The Jukun People
Who are the Jukun People Of Kwararafa? Numerous ethnic groups call the Nigerian Middle Belt their home, although the Nupe, Baruba, Idoma, Tiv, Ebira, Igala, Chamba, and Jukun are among the most well-known of these communities. The most mysterious of these factions is the Jukun, who are said to have been involved in the founding of the mighty but fleeting state of Kwararafa.
Because of its reign of terror over the Hausa states and Borno region during the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, Kwararafa attained a prominent place in the annals of Nigerian history. However, the association of the Jukun with the Kwararafa has been called into question. This is mostly due to the fact that the term “kwararafa” signifies nothing to modern-day Jukun, who have almost no memory of their apparently violent history.
The preponderance of evidence suggests that the Islamic peoples of the Central Sudan used the name kwararafa as a generic phrase to refer to the non-Muslim peoples from the south. Kwararafa ancestry is claimed by more than a dozen different ethnic groups in modern-day Nigeria, which are dispersed across a large region in the country’s north and center. It’s possible that this indicates that Kwararafa was a confederacy.
The Hausa-speaking Kutumbawa-Abakwariga, along with the Arago, Kalam, Gwana, Pindiga, Kona, Kundi, and Jukun, were the most important members of this group. The location of the capital, much like the membership of the confederacy, appears to have oscillated with the vicissitudes of the confederacy and the location of the particular group or groups that were dominant in it. This was the case even though the site of the capital never changed.
The Confederacy was an organization that was formed for particular reasons, such as defense and trade; however, it did not have a clearly defined frontier or a permanent geographical location; it did not establish enduring hegemony over the peoples that it conquered; and it ceased to exist once those particular goals had been accomplished. They did not leave any histories or chronicles behind them.
Because of this, the majority of what we know about them now comes from the documents kept by their adversaries. The reconstruction presented here is based on the innovative use of other sources, such as the chronicles of successor states and peoples, as well as the historical analysis of spirit masquerades and shrines, as well as political and biological totems. This was done in order to create a more accurate picture of what happened. Studies conducted by J. B. Webster (1976, 1993) and others have shown that the history of the Kwararafan people may be broken down into four distinct phases.
The first one started in the year 1000 when it was established at Santolo, which is located on the southern bank of the Hadeija River and lies east of Lake Chad. By the year 1380, the capital of the confederacy had relocated to Tagara, which is located to the north of the junction of the Gongola and Hawal rivers. Kwararafa, which was governed by the Kutumbawa dynasty, was in direct opposition and competition with the Hausa Habe states, most notably Kano, for the management of Saharan trade.
Conflicts between commercial interests and religious tenets erupted almost immediately as tensions rose. In these early clashes, it seemed as though the Haberland states had the upper hand. Korau, the monarch of Katsina at the time, is said to have conducted war against the Kwararafa in the year 1260, according to a Katsina account. A century later, it was the turn of Kano, whose kings Yaji (1349–1385) and Kanajegi (1390–1410) successfully coerced the Kwararafa to submit to a yearly tributary tribute that comprised, among other things, 200 slaves. This payment was required of them in order to avoid incurring Kano’s wrath.
In addition, because Queen Amina of Zaria beat the Kwararafa in battle, they were forced to pay tribute to Zaria for the majority of the fifteenth century. This initial chapter of Kwararafan history came to a dramatic and abrupt end when their disastrous loss at the hands of Bornu occurred between around 1462 and 1495. After that, the government relocated the capital to Biepi, which is located on the southeastern side of the Benue River.
In the meantime, refugees escaping from the forces of Islam in the northern nations entered the Kwararafa region, transforming the confederacy into a bulwark of traditionalist beliefs and practices. This second phase, which came to an end with the succession of King Kenjo in approximately 1610, was a prosperous one due to the nation’s active participation in the commerce of both the Sahara and the Atlantic.
They were able to get access to European goods on the coast thanks to their control of the salt supply in the Benue Valley. In exchange for horses to bolster their military and slaves to gain access to European goods on the coast, they sold the crucial but limited commodity of salt. Kwararafa became synonymous with the port city of Calabar, which is located on the Atlantic coast. The formation of a robust cavalry army was made possible by an increase in wealth as well as an increase in the population.
This would, over the course of the next two centuries (sometime between 1610 and 1790), enable the Kwararafa to not only preserve its independence but also inflict a series of spectacular defeats on the Hausa and Kanuri states as well as competitors to the north. Zaria was the first city to have its status changed to that of a tributary. Between the years 1582 and 1703, Kano was subject to a number of assaults, during which its military stood by helplessly as a fresh and revitalized Kwararafan army wreaked havoc in the center of the Hausa homeland.
Even though it is located further to the north, Katsina was nonetheless a victim of the Kwararafan’s atrocities. Kwararafa was at the height of its strength by the year 1680, when it once again swept across the Hausa region and its army reached the gate of Ngazargamu, the capital of the Borno empire, which it sacked and put the monarch to death. During this time, Kwararafa was at the height of its dominance. However, the Borno quickly regrouped, and the Kwararafan were defeated as a result.
The latter part of this age of conquest was also the time when Kwararafan history and Jukun history first started to become more intertwined with one another. Kwararafa, which was now located in the Benue Valley, began to be invaded by waves of Jukun people shortly after the valley’s settlement, and the Jukun quickly rose to become the most powerful ethnic group in the area. Kwararafa’s decline can be attributed to a combination of factors, including internal strife and ongoing attacks from the outside, as well as natural calamities such as drought.
It is generally accepted that Adi Matswen was the final king of the Kwararafa, and the Chamba were able to drive him out of his capital city of Uka. He made his escape upstream on the Benue River and established a new capital at Wuse. By the year 1820, a Jukun dynasty that had its stronghold in Wukari, which is located south of the Benue River, had gained control of the remnants of the Kwararafa state.
Following the completion of this shift, the militaristic state of Kwararafa was no longer in existence. The military customs of Kwararafa were not passed down to the Jukun, but they did inherit the political power of Kwararafa. The once-distant confederacy had reorganized itself into the unified kingdom of Wukari, which was ruled by the Jukun. Kwararafa, under the rule of the Jukun, ceased to be a warrior state; extant accounts portray the new state as a pacifist and religious one.
The new state was made up of a collection of peace-loving people who were solely and strictly devoted to the maintenance of their innumerable religious cults and the veneration of their sacred kings. These were people whose prestige and continuing legitimacy depended on their successful performance of their main ritual function.
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