Queen Bakwa Turunku

Queen of Zaria. Name variations: Flourished in the 1530s as the queen of Zazzau (later Zaria) in central Nigeria; children: Amina (c. 1533–c. 1598) and Zaria (both would rule Zaria).

Turunku Bakwa was queen (sarauniya) of Zazzau, the large empire of the Hasau people that had come into existence by 1050. She was not originally Hasau, but was a Fulani who had moved into Macina, the eastern region of Niger. Some sources speculate that she came from the south, however, because she had guns that she had acquired from traders on the coast. Turunku Bakwa was a member of a warlike matriarchal clan. In 1536, she founded the city of Zaria in northcentral Nigeria, and named it after her younger daughter. Her two daughters, Amina and Zaria, would rule after her death.

References

• https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcrip...
• http://www.whenweruled.com/?p=84