Kano: The enchanting story of a 10 kobo durbar

A few years ago it was a common sight in Giginyu town to see young boys and girls in the early hours of 1st October heading towards the racecourse ground which is situated not far away from the town, to witness the 1st October parades. For the youths of  the area, it used to be […]

A few years ago it was a common sight in Giginyu town to see young boys and girls in the early hours of 1st October heading towards the racecourse ground which is situated not far away from the town, to witness the 1st October parades. For the youths of  the area, it used to be a period  which everyone looked out for  every year to be entertained by both the military and paramilitary personnel.
As the years rolled by, the entire activities were relocated from that area to the state’s township stadium.The  relocation was  not welcomed by the youths as the distance increased beyond their reach.
Initially, the 1st October celebration was for all the youths in the area and with the relocation of same , it became an occasion for the school children alone. For the youths in Giginyu town every 1st October is a period of mixed feelings of  happiness and sadness. They were happy that their mother land has added a year, and sad that they were not part of the participating celebrants.
For long they endured this situation, and for years they have been searching for ways to mark one of the most important days  in Nigeria as a nation.
Youths in Giginyu town have over the years established a unique form of celebrating special events, especially the Sallah festival. It was reliably gathered that the Sallah festival celebration has always been a special moment for the people of Giginyu town in Nassarawa local government area.
However, a corn stalk Durbar which is a caricature of the real Hawan Nassarawa durbar was initiated by the youths to replace the real durbar, as a result of the insecurity situation which led  to the cancellation of  the Sallah durbar,  a celebration  which  almost every individual in the area looks forward to. For people in the area, the Sallah festival celebration is incomparable with  any form of celebration especially the ‘Hawan Nassarawa Durbar. During this event  the Emir of Kano pays  homage to the state governor, and also goes through the GRA which incidentally flanks Giginyu town.
During such periods  young and the old, male and female gather  along the road side to pay  homage to their Emir, as they believe who ever  sets  eyes on the Emir during such festivity lives longer. It was reliably gathered that such has been the trend for ages, until when the challenge of insecurity emerged  and such durbars were cancelled.

It will also interest many to note that though the people of Giginyu became so obsessed with the durbar procedures that even a 7 year old child knows the rudiments of Hawan Nassarawa, therefore its cancellation  has put them in a quandary, as they have no other thing to hold on to that can replace the old historic event.
It was in 2012 that a young man named Mubarak Idris Giginyu and some few youths in the area, initiated a caricature of Hawan Nassarawa Durbar, to serve as a replacement of the cancelled durbar that year. Though it was durbar characterized by corn stalks decorated to serve as horses,what initially started as a mere caricature of the festival turned out to receive  accolades  just like the original durbar in the town.
Similarly, this year’s Sallah durbar during the Eid-al-Adhah didn’t hold, as the  Emir of Kano was on the holy pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
According to the initiator who also poses as the emir during the corn stalk durbar, the idea came to him at a time when the people of the area were missing the real durbar. He added that  the main aim was to alleviate their pain  at its cancellation, and also to provide  joy  for fun seekers, to promote peace as well as entertain the community.
“When I and some of my friends were nursing the idea of initiating something similar to the durbar, we never knew it will become a yearly thing, and also well accepted like this. Our intent then was just to provide an avenue to drive away boredom and idleness during the Sallah festivities. But we later came to realize that the whole thing has gone beyond that, and now for three years we have been holding this corn stalk durbar festival consecutively. The good thing here is that even the community leaders and security operatives have come to approve the gesture, as they have given us their blessings,” said Mubarak.

What really distinguishes the real durbar from this stalk durbar is the absence of a live horse. The royal regalia, the royal songs and the colourful arrangement of participants reflects a genuine  scenario of a real durbar. However, 95% of the participants are the youths, and also many of them were seen dressed in other attires of the various ethnic groups in Nigeria, to portray unity and prosperity.
It was also gathered that initially, the stalk durbar was not formally organized, but as the years rolled by organizing the festival became a task under a constituted committee headed by the initiators. However, selected individuals from different streets in the area who were also members of the organizing committee were given the title of district heads of their streets, and they  represent their respective streets during the durbar.
However, during this year’s Independence Day celebration the youths of Giginyu town decided to use the stalk durbar to celebrate the day. The organizers suspended the usual Sallah stalk durbar just to be able to hold the durbar for 1st October celebration. The durbar was systematically organised to portray peace and also to replace the lost Independence Day parade.
“Some of us didn’t have the privilege of witnessing the independence parade, but we have heard stories of those blessed days when our townspeople went  out to witness one of Nigeria’s important days. We have heard how our elders lament how they have been missing those days, and that is why this year we suspended the Sallah corn stalk durbar to hold this durbar for our nation. We hope that like the initiated Sallah corn stalk durbar, the independence day durbar will also be retained as a yearly activity,” said one of the organizers. It was a durbar that show cased the emir, the district heads, the governor and government officials  all in caricature. It was all make believe  and it was also a very colourful activity that witnessed hundreds of people in attendance.
Many spoken to, bared their minds that the durbar has really made the 1st October celebration a memorable one. Will the 1st October corn stalk durbar hold next year? Only time can tell.