BRIEF HISTORY OF DITERA FORTRESS (Adapted from Yungur Chiefdom Dynasty, Chieftains and Chronicles)

BRIEF HISTORY OF DITERA FORTRESS (Adapted from Yungur Chiefdom Dynasty, Chieftains and Chronicles)

Ditera is made of two words, (di – stamp, approve, betroth; tera – leg, to sound from). Ditera fort is in the mountain enclaves of the land. Ancestral kings were the ones that mysteriously determined Ditera site.

The then ruler’s horse steered by the spirits of ancestral kings, traced and sited the location. The spirits approve ‘this is the site from which we shall administer the tribe’.

That is why Ditera has skulls nest (kuya) of all its traditional kings. It remained the central most powerful fort in the administration of the tribe. Ditera houses Guɓo – the authority, the priesthood and glory of the Yungur Chiefdom.

An enthroned king must be an heir, who swears allegiance to the ordinance of his ancestor kings to rule the people with equity.

Ditera has three altars (Bisamo) upon which the king sanctions menaces like epidemic, war, famine, drought etc; or pronounces bliss and bloom upon the tribe. Ditera was synonymous to Yungur Chiefdom, hence Yungur District.

Ditera was the spectacle of order and majesty that earned the Yungur Chiefdom the staff of office, it was there that power emanates, flowing into communities, souls and the land.” Yungur (Ditera) Chiefdom is not new; it is as old as over 500 years.

It never changed its order– the Guɓo, overseeing traditional councils of kingmakers, community heads, council of chiefs, executive councils, peace council, war council, etc.

When the then Divisional Officer of Adamawa province studied the 1914, 1928 and 1931 reports of anthropologists, he noted the advancement of administrative order in Yungur (land, people and tradition) under the Guɓo in Ditera and conferred the staff of office to Guɓo Tomdiyo in 1937.

Furthermore, this unalterable administrative structure that is maintained in Ditera earned Yungur Chiefdom the Sub Native authority in 1962. Until date, the traditional and strategic influence of this fort cannot be demeaned.

Injunctions emanating from Ditera (as ordinances of ruling family) had ensured security, peace and stability in the land. In Yungur Chiefdom, succession of the throne is exclusive to the ruling families – Mwapa (Laro) and Bate (Dirma).

Any pretender who attempts to ascend the throne suffers loss. Ditera is highly developed in affairs of administering culture, customs and traditions with definite monarch roles (among others) of its communities as:

1. Laro (Kings, Kingmaker) Community;
2. Dirma (Kings, Kingmaker) Community
Dolom (General Commander) Community
Mbwai Community
3. Bwasage/Bukta (Kingmaker) Community
4. Pulle (King Ouster) Community
5. Hombo (King Selector) Community
6. Dombi (Male Initiation) Community
7. Sa (Krim, Rainmaker) Community
Ganger Community
8. Koti (Rainmaker) Community
9. Batum Community
10. Bata Community
11. Pella Community

Ditera District is named after Ditera fortress. The district is the largest of the three Yungur districts. It is the sum of the other two- in land mass, population etc.

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Ditera District is the aged-long dynast with over 30 kings that ruled the tribe. Ditera is the supreme seat of authority, with unprecedented traditional institute that oversaw the administration of the whole Yungur land before Waltadi (Vworo) and Suktu Districts were weaned in 1991.

The head of the district is Guɓo (and should so be referred and revered) that has full traditional council consisting of Paguɓo (Waziri), Maguɓo (Wakili) and Mabra (Galadima) and 11 community heads.