Legend · Undated tradition
Image: Borgu Greetings.jpg — Borguheritage, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Borgu's royal ancestor supposedly came from the east, but rival towns could not agree on which kingdom inherited his seniority.
Ask the royal families of Borgu where they came from and the answer begins with one name: Kisra.
Kisra, the stories say, came from the east with his followers and settled the country along the Niger. Who he was depends on who is telling it. In one version he lived near Mecca and fought against the Prophet Muhammad, then fled. In another he was a Persian king whose army was beaten in Egypt and kept marching west across Africa. Sometimes Kisra is not even a man's name but a title. Even his death changes from one telling to the next.
No one has found proof that a Persian emperor ever reached Borgu. The scholar Phillips Stevens suggested in 1975 that ideas about eastern kings had travelled across the Sahara and settled into local stories, without any army making the trip.
The more interesting fight is closer to home. Before the 1950s, the versions told in Nigerian Borgu gave Bussa the top spot. Its founder was Woru, Kisra's eldest son, or even Kisra himself. Nikki and Illo went to younger sons.
In a family story, being the eldest means being senior. So not everyone liked that version. In Kaiama, people told it differently, and some accounts cut Bussa out of the family altogether.
On 19 September 1992 the historian Olayemi Akinwumi sat with the Emir of Bussa and recorded his version. On 27 September he sat with the Emir of Kaiama, and heard another.
Same ancestor, different family tree. Each version quietly put its own town nearer the top.
That is the real story of Kisra. A king from far away may or may not have come. But for centuries, Borgu's rulers have argued over who his eldest son was, because being descended from the eldest decided whose king ranked first.
