Suksuku Revisited

About the Book

The book Suksuku Revisited . . . is a diverse collection of the stories, folk tales, and maƙumđla đza đza that the Bura people of Northeastern Nigeria use to transmit their cultural milieu, belief systems, and the supernatural to their youth. The book is permeated with how the tribe interacts with and is solely dependent upon the power and magnanimous symbiotic character of the creator, Ĥŷel Ǩaƙa (Grandpa/Ma God). This is most obvious in chapters 1, 7, and 9. At other times, the tribe uses animals to express those values and social mores they intend to pass on; these are reflected in chapters 6, 12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 22, 26, and 29. Social conflicts are often resolved through the supernatural or other arcane powers of the shaman, such as in chapters, 2, 8, 10, 24, 27, and 28. Suksuku Revisited . . . opens a door—which, until now, may have been closed to the outsider—into the tribal thoughts of the Bura people with regard to their conception of creation, the supernatural, and the symbiotic relationship between the creator and his people.

About the Author

I was born in Garƙiɗa, a town in Adamawa in the northeastern part of Nigeria. I attended a missionary school from elementary to high school. After high school, I was admitted to ATC/ABU Kano from 1967–1970. In 1971 after the completion of my course of studies, I was admitted to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria and graduated three years later with a second upper-class honors degree in 1974. I served one year of national youth service before joining the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria faculty in the Department of Education. Around 1977–1978, I attended the University of Chicago where I earned an MA degree. I went back to Ahmadu Bello University, teaching until 1980 when I was admitted to a PhD program at Columbia University in New York City. I completed my degree in 1985. From 1987 to the present (I’m now retired and teach only one course), I have been a professor at BMCC/City University of New York in New York City. Besides my teaching responsibilities, I am the author of several books which include the following titles: The Story of the Origins of the Bura/Pabir People of Northeast Nigeria: Language, Migrations, the Myth of Yamta-ra-wala, Social Organization, and Culture (2014), Araba Let’s Separate: The Story of the Nigerian Civil War (2012), Suksuku (2010), Stories and Folktales of the Bura People of Northeastern Nigeria(2014), The Village Boy (2009), and Cognition, Culture, and Field Dependence-Independence (2008). All the books are published by AuthorHouse in Bloomington, Indiana. AYM 2016