Nigeria: Political History and Notable Figures and Groups

Hausa (All Facts)

• Kingdoms formed by the namesake ethnic group in modern-day Nigeria

• States which were loosely connected through kinship ties with no central authority

• Prospered in the form of specialized city-states, such as those where cotton grew well

Igbo (All Facts)

• Culture which flourished remarkably in the lower Niger in West Africa

• They had no formal system of government

  • Despite the lack of political unity, they were spiritually united by a religious leader called the “Eze Nri”

• Nevertheless, they developed a high standard of craftsmanship in the working of bronze artefacts, which were the first to be made in West Africa

• Culture which featured the development tombs which showed the quality of their bronzework, the entombed body of which was that of some important person who had been buried with slaves, possibly the “Eze Nri” himself

  • Along the regalia and ornaments buried with the entombed are bronze leopard skulls (used as the top of a staff) and a finely decorated fly-whisk handle with a figure on horseback as well as a copper crown, vessels, armlets, and anklets

  • Near the entombed were sites of a store of ritual objects which further displayed the astonishing technique of the namesake metalworkers

700 - 1902 - Kanem-Bornu Empire (All Facts)

• Empire based around Lake Chad that once ruled modern-day Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, and Chad

• Empire which was sustained by the prosperous trans-Saharan trade

• It was one of the oldest and longest-lived empires in world history and the longest-lived empire in African history

• In 1500, Sheikh Mafarma ben Uthman wrote “a history of Bornu” (modern-day Nigeria, Niger, and Chad)

999 - 1805 - Kingdom of Kano (All Facts)

• Empire that was inhabited since its first settlers were established there as ironworkers

• City which developed its sophisticated urban civilization when Hausa immigrants arrived from the east in the 1000s

• City which had a population of aristocrats, merchants, weavers, scholars, smiths, and slaves with protection from the barbarians outside its city gates and walls which were completed by 1150

• Some notable rulers included

  • Bayajida

  • Gijimasu

  • Tsaraki dan Gijimasu

1180 - 1897 - Kingdom of Benin (All Facts)

• Kingdom whose bronze-casters were known for their “lost wax” technique, developed in the 1200s and introduced by tradition from the Ife

• This civilization was known for its remarkably advanced bronze and ivory figures including

  • ivory leopards, made from five tusks, each with inlaid copper-discs as their spots

  • bronze heads encased in ring-collars and fantastic helmets

• This kingdom is ruled by the “Oba,” who was believed locally to be the reincarnation of the founder of the dynasty that began the namesake kingdom

  • The “Oba” wore carved ivory, reserved for him

  • The shrines of his ancestors were decorated with carved tusks

  • The “Oba’s” grave was surrounded by human heads on stakes, belonging to wives and servants who were to accompany the “Oba” into the next world

1390 - 1410 - Kanajeji Sarki (All Facts)

• King of Kano

• He raised the power of Kano to new heights

  • He expanded its territories

  • It dominated most of Hausaland (northwestern Nigeria)

• He

  • introduced iron helmets to his soldiers

  • introduced war horses protected by quilted body armor to the Hausa Cavalry

    • He recognized the tactical value of the horse and built a superb cavalry, its horses upholstered in quilts

  • introduced imported chain-mail from Mameluke Egypt

  • made an army which few could withstand and which was one of the most powerful within Africa at the time

• Upon his death, the Kingdom of Kano surpassed the power of the Mali Empire, having dominated West Africa at the time

1440 - 1473 - Ewuare (All Facts)

• Oba of the Kingdom of Benin

  • He took over the Kingdom of Benin, killing his predecessor, his own brother, and becoming Oba

    • There was heavy fighting, many had been killed, and he took the capital of Urbini by storm

    • The coup brought Benin a new ruler and new kind of government

      • The old constitution, with the power of the ruler limited by the ozama, or hereditary chiefs, had been abolished

• He ordered all free-born citizens to be scarred with facial markings as “slaves of the oba,” in which he made a bid for absolute power

• He established a new order of “town” chiefs directly responsible to him, in order to offset the power of the ozama

• He rebuilt the capital and renamed it from Urbini to Edo

• He expanded the army that brought him to power, leading new conquests beyond Benin’s borders

Katsina (All Facts)

• Kingdom which regained its independence from the Songhai Empire in 1554

1570 - 1603 - Idris Aloma (All Facts)

• Mai (King) of the Bornu Empire

• He was one of the greatest generals of his time

• He was also an administrator and a diplomat

• He had respects paid to him by the Ottoman Empire and Morocco

• He rebuilt a weak and defenseless state, impoverished by famine

  • His state soon surpassed the decaying Songhai Empire and became the most powerful in Africa between the Niger River and Nile River

• He founded a strong army equipped with firearms

• His musketeers and camel-borne troops won many campaigns due to their possession of Ottoman Turkish firearms, having conquered the

  • So

  • Tuareg

  • Kano

  • Kanem

• He and his forces spread Islam wherever they went

• His chronicler Ahmad ibn Fartua wrote of his rule, “Truth and righteousness came into their own and shone in Bornu”

1576 - 1610 - Amina of Zazzau (All Facts)

• Queen of Hausa

• She led a military campaign to increase the size of her territory

  • She was 16 when she began the expansion of her ancestral lands, seeking to widen south and west her “empire” to include the mouth of the Niger River

  • Her military strength was increased by walled camps and she was paid for her protection in eunuchs and food

  • She captured the northern cities of Kano and Katsina

  • She added east-west trade routes to those through the Sahara Desert

  • She took a lover in every city she captured, but had each one beheaded the next morning

1600 / 1610 - 1904 - Kingdom of Dahomey (All Facts)