Zamfara State

Zamfara is a state in North West Nigeria with its capital at Gusau. It is bordered to the east by Katsina State, to the west by Sokoto and Niger State, to the north by the Republic of the Niger and to the south by Kaduna State. The slogan of Zamfara is "Farming is our Pride".

Cities

 * — the capital of the state has the state museum, and a branch of the national art gallery
 * — the tomb of Kauran Namoda, an Alibawa warrior, is visited by thousands of people yearly

Other destinations

 * — A vast forest area that stretches from the Dajin Rugu to the Kontagora Forest with an area of 2,614 km2. It was designated as a National Game Reserve in 1971 to preserve animals and plants of rare species. It houses different wild animals such as elephants, lions, and hyena.

Understand
Zamfara has an estimated population of 9.8 million in 2011 and occupies an area of 34,284 km².

Zamfara is mainly populated by Hausa and Fulani people, with some members of Gwari, Kamuku, Kambari, Dukawa, Bussawa and Zabarma ethnic communities and other ethnic group like Igbo, Yoruba, Kanuri, Nupe and Tiv. It comprises fourteen local government areas. The widely spoken languages in Zamfara are Hausa and Fulfulde while English is their official language. Islam is the principal and major religion in Zamfara while those that practice Christianity are in minority. It is the host for the following tertiary institutions:


 * Federal Polytechnic, Namoda
 * Zamfara State University
 * Federal University Gusau
 * Federal College of Education (Technical), Gusau
 * Zamfara State College of Art and Sciences, Gusau

Zamfara is made up of fourteen local government areas:
 * Anka, Bakura, Birnin Magaji/Kiyaw, Bukkuyum, Bungudu, Chafe, Gummi, Gusau, Kaura Namoda, Maradun, Maru, Shinkafi, Talata Mafara, and Zurmi

History
Over the years, the people of Zamfara have struggled for autonomy, but it was not until 1996 that the then military administration of the Late General Sani Abacha detached the Zamfara State from Sokoto State.

The area today called Zamfara state was one of the old state like Kano, Katsina, Gobir, Kabi and Zazzau. The earliest inhabitants of Zamfara were hunters and giants. They established their first settlement at Dutsi which was the first capital of Zamfara. It extends up to the bend of River Rima to the north west and River Ka in the south west. Zamfara Kingdom was established in the 11th century and flourished up to 16th century as a city-state. Its capital has shifted with the fortunes of the kingdom from place to place like Dutsi and Birnin Zamfara.

In the first half of the 18th century, its then capital Birnin Zamfara, was destroyed by the Gobir Kingdom and a new capital was established in Anka by the second half of the 19th century. Zamfara had many centers of commerce and scholarship that attracted many scholars like the Yandoto city. It became part of the Sokoto Caliphate after the 1804 jihad by Usman dan Fodio. In fact, Usman Danfodiyo settled in Sabon Gari where Sarkin Zamfara Abarshi had already established a garrison headquarters during the early days of his Jihad as a base from where fought Gobir and Kabi.

At the wake of British colonialism, the emerging town of Gusau became an important commercial and administrative center with road and rail networks passing through it. With the creation of states during the Gowon Administration, Zamfara Kingdom became part of the then North West state and later the Sokoto State.

Zamafara was the first state in Nigeria to introduce Sharia Law during the regime of Ahmad Sani Yerima, the former Governor of the state. Sharia Law is an Islamic legal system derived from the religious precepts of Islam. The people consider it as a divine law, as it originates from the Quaran and the Sunnah and despite all the controversies stemming from the application of the Sharia law and its implications on human rights, it is still practiced within Zamfara. As a result amputation of hands and limbs, beheading, and stoning are not entirely illegal within there.

Climate
The climate condition of Zamfara is tropical with temperatures rising up to 38 °C (100.4 °F) and above between March and May. The climate is tropical marked by dry and rainy season. Rainy season starts in late May to September while the mild season known as Harmattan lasts from December to April.

Agriculture
Agriculture and gold mining are the main occupations of the people of the Zamfara and the central source of income. Irrigation is required for cereals and legumes hence its slogan "farming is our pride".

The state is basically an agricultural state with over 80 percent of the people engaged in various forms of agriculture. Major agricultural products include millet, guinea corn, maize, rice, groundnut, cotton, tomato, potato, tobacco and beans while its solid minerals include: gold, iron ore, copper, tantalite, and manganese.

By plane
Visitors that intend to come into Zamfara by air have to make use of the airport in the state which is in Gusau.

By bus
Many transport companies in Zamfara offer daily services from almost all major cities and States around the country. These transport companies include:

Get around
The main forms of transportation in Zamfara are buses, carb and taxi. Most transport enters and leaves the city of Zamfara through Gusau Central Motor Park.

See

 * Gusau is home to a state museum and a branch of the National Gallery of Art.

Do

 * Kokowa Wrestling Festival is one of the major festivals of the Zamfara State. It is an annual festival that is usually celebrated during the dry season in the village square. During this cultural festival, young men engage other young men in a wrestling match in order to show their supremacy over them. The young men who are willing to compete in the wrestling will come out in the middle of the square where they will be commanded to show their strength. The wrestler that first falls the opponent on the ground automatically wins the match and he is rewarded handsomely. The winner of the wrestling match command high degree of respect among his peers and also among women. Spectators hang around the square, charting songs to cheer the wrestler they like up to victory.
 * The Durbar Festival dates back hundreds of years to the time when the Emirate (state) in the North used horses in warfare. During this period, each town, district, and nobility household was expected to contribute a regiment to the defence of the Emirate. Once or twice a year, the Emirate military chiefs invite the various clans in the community for the festival.

Eat
Hoce is a round foodstuff made of maize, millet and many other ingredients. It can be found in local markets or villages.

Drink
If you are in Zamfara and you are looking for a bar joint to chill and have a few drinks, you might want to rethink again because consumption of alcohol of all sorts is frowned and prohibited. Any one that defaults by consuming alcohol stand the risk of being flogged publicly.

Stay safe
Although there are civil disturbances within the state at intervals, the crime rate in Zamfara is relatively low. This is because of the strict sharia law which makes people to refrain from dubious activities such as stealing, murder and other nefarious offences and this makes Zamfara a safe place for visitors and tourist to stay in.

Connect
Just like most states in Nigeria, visitors would most likely find a reliable coverage of the 2G/3G mobile networks in zamfara but reliable network coverage of the 4G network might be somehow limited. Signal strength might diminish further away from cities' centers, and you might occasionally experience a network outage for all or some of the mobile phone service providers in some remote areas in the region. Different networks tend to be more stable and reliable in different locations of the region at different times.

GLO, Airtel (Zain), MTN and 9Mobile (formerly Etisalat)  are all available service providers in the state. Therefore, if you are planning a visit to Zamfara, you should endeavour to come with more than one phones or a phone that has multiple SIM card ports, since you can't tell which will be more stable and reliable at a time in your location during your visit. And if you will risk not having any of them, you might be better off not risking the MTN network, because, from indications, MTN perform better than the others and it's rates may be high and its offers and services might be stringent, but you are less likely to be concerned of erratic voice and data connection compared to other networks.

Go next
From Zamfara, you can go to other states and countries like:


 * Niger
 * Kaduna
 * Katsina
 * Sokoto