It was a Friday morning, I was in the class teaching my student, I saw some certain men performing circus acts on the streets of Unguwar Bello, Dorayi, Kano. There was an outburst in school environs, the students were moving to the windows, some were leaving the class to watch what was going on. The streets were filled with people. My class was disrupted though, so I had to investigate what was going on.
I came outside, what I saw was so amazing that it caught my attention, these men were performing acts with some wild animals like hyena, alligator, snake and a monkey. They were speaking hausa language to the animal while performing, I could not understand the language but this animals took heed to their words. So I instructed a fellow teacher to help out with the translation, I requested if I could spend time with the hyena because I have never seen an hyena so-close in my life. The leader of the group accepted my request, I was granted passage.
At first I was scared, I summoned courage, as I moved closer to the hyena, it was aggressive. The leader instructed me to go for the leash, that it will subdue to my command. I got the leash and I took control of the animal. People clapped for me. Then I took some pictures with the animal and gave the group some amount of money just to show appreciation for the opportunity.
The leader of the group came to me, then he said "kai mutum ne mai karfin gwiwa mara tsoro kuma mai karfi" which means "you are a courageous and have no fear, you are truly a strong man!". I was well known in the community
Days after, I stumbled on some videos on the internet about the hyena men of kano and this group were in a video. I was so glad I met them and I wished to have such experience again!.
