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THE ORIGIN OF AFIZERE PEOPLE
Harold Gunn (1953) traces the root of the Afizere people from Chawai (Kaduna State) in three successive migrations involving three
patrilenial groups. The first comprised the Shere/Fobour family group. These two brothers first settled at Shere and due to their
rapid "Muturu" (cattle) expansion, the Fobur "patriarch" moved southward to Afozi and later to Fobur plains while his
shere kin remained occupying what is now Shere District. Another family group left Fobur to found what is now Kwall, the origin of Irigwe
(Miyango) people. A.D.O. Finch (1914) in his annual report narrated as follows:
"I am informed that the people now living at Jos and Kwall were originally one tribe and lived in the Jarawa
(Afizere) hills of Fobur, whence they migrated, some settling in Jos and others at Kwall. At the time when the migration occured they
were living at Kwall pagans of the Chawai tribe (from Southern Zaria). The descendants of these two tribes still live together at Kwall
and inter-marry but they retained their distinctive dress. Those from Jarawa (Afizere) still follow the pagan custom of a strip of leather
tied round the loins with a triangular piece in front for the men and of leaves and grass in front for the women, whereas the Chawai, both
men and women wear Hausa dress. After Chawai women women have been married for a short time to descendants of the Jarawa, they discard their
Hausa costume and adapt the dress of their Husband's tribe, but should they go to see their parents, they wear Hausa clothes whilst on their
visit."
The Anaguta people are also said to be Afizere extraction. Oral tradition traces their origin to the Shere family group. The family of
Agwom Deme left Fezumung village of Gwong District. The family was the religious head of Anaguta people like his relation "Agwom Kuwop"
or religious leader of the Fezumung village. Interestingly, both religious leaders declined the offer the become the whiteman's chief (in view
of their abhorence of "fari" cloth which the whiteman's made chief or "Hausa" chief had to wear). Instead the Shere religious elder asked his
youger brother Agwom Atsen Atakai to be District head of Shere while his Anaguta brother also allowed the family of present district head of
Gwong district to become the district head of Anaguta people. In his early childhood days (1947), Abok Musa Inyam (Author of The Jarawa (Afizere people of Nigeria) was live
witness when the family of Agwom Deme in Gwong district brought slained leopard necks to their relations' family in Fezumung as a tribute
and solidarity or togetherness.
The next kindred group of the Afizere are the Gashish people of Kurra Falls in Barikin Ladi Local government area. Apart from the fact that they speak Izere
language, their circumcision rites are carbon copy to that of Afizere. Interestingly, both the Zandi (Damshun) and Gashish people refer to the Afizere as
"Fuganang" (Shere) in probable recognition of him (Fuganang) being the senior migrant of the Afizere kinship group from Chawai. Gashish people also
keep the "Muturu" cattle which they brought from shere, according to one Mallam Shok Bature, a retired teacher from Gashish.
Unlike Anaguta and the Kwall (Miyango) the Gashish people retained their Afizere language despite their being surrounded by different ethnic groups including
the Berom and Challa. The case of Anaguta and Miyango who now speak their respective languages, different from that of Afizere language, is a classical example of
how contacts between different groups had resulted into the assimilation of the linguistic system of one by the other. The Anagutas who married many wives from the Beroms
for example have adopted many words from the Berom language. On the colonial account of the origin of "Anaguta" people, District Officer S.B.M Stobart in his assesment report
of Anaguta and Jarawa districts (1914) Stated paragraph 27
The Anaguta tribe are confined to the village of Naraguta and the small town of Gwosh which lies in the Bauchi emirate. Their
origin is uncertain, though they have a vague idea that they came from beyond the Jarawa hills. They have the same tattooing and face marks as the Jarawa people
with whom they are closely allied." The foregoing collaborates the oral traditional claim that the Anaguta people originated from the Afizere kinship group.
Other related groups of Afizere through post-circumcision ("Igasang") puberty rites includes the "Ngwok" people of Fan district and some families of Du district.
There is a village in Shere district of Afizere Chiefdom called "Fidu", which translated means " The people of Du". It is not unlikely therefore that either the
"Fidu" of Shere district migrated from Du district to their present habitat in Shere or vice versa. Both the "Ngwok" some Du families and Afizere speaking people
of Forom in recent years used to perform the "Igasang" rites with their Afizere kith and kins, particularly when Du used to be administratively under Forom. The
second gruop to migrate from Chawai accoding to Herold Gunn, was the Jarawa Kgi/ Fursum family gruops. Due to increase in population, the Fursum left to their present
habitat,later they expanded to the Forom Afizere Speaking areas
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