Jigo

Overview

Jigo, also called Jihu, is the older father of the hunters in Tremearne’s account. He was formerly their chief and is presented as less vigorous than Gajere Mai-Dowa, his son, who is described as the greater hunter. Jigo sits and moves like an old man, though his performance still follows the hunting actions of the surrounding bow-bearing spirits. Tremearne describes the pictured mount as lying in ambush, waiting for game.

The song greets him as father and old one, blesses his coming and sleep, and says that he eats only liver because he lacks teeth for solid meat. It then imagines an elephant and a buffalo encountering him in the forest and recognizing the danger. Calling him a stranger and an angel of the forest, the musicians propose returning to the bush to set an ambush. These concrete descriptions join age and skill rather than treating old movement as an absence of power.

The chapter associates shivering fits, fever and pricking sensations with Jigo’s influence; Tremearne’s attempt to connect the last sensation to perspiration is his explanation. It also distinguishes two children: Dan Jigo breaks vessels in his representation, while the daughter Mahalbiya is said to shoot people who shake clothing at night and to sleep during the day. Their particular actions are not copied into the father’s account. Jigo remains a separately named senior hunter with his own praise and ambush role.

Origins & earliest records

Tremearne’s historical collection combines accounts and ritual observations in Hausa-associated North African communities and northern Nigeria. Its evolutionary and comparative origin theories are not adopted.

Records & interpretation

The Ban of the Bori, pp 344–345. Ritual movements describe human mounts representing spirits; translated songs and attributed powers are evidence of this recorded representation, not proof of medical causation or uniform contemporary community practice.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   The Ban of the Bori

   A. J. N. Tremearne, collector and translator · 1914

   Selected witness pp 344–345; colonial collection with uneven narrator attribution.

Family, evolution & connections

Jigo’s three expressly named children

Tremearne’s selected 1914 historical Bori notices, pp. 343–346.

Individual notices explicitly name Jigo as father of Gajere, Dan Jigo and Mahalbiya. No mother is named. The generic praise Father of the Hunters does not add all hunters as offspring. Disputed Gajere / Sarikin Bakka identity is not harmonized. These are attributed historical religious relationships, not biological phylogeny or a universal contemporary doctrine.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical ritual observation and translated songsThe Ban of the Bori — JigoResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

Jigo,1914 historical printed text witness, page344; documentary source-page facsimile

Documentary text facsimile naming Jigo and describing ritual/narrative attributes; not a photograph of a spirit or creature artwork. Colonial observer terminology and interpretations belong to the original1914 text.