Kwararafa
Encyclopedia
Benue River
The Benue River is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately 1,400 km long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months...
valley in what is today eastern Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
. It was located southwest of the Bornu Empire
Bornu Empire
The Bornu Empire was an African state of Nigeria from 1396 to 1893. It was a continuation of the great Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty...
and south of the Hausa States, and much of what we know of the Kwararafa come from these sources. They rose to prominence before 1500, were in conflict with their more powerful neighbours in the 17th century, and reduced to a small tribute state by the 18th century. It is believed that Kwararafa was either a confederacy or caste led conquest state led by the modern Jukun people
Jukun people (West Africa)
Jukun are an ethno-linguistic group or ethnic nation in West Africa. The Jukun are traditionally located in Taraba State, Nigeria and parts of northwestern Cameroon. They are descendants of the people of the Kwararafa kingdom. most of the tribes in the north central of Nigeria trace their origin to...
, or perhaps a collective name given by their Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
foes for a number of pagan peoples to their south.
Regardless, a spiritually important pagan Jukun priest-kingship at Wukari
Wukari
Wukari is a Local Government Area in Taraba State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Wukari on the A4 highway. The Donga River flows through the area and the Benue River forms a boundary with Nasarawa State to the northwest....
appears to have been the centre of Kwararafa power, but in the 17th century, this may have spread much farther. Leo Africanus
Leo Africanus
Joannes Leo Africanus, was a Moorish diplomat and author who is best known for his book Descrittione dell’Africa describing the geography of North Africa.-Biography:Most of what is known about his life is gathered from autobiographical...
records a Bornu raid into Kwararafa territory at the end of the 15th century, and the resistance of Kwararafa horsemen. The Kano Chronicles among other Hausa sources record successful invasions of Hausaland by the Kwararafa, specifically against Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
around 1600, again mid century, and another in 1671. In the 1670s the Kwararafa assaulted Katsina
Katsina
Katsina is a city , and a Local Government Area in northern Nigeria, and is the capital of Katsina State. Katsina is located some 160 miles east of the city of Sokoto, and 84 miles northwest of Kano, close to the border with Niger. As of 2007, Katsina's estimated population was 459,022...
, sacked Zaria
Zaria
Zaria may refer to:*Zaria, a city in Kaduna State, Nigeria*Zaria , or Zoria, the Slavic goddess of beauty*Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, a member of the Dutch royal family...
and launched an invasion of Bornu. Bornu sources recount Kwararafa striking towards the capital of Ngasargamu and being turned aside in a great battle by Mai Ali bin Umar
Ali II of Bornu
Alhaji Ali was Mai of the Bornu Empire, in what is now the African states of Chad, Nigeria, and Niger, from 1639 to around 1680. Ali succeeded his father Umar in 1639 and had a relatively long reign. During the early years of his reign, the empire was threatened with incursions from its...
. Katsina chronicler Dan Marina recounts the Mai Ali killing wounding and capturing many Kwararafa, and sending three captives back to their leader, with their ears severed and hung around their necks.
Regardless of the brutality of the relations, there seems to have been a long period of respect between states. During the 18th century, communities of each apparently lived in the cities of the other, and a tradition of Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
emissaries served the Kwararafa. Hausa communities too were found in the Kwararafa territory. Despite this, the state apparently was resolutely pagan, and remained so past its decline in the 18th century. By the end of that century, Kwararafa paid tribute to Bornu. By the 19th century they were reduced to small towns resisting for a period the Fulani Jihad of the Sokoto Caliphate.
The successor state, the Wukari Federation
Wukari Federation
The Wukari Federation is a traditional state in Nigeria, a successor to the Kwararafa state of the Jukun people. The state is based in the town of Wukari in Taraba State, in the south of the Benue River basin...
, was established around 1840 and remains as a Nigerian traditional state.
they remain the only tribe that conquered the hausa and the most powerful tribe in Nigeria in the 17th century.