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The Tsoede Myth and the Nupe Kinglists: More Political Propaganda?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Michael Mason
Michael Mason*
Affiliation:
Loyola College, Montreal
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Extract

      “History is always written by the conquerors.”

It is a convention in the writing of Nupe political history to begin with the name ‘Tsoede.’ This convention has been current at least since the early years of colonial rule, when we find ‘Tsoede,’ or ‘Edegi,’ as he is also called, being credited with the founding of the kingdom whose successive rulers can be traced up to the present. The clearest expression of the place of both ‘Tsoede’ and the kinglists which his name heads comes from the standard study of Nupe society by S.F. Nadel, who explains that

the earliest history of Nupe centres around the figure of Tsoede or Edegi, the culture hero and mythical founder of the Nupe kingdom. The genealogies of Nupe kings which are preserved in many places in Nupe country and which have also found their way into the earliest written records of Nupe history which were compiled by Mohammedan scholars and court historians, place his birth in the middle of the fifteenth century.

It will be our purpose in this paper to explore the evolution of the Tsoede story and to inspect the authority of its authorship. First, let us look at the story offered in Nadel's account:

  • a) At the time of Tsoede's birth Nupe had not been unified under a central government.

  • b) Whatever political forms existed elsewhere in Nupe, Tsoede's homeland Bini was a confederacy of towns. The leading Bini town was Nku, at the confluence of the Kaduna and Niger rivers.

The Binis as well as some other Nupe were subordinate to the Attah of Igala.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 2 , 1975 , pp. 101 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1975

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Footnotes

*

For additional discussion see R.C.C. Law, “The Heritage of Oduduwa: Traditional History and Political Propaganda among the Yoruba,” JAH, 14 (1973), pp. 207-21.

References

1. National Archives, Kaduna [hereafter NAK], BIDDIV 13375; E.D. Rochefort Rae, District Officer, Bida, 1921.

2. Nadel's meaning of “history” requires clarification. He noted two types of history–“objective” and “ideological.” The latter, although often containing “objective” elements, is sometimes indistinguishable from mythology. It is the second type which he identified with the Tsoede period. He discussed the “historical truth” of the myth by pointing to other evidence connecting Nupe and Idah and concluded that while “the approximate date of the immigration of Tsoede and his band can be fixed with some accuracy,” other “facts” may not contain “historical truth.” To the present writer neither his categories of “objective” and “ideological” nor the “facts” which he associated with these categories is convincing and his standards for historical evidence are unreliable even for the twentieth century. See Nadel, S.F., A Black Byzantium (London, 1942), pp. 72–76.Google Scholar

3. Ibid., pp. 72–73.

4. Ibid., pp. 72–74.

5. Bini is one of the areas of Nupe and is located mainly between the Kaduna and Gbako rivers, that is, around Bida, the present capital of the emirate. For a more complete account of the regions of Nupe see Mason, Michael, “The Nupe Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, 1970.Google Scholar

6. And is treated as such in Hodgkin, Thomas, Nigerian Perspectives (London, 1960), pp. 81–83Google Scholar; Davidson, Basil, History of West Africa (London, 1965), p. 133Google Scholar; and Crowder, Michael, Story of Nigeria (London, 1962), p. 52Google Scholar, where, unhappily, Tsoede‘s’ dating to about 1531 is accepted and related to the destruction of Oyo-ile.

7. Clapperton, H., Journal of a Second Expedition (London, 1829), p. 339.Google Scholar

8. Crowther, Samuel and Taylor, J., The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger (London, 1859), p. 210.Google Scholar

9. Baikie, W.B., “Notes of a Journey from Bida in Nupe to Kano in Hausa,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 37 (1867), p. 105.Google Scholar

10. Nadel, , Black Byzantium, p. 75.Google Scholar

11. Burdon, J.A., Northern Nigeria: Historical Notes on Certain Emirates and Tribes (London, 1909), pp. 51–52.Google Scholar

12. Ibid.

13. These studies may be found in NAK and include E.G.M.D. Dupigny's “Historical Notes, Niger Province” (SNP 7/1 279/1909), material from which is included in Temple, C.L., Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates, and States of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria (Lagos, 1922)Google Scholar, as well as BIDDIV 13375, Records of the District Office, Bida, 1921, by E.V. Rochfort Rae.

14. Burdon, , Northern Nigeria, p. 51.Google Scholar

15. Ibid.

16. East, R.M. (ed. and trans.), Labarun Hausawa da Makwabtansu (2 vols.: Zaria, 1932), passim, esp. 1:50.Google Scholar

17. Burdon, , Northern Nigeria, p. 51.Google Scholar In the other version ‘Tsoede’ is a Nupe adventurer who joins the Idah army.

18. Nadel, , Black Byzantium, pp. 72–73.Google Scholar

19. See above.

20. Baikie to Clarendon, 2 March 1859, FO 2/31, Public Record Office, London.

21. Mason, , “Nupe Kingdoms,” p. 178.Google Scholar

22. We know virtually nothing of Nupe history prior to the second half of the eighteenth century.

23. For the question of the diffusion of metallurgical techniques see, for instance, Rubin, A., “Bronzes of the Middle Belt,” West African Journal of Archaeology, 3 (1973), pp. 221–31Google Scholar; Willett, Frank, Ife in the History of Western Sculpture (London, 1967).Google Scholar A far more speculative study is Ryder, A.F.C., “A Reconsideration of the Ife-Benin Relationship,” JAH, 6 (1965), pp. 25–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24. Baikie to Malmesbury, 4 March 1859, FO 2/31, PRO. It may have been this tradition which led to the assumption of the connection between Tsoede and Bini, although, in fact, such a connection may never have been made before the twentieth century; certainly Baikie did not make it.

25. Allen, W. and Thompson, T.R., A Narrative of an Expedition … in 1841 (2 vols.: London, 1848), 1:381; 2:82.Google Scholar

26. The changing patterns of political control in this area are suggested in my paper “The Commercial and Manufacturing Economy of Nupe to the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of African Studies, Halifax, February 1974.

27. As suggested by Isichei, Elizabeth, The Ibo People and the Europeans (London, 1973), p. 30.Google Scholar

28. Ibid.

29. As have innumberable other metal objects such as brass bracelets, to be found in a number of Nupe villages, and the so-called ‘chain of Tsoede.’ See Nadel, , Black Byzantium, pp. 53, 56, opp. 72, 73n2.Google Scholar

30. NAK MINPROF 7/1 279/1909, with emphasis added.

31. In Burdon, , Northern Nigeria, p. 51.Google Scholar

32. In ibid., pp. 18–19. It should be noted that Sciortino's list and his description of that list differ, inasmuch as the list makes no mention of the ‘Maazu’ who succeeded Jibrilu and deposed Iliasu I. I have included in parentheses those names which appear in Sciortino's text but were omitted from his list.

33. Bello, Muhammad (trans. Whining, C.E.J.), Infaku'l Maisuri (London, 1951), p. 21Google Scholar; Palmer, H.R., Sudanese Memoirs (3 vols.: Lagos, 1928), p. 124.Google Scholar We know of no critical study of these manuscripts, such as the Kano Chronicle, published by Palmer, so we must accept the association of Kano and Nupe rulers with some misgiving.

34. Baikie, , “Notes of a Journey,” p. 105.Google Scholar

35. Ibid.

36. The claim made by Goldsmith for Tsoede.

37. Clapperton, , Journal, pp. 121, 125–28.Google Scholar

38. Baikie, , “Notes of a Journey,” pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

39. Ibid., p. 106.

40. According to ibid.

41. Ibid.

42. I have discussed this epoch of Nupe history in my “Nupe Kingdoms” and in an unpublished paper entitled “The Antecedents of Nineteenth Century Islamic Government in Nupe.”

43. Baikie, , “Notes of a Journey,” pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

44. Frobenius, Leo, The Voice of Africa (2 vols.: London, 1913)Google Scholar, 2:chap. 17 & 18.

45. The exception to this is Baikie, whose ‘Tsado’ may be ‘Tsoede.’ But our main point remains that none of these had heard of the official list.

46. Dupigny, , “Historical Notes,” p. 8.Google Scholar

47. On this see my “Antecedents of Islamic Government.”

48. Goldsmith's “Zubeiru,” who had become ‘Sabairu Jia,’ by Biscoe's time became ‘Majia,’ and ‘Kolo’ became ‘Alikolo Tankari.’

49. Dupigny, , “Historical Notes,” p. 8.Google Scholar

50. Baikie, , “Notes of a Journey,” p. 106Google Scholar; Nadel, , Black Byzantium, pp. 406–7.Google Scholar