Bayajidda

The hero's departure from Baghdad and his stay in Borno According to the legend, Bayajidda was a prince from Baghdad (the capital of modern-day Iraq) and son of King Abdullahi, but he was exiled from his home town after Queen Zidam, also known as Zigawa, had conquered the city. Once he left Baghdad, he traveled across Africa with numerous warriors and arrived in Borno. He then came to the town of Daura (located in modern-day Katsina State), where he entered a house and asked an old woman for water. She informed him that a serpent named Sarki (sarki is the Hausa word for king) guarded the well and that the people were only allowed to draw water once a week. Bayajidda set out for the well and killed the serpent with the sword and beheaded it with the knife the blacksmiths had made for him, after which he drank the water, put the head in a bag, and returned to the old woman's house. The next day, the people of Daura gathered at the well, wondering who had killed the snake; Magajiya Daurama, the local queen, offered sovereignty over half the town to whoever could prove that he killed the snake. Several men brought snake heads forth, but the heads did not match the body. The old woman, owner of the house Bayajidda was staying in, informed the queen that her guest had slayed it, after which Daurama summoned Bayajidda. Having presented the snake's head, proving to her that he was the one who had slain Sarki, he turned down the offer of half the town, instead requesting her hand in marriage; she married him out of gratitude for slaying the serpent. Two groups of descendants Throughout his life, Bayajidda is said to have fathered three children with three different women. Bawo fathered six of his own sons, whose names were Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, and Zazzau. Together with Biram, the son of Magaram, these seven went on to rule the seven "legitimate" Hausa states, the Hausa Bakwai. (Some versions of the tale leave Bawo and Magaram out entirely, with Biram, Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, and Zaria being the sons of Bayajidda and Daurama). Karbagari's descendants, meanwhile, founded the seven "illegitimate" states, the Banza Bakwai. The Hausa kingdom began as seven states founded by the Bayajidda legend and the six sons of Bawo and himself, in addition to the hero's son Ibrahim of an earlier marriage. ==Social context==

Social embeddedness of the legend The different figures of the Bayajidda narrative were embodied by precise officials of the former Daura kingdom: the king represented Bayajidda, the official queen mother Magajiya Daurama and the official royal sister Bagwariya. Re-enactment during the Gani/Mawlūd festival Formerly the celebrations of the Mawlūd or Gani festival consisted in the re-enactements of the major details of the legend: departure from Iraq, slaying of the snake in the well and marriage between the hero and the queen. The royal sword and the knife are still believed to have been those ones used for the slaying of the snake and the cutting of its head. Repercussions on other regional traditions The Bayajidda legend is widely known at the courts of the "Seven Hausa" kings where it is considered to correspond to the oldest known history of Hausaland. As already observed by the traveller Heinrich Barth the basic division between the Seven Hausa and the Seven Banza is used among the Songhay to distinguish between the northern hausa and the southern gurma side of the River Niger. ==Historical meaning==

There are a variety of views on the Bayajidda story, with differing opinions on the meaning and historicity of the tale. Some scholars suppose that Bayajidda is a historical person, the founder of the Seven Hausa states, and contemporary Hausa royals - especially those in Daura and Zaria (Zazzau) - trace their lineage to and draw their authority from him (see Kano Chronicle). By contrast, others claim that Bayajidda never existed. Medieval history W. K. R. Hallam argues that Bayajidda represents a "folk personification" of the supporters of Abu Yazid (a tenth-century Kharijite Berber rebel), whose followers fled southwards from North Africa after Yazid's defeat by and death at the hands of Fatimids. According to this theory, the Hausa states would have been founded by Kharijite refugees in the tenth century CE. Elizabeth Isichei, in her work A History of African Societies to 1870, suggests that Bayajidda's stay in Borno prior to arriving in Hausaland is "perhaps a folk memory of origins on the Borno borderland, or a reflection of Borno political and cultural dominance." Symbolical history One view is that the story of the marriage of Bayajidda and Daurama symbolizes the merger of Arab and Berber tribes in North and West Africa. Biblical Anthropologist, Alice C. Linsley, maintains that Bayajidda's closest biblical counterpart is Cain . Cain is said to have fled from his father, married a princess whom he met at a well, and was involved with metalworkers. Most of the heroes of Genesis met their wives at sacred wells or springs. Abraham married Keturah at the Well of Sheba (Beersheva). Issac (Yitzak) found a wife at a well in Aram. Moses encountered his wife at a well sacred to the Midianites and won her hand after he delivered the women and flocks from Egyptian raiders. In his 1989 book An Imperial Twilight, Gawain Bell suggests that the marriage of Bayajidda and Daurama signals a "change from a matriarchal to a patriarchal system." ==In literature and media==

Bayajidda's story inspired a comic book adaptation titled "Bayajidda: An African Legend" adapted/written by Claude Opara and drawn by Ibrahim Yakubu under the 'An African Legend' comic series. The comic was published in 2018 using the popular bande dessinee style. A French translation was later released the following year. == Bibliography ==