Kano

views updated May 29 2018

KANO

Kano is the capital city of Kano State, in northern Nigeria. Its 1992 population (the last year for which census data is available) was estimated at 700,000 inhabitants. Kano State has an area of 16.630 square miles and an estimated population 5.6 million.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Kano was founded in the fifth century as a settlement at the foot of Dalla Hill. The early inhabitants were animist, believing that a soul or spirit inhabited all things. The animist tradition is still followed by some peoples of northern Nigeria, but Kano's inhabitants were introduced to Islam possibly as early as the tenth century.

Kano was visited by strangers in the tenth century. These newcomers may have been early Muslims, but a firm Islamic presence was not established until the fourteenth century. By the late 1300s, Kano became an independent Islamic sultanate, with close links to other Islamic centers located across the Sahara to the north. With the creation of the sultanate, the people of Kano began to publicly observe Islamic festivals, and the appointment of eunuchs to office—a practice common in courts elsewhere in the Islamic world—was begun in Kano as well.

By the fifteenth century, Kano had assumed control of the trans-Sahara caravan trade, due in large part to its powerful army. Camels appeared in the city, acquired through trade, and slave raiding in the countryside to the south had become a profitable occupation of the Kano aristocracy. Later in the fifteenth century, Kano came in direct contact with European traders, and further expanded their trade repertoire by specializing in indigo-colored textiles and red "Morocco-leather."

During the period of European colonization, Kano developed as a center of Western-style education. The British colonial government set up a school to train teachers of Arabic and Islamic sciences in the methods of modern pedagogy. Nonetheless, the city remained an important center of Sufi activities as well. It became in the same period an emporium of the new groundnut trade, on which the economy of northern Nigeria today largely depends.

Kano is not remarkable for creative literary contributions. It relied on works that were imported from peripheral Islamic areas. The first Kano scholar in Islamic literature was Usuman, an imam from Miga, who lived in the middle of the eighteenth century. A century later Asim Degal contributed works on astrology. The Makarantan Ilmi schools of higher Islamic learning play an important part in the Islamic life of Kano City. There are at least twelve establishments of this kind in Kano, but the number is believed to be much higher.

In the eighteenth century Kano was besieged by the Fulani, a powerful West African people. After the Fulani came the Europeans. British troops took the city in 1903 and imposed indirect colonial government. The emir stayed in power, but a British colonial official was present at all times. Kano grew during the twentieth century. A railroad was built in 1912, an airport in 1937, and a system of roads and highways expanded over the years. Today the city preserves a mixture of the old and the new. Its walls still stand. Built in the fourteenth century of mud-brick, the walls are nearly 30 kilometers long, with 15 gates. Still standing, too, are traditional houses of mud-brick, finely decorated in Hausa style. Other prominent buildings in Kano are the Amir's palace, the Grand Mosque, and the museum.

See alsoAfrica, Islam in ; Marwa, Muhammad ; ˓Uthman Dan Fodio .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hogben, S. J., and Kirk-Green, A. H. M. The Emirates of Northern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.

Smith, M. G. Government in Kano, 1350–1950. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997.

Thyge C. Bro

Kano

views updated May 11 2018

Kano City in n central Nigeria; capital of Kano state. The city dates from before the 12th century and became a Muslim possession in the 16th century. It was conquered by the Fulani in the early 19th century. Today Kano is a trading centre for a region producing cotton and nuts. Industries: textiles, leather goods, brewing, chemicals. Pop. (1996 est.) 674,000.