an gives ten bags of It to Mai as defenders of Maaka inte · they are not perceived ng Barde. But it is foreseeable that one day he w111 stop the pa ments by which he · bre aki i Toto criticised him for � ch abo ut Ma aka trad itio ns. His elder brother Ma ir . acknowledges the primacy of the indigenous chief. Tl1e relationslup between the mu d to be restricted in the ass oci ated wit h his office. Maaka chiefs use . . . Maaka and the growing number of settlers Is stramed' as the Ieader of Gala Czroma the taboos not mind ng. Yet Ma i Barde does . . to be secluded when eati movements, and they had ing on a explamed: 'Strangers are coming' and we Maaka turn mto strangers. [ . . . ] They will · he wishes. Instead of sitt he moves about town as ' eating with strangers, and dommate us, because we gave them land' and we w11· 1 become slaves . · he keeps a chair. In his residence itio nal ma t, as his pre decessors did, he prefers trad from er paraphernalia inherited royal drum and a few oth an old staff of office, the y of Ma i Tot o, who the custod objects, however, are in his ancestors. Other sacred lose the m or s attitude, might r brother, with his careles complained that his younge Ma aka interest in rallying the 5.1 that Mai Barde has little throw them away. It seems cannot expect much help behind him . Alt hou gh the y are his primary constituency, he ographically. The only way to �� . . Unti t e l 9 80s, Islam was synonymous with the rules and teachings of the T"IJamyya, ng out politically and dem a su 1 rotherhood. Most Maaka did not know that there were nval . Islamic or- from them, as they are losi of all gro ups become the chief . out to the "settlers" and ganisations and that the TiJ'aniyya, whose ntes they followed ' was JUS t one o f everal retain influence is to reach · rry. � e, it is expedient to intemrn . din g in Bar a. In ord er to broaden his support bas brotherhoods. Even today, people do not talk of Ti' uanzy;;a but use the genenc term resi wing up and his children are gro . Babur and one Kanuri, tariqa (brotherhood) when referring to th� 1 o�g-estabhshed form of Islam. The Barde has three wives: two . Tijaniyya is the dominant Muslim orgamsat10n 111 Yobe and Borno State (Alkali [a speaking Hausa. does not imply that he fee ls . · sis on traditions, but this . o.] 2012· 30)' yet Bara is a stronghold of Izala a waha bI orgamsat10n Mai Toto places more empha that seeks a . the com ­ he was the custodian of � · · · re loyalty tow ard s his people. During his reign . radical reform of public and private life. Its adl erents have become more numerous mo n cleared for cultivation i. e. of all lan d in his vill age unit that had not bee than those of the Tijaniyya' which operates the central mosque at the pa1ace and munal land, e of ani and other families. Som y large tracts to Babur, Ful some smaller mosques in Gala D.zma, Gala Dala and Gala Ciroma. When all Of this land he gave awa in their ow n ed to live apart, in Bara, but most preferr them took up residence ' ed, be­ people , Mai Toto explain settlements a few kilome tres away. 'We needed were given land for Mai Toto 22 The most vulnerable persons are those elderl i{ men an d women who have no children to area was spar sely pop ulated. care for them. Lengi spoke of a woman who ad been deserted by her only s?n: 'SIie does cause the ef, it was calculated. For a chi for it. Yet his generosity . . her rnom. [ ] Neighbours give did not charge a single naira not even go out of her room for excretion. She does all m pop ula tion. uence over a large · · · much tax and have infl her some food.' was prestigious to raise  Harnischfeger Language shift, Jslamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 205 204 that the Both groups, it is said, had travelled amicably, but when the Bole split away, they . el-Kabir festival, anybody can see_ Muslims assemble. to celebrate t 11e Id vist s have took with them the Quran, which had belonged to the Maaka. The Maaka noticed prayer ground of Izala. Its acti majority of the faithft:l 1 gathers on the es and this loss too late, because the Bole, when 'stealing' the book, had left behind its nse d Bar a soci ety b ecau se the y draw a c 1eat. li"ne between themselv. 'skin', i.e. the book cover. pola . . oeve1· does not follow their stn. ct . ations. Wh . · members of ot11er M us11111 orgams . erents to The Islamisation of the Maaka was shaped for a long time by the chiefs. They m e. It is th. ere£ore prohib" ited for adh interpretation of Islam is ritually .imp � were at the centre of mral Islam, although they were illiterates with only a m­ . . lus authonty eat with such a person or to submit to ; lers like dimentary knowledge of religious doctrines. Being Muslim made only modest ng ati:iong �l e Maaka whereas sett Support for Izala is patiicularly stro demands on their way of life. The faithful had to patiicipate in communal prayers, the Fulani and Karekare show little : �� ter s i T t Is 1 n� 23 The Izala doctrine has attracted, above. all, young and e uca e �:� � �� : ( en' h� use the language of fact observe Ramadan and acquire some form of Islamic dress. Otherwise, they were not much curtailed by religious prescriptions. Before the erection of the first mosque, m t11elf elde1·s. M ai Toto deplored the . ihodox Islam to distance th �m selves fro gious the king of Borno had already sent a Kanuri malam, who preached for two days in fr m th .. parents and following reli . m Maaka children a e turn g a that � u: _w �Y, � :� � [eld i ] slaughter our ani mals according Bara, then proceeded to Gulani and some other villages, and returned to Bara after a authorities that undenn111e. family ties. W The leader while. However, the Islamic teacher did not challenge the authority of the chiefs. infidels and do not touc 11 om. .1-'c0od' to Islamic law, yet our children c�ll us • ask him When Bara received its central mosque, the chiefs reserved the right, well into the c1 "ld. n ho were all Izala, do not · of Gala Cirom� lamented that l�is five fam ily hist 01y and the hist ory� : � of : at� . ala tells them not to listen'. The 1980s, of selecting its imam. Imams were expected to supp01i the chiefs, thus it was about transmission of ki1o':�edge from one � :� : : e:er t o t the next has stopped . The chil­ acceptable for a newly elected chief to dismiss the imam of his predecessor and bring dren, �ho have ac�mred book e ; J. ith it the cmde and hyb rid Islam in a new one. The tariqa, whose mosques dominated Bara Islam until a decade ago, of their fathers. This arrogant a i e, �:v; ; T h� ca a Ciroma leader assumes, . c1im is a re�ult . g everybody believes he is a gave traditional mlers considerable latitude. Chiefs could continue to participate in ancient rites as long as they supported the spread oflslam. Matters of doctrine played giou s indo ctri nati on: 'Be cau se ofl za 1a p1ea ' of reli a minor role; the Maaka were not even aware, until the 1980s, that rival forms of s Islam existed. " b akdown between the generation ma/am.' . cation To blame only Izala for the commum ; ��� ;::� � elde rs Today, the various Islamic organisations shout at each other with loudspeakers 1 1 er to the old stories? The is not convincing. Why should the youn hen they renoun�ed the local and have sometimes engaged in physical fighting. An old woman whose house is 1e them selv es, beca u e hey 1 d t�d\ � :a might blar � � situated close to an Izala mosque told me that she tried not to listen to the preaching. � . The ve acknowledged that the Holy tra�itions 111 favour �f an Islamic iden . But the noise was enervating, so she had gone to the Izala leaders a couple of times, e they do not k now much about then: Scnptures are the mam s�urce of �ow For the younger g�neratl�n, which has _ � � t fi d its place in a multi-ethnic, Isla mic cursing them and telling them that they should pack and go. She explained to me that there was no religion she hated more than Izala: 'When your father cuts a ram, and society, illiterate_s like Mai_Toto �n Ma : \� B rd nnot serve as guides for the future. The devaluation of �ncient wi_s om s ar \�� ed orc Izala appeare d on ed the aga sce ne in inst the you are not allowed to eat it. What religion is this?' In former times, the people of Bara would not have tolerated such an abomination. Their chiefs, she assured me, bad .ong of the chiefs, preach the 1990s. The tariqa imams, _with �h� wal ls of were strong and ruthless enough to ward off baleful influences: 'Mai Tata was a very o are sti"ll revered behind the bullums, the old c1an and fatmly deities' wha' recorded m · 1998 the pre-Islamic . wicked chief. He would not have allowed Izala to make noise.' of Bar some compounds. In the 'ffist my ' ' th of an Islamic origin from yemel. Present-day elders do not dare to confront Izala, because it has the supp01i of traditions had alre ady een rep � aced wit. h th ? This stereotyped vers10n of histo . was {;' � :Zt a r� ive for its homogenising effe of ct: it fi rst­ politicians, from the governor and his minister of religious affairs down to the local government chairman. Most politicians attend Izala mosques (at least occasionally), ctua 1 pedigree into a corporate body turned all Maaka, no matter what t eir could and they make sure that only Izala imams receive state allowances for their work. � �� ad o . i. ated in yemel or Mecca they comers. When all had agreed that they · � ories about an origin i� Babur- or This official support, however, does not stop Izala preachers from castigating the 1 no longer tell the ancient �l�n and Kanunla _ nd. However, the History o . �;�:a �: , l s retained glimpses of a pre-Islami ane cdo te, c corruption of politicians, who, of course, have little personal interest in the austere lifestyle propagated by the reformers. Izala acts as an anti-establishment movement lier h"1stones, such as the following past, for 1t contams f�agments of ear Bol e were not. that articulates popular anger against the political class, yet it has benefitted from the .· . · Ma aka use d to be p agan' wh ile the which seem s to exp la111 why the patronage of Muslim politicians, who are forced to declare their support for the project of an Islamic renewal (Harnischfeger 2008: 188-192). . ni h�d med that not a single Fula --- -- ---- ---- . the palace mosc ue clai a tariq a ima m at 23 Baba Mad i, with in the lzal a com munity m . � ant grou p . t were the domm ed Iza1a. Maaka by contras , . Jom , · ' Bara.  Harn iscl�feger Language sh�ft, lslamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 207 206 nat10n, . . its diverse peoples sharing but one faith' one 1aw, one culture and one destiny' 5.2 The Allures of a (Sulaiman 1986: 11). trine seems to follow the . a is difficult, because its doc Calling for a society that has left all ethnic d'f '.C i i_erences behmd may appear Distancing oneself from Izal e who deviate from such . _ phet scmpulously. All thos unrearisfic. However, the willingness to make a comP_lete break with the past is based original message of the Pro s. Baba Madi, a tariqa g branded insincere Muslim on a sober analysis of the given situation young grnduates from polytechnics and orthodoxy run the risk of bein e lenient form of Islam. In . i���� � was hard to justify his mor universities, returning to Bara have fe i· 1 ns bout the future of Maaka language imam, acknowledged that it adopted many demands � to Izala criticism, he has and culture. There is no poin in look g �: ' smce the ways of the ancestors can order not to expose himself the farms, and their whole · . women should not work on no 1onger give orientation. Maaka people ha ': ; to e -mvent themselves. They are formulated by the purists: _ . . he defended the ancient n they appear in public. Yet completely free to determine their future T us i is im ortant for the younger bodies should be covered whe ' events. The Qur an, � . bur ial cere mon ies, whi ch used to be costly social � generation to grasp this chance and define he course o f social transformat10n. Izala naming and were not prohibited. . . he argued, did not talk abo ut these exercises, thus they on religious considerations , emphasises personal responsibility and vol t i i �: �� � �) � � 1 e strength of t e h man will � was not, in his eyes, based to alter the world around it (see Eisenstadt ut at the same tune it teaches Boycotting them, as Izala did, 9 expense is indeed a major i � money. Avoiding needless submission. The authority to make laws shal be a1rnn a ay from humans and but motivated by a wish to save ':" and ostentatious displays . £ y reject pompous ceremonies handed over to God' who has revealed what is best or mankmd. concern oflzala activists. The other social obligations . . of wealth (Kane 2003: 136 -138). Bride price payments and Usmg Hausa as a language of wider circulation and adopting Sha ia as a common � family. Such rules favour T ry man can afford to start a law, makes it easier to interact with strangers. h rules of Shana are clear and should be modest, so that eve Izala. The Islamic law of � legal reforms advocated by straightf01ward, and for the faithful they are not sub�ect to controversy, as they have the young, as do some of the use it divides the land of £ ears preferable to many, beca been authorised by God. As a universal code they suspend all commu 1a1 orms of inheritance, for instance, app each heir full control over : . � family members and gives morality that may hinder a peaceful multi- thnic coe ste ce. Kanun and Hausa a deceased person among the . �� � nal law, by contrast, treats . the right to sell it. Traditio settlers, who tend to be proud of their ancient urban civihsat10ns' may 1oo1c upon t he his or her share, including supervision of the eldest . . . and keeps it intact, under the M aaka as an unsophisticated lot' but s h .eJudices are eclipsed when Islamic piety farmland as family property c�d�tu � tted land for farming, but he Each family member is allo is accepted as the only standard of re . son or some other relative. owned land can be sold, . . . . ivate it, not to sell it. Jointly Assuming a common Islamic identity in northern Nigeria, means assnrulatmg to or she is only allowed to cult plan which plots should agree . This makes it easier to the preponderant Hausa culture In th"is respect' Izala has only acce1 erated a but only if the family members ' for one s descendants. . . · to who m, and how muc h land should be retained transfonnation process that has been 01ng on £or a 1 ng time. However, the Maaka be sold � _ a growing number have � old law is still practised, but are aware that members of other ethnic groups are re Jectmg the option of becommg Among Maaka families, the · h collective decisions. . which makes it difficult to reac Hausa. A radical counter-model is practised by the Ful �u, � m st of whom hve apart switched to the Islamic system, . es the sale of land. vidual initiative and facilitat m small settlements outside Bara where they ke to emse ves. When addressed The new system allows for indi because it levels social � a progranm1e is attractive in Hausa, sonie do not even ans er To t �: M aka, they appear proud and For young people, the Izal � sannu other authorities, and nobody � � ot , bow before his parents and affogant, as 'they do not give their dau hte s t er tnbes . Although they profess differences. Nobody should , when measuring the of his wealth. What matters Islam, they do not like to mix with ot �:� ���;:: :::: �� : �� : � b 1 h tt nd their own should expect respect because c eristics which anybody religious knowledge - charact mosques, and their daily prayers are h d h e a ose of other status of a person, is piety and ing social differences, . . social origin. By de-emphasiz Muslims. Some Maaka suspect that the Is1am1c piety displayed . by m any Fu 1am. can achieve, irrespective of his isms. All of the faithful, m1. ght be no more than a fayade, hiding the fact that they still w01ship . to obliterate ethnic antagon . . therr. old the teachings of Izala also seek the same set of rules. This · und, should live according to · deities. Despite this adherence to tribal traditio11s' however' the Fulani appear to be no matter their tribal backgro ka and other Muslims from · is attractive for young Maa economica11y more successful than the Maaka. rejection of cultural diversity nstream of Hausa society. , . . make their way into the mai A 1ess exclusive way of preserving one s own identity is exemplified by the Bole ethnic minorities who have to re differences of birth . enter a stratified society whe and Babur. From a M ak :f�s ective, the Bole are very much like themselves, When becoming Hausa, they p and to a greater extent the . In most places, the Hausa they have the advant e : : : :� ou h to ntain their language as continue to be of importance _ _ Ethnic outsiders, by con­ origins nor those of others. well as their coherenc and� ��:� ;�;�:: ti � aa a sai t a if they were free to Fulani neither forget their own calism of Izala and other . , and this fits with the radi choose, they would become Bole. y et the1.e is a general feelmg among the M aa1ea trast, want a level playing field ic: 'all Muslims, irre­ . . ic prerogatives as un-Islam � that the course of events will lead them ' whe her they hke it or not, to a Hausa reformers, who denounce ethn a single brotherhood, one nationality, must constitute identity. Thus the Maa1ea are sub"�ect to a massive change whose direction they are spective of race, language or other, is but one single one end of the world to the Umma. [. . . ] the Umma, from  Harnischfeger Language shift, Islamisation and ethnic conversion among the Maaka 209 ��� 208 . . 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