Afizere

The Afizere people (Other: Afizarek, exonym: Jarawa) are an ethnic group that occupy Jos East, Jos North, parts of Jos South and Mangu Local Government Areas of Plateau State and parts of Toro and Tafawa Balewa Local Government Areas of Bauchi State, Nigeria. The Afizere are speakers of Izere language. The neighbors of the Afizere to the north are the Hausa and Jarawan Dass. To the east and southeast are the Zari, Sayawa and Pyem. To the south and southwest are the Berom while the Irigwe and Rukuba lie to the west. On to the northwest of the Afizere are found a number of ethnic groups the closest of which are the Anaguta, Bujel, Ribina, Kayauri and Duguza while the more distant ones include Buji, Gusu, Sanga, Jere, Amoa, and Lemoro. The Afizere previously settled in the Chawai region of southern Kaduna State and as time passed different Afizere groups moved southwards. The first group from Southern Kaduna settled at the foot of the hills called Gwash close to the current location of the Jos Museum and others settled at the foot of Shere Hills in the Jos Plateau. Different Afizere clans soon settled southwards of Chawai lands. Currently there are more than 500,000 Afizere people distributed over 16 major traditional districts who inhabit territories within Jos North, Jos East, Mangu, in Plateau State and Tafawa-Balewa and Toro Local Government Areas in Bauchi State. During the pre-colonial period, the people lived in hilly terrains surrounding the Jos Plateau as a defense mechanism against jihadist attacks during and after the Fulani Jihad. Some Afizere towns and villages include Dong, Tudun Wada (Gyese), Kabong, Jos Jarawa, Rikkos, Fudawa, Kwanga, Fobur, Angware, Maijuju, Fusa, and Gwafan (Lamingo), Shere, Zandi, etc. Izere towns have a traditional and gerontocratic chieftaincy system that is headed by an Agwom and supported by five districts heads representing the five royal families of the Afizere: Fobur, Forsum, Maigemu, Shere, and Federe. In Afizere land, a district could be a combination of 6 to 12 villages.