The idea of "games" is very much part of British higher education. The purpose is not only physical exercise, but to instill other values as well, especially alertness, self-discipline, competitive spirit and good sportsmanship. Games are a required activity of the College, but each boy could choose a sport of particular interest. Ahmadu is very thin and tall (six feet) at the time. (He begins to gain weight in the late 1930s, and in the 1960s gains more weight which leads to a slight diabetic condition.) He enjoys cricket, which at its worst could be slow. (Ahmadu was a good batsman and bowler.) But Ahmadu falls in love with "Fives," a game involving a small number of players (two or four) in intense and constant effort. He is remembered as competitive, and one of the best in the school in Fives. (He later becomes School Captain of Fives.) Ahmadu is also remembered as a good loser, although he would win 90 per cent of the time. He usually plays with Maigari Gwamba, his old classmate from Sokoto Provincial School, who has come with him to Katsina College. They have a very close joking relationship, and he is one of the few boys in the school who occasionally can beat Ahmadu. The ball is served with the hand against a wall, and the other person returns it. The game is played to a score of fifteen. Good players might take an hour to complete a game. Bad players might finish in ten or fifteen minutes.(63) Ahmadu will continue actively in this sport throughout his life. It becomes clearer, in the era of Nigerian politics, that "games" not only require individual effort and teamwork, but also "rules of the game", and sometimes a referee. Playing to win meant knowing the rules of the game very well indeed.

At Katsina College, part of the "game" was the joking relationships which emerged from intense competition. Abba Habib recalls how in some of the sports, teams would be formed from Borno and Sokoto, and the "easterners" and "westerners" as they called themselves, would relive ancient rivalries through sport, always accompanied by "jokes" about how Borno was better than Sokoto, or Sokoto was better than Borno.(64) Kashim Ibrahim(65) recalls that Ahmadu was not a good runner, and hence avoided football (soccer), but loved Fives and cricket. He was always surrounded by people and developed jokes with the Borno students to a fine art. Clearly, sports were a means to a comraderie, and as Muslim boys from throughout the north mixed together, somehow the ancient rivalries seemed less significant, and the new friendships were laying the foundations for a larger future community.

The Principal of the College, Mr. G. A. J. Bieneman, left shortly after Ahmadu arrived and was replaced by the Assistant Principal, Mr. M. W. Oakes. Both were strict, but Mr. Oakes was even stricter and more spartan. There were eight European teachers (no women). Mr. Butler taught geography and history; Mr. Craig taught English and insisted on perfect intonation and spelling; Mr. Spicer also taught English as did Mr. Shillingford; Mr. Hogben (who was a polo player as well as a Fives player) taught maths and wrote a book on the northern emirates. There were others as well. The men were on two or three-year contracts, and were given bonus pay for learning Hausa to an intermediate or advanced level, which most of them did.(66) The object, however, was to teach in English. British teachers were advised not to bring their wives, because of the mosquitoes (malaria). Teachers would handle specific classes, organise the games in the afternoon, and serve as house masters for 10:00 p.m. curfew. The students were never allowed to go to the homes of the senior staff. There was always some turnover of teaching staff. The normal academic year was nine months, with three months holiday in summer. This long vacation allowed the teachers to visit their families in Britain, and also to allow the boys to make the long trek home on foot. (At best, it was twenty-one days from Katsina to Yola on foot each way.

Notes 62 Mallam Nagwamatse, the Arabic teacher, was called "Labu Labu Gangan i.e. someone very slow but efficient and thorough).
63 For a detailed explanation of how Fives is played, see Abubakar Ladan, "The Game of Fives and How it is Played", Nigerian Citizen. March 4. 1961, p. 9. In brief:
The Fives game is played by two or more players, in a court enclosed on three sides. The length of the court is 28 feet and the breadth 18 feet. The court is made of two courts -the forward and the back courts. The forward court is five inches higher than the back court. On the left side against the left wall is a buttress about 5¼ inches from the floor. On the front wall, is a ledge, known as the line which is 4' 6" from the floor and a vertical pointed line 3' 8" from the right wall... We here in Nigeria use tennis balls. The server stands on the left of the forward court while his partner stands on the right-hand comer of the back court; the service taker stands on the right side of the forward court while his partner stands on the left hand side of the back court. The server must toss the ball gently against the front wall above the line, so that it afterwards hits the right wall before it drops to the ground. The "hand-out" who is the service taker, then hits it normally after bouncing once on the ground. But if he fails or refuses to take it, it is not a score against him as it would have been in the game of tennis. Only "hand-in", who is server can score. If he misses a stroke, he loses his innings and his partner becomes server as second man but, if he is the second man, he becomes the service-taker or hand-out. The game is fifteen points. If the score is "13-all" the players then decide whether to set the game to the best of three or five - normally five is taken. ...The Premier of Northern Nigeria is a very enthusiastic player of the game. He is champion and "Father" of this game.
64 Habib, Abba, op. cit.
65 Ibrahim, Kashim. op. cit.
66 The bonus was £25 for passing the lower Hausa exam and £50 for passing the higher Hausa exam.

My notes:
Eton Fives is known in parts of Northern Nigeria as "the Sardauna's Game".

There are likely to be further insights in Ahmadu Bello's autobiography, My Life, published by Cambridge University Press 1962.

Katsina College was for Muslim Students from the far north. It was opened in 1922 by Governor Hugh Clifford. The Principal was G A J Bieneman and the staff were British graduates. It was renamed Kaduna College in 1938 and was transferred to Zaria as Government College, Zaria, in 1949. Later it became known as Barewa College. Ahmadu Bello entered Katsina College in 1926 and graduated in 1931.

The Sardauna's Game contributed by Dale Vargas
Constructed 18th September 2002
efa@etonfives.co.uk

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