28/08/2025
A KINGDOM REMEMBERED BEYOND ITS BORDERS!
Today, as the Hausa people celebrate Hausa Day, they proudly showcase the Seven Hausa States alongside their Seven Neighbours. Among these neighbours stands the Kwararafa Kingdom, a reminder that the memory of this great power is not preserved only by the Jukun, but is woven into Hausa traditions themselves.
This is significant. It shows that the Kwararafa Kingdom was not a myth invented by its own descendants, but a historical reality acknowledged by others who once stood across its frontiers. Much like how the Romans were remembered not only in Roman records but also in the chronicles of their rivals, Kwararafa lives on in Hausa accounts as a formidable neighbour and ally.
Strikingly, this celebration comes at the very moment when an alternative narrative has been pushed forward by one Mr. Terhemba Ngorngor a creator of a Tiv . In his recent book, curiously written with the assistance of ChatGPT he attempts to erase Kwararafa’s existence, even claiming that it was the Tiv who “created” Kwararafa as a loose alliance of Middle Belt tribes to resist colonialists and jihadists.
Such a claim is not merely flawed; it is historically impossible. It projects a modern political agenda onto a past that long predates both colonial intrusion and the 19th-century jihad. To borrow the language of historians, it is anachronism dressed up as history.
The irony is clear: while serious traditions like those of the Hausa continue to affirm the presence of Kwararafa in their historical memory, others invent stories that betray a desperate bid for historical relevance. Kwararafa, however, requires no such invention. Its shadow is found in the stories of its neighbours, its echoes in oral traditions across the Middle Belt, and its legacy in the enduring pride of the Jukun people.
Credit: Jolly Agbu Masa-Ibi
