Kaduna

Kaduna is a made city. In the 1910s Frederick Lugard, the first British governor of Northern Nigeria, chose a site on the Kaduna River close to the new railway being pushed north from Lagos, and had a capital laid out on open ground: wide avenues on a grid, a residential area for officials, barracks and a station. In 1917 it replaced Zungeru as the headquarters of the northern administration, and it stayed the capital of the Northern Region for the rest of the colonial period and beyond.

The choice was deliberate. Unlike Kano, Zaria or Sokoto, Kaduna had no emirate, no walls and no old quarters, so the British could build a government town on neutral ground, and it drew people from every part of the north and from the south as clerks, soldiers, traders and railway workers. Lugard Hall was built for the northern legislature, and after the Second World War the city became the stage for northern politics under Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, whose house is now Arewa House.

Kaduna kept its political weight after independence, as the seat of the Northern Region until the regions were broken up, then as a state capital, a garrison town and an industrial centre with textile mills, a refinery and the Nigerian Defence Academy. Its mixed population has also made it a place where national tensions surface: the city saw serious communal rioting in the early 2000s, and further periods of violence followed, leaving it more segregated between largely Muslim and largely Christian districts than it once was.

Because Kaduna was built as an administrative capital rather than growing from an old town, its culture is that of the whole north rather than of one people. Hausa is the common language of the street, with English in offices and a great deal of Nigerian Pidgin, and the city holds Hausa and Fulani families, the peoples of southern Kaduna State such as the Gbagyi, Atyap, Bajju and Adara, and Igbo, Yoruba and other southern communities.

That mixture shows in its institutions. Mosques and churches stand within sight of each other in many districts, both Eid and Christmas empty the offices, and the city is a centre of northern political and intellectual life, with Arewa House, the state assembly and a long tradition of newspapers and broadcasting. The Nigerian Defence Academy and the barracks give Kaduna a strong military presence, with parades and a service culture woven into city life.

Crafts and horsemanship survive from the wider region: weaving, dyeing and leatherwork are still practised and sold in the city's markets, and the Durbar processions at Zaria, to the north, draw people from Kaduna at each Eid. Polo has been played in the city since colonial times. Manners follow northern convention — long greetings, respect for elders, the right hand used for giving and eating — and residents are careful in conversation about religion and the city's divisions.

The 2006 census counted 760,084 people in Kaduna, and the city was estimated at about 1.2 million by 2024, having grown far beyond its colonial plan. Roughly, Kaduna North holds the government districts, the older layouts and the low-density residential areas, while Kaduna South, across the river, is the industrial and working-class half; since the unrest of the 2000s the two sides have also become more separated along religious lines.

Government and the armed forces are the largest employers, alongside the university and colleges, hospitals, banks and the railway. The industrial base has shrunk: the textile mills that once employed thousands are mostly gone, and the refinery has operated only intermittently, so trade, transport, services and the informal economy carry much of the city. Farming in the surrounding state supplies maize, ginger, soya and vegetables to its markets.

Daily rhythms run early, with traffic building along Ahmadu Bello Way and around the bridges by mid-morning, and the markets and grills busiest in the evening. Power cuts are routine and generators common. The dominant worries are insecurity in the rural parts of the state, which has pushed displaced families into the city, the price of food and fuel since 2023, and unemployment among a young population.

Kaduna's food is northern with southern additions. Tuwo, a stiff porridge of rice, maize or millet, is the staple, eaten with miyan kuka made from dried baobab leaves, miyan taushe of pumpkin and groundnut, or okra soup, usually with beef. Danwake, dumplings of bean flour tossed with oil and pepper, and dambu, steamed grated grain, are common daytime dishes.

Grilled meat is everywhere after dark. Suya, thin beef skewers rubbed with the peppery yaji spice mix, and balangu, roasted meat chopped straight from the fire, are sold at roadside stands, while kilishi, dried spiced beef sheets, is bought to take away. Masa rice cakes and kosai bean fritters make up the morning meal with sweet tea, and roasted maize and groundnuts appear in season.

Because so much of the population came from elsewhere, southern Nigerian cooking is easy to find: jollof rice, pounded yam with egusi or bitterleaf soup, pepper soup and fried plantain are served in restaurants and buka kitchens across the city. Everyday drinks are kunu from millet, zobo from dried hibiscus, fura da nono, and fresh fruit juices; alcohol is available but concentrated in particular districts.