Kebbi State (Kebbi State)
Geographically, the state is within the tropical West Sudanian savanna ecoregion. Important geographic features of Kebbi state include the Sokoto River, which flows through Kebbi into the River Niger, which continues south before reaching the Kainji Lake, half of which is in Kebbi. Among the state's nature are a number of fish species exhibited during the massive Argungu Fishing Festival, along with hippopotamus, West African manatee, and transient African bush elephant populations.
Ethnically, Kebbi state is inhabited by various ethnic groups, with the Fulani, Hausa, and Zarma peoples living throughout the state, while the Achipa (Achipawa), Boko-Bala, Dendi, Dukawa, Kambari, Kamuku, Lela, Puku, and Shanga peoples live along the state's diverse western and southern borders. Religiously, the majority of the state's population (~80%) are Muslims with smaller Christian and traditionalist minorities at about 10% each, respectively.
In the pre-colonial period, the area that is now Kebbi state was mainly controlled by the Kebbi Kingdom, a Hausa Banza bakwai state, until the early 1800s, the Fulani jihad seized part of the area and attempted to incorporate it into the Gwandu Emirate under the Sokoto Caliphate. Over the succeeding century, Kebbi rulers fought Sokoto on-and-off until the 1900s and 1910s, when the British seized control of the area as a part of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate, which later merged into British Nigeria, before becoming independent as Nigeria in 1960. Originally, modern-day Kebbi state was a part of the post-independence Northern Region until 1967, when the region was split and the area became part of the North-Western state. After the North-Eastern state was split, Sokoto state was formed in 1976 alongside ten other states. Twenty years afterward, a group of LGAs in Sokoto state's west and south was broken off to form the new Kebbi state.
Economically, Kebbi state is largely based around fishing and agriculture, mainly of sorghum, groundnuts, millet, onion, and rice crops. Other key industries are trading, especially in the city of Birnin Kebbi, and the livestock herding of camels, cattle, goats, and sheep. Kebbi state has the lowest Human Development Index and sixth lowest GDP in the country.
Kebbi state is traditionally considered by Sarki mythology as the homeland of the Banza bakwai states and Hausa kingdoms. A major local event was the conquest by Songhai in the second half of the fifteenth century CE.
Kebbi resisted the Fulani jihad of the early 19th-century, but in the later 19th-century, the area largely converted to Islam through peaceful means.
Map - Kebbi State (Kebbi State)
Map
Country - Nigeria
Flag of Nigeria |
Nigeria has been home to several indigenous pre-colonial states and kingdoms since the second millennium BC, with the Nok civilization in the 15th century BC, marking the first internal unification in the country. The modern state originated with British colonialization in the 19th century, taking its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914 by Lord Lugard. The British set up administrative and legal structures while practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms in the Nigeria region. Nigeria became a formally independent federation on 1 October 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970, followed by a succession of military dictatorships and democratically elected civilian governments until achieving a stable democracy in the 1999 presidential election. The 2015 general election was the first time an incumbent president failed to be re-elected.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
NGN | Nigerian naira | ₦ | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
EN | English language |
HA | Hausa language |
IG | Igbo language |
YO | Yoruba language |