Why Nupe facial marks may disappear

By

Tadaferua Ujorha 

DAILY TRUST 
Date: Nov 22 2016 2:00AM

Daily Trust explores the reasons behind the decline of the marks which are part of Nigeria’s heritage. Religion, modernisation, stigma and fear of disease combine to work against them, and in Bida, the cultural capital of the Nupe, the people speak of a marked decline in this type of body art, which hardly occurs among children today, except in the form of marks given for healing purposes. In Lokoja, symbolic of the Nupe diaspora, the guild of ‘barber-doctors’ has completely vanished, Daily Trust is told. There are no Gozans (‘barber-doctors’) of Nupe extraction in the Kogi state capital, a situation which suggests that the marks there have been eroded.

‘Nupe from 30 years downwards don’t have them’
Not a single Gozan in Lokoja
By Tadaferua Ujorha who was in Kaduna, Kogi & Niger

An elegant mark lies beneath Shehu Dzukogi’s eye. This is not an ordinary mark, for it is a kind of chronicle which does not make use of alphabets. It adopts strokes or signs of varying lengths, which are cut on the skin to express wars, migrations, victories, new alliances and more among the Nupe. The  skin seems to grow beyond its initial function as a body organ, to become a carrier of  history, and a vehicle of past events.

Dzukogi (not real name) feels like reaching  back into time to  grip the hand of the skilled Gozan, who  was  making a cut on  his face one sunny  morning many years ago. He tells Daily Trust that if he had the means he wouldn’t have allowed the middle aged man who was wielding a knife, to cut his face. In five minutes the  ‘surgery’ is over and within a week the affected spot heals. Dzukogi sheds light on the origins of facial marks named ‘Etsa’ among the Nupe “500 years ago the founder of the Nupe kingdom, known as Tsoede or Edegi went to collect some palm nuts  in an attempt to heal his father of an ailment. In the process of doing this he fell from the tree and received some marks on his face as well as on his abdomen, and it then became a tradition for his descendants to have the facial marks.” Solomon Yisa, a former ambassador to Tanzania, in his Nupe Heritage Dictionary (2013) states “It is in the emulation and remembrance of this hero’s act of bravery that Nupe children over the years have been given facial and body markings.” (p.203).

‘Barber-doctors’
The  Gozan is the  ‘barber-doctor’  in Nupeland, as S. Nadel indicates in A Black Byzantium “the barber of Nupe, Gozan, is also doctor and surgeon.His activities are numerous: he cuts the hair of men, women and children; he shaves the head and cuts the tribal marks of newborn babies at the name-giving ceremony.”

Today, the Gozans confess that they have seen better days, for not many parents summon them to have the marks cut on their children. They add that they do more of shaving and circumcision, as well as applying their knowledge of herbs to heal various ailments. The cutting of facial marks is becoming a rare occurrence, except in the rural areas where the tradition is still fairly regular, say the jovial ‘barber-doctors’ of Bida, a town which was founded in 1860.

Here, there are three guild areas lying close to the three ruling houses of Usman Zaki, Masaba and Umaru Majigi. Sokyara, the oldest  Gozan   is usually named the leader of all the ‘barber-doctors’ in Nupeland. Those in the rural areas have a close working relationship with the Gozans of Bida,and there are migrant ‘barber-doctors’ who, for instance, leave Nupeland for the southwest, and they return home after a while, cutting marks, shaving and doing circumcisions and ‘small operations’  along the route. It  is flexible activity, for a  Gozan can rise to become a professor as well or even a Vice Chancellor, as Daily Trust discovers. The work does not restrict his growth in other directions, but  it seems to facilitate this. It is also said that some of the elderly Gozans have such a fine eye for detail that they can easily identify which Gozan cut a mark, no matter how long ago this was done.

Daily Trust is told that ‘the younger Gozans prefer using clippers to do their work,and some have resorted to farming, while many no longer see the work of the Gozan as their primary activity.” This is the situation in Nupeland where the economy of the Gozan is witnessing a turnaround. According to Yahaya Abdulkadir, who lives  very close to the Gozans of Masaba in Bida,  “I have seven children, but I didn’t give them marks, though I have them myself.” On why he was reluctant to give the famous facial marks to his children, he explains that this owes to the changing social circumstances   among the Nupe today.

Among the Nupe there are ‘six or seven distinct marks, and each belongs to a particular  sub tribe or clan of the group,’ declares Isyaku Ibrahim, who has written a number of books on Nupe culture. He shows how Nupe marks spread in earlier times “The rise of marks was more during  wars when  we were conquering territory. When we get to a place  if you identify with us, we will give you a mark so that anytime we see you  we can easily identify  that we have been to your community. This is how the marks spread.” Ibrahim explains “You can see the same mark with the Igbirra who were paying tributes to Nupe at one time. If you have these marks,it means you are our ally or that this is our territory. Some of the conquered groups loved to have it, for it was a form of empowerment and independence.” 

‘It goes back to 1960’
Ndambabo Jiya, an elder in the Nupe community in Lokoja, Kogi State, while arguing that the marks began declining as far back as 1960, says “In the olden days people had facial marks to identify lineages among the Nupe. Some used the marks to identify those who are original Nupes from those who are slaves,or those  who were descended from slaves.”

He states that since the passing away  of the Nupe Gozans, the Nupe in Lokoja have had to rely on Hausa barbers, but this itself is fraught with problems “Even if the Hausa barbers want to do the Nupe marks, the Nupe  may not be comfortable with them. This is because each  tribe has people who specialise in cutting their traditional marks.”

Jiya shows how the marks in his family declined over the years, stating that his first son had marks similar to his, (Jiya’s), while the remaining three children had just a single vertical mark on each cheek. “The remaining seven children did not have marks put on them,” he adds, explaining that it was the influence of his parents that made him put marks on his first four children.

The birth of the last seven children coincided with the passing of his parents, and  this seems to suggest why they don’t have marks. Jiya points out that the community in Lokoja came into being as a fallout of the trading activities of the Nupe, and because a number of Etsu’s were sent  to Lokoja on exile in the early 20th century by the British colonial rulers.

Origins
Dr. Ndagi Abdullahi ,Secretary, Nupe Cultural and Resource Centre (NCRC) Bida, comments on the origins of facial marks among the Nupe “If you ask a typical Nupe man, he will tell you it’s origin owes to Tsoede who is our cultural hero and founder of the Nupe nation. They will say that the marks came about when the father to Tsoede was sick, and someone pointed out that it was  necessary to get  palm nuts  that would be used to heal  the king. The fruit was at the top of a palm tree, and nobody could  ascend  the tree except Tsoede. He climbed the tree and fell and had wounds all over his body. The wounds on his face were the beginning  of the facial marks, and this is the conventional story. Someone invented this story to explain the origin of Nupe facial marks. The truth of the matter is that these marks have been in use before the time of Tsoede. What  is most probable is that Tsoede came with a variant of his own markings which later came to be traced to him.”

Dr. Abdullahi thinks that the Nupe had started forming marks as far back as 500 AD “If you particularly want to emphasise when exactly the Nupe people started scarification, it would have to go back to 500 AD when Kisra came and settled in central Nigeria.He came with a form of scarification, which was called ‘the mark of the sun,’ and it was a patriarchal system of scarification. They brought this to Nupeland, but before  500 AD, Nupe had their own marks.”

Decline
According to Mohammed Kobo Shehu, a Gozan in Bida, “The history of the Nupe kingdom cannot be complete without a mention of Gozans whose existence as a guild goes back to the beginning of the Nupe kingdom.” Shehu opines “The serious decline in the facial marks today, is as a result of western education which has led to a major decline in many aspects of Nupe life. Also, things have become quite modernised among us. Even the circumcision that we used to do on the male children is now done in the hospitals, where the doctors use modern equipment. This is as a result of the fear of disease and contamination, and  so the art of circumcision itself is declining.” Shehu concludes “Most of the facial marks are done in the villages today and it’s  still practised there. In the urban centres of Nupeland, we have however observed a marked decline.”

He avers “The number of Gozanczhi (plural for Gozan) have dropped too, and Nupe parents are turning away from the idea of giving marks to their children.” Next, he draws attention to the fact that the type of mark commonly seen on children nowadays, are those connected with healing rather than the facial marks. To do this the Gozan cuts the face of the child and some healing herbs are ‘injected’ into the cut, and this is said to cure  many illnesses affecting children.
 Mohammed Abdullahi Daniyan also feels that the marks have declined. He is a Gozan and a former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna “Many people feel that it is dangerous to use sharp objects to do the marks, especially with the prevalence of HIV/AIDS today. Therefore, they  are not too interested in having scars put on the faces of their children. They feel it’s not the right thing to do. We can see then that the tradition is almost dying out. It’s no more fashionable in the urban centres to have facial marks.”

He states that the role of the ‘barber-doctor’ is changing somewhat “Shaving has been taken over by the barbers who use clippers. Some Gozans have opened small shops for themselves where they also use clippers. But they still work with herbs. I  don’t have any children that is a practising Gozan. However, many of  the children of my  brothers, even if they are educated, are still practising Gozans.” He points out that marriage affects the prevalence of marks “A woman from another culture, may not be keen on having Nupe marks put on her child,” he stresses. This is the sense in which marriage to a lady from outside Nupeland, works against the marks. In his household the children born  before 1984 have Nupe facial marks, but those that came after this date do not.

Yisa, who is also the  Director, NCRC, opines “At a point I thought I was among the last batch of tribal mark bearers in Nupeland, But  I have seen quite a few, pretty  young  children with the marks. They are really a bit difficult to come across today, so it is certainly on the decline.” He speaks on a growing feeling of shame  which is linked to the marks “There is a drop  in the urban centres,and this is connected to the  present day attitude of younger men who find tribal marks embarrassing.

Date: Nov 23 2016 2:00AM

In the rural areas, people don’t feel embarrassed, but the stigma is also spreading to rural areas.” He concludes “In Nupeland, persons from the age of 30 downwards hardly have the marks, while those who are much older, that is those above 35, proudly bear them.” In his dictionary referred to above,he shows  “except in the hinterlands and the very rural areas, the practice of facial and other body markings has since died out in most parts of Nupeland.” (P.203/204).

Religion

Dr. Abdullahi speaks in the same vein “The Nupe are no longer engaged in the practice of tribal marks as they were wont to. The marks themselves have changed from what they used to be. In the beginnings these marks were for spiritual reasons. Over time they changed from being spiritual into becoming identification marks,and that is the moment when they became tribal or facial marks. In the process the marks were retained, but the essence was no more there. It spread to every society and  the ordinary people started having  the marks.” On the reasons for the decline, “The changing times in which we live can explain the decline. Linked to this is the influence of religions. The arrival of Christianity and Islam into Nupeland had an impact. Both faiths frowned at the marks and so religion was thus a major blow to facial markings among us.” He speaks on the crippling influence of civilisation “Nupe people have steadily become westernized. In the past the marks were for purposes of identification, but in modern society we felt that we have to use our language for identification, for we don’t necessarily need to have the marks for people to know who we are. The Nupe have travelled to other societies, such as Lagos, Kano and London, or interact regularly with people from these places and those from elsewhere. When you reside in places outside Nupeland and you are happy and accepted there, you immediately find that there is no need to put  all these marks on your children.”

Ibrahim is of the view that the marks have eroded over time “They are declining and this is because of a number of reasons. First of these is the fact that the wars which explained the need for the marks in the first place, no longer occur, and so people don’t see the need for the marks to identify themselves in times of conflict. Then there  is the fact that with the influence of Islam and Christianity, a lot of traditional practices, including facial marks  among the Nupe, began to suffer.” He draws attention to other factors such as modernity which has altered the Nupe sense of beauty and this has turned them away from their traditions. 

No Gozans in Lokoja

Jiya opens up on the situation in Lokoja “The Gozans of Nupe extraction have died and so the tradition has died too. In the good times we had six popular Gozans here. They had an area where they were domiciled, and this was directly   behind the office of the Maigari of Lokoja. Now, they can no longer be found in that place or anywhere in Lokoja.” Jiya explains why the marks suffered a decline “Nupe people travel a lot and they have become exposed to new ways of doing things, and therefore  they no longer wish to be identified with the marks. People are more individualistic today, unlike in the past when they would obey any order that is given. It was easier to enforce the marks in the early days.” Tanko Yabagi  48, also lives in Lokoja, and does not have the Nupe facial marks. Yabagi says “After independence the passion for the marks declined.In the last thirty years, however, there has been a significant drop in facial marks here in Lokoja.” 

Revival

On the rebirth of facial marks, Yisa  does not think that this is possible “There is no reason for the marks to be revived in these modern times. You revive something if you have a good reason for reviving it. I don’t think that there is any justifiable reason for reviving the marks today.” Dr. Abdullahi comments “I don’t think it will be revived. But, theoretically, in the future, not the immediate future, maybe one hundred to two hundred years from now, these marks may come back. We all know that after a while western civilisation will decline, and African/indigenous civilisation will come back. I don’t think anything about Nupe people will go into extinction. What  we are doing in our centre is a very serious revolution and revival of every aspect of Nupe life. In two  generations from now, there will be a serious revival of every aspect of Nupe life.” Shehu  lends his voice to the argument in favour of  a revival,  “If people are led to believe that tribal marks do not transmit any infection to the child, and if there is more awareness, then the marks may enjoy a revival.”

He points out that even the natural appreciation of beauty may spark a revival “Our forefathers said  if they see a child and give him facial marks, he becomes more handsome or beautiful.If people realise that a mark makes a person more beautiful or more handsome, there could be a revival ,inspite of the combined  pressure of modernisation or westernization.” Jiya is not very positive about the future “I have no hope that the marks will be revived. For instance, in the olden days boys and girls  will get married to people who can be identified in terms of their place of origin. But marriage to a partner from outside Nupeland, is affecting the presence of the marks among our people, for some of the wives object to Nupe marks being put on their children. Next is the fact that the children of the late Gozans are not practising the art, and showed no interest in it while  their fathers were alive. The profession of the Gozan is an inheritance, and nobody can just wake up and claim to be a Gozan as there is a process to be followed. There is nobody to continue from where their fathers stopped and so the guild doesn’t exist here anymore.It has been crippled.”

Professor Daniyan doubts that the marks would enjoy a revival “I do not think  there will be any reason for it to come back and be as popular as it was in the past.” Ibrahim  suggests  that if the facial marks are cut in a more hygienic environment, then they might return, arguing  that the marks are beautiful and if people uplift the campaign by stressing the cultural element, then a revival could occur. Going down memory lane, he recalls “I once knew a fair complexioned Nupe lady who did the marks on her face all by herself, and this was simply because she liked them. I believe there are many individuals like her in our society who will, like her, try to keep the tradition alive.