Hausa Kingdoms

Major cities of Hausaland. Modern borders are in red.

Hausa Kingdoms, also known as Hausaland, was a collection of states ruled by the Hausa people, before the Fulani jihads. It was situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). Hausaland lay between the Western Sudanic kingdoms of Ancient Ghana, Mali and Songhai and the Eastern Sudanic kingdoms of Kanem-Bornu. Hausaland took shape as a political and cultural region during the first millennium CE as a result of the westward expansion of Hausa peoples. They arrived in Hausaland when the terrain was converting from woodlands to savannah. They started cultivating grains, which led to a denser peasant population. They had a common language, laws and customs. The Hausa were known for fishing, hunting, agriculture, salt-mining, and blacksmithing.

By the 14th century, Katsina had become the most powerful city-state. Katsina was the base for the trans-Saharan trade in salt, cloth, leather, and grain. The Hausa oral history is reflected in the Bayajidda legend, which describes the adventures of the Baghdadi hero, Bayajidda, culminating in the killing of the snake in a well at Daura and the marriage with the local queen Magajiya Daurama. According to the legend, the hero had a child with the queen, Bawo, and another child with the queen's maid-servant, Karbagari.

Though the 7 Hausa states shared the same lineage, language and culture, the states were characterized by fierce rivalries with each other with each state seeking supremacy over the others. They constantly waged war on each other and would often work with invaders to the detriment of their sister states, hindering their collective strength.

Mythology

Main article: Bayajidda

According to the Bayajidda legend, Hausa states were founded by the sons and grandsons of Bayajidda, a prince whose origin differs by tradition, but official canon records him as the person who married Daurama, the last Kabara of Daura, and heralded the end of the matriarchal monarchs that had erstwhile ruled the Hausa people. According to the most famous version of the story, the story of the Hausa states started with a prince from Baghdad. Travelling through Bornu, he arrived at Daura, where he went to the house of an old woman called Waira and asked her to give him water but she told him the predicament of the land, how the only well in Daura, called Kusugu, was inhabited by a snake called Sarki, who allowed citizens of Daura to fetch water only on Fridays. Since sarki is the Hausa word for "king", this may have been a metaphor for a powerful figure. Bayajidda killed Sarki and because of what he had done the queen married him for his bravery. After his marriage to Daurama the people started to call him Bayajidda which means "he didn't understand (the language) before".

Hausa Bakwai

The Hausa Bakwai were the seven "true" states (birane) that all Hausa people are said to derive from. According to tradition, Bayajidda and Daurama's son, Bawo, had six further sons with three wives (two per wife) who each founded a kingdom. Biram, the seventh kingdom, was founded by another son of Bayajidda, who he had had with a Kanuri princess (called Magira) while he was at Bornu. Daura is the "mother city" of the Hausa states.

• Daura (Gazaura ascended to the throne)
• Kano (founded by Bagauda)
• Katsina (founded by Kumayau)
• Zaria/Zazzau (founded by Gunguma)
• Gobir (founded by Duma)
• Rano (founded by Zamna Kogi)
• Biram (ruled by Biram, city now called "Hadeija")

Since the beginning of Hausa history, the seven states of Hausaland divided up production and labor activities in accordance with their location and natural resources. Kano and Rano were known as the "Chiefs of Indigo." Cotton grew readily in the great plains of these states, and they became the primary producers of cloth, weaving and dying it before sending it off in caravans to the other states within Hausaland and to extensive regions beyond. Biram was the original seat of government, while Zaria supplied labor and was known as the "Chief of Slaves". Katsina and Daura were the "Chiefs of the Market," as their geographical location accorded them direct access to the caravans coming across the desert from the north. Gobir, located in the west, was the "Chief of War" and was mainly responsible for protecting the empire from the invasive Kingdoms of Ghana and Songhai.

Hausa Banza/Banza Bakwai

The Hausa Banza or Banza Bakwai were referred to as the "bastard" or "illegitimate" states. According to tradition, Bayajidda had a third son with his concubine called Mukarbigari. Mukarbigari's descendants are then said to have founded seven other states which bordered the Hausa Bakwai to the west and south. Hausa tradition often refers to these as inferior to the Hausa Bakwai. Other oral sources indicate that they are not related to the Bayajidda or the Hausa. Borgu is sometimes included in the Hausa Banza. They are:

• Zamfara (inhabited by Hausa-speakers, some traditions include Zamfara in the Hausa Bakwai)
• Kebbi (inhabited by Hausa-speakers)
• Yauri
• Gwari
• Kwararafa (state of the Jukun people)
• Nupe (state of the Nupe people)
• Yoruba (Yoruba people)

History

Rise

Hausaland had great agricultural potential, and early positions of authority related to control of the land, fostered by kinship relations. Hausa chiefs were either family heads (gidaje) or religious officials tasked with rituals intended to ensure agricultural prosperity (sarkin noma; "kings of farming"). The date of the foundation of the Hausa kingdoms is unknown, however urbanisation in northern Nigeria led to the formation of states, with fortified capital cities becoming centres of power and rule. The kingdoms controlled trade in the region, and were first mentioned by Ya'qubi in the 9th century. Hausa traders founded quarters (sabon gari) in various places, building an elaborate and efficient trading network.

Zenith

By the 15th century, the Hausa kingdoms were trading centers which competed with Kanem-Bornu and the Mali Empire. The primary exports were slaves, leather, gold, cloth, salt, kola nuts, animal hides, and henna. At various moments in their history, the Hausa managed to establish central control over their states, but such unity has always proven short. During the reign of King Yaji I (1349–85) Islam was first introduced to Kano via daʿwah from Soninke Wangara. Many Muslim traders and clerics used to come from Mali, from the Volta region, and later from Songhay. King Yaji appointed a Qadi and Imam as part of the state administration. Muhammad Rumfa (1463–99) built mosques and madrassahs. He also commissioned Muhammad al-Maghili to write a treatise on Muslim governance. Many other scholars were brought in from Egypt, Tunis, and Morocco. This turned Kano and Katsina into centers of Islamic scholarship. Islamization facilitated the expansion of trade and was the basis of an enlarged marketing network. The Ulama provided legal support, guarantees, safe conducts, introductions and many other services. By the end of the 15th century, Muhammad al-Korau, a cleric, took control of Katsina declaring himself king. Ulama were later brought in from North Africa and Egypt to reside in Katsina. An Ulama class emerged under royal patronage. The Hausa rulers fasted Ramadan, built mosques, kept up the five obligatory prayers, and gave alms (zakat) to the poor. Ibrahim Maje (1549–66) was an Islamic reformer and instituted Islamic marriage law in Katsina. Generally Hausaland remained divided between the Muslim cosmopolitan urban elite and the local animistic rural communities. During this time period, Leo Africanus briefly mentions in his book Descrittione dell’Africa descriptions of the political and economic state of Hausaland during that time although it is unknown if he actually visited it; Hausaland seems to have been mostly of a tributary status by Songhai as in his description of Zamfara he comments that "their king was slaughtered by the Askiya and themselves made tributary" and the same is said for the rest of the region.

Fall

Hausa-Fulani Sokoto Caliphate in the 19th century

Despite relatively constant growth from the 15th century to the 18th century, the states were vulnerable to constant war internally and externally. By the 18th century, they were economically and politically exhausted. Famines became very common during this period and the Sultans engaged in heavy taxation to fund their wars. Though the vast majority of its inhabitants were Muslim, by the 19th century, they were conquered by a mix of Fulani warriors and Hausa peasantry, citing syncretism and social injustices. By 1808 the Hausa states were finally conquered by Usuman dan Fodio and incorporated into the Hausa-Fulani Sokoto Caliphate.

See also

• Monarchies of Ethiopia

Further reading

• Hogben, S. J.; Kirk-Greene, Anthony (1966). The Emirates of Northern Nigeria. London. pp. 145–155.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Lapidus, Ira M. (2014). A History of Islamic Societies (3rd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 458–459. ISBN 978-0-521-51430-9.
• Nicolas, Guy (1975). Dynamique sociale et appréhension du monde au sein d'une société hausa. Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Palmer, Herbert R. (1928). "Bayajidda legend". Sudanese Memoirs. Vol. 3. Lagos. pp. 132–146.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Smith, Michael (1978). The Affairs of Daura. Berkeley.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Map showing Bornu and the Hausa Bakwai Archived 2020-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Part II Archived 2012-03-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Britannica
• Art & Life in Africa
• BBC
• Amana Online The Fulani Empire of Sokoto
• Amana Online Hausaland and the Hausas