Long trumpets of northern Nigeria - in history and today

Abstract

wooden trumpet ... the lower end (of which) bulges out as the ramrod of great gun (Oudney, in Denham and Clapperton 1826:301) a thin conical tube, made of two or three sections .., rather large bell, and bulging rings that mark the beginning of each section (Sachs 1940:210). A visitor arriving at Kano International Airport in northern Nigeria on the same flight as local V.I.P.2 may find himself greeted by blast on an instrument which, at first sight, suggests an elongated European hunting horn or that used by postillions of eighteenth century stage-coaches. It may remind him of the long, straight trumpet in Giotto's Crowning of the Virgin (ca. 1317) or of the instruments on the medallion from Guerrero Lovillo's Cantigas de Santa Maria on the sleeve of H.M.V.'s Early Medieval Music. Of the quotations at the head of this article the second would seem an appropriate description, but in fact refers to Chinese trumpet of the later middle ages. It is the first which records the earliest sighting of Nigerian long trumpet by British explorer, the ill-fated Oudney, in letter home on 28th March 1823. The starting point for any enquiry is to discover the link between present day Nigerian and medieval Chinese or European trumpets and to investigate what happened to those made of wood. On the way south from Kano through open, rolling savanna, broken by occasional rock outcrops, the farming community, who live in large villages of baked-clay houses, may be seen working in nearby fields, selling garden produce at the roadside, or carrying it to market. The major crop is guinea-corn and, in normal years, rainfall in the wet season (May to October) is sufficient to ensure good harvest. The urban population of long-established cities such as Kano, Katsina or Zaria, are specialist craftsmen, organised in guild system, or small traders, and even rich merchants. The original Habe town inhabitants mixed with group of uncertain origin, the Fulani, to form Hausa culture, which, in its heyday, comprised numerous small states, each under an emir, with highly stratified pyramidal social structure in which musicians and blacksmiths occupied the lowest level. Trade and cultural links with north Africa over thousand years led to adoption of Islam by the ruling groups. The holy war launched by Usman dan Fodio at the beginning of the nineteenth century to reform the backsliding Habe kingdoms established both narrow, 'puritanical' form of Islam and the Fulani Empire, but failed to conquer the equally highly-stratified state of Bornu in the north-east. Today's traditional rulers, whether Fulani-Hausa, Kanuri (in Bornu) or Nupe (to the south) remain as highly-placed and respected local government officials, Islamic influence continues to spread, and, despite experiments in democracy followed by military government, the desire for social status is the prime incentive in obtaining educational qualifications. The bustling streets of Kano, Kaduna or Zaria are jammed with cars, queues form at the