Queen Amina of Zaria remains one of the
most obscure historical figures in the early history of Hausaland yet widely
celebrated. Said to have been the daughter of Bakwa Turunku, whose gender has
been remembered as male in some sources and female according to others, some
scholars date her reign to the 16th century. Others, relying on
information in the Kano Chronicle, suggest a 15th century
date. Upon a reexamination of the surviving textual sources and a parsimonious
reading of the oral traditions, we argue for a 15th century date for
Amina’s life. By closely examining other dates or developments in the Central
Sudan which can be corroborated by multiple sources, it is clear that Amina of
Zaria was unlikely to have lived in the late 16th century. Those
final decades of the 1500s are covered by a plethora of sources which do not
easily support Amina or Zaria as major powers in the Hausaland at the time.
However, when one uses a 15th century date, it is more likely that,
at that era when the history of Hausaland was not well-represented in the
extant corpus of written sources, Amina may have lived. This brief excursion
through the sources shall argue in favor of a 15th century date for
Amina and contextualize Zaria’s southern expansion into central northern
Nigeria. Beginning with pre-colonial written sources, we will then explore sources
and traditions collected during the colonial era before examining post-colonial
scholarship on Amina of Zaria.
Amina of Zaria in the Pre-Colonial
Written Sources
Beginning
in the 16th century, the century in which many assume Amina
lived, some detailed descriptions of West Africa can be found in the
work of Anania. An Italian writing about West Africa but not solely
regurgitating information from Leo Africanus, Anania had access to sources from
the second half of the 1500s. For instance, Anania knew that the state of Kebbi
was, at the time, still a major power in Hausaland. Therefore, it is very
interesting to note that in his description of Zaria, or Zegzeg, Anania merely
referred to its geographic location north of the Cardi, or pagans.
Interestingly, Doma appears as one of the states in Anania’s geographical text,
although merely to report on its sacred king. It is very likely that the
Doma mentioned here is the land of Doma included in the Gwari region by
Muhammad Bello. Yet one cannot help but notice that Anania did not report any
type of Zaria dominion or suzerainty of Doma. This suggests that if Zaria under
Queen Amina did impose tribute on Doma, it was likely before the time of
Anania, perhaps further back in the 15th century.
There are important
written sources in the 19th century, too. In particular, the
writings of Muhammad Bello of the Sokoto Caliphate and his nephew, Shaykh Dan
Tafa, who provided brief allusions to the conquests of Amina. The former wrote
of Zaria’s Amina, daughter of its emir, who waged war and ruled over Katsina,
Kano, and Bauchi. According to Bello, she later died in Atagara, near Idah.
Atagara, in Bello’s conception of West African geography, was an expansive land
close to the coast visited by Europeans. Zaria’s dominions at this time supposedly
included the Gwari region: Gwandara, Doma, Yasku, Kwotto, Adama, Kwato and
Kwararafa. Since Bello’s account was
written in the 19th century and likely drew from oral tradition, it
is unclear to what extent Zaria really did extend its influence so far south.
Similar questions could be raised about the nature of Zaria’s influence in the
affairs of Kano and Katsina. Like his uncle, Dan Tafa’s brief mention of Amina
of Zaria is likely based on Bello’s Infaq al-Maysur. He also reports
that Kwararafa once ruled Zaria. This suggests that Zaria’s
claims to tribute from Kwararafa were hardly permanent. Indeed, it is likely
that when Kwararafa attacked Kano, Katsina, or perhaps even Borno, Zaria was
either neutral or sometimes even forced to send tribute to the powerful
non-Muslim state to the south. If moments of Kwararafa aggression against Hausa
states like Kano and Katsina or Borno represent moments when Zaria may also have
been the weaker power in relation to Kwararafa, it is difficult to locate
Amina’s reign to the commonly repeated date of 1576, particularly since
Kwararafa was said to have attacked Kano during the reign of Mohamma Zaki (r.
1582-1618).
The next great source
of the precolonial era is the Kano Chronicle. Ostensibly on the history
of Kano, numerous references to relations with other Hausa or non-Hausa states
can be found in the text. It can also be corroborated by other sources to help
control the dating, although a new chronology to supersede that of Palmer is
sorely needed. Nonetheless, its reliability for earlier centuries has been
attested by the Diwan of Kanem-Borno. According to the Diwan, a
deposed mai named Uthman K.l.n.ma was briefly ruler of Borno in c. 1421.
The same source indicates that he died in Kano. This man was undoubtedly
Dagachi, a Borno prince who arrived in Kano during the reign of Dauda (r.
1421-1438). Although the Kano Chronicle anachronistically claims Dagachi
arrived with guns, the deposed Sayfawa mai likely arrived in Kano in c. 1421
or 1422. Soon after his arrival in the Hausa kingdom, Dauda went to war on
Zaria, leaving Dagachi in charge for months during this campaign. It is perhaps telling that
the chronicle did not report the success of Dauda against Zaria at this time
(possibly sometime in the early 1420s), but it clearly identifies Zaria’s ruler
as Amina of Zaria. We suspect she was the victor against Dauda, since the
chronicle then goes on to report her conquests as far as Nupe and Kwararafa. In
addition, she was said to receive 40 eunuchs and 10,000 kola nuts from Nupe as
tribute. Indeed, “Her conquests extended over 34 years.” If taken at face value,
then the reign of Amina of Zaria extended over a 34 year period that included
at least part of the 1420s.
In addition, the Kano
Chronicle also reports on earlier and later conflicts with Zaria or other
states which aid our chronology. For instance, Kanajeji, who ruled Kano in
1390-1410, is remembered for going to war against Zaria, attacking Turunku.
After losing to Zaria, Kanajeji fulfilled pre-Islamic rites for Tchibiri and
defeated Zaria, killing their king. This account suggests that
Zaria’s capital was at Turunku in the late 1300s or early 1400s, a town also
associated with Bakwa Turunku, Amina’s parent. Later, during the reign of
Abdulahi Burja (r. 1438-1452), Borno was said to have attacked Asben. Although
the campaign did not succeed, “The next year, every town in the west paid him
tsare.” The exact meaning of this
reference to Borno’s campaign against Asben and the resulting payment of tsare
is unclear, but Yusufu Bala Usman has argued that Palmer’s translation misleads
the reader by omitting the full sentence of the Arabic text. Apparently, it was
tarai given to the Sayfawa ruler for a blessing. The enigmatic reference
in the chronicle to every town in the west may be a reference to more than one
Hausa kingdom sending an at least nominal gift or “tribute” to Borno in
recognition of its ruler’s Islamic legitimacy and influence. But it nonetheless
gives a potential terminus ad quem for Zaria’s hegemony led by Amina.
Therefore, sometime between 1438-1452, Amina may have died and Zaria’s hegemony
over Kano and other states ended or declined. Further evidence of this can be
found in the Kano Chronicle for the reign of Abdulahi (r. 1499-1509),
who was said to have conquered Zaria.
In summation, the
precolonial written sources provide clear evidence for Amina of Zaria’s
influence and a tentative chronology. Although Bello and Dan Tafa were writing
in the 19th century and presumably based their work on oral
traditions for Amina, the Kano Chronicle is rather detailed and can be
corroborated by other sources for events in the 15th century. The
aforementioned Anania, writing in the second half of the 16th
century, did not refer to Zaria as a major power in the Central Sudan. This
strongly suggests that those who prefer to begin Amina’s reign to c. 1576 are
failing to take into account the absence of any sources that refer to Zaria as
a regional power in this period.
Amina of Zaria
in Colonial Historiography
With the advent of
British colonialism, the emergence of scholarship and ethnography of the
peoples of Nigeria worked hand in hand with colonial administration and
ideology. In the case of areas of Nigeria where a written tradition persisted, a
few king lists, chronicles, and other manuscripts were translated. In the case
of Zaria’s Hausa rulers, E.J. Arnett translated one list of its rulers. In his
list, Bakwa was revered for freeing Zaria from Kwararafa rule. Bakwa’s reign
was also dated 1492-1522. H.R. Palmer, well known in
the study of Borno’s history, also published translations of important sources
like the Kano Chronicle. In his study of oral traditions in Borno or
other parts of northern Nigeria, Palmer was also very instrumental in
reproducing them for Sudanese Memoirs and The Bornu Sahara and Sudan. For instance, his sources problematically
asserted the Kisra legend of origin for Kwararafa. In his own speculative
footnotes, Palmer wanted to present the Turunku kings of Zaria as appointees of
the Askias of Songhay while Amina of Zaria was allegedly a Queen Mother of the
Kwararafa.
Furthermore, Palmer dates a major victory of Borno against Kwona (Kwararafa) to
the reign of Ali Gaji. Relying presumably on oral tradition, the Kwona chief
was apparently captured and 17,000 of his people taken captive. Of course, much of
Palmer’s speculative reasoning and unscientific linguistic evidence does not
stand up to scrutiny. But if the dating of one of the major campaigns against
Kwararafa from Borno occurred in Ali Gaji’s reign (second half of the 15th
century), we may have another instance in which Zaria was possibly not a major
power in the Central Sudan.
Besides Palmer and
Arnett, two major colonial-era sources exist. One, the Nigerian Northern
Provinces, Gazetteer, includes details on Zaria’s Hausa dynasty. The
foundation of Zaria town was completed by Bakwa Turunku, who, based on a list of
kings, was the 22nd ruler. Their reign was said to have begun in c.
1536 while Nohir was assigned the years 1532-1535. Another major source, A
Chronicle of Abuja, was published in the 1950s. Reporting on the Habe
dynasty there who ruled Zaria before the jihad, it contains a wealth of
references on Zaria’s history. Nonetheless, its authors assign Bakwa Turunku’s
construction of Zaria town to 1537. Moreover, they seem to identify Bakwa as a
woman, writing “It was by her determination, too, that the Kwarrarafa or
Jukons, were prevented from overrunning the land of Zazzau in their invasion
from the south.”
This same source, on an unclear basis, dates Zaria’s tribute to Borno to the
year 1734.
Overall, the colonial
era produced many written sources drawn from oral tradition or translations of
precolonial documents. These authors often brought with them their own
colonialist ideologies of race and problematic notions of ethnicity, language,
or oral tradition. Nonetheless, this era produced English-language lists of
kings with problematic dates for Zaria. It also included the first English
translation of the Kano Chronicle. Perhaps most significantly, a Hausa
language history of Amina entitled Amina Sarauniyar Zazzau was written
in 1954 by an anonymous author. This text appears to be one of the main sources
utilized by various historians of Zaria, although the author may have compiled
various traditions or legends which are contradictory. Unfortunately, we were
unable to locate a copy of this work.
Amina of Zaria
in the Post-Colonial World
With Nigerian
independence and the search for feminine national heroes or icons, Amina of
Zaria attracted much interest. Academics eager to challenge colonial-era
paradigms of sub-Saharan African history were also developing new approaches to
the history of Nigeria and Hausaland. As many know, oral tradition was fully
embraced in some quarters as a source for African history whilst scholars also
began to work with additional types of Arabic or ajami manuscripts. For
Amina of Zaria, however, scholars could never quite develop a scholarly
consensus on when she lived, her relationship to Bakwa Turunku, or the development
of a coherent model for understanding Zaria’s dynamic relations with Kwararafa,
Kano, and other states.
Fortunately for
Anglophone readers, Kirk-Greene and Hogben’s The Emirates of Northern
Nigeria: A Preliminary Survey of Their Historical Traditions summarizes
most of the traditions on Amina in the chapter on Zaria. Interestingly, they
present Bakwa Turunku as a queen rather than male and attribute the movement of
people from Turunku to Kufena during her reign (possibly in c. 1536). But
Turunku was also said to have been built by slaves of Bakwa during her war with
the Nupe.
As for Amina herself, she is believed to have been a daughter of Bakwa. Her
sister, Zaria, was the source of Zazzau’s new capital city’s name. Furthermore,
Amina’s mother, Bakwa, ruled after her father and brother. As for Amina, she was
said to have become a magajiya at age 16 and led Zaria’s military
campaigns during the reign of Karama. Apparently, she was seen as so
influential in Zaria that the ruler of Kano sought to marry her with gifts of
slaves and cloth. Eventually, in 1576, she became ruler of Zaria. Kirk-Greene and Hogben
even repeat the tradition that Amina took a lover in each town she conquered
before having him beheaded the following day. Her praise song became “Amina,
daughter of Niketau, a woman as capable as a man.” Elsewhere, she was remembered
in Yauri for remonstrating the people for their lack of a king. Clearly, Kirk-Greene and
Hogben presented all the known traditions of Amina. They even use the
problematic date of 1576 for the start of her reign. They also drew from
Muhammad Bello while ignoring the chronology for Amina indicated in the Kano
Chronicle. Unfortunately, they did not endeavor to date Amina’s reign with
a more judicious interpretation of the traditions and other written sources.
Besides Kirk-Greene and
Hogben, Abdullahi Smith wrote extensively on Zaria’s Hausa rulers. In “Some
notes on the history of Zazzau under the Hausa kings” in Zaria and Its
Region, Smith attempted an overview of Zaria’s pre-jihad past. In Smith’s
view, Bakwa reigned in the late 1400s. He believed that the rise of a new
dynasty in Zaria happened after Sarkin Kano Kanajeji defeated Zazzau in the
early 1400s. As a result, the dynasty based in Turunku may have moved to
Kufena. Bakwa himself emerges as
a foundational figure in tradition. For example, Zaria’s old Hausa kings were
known beyond the Kaduna frontier as the sons of Bakwa. Based on a model of Hausa
political organization in which territorial expansion and commerce were pursued
by Hausa rulers to maintain the support of elite officials and their families,
Smith proposes reasons why Zaria was interested in southern conquests and
trade. Thus, Sarauniya (daughter of the sarki) Amina, said to be the
daughter of Bakwa Turunku, campaigned as far as Nupeland and Kwararafa. Despite
dating this expansion to the 1500s, Smith relies on later traditions for
Zaria’s influence in the south. Indeed, Zaria’s sway was felt among the Kamuku,
the Basa of Gumna, in Gwari, Kajuru, the Morwa, Katab, Chawa and more.
According to tradition, all these various groups were once subject to Zazzau.
Additionally, the aforementioned Muhammad Bello extended Zaria’s influence to
Doma, Yeskwa and other lands.
In terms of Zaria’s
policy in the south, Smith also raised several essential points to consider.
First, Zaria’s southern expansion may have been related to the Abakpa and
Abakwariga communities among the Idoma and Jukun. These groups of Hausa origin
were certainly established in Kwararafa by the 17th century and
undoubtedly long before. Second, Smith asserts that slave raiding was hardly
the sole concern of Zaria in its relations with the source. In fact, Zaria may
have been seen by some of their southern neighbors as a source of protection in
a landscape with several mutually hostile peoples. Third, Zaria’s encounter
with Borno that allegedly took place during the time of Amina at Gadaz was only
one episode of Borno’s relations with Zaria. In truth, at an unknown date,
Borno established formal relations with Zaria. Zaria’s court even included an
official, the Bakon Barno, who may have been responsible for delivering
Zaria’s tribute. Another official, the Kadalla, was an emissary of Borno
in Zaria. Lastly, the Magajin Mallam was another representative of the
Sayfawa in Zaria, participating in the installation of a new sarki.
Since Smith was rightly hesitant to assign any date of origin to these
officials, it is worthwhile to consider that Borno’s encounter with Zaria
forces at Gadaz was motivated by the desire of the Sayfawa ruler to marry Amina. In spite of the lack of
corroborating evidence from Borno, it is still possible that the Sayfawa wanted
to establish formal relations with Zaria at a time when the state was exerting
its influence in Nupeland and Kwararafa. Thus, Zaria’s southern expansion and
commercial relations undoubtedly made it important for Borno, particularly for
access to kola nuts and slaves. Even if all these developments cannot be traced
to the time of Amina, they are plausible developments to comprehend Zaria’s
southern expansion.
Issues of religion and
spirituality are also areas of concern in understanding Zaria’s expansion.
Though further research is necessary, the relationship of the sarauniya or
magajiya to the Bori cult was an established practice in the court of Zaria. If Amina of Zaria was a magajiya
at one point, does that mean she was also involved in important state
rituals? Like Kanajeji of Kano and the Tchibiri, was Amina involved in
pre-Islamic rites closely entwined with the Hausa kingdom’s administration and
ruling ideology? One must also wonder to what extent this also shaped her
military campaigns in the south since these cults may have been part of her
military strategy. Similarly, were these non-Islamic practices one way in which
Zaria could incorporate non-Muslim groups?
The next major
historical source on Amina, Sa’ad Abubakar’s essay, “Queen Amina of Zaria,”
attempts to correlate all previous scholarship on the queen. Unlike Smith,
Abubakar was more willing to accept Bakwa as the parent of Amina. His
recounting of the traditions on Amina also elucidates how she became so skilled
in statecraft and war. Before the reign of Bakwa, Amina spent time at the court
of her grandfather, Sarki Nohir. It was there that she carefully observed the
government and later learned the ways of war. Then, after the death of Bakwa,
who succeeded Nohir, Amina assisted in the wars of Karama, a king who loved
war. Amina’s military training paid off handsomely here, as she was said to
have become rich with booty and slaves. Like Smith, Abubakar
associates Zaria’s southern campaigns with Hausa settlements in these lands. The request of the
Sayfawa mai to marry Amina at Gadaz may be apocryphal, but could very
well symbolize the beginning of formal relations between Borno and Zaria.
Lamentably, Abubakar’s analysis of Amina does not help establish a better
chronology for her reign.
Amina of Zaria: Conclusions
for a More Accurate Chronology
With any historically
obscure figure who has become the subject of legends and oft-repeated claims,
Amina of Zaria’s very existence has been called into question. Others
uncritically repeat problematic chronologies for her reign that fail to take
into account all the available sources. Therefore, a reconsideration of Amina’s
reign that dates it to the first half of the 15th century is better
aligned with the textual and oral sources. Similarly, the romanticization of
Amina of Zaria and the making of a national heroine of her story has obfuscated
a deeper analysis of how Zaria’s southern expansion functioned. It was unquestionably
a dynamic frontier that was occasionally challenged by Kwararafa’s rise and
fall. Similarly, Zaria’s occasionally combative relations with Kano reveal how
Zazzau was never able to maintain its dominance for too long. But, when
contextualized properly, Amina was and is remembered for playing a pivotal role
in the early expansion and consolidation of Zaria. This was not just a symbol
of Zaria’s military and commercial growth, but something remembered by
tradition as linked to the Zaria king most often invoked in tradition, Bakwa. Naturally,
as a female leader remembered for taking part in military campaigns and
possessing leadership, Amina’s story raises a plethora of questions about
gender, power, and perhaps pre-Islamic Hausa religious traditions. How does her
experience fare with that of Aisa Kili of Borno, who ruled in the 16th
century? How did women rulers find legitimacy in a context where formal
kingship was usually monopolized by men? Amina of Zaria’s life raises more
questions than it answers, but correctly dating her reign provides possible
clues to how gendered notions of power may have developed after the 1400s.
