Hadejia

Hadejia, town and traditional emirate, eastern Jigawa state, northern Nigeria. It lies on the northern bank of the Hadejia River (a seasonal tributary of the Komadugu Yobe, which flows into Lake Chad). The emirate’s savanna area originally included Hadejia and six other small Hausa kingdoms that paid tribute to the kingdom of Bornu. About 1805, Umaru, a Fulani leader who held the title sarkin (“chief ”) Fulanin Hadejia, pledged allegiance to the Fulani jihad (holy war) leader, Usman dan Fodio. Umaru’s brother and successor, Emir Sambo (reigned 1808–45), officially founded the Hadejia emirate in 1808, moved his headquarters to Hadejia town, established a market, and began to consolidate Fulani rule over the small neighbouring Hausa kingdoms.

Emir Buhari (also Bohari, or Bowari; reigned 1848–50, 1851–63) renounced Hadejia’s allegiance to the Fulani sultanate centred at Sokoto in 1851, raided the nearby emirates of Kano, Katagum, Gumel, Bedde, and Jama’are, and enlarged his own emirate. Hadejia was brought back into the Fulani empire after Buhari’s death, but wars with neighbouring Gumel continued until 1872. In 1906 the British installed an emir, Haruna, and incorporated the emirate into Kano province. The emirate became part of newly created Jigawa state in 1991.

The town is now a market centre handling cotton, millet, sorghum, fish, and the rice grown in the river valley. It serves as an important collecting point for peanuts (groundnuts), an export crop. Cattle, goats, guinea fowl, sheep, and donkeys are kept by the local Hausa and Fulani peoples. Several small lime industries exist in scattered parts of the area. Hadejia town is located on the secondary highway between Gumel and Nguru, which links it to the main highway at Kano and to the railway at Kano and Nguru. Pop. (2006) local government area, 105,628.