Atyap
As a sub-unit they required probably more thousands of years earlier to separate from other members of the Kataf group like Gyong, Hyam, Duya and Ashe (Koro) who are little intelligible to them.
[7] The Atyap call themselves 'Atyap' and are so known and addressed by their immediate neighbouring groups like Asholyio (or Morwa), Agworok (or Kagoro), Atyecarak (or Kachechere), Atakat (or Attaka, Attakar), Ham (or Jaba), Gwong (or Kagoma), Adara (or Kadara), Akoro (or Koro), Bajju (or Kaje), Anghan (or Kamantan), Fantswam (or Kafanchan), Afo, Afizere, Atsam (or Chawai) and Rukuba, together with the Atyap, form part of the Eastern Plateau group of languages of the Benue-Congo language family.
It was however in the nineteenth century as a result of over-taxation, slave raids and the imposition of corvee labour on people under the influence of the Sarakuna of Hausaland, which led to increased migrations as a form of protest.
The reluctance of Hausa traders and their leaders to pay for the tribute meant for their protection to the Atyap became a major cause of breach to the agreement and this led to insecurity in the area.
[7] Another agreement was entered into by the Atyap and the Hausa traders in the early 19th century and trading again resumed and Atyapland prospered to the level that every house was said to have had livestock including horses.
The Amala, Arumaruma and others around Kauru, Lere and Ajure (Kajuru) by 1820 were subdued as vassals of Zaria and those settlements served as attack launching centres for Emirate campaigns against the Atyap and their neighbours.
[7] In 1827, Richard Lander in his first expedition with his master, Captain Hugh Clapperton, who died in Sokoto earlier, on his return chose to pass through another route which led him to becoming the first European to visit and describe the important town of Zangon Katab (which he spelt "Cuttub") and its people, the Atyap.
Although, quite disappointed because the compact urban settlement like Kano he hoped to meet was not what he saw, however, he expressed his impression as thus: "all bore an air of peace, loveliness, simplicity and comfort, that delighted and charmed me."
He also described the ruler of Zangon Katab who he called a "very great man" and to whom he gifted eight yards of blue and scarlet damask prints of the king of England and the late Duke of York, and several smaller items also.
They responded by attacking the Hausa and Fulani in their territory holding some captives and compelling the emirs of Zaria and Jema'a to pay tribute to them for some years, after which the latter launched a counter offensive against them to set their people free.
The insecurity and economic turbulence brought by the raids and tributes were meant to create avenues for slavery and its trade in the area and succeeded to a great extent.
The Atyap, however, through an ambush completely defeated the combined forces and sold some of the fighters captured into slavery then returned to Zangon Katab and burnt down the Zango settlement, again disrupting trade in the area.
Kwassau, however, met with a strong resistance at Magata, Mayayit, Makarau and Ashong Ashyui where he resorted to impaling his victims on stakes and burning others alive.
Accepting these claims, the British in 1912 appealed to the Atyap to acknowledge the emirs of Jema'a and Zaria as their paramount chiefs in a bid to impose colonial rule through those newfound allies.
Achi in Achi et al. (2019) noted that the Atyap were always told "All of us in Zaria division are brothers, whether we be Muslims, Pagans or Christians" but faced discrimination always when it came to employment and reported that in 1953, the Native Authority had 102 staff, 60 being Hausa/Fulani, 42 indigenes from Atyap, Bajju, Bakulu, Anghan, Atsam and Atyecharak—i.e., 25 village scribes, four court scribes, three local police, nine teachers and one departmental mallam.
In 1942, Bajju militants led by Usman Sakwat waged intense anti-colonial struggles directly against the Zaria Emirate and this brewed to the post World War II Atyap–Bajju movement against the colonialists.
Many Atyap were arrested en masse, including Ndung Amaman of Zonzon who was an elder in support of the resistance, who later died of a heart-related complication in detention in Zaria and 25 others convicted of offence against taxation ordinance and sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour.
Others like Sheyin (AKA Mashayi) and five others were convicted of unlawfully assaulting the police and resisting authority and sentenced to two to six months imprisonment with hard labour.
In January 1954, soldiers were sent to Zangon Katab town by the British to avert an impending attack by Atyap and Bajju extremist groups against the Hausa population.
[7] After independence in 1960, General Yakubu Gowon (1966–1975) introduced reforms, letting the Atyap appoint their own village district heads, but the appointees were subject to approval by the emir, and were therefore often seen as puppets.
Even when issues leadinɡ to war were fundamental, these did not destroy the possibility of peaceful inter-ɡroup relations as seen in the alliances of protection between the Atyap and Bajju, Agworok, Asholyio, Akoro, and Ham.
"[7] During the dry season after crop harvest, men go hunting for animals in the wild between December and March annually, embarking on expeditions to Surubu (Avori) and Karge hills to the north and to the Atsam and Rukuba (Bace) territories on the Jos Plateau encarpment, east of Atyap land.
The A̱tyap, like other African cultural groups (see Molnos 1973; Bygrunhanga-Akiiki 1977; Robey et al. 1993), strongly believe that marriage was established by A̱gwaza (God) and the fullness of an Atyap womanhood lies, first, in a woman having a husband of her own.
Here, the close associates [of the boy] sets an ambush for the girl, seize and leave her in the hut of one of the man's relatives, where the bride stays for three days and nights.
This corroborated colonial report that '[should] secondary official marriage occur: a man may inherit widows of his grandfather, father and brother, but only when these are young women and do not have adult lineal descendant with whom they can live.
[39] Avong (2000:67) accounted that the population is unknown, however, it was estimated that about a half of the 145,000 people officially registered for Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in the 1991 census, were Atyap.
Since missionaries were disapproved of by both the ruling Hausa-Fulani and the colonial authorities, their message was all the more welcome to the Atyap, to whom Christianity was unfettered by association with political structures they considered oppressive.
Due to the resentment of Atyap people to the Hausa and their Islamic religion, Christian nissionaries found fertile ground and had opportunity to propagate the gospel.
[34] Culturally, since time immemorial, the Atyap had been farmers, especially during the rainy season producing food crops like sorghum (swaat), millet (zuk), beans (ji̱njok), yams (cyi), fonio (tson), beniseed (cwan), okra (kusat), finger millet (gbeam), groundnut (shyui), potato (a̱ga̱mwi), etc., with the entire economy heavily dependent on the production of sorghum, used for food and beer, and beniseed, used in several rituals.
[7] After the formation of the Atyap Chiefdom in 1995, the A̱tyap people were ruled by a succession of three monarchs who have come to be known as A̱gwatyap, with the palace situated at Atak Njei in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of southern Kaduna State, Nigeria.
