Nupe Kingdom

Overview

Between the Niger and the Kaduna rivers, a dozen Bini city-states and the river-going Kyadya were united in the early 16th century by Tsoede (Edegi), whom tradition makes the son of an Attah of Igala. His Nupe sacked Oyo-Ile around 1535 and drove its kings into exile. In the late 18th century the kingdom was at its strongest under Ma'azu, then tore itself apart in a civil war that let the Fulani preacher Mallam Dendo and his sons take over. From Bida, its capital from 1857, the Fulani Etsu built the strongest emirate of the middle Niger, ruling the Okun Yoruba, Ebira and northern Edo through resident agents, until the Royal Niger Company took Bida in 1897.^{[4],[1],[6],[2]}Medium confidence

Through the centuries

1. before c. 1530

   The Bini city-states and the river people

   Before there was one Nupe kingdom there were several Nupe peoples. The Bini formed a confederacy of at least twelve city-states, among them Nku, Nupeko, Tafyan, Doko, Jima and Bida, each under its own Etsu; they paid yearly tribute to a leading town, first Tuwa and later Tafyan, and joined their armies in war. The Kyadya held the Niger and Kaduna rivers, living by fishing, ferrying and rice under a leader called the Kuta. The Kusopa, Gbede, Ebe and others ruled themselves.^[1],[2]Medium confidence

   Tafyan is placed at GRID3's Manbe Tafyan ward in Lavun.

2. c. 1531

   Tsoede unites Nupe

   Tsoede (Edegi), born at Nku to a Nupe mother and an Igala prince who became Attah, grows up at the court of Idah and comes up the Niger with brass and bronze regalia. He overthrows his maternal uncle, the Etsu of Nku, rules first from Nupeko and then from the larger Gbara, and by war and diplomacy brings the Bini city-states and the other Nupe peoples under one Etsu.^{[1],[4],[5],[2]}Medium confidence

   Capital: Gbara (approximate)

   rulers.org dates the founding to 1531; Wikipedia gives Tsoede c. 1496–1591, and other traditions start him in 1465.

3. c. 1535

   Nupe sacks Oyo-Ile

   Nupe armies, already the victors over Alaafin Onigbogi, occupy Oyo-Ile and drive its dynasty into exile in Borgu and then Igboho for some eighty years. The Yoruba remember the Nupe as the Tapa, and learn from them to fight in armour on horseback.^[6],[7]Medium confidence

   Capital: Gbara (approximate)

4. c. 1591–1700

   Tsoede dies; Oyo strikes back

   Tsoede dies on campaign in 1591, by tradition aged over 120. Oyo, rearmed with cavalry, recovers its land under Alaafin Ofinran, and Orompoto carries the war into Nupe. Nupe holds its heartland, and its traders carry cloth, beads and glass along the river and the caravan roads.^[8],[6],[1]Medium confidence

   Capital: Gbara (approximate)

5. 1759–1795

   Islam and Etsu Ma'azu

   Etsu Jibrilu (1746–1759) is remembered as the first Muslim king. His successor Ma'azu, who reigns twice (1759–1767, 1778–1795), brings the kingdom to its greatest strength: in 1789 an Oyo army sent by Alaafin Abiodun is destroyed, losing thirteen generals, and in the 1790s Nupe takes Lapai in the Gbari country.^{[4],[5],[6],[2]}Medium confidence

   Capital: Gbara (approximate)

6. 1796–1810

   Civil war: Jimada against Majiya

   After Ma'azu the succession splits the kingdom. Jimada, Ma'azu's son, holds the east from Gbara and later Ragada; Majiya II, his cousin through the female line, holds the west from Raba on the Niger; the general Yikanko seizes Mokwa. Both cousins court the Fulani clerics settled in Nupe. Together they kill Yikanko at Mokwa in about 1810, and then Majiya, with the help of the Fulani preacher Mallam Dendo, kills Jimada at Ragada. Jimada's followers become the Yissazhi faction, Majiya's the Gwagbazhi.^[1],[5]Medium confidence

   Capital: Raba (Majiya II)

   rulers.org has Jimada dying in 1805 and Majiya's rival line continuing under Jimada's son Idirisu II; Sidi puts the Ragada battle at about 1810. Ragada, near Pategi, has not been located.

7. 1810–1833

   Mallam Dendo at Raba

   Majiya turns on Dendo, whose following is growing, and Dendo flees to the jihadists at Ilorin. There he wins over Jimada's son Idrisu Gana and his war-chief Makolo, and returns. By the 1830s the Tsoede dynasty has lost the kingdom: Nupe is under the emir of Gwandu, and Dendo is its master at Raba until he dies in 1833.^[1],[4],[10]Medium confidence

   Capital: Raba

8. 1833–1857

   Four emirates and a usurper

   Dendo's son Usman Zaki becomes the first Fulani Etsu at Raba in 1833. Other jihad leaders carve out emirates from old Nupe: Agaie, Lapai, Lafiagi and Shonga. Masaba, Dendo's half-Nupe son, revolts, flees to Lade in 1835, allies with the shadow Etsus of the old line at Zugurma and Eggan, raids the Ebira and Bunu, and is beaten at Takuma. Then the war-chief Umaru Bahaushe turns on Masaba, drives him to Ilorin, crushes the old line at Yeti and rules Nupe himself.^{[1],[11],[9],[5]}Medium confidence

   Capital: Raba

9. 1857–1873

   Bida and Masaba's empire

   Dendo’s heirs unite against the usurper: Umaru Majigi, with the old-line Etsu Ma’azu Isa and the Bini towns, and Usman Zaki with a Gwandu army, hunt Umaru Bahaushe to the Bini war-camp of Bida, and he drowns crossing the Gbako river in 1857. Bida becomes the capital. Under Masaba (1859–1873) it becomes the great military power of the middle Niger, the largest and richest of the five Nupe emirates, which send their own tribute to Gwandu through it. Its armies raid across the Niger for slaves and tribute into the Okun Yoruba country, Ebira, Akoko and Afenmai, and Bida makes the Obaro of Kabba paramount over the north-east Yoruba, to collect for it under a royal delegate who sat at Lokoja, a town of many peoples that Bida never ruled.^{[1],[12],[4],[13],[14]}Medium confidence

   Capital: Bida

10. 1868–1893

    Three rebellions at home

    Bida’s own Nupe rise against it three times. In 1868 the people of Lavun district on the Kaduna fight Masaba in the Kwenti war. In 1876 Prince Baba, of the ousted Majiya line, leads the Fogbagba war. In 1881–82 the Kyadya river people, whose canoes and ferries Bida wants to control, rebel under their Kuta, Usman; after the Ganigan war he and his general Kologba are executed at Bida, and Kyadya exiles gather at Lokoja. Umaru Majigi (1873–1884) and Maliki (1884–1895) still campaign south every year, and Nadel later calls Bida’s court a “Black Byzantium”.^{[12],[5],[2],[14]}Medium confidence

    Capital: Bida

11. 1894–1896

    The south rises

    The subject peoples turn on Bida. Made to pay tribute in boys and girls, the north-east Yoruba protest in 1895 and appeal to the British at Ibadan; Bida sends its cavalry under the heir, Muhammad Makun, to camp at Ogidi. The Ijumu, Akoko and other towns form the Ogidi grand alliance and hold the hill at Ogidi. In Esanland the Akota alliance of Ubiaja, Uromi, Emu, Ewohimi, Okhuesan and others fights the Nupe and, by its own tradition, drives them back to Agbede.^{[12],[15],[16],[14]}Medium confidence

    Capital: Bida

12. 1897–1901

    Company troops take Bida

    On 6 January 1897 a Royal Niger Company force of 30 European officers and 513 African soldiers marches from Lokoja via Kabba to Ogidi; the Bida camp has gone, so the Company declares the north-east Yoruba free of Bida. Kabba supplies porters and guides, the Kyadya under Marike ferry the Company across the Niger and refuse to ferry Bida’s retreating army, and the Yissazhi, Jimada’s old faction under Idrisu Gana, will not fight for the Fulani Etsu. Bida falls; the Company installs Muhammadu, son of Umaru Majigi, and the Yissazhi get their own emirate at Pategi. Abubakar returns in 1899, but in 1901 Northern Nigeria restores Muhammadu.^{[12],[4],[17],[5]}High confidence

    Capital: Bida

Wars, treaties and turning points

• Tsoede goes up the NigerMigration · c. 1531 (tradition)
• Oyo’s court in exileMigration · c. 1535–1610
• Amina's campaignsWar · c. 1576–1610 (Zazzau tradition)
• The Nupe civil war and Mallam DendoWar · 1796–1833
• Koton Karfe holdsWar · c. 1810s–1880
• Masaba, Umaru Bahaushe and the founding of BidaWar · 1835–1857
• Nupe raids on the confluenceRaids · 1838–1854
• The Ebira hold off the jihadWar · 1865–1880
• Nupe risings against BidaWar · 1868–1882
• The Esan–Nupe war (Egbalukpon Nell)War · c. 1894–1897
• The Ogidi Grand AllianceAlliance · 1894–1897
• The Company takes Bida and IlorinBritish conquest · January–February 1897

Today

Etsu Nupe, Bida

The Etsu Nupe reigns at Bida in Niger State, as Emir of Bida. The Tsoede line survives at Pategi, and Nupe emirs also sit at Agaie, Lapai, Lafiagi and Shonga.^[4],[17],[5]High confidence

Its people

Nupe

Living in its lands today

Peoples whose homelands lie inside its lands at its height, by number of LGAs.

Nupe, Yoruba, Afemai, Ebira

Sources

Every claim carries a confidence level: high (well attested), medium (one source or approximate) or disputed (sources disagree).

1. Sidi, Sheshi T. (2023). Political Crisis in Nupe Kingdom of Nigeria, 1800–1857: The Rise and Fall of Mayaki Umaru Bahaushe, the Etsu Nupe That Never Was. African Journal of History and Archaeology 7(1): 8–20
2. Nadel, S. F. (1942). A Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria. Oxford University Press for the International African Institute (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
3. Wikipedia contributors. Nupe people
4. Wikipedia contributors. Bida Emirate
5. Cahoon, Ben. Nigerian traditional polities (ruler lists)
6. Wikipedia contributors. Oyo Empire
7. Law, Robin. (1977). The Oyo Empire, c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Clarendon Press, Oxford (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
8. Wikipedia contributors. Tsoede (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
9. Wikipedia contributors. Lapai Emirate
10. Wikipedia contributors. Muhammadu Bangana (Mallam Dendo)
11. Wikipedia contributors. Agaie Emirate
12. Idrees, Aliyu A. (1989). Collaboration and the British Conquest of Bida in 1897: The Role and Achievement of the Indigenous Interest Groups. African Study Monographs 10(2): 69–82
13. Mason, Michael. (1981). Foundations of the Bida Kingdom. Ahmadu Bello University Press, Zaria (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
14. Suleiman, AbdulRahman Adebayo. (2023). The Factor of Trade in the Diplomatic Relations between the Nupe People and the Ilorin Emirate. Sejarah 32(2): 107–120 (“Nupe rulers directly conquered … Ijumu, Kakanda, Kabba, Oworoland, Igbomina and Ekitiland”). Journal of the History Department, University of Malaya
15. Apata, Z. O. (2003). The Nupe Imperialism and the Ogidi Grand Alliance 1894–1897: Reflections of Ekitiparapo War. In Adeagbo Akinjogbin (ed.), War and Peace in Yorubaland 1793–1893, pp. 431–437. Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria, Ibadan (cited elsewhere, not yet checked directly)
16. Osalumhense, Stacey. (2025). The Esan-Nupe War. Oriire
17. Wikipedia contributors. Pategi