| Battle of Kano | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Pacification of Northern Nigeria | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Madakin Kano | Thomas Morland | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 300 cavalry. [1] | 100 cavalry, 800 Infantry (rank and file). | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 70 dead and wounded | ||||||
The Battle of Kano was an important battle in 1903 between the British Empire and the Sokoto Caliphate's Kano Emirate in what is now Northern Nigeria.
In 1899, Lord Lugard had proclaimed a British protectorate over much of the Sokoto Caliphate. with the failure of numerous diplomatic overtures to the Caliph, in 1900 a military campaign was launched to subdue the caliphate.
The British pacification campaign termed the Kano-Sokoto Expedition set off from Zaria at the end of January 1903 under the command of Colonel Thomas Morland, heading up a force of British officers and N.C.O.s and 800 African rank and file. Apart from a company of mounted infantry and a few gunners, the whole force consisted of infantry. They were supported, however, by four 75-mm. mountain guns, which could if necessary be dismantled and transported by porters, and by six machine guns. [2]
After sporadic fighting outside the walls of the fort, the British managed to penetrate the defensive parameters of the capital. Kano was mostly left defenseless at the time. The emir, Aliyu Babba, was away with its large contingent of cavalry for the autumn campaign at Sokoto. Madakin Kano, a local noble, rallied whatever troops there were still in the city to defend it. Despite his efforts, the British successfully took over the city after heavy fight wherein the defenders sustained 70 casualties.
News of the British capture of Kano in February 1903 sent the Emir's cavalry in a long march to retake the city in the decisive Battle of Kwatarkwashi.
Images of the battlefield.
Kano is a city in northern Nigeria and the capital of Kano State. It is the second largest city in Nigeria after Lagos, with over ten million citizens living within 449 km2 (173 sq mi). Located in the savanna, south of the Sahel, Kano is a major route of the trans-Saharan trade, having been a trade and human settlement for millennia. It is the traditional state of the Dabo dynasty who have ruled as emirs over the city-state since the 19th century. Kano Emirate Council is the current traditional institution inside the city boundaries of Kano, and under the authority of the Government of Kano State.
The Jihad of Usman dan Fodio was a religio-military conflict in present-day Nigeria and Cameroon. The war began when Usman dan Fodio, a prominent Islamic scholar and teacher, was exiled from Gobir by King Yunfa, one of his former students.
The Sokoto Caliphate, also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the Fulani War. The boundaries of the caliphate are part of present-day Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria. By 1837, the Sokoto state had a population of around 10-20 plus million people, becoming the most populous empire in West Africa. It was dissolved when the British, French and Germans conquered the area in 1903 and annexed it into the newly established Northern Nigeria Protectorate, Senegambia and Niger and Kamerun respectively.
Northern Nigeria was a British protectorate which lasted from 1900 until 1914, and covered the northern part of what is now Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria was an autonomous division within Nigeria, distinctly different from the southern part of the country, with independent customs, foreign relations and security structures. In 1962, it acquired the territory of the British Northern Cameroons, which voted to become a province within Northern Nigeria.
Abdullahi ɗan Fodio, was a prominent Islamic scholar, jurist, poet and theologian, and the first Amir of Gwandu and first Grand Vizier of Sokoto. His brother, Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817) was the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate. Usman, being more of a scholar than politician, delegated the practical regency of the western part of his empire to Abdullahi and the eastern part to his son Muhammed Bello, who later became the Sultan of Sokoto after his father.
General Sir Thomas Lethbridge Napier Morland, was a senior British Army officer during the First World War.
The Fulajihads sometimes called the Fulani revolution were a series of jihads that occurred across West Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries, led largely by the Muslim Fula people. The jihads and the jihad states came to an end with European colonization.
Sumaila is a historic town and the headquarters of a Local Government Area in Kano State, Nigeria.
The Adamawa Wars (1899–1907) were initially a series of military expeditions and border conflicts between the German Schutztruppe in Kamerun and the Fula Sunni Muslim states and tribes that were a part of the Sokoto Empire, particularly the Emirate of Adamawa in the northern half of the region. After these territories were annexed major resistance continued for years and several uprisings occurred.
The Kano Emirate was a Muslim state in northern Nigeria formed in 1805 during the Fulani jihad when the Muslim Hausa-led Sultanate of Kano was deposed and replaced by a new emirate which became a vassal state of the Sokoto Caliphate. During and after the British colonial period, the powers of the emirate were steadily reduced. The emirate is preserved and integrated into modern Nigeria as the Kano Emirate Council.
The Kebbi Emirate, also known as the Argungu Emirate is a traditional state based on the town of Argungu in Kebbi State, Nigeria. It is the successor to the ancient Hausa kingdom of Kebbi. The Emirate is one of four in Kebbi State, the others being the Gwandu Emirate, Yauri Emirate and Zuru Emirate.
Muhammadu Attahiru I was the twelfth Sultan of the Sokoto Caliphate from October 1902 until March 15, 1903. He was the last independent Sultan of Sokoto before the Caliphate was taken over by the British.
The Kano Emirate Council is a traditional state in Northern Nigeria with headquarters in the city of Kano, the capital of the modern Kano State. Preceded by the Emirate of Kano, the council was formed in 1903 after the British pacification of the Sokoto Caliphate. The borders of the Emirate are contiguous with Kano State.
The history of Northern Nigeria covers the history of the region form pre-historic times to the modern period of Northern Nigerian state.
The Battle of Kwatarkwashi was a decisive battle between the British administered Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and forces of the Sokoto Caliphate's Kano Emirate. The defeat of the Kano cavalry in the battle marked the formative end of the Kano Emirate.
Aliyu Ibn Abdullahi-Maje Karofi was an Emir of Kano, a state in what is now Northern Nigeria. Also known as Babba and Mai Sango- The Gun User. Emerging at the end of the Basasa, his reign was marked by a series of costly wars and fortification projects that heavily militarised the erstwhile commercial Emirate. His escapades as Emir of Kano were recorded in the official historical canon of the Kano Emirate, the Tarikh Al Kano. The ballad of Ali Zaki, commemorates his reign as the last Emir of Kano.
Muhammad Abbas was a regent and later emir of Kano. He was appointed regent by Lord Lugard after the pacification of Northern Nigeria, he presided over the transformation of the caliphal emirate into an emirate subject to the British throne under the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.
The Sultanate of Sokoto is a traditional state in Northern Nigeria with headquarters in the city of Sokoto, capital of the modern Sokoto State. Preceded by the Sokoto Caliphate, the council was formed in 1903 after the British pacification of the caliphate.
The Battle of Gawakuke was an engagement fought between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Gobir city-state at Gawakuke in northern Nigeria on 9 March 1836. The battle was a victory for Sokoto, and secured the Gobir kingdom's subordination to the caliphate.
