A History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (1) 

A History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (1) 

By: Balami Lazarus 

The Bura-Pabir question has been on the front burner among the Bura and Pabir people in recent times. I was privileged to have read some works, both soft and hard copies, where such issues were briefly raised and treated lightly with no rationality or objectivity, plugged in historical infidelity, dishonesty, and bankruptcy by some authors and writers. 

Unfortunately, this seems to be the preferred trajectory and ho-hum of these authors and writers, who relied more on hypothesis than empirical evidence, misleading some to believe that Bura and Pabir are the same in history, culture, and tradition. Thus, they have saturated the Bura and Pabir spaces with wrong information and sentiments that lack historical viscosity because of the absence of essential historical ingredients to lubricate them. 

And these authors and writers want some of us to believe in their works as historical caveats. Was there Pabir as a people, circa 1535 AD? Definitely No. Why join this distinct group of people together? The protagonists of this porous notion are deliberately out to destroy and erase the origin, history, culture, and tradition of the Bura ethnic nation. 

Therefore, their origin, history, and tradition are interwoven in their cultural source materials as part of their civilization. Never before now, there were no people known, called, and addressed as Pabir who are today wrongfully addressed as Babur by many who are not aware of their origin. Pabir is the name given to them by the Bura, who are the aborigines of the vast area known as the Biu Plateau (Viu original name and spelling) in northeast Nigeria. 

Take notice that the word pabir is a noun that is related to a living thing, such as a species of ant While Babur is nowhere to be found in the Bura language as a noun or verb, And for this reason, a Bura man has for long distanced himself from being called and addressed as a Pabir or Babur man. 

In history, I was taught that man is the source of history and its source materials are logged in economic and socio-political activities that formed his growth and development over a period of time. In this regard, you can never remove man from historical developments or otherwise. And when I read the work of one Dr. Bukar Usman, “A History of Biu” (22015), I have been trying to put it behind me, but my sense of history and discipline as a historian could not permit me to withstand the erroneousness and falsification I noticed in the said work in question, where Dr. Bukar was able to catalogue, classify, and index the exploits of Yamtra-WWala and those he met, fought, and conquered. 

Who are the people with whom he fought?  Therefore, I decided to put up this write-up as my contribution to this issue. I hope my teachers who taught me history will not be disappointed but rather be proud of some of the subjective knuckle punches I launched herein. However, I commend Dr. Usman in his attempt to bring Biu history to the fore, having limited the scope of his work to the emergence of the Biu Royal Dynasty, dwelling more on wars and conquests led by Prince Abdullah, Yamtra, and Ola (original Bura spelling) of the Kanem Empire from Birnin N’gazargamu, a Kenembu by tribe, with his band of 70 men who the Pabir traced their patrilineal origin to. 

How it was changed to Yamtra: Wala came probably at the same time with the change from Pabir to Babur. The author, Dr. Bukar Usman, attempted to historically re-engineer Bura history to de-historize it of its Buranization properties in a gerrymeandering scheme simply to de-Buranize the Bura people in the History of Biu of their ethnic qualities, who see themselves as homogeneous tribes in language, culture, and tradition as their source materials.

Take, for instance, the yearly Bura Cultural Festival known as Marama Day. Where is the Pabir culture then? And why are some people deceiving others into thinking that Bura and Pabir are the same? Note that the Bura man is not, will not, shall not, and never will he call or address himself as a Pabir or Babur man, as they are wrongly addressed. Bura and Pabir are parallel to each other in culture, tradition, and language. 

One is a dialect twisted in the concept of Babur. While the other is a tribe in a body of ethnic nation.  As a page filler, Dr. Usman said “Wild Animals Commonly Found in Biu Territory,” such as tigers, cheetahs, ostriches, giraffes, zebras, and others. The tigers mentioned by the author in his book are not natives of the African wild and can never be found in the Biu Plateau wild territory. 

Therefore, tigers have never lived freely in Africa except in captivity in zoos and parks. What we have are leopards (Tengvwa) in the Bura language. I will hereby, on a historical affidavit, put it to you, Dr. Bukar Usman, that you are wrong and have inflicted maximum fatal historical injury to the wild life history of Biu Plateau. 

Balami, a publisher and columnist.

A History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (1)