Who are the ‘Koro’ of Kaduna State?

From the year 2009, my research focus has turned to the piercing problem of proper identity chiefly as it relates to the minority groups who make up the Non-Hausa and Fulani peoples of Kaduna state and by extension the middle belt of Nigeria. The research is significant as this an era of self-awareness.

Back to the query ‘who are the Koro…’, Ochonu (2014) in ‘colonialism by proxy in the north of Nigeria’ accounts that the Non-Muslims ethnicities of existing Kaduna state from the 1808s came across a socio-political conflict which was to change the past of the area utterly under the influence of Zazzau as a result of the defeat of the Habe dynasty by Dan Fodio (pp. 51-52). 

As a student of language and identity, my take is one of these conflicts is founded in the act of naming. In this respect, Temple, C. L. (1922) cited by Wente- Lukas (1985:232) explicates that the term KORO was utilized to refer to diverse people groups in the north of Nigeria by foreigners (the Hausa were the alien group at that time). Hence, the groups that are known nowadays as the KORO essentially have little or nothing in common in terms of linguistic links or even evoked ancestry but over time the term KORO gained popularity as an identity. 

To trace the meaning and reason for this term, a study into Hausa chronicle of that time is required, however, the utmost probability is the name could be disparaging. One of the mix-ups about the ‘KORO groups’ is captured in the work of Wilson-Haffenden (1930) when he calls one ‘KORO ZANE (clothed Koro)’ while the other ‘KORO FUNTU (naked Koro)’ (p.78). In view of this distortion, archives suggest there are KORO in Nassarawa, Niger, FCT, and Kaduna states. However, the group near Lafia have since rejected the term and identify themselves as the Migili. 

For the records, the two groups who make up the ‘KORO’ of Kaduna state are the Tinor [Begbere or aZa] which form the linguistic cluster identified as Waci (Blench, 2009) while the other, Ashe [Itong and Icek dialects] with a language which closely relates to Hyam of the Ham as linguistic data reveals (Blench, 2010).

The import of this article, therefore, is that next time anyone gives you a name, make an effort to inquire about its implication. It could even be meaningless or a misrepresentation of your genuine identity! “To find yourself, think for yourself” is what Socrates says.

Reference

Blench, R. 2009. The Tinɔr [= Koro Waci] language of Central Nigeria and its

affinities. Unpublished

Blench, R. The Ashe language, Itɔ̃ɔ̃ dialect, in Central Nigeria. Unpublished

Ochonu, M. E. (2014). Colonialism by Proxy: Hausa imperial agents and Middle Belt

consciousness in Nigeria. Indiana University Press.

Temple, M. (1922). CL, Notes on the Tribes of Northern Nigeria. Cape Town.

Wente-Lukas, R. (1985). Handbook of ethnic groups in Nigeria. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner

Verlag

Wilson-Haffenden, J. R. (1930). The Red Men of Nigeria: An Account of a Lengthy

Stay among the Fulani, or “Red Men,” and Other Pagan Tribes of Central Nigeria, with a Description of Their Headhunting, Pastoral and Other Customs, Habits, and Religion.

How the MIDDLE BELT Stuggle Begun

The area of Nigeria often referred to as the Middle Belt has repeatedly been viewed merely from a geographic sense. However, what needs to be understood is the area is as an ethnic and linguistically diverse region within the landscape call northern Nigeria (Meek, 1931, James, 1998). The people groups found in the zone regarded today as the Middle Belt, before the coming of Christianity in the early 1900s, were predominantly non-Muslims and then people with various but related forms of cultures, socio-political organizations, and beliefs. This perhaps explains to a large degree why most initial literature about Nigeria often referred to the societies in the area as “pagan peoples/districts of northern Nigeria” (Gunn, 1956, Sharwood-Smith, 1969:102, etc.).    

The fact that Christian missionaries activities flourished mainly amongst these groups seen as pagans (Ochonu, 2014) of the then northern Nigeria after Lord Lugard’s proclamation of Nigeria in 1900 suggests that the Middle Belt Movement ought not to be regarded essentially as a political movement. As Barnes (2007) argues, the Middle Belt struggle could also be understood as the quest for assertion for an esteemed Christian identity by Non-Muslim northerners no longer wish to be seen as pagans, who should be subservient to the emirate system, but as groups of people who are not simply united culturally but through a shared Christian faith and values of equity and brotherhood to all mankind. 

To substantiate the above, history books have it that the genesis of the Middle Belt movement goes back to the formation of the then Birom Progressive Union (BPU) in 1945 under the leadership of one Patrick Dokotri, a former Catholic seminarian. One historian of that time, Robert Sklar, reports that the original objective of the BPU was to agitate before the colonial government for improvements of the political and economic situation of the Birom people. 

However, the need for the struggle of a Middle Belt area, separate from northern Nigeria, as a result, emerged later in 1949 after a motion was presented before the northern House of Assembly to disallow Christian missionary work in the entire north. It was at this point, we understand, that Dokotri decided to appeal to a number of other Christian leaders in the north to form what was initially called the Northern Non-Muslim League (NNML), which later took the name the Middle Zone League, United Middle Belt Congress, and at this time as the Middle Belt Forum. 

 

Linked to this is the role of the about 60 diverse people groups of current Kaduna state in the middle belt struggle from its inception. The people of the then Zaria and part of Nassarawa Provinces, as they were called, having felt exploited and subjugated by the Hausa sarauta system joyfully joined the NNML and on the 10th January 1955 the United Middle Belt Congress, six years later now a political crusade, was inaugurated at Kafanchan and two years later a conference of UMBC held on 26th August 1957 at Kafanchan as well. 

In order assert their uniqueness of history, different from the Hausa, and in a demonstration of common languages and cultures, we read the people of the area, a geography I often describe as 'non– Hausa/Fulani peoples of Kaduna State', were at that time 1950s known by a group named 'The Nerzit Union'. The emblem and crest were a sketch of a hunter with bow and arrow illustrating the traditional occupation of the people - hunting of wild animals – and it was the platform of Nerzit Union that they contested for elections in 1959.

It is instructive to note at this point that there were hardly any kingdoms or empires in the locality of the middle belt (Illiffe, 2005:100) until the 1400s thus there were few or no expansionist wars for territory as we have often been made to believe. What I have found is the so-called 'inter - tribal wars' described in most Eurocentric anthropological accounts came as a result of Fulani - Hausa slave raids of the area which came in full force after the fall of the Habe dynasty in the early 1800s (Smith, 1960:76, Mason, 1959).

Why did I write this? There is an increasing sense of awareness amongst the minority people groups, the world over, and this is applicable to the are in focus. The need to understand history in its proper context is significant if any meaning progress is to be made at all. Similarly, this piece registers that the Middle Belt agitation did not begin in our time. It is an age-long struggle which is worth sustaining for the real emancipation of minority groups of northern Nigeria. History is one essential wealth required to free oneself from any form of oppression, therefore, make reading habit a culture. 

References

Barnes, A. E. 2007. The middle belt movement and the formation of Christian

consciousness in colonial Northern Nigeria. Church History, 76(3), 591-610.

Gunn, H. D. 1956. Pagan peoples of the central area of northern Nigeria: The Butawa,

Warjawa..., etc. International African Institute.

Iliffe, J. 2005. Honour in African History (Vol. 107). Cambridge University Press.

Ochonu, M. E. 2014. Colonialism by proxy: Hausa imperial agents and middle belt

consciousness in Nigeria. Indiana University Press.

Mason, M. 1969. Population density and ‘slave raiding’- The case of the middle belt of

Nigeria. The Journal of African History, 10(04), 551-564.

Sklar, R. L. 2015. Nigerian political parties: Power in an emergent African nation. Princeton     

          University Press.

Smith, M. G. 1960. Government in Zazzau, 1800-1950 :( A Study of Government in the Hausa 

         Chiefdom of Zaria in Northern Nigeria from 1800 to 1950). International African

         Institute.