A History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (2) 

A History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura- Pabir Question (2) 

By:  Balami Lazarus 

This is the conclusion of my previous article on the above caption. I appreciated those who commented positively with respect to Part 1  on the one hand. While some tongue lashed at me, calling me an agent of disunity, forgetting that the piece is and for the purpose of Bura cultural identity, coupled with some historical corrections of Dr. Bukar Usman’s book “A History of Biu” (22015) that carried some false historical virus of Babur as cultural identity. The conveyors of such identity are merely bears in the market of cultural history of Biu people on the other hand. 

Therefore, the Bura-Pabir question is full of divides and indeed hooded in sentiments that have affected relationships intentionally seasoned by some selfish individuals nailed in the coffin of a fake Babur identity that has no origin or history. And this brings to the heavily tinted manipulation in order to disintegrate and displace the Bura people of their proud cultural identity, deliberately stirred in black mark to incapacitate them in a cultural identity crisis with the term Babur, a self-created identity that has become ingrained in the minds of many. 

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Recently, my attention was drawn to a book “Bura Language for Beginners” (2021) by Dr. Ahmed Dahiru Balami, where some people wanted to add Pabir to the title to read Bura-PPabir Language for Beginners, but the author refused and rejected the idea vehemently. This shows that Pabir has no cultural identity to stand independently on its own. Why must it lean on the Bura language? What is the position of Babur during and after Yamtara-WWala? 

One of the major challenges among many of the indigines of Biu town is basically the issue of cultural identity that many are faced with as either Pabir or Babur. And when and if you addressed them as Pabir or Babur, you put them on a crossroads. 

Similarly, the word Babur is the name of an ancient Oriental Emperor who once ruled India centuries ago. May be or may not, those who called and addressed themselves as Babur might have come from the bloodline of Emperor Babur through Yamtara-WWala. 

The Bura man is very conscious of his cultural identity through his first name, like Thalma, Anjikwi, or Hyelni. And more importantly, his clan name. Their clan names are living cultural histories that give them a high sense of belonging among themselves, which equally distinguishes them from other clans such as Zoaka, Mshelia, Bwala, Shalangwa, Dibal, Balami, Mhya, Mbaya, Ndahi, Mshellbwala, Mibwala, and Mshelizah, among many others. What are the Pabir or Babur cultural identity/clan names called? 

Therefore, for the reason of your book and for the clarity of cultural identity and understanding, I ask you, Dr. Bukar Usman, what and who are you? Do you have a clan name or ancestral root? 

Finally, I came to understand that some of the families in Biu that I had interacted with, who are claiming to be Pabir, are really not, but Bura, who are infested by the bug of Babur, are now surfing in an inferiority complex cloaked and lost in the mist of cultural identities like “Piano and Drums” (clash of cultures), one of the works of Gabriel Okara. 

This set of people is long conditioned to feel it is wrong, blemish, and clammish to be Bura but okay to be Babur. Probably Dr. Bukar Usman is one of such individuals.  And for the sake of historical and cultural identity, I hereby rest my pen. 

Balami, a publisher and columnist.

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A History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (2)