Kagoro Afan Festival

By Emmanuel Gandu

KAGORO AFAN FESTIVAL – 400 YEARS OF PAGAN CULTURAL PRACTICES AND 78 YEARS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP : AMALGAMATION OR ENCULTURATION ON THE MOUNTAINS ? By Emmanuel Gandu

EXCERPTS
[ The yearly Kagoro Afan Festival (Bwok Oefan) celebration lights up the spirit in every Gworok son and daughter, symbolizing hope, dreams of a bright future, thus igniting the cherished ideals of a rich cultural heritage of the Gworok people that had existed for over 400 years – one of the oldest and most glamorous in Northern Nigeria.
Unity, cultural heritage, indomitable spirit, bravery, and attachment to tradition is the thread that weaves together the fabric of Kagoro society.
Therefore, today’s modern Afan National Festival is a product of patient, understanding, and painstaking efforts of blending the hither-to pagan Bwok Oefan (ritual sanctification of the mountains) with christian prayer observance of a first day of the year. Begun in 1946 and led by a former Chief of Kagoro Mallam Gwamna Awan, this feat was achieved without necessarily jeopardizing, nor compromising the cultural interests, impact and useful elements of either of the two religious practices on the life of the Oegworok people.

IN THE BEGINNING
On the foot of the mountains and hills, caves, valleys, springs/streams holding an expanse of land, and rocks with fauna and flora is the indomitable Kagoro people in Southern Kaduna of Nigeria.
Basking in the euphoria of the celebration of the annual Afan National Festival on the first day of January is the excitement elicited by a festival that had existed for over 400 years – one of the oldest and most glamorous in Northern Nigeria.

Afan Festival celebrated on the first day of January by the Gworok (Kagoro) people of Southern Kaduna is to thank God for His mercies and protection over the preceeding year.
The symbol of this celebration is the “Afan Oegworok” (Kagoro mountain).
This imposing Kagoro hill is not only symbolic, but it grants the Gworok people their indomitable nature, and resilient characteristics that stands them out as warriors.

This Afan festival culture started as way back from about 1620 AD when it was known as “Buwok Oefan”
It is a traditional prayer, observance, and rituals led by the Chief Priest alongside other custodians of the Gworok traditional religion/culture to thank and seek God’s blessings. This is carried out at the designated shrine on the hill as they chant among others the following Gworok Doxology :

Uzah oe nwak kai ndah
Oe tin ufah chip
Oe shio usarag
Oe nat uyit oe bai bi nyam

Zzaam

May God provide us with peace
Deliver us from misfortune
Multiply us in number
And bountifully provide for us.
Amen.

Today, the modern Afan Festival had since assumed not only a National but International status just like the Argungu fishing Festival, the Igbo New Yam festival, the Eyo festival of the Yoruba, the Durbar in Northern Nigeria, the Calabar carnival, – just to mention a few.

Interestingly, the Afan festival had started as a single, one-off ceremony of sanctification of the Kagoro mountain (Bwok Oefan) by the Chief Priest (Oegwam Oeboi) in the dedicated shrine up the mountain in the month of April of the year. This solemn sacrifice of thanksgiving is for the purposes of acknowledgement of the God of heaven (Uzah or Gwaza) for His protection, a good harvest, and good health of mind and body of the people over the past and incoming year.

However, with the advent of Christianity in Kagoro came a celebration marking the turn of a new year with prayers on the first day of January.
This christian celebration was being Introduced by the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) missionaries (now ECWA) who had gained entry into Kagoro in the early 1940’s.
The appointment of Gwamna Awan as the 5th Chief of Kagoro in 1945 became the catalyst and impetus the christian missionaries needed to push for reforms in the mode of the pagan – only celebration of the Bwok Oefan.

By 1946, just a year after ascending the throne Gwamna Awan as Chief of Kagoro, in consultation with his subjects and the SIM missionaries embarked on discussion to accommodate Christian values in the Afan celebrations.
This tripartite consultation, though with stiff opposition from the pagan chief priests eventually culminated to the collapsing of the pagan Bwok Oefan and the Christian New Year prayers into one single joint celebration on the first day of January.
This explains why and how the Kagoro people now observe the Afan festival on the first day of January of each year.

To the delight of the Kagoro people, this yearly carnival-like Afan National Festival lights up the spirit in every Gworok son and daughter, thereby symbolizing hope, and dreams of a promising future, thus igniting those cherished ideals of a rich cultural heritage of the Oegworok (Kagoro people).
Therefore, today’s modern Afan National Festival is a product of years of painstaking efforts of blending the hither-to pagan Bwok Oefan (ritual sanctification of the mountain) with the Christian prayer observance of the first day of the year begun in 1946 and led by a former Chief of Kagoro Mallam Gwamna Awan without necessarily jeopardizing nor compromising the religious and cultural identity, impact and useful elements of either of the two practices on the life of the Kagoro society.

BWOK OEFAN (SANCTIFICATION OF THE MOUNTAINS)
The word ‘Oefan’ (Afan) means mountain or hill.
The Oefan Oegworok (Kagoro mountain) is at an altitude of 1,246 meters above sea level. Large big trees grow on the hills, with a rocky base, thus influencing the Kagoro weather with a temperate climate similar to that of the Jos and the Mambila plateau. Kagoro experiences heavy rainfall throughout the year with a dry spell from December to February.

Characteristically, the Kagoro people had lived in the caves atop the mountain ranges for centuries before eventually settling at the foot of the mountains from about the early 20th Century, although some of them still live atop the mountains today. The hills, caves and valleys provides the Kagoro people some level of security from wild animals, invaders, and other numerous advantages.

Bwok Oefan was celebrated every second Saturday of April annually. It was first held when the Kagoro people were still on the Bauchi – Jos plateau in about 1500 AD.
To begin the Bwok Oefan ritual, the Chief Priest (Oegwam Oeboi) climbs up the mountain to offer the rites and rituals of sanctification to the gods while chanting the Gworok Traditional Doxology (see box).
The ritual activities of the Bwok Oefan which comes with the utmost solemnity marks the end of the harvest of grains and the beginning of the hunting expeditions.

At completion of the sanctification rites, the hunting expeditions commences early in the morning hours of the night, with representatives of the hunters climbing to the top of the mountain at the dedicated shrine spot called “Jiyo” (trouble) where they surround the place and set it on fire. This ritual is called “fii Oefan” (burning the hill). At the end of this exercise, the contingent return home shouting and jubilating”O’ Oefan”, “O’ Oefan”, “O’ Oefan”.
With this exercise over, the hunting expeditions can then commence.

ADVENT OF CHRISTIANITY
The Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) which later became known as Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) and now the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) first arrived Southern Kaduna through Kwoi before coming to settle in Kagoro ten years later to begin proper evangelism across Northern Nigeria. Through the Archibald family, these missionaries had a great influence and impact on the Kagoro people.
The then chief of Kagoro Mallam Gwamna Awan was one of the earliest converts, having attended their evening home – school system.
By 1946 and barely a year of his ascendency of the throne he had begun to embrace their evangelization efforts by using his position to open up consultation and discussions with his subjects about the advantages of embracing the missionaries.
Although the Kagoro people especially the custodians of the cultural shrines rejected these moves, sceptical about his intentions, the chief was relentless in his efforts to open the doors of discussion and consultation between the people and the missionaries with the view to seeking alternative and better ways of doing things in order to make life easier and better for his people.
More youths like Gwamna Awan were enrolled in the evening home-school system. This arrangement, without doubt endeared more people to the evangelization efforts of the missionaries.

With this impetus, the chief was gradually building the ground work for an eventful opening up of Kagoro to the missionaries.
These efforts paved the way for the beginning of talks on how to convince the traditional pagan worshipers especially the chief priests to accommodate the missionaries and their practices into the lifestyle of the community.
Permanent schools began to spring up for the children of the town. Such early enrollment included Bagaiya Nwaya who later became a popular and prominent teacher and preacher in Southern Zaria, the Plateau/Nasarawa region and beyond.
The stage was gradually getting set for Christian reforms in not only Kagoro but the entire southern Kaduna/plateau axis.

CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY INFLUENCE ON AFAN FESTIVAL
With the advent of Christianity and western civilization, some of the pagan religious, cultural, and traditional practices associated with the Bwok Oefan rituals like the sanctification rites performed by the chief Priest began to be weakened.
The role played by chief Gwamna Awan without doubt was instrumental to the reforms that later emerged.

As earlier indicated above, by 1946, HRH Gwamna Awan had put machinery in motion for constructive engagement on aspects like shifting the date of the Bwok Ofan from April to a date close to Christmas, the Christian festival marking the birth of Jesus Christ.
Some of the outcome of the consultation and discussions between the pagan traditional worshipers leadership and the SIM missionaries was on how best to achieve an amalgamation and enculturation of the pagan Kagoro Bwok Oefan and the Christian celebration of the Christmas/New Year without unduly influencing/jeopardizing the Culture of the people.
Since fixing the Afan celebration date at Christmas time would be a direct confrontation to the people’s religious culture and practices, New Year was a better alternative to both sides.

In view of any likely fall out, an arrangement was agreed upon, though with strong opposition from the traditionaists, the two sides eventually settled for a celebration of the two opposing practices as Afan festival the same day on 1st January of the year without necessarily jeopardizing the religious and cultural identity and practices of the Kagoro people.
On this 1st day of January, the traditional pagan worshipers would go to the mountains and do their sanctification of the mountain in the early hours of the day as usual and later in the morning converge at the town square for the the combined celebration with the Christian prayers.

Because each was respectful of the other, it did not take longer and further efforts to win the traditional pagan worshipers over to the side of the Christian missionaries.

As time went by, the Chief of Kagoro Mallam Gwamna Awan with his subjects in conjunction with the Christian missionaries began to jointly organize the Afan festival celebration.
The Catholic SMA later arrived and their schools where children of the natives were enrolled went a long way to further asuade the people into accepting the introduction of Christian activities in the Afan festival celebration.
Interestingly, the introduction of the Boys Brigade and the Girls Brigade, a Christian para military outfit into the Afan festival celebration added glamour and fanfare to the whole thing. It may be worthwhile to note that Gwamna Awan was a member of the Boys Brigade at the National level, and a life time patron.
Christian Women groups like Zumunta Mata of both the ECWA and Catholic were introduced into the planning and organization, as they also made up part of the contingent on the match pass procession in the Afan festival celebration.
Another action taken by the missionaries to further convince the traditionalists of their good intentions was the building of schools, dispensaries, and other welfare venture.
Because of these missionary interventions, Kagoro became essentially a Christian Chiefdom, thereby opening up the town, and making the Afan festival attractive to Christians.
This is evidently glaring in the participation and attendance of the Christian clergy like the human rights activist and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Matthew Hassan Kukah who had served as guest speaker on several Afan festival celebrations in the past.

MODERN AFAN FESTIVAL CELEBRATION
From year to year innovation and modern modes of celebration have been introduced to the Afan festival.
The chief of Kagoro began to ride on a horseback in a procession round the town with happy singing, drumming and dancing crowds in a convoy. This triumphant horse ride began in in the late 50’s was and still well admired by his people and visitors who make it a yearly “Mecca” on the first day of January to share in the carnival-like entertainment atmosphere.
At the end of the all-round town horse ride, all guests converge at the town square to a gallarie of different types of entertainment from both home and visiting cultural, musical, masquerade, and dance troupes from neighbouring tribes, towns and states in Nigeria.
Other processional features includes traditional dance groups, displays, hunters, war veterans, Youth groups, women organizations, school children, football match, etc all add to make the Afan festival celebration such a beautiful and colourful event to watch.
Government officials, Chiefs and Emirs, the business Community, tourists, and a whole lot of groups from across the country make it to Kagoro on this day.

By the mid 70’s, the Kagoro Afan festival had become the biggest festival in the Middle Belt thereby acquiring the status of a National Festival likened to the Argungu fishing festival, the Eyo festival, the New yam festival, the Durbar, and the Calabar carnival.

During the 1982 Afan National Festival, HRH Mallam Gwamna Awan accompanied by thousands of people and tens of dancing groups began as early as 8.00 AM rode on his horseback in a procession round the town amidst salutations from his subjects and visiting guests before finally arriving at the palace square where he gave his new year address, expressing his gratitude to God and calling for peaceful coexistence amidst applause of “Long live the Chief”

The 2016 festival afforded the Kaduna state government the oportunity to promise a partnership with the Gworok Community in developing tourism in Kagoro with the view of opening up avenues for generation of income for wealth creation.
That 2016 festival also featured a beauty pageant which enabled the emergence of beautiful Kagoro maidens, leading up to the crowning of the winner of Miss Kagoro beauty won by Miss Joy Samuel Amai.
The presence of many dignitaries including the Agwam Bajju Chief Nuhu Bature, Senator Danjuma Laah, Hon Gideon Gwani and a host of others added colour to the occasion.

By 2009, the Afan National Festival marked it’s peak in both planning and attendance.
That Celebration was joined with the coronation of the 6th. Chief of Kagoro Chief Ufuwai Bonet following the death on 30th September 2008 of Mallam Gwamna Awan.
High profile personalities that graced the occasion included former military president Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, then Senate president David Mark, House speaker Dimeji Bankole, Arc. Namadi Sambo, Mahmud Shinkafi, Business Mogul and chief host of the occasion Chief Sonny Okogwu, Isaiah Balat, and a host of others.

The 2011 festival was equally National in outlook, attendance, and organization.
The chairman of the occasion was Chief Solomon Lar, also in attendance was vice president Arc. Namadi Sambo, Prof. Jerry Gana, and of course Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa amongst many others.

Over the years notable guest speakers at the Kagoro Afan National Festival include Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Katuka Bege Ayuba, Professor Jerry Gana, and others too numerous to mention.

Nwan Oegwaza nyin shio a’a ?

Peace 🙏