APPENDIX VI
Philip Askell Benton translation
THE BAUCHI ACCOUNT OF SHEHU LAMINO’S KANO CAMPAIGN[541]
Extract from a History of the Bauchi Emirs, translated from the manuscript of Mallam Mustapha, tutor and adviser to the sons of Yakubu, first Emir of Bauchi, by A. Holdsworth Groom, Assistant Resident, Central (Bauchi) Province, Northern Nigeria.
After this he (Yakubu) made a war and went to Dass. He remained there five years, and fought with them and conquered half of them. He was fighting with the other half when the news of Kanumbu (Shehu Lamino of Bornu) reached him, and he started and went to Fake. They met Kanumbu, whose horsemen numbered 44,444. He had driven away the village chiefs of Kano, the chiefs of Kano city, and the Emir of Kano, Dabo. All had fled. Yakubu came and found him encamped. When Kanumbu saw him he said: ‘This slave of the Fulani is a liar, what does he think he will take from off me?’ Yakubu said to his mallams: ‘What is your advice? Ye behold the multitude of his horses. Ye behold also the number of my horses, 2,500. What say ye?’ They replied, ‘The king’s word is ours.’ Yakubu said, ‘I know not how to defeat him, neither do I know how he may be killed, but one thing I do know, I know that he has no power to raise the dead, that he has no power, if rain be lacking, to cause it to fall, that he has no power, if the grass does not spring up, to cause it to do so.’ The followers of Yakubu said, ‘As for these things Allah alone is able to do them.’ Yakubu replied, ‘Since ye know this, that no one is able to do anything save Allah, let us take courage and fight with him, for we shall defeat him and kill him, because no one is powerful save Allah.’ Then they joined battle and slaughtered them, and scattered them.[542] Kanumbu fled, leaving behind him his flag, his tents and drums, and went away to Bornu. Yakubu started and went to Sokoto’and brought to the Sarikin Mussulmin, Bello, son of Shefu dan Fodio, Kanumbu’s flag, his tents, and his drums. Bello rejoiced greatly and made a prayer for Ibraihim, son of Yakubu, that Allah would give him the kingdom of his father, that Allah would give the children of Ibraihim the kingdom of Ibraihim;[543] that Allah would establish the seed of Ibraihim in the house of Yakubu. Yakubu returned and came home.