The seven original states of Hausaland: Katsina, Daura, Kano, Zazzau, Gobir, Rano, and Garun Gabas cover an area of approximately 500 square miles and comprise the heart of Hausaland. In the sixteenth century, Queen Bakwa Turunku built the capital of Zazzau at Zaria, named after her younger daughter. Eventually, the entire state of Zazzau was renamed Zaria, which is now a province in present-day Nigeria.

However it was her elder daughter, the legendary Amina (or Aminatu), who inherited her mother's warlike nature. Amina was 16 years old when her mother became queen and she was given the traditional title of magajiya. She honed her military skills and became famous for her bravery and military exploits, as she is celebrated in song as "Amina daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man."

Amina is credited as the architect who created the strong earthen walls around the city, which was the prototype for the fortifications used in all Hausa states. She built many of these fortifications, which became known as ganuwar Amina or Amina's walls, around various conquered cities.

The objectives of her conquests were twofold: extension of Zazzau beyond its primary borders and reducing the conquered cities to vassal status. Sultan Muhammad Bello of Sokoto stated that, "She made war upon these countries and overcame them entirely so that the people of Katsina paid tribute to her and the men of Kano [and]... also made war on cities of Bauchi till her kingdom reached to the sea in the south and the west." Likewise, she led her armies as far as Nupe and, according to the Kano Chronicle, "The Sarkin Nupe sent her [the princess] 40 eunuchs and 10,000 kola nuts. She was the first in Hausaland to own eunuchs and kola nuts."

Amina was a preeminent gimbiya (princess) but various theories exist as to the time of her reign or if she ever was a queen. One explanation states that she reigned from approximately 1536 to 1573, while another posits that she became queen after her brother Karama's death, in 1576. Yet another claims that although she was a leading princess, she was never a queen.

Despite the discrepancies, over a 34-year period, her many conquests and subsequent annexation of the territories extended the borders of Zaria, which also grew in importance and became the center of the North-South Saharan trade and the East-West Sudan trade.
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Books

General History of Africa, Vol. IV: Africa from the Twelfth to Sixteenth Century, UNESCO. University of California Press, 1986.
Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca
Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

A Short History of West Africa: A.D. 1000 to the Present, T.A. Osae, S.N. Nwabara and A.T.O. Odunsi, Hill and Wang, 1973.
Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com

The Story of Nigeria, Michael Crowder. Faber and Faber, 1962.
Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com
Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com

West Africa Before the Colonial Era: A History to 1850, Basil Davidson. Addison-Wesley, 1998.
Buy it in hardcover: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca
Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com | Amazon.ca

Women Leaders in African History, David Sweetman. General Publishing Company, Limited, 1984.
Buy it in paperback: Amazon.com

Search for 'Queen Amina' on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.
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Links

BBC World Service's The Story of Africa: West African Kingdoms

Recording West Africa's Visible Archeology: Hausaland Walled Cities and Towns
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Visit Art.com
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QUEEN AMINA: WEST AFRICAN WARRIOR-QUEEN, THE GREATEST CONQUEROR OF THE NIGERIAN REGION AND ITS GREATEST MILITARY ARCHITECT
Queen Amina of Hausaland (ruled 1576-1610 AD) was a Hausa Muslim Warrior Queen of Zazzau (now Zaria) and a brilliant military strategist she fought many wars and won them all. Amina is credited with building the famous Zaria wall.

Queen Amina, the greatest military strategist, warrior queen and a nation builder. Courtesy anheuser-busch

The preeminent Princess (gimbiya) Amina of the Hausa city state of Zazzau was born around 1533. The Arabic female name Amina means truthful, trustworthy and honest. One source postulates that Amina was a daughter of Queen Bakwa Turunku, who founded the city of Zaria, West Africa, in 1536. It must be noted that the seven original states of Hausaland were Katsina, Daura, Kano, Zazzau, Gobir, Rano, and Garun Gabas cover an area of approximately 500 square miles and comprise the heart of Hausaland. In the sixteenth century, Queen Bakwa Turunku built the capital of Zazzau at Zaria, named after her younger daughter. Eventually, the entire state of Zazzau was renamed Zaria, which is now a province in present-day Nigeria.
However it was her elder daughter, the legendary Amina (or Aminatu), who inherited her mother's warlike nature. Amina was 16 years old when her mother became queen and she was given the traditional title of magajiya ( the heir apparent) in 1549. With the title came responsibility for a ward in the city where she convened daily councils with other officials. She also began training in the cavalry.
Queen Bakwa, died when Amina was 36 years old, leaving her to rule over Zaria. She was also said to have taken a lover from among the conquered people after each battle, and to have killed him in the morning following their night together.

In 1576 she became the undisputed ruler of Zazzau. Distinguished as a soldier and an empire builder, she led campaigns within months of becoming ruler. She built walled forts as area garrisons to consolidate the territory conquered after each campaign. Some of these forts still stand today. She is credited with popularising the earthen city wall fortifications, which became characteristic of all Hausa city-states since then. Towns grew within these protective walls, many of which are still in existence called "ganuwar Amina", or Amina's walls. Amina subdued the whole area between Zazzau and the Niger and Benue rivers, absorbing the Nupe and Kwararafa (kororofa) states ,a Jukun Kingdom. Under her remarkable leadership, Zaria became the most powerful state in Hausaland. Eventually her holdings stretched down to the sea. The Kano Chronicle, an important Hausa history, speaks of her with great respect: "At this time Zaria under Queen Amina conquered every all the towns.... Every town paid her tribute. The Sarkin Nupe [i.e. king of Nupe] sent her forty eunuchs and ten thousand kolas to her. She was the first to have eunuchs and kolas in the Hausaland. Her conquest extended to over 34 years." The kola nut, which she introduced, is one of the great luxuries of Western Sudan; it is prized for its bitter taste, slightly aphrodisiac properties, and its ability to quench thirst.

In her time all the products of the west came to Hausaland. The southern expansion provided large supplies of slave labour. Moreover, Zazzau came to control the trade route from Gwanja and began to benefit from the trade previously enjoyed only by Kano and Katsina, two other Hausa city-states. Amina's achievement was the closest that any ruler had come in bringing the region now known as Nigeria under a single authority."
Queen Amina never married though she had men in her life. After Amina`s death, her sister Zaria succeeded to the throne, but Zaria, the kingdom, soon faded from history as a great West African power. Amina is remembered today as “Amina, Yar Bakwa ta san rana,” meaning “Amina, daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man.”
A statue at the National Arts Theatre in Lagos State honors her, and multiple educational institutions bear her name

Public sculpture of the warrior Queen Amina in Nigeria

source:http://www.whenweruled.com/articles.php?lng=en&pg=11

The great queen amina of the hausa people

Wow, I wish we realize she might have donated the name 'Amina' to world history. I know that's the name of the mother of the prophet of Islam. Moreso, God bless anyone that will investigate and establish the conviction that she might be one and the same as Queen Daura. God bless Hausaland and her great people.

Women of nowadays cannot go to war,



For what

ok oooooo
hajiya

absoluteSuccess:
Wow, I wish we realize she might have donated the name 'Amina' to world history. I know that's the name of the mother of the prophet of Islam. Moreso, God bless anyone that will investigate and establish the conviction that she might be one and the same as Queen Daura. God bless Hausaland and her great people.

oh yeah her story is so fascinating.. do you know that queen amina is the main inspiration behind the tv series xena the warrior princess

kaura5000:
oh yeah her story is so fascinating.. do you know that queen amina is the main inspiration behind the tv series xena the warrior princess

Lol, good to know but i'm not just atuned to the tube. I only hope you can do some linguistic and cultural findings of your own to see if there is a link buried in the ebb of time between Queen Amina and Queen Daura of Bayajida's epoch. Can you investigate such theory with time?

absoluteSuccess:
Wow, I wish we realize she might have donated the name 'Amina' to world history. I know that's the name of the mother of the prophet of Islam. Moreso, God bless anyone that will investigate and establish the conviction that she might be one and the same as Queen Daura. God bless Hausaland and her great people.

Queen Amina a woman worth dieing for. I fit sell my papa house mary her if to say she still dey alive

Great job on all your recent threads, Kaura!

Funjosh:



Queen Amina a woman worth dieing for. I fit sell my papa house mary her if to say she still dey alive

Tradition says she pick up a man in all conquered land as bedmate and kill him when she leaves. Remember the proverb that warns warns you not to die for a woman, O funjosh.

absoluteSuccess:
Tradition says she pick up a man in all conquered land as bedmate and kill him when she leaves. Remember the proverb that warns warns you not to die for a woman, O funjosh.

Shege!

I give up!

Beautiful woman she was. Blessings to the Hausa people

kaura5000:
oh yeah her story is so fascinating.. do you know that queen amina is the main inspiration behind the tv series xena the warrior princess

No credit was ever given, that's how messed up Westerners can be sometimes. At least they should site where the story of Xena (which is also a Muslim name Zaina/Zeina/Zainab).

.