The Bassa Nge’s of today are Nupe’s who migrated from Gbara in south-west Bida just a little over hundred years ago.
Their first place of settlement was in Kaaba which is today occupied by the Okun’s (Yoruba)Â of Kogi State.The place Kabba was named by the Bassa settlers because they intended to use it as a maize farm (kaba means maize).
The Nupe’s now Bassa had to leave because of the incessant slave raiding in the area.
Subsequently they moved to mount Patti and became the first settlers on Mt Patti in Lokoja. The name “Patti” is the Nupe word for Mountain.
After victory over Muhammadu Maikarfi of Katsina, the Nupe’s crossed the Niger River in 3 batches. the first batch headed by the Lerama family called on the others by saying ‘e dabe kpata’ which means ‘come one come all’ in the Nupe tongue. thus Kpata became the first settlement across the River.
The crossing was made through ‘am kpata’ meaning ‘river bank’ in Nupe’s which is currently the kpata market area of lokoja. The Second batch who crossed the river were headed by the Mopa family.
The Mopas returned to invite their brothers who were left on Patti, non returned because they had discovered a fertile swampy bank which decided to settle in, they named it ‘Ndadumo’ meaning ‘swampy land’. this name was later adulterated to ‘Gadumo’now in Lokoja
After due consultations the last batch were asked to split into 3 groups, since they were the traditional warrior. When they did, two groups crossed under the watch of the other group who were to remain behind to watch over ‘Lokodja’ meaning ‘uniting place’.
The third group adviced the Mopas to ‘follow this path and enter’ meaning ‘dawn kolo’ or ‘let the remnants follow here n enter’ meaning ‘adawn kolo’ in the native Nupe language which is now the ‘Adankolo’ in Lokoja.
Of the two groups that crossed in the last batch, on reaching Kpata, the Lerama’s told them of the occultic Igalas at ‘Ogboloku’. warriors as they were, they set forth for their traditional duty to fight the Igalas giving them a decisive defeat. the Lerama’s in order to show a sign of total defeat to the Igalas moved to Gboloko to establish a palace with the traditiona Nupe heritage title of Etsu.
The Igalas however rallied themselves and threatened to attack the new king (Etsu). so quickly, warriors were sent to scout the area. They camped near the only sweet
water ‘Amonoku’ because the igalas had poisoned all the other sources of water.
When they returned, they informed the Etsu that the igalas were camped at Dekina. so the Etsu took it upon himself to be in the battle field to ensure a total annihilation and defeat of the igalas.
Before leaving, the Etsu made an agreement that in case of death, the Mopas should continue the Etsuship of ‘Baa sa’ land
At a decisive battle, the Nupes of this newly found ‘Baa sa’ land defeated the igalas thoroughly at a place east of the ‘sweet waters’ ‘Amonoku’ and all the land was littered with igala blood.
The Attah of igala barely managed to escape alive upon which reaching Idah,he cursed any of his people who will marry from the new Nupe people that such a person will die in poverty.
(note that the curse was because he was defeated and this new people seemed to be more industrious, although the Igala’s of today have tried to change this narrative to suit their egos)
After defeating the Attah igala, the Etsu left an order that one of the warrior groups remain behind as eastern guards while the other follows him back to Gboloko
Before he left however, one of the guards asked what to do with the dead bodies of the slain Igala’s. He replied thus ‘Effiwn e tu emi Ajugu’ meaning ‘Sweep it and build the house of the Chief guard’ and that marked the beginning of Effin people and why their leaders are originally from Emi Ajugu.
While new Nupes in the area prepared to invade Dekina, the Igala’s seeing that they were at their wits end invited the white man ‘Mr Cook’ or ‘Masta kooku’ as the people called him to assist them.
Because of superior weapon from the white man and bravery of the New Nupe’s people, the battle of the ‘black stone’ meaning ‘Zhintaku’ (shintaku) ended as stalemate. The white man came from Idah using modern boats.
Because he couldn’t defeat the Bassa people, he requested that they leave out of free will. They told him that they had no plans of leaving as the land was ‘baa sa’ ‘meaning fertile’.
Mr. Cook then registered the land and the people as ‘Bassa’ in his diary which was later to be used as an official document for naming the Bassa or Bassa Nge in 1983 by the Shagari regime. (see Longman atlas or Collins atlas both of 1982, you will see Bassa land captured as Nupe).
Peoplesmind