MAYA YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

Keynote Address Delivered By Prof. Joel P. Dada (NHSN)

University of Maiduguri, Nigeria
Represented By
James Edward Pamni

First Maya Peoples Assembly

Held @ Cortland Garden, Abuja, Nigeria

On Saturday 10th November, 2007.

 INTRODUCTION
I must begin this Keynote address by thanking those who
nominated me as a Keynote Speaker at this Unique and
historic event. I do not know their reasons for nominating me
as a Keynote Speaker. However, whatever their reasons for
nominating me, I consider the invitation as a privilege. The
organizers of the Anniversary Ceremony have asked me to
speak on the topic Maya Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. In
treating this topic, I assume that the framers want me to talk
above Maya as a nation or people.

THE MAYA YESTERDAY

To start with the word Maya is used to refer to Bali,
Kpasham and Yotti who speak Congo-Ubanpi language as
classified by Blench and others. Presently, the Maya are
located in Demsa, Mayo Belwa Local Government areas of
Adamawa State and Lau Local Government area of Taraba
State. Majority of the people are agriculturalist, though there
are traders, herdsmen and civil servants among them.

Like any other ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Maya claim

that they entered the Nigeria region from the east. The Bali,
for example claim that they entered the Nigerian region from
the Republic of Congo and through a gradual process, they
came and settled in their present geographical location. The
Yotti claim that they came into the Nigerian region from
Egypt. The Kpasham and Bomni denied any knowledge of
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distance movement. They claim that they came from Bachama
land, probably from Lamurde to the area they are now
occupying. However, linguistics evidence suggests that the
people are of Bantu origin. The evidence points to Republic of
Congo as their original homeland.

It is not known when the people left their original

settlement. Probably, the people must have left their original
settlement in the 17th Century by which time there was
population movement in the whole of the West, East and
Central Africa as a result of famine, fratricidal wars ad
chieftaincy tussle. The Maya might have formed part of the
population that migrated to the Lake chad basin area and, later
to the Upper Benue Valley. Before the declaration of the Jihad
in Fombina, in 1809, Maya had already settled in their various
communities and have developed village governments or
better still, community governments, independent of each
other.

Apart from these community governments set up by the

Maya, the people also had a well defined social and economic
system which rendered their societies stable. For example, one
aspect of the social life of the people is that the Maya had
great respect for life. In fact, the spilling of human blood was
seen as offensive to Kpan Biswi (Kpan Luh or Luwe, among
the Yotti and Kpasham respectively). Most Maya believed that
it was Kpan Biswi that guide and sustain their livelihood. To
the Maya, therefore, life was very sacred. The birth of a child
was greeted with joy not only by the parents but also by the
community as a whole. The growth and development of such a
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child was watched carefully by the entire community. He was
trained not only by his parents and relatives alone but by the
community as a whole. This made Maya child useful member
of his society.

Similarly, the death of a member was mourned by all

and was seen as a great loss to the entire Maya Community. In
short, there was social cohesion among the Maya people
before the advert of Colonialism. For instance, an attack on
any of the Maya Village by the enemy was seen as an attack
on all. Besides, individual farmers or other hunters assisted
their colleagues in time of need, especially through communal
work (Gaya in Hausa). To put it in another way, during pre-
colonial period, Maya Society was quite peaceful and people
were hard-working. Their quarrels were settled among them
peacefully, although on rare occasions, they resort to
skirmishes.

During the first decade of the 19th Century, Maya Land

started to experience some political, economic and social
disequilibrium. The declaration of the Jihad in Fombina in
1809 by, Modibbo Adama affected not only the Maya but the
whole of the Upper Benue Region. The Jihadists attempted to
overrun the whole of Maya land but without success.
However, one devastating impact of this Jihad on the people
is that there was a population movement throughout Maya
land. In the process, many of the Maya lost their children,
their relatives, friends and possessions to the Jihadists. Even
before the declaration of the Jihad by Modibbo Lawan on

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Maya people, Mayaland had been under constant threats from
Fulani and Bachama slave raiders.

The threats posed to the Maya by the slave raiders and

the menace of the Jihadists, led to restriction of Maya social,
economic and political activities. Consequently, poverty
gradually started to gain inroad into the society. A missionary,
Ernest Engskor who visited Bali village in the early 1930S had
this to bay: Bali appeared to us to be one of the most
wretched, primitive and poverty stricken of African villages,
enslaved as the people were by ancient tradition and fear of
evil spirit. Our had been on exceptional and unique experience
for it was almost as though these people had awakened from
their sleeping beauty enchantment to discover the great world
beyond their isolated society (Enskor, 1983:179). The Maya
was gradually tackling the problems of slave raiders and Fulbe
Jihadists, when British colonial masters extended their
activities to Maya land. Eventually the people were conquered
and brought under the British colonial administration in 1903.

1903 to 1912, the whole area South of Numan Town

was regarded as closed territory. It was not until after 1912
that Maya land, including those living in Mayo-Belwa and
Lau was opened to Christian missionaries. By 1940S,
colonialism and Christianity were deeply noted in Maya
villages. Indeed, while the Christian missions, especially the
United Sudan Mission (SUM) were busy softening the minds
of the people they saw as uncivilized, the British Colonial
Masters were taking their resources away for the development
of their home countries. The result is that Maya were left to
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face acute starvation and hanger. In this [1] way, colonialism
continued to destroy Maya economic, technology and self-
reliant development just as the slave raiders and Jihadists had
done. This was how the whole of Mayaland became a British
possession at the beginning of the 20th Century like any other
ethnic nationality in Nigeria. Indeed, slave trade and
colonialism were the major forces that set back Maya
development. The slave raiders dominated Maya homeland
and the British exploited Maya homeland and the British
exploited Maya resources.

Throughout colonial period, the Maya struggled to free

himself from colonial domination. In 1913, for example, one
of the Maya men short and wounded a British Touring Officer
who had gone to Bali for head account. In reprisal, Bali village
was attached and destroyed by the British punitive expedition.
It took the people years to build their village. But this did not
stop the people from opposing the British actively or
passively. On 1st October 1960, however, the Maya people
together with the rest of the ethnic groups in the country
gained political independence from Britain.

MAYA TODAY
Maya land today is a shadow of its pre-colonial setting.
Both the settlements and the traditional institutions have lost
their glory. It will appear that Maya became famous on
account of its preeminence in farming and military powers.
The existence of fertile soil, abundant rainfall and iron ore
enabled the people of Maya lands to produce more food crops
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and military equipment than the neighboring Yandang,
Bwatye and, possibly, many other inhabitants of the
surrounding area. But this fame for food crops production and
military powers was completely lost by the beginning of the
20th century with the result that today not only is military
powers no longer displayed by the people but even the
agriculture which is the mainstay of the economy of the
people has declined greatly.

Nevertheless, the Kpaneship is still in existence. But

even then, the Kpane (District and village heads) no longer
performs traditional functions which are largely spiritual in
nature. These include directing religious festivals of Tamtale
among the Maya and Pille among the Yotti, held in November
and Yale held between October and December. These festivals
hitherto served as unifying factors where the young people in
the society come to meet and make friends with each other.
Not only that, it was during Tamtale (pille) that the age-grade
system among the people was perfected. These social
gatherings have virtually vanished without any attempt to
revive them, thereby reducing the people into inconsequential
elements in Adamawa and Taraba States.

One would have taught that what Maya may have lost in
the colonial period they have more than made up for in the
postcolonial Nigeria. But on the contrary, the people did not
make for anything they lost during colonial period. In spite of
the fact that the Maya were given opportunities by other ethnic
nationalities to make up for by electing and appointing them
as Chairmen of Local Government Councils, Vice-Chairmen
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members of the State Assemblies, Directors in States and
Federal Ministries, they could not make up for what they lost
during the colonial period. The people wasted the
opportunities and are now at the mercy of hunger, starvation
prevalence of diseases like HIV/AIDS and Malaria. A people
faced with these myriad of problems are bound to be indolent
and reserved. This make the people to become like a mud fish
always eating its tail during dry season when it is severed from
water and food. Thus, a man from Bali will prefer to vote a
non-Maya into the elected position than to vote for his brother
from Yotti, Dem and so on. Those who are interested in the
backwardness and lack of progress of the Maya people have
always used this disunity among the Maya for their own
advantage. No one among the Maya seems to understand this
dangerous trend.

Worse still, respect for elders in the Maya society has

since become a thing of the past. Instead, indiscipline among
the youths is the order of the day. There is no doubt that the
society is seriously dislocated socially. Perhaps, we need
another set of Danish missionaries or missionaries from Israel
or elsewhere to assist these youth to locate their bearings in
the scheme of things in Maya society. But that is a wishful
thinking. We must wake up ourselves.

MAYA TOMORROW

In spite of the fact that Maya society is at the cross road

of total decay and collapse, this situation can be reversed for
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the better in the years ahead. The Maya leaders should as a
matter of urgency adopt what we may call grave-yard strategy
in tackling their socially political and economic problems.

The grave-yard strategy entails giving the sense of

direction and purpose through the provision of basic social
amenities. This will take the form of portable water supply,
electricity, network of roads, fertilizer, functional educational
system, especially vocational education. This will then call for
intensive lobbying of the stakeholders in the education
industry, economic sector and political endeavor. The Maya
personalities both in Yotti, Kpasham and Bali etc should put
their contacts and diplomacy to play in order to secure some
share of states (Adamawa and Taraba) and Federal
Government facilities for the entire Maya society. The
personalities that are better placed to do this job include
politicians, academics, soldiers, polite, seasoned Maya
administrators, religious dignitaries and women folk.

But meeting the basic needs of the people in terms of

water supply, good roads, schools etc is not enough. The
people, especially the youths should be empowered politically
and economically. As regards to economic empowerment, one
would advocate for Maya Economic Summit It is during the
summit that economic problems facing the Maya nation will
be discussed. This summit should be followed by education
summit where the issue of vocational and technical education
will feature prominently. This forum will also discuss the
ways and means through which Maya culture will be
reviewed. The destiny and future of Maya society lies in the
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hands of its citizens. The Maya society will be for better if we
discourage disunity among ourselves. United we stand, divided
we fall says on English adage.

In conclusion, we have seen how Maya as a people

started their journey in Nigeria, the intrigues and hassles they
passed and are still passing through. In the process of their
journey into the Nigerian troubled waters, they have acquired
a lot of experiences whether bad or good, the Maya society
will be for the better in the years to come if they take their
destiny and future into their own heads. Ladies and gentlemen
thank you for listening and God in His infinite mercy bless all
of us. I wish you fruitful deliberations during the subsequent
presentations.

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[1]Earnest, Engskor (1983). Adamawa Province: Reflections and Gongola State
London: Rooting Publicly Company. P. 179.

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