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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3] 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).[4]
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.[5] 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.[6] 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.”[7] 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.[8] 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.”[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]
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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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.”[16] 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.[17] 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.[18] 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.”[19] Elsewhere, she was remembered in Yauri for remonstrating the people for their lack of a king.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23]
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.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28] Like Smith, Abubakar associates Zaria’s southern campaigns with Hausa settlements in these lands.[29] 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.
[1] Dierk Lange and Silvio Berthoud. "L'intérieur de l'Afrique occidentale d'après Giovanni Lorenzo Anania (XVIe siècle),” 335, 339.
[2] Muhammad Bello and Salahudeen Yusuf (editor). A History of Islam, Scholarship and Revivalism in Western Sudan, Being an Annotated Translation with Introduction of Infaqul-Maisur Fi Tarikh Bilad al-Tukur of Sultan Muhammad Bello Bin Fodio, 80.
[3] Shaykh Dan Tafa, Rawdat’l-Afkaar.
[4] H.R. Palmer, “Kano Chronicle,” 82.
[5] Dierk Lange, Le Dīwān Des Sultans Du (Kānem-)Bornū: Chronologie Et Histoire D'un Royaume Africain (de La Fin Du Xe Siècle Jusqu'à 1808), 77.
[6] H.R. Palmer, “Kano Chronicle,” 74-75.
[7] H.R. Palmer, “Kano Chronicle,” 75.
[8] Ibid., 73-74.
[9] Ibid., 75.
[10] Yusufu Bala Usman, “A Reconsideration of the History of Relations Between Borno and Hausaland before 1804,” in Studies in the History of Pre-Colonial Borno, 189.
[11] H.R. Palmer, “Kano Chronicle,” 78.
[12] E.J. Arnett, “A Hausa Chronicle,” 162.
[13] H.R. Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs II, 62.
[14] H.R. Palmer, The Bornu Sahara and Sudan, 223.
[15] E.J. Arnette (ed.), Gazetteer of Zaria, Gazetteer, 8.
[16] Alhaji Hassan & Shuaibu Na’ibi, A Chronicle of Abuja, 13.
[17] A.H.M. Kirk-Greene & S.J. Hogben, The Emirates of Northern Nigeria: A Preliminary Survey of Their Historical Traditions, 215-216.
[18] Ibid., 216-217.
[19] Ibid., 218.
[20] Ibid., 255-256.
[21] Abdullahi Smith, “Some notes on the history of Zazzau under the Hausa Kings” in Zaria and Its, 83. Elsewhere in the same essay, smith suggests that Bakwa was a contemporary of Kano’s Muhammad Rumfa and Katsina’s Muhammad Korau (Smith, 21).
[22] Ibid., 98. A praise song among the Hausawa in Katab country likewise refers to the Hausa as the sons of Bakwa (Ibid., 99).
[23] Ibid., 85-86.
[24] Ibid., 87-88.
[25] Ibid., 88.
[26] Sa’ad Abubakar, “Queen Amina of Zaria” in Nigerian Women in Historical Perspective, 21.
[27] Abdullahi Smith, “Some notes on the history of Zazzau under the Hausa Kings” in Zaria and Its Region (M.J. Mortimore, ed.), 101.
[28] Sa’ad Abubakar, “Queen Amina of Zaria” in Nigerian Women in Historical Perspective, 10, 18.
[29] Ibid., 20.
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