Arab Origins at Garun Gabbas.
By F. W. H. MIGEOD... 1911..
A noticeable feature among the peoples west of Lake Chad is that many claim an origin from Arabia and chiefly Yemen.This means little more than that a leader arose who migrate a number of followers by slave raiding and the prospect of loot, in the same way as Rabeh did at the end of the 19th century. The legends of this stream of migration are so persistent that an authentic genealogy proving it in at least one instance is of value in support of the general claim; and this is supplied by the town of Garun Gabbas. Many of the migrations appear to have had their origin in the refusal of certain persons and families to accept Mohammedanism, but whether the Arab tribes on the eastern side of Lake Chad owed their presence there to the same cause is another matter. In any case, Arab infiltration across Africa from the Red Sea and the Nile to Lake Chad did not begin in recent centuries.
The small town of Garun Gabbas is about 12 miles north of Hadejia. The present Bulama or Headman (Bulama is a compound Bornu word, meaning Town Headman) named Musa claims to be of Arab descent and of a long line of kings. In appearance he is jet black, but with white whiskers, and I found nothing to distinguish him from a pure negro, except, perhaps, some slight difference of manner. One felt there was a distinction. He said he was not a Shuwa Arab, the Arab tribe living to the south of Lake Chad, but an Arab from Sham, ie., Syria, and the line of migration of his ancestors was Sham, Kanem, Bornu, Kulumpardu or (Kulunfardu), and thence to Garun Gabbas. His wife was Fula and his children by her spoke the language of their mother. His mother and grandmother were both Bornuese. He went the pilgrimage to Mecca before Rabeh's time, and was 5 years away, he reckoned his present age of 55.
The founder of Garun Gabbas was one Ibrahim, and members of the same family went and founded the now more important city of Daura. Inhabitants of Garun Gabbas wore possibly largely Arab, the leader of the colonists was a Beriberi (i.e. Bornuese), known to them by the name of Zanoa, but his real name was not known. Zanoa's family no longer exists. The reason of the migration out of Bornu was that Ibrahim had a dispute with Mallam Mukhtar, his elder Although the early brother. He came along peacefully and there was no fighting. Although a Beriberi was the leader of the colonists, Garun Gabbas was never under the rule of Bornu. Nevertheless the inhabitants are said to have used the Kanuri language (the language of Bornu) in the days before the founding of Daura, the date of which I have not been able to ascertain with any degree of acouracy.
The reason probably was that owing to the preponderating influence of the Bornu empire as far back as the thirteenth century, and possibly earlier, the Kanuri language became and still is very widely used. In any case the Bornu influence is reputed to have been very strong in Garun Gabbas. An unexplained detail is why Zanoa does not appear in the list of kings. There are twenty of the ancient families said to be still represented in the country. Some of the inhabitants had in recent years married Beriberi women, but Beriberi men had not settled there in great numbers. The Town is now very small compared with what it was formerly. The present population is Fula, it had spread even to within a few miles of Kano.
Garun-gabas is a small town compared with what it was formerly. The present population is Fula, Awuyokawa (related to the Bedde), and some Beriberi, the Fula being in the largest numbers. The old record of the kings was burnt accidentally six years ago (say 1916). I was told, but a new one had been written out containing all they could remember.
In the original list was the number of years each king had reigned, but they could not be reproduced. The first on the list is Ibrahim who came out of Bornu, it is said they were Mohammedans then and brought horses and asses, but not cattle.
As to the town, the old mud wall is now scarcely discernible. The Headman's house is surrounded by a high mud wall, but all the other houses are of grass and circular in shape. There are some baobab trees about that at the rest house being 35 feet in circumference. The soil between Hadejia and Garun Gabbas is dark grey clay, except where crossed by the numerous east to west sand ridges. On the low ridge on which stands the rest house lies a little quartz gravel of very small size, which was the first i had seen on my westward journey from Lake Chad. A depth of twenty-two fathoms.
LIST OF KINGS OF GARUN GABBAS FROM A MANUSCRIPT.
ARABS….
2. Maji
3. Kulada
4. Yerima
5. Kimeri
6. Donkofo
7. Jatou
8. Amale
9. Mammadu
10. Donko
11. Yahaya
12. Dan Asawa
13. Aburi
14. Sakaina
15. Musa
16. Kujeilu
17. Adam
18. Aliyu
19. Tagwoi
20. Jimami
21. Balikurugu
22. Issaku
FULANI...
23. Baruwei
24. Gauyama
25. Bouri
26. Ousmanu
27. Abdu
28. Abdu
SLAVE OF KING OF HADEJIA. A pagan..
29. Baluwa
ARABS grandfather of present man.
30. Muhamman Bako
FULANI…
31. Tukur
32.
Buba
33. Kawu
34. Alhaji Abubakar. father of the present man
34. Musa. Present man 1922.
