KANO

[s. 383] : A town in North Central Africa, situated west of Lake Chad and about 320 miles N. N. W. of Lokoja on the Niger. It lies in the territory of the British Niger Protectorate, commonly called Northern Nigeria. It is one of the most important commercial centers in Africa, having been known as an emporium for ivory, ostrich feathers andgum arable as early as the 10th century. Up to the present time the ordinary currency used in trade has consisted of slaves. Kano is often spoken of as an important town of the “Hausas,” but there is no people called locally by that name, Hausa being the name of a language widely used in trade by different people who are not by any means a coherent nation, altho the most of the Hausa-speaking peoples are Kambla 965 dominated by Fulani Mohammedans, who rule the land in various independent states, of one of which Kano is the capital. In 1903 the British Karaites troops, to punish the Mohammedan Emir for the murder of a British official, attacked and cap This breaktured Kano and deposed the Emir. ing of the Fulani yoke caused great rejoicing among the pagan majority of the population, whom the Fulani Mohammedans have long used as serfs. Kano has a population estimated at The CMS will establish a station here 200,000. at an early day. 383