Sunday 16 June 2013

A New Nok Culture?


While we've been going about our daily businesses, worrying our pretty heads about what to wear and how to party, little did we know that somewhere within this very country lies a community, hidden within the mountains, oblivious of the world around them.

Welcome to the land of the  Jibu people, found within the Gerinjina mountains of Taraba State. here you'll find a group of people who's living conditions are far worse than that of the Koma of Adamawa State earlier discovered in the 80s.





  The Jibu people are descendants of the Kwarafa Kingdom who lived for centuries in nine communities scattered around  the mountains of Gashaka.

Historical accounts have it that they lived within close vicinity to others until Fulani Jihadists invaded their kingdom in 1807 and they had to  run to the mountain top where they now live and are completely cut off from other tribes, and by extension the whole world. Not even the activities of the colonial masters reached them, largely because of the difficult terrain of their new abode. The mountain top is characterised by rivers, deep gullies and huge rocks. 





 Like any group, the Jibu people have a distinct culture which includes collective circumcision of boys born within the same age group, boys are not allowed cry during the ceremony as a show of strength and character . 

Just like we read in the bible, for a young Jibu man to get a wife, he must serve the bride's family for five years, but marriage is determined by the capacity of the woman to conceive. This is measured by a dried long firewood that is set on fire for at least three months, within which if the woman does not become pregnant, the simple communication is that the gods do not support the marriage.

Pregnant women work on the farms to the day of their delivery.

They have a communal life and are ruled by the Waziri Garinjina, Tann Shidin Zunbi, who confirmed in an interview with the Nigerian Compass on Saturday that maternal and child mortality rates are high among them.

The Jibu people are neither Christians nor Muslims. Rather, they believe in their own gods and ancestors.








9 comments:

  1. I guess there's interaction between them and the outside world...one of them is wearing a slippers

    Skuri

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  2. Lol @ Skuri. My dear, don't you think the photographer may have given that one the slippers?? 😉😉. (Now don't ask me who the photographer is)

    I could have sworn that we are all fully clothed in this part of the world with all our effizzy and swag!
    Na wa oh

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy ima Farah16 June, 2013 16:25

    Lolz,very much like the gods must be crazy history film, I watched a doc about similar tribe in cameroon,they interact with the outside world cos people go there to doc their existance but the tribe has never seen civilization but have heard of it, yea you're right they farm until delivery day And without any form of medical Aid, I find it very fascinating and would love to have a documented video of their daily life.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Replies
    1. I'd to accompany you on that trip!

      Delete
  5. Apple you didn't get enough pics to show what you wrote. Was it hard to get a camera man in dat terrain also. I know some guys that will do that without fees!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol! Now Im wondering what you want more pics for? Hmmmm what do you want to see??

      Delete

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