Short History of Gamon Kafur

Gamon Kafur

Barely a year after Buhari re-entered Hadejia, Sultan Aliyu organised perhaps the most menacing expedition against him. This time virtually all the major Sokoto emirates were involved. Apart from Sokoto itself, there included Zamfara, Zaria, Kano, Katagum, Bauchi, as well as Gombe, Misau and Jama’are. According to some estimates horses alone numbered at least 20,000. The Kanawa
contingents were led by Galadiman Kano Abdullahi. Overall command fell to the Sultan’s strongman, the formidable Wazirin Sokoto, though his was more or less a supervisory role only. Sarkin Miga Umaru was supposed to show the way because he was the one most familiar with the approaches to Hadejia. For all the difference that made, the expedition could as well have been guided by a blind man. Taskar Suleiman Ginsau

To be fair, Sarkin Miga cannot be blamed if the
expedition chose to move in a formation that
had always been vulnerable to an ambush. Because once the allied units converged on southern Hadejia, they had formed in solid phalanxes, moving forward in a slow, confident procession towards the capital. Somebody should have told them that that was the sort of thing you don’t do, especially in an area with which you are not thoroughly familiar. Certain units of Federal troops were fond of this type of advance during the Nigerian civil war, and were made to pay dearly by relatively ill-equipped Biafra's. Taskar Suleiman Ginsau

The allied expedition confident – indeed over-
confident – in its numbers was oblivious to any
imminent danger. They had anticipated that they
will not meet any real opposition till they reached
the Hadejia walls, and once there had no doubts
whatsoever that they could squash any opposition Buhari could muster. How wrong they were.
Because, as it turned out, Buhari did not stay to
be surrounded in his capital, but intercepted the
expedition forces at Kaffur village, six miles from
Hadejia. The eventual victory of Buhari at this
decisive battle owes, more than any other thing
else, to the fact that he was the one who picked
the field of battle. And his choice of the Kaffur
terrain amply demonstrated his military genius.
Movie buffs are familiar with scenes in old
westerns, where a number of Indians have
suddenly appeared on a ridge dominating a plain
over which certain cowboys have pitched their
tents. To the helpless cowboys the Indians
always seemed to materialize from nowhere, and
their numbers likewise invariably appear more
than is actually the case. Taskar Suuleiman Ginsau.

At Kaffur Buhari had, very much like an Indian
War Chief, quietly slipped his men into position
along a high ridge overlooking a broad plain
containing the expedition forces. He then had his
maroka drum out his well-known arrival tune to
the “unorganised mass of soldiery” according
to Victor Law resting below. What ensued was
pandemonium. Barden Rinde Muhammadu vividly
described the resulting melee: “On hearing the drum beat, Galadiman Kano’s army began to flee. Instead of bridling their horses’ fronts they bridled their tails. All was confusion as they attempted to save their lives. No one stood his ground.” In the subsequent rout that followed the general confusion, a number of prominent casualties were recorded. A son of Sarkin Zaria and three of Sarkin Kano were killed, as were seventeen sons of various Kano sarakuna. The Sultan himself lost a grandson. As for the Waziri, we was reportedly seen riding at full rein and would later surface at Shira town, some seventy miles from Kaffur.