#MANYROOTSONEPEOPLE HAUSA TRIBE

Hi everyone, I trust you are doing great.

Today I shall be introducing you to the Hausa tribe. I have always admired the Hausa language, personally I think it's the sexiest language in the country. The Hausa language is actually the most widely spoken in Africa with over 41 million people speaking it as a first language. Although the Hausas have an overwhelming influence on Northern Nigeria, they are predominantly from the North-West.

Map of Hausa

The Hausa people can trace their origins from around the 7th century to Daura and their ancestry to Bayajidda. There were originally 7 Hausa states Daura, Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Gobir, Rano and Biram. The states drew on each others strengths particularly with regards their skill sets and natural resources. Kano and Rano were the cloth and leather makers, Katsina and Daura were the Chiefs of the Market, Zaria which supplied labor was the Chief of Slaves, and Gobir was the Chief of War which protected the empire.

Daura Palace

The Hausa architecture was one of the most beautiful of the 12th century, it comprised bright and colorful buildings with intricate engraving or elaborate symbols designed into the facade.

Sultan of Sokoto

The Hausa's are predominantly Muslims by religion and regard the Sultan of Sokoto as their spiritual leader. The Hausa aristocracy have historically been an equestrian based culture, and this culture still remains till date. The Hausa Monarchs are known as Emirs.

Emir of Kano

Hausa Baban Riga

The Hausa people have a restricted dress code related to their religious belief. The men wear an elaborate long flowing dress known as the Baban rigga and a long flowing robe called the Jalamia, The men also wear colorful embroided caps known as Hula, and sometimes tuareg styled turbans to veil the face. 

Hausa Zani

The women wear wrappers called Zani, made with colorful atampa cloth and a matching blouse, head-tie and shawl. The Hausas were known historically for their indigo blue dressings and emblems as well as Arabian horses or Saharan camels.














In modern days it  is very difficult to separate the Hausas from the Fulanis, but we shall be discussing this in my subsequent post.

#MANYROOTSONEPEOPLE - IGBO TRIBE

Igbo War Dance

The Igbo ethnic tribe can be found in predominantly in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria, they are dominant in Abia, Imo, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states, they also occupy some parts of Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Edo, Benue and Kogi States. The River Niger is a key feature in the Igbo Land.

The Igbo's have been around since as early as 4500 BC, with the Igbo Kingdom of Nri gaining prominence in the 10th century. The Igbo tribe is surrounded by the Ijaw, Edo, Isoko, Ogoni, Igala, Tiv, Yako, Idoma and Ibibio ethnic tribes.

The Igbo language is the primary language spoken by the Igbos and has over 20 dialects. There are approximately 32 million Igbo people around the world about 18% of Nigeria's population. 

The Igbo's from time have been very industrious people with ancient trade routes spreading as far as Mecca, Medina and Jeddah. This industrious nature still exists among the Igbo people.

Obi of Onitsha

The Igbos live in villages and communities that sometimes span into thousands in population, with the exception of a few kingdoms like Onitsha which had an Obi and Nri presided over by a Priest King; the Ibos generally practiced a democratic republican system of government in which every citizen had equal rights. These communities were presided over by a council of elders. 

Yam is a very important crop to the Igbos and to this extent they celebrate The New Yam festival as a mark of harvest.

New Yam Festival

Igbo Bride

The Igbos have a unique dress sense, Modern Igbo traditional attire is generally made up, for men, of the Isiagu top. Isiagu is usually patterned with lions heads embroidered over the clothing, It can also be plain. It is worn with trousers and can be worn with either a traditional title holders hat (okpu agu or agwu), or with the traditional Igbo stripped men's hat. The women on the other hand had on a blouse or a wrapper with beads.

Igbo Men

#MANYROOTSONEPEOPLE - YORUBA TRIBE

Hi everyone, in line with our promise to share our journey with you we have decided to bring you the tribes as we discover them. The first tribe we are going to feature is the Yoruba tribe: 

The Yoruba ethnic tribe is the most populous tribe in Nigeria, making up 21% of the country's population. According to the CIA world fact book there are an estimated 40 million Yoruba people around the world. The Yoruba people can be found in the south west of Nigeria, they are dominant in Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi states among others.

Ooni of Ife

Alaafin of Oyo

There is recorded history of the Yorubas as far back as the 8th century. Ile-Ife in Osun State is the spiritual capital of the Yorubas, while Oyo in Oyo state is the political capital. The Ooni of Ife and the Alaafin of Oyo are the respective rulers. 

The major language spoken by the Yoruba people is Yoruba, the Yoruba language in itself has many dialects as can be found across the Yoruba land. The dialects include: Oyo, Igbomina, Okun, Ijebu, Iseyin, Owu, Ibolo, Awori, Yewa, Ekiti, Ijesa, Ilorin, Akoko, Ilaje, Ife, Egun.

Aso-Oke (Alaari)

Adire

The Yorubas are fashion savvy and have a variety of clothing, Aso-Oke which comes in Alaari, Sanyan and Etu; Ofi, Aran and Adire. The women are dressed mainly in Iro and Buba whilst the men can be seen in Agbada amongst several variations.

The Yorubas have a very rich culture with several festivals which include the Osun-Oshogbo festival, Ojude-Oba, Eyo festival to mention a few. 

Ojude Oba Festival

Osun Osogbo Festival

Fun Fact: The Yoruba constitute the highest twinning rate in the world with 4.4% of all live births or 90-100 twins in every 1000 births. Igbo-Ora in Oyo State has been nicknamed the Twin Capital of the world with almost every family lineage boasting of a set of twins.

Yoruba twins

Please kindly feel free to contribute to this post through your comments, thank you.

IT'S A MATTER OF TRUST

Good day everyone, it's been a while I last wrote. Been quite preoccupied.

So this morning I was thinking about our dear nation Nigeria, and some thoughts struck me as to why we still don't speak with one voice as a nation.

I observed that there is a serious dearth of trust in our nation, 

The People do not trust The Government,

The Government doesn't trust the People,

The people do not trust The People and even The Government doesn't trust The Government.

So then begs the question of "How do we move when we cannot trust the direction we are headed?", Can such a movement even be possible?

Any policy is immediately deemed suspicious and shut down or frustrated, and even when the steps have been taken; immediately there is a change we are driven back to the start line to begin our journey afresh. Thus we have been going back and forth, back and forth, plenty motion no movement.

  

I believe that as a matter of urgency, we all need to rediscover the much needed trust that is a prerequisite to growth, and one of the most effective ways of building that trust is via communication. As in the case of courtship, a man and woman build trust towards their lasting relationships via communication. In this same vein the Government needs to urgently begin to intensify its communication with the people. Look at it this way, in this relationship, the Government is the man, and the people the woman. It is the duty of the man (Government) to convince the woman (The people) to follow his path for life. If he fails he loses the woman. So also if the Government fails to convince the People, it would lose out. The woman also in most cases helps the man by guiding his communication process, which means even the People can guide the Government's actions.

(Note that this same principles apply to every thing you do in life be it business or private life).

Communication is mutual, if you are speaking French and I am speaking English we aren't communicating yet, we need to devise a mutual and common means to enable the other party understand for communication to occur, communication is complete when the other party issues a feedback.

My direct message to all, let us all put heads together to develop a means of proper and effective communication between the people and the government such that we can understand clearly what direction we are headed as a nation and we can rebuild the much needed trust lacking in our quest for a united Nigerian nation.

TOGETHER WE CAN...

Let's do this People...

COLLECTIVE WILLPOWER

So today, a fundamental life principle was reinforced within me;

The Power of a Collective Willpower...

My brother/friend went missing and through the collective willpower, efforts and prayers of fellow friends and family the odds were upturned as he was found speedily.

The Tower of Babel (Bable)

When men decided through a collective will to build the Tower of Babel, the only means God could use to stop them was by causing confusion among them (breaking their collective willpower), as interesting as that story was during Sunday school, it remains one of the most powerful success keys of life.

 

If a 3 cord strand is not easily broken, then how much more a 370 cord strand...

Our nation Nigeria is dying, and the only way to save it is to unite behind a collective will and purpose. If everyone of us were to dedicate just a 30% Willpower towards healing our nation we would definitely see changes in no time, and our efforts would become contagious.

We need to decide to take conscious efforts towards creating a Nigeria we would all be proud of.

You can start by taking this steps today (it may seem silly but trust me it works):

1. Close your eyes for a bit and try to visualize how you want Nigeria to be,

2. Summarize that which you just saw (pictured) in a sentence,
3. Write it out
4. Paste it on your social media pages with the hashtag #mydreamnigeria
5. Repeat Step 4 daily for the next 60 days (please this step is very important, don't miss a day)
6. Paste it on your mirror or wardrobe and confess that which you have written down daily for the next 60 days (it should just take a minute)

Do this diligently and you'll see inspiration and transformation hit the nation.

The Power of the Mind

The mind is the single most powerful tool available to Man, we have consciously or subconsciously been attracting negative thoughts on our nation, it is time to reverse this.

Please join us heal our nation by taking part in the exercise above #mydreamnigeria

JOINT VISION

I just heard this evening that a friend and a gentle soul has been missing since monday. He apparently just stepped out of his house in surulere without his phone and hasn't been seen since then. Sometime last week or perhaps over the weekend I saw pictures of a birthday girl and her sister on social media who were declared missing in abuja.

When would we end this madness?

When would we grow tired of this craziness?

You may think you aren't involved afterall you're making the small change with which you and your family are surviving, but then you would be mistaken because soon enough the poor would have nothing to eat but the rich, The desperate would overtake our streets and no one would be safe.

Please everyone sheath your swords let us find a common ground for the sake of our nation. There is no place like home, ask those in the diaspora, they are comfortable yet they miss home.

All this selfishness would lead us to nowhere, let us have a collective vision for our nation. The growing insecurity is a failure of government, not a failure of PMB or of GEJ, but our collective failure as a people, afterall the government has always come from within us.

When would we let the scales drop off our eyes that we may see beyond all the pettiness being thrown at us. The time to wake up is NOW!!! because we are gradually approaching that point of no return. We have one last chance to salvage the situation. STOP complaining and start doing, STOP criticizing and start proffering solutions, STOP watching and start acting, STOP keeping quiet and start speaking. This is the last chance.

As for the youth, nobody would give you leadership positions, you need to take it. Not violently but through the right means. WE have the numbers, WE have the vigor the only thing stopping us is US. sheath your swords, forget PMB, forget GEJ, forget APC, forget PDP. LEt us come together as Nigerians and forge our future Together. Get ANGRY and let us secure our future, they would soon die and we would be the ones left. And there may be no future if we do not act now.