An epic play, which had its world premiere in 2000, berths
in Abuja today and will run for two days.
Queen Amina of Zazzau,
which is scheduled to hold from today, November 13 and Saturday, November 14 in
two performances daily at 4pm and 7pm at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, was produced
by the Jos Repertory Theatre. The play is a landmark production of Wale
Ogunyemi which mirrors the life and times of the legendary Queen Amina of
Zazzau.
Versatile actress Jumoke
Olatubosun will play the lead role of Queen Amina in the play. Olatubosun, a
star of the stage also has intimidating credentials in Nollywood, Nigeria’s
film industry and the country’s television. Nominated for the United
Kingdom-based ZAFAA in 2009 as the Best Upcoming Actress for her role in the
Nollywood film ‘Greatness’, she has had over 30 marvellous stage performances
to her
credit. Among her television appearances is the soap ‘Band of Five’
currently showing on ONtv. Others performances include ‘Wetin Dey’ which took
television by storm and Nimi (in Yoruba) both BBC initiatives. The other films
to the credit of the Jos-based Olatubosun are: ‘Sitanda’, ‘White Waters’, ‘Pensioners’,
‘Laviva’, ‘Five Apostles’, ‘Heart of a Father’ and ‘Nadia’.
Other influential actors from
the JRT will be taking part in the production that will no doubt bring the
federal capital territory to a standstill.
Amina’s reign in the 16th
century witnessed tremendous growth in territory, commerce and relationships
with cities which Queen Amina conquered or which she forged friendships with.
Her territory extended all the way from ancient Zazzau to the Sudan with the
first markings of what later became the trans-Saharan highway. She exerted
tributes of kolanut, gold and slaves from territories that she conquered and
from territories that wanted friendship with Zazzau.
Queen Amina’s reign witnessed a
lot of infrastructural development and her reign pioneered the use of iron coat
armour which was used by her soldiers in their military campaigns and
conquests. The famous Zaria wall is attributed to her reign and ingenuity.
She was a remarkable leader who
developed and built a court founded on justice and fairness. Her subjects also
prospered during her reign and according to her – “you will prosper if you work
hard as food does not grow on trees”.
Historically, she is not known
to have married though a lot of sultans and chiefs desired her hand in
marriage. She had only one sister, Zariya from an illustrious Queen mother,
Barkwa Turunku who was Queen before Amina’s reign. The fact of her being single
did not go down well with her subjects some of who also desired her hand in
marriage and it was a relationship with one of her subjects which led to her
untimely death after reigning for thirty four years.
She had a great weakness – any
man who shared her bed was put to death through poison. This was the destiny
she chose at her initiation into the cult. However, one of her warriors, shared
her bed and escaped with the help of Amina’s most trusted maid. She gave him
the antidote to counteract the poison administered by Amina.
To fulfil the prophecy, Amina
chased the warrior to Atagara in present-day Idah in Kogi State where she
eventually died not fulfilling her aim of putting the warrior to death.
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