Ngizim

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Ngizim is a language belonging to the Chadic family of the Afroasiatic phylum.

According to Schuh 1981 "Ngizim is spoken by perhaps 25000 people in North Eastern Nigeria." As the diagram shows, it is closely related to Duwai and Bade but while latter two are located around Gashua, Ngizim as it is today is largely concentrated around Potiskum and its environs in Potiskum local government area of Yobe State, Nigeria. In the diaspora there are large numbers of Ngizims in Borno and Jigawa states who have lost their Ngizim identity as a result of assimilation into other ethnic groups.

[edit] History

The history of the tribe of Ngizim is synonymous with the history of Borno empire before the Fulani Jihad of 1804. At the time of the founding of the capital of the empire, Birni Ngazargamu, in 1472, the Ngizim were already a force to reckon with. In his notes on the "History of the first twelve years of the reign of Mai Idris Alooma (1571 – 1583) by Imam Ahmad Ibn Furtua" H.R Palmer informs us about the word Ngizim. "Their are various forms of this name which though they are distinguished seem to denote the same people — N'gizim, N'gujam, N'gazar, N'Kazzar, N'gissam".

In another part of the notes he tells us that Birni N'gazargamu was founded by Mai Ali Ghaji Dunamani in about 1462, who acquired the site from the "so" who lived in the region.

"The name of the capital is correctly spelled N'gazargamu or N'gasarkumu. The first part of the word signifies that the previous inhabitants of the region where N'gazar or N'gizim. The later part of the word "Gamu" or "Kumu" is the same as the first part of the word "Gwombe" and means either (i) chief or King or (ii) ancestral spirit."

Going by the scattered references to the N'gizim one would at best only guess the extent of their spread in the Western Sudan. Their is reference to N'gizim and then the tribe of N'gizim in the west of the empire known as the Binawa. Binawa is also known as Mabani who extended from Bursari region west of Birni Gazargamu to Katagum.

[edit] Potiskum Town

Concerning their more recent history, during the period of the Fulani Jihad specifically in 1808 "A group of N'gizim under the leadership of Bauya left Mugni as a result of attack on Birni N'gazargamu by the Fulani Jihadist. They took a south course to the Kaisala area. On arrival Bauya and his group helped the inhabitants of Kaisala repulse an attack on them by the N'gazar of Daura (Dawura). After a counter attack on Daura and its conquest, Bauya founded his own section of settlement and called it "Pataskum" which was corrupted by Europeans to "Potiskum".

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