Lagos — Why is the population of the donkey, the most efficient beast of burden in several human societies, depleting in Northern Nigeria?

Alhaji Hamza Sarkin Shanu: “They’ve been devoured by humans.”

Malam Mansur Haruna: “Modern vehicles of haulage have usurped their functions.”

Since the beginning of the domestication of animals by man in the time immemorial, the donkey has been one of the most popular and economically most utilised beast of burden in the human societies of Africa and Asia where it is, perhaps more than anywhere else, noticeably domesticated and used for haulage and other related purposes. The camel is another.

Among many of such societies, where the camel is not such popular, or its population is not as high, the donkey is the most popular and most economically used for such purposes among all domesticated animals.

In Northern Nigerian communities, for example, merchants, since the olden times, would organise large caravans with tens of donkeys carrying their merchandise in trading shuttles between, say, the lands of Kano, Kastina, Sokoto and Zazzau to, say, the land of Gwanja, or between the land of Borno to markets in deeper locations of the Central Sudan.

Depending on his status of wealth and volume of traded merchandise, a merchant heaps the merchandise on his donkey, or donkeys, during his network of trading forays among intra and inter communities markets on all or most market days within the communities conveniently coverable for him.

The farmer, depending on his volume of wealth, or even the peasant farmer, carries compost and other available types of local manure, sacks or wraps of seeds and many farming implements on his donkey, or donkeys, to the farm, right from the eave of the farming season, through the months-long season to the harvest time. He will hoist all such materials and even mount on the donkeys with some members of his family to the farm.

At the end of the day, he will heap bundles of firewood or many other odds and ends used in domestic life on the donkey or donkeys as he retires home with whoever among the members of the family follows him to the farm.

The pauper will simply ride on his donkey to the bush, collect bundles of firewood or thatch, return to the village or town, or herd it to the surrounding villages or towns, combing the streets and hawking them to make ends meet. A richer fellow in the community may also hire him and his donkey to haul some wares for him to or from the farm or the market of any village or town.

He may also be hired with his donkey to carry sand or mud or any other building materials in his Mangala (a woven bag-like local container used to carry loads on donkeys) from the village or town outskirts to wherever is his construction site of the fellow who hired him in the village or town.

Abject paupers in remote rural communities, who cannot afford transport fares for modern means of transportation, find it convenient to convey their ailing relations to any healthcare delivery institutions in the towns, even if at the risk of the ailing dying on the way.

So numerous have been the social, but, much more importantly, the economic, uses of the donkey to the human societies domesticating it over the ages that it seems to have substantially shaped their socio-economic cultures and environments.

A popular Tandu musician in Hausa land sums up the economic significance of the donkey in a music he played for it:

“Nayi mai kidi, sarkin suntular kaya; in bida akai jaki ba a tausai nai”

This means:

“I play the music for the master of the load; in the field of trade, no one has mercy for the donkey.”

So significant has been the performance of the donkey in the sphere of trade in its societies of domestication over the ages by transporting massive volumes of commodities among commercial and farming locations over time that it could conveniently take the credit of facilitating massive economic achievements in those societies over the ages.

Alas! In Northern Nigeria, where the donkey has been an integral part of cultures and environments of most communities, the more modernity eats into the society, the more the population of donkeys seems to deplete.

What is happening to donkeys in the society?

“People have devoured them,” Alhaji Hamza, the Sarkin Kara (chief of livestock market) of Dambatta in Kano State, responded swiftly with sharp humour, stressing, “Our fellow Nigerians who eat every kind of meat have devoured the donkeys.”

The livestock market superintendent reviewed the donkey trade over the recent decades, recalling how, especially from such popular far Northern Nigerian markets as Illela, Charanchi, Mai-adua, Kafur, Dambatta, Badume, Wudil, Maigatari, Gadar Maiwa and many others, truck-loads of donkeys are bought and carried to other parts of Nigeria where donkey meat is consumed as lawful due to population leap without commensurate increase in meat production to meet leaping demand.

This trade in donkeys came to be known in Northern Nigeria over the decades as Ujile (Ughelli, a principal town in Delta State – it is called ‘Ughelli’ because when the donkey trade started, the first set of traders are recalled to have said that they were carrying them to Ughelli for sale and consumption).

“Are you asking me why the population of donkeys is reducing (laughing)? This is due to recent trends. The persistent poverty has been pinching the owners of donkeys in this part of the country, forcing them to sell the donkeys to our fellow Nigerians in the south who consume donkey meat as lawful. We don’t eat donkeys here, do we? It is not lawful for us here.”

Alhaji Hamza recalled: “Before the recent decades, you would always see a very large number of donkeys in every Kara (Kraal) you go to. Now, you will see a paltry number. Our southern brothers have eaten them all, and you cannot blame them. It is lawful for them, and they need meat. We also consume the meat that is lawful for us.”

According to him, the more the population of donkeys depletes, the higher the price at the livestock market rises, saying, “You cannot afford a donkey in any Kara if you go there with your small amount of money. It is too expensive now. A huge donkey now sells for, at least, twenty thousand Naira. In decades past, it sold for just about three pounds. That was when the most admired beast could sell for, at most, five pounds. I can tell you that now; a very big donkey sells for even much more than twenty thousand Naira.”

He noted that some livestock merchants have over the decades shifted from cattle trade to donkey trade because “they make immense gains. Now even our people buy and carry donkeys down South. In our Kara here in Dambatta, we have now banned the sale of donkey to anyone observed as going to slaughter it for the meat to be eaten. That is why they come here, buy the donkeys as though they are going to use them for the purpose of haulage and carry them to other markets such as Mai-adua and Daura where they can gather and carry them in trucks down to places where they are consumed.”

Alhaji Hamza Sarkin Shanu lamented the depletion of donkeys: “The poor becomes poorer because he cannot afford any modern means of transportation, like the pickup van, to carry his local manure to the farm, and he cannot carry the load on his head. If he buys a donkey, he has bought his slave, because it can do all these things for him at his own economic level. He can only buy his hoe and Mangala and pack his manure to the farm. Now the poor farmer cannot afford a donkey because it is too expensive for him. Poor farmers are now in deep distress. They can only pray to God for succour. They can do nothing more.”

Malam Magaji sells donkeys at the Dambatta Kara. “I have been trading on donkeys in many markets for about twenty years now, but I can tell you that I don’t sell to any person I observe trades on it for its meat to be eaten. I believe I am only selling donkeys to those who will use them for economic purposes like farming or hauling wares. My intention is to sell for its economic use. Eating it is the business of the person buying it to eat. That has never been my intention.”