West of the Durbawa country and Kano, the savanna of the later Zamfara, the Gulbin Rima and Sokoto plains, Maradi and the Ader was farmed by Hausa-speaking village communities and their neighbours, each under its village head and the priests of its spirits (iskoki), with no town-state over them that any source names for 1200.
Kebbi is recorded as a state only in the sixteenth century and Zamfara's own tradition gives no secure early date; later Gobir moved into this country from the north in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Who holds it
- Title
- village heads (sarkin gari) and priests of the spirit cults
- Confidence
- low
Overlord
None recorded
How things stand that morning
Self-governing villages; the Niger valley to the west is drawn by the gao part of the sheet.
Customs
Village heads, lineage elders, spirit shrines (bori and iskoki cults); hunters and smiths as ritual specialists.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Inference from later history and language geography.
On the map: Rough outline.
Sources and studies
- Wikipedia: Hausa Kingdoms (Bayajidda legend, Hausa Bakwai and Banza Bakwai, foundation dates unknown)
- Wikipedia: Gobir (Asben as first seat, infobox 1150-1450; Bana Turmi and Bala; Mahdi Adamu on Marandet; Tuareg pressure from the 12th century after Lovejoy)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.