The Yobe government on Wednesday said it would soon unveil the 8,500-year-old Dufana canoe, Africa’s oldest and world’s third oldest water craft, for public exhibition.
Alhaji Mohammed Abare, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Information and Culture, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Damaturu.
“The canoe, which was discovered in Dufana village, was jointly evacuated by the Department of Trans-Sahara Studies, University of Maiduguri, National Commission for Museum and Monuments and Goethe University, Germany.
“Carbonated research on the canoe revealed that it was Africa’s oldest water craft and third oldest in the world,” he said.
The permanent secretary said the canoe had undergone various stages of conservation, and now in the final stage of treatment before unveiling it for public exhibition.
He said that the canoe had rich potentialities for international tourism and academic research, with huge economic benefits to the state and country.
The canoe, made from black African Mahogany, was measured eight metres in length, 0.5 metres in width and 5.5 metres in thickness.
According to Abare, “One Malam Yau, a Fulani herdsman, while digging a well in 1987, discovered the canoe in Dufana village in Fune Local Government Area of Yobe.
“Former president, Goodluck Jonathan, had designated the canoe a national monument in 2014,” Abare said.
