Developing story: Bassa Nge people of Kogi state have officially changed their ethnic name to Nupe.
They are now to be referred to as the Nupes in Kogi.
OBSERVERSTIMES recall History that the Bassa Nge people are a Nupe people through and through , Any discussion on the origin or history of the Bassa Nge people must start on this premise , namely , that they left Central KinNupe as a Nupe people relatively not long ago .
So many people have migrated out of KinNupe on exoduses and the Bassa Nge are most probably one of the last people to do so since they actually left Central KinNupe in recent historical times .
The Bassa Nge people begun to leave Central KinNupe in the days of the bitter rivalry between Etsu Jimada and Etsu Majiya when the Nupe kingdom broke into two rival kingdoms at the end of the 18th century .
Etsu Jimada was the Etsu Nupe of the Eastern Nupe Kingdom with his palaces at Gbara and Zhima while Etsu Majiya was the Etsu Nupe of the Western Nupe Kingdom with his palace at Zugurma .
The rivalry between the two contending Etsu Nupes led to incessant and continued internecine wars between the two Nupe kingdoms .
These internecine civil wars led to population displacements within and outside KinNupe one of which was the migration of the people who we today refer to as the Bassa Nge .
By a historical coincidence , the Bassa Komu migrants and Nupe migrants ( namely, Bassa Nge ) had almost simultaneously migrated and settled in the same geographical area called Bassa Province .
The Bassa Komu crossed at the confluence of the Rivers Niger and Benue in the 1840s , whereas the Bassa Nge crossed the River Niger in the 1850s .
These emigrational movements brought the people now called Bassa Nge and Bassa Komu close together in the same geographical area ; otherwise , the two groups of people have nothing in common in their origin , culture or history. While the Bassa Nge are a Nupe speaking tribe from Gbara in Nupe Kingdom , the Bassa Komu are a Bassa tribe from Gumna in Zozo Kingdoms of Fulani Bororo .
Linguistically, Bassa Komu belong to the Benue-Congo branch which Bassa Nge , being Nupe speaking , belong to the Kwa branch of Nigeria-Congo languages .
Unfortunately , with the coincidence of these two distinct ethnic groups inhabiting the same geographical Bassa Province , the name , Bassa , invariably became erroneously applicable to both of them .
This somehow accounts for the white colonial officials lumping together of otherwise separate communities with a common name , Bassa .
The colonialists had indeed taken the community ( Bassa Nge ) to be the same with the Bassa Komu and they were so commonly referred to as Bassa – a case of mistaken identity ! However , even with the imposition of a common identity with the generic term , Bassa , the colonialists were conscious of the differences between the two tribes ; therefore , they designated each of them with a linguistic suffix , “ Nge ” and “ Komu ,” to denote “ Bassa-Nge ” and “ Bassa-Komu ” respectively .
The Bassa Nge people now occupy the eastern side of the confluence of the Rivers Niger and Benue although some of them still live on the side of the River Niger at Lokoja , present-day headquarters of Kogi State , Nigeria .
The population of the Bassa Nge according to the 2006 census was about 140,000 Bassa-Nge kingdom in located in Bassa Local Government Area of Kogi State in Nigeria , and has three (3) districts , namely , Gboloko , Kpata and Eforo , The Bassa Nge kingdom has its headquarters in Gboloko ; it covers some 100 square kilometers , which is bound to the north by the River Benue and Mozum district ; to the east by Bassa Komu , Dekina and Biraidu districts ; and to the west by the River Niger .
The kingdom inhabits the low lands of the River Niger and its entire length faces Lokoja with a most important port at Shintaku , where people cross the River Niger by ferry and outboard boats to and from Lokoja .
History was made on May 28, 2016 , when the BNC donated Over the Counter ( OTC ) medicines to the clinic in Gboloko , headquarters of the Bassa Nge Kingdom at a special event that was well publicized in advance .
Over 200 Bassa Nges attended and directly benefited from this event .
This event was made possible through the generous donations of members of BNC , who believed strongly that they should give back to the land of their birth. Prior to this momentous event , the BNC members of the Medicines Donation Task Force ( Mr. Ezekiel Tsado , Mr. Gambo Afubu and Mrs. Roseline Ekuta ) had obtained the permission and blessings of the Etsu Bassa Nge, His Royal Highness, Alh. ( Brig. General ) Abu Ali Mopah III ( Rtd ) ” Bagadozhi “. Other eminent leaders who were contacted prior to this event included the Imam of Gboloko and the Pastor-l in Charge of the Anglican Communion in Gboloko , both of whom helped to disseminate relevant information regarding the donation to their members. Mrs. Victoria Ajoka , Head Nurse at the clinic in Gboloko , received the donated medicines on behalf of all the patients who needed them .
On the date of this event , each patient received a physical examination prior to any medicine being dispensed .
This donation would be the first of many more charitable activities to follow , some pictures from this event are provided here .
Official press statement effecting the change of name
