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Behind me is the dangerous and terrible hyena men of northern Nigeria! This bizarre tradition involves performers taunting hyenas. Forcing monkeys to dance on leashes, and swallowing snakes whole. Our journey to find them begins in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city. We are on a mission right now to find the hyena man, and hopefully, we're not gonna have any issues because it can be very, very dangerous in northern Nigeria. And to make our search even harder, our guide is nowhere to be found.
So my local friend Aisha and I might have to figure it out alone. Tell me a little bit about Kano. What's it like here? I feel like it just gradually grew around itself. It's an ancient city. It's one of those places that we consider a commerce hub. It has one of the highest populations in Nigeria. Nigeria, being the sixth most populous country on the planet, is home to a lot of subgroups, a lot of different languages, a lot of different cultures.
Like, if you're from the U.S., it's hard to comprehend how diverse Nigeria is. Yeah. So, who are the Hausa people? Yeah. The Hausa people are basically those that live in the north of Nigeria. The Hausa language has become one of those languages that is like a lingua franca in the north of Nigeria. There's a lot of other little tribes, Fulani, Kanuri, and all of them, but Hausa still remains the most dominant one. The hyena handlers are nomadic, which means right now they could be anywhere in northern Nigeria.
Our guide is supposed to help us find them, but he's unresponsive, which is really stressful considering we're close to the territory controlled by Boko Haram. Founded back in 2002, Boko Haram has been an extremist militant group who have imposed strict Islamic law through bombings, kidnappings, and massacres that have displaced millions. So, I'm trying to keep a low profile, but that's when Aisha insists that we stop for a little roadside snack. What is this? Sugarcane. Usually in other countries, they put it in the blender.
Here, you just eat it. Nope, we eat it straight off the stick. Show me how it's done. That's why everyone here has strong teeth. More like strong jaws. Holy, I can't freaking bite it! Yeah, you can. Go on, go on, go on. There you go! Come on! That was strong. Yeah! Jesus Christ! It's like a burst of cold sugar in your mouth. Basically. Exactly what it is. Exactly. What do you think the future of Nigeria looks like, with such a young population?
I feel like sometimes we feel like very stopped and very intimidated and hindered by our leaders. So, I hope there's something to come out of it and we have, like, less like of, like, people leaving the country and, you know, staying here and actually making something of it. Right. These are our hopes and dreams. Right. Yeah. As we head back to the car, we finally get a phone call from our guide who has some good, but not great news. They are in Daura. You know Daura? No. Uh, it's just like 1 hour 30.
So basically he's saying that this place is not too far, it's 1:30. So, he's like, it's safe. Let's do it! Okay, let's do it. Issue is, the guy sort of, you know, like a leader, like the klan's man, he's saying we have to pay him 250,000. And he's like, it's too expensive for something we're just gonna go see here. What is that in dollars? Okay. Where, where, where are you? Can we, can we pick you up now? Yeah, yeah. Let me call the person, then when we be done, we'll come and take me. We'll go together.
We're on our way to pick up our guide and drive north to the border with Niger, where the hyena men are currently located. But right away, we get stuck in a roadblock and get out of the car to investigate. There's actually policemen standing on the intersection in front of us. They're holding these giant beating sticks. Yeah! So, it's the last Saturday of the month, which means it's a sanitation day and they're cleaning. So, you're not allowed to drive. You're not, cars and, like, vehicles in general are not allowed to move. He literally just grabbed his key and took it. So, how are we going to get to the hyena men later?
Um, we're driving. We will be able to drive. Yes, we will be able to drive. We are going to, literally, the edge of no return. I only know about Boko Haram, which is like an, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda. I always see the news in Nigeria. There's also bandits that we need to be careful of. Who are these bandits? Yeah. To be honest, I think they're, um, a marginalized group in Nigeria that probably a bit uneducated. When money came about and they realized they could make money from kidnappings and, you know, organized crime, in a, in a sort of way, they took it.
Finally, we managed to locate our guide, which makes me feel slightly better about driving into the unknown. That's him? You're the guy! Yeah, that's him. Yeah. Hey, bro! We are here! Yeah, so. Thank you for the help. Thank you! Yeah. Okay, so the plan is coming around. I'm really happy that we are making progress on that plan. All right. Put it on my lap. All right, so we found a situation. We're going.
We got to squeeze in the back. The two guys are sitting next to each other. Attaboy! Are you okay? Are you good? Before we continue with the hyena guys of Nigeria, I want to take a quick second to thank the sponsor of this video, Holafly! As you guys know, I travel constantly,
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All right, now, let's head back to the hyena story in Nigeria. As we leave Kano and are squeezed in the backseat of the car, I'm starting to feel pretty nervous. Out here, the desert is no man's land. There's no phone signal and lots of checkpoints, and we don't know who is running them. If we somehow get kidnapped, there is no one to call for help. We've left Kano and we are driving an hour and a half north, almost on the border of Niger. People told me not to come here.
Yeah, she's giggling over here. We have to avoid the city. Oh, checkpoint. All right, put the camera down. After paying a few small bribes, we finally clear the last checkpoint. We then roll into the town where everyone says the hyena men are living. We just arrived in this little village, and apparently these hyena men move around. They're nomadic. The people in this village aren't used to seeing them.
They said that they, um, have experienced it. Of course, they come to their village. Once in a while, they catch it. Hey, what do you guys think about the hyena men? They enjoy the shows. They like when they come here. It's entertaining. I asked if there was anyone that wanted to become, you know, one of the hyena men, and he said, "Him. I do." This is insane, all the people crowding around for the hyena spectacle. I'm a little nervous. Did you know about the hyena men before I told you about them?
No, I've seen pictures, but I didn't even know they were in northern Nigeria. How's life? Life is fine. Life is fine! The hyena is behind me, and it's chained to the tree. It's, it's miserable to even watch, and look at him, how he's been treated. And over here, there's a monkey on the ground, was chained to the pole. I don't know what kind of spectacle we're about to see, but there's a lot of people here to witness it. We're now walking over to their little station where they've kind of set up a home. They actually sleep there,
and they have all their things that they need for their production, if you want to call it that. Explain to me your living situation. He said that this is where they sleep, and because of the way things are and how, like, fast they're moving, this is where it all happens. Do people in this community, like, care that you're just crashing here?
So many people are scared of their actual animals, so they can't stay in a place where there's, like, so many people. So, like, they actually find a pretty secluded area to keep the animals and to be able to sleep there. So, this is their living quarters. This is where they sleep. They sleep with the hyena and the monkey and the snake just right next to them, and the dog, and then they just put on a show every day. Tell me about your monkey. He's looking for his daily bread, basically his food for the day. How did you get into this animal business?
I'm really distracted with our conversation because, uh, there's a monkey, there's a monkey that's standing like a person wearing a shirt, Eating cheese. and he's eating cheese. What's the name of the monkey? Meangua. Me too, I can't, and he's eating cheese. Meangua. That's his name. It means, like, district head. So, you guys travel together as a pack, and you sleep in random places, perform, pack up your bags and go to the next place. Is that how your life is?
How much money do you make in one day on average? It's amazing to me how normal they make their life sound, whereas in the Western world, there's not a single person that would approve of what they do. If you could say any message to people in the world watching this video, what would you say to them?
The drum starts to beat, which signals the start of the main performance. Every instinct inside of me wants to look away, but I can't. I have to keep filming. This is their culture, raw, unsettling, and unlike anything I've ever seen. The hyena is going crazy and everybody's running away! Jesus freaking Christ! Being dragged around the street. Holy crap, I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life!
Ask them, what do they think about this? They love it so much! They come out all the time, anytime it's on. Aren't you worried about animal cruelty? She said, she said, yes, we feel a little bad for them. Good! They said, yeah, they feel bad, but they still come out to watch.
For the record, this is one of the most screwed up things I've ever witnessed in my entire life. It's terrible, but as you can see, it's happening. This is real life situation here and I just came to document it. What do you think about the hyena? What, what do you think about it? The hyena is. big. Do you like it? Yeah. Do you think it's really sad and bad?
Yeah. He has just put his hand on the mouth of the hyena and opening up where you can see the jaws and the teeth. Absolutely insane! I really can't watch this anymore. He's slapping the hyena. He's putting a dog in front of his mouth -- to taunt it. Oh, my God, this is freaking terrible. And everyone's laughing.
What do you guys think about the hyena show? They are really, the show is fine and they enjoy it. Don't you feel bad for the hyena? I mean, literally, you're slapping it, you're taunting it, you're basically treating it as bad as it can be treated.
It's an itch that needs to be scratched for the hyena, and that the hyena wants it to be done, those things to be done to it. It needs it, and that what you heard that you thought were screams and cries were laughter. So, you do this purely to make money. There's, there's no personal enjoyment in what you do?
Is there any link to voodooism or witchcraft in what you do? Why do you put the dog by its mouth? That was the worst part of your show. Have you ever been bit by the hyena? So, do you realize that almost the whole world will think this is terrible? Have you ever been attacked? Has the Nigerian government ever tried to stop you from doing this? Because it's really disturbing.
So, these, these are the potions that they sell? Yeah. What is it? Like, what's in here? It's like, it looks like spices and like garlic. Basically, they sell a medicine to farmers and hunters who come across snakes all the time. It's like a potion. Yes. So, but that medicine, they need people to come and see that. Of course they have snakes, and those snakes are not harmful to them than all the time. He has an identity card. So, this is something so, so this was about the question you asked earlier about if the government is trying to stop it or anything like that. He said, no.
This is a part of the Hausa culture. It is stated. It is written down, and even the people in the government know this, Really?! and to some point, they support it. Hence him having a card. Look at this. He literally has, like, a verification badge about what he does for a living. Do you support it? I mean, it's their culture. Well, that was truly one of the most terrifying things I've ever shot, I've ever witnessed. I can't believe what I just saw.
I came here to document and share with you that this is happening whether we like it or not, this is a reality here in northern Nigeria. It's a very, very difficult video to shoot, but I felt like it was one that needed to be told. So, thank you for watching. Please let me know in the comments down below what you think about this madness. I'll see you guys in the next video. Peace.
