Between Kano’s Bompai Industrial area and Nassarawa GRA lies a hill that stretches hundreds of metres away.
This legendary recreational site called Dutsen Zirare, named after its expertly cut slides, is a place of abundant natural beauty and a perfect example of outdoor recreation.
“That was our Eden on weekends and during holidays. There I felt at the top of the world,” Bashir Acidamu recalled his childhood.
For the moribund rail line that passes by its side, the hill has maintained its natural features all these years: a dwarfish hill protruding towards the sky walled by the surrounding structures.
“You have the finest slide eyes have ever seen and the looks and the eatery are inviting.
“I started going to Dutsen Zirare when I was 10. I will go there every weekend in the company of my friend. The place then was larger than life and serene,” added Acidamu.
Kano is replete with private and government-owned recreational centres; but they are not for free. What makes Dutsen Zirare an exceptional recreational site is that everything there is free of charge.
To this hill rush the children of the poor for fun and have their manna in the play area supplied. Do they care?
Unlike all the established recreational centres in the state, at Dutsen zirare one needs not to enroll or acquire a pass to be admitted in; the hill is for all.
Bompai hill’s doors are wide open; and the goers’ behaviour is guided by that well-accepted natural law of “first come, first serve.”
Every group of fun-seeking boys has its bellwether. He guides it against incursion and makes sure every member has a fair share of rides and manna.
“Every weekend I would lead a group of about 15 boys to this site. We play and eat. We are friendly with other groups. On holiday it was regular,” said Mustapha Goma.
He said that for some unruly boys, who personalize the recreational facilities and bully weaker boys, the recreational site was relatively peaceful.
As children, he and his friends would climb to the top of the hill with difficulty; then slide to its feet using a piece of roofing sheet, cushioned with either cardboard or packaging foam to soften the heat generated when the roofing sheet rub against the hard hill, as a makeshift toboggan.
Despite this invention, sometimes many boys riff up the seats of their trousers or cut their feet or palms; yet they would go back to the Eden the next day. By far, the pleasure outweighs the loss.
Ride carelessly, a launderer is at your service
One of the wonders of the Bompai hill is the binary slides that adorn the hill: one burnt and blackened and the other snow white.
While one stains the fun-seeking children’s clothes black, the other is a launderer ready to wash it off.
All it takes is a ride or two to the feet of the slippery hill on the snow white slide, one has his clothes cleaned.
Fun meets faith
Two parties, even though on different missions, converge on Dutsen Zirare every day.
It was not planned. Both are purpose-driven exploits. Bompai recreational site is vast enough to accommodate the fun-seeking children and some worshippers, who mostly arrive much earlier.
Each party has its place, but the fun-seeking children largely depend on the worshippers’ sacrifices for their manna including pieces of coconut meat, cubes of sugar and live pigeons.
“We don’t disturb them when they are lost in their meditation. We get dishes and token from them.
“We just sit by to watch the rituals. Often they would smash coconut against the hard hill or free pigeons.
“Each worshipper has his ritual prescribed by a priest. It’s a world different from ours,” said a fun-seeker, Hamisu Khaka.
Almost every day various denominations go there to pray. One sees bell-ring, cycle-dwelling, hand-punching, or monk-like worshippers in a prayer session.
Mountains have special powers, if they are not sacred, said a worshipper.
He said, “Mountains have a logical religious symbolism for Christians as they dotted the landscaped of Biblical stories; they are closer to God, Who dwells in the heavens.”
“There is no any connection between the pleasure-seeking boys and the worshippers.
“The boys come on their own to play and we are here to pray. This is a sacred place for us,” the worshipper added.
Attractions
Dutsen Zurare does to the heart what it does to the eyes. If the opposite slides fail to evoke interest in you, a token, a cube of sugar, pieces of coconut, live pigeons or strong perfume will.
“When I was young I would be there every weekend. We got fruits and food from the worshippers free of charge.
“We got pieces of coconut, pigeons, and cubes of sugar, many at times mixed with strong perfume. We were children; we didn’t care, Yusuf Lucky said.
Lucky said he would sneak out of his family house to follow friends to the hill.
“My parents would be looking for me, while I was there taking rides. When I came back I would lie, but the seat of my trousers or helm of shirts would always give me away. I got beatings of my life. Yet that wouldn’t cow me away.”
Bear your soul to the sun
At Dutsen Zirare, there is no beach to swim, yet the fun-seekers sunbathe, casting their eyes skyward and lose themselves in their thought.
Every minute on the zenith of the hill amounts to sixty seconds of happiness, said a youth, Rabiu Abba.
Abba said, “There is no beach here. We only swim in a pond a distance away then come here to sunbathe. At least, I get rid of my worries here on the top of the hill.
“I usually open my eye, look deep into the blue sky, and then close them and take a deep breath. It refreshes the mind.”
The poor forge their way
A sociologist, Sameen Y Saeed, said since society is divided into two antagonistic classes, the haves and haves not and the classes are in perpetual competition, the poor have no option but to forge their way.
According to him, Nigeria is a capitalists’ nation and recreation centres in urban areas are designed on the system of inequality and or discrimination, as in hospitals and schools.
He said every society has to have recreational centres for leisure and latency (tension management).
“The inequality and discrimination in schools, hospitals, Shopping malls and recreation centres, etc, lead those who cannot afford it to create their own local means of gratification or satisfaction.”
Potential Tourists destination
Professor Aliyu Salisu Barau of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bayero University, Kano said Bompai hill is a potential tourists’ destination.
He said, “Bompai hill is a natural heritage much as a cultural landscape going by its links with other hills such as Dala, GORON Dutse, etc.”
