Kano city walls: An endangered 1,000 year-old heritage

These  great walls which were built in the 11th century are under threat as a result of human encroachment and collapse. 

The city walls are no longer outside Kano city as they were in those days. They are now inside the city and this has made it possible for people to constantly tamper with the walls, in the course of developmental activities and congestion in the area. It was gathered that most Kanawa (Kano indigenes) do not like to live outside the city. They prefer to build their houses in the already congested city, and by so doing the walls have suffered encroachment.  According to a  report of the Gidan Makama Museum, which is  the custodian of the walls and associated sites in Kano, at times people had to pull down the walls to build their houses. For this and other practices against the walls ,the museum officials claimed only about 25  to 30  percent of the city walls are today standing,and  about 70 percent had been destroyed.  

Mallam Aminu Dalhatu, the Principal Heritage Officer in charge of Kano city walls and gates ,said “We have adopted several methods to protect the walls. We even erected beacons around it. Originally there was a 15 metre gap away from the walls at the  inside and outside to serve as a boundary. Kano State government also spent a lot of money to construct metal barricades from Kofar Nasarawa, to protect the walls from people who are encroaching on it. In our efforts to protect it people sometimes challenge us. Some of them claimed they bought the land on which the city walls are sitting, from people we don’t even know. We always make sure that we go to the wall  sites every day for monitoring ,and ensure they don’t pull the walls down to build houses.  If we stay a week without monitoring the sites they would have finished building their houses on the walls before we know it, because sometimes they break the walls to build on them. These are some of the challenges we are facing in trying to protect and preserve those walls. The Kano State Urban Planning and Development Authority has  been assisting us. Whenever they see people trying to build on the walls they will put something there to stop them. Sometimes when people apply for papers to build their houses, the agency would send letters to us asking us to check if such houses are not on the walls. Our gate keepers are the custodians of the walls. They are always there because they live inside some of the gates or around the area, but despite this people still encroach upon the walls.

Speaking on how worrisome this issue has become, the Curator of Gidan Makama museum, Malam Mustapha M. Bachaka narrated the story of a British lady  who visited the walls many years back with her father when she was young. When she returned  on a visit sometimes ago ,she was shocked to see the walls in the present state. “She decided to go round the walls and when she saw what people had done to these walls, she started crying in the presence of everybody. She was an elderly woman who was familiar with the way the walls were when she first visited Kano. This is just to tell you how the walls have degenerated over the years. Whenever tourists come to Kano, after visiting Gidan Makama museum and the Emir’s palace, the next place they normally go to is the city walls and gates.  Two weeks ago when the British High Commissioner visited here, the next place he visited was the city walls sites”. This is to tell you the importance many of the foreigners attached to the walls.

Another official of the museum, Malam Yusuf Surajo said several efforts had been made to list the city walls and associated sites: Kurmi market, Dala hill, Gidan Makama and the Emir’s palace in the UNESCO World Heritage List. “We went to Namibia twice and after our meetings there some officials of the world body  came to Kano in 2011 to assess the walls. When they went round they discovered that most parts  of the walls were gone. Only about 25 to 30  percent are still standing, 70 percent were gone. They advised us on how to repackage the walls before we represented it again for listing. They warned that UNESCO might put the walls on the endangered sites list ,and later delist it completely from its tentative list. And once UNESCO delisted a site from its tentative list, such site cannot be presented to it until after 10 years. Our Technical Committee is still working in line with the advice given to us. Right now, there is nothing like the city walls and associated sites, because significant portions of the walls are no more standing. This is so disturbing to us ,because our people do not seem to know the value of these walls”.

When building the city walls in the 15th century ditches were made close to the walls to make it difficult for any invader to get through before mounting the walls. Today, all the ditches have turned to ponds where the walls are sited inside Kano city. Gates were also created in specific areas of the walls, and each of them has a gate keeper known as (Sarkin Kofar) and houses are provided for them and their families inside the gates or around them till today. It was told that in those days whenever the gate keepers saw enemies advancing towards the city ,they would rush to inform the king, and he would arrange his armies to meet them. 

Kofar Kansakali was the first city gate to be built between 1095 to 1135. Today, there are 15 city gates in Kano: Kofar Nasarawa, Sabuwar kofa, Kofar Dan Agundi, Kofar Naisa, Kofar Gadankaya, Kofar Fomfa, Kofar Dukawiya, Kofar Kabuga, Kofar Kansakali, Kofar Waika, Kofar Ruwa,Kofar Dawanau , Kofar Wambai, Kofar Mazuga and Kofar Mata.  Sabuwar Kofa was built after the British invasion of Kano in 1903. The other relatively new city gate is Kofar Fomfa that was built during the reign of King Abdullahi, the father of late Emir Ado Bayero. 

Malam Dalhatu said the city walls have undergone several  renovations to prevent them from  collapsing completely. “In 2004 the German government renovated some of the city gates. In 2014 during the administration of former governor ,Dr. Musa Kwankwaso  ,some of them were also rebuilt and renovated.  A cultural group from Britain also visited Kano some years back and rebuilt some portions of the city walls. Some of the walls and gates are a thousand years  old. The walls and gates are 9 metres thick and are between 10 to 11 metres high. It took our forefathers several years to build them. The broadness of each of the gate is 9 metres. That was why it was difficult for erosion or rainfall to damage them several years after they were built.  Some portions of the walls are still standing exactly the way they were in  the 15th century.

The walls and gates were previously under the protection of the Emir. In 1959, the Federal Government declared it a national monument. Now, it is the responsibility of government to safeguard, maintain, protect and preserve them. Once they are listed in UNESCO world list, they would be under international protection, care, maintenance and preservation. We have held many workshops, seminars and even travelled  to Cairo in 2009 for this purpose”.