Kano ( ⓘ; Ajami: كَنُواْ) is a city in northern Nigeria and the capital of Kano State. It is the second largest city in Nigeria after Lagos, with over four million citizens living within 449 km2 (173 sq mi). Located in the savanna, south of the Sahel, Kano is a major route of the trans-Saharan trade, having been a trade and human settlement for millennia. It is the traditional state of the Dabo dynasty who have ruled as emirs over the city-state since the 19th century. Kano Emirate Council is the current traditional institution inside the city boundaries of Kano, and under the authority of the Government of Kano State.
The city is one of the seven medieval Hausa kingdoms. The principal inhabitants of the city are the Hausa and Fulani people. Centuries before British colonization, Kano was strongly cosmopolitan with settled populations of Arab, Tuareg, and Kanuri and remains so with the Hausa language spoken as a lingua franca by over 70 million speakers in the region.
Islam arrived in the city in the 11th century or earlier primarily through the trans-Saharan trade. As a result, Kano became wealthy and the commercial nerve centre of the region and Northern Nigeria, and is still associated as the "centre of commerce".
Etymology
Kano was originally known as Dala, after the hill, and was referred to as such until the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th by Bornoan sources.
History
Founding and Bagauda dynasty
In the 7th century, Dala Hill, a residual hill in Kano, was the site of a hunting and gathering community that engaged in iron work (Nok culture); it is unknown whether these were Hausa people or speakers of Niger–Congo languages. The Kano Chronicle identifies Barbushe, a warrior priest of Dala Hill and a female spirit deity known as Tsumburbura. Barbushe was from the lineage of the hunter family (maparauta) who were the Maguzawa and the city's first settlers. They worshipped the deity Tsumburbura (Elizabeth Isichei notes that the description of Barbushe is similar to those of Sao people).
While small chiefdoms were previously present in the area, according to the Kano Chronicle, Bagauda son of Bawo and grandson of the mythical hero Bayajidda, became the first king of Kano in 999, reigning until 1063. His grandson Gijimasu (1095–1134), the third king, began building city walls (badala/ganuwa) at the foot of Dala Hill. His own son, Tsaraki (1136–1194), the fifth king, completed them during his reign.
Kano is one of the best-known historic Hausa city-states. According to the Kano Chronicle. These accounts indicate that Kano emerged early as a settlement connected to Dalla Hill and gradually developed into an urban and political center.
Middle Ages: spread of Islam and trade
In the 12th century, Ali Yaji from Kudawa lineage as King of Kano renounced his allegiance to the cult of Tsumburbura, converted to Islam and proclaimed the Sultanate that was to last until its fall in the 19th century. The reign of Yaji ensued an era of expansionism that saw Kano becoming the capital of a pseudo Habe Empire.
In 1463, Muhammad Rumfa (reigned 1463–1499) ascended the throne. During his reign, political pressure from the rising Songhai Empire forced him to take Auwa, the daughter of Askiyah the Great as his wife. She was to later become the first female Madaki of Kano.
Rumfa was a rich and flamboyant king. Luxurious clothing and expensive ostrich feather shoes were common among government officials. The kakaki (a kind of trumpet) was also first used during his reign. His wealth is owed to Kano's commercial prosperity during this period. Kano arguably achieved the height of its reputation as an important trading center of the trans-Saharan trade in the Middle Ages during his reign. Leo Africanus's description of Kano is believed to be that of Rumfa's era. He described the locals as "wealthy merchants and skilled craftsmen" and commended the cavalry of the Sultan's army. He also noted the abundance of rice, corn, cotton and citrus fruits.
Rumfa reformed the city, expanded the Sahelian Gidan Rumfa (Emir's Palace), and played a role in the further Islamization of the city, as he urged prominent residents to convert and invited many prominent scholars to the city. He also built the walls of the city and the Kurmi market. The Kano Chronicle attributes a total of twelve "innovations" to Rumfa. According to the Kano Chronicle, the thirty-seventh Sarkin Kano (King of Kano) was Mohammed Sharef (1703–1731). His successor, Kumbari dan Sharefa (1731–1743), engaged in major battles with Sokoto as a longterm rivalry.
Kano under the Sokoto Caliphate
At the beginning of the 19th century, Fulani Islamic leader Usman dan Fodio led a jihad affecting much of central Sudan which demolished the Habe kingdom, leading to the emergence of the Sokoto Caliphate. In 1805 the last sultan of Kano was defeated by the Jobe Clan of the Fulani, and Kano became an Emirate of the Caliphate. Kano was already the largest and most prosperous province of the empire.
The city suffered famines from 1807 to 1810, in the 1830s, 1847, 1855, 1863, 1873, 1884, and from 1889 until 1890.
During the 19th century when Kano came under the suzerainty of the Sokoto Caliphate, Kano prospered as the center of commercial activity. Weaving, dyeing and leatherwork were traded as far north as Morocco and thereafter to Europe. Its cotton cloth traded as far as Tripoli, Lake Chad, and Timbuktu.
In 1851, Heinrich Barth (a German scholar who spent several years in northern Nigeria in the 1850s) mentioned that Kano had a 10-mile long 30 ft high clay walls with a population of 30,000 with commerce and manufacturing abundant. He mentioned that "its huge market was a labyrinth of narrow alleys with everything sold from vegetables to slaves". He also called Kano the greatest emporium of central Africa and estimated the percentage of slaves in Kano to be at least 50%, most of whom lived in slave villages. This was one of the last major slave societies, with high percentages of enslaved population long after the Atlantic slave trade had been cut off.
From 1893 until 1895, two rival claimants to the throne fought a civil war, or Basasa. With the help of royal slaves, Yusufu was victorious over his brother Tukur and claimed the title of emir.
British conquest, colonial indirect rule, and independence
In March 1903, the city-state was absorbed into the British Empire after the Battle of Kano, the Fort of Kano was captured by the British, It quickly replaced Lokoja as the administrative centre of Northern Nigeria. It was replaced as the centre of government by Zungeru and later Kaduna, and only regained administrative significance with the creation of Kano State following Nigerian independence.
A 1903 British newspaper commentary described Kano as the ‘Manchester of Nigeria’ and emphasized its reputation for textile manufacturing and indigo dyeing.
From 1913 to 1914, as the peanut business was expanding and Groundnut pyramids became more prominent in Kano City, Kano suffered a major drought, which caused a famine. Other famines broke out in the region in 1908, 1920, 1927, 1943, 1951, 1956, and 1958. By 1922, groundnut trader Alhassan Dantata had become the richest businessman in the Kano Emirate, surpassing fellow merchants Umaru Sharubutu Koki and Maikano Agogo.
In May 1953, an inter-ethnic riot arose due to southern newspapers misreporting on the nature of a disagreement between northern and southern politicians in the House of Representatives. Thousands of Nigerians of southern origin died as a result a politically sparked riot.
Ado Bayero became emir of Kano in 1963. Kano state was created in 1967 from the then Northern Nigeria by the Federal military government. The first military police commissioner, Audu Bako, is credited with building a solid foundation for the progress of a modern society. He started a lot of development projects—network of roads, a reliable urban water supply. He was a keen farmer himself and funded construction of number of dams to provide irrigation. Thanks to his policies, Kano produced all types of produce and export it to the neighbouring states. The first civilian governor was Abubakar Rimi.
In December 1980, radical preacher Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine led a riot. He was killed by security forces, but his followers later started uprisings in other northern cities.
21st century
After the introduction of sharia law in Kano State in the early 2000s, many Christians left the city. 100 people were killed in riots over the sharia issue during October 2001.
In November 2007, political violence broke out in the city after the People's Democratic Party (PDP) accused the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) of rigging the November 17 local government elections. (The ANPP won in 36 of the state's 44 local Government Areas.) Hundreds of youths took to the streets, over 300 of whom were arrested; at least 25 people were killed. Buildings set on fire include a sharia police station, an Islamic centre, and a council secretariat. 280 federal soldiers were deployed around the city.
In January 2012, a series of bomb attacks killed up to 162 people. Four police stations, the State Security Service headquarters, passport offices and immigration centres were attacked. Jihadist insurgents Boko Haram claimed responsibility. After the bombings, Kano was placed under curfew. The Boko Haram insurgency continued with mass murders in March 2013, November 2014 and February 2015.
On 6 June 2014, Emir Ado Bayero who reigned as Emir of Kano for over five decades died, and a succession crisis loomed amongst the royal family. On 8 June 2014, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi a grandson of former Emir Muhammadu Sanusi I emerged as the new Emir of Kano. His accession led to widespread protests from supporters of Sanusi Ado Bayero the Chiroman Kano (Crown Prince) and son of the late Emir Ado Bayero, with allegations that Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso interfered with the king-making process.
In 2019, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje balkanized the traditional Kano Emirate into four new emirates; Bichi, Rano, Gaya and Karaye. This unprecedented move was criticized by elders. According to the law, out of the 44 local government areas in the state, Sanusi as Emir of Kano will preside over just 10 local government areas; with the remainder carved up amongst the new emirates. On 9 March 2020, Sanusi was dethroned by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje. The emir was immediately moved to detention under heavy security escort to an apartment in awe, Nasarawa state. It took the intervention of the federal high court in Abuja to order his release from detention in Nasarawa.
Culture and landmarks
The core history of Kano contains several notable cultural and architectural landmarks, including the Gidan Makama Museum Kano, the Gidan Rumfa, Dala Hill, Kano Emirate Council, Kurmi Market, the Great Mosque of Kano, and the surviving portions of the Ancient Kano City Walls, and corresponding Gates of Hausa kingdoms. The Kofar Mata Dye Pits and the Groundnut pyramids are among the city's most famous traditional craft sites and are widely recognized in both historical and recent literature as important symbols of Kano's textile heritage.
Legacy
Kano occupies a central place in the history of Hausaland, northern Nigeria, Sahelian kingdoms, and trans-Saharan trade. Its long association with trade, urban state formation, Islamic scholarship, fortified architecture, and craft production has made it one of the most studied cities in West African history. Modern scholarship generally treats Kano not simply as a colonial conquest site, but as a major precolonial and colonial-era commercial metropolis whose influence extended far beyond present-day northern Nigeria.
Geography
Location
The city lies south of the Sahara Desert in the Sudanian Savanna region that stretches across the south of the Sahel. The city lies near where the Kano and Challawa rivers flowing from the southwest converge to form the Hadejia River, which eventually flows into Lake Chad to the east.
Climate
Kano is 481 metres (1,578 feet) above sea level. Kano has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). The city has on average about 980 mm (38.6 in) of precipitation per year, the large majority of which falls from June through September. Like the vast majority of Nigeria, Kano is very hot for most of the year, peaking in April. From December through February, the city is less hot, with morning temperatures during the months of December, January and February averaging between 14 and 16 °C (57.2 and 60.8 °F).
LGAs
Metropolitan Kano has eight local governments:
Economy
The economic history of Kano dates back to the Middle Ages when the city served as the southernmost point of the famous trans-Sahara trade routes. Kano was well connected with many cities in North Africa and some cities in southern Europe. By 1851, the city of Kano produced 10 million pairs of sandals and 5 million tanned hides annually for export, with other products including textile materials, leather and grains. Kano was connected with trans-Atlantic trade in 1911 when a railway line reached Kano. Kano is a major centre for the production and export of agricultural products like hides, skins, peanuts, and cotton.