Katagum

Katagum, town and traditional emirate, Bauchi state, northern Nigeria, on the north bank of the Jamaare River (a tributary of the Hadejia). It was the seat of an emirate founded c. 1809 by Ibrahim Zakiyul Kalbi (also known as Malam [Scholar] Zaki), a warrior in the Fulani jihad (holy war) who in 1812 besieged and destroyed Ngazargamu (115 mi [185 km] east-northeast), the capital of the Bornu kingdom. After his victory, Malam Zaki (who was named sarkin [“king of”] Bornu by Usman dan Fodio, the jihad leader) returned to the territory he had conquered earlier (including the Hausa kingdom of Shira) and founded the town of Katagum in 1814. By 1824, when the Scottish explorers Hugh Clapperton and Walter Oudney visited Katagum, it had two surrounding walls (20 ft [6 m] in height, a 10-ft base with four gates), a central mosque, and considerable trade, using cowrie shells for currency. Oudney died in Katagum and was buried at Murmur, a settlement just beyond the southern gate.

Bornu reconquered much of its territory (including Katagum emirate) from the Fulani in the 1820s and, by aiding the local Hausa population, forced the evacuation of Katagum town in 1826; its Kanuri tribesmen forces, however, were defeated (1826) at Fake (90 mi west-southwest) by a joint expedition led by Dan Kauwa, Katagum’s amir, and by Yakubu, king of Bauchi, an emirate to the south. Katagum emirate, thus restored to Fulani rule, prospered until greatly weakened by the wars with Amīr Buhari of nearby Hadejia in the 1850s.

After the fall of Kano city (130 mi west) to the British in 1903, the emirate became part of Katagum Province (made a division of Kano Province in 1905). In 1916 the seat of the emirate was transferred to Azare (43 mi south-southwest). The emirate became part of Bauchi Province in 1926. Most of the area’s inhabitants are Muslims and members of the Fulani, Kanuri, Hausa, Mangawa, Bede, Karekare, Ngizim, Shirawa, or Teshenawa tribes. They cultivate peanuts (groundnuts), sorghum, millet, rice (especially in the riverine fadamas [“floodplains”]), cowpeas, cotton, indigo, and gum arabic and keep cattle, goats, sheep, and donkeys.

Katagum town has a government health office and a dispensary. It is now the headquarters of a local government council. Pop. (2006) local government area, 295,970.