Kagoro Warriors And War Veterans Of All Time

By Emmanuel Gandu

“Oetyok boe tyok” – the brave, courageous, warrior, ultimate man.

INTRODUCTION
Gworok or Kagoro as popularly called by a generality of the public for ease of pronouncement is a town in Southern Kaduna of Nigeria.
The town is indigenous to the Oegworok, a peace loving, hospitable, and predominantly Christian in faith.
Kagoro boasts of a rich history and cultural heritage, beautiful weather of temperate climate, a rich fertile soil, a good spread of rainfall, etc that makes the town attractive to not only the entire Southern Kaduna, the Middle Belt, but Nigeria in general.
The Kagoro hill is one of the pride of the Oegworok people, as it is a Jewel of inestimable value.
Warriors as they are, the Kagoro people are indomitable, industrious, and spiritually engaging.
This discourse is an attempt to highlight the war like nature of the Oegworok people using the Oegwam Nzwang (Warrior) as a reference for ex ray.

WAR AND OEGWAM NZWANG (WARRIOR)
War may be defined as organized and coherent violence ( it may also take the form of gorilla warfare) between rival groups for the purposes of control of resources, for economic advantages, territorial expansionism, ideological, political, social, competition, ego boosting and prestige, exhibition and show of affluence of power, and for the purposes of subjugation of populations.
Warriors are the triumphant men from battle fields who must not have risked their own lives, but must also take the lives of their enemies.
The Oegwam Nzwang (Warrior) is always the Victor in any battle. He is the commander in the war front. He seeks to elevate not only his own individual prestige above all others but also that of his officers, group, village, and town.

Interestingly, war songs are performed at the fighting forces departure to battle and on their return.
The songs are performed in energetic rhythmic tempo in order to violently put them in fighting mood, preserve their memory of past warfare, to celebrate their prowess, and at the same time heaping derision upon their foes.
A typical war song in Gworog (Kagoro language) goes like this :
Zit bio oetyok ba
Oelio ka kpoem zit oe
Oenyan oe bio ukarang ka
Oetyok ba buwok uyit
Oetyok boe tyok
——————————
We are the men
Our hearts are fired up
Who owns the land
The men are back from war
Man is manly

As the Oegwam Nzwang (Warrior) become victorious and triumphant in battle, the vanquished renounces their claims, relinquish their independence, accept defeat and subjugation by dropping their weapons and shields in token of surrender, then the battle ceases.

The following are the undisputed, decorated, inducted and crowned Oegwam Nzwang (warriors) of Kagoro of all time

(1) YAMUWANG
He was a renown warrior of the Zaffan clan in Kadarko district from whom the act of head hunting originated, and from where the Kagoro came to be known later as a group of fierce head hunting tribe. Yamuwang was known to kill his enemies, cut off their heads and take them home to display as a symbol of victory.
It must be noted that the Kagoro never practiced cannibalism but skulls of the enemies were being used as trophies of wars and as act of bravery and manliness.

2) WA’LYAG
The Arab slave traders dreaded him. They called him the invisible head hunter. He understood the tricks of the slave raiders, and in so doing he developed the skills in repelling them from having any incursion into Kagoro.
That was why among the Sub Bantu tribes, Kagoro was the least affected both during the Arab slave trade raids, and the Western slavery expedition period.

3) YA’NKYAI WA’LYAG
He was a notorious inter tribal warlord. He was said to be a true representative of both his name and that of his father, WA’LYAG.
He was a celebrated warrior among the people of old. This became a name only reserved for members of his family and clan. The name became so socrosanct that calling it became like calling the name of a supreme deity.

4) BIJIB SAMBANG
(the Cactus eater)
He was said to be an “Iron Man” of Kagoro, a warrior who, at battle and at a point when the Gworog warriors were almost surrounded and closed up by the enemy forces during an encounter, will plug out cactus to chew like chewing gum.
After such acts of chewing, his eyes will turn to be as red as the burning fire.
At such point, he will always move fearlesly to break the enemy formation against the Kagoro people.

5). AGA’AD KAN’WAI
He was a major stumbling block to the Colonial Master’s penetration into the land of Kagoro despite their superior weapons and fire power.
Aga’ad was from the family of the custodians of the Tuu Nzwuang “war room” in Kagoro.
He was such a reliable warrior that the Colonial soldiers only gained penetration into Kagoro the day he was forcefully assassinated.
For them to get him down, they had to use one of the neigbouring tribes he was fund of visiting.
That day, they entered Kagoro, came to the ‘Tun’ci’ and destroyed all the things found inside. They also penetrated the sacred caves to take away some of the guns and elements seized from some of the Colonial Soldiers who had been killed by the bravery of the Kagoro people.

Nnuan Oegwaza nyin nshio’aa ?

Peace 🙏