Hausa city-states · about 1400-1800

The Hausa cities: Kano, Katsina and Zazzau

Walled cities with busy markets, dye pits and scholars grew up across northern Nigeria. Students explore the Hausa city-states, their trade across the Sahara, and the warrior queen Amina whom history remembers but cannot pin down.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1600 to AD 1815
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Walled cities with busy markets, dye pits and scholars grew up across northern Nigeria. Students explore the Hausa city-states, their trade across the Sahara, and the warrior queen Amina whom history remembers but cannot pin down.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the main Hausa cities: Kano, Katsina and Zaria (Zazzau).
  • Explain how the Hausa cities grew rich from crafts and long-distance trade.
  • Describe how Islam reached the Hausa cities and how rulers like Muhammad Rumfa used it.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1600

Hausaland

Open the map in 1600 and find the label Hausa States in the north of today's Nigeria. Which large states lie to its west and to its east?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1530

Between empires

Move to 1530. Find Songhai to the west and Bornu-Kanem to the east. Why might small city-states survive between two big empires, and what dangers did they face?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1815

The end of the city-states

Move to 1815. What new label covers Hausaland now? Find out from the lesson on the Sokoto Caliphate what happened after 1804.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Hausa cities never united into one empire. What were the advantages and disadvantages of staying separate?
  2. Kano was famous for dyed cloth and fine leather. Why would a city specialise in crafts?
  3. Queen Amina of Zazzau is remembered as a warrior queen, but historians debate when she lived. How can a person be famous and uncertain at the same time?
  4. The scholar al-Maghili wrote advice for the king of Kano on how to rule justly. What advice would you give a ruler?
  5. Hausa is now spoken by tens of millions of people. How do trading cities spread a language?
4

Game round

9 min

No Hausa ruler is in Rule History. Play one round as Akbar, who also ruled a land of many cities, faiths and markets in the late 1500s. Compare with the Hausa kings: how do you keep traders happy and cities loyal?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.