Zamfara State

Zamfara takes its name from the Hausa kingdom of Zamfara, which emerged by the sixteenth century in the area around Anka and the hills of the upper Rima basin, with the ancient settlement of Jata among its early centres. The kingdom was a rival of neighbouring Gobir, Katsina and Kebbi, and was weakened by Gobir in the eighteenth century before being absorbed into the Sokoto Caliphate after the jihad of Usman dan Fodio in the early 1800s.

Gusau, the present capital, was founded in the early nineteenth century by Malam Muhammad Sambo, a scholar associated with the jihad. Under British rule the area formed part of Sokoto Province, and after independence it was part of the Northern Region, North-Western State (1967) and Sokoto State (1976). Zamfara State was created from Sokoto State on 1 October 1996 by the military government of General Sani Abacha.

In 1999-2000 Zamfara became the first Nigerian state to extend Sharia to criminal law under Governor Ahmad Sani Yerima. Since the 2010s the state has been severely affected by armed banditry and kidnapping, and in 2010 artisanal gold mining caused a major lead-poisoning outbreak around Bukkuyum and Anka that required national and international intervention.