History of bassange people by Ndagi Abdullahi
The Bassange didn’t migrate out of KinNupe in one fell swoop or in a single exodus. It was simply a continuous stream of refugees fleeing the wars within KinNupe. Though there were documented instances of large collection of families leaving Gbara, the capital city of the Eastern Nupe kingdom under late Etsu Jimada, en masse in those days. These movements of the Igbara or Gbara Nupe people out of KinNupe and towards the southeast eventually led to concentration camps of refugees who eventually coalesce to form the people that came to be known as the Bassange. The Journey from Central KinNupe In any case the Nupe people known as Bassange today left Central KinNupe at the end of the 18th century due to civil war going on between the three Nupe contenders – Etsu Nyikanko, Etsu Majiya and Etsu Jimada – those days These Gbara people first settled down to a life of fishing, canoeing and some little farming on the banks of the River Niger. But, and unfortunately for them, the enemies of ...