Hello All,
New year, new resolution to revive my moribund blog with a theme that I am actually really passionate about. Its about the story of the old Nigeria stating with heroines that I learnt about in primary school and have heard about in stories. Queen Amina kicks off this series and I hope you like it...
This is the woman whom female halls in UNILAG, UI, ABU Zaria and maybe some other universities in Nigeria were named for and there is a life-sized equestrian statue of her, sword and all on the grounds of the National Theatre in Lagos
Queen Aminatu (Amina) of Zazzau (Zaria) led the Hausa empire in the sixteenth century. There are no actual timing in history of Amina's reign over the hausa empire as there are varying stories of when she actually was a ruler. Some stories put her reign at the time period of 1563 until 1573 and there is another story which puts her reign at around 1576, after her elder brother Karama died. There is yet another story which states that she was never crowned a queen that she remained just a princess.
The collective theme of all the stories was that Amina was a warrior and she conquered states which she annexed to the Hausa empire.
She features a lot in folklores as a warrior queen and there were lively but undocumented tales about her growing up years. She was said to have been celebrated in songs for her military prowess "Amina, daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man"
One of the tales recounted that she forged trades routes through the Sahara to North Africa and was responsible for the introduction of kola nut into local cultivation. She was also credited with building strong earthen walls around the city which was the prototype of fortifications used in all Hausa states.
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