Zamfara: Epic of the pots (I)

The government would have none of that, and argues that breakdown in communications with the archaeologists, resulted in the loss. The Monuments’ Commission (NCMM) seeks to work with ABU  and  Zamfara State in tackling the matter. Meanwhile, there are  large pots in one ancient dye pit  at Gulubba, which a visitor quickly notices. But the […]

The government would have none of that, and argues that breakdown in communications with the archaeologists, resulted in the loss. The Monuments’ Commission (NCMM) seeks to work with ABU  and  Zamfara State in tackling the matter. Meanwhile, there are  large pots in one ancient dye pit  at Gulubba, which a visitor quickly notices. But the government says the District Head is keeping an eye on the items, and that in the interim nothing untoward will happen to the cherished relics. There are four other dye pits in the village which archaeologists  have not yet explored, and which are likely to yield giant pots too. This looks like Gulubba’s golden hour. Daily Trust investigates. 

Shocked villagers  
The villagers in Gulubba Marza, a farming community very close to the famous Kwatarkwashi rock near Gusau in Zamfara State, had just made a huge  find. Kwatarkwashi itself is a unique rock. It was once  the site for the famous ‘Daukar Maiki’, a festival in which Eagles were caught high on the  rock, by men animated by  charms, who would climb the rock  after the fashion of lizards, to the amazement of the gathered crowd beneath. The worship of Magiro, a pre-Islamic religious cult, used to take place there. Bala Usman refers to  Magiro in his thesis as  the “grandfather of all fetish in Hausa land.” Now something new was unfolding within the shadow of Kwatarkwashi. It was the farming season in 2011, and in the process of digging heaps for the planting of seeds, the villagers had come across a giant pot. Soon the locals had fully excavated the pot. In the past however, they had unearthed  smaller pots in the course of farming. These did not cause a stir. But nothing in the totality of their previous experience, rivaled or could eclipse the  present find. The old men and women present had never seen anything like it, and they shook their  heads in shock, raising their heads to stare  at the  tall pot which suddenly made all of them  look  like dwarfs. Children took a step backwards to have a better look at the giant find. They held each other and giggled, wondering what next their  favourite Uncle would dig out from his farm.
 The villagers quickly  informed the authorities about the large pot which is said to be the largest  of its type in Africa. Its size easily surpasses the pots found in Chad and Cameroon, which were once thought to be the largest pots ever found on the continent says M.K. Aliyu of the Department of Archaeology, Ahmadu Bello University,Zaria. He adds that the pots are 1.2 to 1.3 metres tall, and  are 1 metre in diametre. Both  statistics beat  the records set by the pots in both Chad and Cameroon. Aliyu Isa, who specializes in Ethno Archaeology, Museum Studies and Environmental Archaeology, is also with the Department of Archaeology of the Ahmadu Bello University. He is positive that the Zamfara pots are taller and wider than the pots from Chad and Cameroon. Sanusi Gusau, Director Monuments at the History Bureau, Gusau also agrees that these are easily the largest pots in Africa.  
Another pot
Every year Archaeology students of the Department of Archaeology, Ahmadu Bello University, are taken for a period of field work, which is an essential part of the course requirement. In keeping with this culture, last  year M.K Aliyu   led his students to Gulubba Marza  to carry out a fresh  rescue  excavation. The team had come across reports of a pot lying close to the spot where a previous pot had been found. They saw the rim of the pot,or at least what looked like the rim of the pot. After two days of steady work, they had uncovered a second pot, which was just as large as the  first  one.

M.K Aliyu  tells the story  in vivid detail “At the beginning we thought that they were just rims of dye pits, because they were large, and we couldn’t imagine a pot as large as that. We called in our students, surveyed the place and we started the excavation. Gradually, we began to see that what we thought were dye pits, were actually pots. At the end we discovered  that the pots were as large as 1.2 to 1.3 metres long, with a diametre  of more than 1 metre. We excavated one complete pot.”

He explains that earlier on his team  had received reports from the History Bureau Gusau that “they had initially  excavated  one pot,though the excavation was not scientifically done, through the use of labourers in the village. Somehow, they destroyed that particular pot. They asked the Zamfara State Government for permission to take the second pot back to the Ahmadu Bello University, where it would be studied some more, and examined in the Archaeology  laboratory there. According to the archaeologist the Zamfara State Government was not forthcoming in this regard, and actually said they would take the pot back to Gusau where it will be kept. They now had no option but to leave the pot at the site at Gulubba Marza, and return to Zaria empty handed.”
‘It was destroyed’
“The government  said that  it  would take the pot  to Gusau from Kwatarkwashi, where they would  now take care of it.” He adds that the authorities of the university were willing to provide transport to convey the pot from Gusau to Zaria, and says that the ABU Vice Chancellor had joyfully  given his consent  to this plan “But the Zamfara state government, through the History Bureau, denied us the permission to do that. They said it is the property of the Zamfara State government. That it’s true that we excavated it, but eventually it belongs to the state. They did not carry it to Gusau,and it was not left under the care of anyone.Eventually,it was destroyed. It is unfortunate that it was destroyed.” He says the team had to leave the site, albeit  reluctantly.  Gulubba appears to be rich in ancient pots, making  it an archaeologists delight.

On this he says “There are other pots within Gulubba that we could excavate, but we have told them that we cannot excavate something that we cannot bring down to Zaria, and that is why we cannot go back to continue the excavation of the other pots in the ground. We don’t want to put the  pots  in danger.It is better that we leave them underground. If you excavate them,they may be destroyed like the other two. If we had permission, we could even excavate the whole of them, and take  them back to our laboratory, whereby we will preserve them, and even make further studies.We will compare them  with other pots in Nigeria and Africa.” This event simply means  that Nigeria lost a lot in material terms.
Billions lost
Ahmed Abdullahi Tsafe, Curator of the Sokoto Museum, which also supervises Zamfara State, speaks on the loss of the pots. His words “We have lost so many things. Being the largest pots in Africa, they are things of pride, but the pride is no more there. We cannot show anybody the pots, and so the pride is not there. It got broken on account of our carelessness,and we have no maintenance culture too.” He argues that the destruction of the pots shows how careless Nigerians are in terms of our cultural heritage, saying “other people in other cultures would not allow the massive pot to be broken. Carelessness and negligence are part and parcel of us, that’s why we cannot maintain our heritage very well.”

He adds that  Nigeria has lost billions of Naira with the loss of the pots, stressing “The pots were very beautiful, and also very big. If Zamfara State was serious about the pots, it would have protected them, and prevented them from being broken. We have lost so much. A  pot as large as those ones would have brought crowds from within the country and outside to visit Zamfara to  see the largest pot in Africa. Note that a pot at Kano museum which is not as large as the Zamfara pots has already drawn great crowds from within and outside the country. What will happen if we had the massive pots to display. Thus we have lost billions, not to talk of the good image people always form of any country which hosts such special type of relics.”
Aliyu Isa also comments on the loss the nation has suffered.His words “These pots are very significant. First of all they are larger than the pots at Kano,and they are also larger than the Sao pots. In Africa they constitute a very significant find in relation to other parts of the world.” The destruction is a very unfortunate loss to history, and to archaeology. It is also a loss to humanity, because it would have been recorded as  a part of the human heritage. In economic terms we could have earned a lot by exhibiting it  for people to see and appreciate the ingenuity of the people of Zamfara. All  archaeological finds are showcased through tourism. The economic value we lost through the tourism and awareness potentials of the pot is very large.”
The story of the pots which once functioned as vital parts of a dyeing industry at the base of Kwatarkwashi rock, reads like an epic.