I was talking about Zuma Rock last week and to that imperturbable rock face, I must return.
The legend is well known, I suppose, about the evil king and queen of ancient Gbagyi Kingdom, before Fulani jihadists overran the land and co-opted Gbagyiland into the “Banza Bakwai”- the seven ‘bastard’ states of the old Hausa-Fulani Empire or Caliphate.
At a stage, the people got really pissed with the evil king and queen and banished them to Zuma Forest on the outskirts of the kingdom. Now, here’s a lesson for those of us who imagine that popular uprisings were invented by the French and perfected by the Russians for export to the rest of the world. The image of that evil couple; is the engraving you see as you drive past Zuma Rock.
The surreal dimension of that ‘abstract’ impression is better appreciated from several distant points away from the base of the rock. The traffic recedes to a noiseless backdrop and the vivid etchings of two facial expressions; the weeping queen and- depending on your point of view- the pouting or sneering king, evoke wistful thoughts of the supernatural. This strange effect of simple nature on simpler minds is quite strong even from the far-off Madalla countryside, where Zuma Rock enjoys the veneration of Gbagyi shamans and animists.
The clearest sight of this engaging phenomenon is available right across Zuma Rock, from Munzali Dantata’s Tourist Village. The setting sun bathes the rock face in its glow and lights up every dent and scratch on the huge stone. The chipped rectangle to the right of the king and queen stands out in stark relief as befits the subject of living tales about annual gatherings of the elect and conclaves behind a mystic door!
Still, for all its bewildering attraction, Zuma Rock and its immediate environment bask in the perennial blush of stunted growth; a pervading ambience of arrested development that is difficult to fathom.
The long abandoned Rock Castle Hotel is slowly turning to rubble in the thicket of savannah thorn plants near Zuma Rock. Billed to be a five star hang out, with all the frills of a deluxe lodge, it could have been the first luxury hotel in Abuja. Today, it presents for everyone to see, an eloquent illustration of a worthy investment gone to seed. Talk abounds of a peculiar mineral, uranium perhaps, and strange happenings in the vicinity of the rock which put a halt to the hotel.
Behind the decaying project site, a brick and mortar hosing estate for junior staff of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development has slowly regressed from a cute though remote address to a desolate outpost. The red-white brickwork has lost its novel charm and looks steadily like a splendid mistake.
Across the busy highway, the green, red and blue roofs of another housing plan make a bright, inspiring statement with compact matchbox plots laid out in the sprawling Madalla valley. At a time, the popular view was that the estate was too close to the highway. Many voiced the fear of speeding, heavy duty vehicles careening off the tarred road and crashing into the buildings. Their concern was not entirely without foundation as crazier mishaps have occurred with some regularity near the popular Madalla market. Since no such tragedy has visited the yet uncompleted housing estate, we can assume that the constant pleas of “Allah ki ya yi” which always trail this terrifying conjecture have been effective in thwarting it.
However, the urgent prayers of the people for modern, affordable housing have not met the desired response of the current administration in Niger State. Governor Babangida Aliyu, aka the Chief Servant, has abandoned the project initiated by his predecessor. The place is now home to vagrants.
The slow, sickly growth of the Tourist Village twenty years plus after it was begun attests more to the doggedness of its proprietor, a former president of the Association of Nigerian Travel Agents, than the inspiring potentials of the Zuma Rock area. The flags of a dozen countries wave from its stylish fence to announce an unflagging drive for the noble ideals of eco-tourism, but the atmosphere behind the rustic gate reeks of that eerie suspension, which distinguishes the building projects around Zuma Rock.
Soon after he came into office in 1999, President Obasanjo visited the area to kick start a medium income housing project. His schedule was rather tight, it seems, and the president arrived at the venue after dusk. The traffic swelled on both sides from the rock face to Gauraka and Zuba as the president and his host, Governor Kure, went by torchlight and lamp to lay the foundation stone. For whatever it was worth, their efforts at time management with all the semblance of a fetish ritual, merely added to the grand mystic of Zuba Rock. You want to know about that housing project, don’t you? Not a single house has been fully built on that site ten years on.
Now, that is why I believe it is a mistake to put Zuma Rock on our hundred naira note. In my view, the association with Zuma is not such a good thing for the national currency. You see, many a native speaker thinks that the word is zúmà, Hausa, for “honey”. No, it refers to zúmá, Gbagyi for “evil”. So, Zuma Rock is not really “Honey Rock” but…
I started this message last week by saying that something about the environment there propels comparisons with the national situation. You get my drift, now?
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