Zaria, Nigeria
Zaria is an old walled town. Probably founded in about 1536, later in the century it became the capital of the Hausa state of Zazzau. Both town and state were named for Queen Zaria, younger sister and successor of Zazzau’s ruler Queen Amina.
Present-day Zaria has four main areas: the old walled town, inhabited by Hausa and Fulani peoples, which has numerous Islamic schools; the residential areas of Tudun Wada, which were established early in the colonial period; and the township for the non-African community. The old walls, the combined length of which is 15 miles, have eight gates, and a large market is still held on an ancient site.
Zaria is a major collecting point for cotton, tobacco, peanuts, shea nuts, and hides and skins. Cotton, peanuts, and shea nuts are processed locally and sent by rail to Lagos for export. There is an important market for sorghum, millet, soybeans, brown sugar, onions, locust beans, baobab leaves and fruit, cowpeas, kola nuts, cloth, cattle, sheep, and goats. Cotton ginning became Zaria’s chief economic activity after the opening of the railway in 1910, but leather tanning and cotton weaving and dyeing are traditional crafts of its Hausa and Gbari inhabitants. Other significant industries include railway repairing, furniture making, cloth printing, cigarette and cosmetics manufacturing, and basket making. The first northern Nigerian newspaper, written in Hausa, Gaskiya Ta F: Kwabo, was launched in Zaria in 1939.
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