Yamta ra Walla

The original meaning of the name Yamta-ra-Walla is uncertain. Some link it to the Bura words ya (an honorific prefix) and mpta ('death'), and have suggested the sobriquet "one who deals out death to his enemies". A Kanuri mallam (Islamic scholar) told J G Davies, who compiled a history of Biu titled The Biu Book (1956) when he was a colonial officer there, that the name derived from the phrase yauman-taraku-wallah ("he will be leader of the people"). An alkali (chief Qadi) of Biu claimed that Yamta's real name was Abdullahi but that when he left Gazargamu in anger after failing to become mai (ruler) of Bornu, he cried out '''''yauman-tarani-wallahi anasulden insha'allah''''' ("one day you shall see that I am a chief, God willing"). By the 1960s, local Biu scholars had agreed that the original meaning was "you will soon see me or hear of me". == Life ==

Early life According to local tradition in Biu, Yamta was the son of a Mandara woman who was pregnant with him when she was taken to Mai Idris Katagarmabe, ruler of Bornu, in his capital Birni Gazargamu. Yamta was raised in the palace and considered a potential heir because of his proximity to the mai. However, when Mai Idris died in 1526, Yamta was not chosen because he was said to have been unable to kill the significant ox in the correct Muslim fashion. Unable to bear the shame, Yamta left Gazargamu for Mandara, accompanied by seventy-two men and their families. Yamta and about half of the party eventually settled in "the country of the Babur and the land of Gombe". File:Sketch of two ceremonial Rum spears of the Babur people in Biu, Nigeria.png|thumb|409x409px|Sketch of two ceremonial Rum spears from the Emir of Biu's armouryBiu tradition holds that the male Rum spears were brought from Mandara by Yamta and used during his conquests. The female Rum (right) was said to have been the same one that miraculously resisted Yamta during his attack on Miringa. == Death ==

Yamta died around 1580. According to Biu legend, he did not die but "disappeared into the ground" after becoming annoyed with his son Mari who when tested by his father tried to prove that he could boil and eat a stone. Mari succeeded his father as king but "was a weaker character". The kingdom soon began disintegrating, with the Bura reconquering their lands to within a few miles of Biu town. == Legacy ==

Yamta's descendants are said to have spread across the Biu-Marghi complex, and people claiming descent from him can be found among the Kilba, Kamwe, Bazza and Marghi peoples. Yamta called his followers Babur, and the Babur (or Pabir) people are said to descend from intermarriage between Yamta's followers and the local Buram Sha. From J G Davies's translation of Yamta's kirari (praise-song) collected in Biu: He is like a lion, like a lion of the dark forest, yet has no mane; nothing can stand against him except for natural elements like shrubs and the wind. His importance is such that he is like a pillar holding up the world; although small in size like a sack made from one squirrel's skin yet he controls a large territory as though that sack contained all the meat of one elephant. Just as a deaf man may appear to be disobedient because of not hearing, so he is brave and fearless, for although he hears he behaves as though he doesn't, nothing dismaying him. He is independent of help from other people, like a baby locust which flies away when born not requiring any milk or assistance from its mother. == Notes ==