Bayajidda

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The Bayajidda legend is the great original legend of the house states of northern Nigeria. It has a supra-ethnic historical significance, since it includes the establishment of states that extend beyond the Hausa language border.

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According to the legend handed down in Daura , the traditional capital of the Hausa, the city was founded by Queen Magajiya and her people, who immigrated from Palestine via North Africa . Later, Bayajidda, who came from Baghdad, came to Daura via Bornu , killed the snake in the well and married the queen. In order to postpone the completion of the marriage, she gave the hero the slave Bagwariya as a concubine. He fathered Bagwariya Karbagari , the progenitor of the "seven Banza " states and later with Magajiya Bawo, the progenitor of the "seven Hausa " states. The latter also includes Biram (Garun ta-Gabbas), a son of the hero from a previous marriage with a princess from Bornu, the Magira .

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The determination of the historical sticking point of the legend causes difficulties, since a direct parallelization with historical circumstances is impossible. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the legend does not move in a vacuum, but is anchored in the state offices of Daura. During the large, now Muslim festival processions, the king embodies the snake killer Bayajidda and the "official" queen mother Magajiya embodies the legendary Queen of Daura of the same name. According to legend, the high officials Galadima and Kaura also play comparable roles in the festive cult drama . This shows that the origin of the state and the origin of the legend belong together.

interpretation

According to Dierk Lange, the Bayajidda legend is parallel to the Abraham - Sara - Hagar story in the Old Testament . Just as the biblical narrative explains the origin of the twelve tribes of Israel with the descendants of Saras and the origin of the Arab tribes with the descendants of Hagar, the Bayajidda legend explains the origin of the Hausa states with the descent from Magajiya and the origin of those south of it located Banza states with ancestry of Bagwariya. Connections with the Bori spirits of the same name also suggest an identification of Magajiya with Sara and Bagwariya with Hagar. Taking into account the Canaan reference of Magajiya, the legendary Queen of Daura, both can be traced back to state-building activities by immigrants after the collapse of the Assyrian Empire . The Bayajidda legend is rightly regarded as the founding charter of the house states. Lange's theses, however, represent an outsider position in the professional world with regard to their reference to the Old Testament, the Israelites and Assyria.

literature

  • SJ Hogben, Anthony Kirk-Greene: The Emirates of Northern Nigeria. London 1966, pp. 145-155.
  • Dierk Lange: Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa. Dettelbach 2004, pp. 215–305 ( online ) ( PDF of the attachment “Oral version of the Bayajidda legend”; 738 kB ).
  • Dierk Lange: The Bayajidda legend and Hausa history. In: E. Bruder, T. Parfitt (ed.): Studies in Black Judaism. Cambridge 2012, pp. 138–174 ( PDF; 748 kB ).
  • Herbert R. Palmer: Sudanese Memoirs. Vol. 3, Lagos 1928, pp. 132-146 (Bayajidda legend).
  • Guy Nicolas: Dynamique sociale et appréhension du monde au sein d'une société hausa. Paris 1975.