Kontagora

▪ Nigeria

      town and traditional emirate, northwestern Niger state, western Nigeria, on the south bank of the Kontagora River. Umaru Nagwamatse, an adventurer of the ruling Fulani house of Sokoto (186 miles [299 km] north), was named sarkin sudan (“king of the blacks”) in 1859 by Ahmadu Zaruku, Sokoto's sarkin musulmi (“commander of the faithful”). Umaru then conquered a region mostly inhabited by the non-Muslim Kamberi people, founded the town of Kontagora (from kwanta gora—“lay down your gourds”) as his kingdom's headquarters in 1864, and established himself as the first emir of Kontagora. Throughout his rule, continuing to 1876, he enlarged the emirate by conquests of Kamuku, Kamberi, Dakarki (Dakarawa), Dukawa, Yauri, Nupe, and Gbari (Gwari) towns and captured many slaves. In the first reign (1880–1901) of his son, Emir Ibrahim Nagwamatse, sarkin sudan, Kontagora again became notorious for slave raids that severely depopulated the region and left numerous walled towns in ruins, many of which are still visible (despite a 1949–57 government-sponsored resettlement program). Ibrahim's capture of the Zarian town of Birnin Gwari (98 miles [158 km] northeast) in 1899 forced the emir of Zaria to seek the protection of the British, a move that brought the first great Fulani emirate under British control. After Ibrahim threatened the British post at Jebba, 98 miles (158 km) south-southwest, in 1900, British forces occupied Kontagora town (1901) and removed him from office. Although he was reinstalled as emir in 1903, his territory, which had been incorporated as Kontagora province, and his powers were greatly reduced. When the province was broken up in 1925, the emirate became a separate division of Niger province; it was incorporated into North Western state in 1967, and since 1976 it has constituted an area of 13,219 square miles (34,237 square km) in Niger state.

      The town is a collecting point for cotton and peanuts (groundnuts). In addition to these cash crops, Kontagora has considerable local trade in sorghum, millet, cowpeas, tobacco, beans, shea butter, gum arabic, kola nuts, sorghum beer, brass wares, gold artifacts, locally dyed and woven cotton cloth, cattle, goats, chickens, and guinea fowl. Modern industry includes a plant that manufactures plastic sacks. Besides the palace of the sarkin sudan, the town has a federal advanced teacher-training school and a hospital. Kontagora lies on the highway between Jebba and Kaduna and is also a junction for local roads. Pop. (2006) local government area, 151,944.

* * *