From the historian's notes

Kano, 1505

Nigeria · Sub-Saharan Africa · January 1505 · winter (dry)

What it was medium

the largest of the Hausa city-states, its walls enclosing farmland and a hill as well as housesa Hausa town at Dala hill, walled from about the 12th century

That year

• Kano and Katsina keep up their long rivalry; Rumfa fought Katsina for eleven years, and the caravans between the two cities kept moving the late 15th century into these years mediumrivals that never stop trading
• North African caravans bring horses, salt, paper and cloth across the Sahara; Kano sends back indigo cloth and tanned goat leather every dry season highthe city's living
• To the west, Askia Muhammad is building the Songhay empire; within ten years his armies reach the Hausa cities since 1493 mediuma new great power on the horizon

Who held it medium

the Sarkin Kano and the kingdom of KanoSarki Abdullahi, son of Muhammad RumfaMuhammad Rumfa, who built the palace, founded the Kurmi market, extended the walls and took advice from the scholar al-Maghili, died in 1499

Its name high

KanoWritten in Arabic script, for Arabic and for Hausa (ajami)

The date, there medium-high

910 AHthe Islamic lunar calendar (hijri)The calls to prayer five times a day; drums at the palace gate; the market fills in the afternoon.

Money low

cloth strips, salt and gold dust, with cowrie shells coming into usecowries counted in fives and hundredskola nuts for a handful of cowries

Weather medium-high

January: the dry wind off the Sahara fills the sky with fine dust, a white haze over the sun, warm days and cold nights, no rain

Things

Objectsindigo-dyed cotton; glazed indigo turban cloth; tanned goat leather; Arabic manuscriptsFoodmillet porridge; sorghum; milk and butter from Fulani herders; kola nuts from the forest country; locust-bean seasoningClothindigo cotton; North African wool and silkGetting aboutcamel caravans; donkeys; horses for the nobilityIn the airindigo vats; dust; tanning pits; woodsmoke on cold mornings

What she'd hear

Hausa in the streets; Arabic among scholars and northern traders; Kanuri and Wangara (Mande) merchants.

Where she could stand

• the Kurmi market — the great market founded by Rumfa: cloth, leather, kola nuts, horses
• the dye pits — deep pits of indigo by the city gate where men dye cloth and beat it to a sheen with wooden mallets
• the city walls — long earth walls with gates, enclosing fields, Dala hill and the town
• the Sarki's palace — the walled palace compound Rumfa built

Researched for this card · confidence medium-high