AFRIKA Volume 4, Number 2 Intemationales Afrikaforum KIABARA Herausgegeben vom Europalschen Institul fUr polirische, wlrtschaftliche lind sozi~de Fragen e. V. In Zuammenarbeit mit dem Uo·lnstitut fur Wirrschafts[orschung e. V. JOURNAL OF THE HUMANITIES Die Zeitschrift bericlUet in dem Teil .,Chronik" ausfiihrlich llber die politischen, Harma t tan 1981 wirtschaftlichen. sozhllen und kulturellen Entwicklungen in den Staaten und Regionen Afrikas, 1m Aufsa(Zleil kommen namhafle Fachleute nnd Afrikakenner der vt';rschiede~ FOCUS ON HISTORY nen Richlungen zu Wort, Wichtige Afrika-Litcratur nnd deten Autoren werden in eineT standigen Uter81urubersicht vorgestellt. Guest Bd1tor .,!ntemationales Afrikaforum" erscheint vieneljiihdich. Oer Jahresabonnementspreis E.J. ALA GOA bettiigt OM 90,- zUlug.lkh Porto. InlernalioaaJ Quarterly ror Arrican Stlfdies Editor Edited by the European fnstirule [or Political, Economic and Sotial Questions in cooperation with IFO·lnstitute fer Economic Research, loN.C. ANIEBe In its $«ticn Chronik (Chronicle), this periodical offers a detailed report on the political. social. ecenomic and cultural developments in the states and regions of Africa. The essay section provides a forum for specialisls and experts on Africa from various schools of Ass1stant Edltors thought. Important African authors and African literature are introduced in a permanent NWANNA NZEWUNWA RAYMOND NNADOZIE OKAFcrR literary review. Internarional QUJlrterly fot African Studies is published quanerly Annua) sUbscription ~ Ow. excluding postage, Bus1ness Manager InbaltsallSZiige CHARLES E. NNOLIM AfribaI:5che Probleme l.8. - Afrika - Fur die M&ssenmedien nUf ein Krisenherd? - Wirtschaftsboykott gegen Sudafrika Ein Mittellur Oberwindung des Apartheids­ systems Ed1torlal Board - Afrika als Tell der Weltrohsloffwirts;chaft Die Rolle deT Streitkriifle in der afnkaniKhen Politik E.J. ALAGOA ROBIN HORTON - Die Organisati(m fiir Afrikanische Einheit - Selbsthilfef6rderung in der deuischen Entwicklungspolitik S.J.S. COOKEY OLA ROTIMI LladuM.klUe z.B. WILLFRIED FEUSER KAY WILLIAMSON - Algerien Vor dem neuen VierjahrespJan Elfenbeinkuste Stausee in Kossou am Bandama~AuB Kenya ,Harambee' Selbstbilfe-EntwicklungsprQjekfe Marokko Der Panlbersprung von Agadir Advlsorl} Board Nigt!T LandnutzungsprobJetne nacb der Durre CLAUDE AKE GERALD MOORE Westsahara Die algerisch-marokkanischen Auseinandersetzungen , Zcntral'afr. Rep. Wirtschaflliche Entwicklung and Flanung ELECRI AMADI UCHE OKEKE BASSEY ANDAH J.O. SODIPO Weltforum Verlag J.P. CLARK THEO VINCENT W8kf0rurn VertagsgeseMschaft fUr Politik"und AusJandskunde mbH ' Muochen . KOln < London -.gor_ 22 < D·5OOO KOIn 51 (Marlonburgl < Telefon (0221)388011 1 KIAB1RA is published twice a year, in June (the RAINS issue) ana in December (the HARMATTAN issue), Volume 4, Number 2 Harmattan 1981 by the School of Humanities of'the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The.first issue appeared ih19.78. Subscription rates in Nigeria are N5.00 per year. Foreign subscriptions are 39.00 or £4.00 per year, with payments made KIABARA only by money orders or certified cheques. Rates for institutions and libraries are N7.00, 212.00 or £5.00 per year. Single copies are N3.00, 25.50 and £2.50. Focus History Editorial and business corrt/apondence should be addressed to The Editor, KIABARA, School of Human­ ities, University of Port Harcourt, P.M.B. 5323, l'orward 5 Rivers State, Nigeria. No .manuscript ~an be returned, nor query answered unless ac~ompanied by ALAGOA The BthnographiC Dimension of a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Contributions E.J. 7 in English, or in a Nigerian language with an Oral Tradition accompanying English translation, should be type­ ! 0 ERIM Field Techniques for ReC~rding written, double-spaced and conforming to the M.L.A. • • the History of Segmentary soc~eties 25 style sheet or LSA. They should treat matters of interest and relevance to studies in the Humanities ADE OBAYEMI cultural Dynamics and History of the African world and the Black Dia$pora, and of the Niger-Benue confluence Area 41 should not be more than 10,000 words ip length. before 1900 KIABARl is the Khana name for the Kingfisher whose BABAYEMI The Ideological Base ~f uniqueness among birds, pervades in diverse forms, s.o. of the Alaafin of Oyo and of h~s 51 the oral traditions of riverine peoples. ClIiefs Camera-ready advertisement copy in the Journal will N.C. EJITUWU The Problem of Feedback in be accepted at the following rates: Oral Tradition: The Obolo (Andoni) 67 Full page )l50.00 Example Half page )l30.00 OWEN J.M. KALINGA Oral Tradition and the Inside cover N60.00 Reconstruction of the pre-colonial History of HalaOi, A Reassessment 81 Copyright (C.) by the University of Port Harcourt. International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 0331-8168. ADILL PATON Jr. Oral Tradition in the Reconstruction of Ningi History 105 ca. 1880 - 1908 3 2 GLORIA THOMAS EMEAGWALI .Alternative Perspectives on the Reconstruction of the African Past; The,case of Walter Rodney 127 ADELL PATON Jr. ADE ADEFUYE Recording ~he Oral History of the Palwo 139 JAM VANSINA Ethnography as History: The Oral Ttadition in the Reconstruction of Ningi Past of the peop)es in ~he Bquatorial History ca. 1880- 1908 Rainforest of Africa 157 E.J. ALAGOA Oral Data as Archives in Africa 193 NWANNA NZEWUNWA The Organisation of Pre-historic Research in Nigeria 203 Kings have prescribed destinies just Drawings like men, and seers who probe the future know it. They have knowledge CANDOMBLE DA BAHIA 66,126,156,192 of the future, whereas we griots are depositories of the knowledge of the Announcements past. But whoever knows the history of a country can read its future ••. Other people use writing to record SPECIAL ISSUES OF KIABARl 216 the past, but this invention has killed the faculty of memory among them. They do not feel the past any Contributors more, for writing lacks the warmth of the human voice (words of Balla CONTRIBUTOI1S 217 Fasseke, Sun-iata's griot, 1234-1255 A.D. D.T. Niane, Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali) Ningi territory is located in the present-day Bauchi State of northern Nigeria, about 115 miles from Kano City in a southeasterly direction, in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The territory is an extension of the Jos Plateau massif at the Kiab~r~, Vol. 4,2, Harmattan 1981 105 pp. 105 - 225 Ii I The Ningi formation resulted from a series of northernmost end. The terrain is, therefore events that took place at the Islamic Centre of hilly and mountainous; and therefore, respon~ible Tsakuwa in Kano in ca. 1846. Here, believing per­ for the settlements there of numerous small scale haps that they deserved exemptions from taxation heterogeneous societies. In the 1950's the area (mahrams) ; ,some fourteen Mallamai (religious prac­ comprised 1,950 square miles and a population of titioners and teacher.) - led by Malam Hamza - re­ 40,911, based on the 1931 census; the population fused to pay Kurdin Kasa or the land tax, which has more than doubled in the present time with a got them into trouble with Kano officials within possible incorporation of the older territorial the Sokoto Caliphate. On the run, the Mallamai boundaries in the new Bauchi state. leapfrogged into the Ningi 'mountains' where people During the onset or colonial rule in 1902 had already been settled for centuries. the British attempted to govern Ringi under th~ Migration into the area had earlier led to the Emirate-model of Indirect rule, but the Ningi re­ formation of smallscale corporate lineages in the fused initially to be governed by this model. settlement process of Ningi as a refugee zone. Between 1902 to 1921, the British deposed and This area may have been the most desirable area for eXiled Ningi leaders over their refusal to discon­ settlement in remote times until the emergence of tinue raids for slaves and booty within Ringi and the city-state when the trade route nexus turned adjacent territory. Indirect rule was abandoned them into backwaters. According to the oral tra­ and a colonial official became for all intent and ditions, the Buta and the Warji people were the purposes the 'paramount ruler' of Ningi. From most pristine of all the people there and hence the 1915 to 1922 an alien named Abdul, who was a mes­ 'original' immigrants; these groups were formed senger in the colonial service was even 'Chief' from the oldest and original pre-Hausa speaking of Ningij and informants remember his reign as population. Speculative, linguistic evidence sug­ Abdul nThe Messenger". The hiatus of direct rule gests that these people were present some 2,000 came in 1921 when colonial administration converted years ago and presumably even before that;' they' a~ain,to indirect rule with the appointment in 1922 were possibly the last remnants of the Aquatic a Ch1ef Zakari as the paramount chief over the 'civilizations'. Such cultural phenomena as Buta four Ningi districts, but he was deposed one year and Warji ~re not isolated to Ningi in northern la~er. In 1923 Chief Adamu was appointed and his Nigeria. Although culturally different, these I, relgn,en?ed through retirement in 1955. However, "conserving societies", a~ defined by Stuart the Nlngl'S gradual accommodation to the Emirate­ Piggott's classification, are found in enclaves 'I Model of Indirect rule did not make them popular in a region stretching from Senegal, through the with the British, and this factor may well explain Volta Basin, northern Togo and Benin, Adamawa­ in part the origin of the Ningi reputation as Cameroon, and the Wadai region, to Kordofan in the 'troublesome people' in the lore of Hausaland to­ Sudan. da~. But when it iS,understood that the Ningi Oral tradition further holds that the Chamawa Chlefdom was form~d 1n the pre-colonial era through and Basawa (Kudawa) found the Butawa and Warjawa, resistance to emplre then one can better under­ and the Sirawa in the Ningi area upon their arrival stand why the Ningi continued to resist the in the pre-1800's.