Statecraft & Independence
Peerless
Queen Amina of Zazzau
c. 1533 – c. 1610
Warrior queen of Zazzau, and the walls that still carry her name
Peerless is level 1 of 4 in the Nigeria Hall of Fame: changed the field itself. Tell the country's story without them and the story breaks. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
She trained as a soldier when women of her rank did not, ruled Zazzau for thirty-four years, and ringed the cities she took with earthworks that are still called Amina's walls.
Amina ruled Zazzau, a Hausa city-state in what is now northern Nigeria, for thirty-four years from 1576 until her death.
Unlike other women of her rank and time she took a serious interest in warfare and trained extensively for it, and is remembered both as a woman who led armies and as a military innovator — above all for the fortified earth walls she raised around the cities under her control, which in Hausaland are still known as ganuwar Amina, Amina's walls.
Unlike other women of her rank and time she took a serious interest in warfare and trained extensively for it, and is remembered both as a woman who led armies and as a military innovator — above all for the fortified earth walls she raised around the cities under her control, which in Hausaland are still known as ganuwar Amina, Amina's walls.
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