THE FULANI CONQUEST AND RULE
OF THE HAUSA KINGDOM OF NORTHERN NIGERIA (1804-1900)
BY
Samuel N. NWABARA.
The area known today as the Northern Region of Nigeria is three times the size of the other two regions â Eastern and Western Regions â combined. It includes some portion of the Western Sudan â the Sudan in general being the belt stretching across Africa South of the Sahara. Traditionally, this area has constituted a route of infiltration into West Africa, along with trans-Saharan routes from the North and Northwest. As a result of such infiltration, a section of the people in Northern Nigeria was brought into direct contact with the Mediterranean civilization, a contact which greatly affected the history of the Hausa Kingdom.
The term « kingdom » presupposes a monarchial system, but unfortunately the history of the Hausa Kingdom is shrouded in a mist, despite ingenious reconstructions by students of Nigerian history based upon oral traditions and post-Jihad records popularly known as the Zaria and Kano Chronicles 4 One such tradition, for example, is taken from the Zaria Chronicle which appears to have impressed not a few scholars 2. It says that some time in 1050 the Habe Kingdom (pre- Islamic name for the Hausa Kingdom) thrived at Daura, followed by the formation of the other six kingdoms â ⢠Kano, Gobir, Katsina, Zaria, Biram and Rano â together comprising the Hausa Seven or Hausa Bokwoi. Daura was the center or heart of the Kingdom, but eventually the rest branched out as independent states. Though independent, they effectively fought together to ward off the enemy. But consequent upon internecine wars among
1. Cited in M. G. Smith, The Economy of the Hausa Communities of Zaria : Colonial Research Series, â 16, London : II. M. S. 1933, p. 3. (See H. R. Palmer, Sudanese Memories, particularly Vol. Ill, Lagos, Govt.-Printer, 1928.) 2. Ibid.
