scenes from Ghana:

Nigerian images:

Kaduna State images:

These are Fulani cattle herders from outside Zaria city during the rainy season of 1974. The cattle are Asian zebu, rather than the usual West African longhorns, but recent genetic analysis of their mitochondrial DNA has shown that African zebu are actually hybrids, of Asian bulls and African cows. The herders speak the Fulfulde language which has near relatives found only in the Senegambian region far to the west, but many Berber loanwords. It is the most widely spoken language in Africa although far from the largest.

This guy asked me to take his picture. What would you have done? I sent him a nice letter with the picture and got a very nice thank you from him.

This photo was taken at the offices of Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo, the world's oldest, and still the world's leading, Hausa newspaper.

Kano state images:

Here are some pictures from Kano, a thousand year old city in the far north of Nigeria. This first photo is of a school. Most schools won't let you take their photo, because they are studying the Qur'an and a photograph of the Qur'an could fall into profane hands. I assume that this school was studying something else, but I may never know. I can't really make out the writing on the boards at this distance. BTW, notice the teacher's sheepskin, in his case a literal, rather than merely figurative, symbol of his authority.

The next picture of Kano is of the ceiling of one of the rooms in the Emir's palace. The palace is centuries old and quite extensive and complex. The throne room may perhaps deceive you. The long couch at the end of the room is the throne, or "bed" in Hausa. The Emir of Kano, Abdullahi Bayero, speaks English and is very modern in many ways, but he still prefers the traditional appurterances of Hausa kingship.

This next photo is of the famous Kano dyepits. During the 19th century the dyepits of Kano manufactured cloth that was sold from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara to the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, and whose market in Central Africa was, to quote the famous traveller Heinrich Barth, "limited only by the nakedness of the pagan sans culottes." These dyepits are almost the last of this famous tradition of indigo dyed cotton, and are found just inside the city walls, near the Kofar Mata gate.

The last picture from Kano is of two friends from the Kano newspaper, the Triumph. The photo of Khomeini in the background is a coincidence, not a political statement, but maybe I'll leave them anonymous anyway.

Nigerian history images:

Let's start at the beginning. This head is from the Nok culture, an iron smelting, agricultural people who flourished in the middle of Nigeria from maybe 500 BC to maybe 200 AD. Although traces of their art can be found in later Nigerian art, who they were, where they came from, what language they spoke, where they went and even how they learned to smelt iron are mysteries. Perhaps they even invented iron smelting themselves. There ought to be a lot more archaeology done on the origins of African society, but getting someone to pay for it is the problem. This effigy from the site of Igbo Ukwu, in the southeast of Nigeria, was found by accident in the digging of a house foundation. We can assume that the surviving metal parts were to be combined with other materials into a whole sculpture, although it's exact design must remain conjectural. Luckily the find was reported to the Museums Commission and scientifically excavated, or even this metal might not survive. The site was a burial site and has been dated to about the 8th century AD. This Owo head is from several centuries later in the west of Nigeria. [photos courtesy National Commission for Museums and Monuments]

Here are two pictures of Surame, an abandoned city in the northwest of Nigeria. Surame was built by Kanta, a general of the Songhay army who revolted and set up his own kingdom, Kebbi. Surame was the capital of Kebbi from the early 16th century until the middle of the 18th century. The city is miles in circumference, with inner and outer walls. Other walls run between the inner and outer walls, so that if the outer walls were ever breached the attackers could be isolated. The woman standing by the remains of Kanta's palace is my wife.

On my 2000 visit, I finally visited the grave of Captain Hugh Clapperton, the first European to visit Sokoto and return. It's kind of embarrassing that historian like me didn't go there first, but I did finally get there. The grave is not in good shape, and a local farmer had to tell us where it was. He said there used to be a marker, but that some Europeans came and took it away, saying they were going to repair it. That was years before, and they never returned with it. The site became the graveyard of some of the first colonial troops to die in the conquest of Northern Nigeria, and has since become a Christian graveyard. Although Clapperton's grave is unmarked, it is not hard to find, since the surrounding graveyard is still in use.

Takai images:

Here are several pictures of Takai, a fortified settlement on Kano's southeastern frontier. Takai was one of the towns I studied for my dissertation, in part because it was the base for the insurgent, Yusufawa faction in the Kano Civil War (1893-4).

This is a former palace of the Emir of Kano. Takai allegedly almost became the capital of Kano because one king so preferred living there. Only the refusal of his court to relocate kept Kano city as the capital. Here's part of the wall of the ruined palace.

Here is a malam, or Islamic scholar, with his grandson. As in many other societies, relations between grandparents and grandchildren are particularly close in Hausa society. Before the Kano Civil War (1893-4) Takai was very famous for Islamic scholars, and still has many. This is the remains of a room that held the famous Qur'an of Malam Zanema.