An intimate view of Biu: A review of Bukar Usman’s ‘A History of Biu’

Genre:     Non-fiction, (history) Author:     Bukar Usman Publisher:     Klamidas Communications LTd, Abuja Pages:     693 Year of Publication:     2015 Reviewer:     Abubakar Adam Ibrahim History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man – Percy Bysshe Shelley The pun in the title is intended. From Bukar Usman’s expansive […]

Genre:     Non-fiction, (history)
Author:     Bukar Usman
Publisher:     Klamidas Communications LTd, Abuja
Pages:     693
Year of Publication:     2015
Reviewer:     Abubakar Adam Ibrahim

History is a cyclic poem written by Time upon the memories of man – Percy Bysshe Shelley

The pun in the title is intended. From Bukar Usman’s expansive book, ‘A History of Biu’, the first thing one learns is that Biu has suffered the corruption of colonial intrusion, when British colonial officers decided that the place in the North East of Nigeria, then known as Viu, sounds too much like the English word view and decided to change it to Biu. This name has stuck and not many people remember that it was called Viu for hundreds of years.
Not many people remember much anyway, which is why history and its proper documentation is an onerous but most important task, if not a desperately urgent one. Much has been made about the fact that history is no longer taught in secondary schools and as a discipline in the universities, it has become a sponge to absorb students who mostly can’t find admissions into other courses. Our history of keeping history and erecting mementoes of historical occurrences has been notoriously poor.
That is why Bukar Usman’s 693-page tome, ‘A History of Biu’ is all the more an accomplishment of significant proportions. Not only is the production quality of the work excellent, but the writing (Dr. Bukar Usman has a reputation for his prose demonstrated) and the depth of the research that went into it combine to make this work an impressive book, one that hopefully should revive the interest in documenting history.
The earliest recorded history of Biu, and the primary source materials, Bukar Usman drew from were accounts by colonial officers and researchers J.G Davies (The Biu Book, NORLA, zaria, 1956) and Roland Oliver and J.D Fage (A Short History of Africa) through their various books. These recorded histories went as far as 1850. But Dr. Usman, went beyond this in his extensive research for this book, as the appendix generously attests to, delving into a great deal of oral history, corroborated by several elders and artefacts and other historical materials the author managed to collect. There are many glossy pages of photos of artefacts, historical buildings and even everyday items found in Biu.
As with most histories, myths and legends are explored with regards to how Biu came into being. But since Biu is an emirate of many people and tribes who have settled within a particular geographical location, the author took time to recount the myths of origins of the various groups that call Biu home. Even if the different myths cannot be authenticated, (which is why they are called myths in the first place), they all suggest that the people who call Biu home today migrated from different places, some saying they came from as far a place as Yemen, others only as far as Chad. But the rise of Biu, as a united community with a common, even if loosely forged identity, is traced to one historical figure, a scorned Kanuri prince called Yamtarawala, who having lost out on the throne of the Mai of Maiduguri, migrated to Biu, where he settled and set up his own kingdom circa 1535.
“Biu area before Yamtarawala was not the domain of any central monarch. It was peopled by indigenous groups who generally spoke Bura language and lived in fairly independent communities,” the author records on 47.
No wonder then that the figure of Yamtarawala occupies a central place in the history of Biu and the people that have called it home since
As elaborated in chapter five, there are numerous tribes in Biu (Babur, Bura, Tera, Kanakuru, Chibok, Marghi, Pidimidi, Jara, Komberi and Fulani) the fact that they have managed to live together in relative peace is something commendable.
The author’s rendition of history is done in a fashion that rubbishes oft repeated claims that history is dull and boring. In the 14 chapters of this book, the author touches on not only historical details and the multiple narrations around them; rigourously sifting through for facts, he had chapters dedicated to ‘Values, Lifestyle and Sport’ and ‘Environment and Tourism’ for instance. The book is so laid out so that at the end, the reader is intimate with the details of the geography, history and culture of Biu.
And to divest from the heavy subject of history, chronology and dates, the author garnishes his work with anecdotal accounts of some interesting figures in the history of Biu. A fascinating one is that of Malam Gulani, (p425), a notorious, swashbuckling robber, who served as Biu’s own Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Yet this happened only as recently as the 1960s. What would make for an interesting reading is an even more detailed account of the life of this character.
Credit must be given to Bukar Usman for undertaking this onerous task of collecting the history of his people and compiling it into this book. For as the writer John Still noted: “The memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from.” Bukar Usman took hold of the last of these frail strands and harvested the memories they have of their history of Biu and preserved them for posterity. As at the time of publishing this book, some of the people interviewed in researching this book, have passed on.
For a distinguished son of Biu, such as Dr. Usman is, someone who has risen to the highest pinnacle of the civil service, having retired as a Permanent Secretary in the Presidency in 1999, dedicating his life in retirement to excavating memories and archives and recording them for the now and future generation, surely there is no greater service than this.