In Kambari land, eloping with another man’s wife is bravery

Kambari land is perhaps the   only place in the 21st century where marital freedom still permits eloping with one’s wife by another man. For the Kambari’s, elopement is not only a sustained prominent feature of its culture, but also, it is  not an offence and rather  celebrated by the benefitting family with gunshots .Weekly Trust […]

Kambari land is perhaps the   only place in the 21st century where marital freedom still permits eloping with one’s wife by another man. For the Kambari’s, elopement is not only a sustained prominent feature of its culture, but also, it is  not an offence and rather  celebrated by the benefitting family with gunshots .
Weekly Trust gathered that the gun salute for the eloper is meant to hail and celebrate the act considered by other members of the family, as sheer bravery, laced in dexterity. They also perceive him as their hero.
Findings by Weekly Trust further attest that no law in Kambari land prohibits elopement to another person’s legally married wife or prescribes any punishment. Also, even when a scuffle ensues in the process and one is killed by the husband of the wife he is attempting to snatch;   it does not attract any arrest, not even by the police.
In addition,  the man  who  engineers the elopement, before the actual owner finally takes  ownership of  the  woman, he too, risks being attacked by the husband of the ‘runaway’ wife. Therefore, it is a vicious circle of battle, until the eloped wife finally arrives her new man’s family house and welcomed with a gunshot salute.
These revelations were disclosed by the Secretary- General, All Kambari Progressive Association (AKAPA), Bala Tajir,   during the Kambari annual cultural festival. It is the third in series, which held in Salka village of Magama Local Government Area  of Niger State.
He added that the Kambari day was organized with a view to foster unity amongst people of the ethnic group.
He said, “Eloping in Kambari is not an offence,  but only  seen  as  one’s ability to woe  another person’s wife. Once the wife agrees to follow you to your house,  she has automatically become your wife.”
Tajir further opined that with the coming of religion, the culture of eloping has been criminalized in Kambari land. He said, there is only a village where such practice is still alive and with the intervention of traditional rulers in the area such cases are always resolved amicably, as against the approach of violence by the man whose wife is snatched.
He said, “Only the Woche amongst the Kambaris still practice the culture of eloping with another person’s wife. But now, the traditional rulers are always at hand to resolve such cases amicably.”
Also speaking at the occasion, the district head of Salka, Alhaji Hamma Dogo Bawa Salka said,  Kambari  people  decided to organize the annual festival  to revive the past, its  eroded unity and culture of the Kambari ethnic group.
He added that though Kambari speaking people are dispersedly located within the northern region,  with majority of them located in Niger State, but their kith and kin are also  in Kebbi and Nasarawa states. He  said,  even in Niger state where minority of them are located, they  are not found in a single location, but scattered in Magama, Rijau, Agwara and Mariga  LGAs.
Weekly Trust gathered that the maiden annual festival of Kambari begun in Salka village three years ago. Only the locals from the villages  participated,  but as the annual celebration continued , a lot of prominent sons and daughters of the ethnic group saw the reason in expanding the festival to cover the other settlements of the Kambari ethnic group.
Salka hinted that the festival is so emphatic on the restoration of the cultural heritage of the Kambaris in terms of cultural dance, extension of a  hand  of friendship to a fellow Kambari man anywhere in the world. He added that it is also meant to  inculcate the love of their ancestral  land into the people,  with the view of bringing meaningful developments.
“We must wake up from our slumber by ensuring that we place Kambari land and its people at its right place. And for us to achieve that we must come together and form a common front. That is exactly what we are doing now through the revival of our culture”, the traditional ruler said.
Explaining further, the district head said the reality that  the Kambaris live in so many different environments, implies that their  cultural heritage also differs. He noted that the event is a deliberate step  to bring all Kambaris together,  through a platform that could also showcase all their  cultural norms and values for the benefit of the present and future  generations of Kambari people.
Salka further stated that owing to the influence of western education, the Kambaris jettisoned their ancestral land and cultural heritage and, instead, embraced the western culture. He said, the development has almost caused the extinction of  the cultural norms and values of the Kambaris,  assuring  that with the present sense of commitment,  in few years to come,  there would be  a lot of recorded success in the cultural restoration drive.
He said, “when the maiden festival was held three years back,  many of the Kambaris were aware as several calls were received from the Kambaris  living abroad.  We also received appreciation and commendation from those living  in Nigeria,   both  far and near and from those living outside the shores of this country. This  is very encouraging.”
In his remarks at the occasion, the chairman of AKAPA, Danladi Babangida Salka, said last Saturday’s annual festival was not only the third in the series, but the most organized since the festival started.
He also agreed with the district head that the festival was organized with the aim of promoting unity amongst their people, encourage them to acquire western education as well as to preserve the norms and values of the community.
“The aim of the gathering is to promote unity amongst our people, provide a conducive environment for peaceful co-existence with neighbours and friends. Encourage our people about the importance of education, skill acquisition for self reliance, preserve our  culture  and  norms and to protect the dialect from being further eroded,” he said.
The chairman opined that this year’s festival had attracted people from more than 100 villages from Niger and Kebbi with the aim of bringing together all of them for the common development of Kambari land.
According to him, “I would also like you to know that for the first time Kambari people from over 100 villages in Niger and Kebbi states came together to brainstorm on  the common goal of the Kambari ethnic group.”
The chairman also challenged the prominent kanga personalities to come  together under a common forum for the purpose of tackling the socio-economic problems of Kambari ethnic group with a view of proffering solutions.
He said, “I will like to call on our eminent and distinguished people to come together to form a committee that will  from time to time sit and discuss our problems and find remedies to them. We equally want full  support to actualize our national registration.”
Salka reminded his kinsmen that they should not only  learn to co-exist with other people,  but also learn to tolerate their religion, saying peace is the basis of all forms of developments.
“I should equally use this  forum  to call on everyone here and outside to know that peace is the basis for progress and development. We should learn to tolerate one another, we should not allow religious differences to be a source of disharmony in our communities,” he added.
In his address, Niger State state governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu who was represented by his commissioner  for  Education, Danladi Abdulhamid said that the state government has established 16 secondary schools across the state that would cater for girls that dropped out from school with a view of getting married.
The governor said the schools were primarily established to provide opportunity for married women  to acquire western education, saying that  plans were  also underway to establish more of such schools in the state with a view of catering for women in such groups.
He called  on married women from the ethnic group that dropped out from school for marriage  to take advantage of the government gesture to go back to school.
He added that the wisdom behind the married women secondary school is to encourage girl- child education and that the new policy of the married women secondary schools has increased on the overall school enrollment in the state. He  said apart from the establishment of the married women schools, by next year the state government has also planned to start supplying  female students with free uniforms.