Fulani not the only migrants into Nigeria

By Umar Ardo, PhD

I am a Fulani man, and also a historian. So when I hear some latter day ethnic revisionists say the Fulani people are not indigenous Nigerians but immigrants I simply shake my head and laugh. Because as a historian, I know they are either ignorant or are deliberately biased to the truth. For there is an important historical point that is often submerged in the current arguments about who is “indigenous” to Nigeria and who is a migrant: migration is not the history of one Nigerian people; it is part of the history of virtually all Nigerian peoples.

2. For example, the Hausa, Igbo, Tiv, Jukun, Chamba and a host of others each possess traditions of origin describing movements of, and conquests by, their ancestors from places beyond, or across the borders of, what is today Nigeria. Even though these traditions differ considerably, and historians rightly debate their chronology and factual accuracy, they nevertheless demonstrate an important historical reality: the peoples who inhabit present-day Nigeria did not all emerge immovably from the precise territories they occupy today. Except if present politics necessitates their abandoning these historical accounts for new ideas, they have all along claimed external migrations.
3. The tradition of origin for the Hausa people is one of migration combined with assimilation, primarily told through the famous Bayajidda Legend, and it claimed external origin. According to popular lore, the foundational ancestor of the Hausa states was Bayajidda (Abuyazid), a prince who claimedly migrated from Baghdad (in modern-day Iraq) due to political or military conflict. He traveled west across North Africa, briefly stopping at the Kanem-Bornu Empire near Lake Chad, before arriving in the ancient city of Daura. The core myth claims that in Daura, Bayajidda famously killed a monstrous serpent named Sarki that prevented the townspeople from drawing water from their sole well. In gratitude, the reigning female monarch, Queen Magajiya Daurama, married him. Their descendants went on to establish the Hausa Bakwai – the original seven true Hausa city-states (Daura, Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Gobir, Rano and Biram). While the indigenous populations had been in the region for millennia, the specific migrations linked to the Bayajidda Legend and the structural formation of the Hausa Bakwai (the seven true Hausa states) are historically anchored around the 9th to 11th centuries AD. In other words, the Hausa people also displaced “some indigenous” people.
4. The Igbo case is more complex, precisely because there is no single universally accepted Igbo tradition of origin. Senior Historian, A. E. Afigbo, noted that Igbo communities possess multiple traditions: some claim eastern or “oriental” origins; others trace their beginnings to neighbouring Nigerian states and peoples; while others maintain traditions of autochthony. Modern scholarship therefore treats a single external origin for all Igbo people with considerable caution. (Cambridge University Press⁠). Nevertheless, particular Igbo traditions do preserve memories of population movements from outside present-day Igboland, including traditions associated with Igala and other neighbouring populations. (Igbo Studies Association (ISA)⁠). Alternative or external oral narratives (often debated or considered secondary folk history) have suggested secondary migrations from the Niger-Benue confluence or historical links to the Middle East/Israel.
5. The Tiv people, according to their own traditions, trace an earlier stage of their migration to the south-east and ultimately to the Congo region. Their traditions describe movement through Central Africa and Cameroon before reaching Swem, in the Nigeria-Cameroon border region, from where successive groups moved into the Benue Valley. Scholarly research confirms that Tiv traditions consistently remember migration and settlement as a process rather than as an eternal occupation of their present homeland. As a Bantu-speaking group, the Tiv are relatively recent arrivals to the Middle Belt of Nigeria compared to their neighbors. Mainstream historical consensus places their arrival at Swem around the early 1600s.
6. The Jukun have an even more striking migration tradition. Some Jukun traditions place their ancestral point of departure in Yemen, followed by movements through regions including Kordofan, Wadai, Mandara and the Lake Chad area before their eventual settlement in the Benue region. These traditions are not universally accepted as literal historical chronology, but they are an established part of Jukun historical memory. (Wikipedia⁠). According to historical records – including Bornu chronicles written during the era – the Jukun (historically referred to as the Kwana or Kororofawa) were already well-established along the Gongola and Upper Benue rivers by the 13th century (around 1250 CE).This matches the timeline where they drifted south from the Lake Chad basin after parting ways with the Kanuri. Their legendary empire, Kwararafa, went on to become a dominant military powerhouse in Northern Nigeria between the 14th and 18th centuries, famously launching military campaigns against Hausa states like Kano and Zaria.
7. The Chamba likewise have a history of extensive population movement across what are today the Nigerian-Cameroonian borders. Historical studies describe the broader Chamba homeland around the Nigeria-Cameroon border and the Alantika Mountains, followed by major movements southwards into Cameroon and other movements back towards territories in present-day Nigeria. The history of the Chamba therefore cannot be confined within the modern boundaries of either country.
8. The Chamba migrations from the Adamawa highlands and the Tikar region of Cameroon into present-day Taraba and Adamawa states took place primarily in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.These migrations occurred in highly organized waves or military bands, largely triggered by the pressure of the Fulani Jihads and regional conflicts across the West African savannah during that period. Their entry created a complex ripple effect, displacing or assimilating other smaller groups in the Middle Belt region.
9. These are just selected few among so many Nigerian ethnic groups that have external migration historical traditions and records. The significance of these traditions is not that every detail should be accepted literally. Oral traditions are no doubt historical evidence, but they are not automatically historical proof. Routes, dates and places must be tested against archaeology, linguistics, anthropology and documentary evidence. Indeed, scholars have explicitly warned that the precise origins of several Nigerian peoples remain contested. The larger historical lesson, however, is difficult to escape.
10. The key point being made here is that the Fulani are not unique in having a history of migration into the present day Nigeria. Their movements across the western and central Sahel long predate the modern political boundaries of Nigeria. But neither are the Hausa, Igbo, Tiv, Jukun, Chamba or other Nigerian peoples historically confined to the exact territories in which their descendants live today.
11. Modern Nigeria was created by the convergence, interaction, migration, conquest, settlement and intermarriage of numerous populations over many centuries. The colonial boundary called Nigeria is only a little over a century old; the movements of African peoples are many centuries older. Consequently, it is historically problematic to treat “migration” as though it were an exceptional characteristic of one ethnic group while assuming that every other Nigerian people has remained permanently fixed in its present location.
12. The more historically defensible question is therefore not simply “Who migrated?” Almost everybody did. The better questions are: When did particular migrations occur? From where did they come? By what routes? What evidence supports the traditions? Whom did they encounter? Where did they settle? And how did these successive movements contribute to the societies that eventually became Nigeria?
13. That approach does not diminish anybody’s claim to belonging. On the contrary, it gives Nigerian history a more accurate foundation: Nigeria is not the product of one people remaining in one place; it is the product of many peoples moving, meeting, settling, interacting and becoming interconnected across time. Anyone who denies this and wants the Fulani out of Nigeria let them leave first and the Fulani will follow them out; just as they came first and the Fulani followed them in.