Madaki Hasa Askia: First Female Madaki (Sultan) of Kano

At its peak under Askia the Great's reign, the Songhai Empire encompassed the Hausa states as far as Kano** (in present-day Northern Nigeria) and much of the territory that had belonged to the Songhai empire in the east.

The army of Askia the Great was said to have marched into Kano at the invitation of Kano’s sister States Zazzau and Katsina who sought Askia’s intervention in dealing with Kano. After a long siege, Kano fell to Songhai forces. Askia had some of his men reside in Kano to collect the imposed tax and exhorted Muhammad Rumfa of the Sultanate of Kano to marry his daughter, believed to be Madaki Hasa Askia, who bore two sons… Abdullahi dan Rumfa and Abubakar Kado, the twenty fifth ruler of Kano.

She later on became the first female Madaki of Kano and guided her grandson, Muhammad Kisoki, to assert the First Kanoan Empire. In his reign, the Sultan of Kano was said to have ruled the whole of the Hausa land. Muhammad Kisoki was a prominent general under the Songhai ruler Sunni Ali.

Muhammad Rumfa was said to have taken every first born virgin for himself and had a thousand concubines. His most notable spouse being Madaki Hasa Askia, whose influence was very strong among the rulers and people of the day.

Their son, Abdulahi conquered Katsina. He encamped on the river near Tsagero. There he remained four months and then went to Zukzuk and made war there. On his arrival home he found that Dagachi was preparing to revolt, and that the Madaki Hasa Askia had prevented any serious trouble, as her influence was very great in Kano. 

Kano was a center for Islamic studies and a thriving trading hub with abundant water and rich iron deposits. The city became a tributary state of Songhai after its capture about 1513 by Muḥammad I Askia of the Songhai empire.

The Kano Chronicle lists rulers of Kano stretching back to the 10th century AD.

By the 1820s Kano had become the greatest commercial power in West Africa. Its leather and cotton goods were widely transported northward by caravan across the Sahara to Tripoli, Tunis, and Fès, and to Europe, where its red goatskin products were known as morocco leather. By the 1880s, trade diminished because of changing political conditions along the routes, the end of the slave trade, and the arrival of Europeans on the West African coast.

Leo Africanus's description of Kano describes the locals as "wealthy merchants and skilled craftsmen" and commended the cavalry of the Sultan's army. 

Askia Musa was the second Askia ruler of the Songhai Empire.

In Islam, it's believed that Yusha bin Nun (Joshua) was the "attendant" of Moses (Musa) mentioned in the Quran before Moses meets Khidr.

*The Arma who come from the marriage between the Spanish soldiers of Morocco and the Songhai women are also in matrilineal line descending from the Askia for the most part.

Throughout the Central Sahel, the descendants in patrilineal or matrilineal line of the Askia can be drawn from the ethnic Songhai which amounts to nearly 11 million people and possible descendants among the Hausa and Fula houses. The pyramidal Tomb of Askia located in Gao has not been the subject of any excavation to examine his remains in order to carry out genetic examinations and these known descendants have no longer been the subject of study, only a genetic study can confirm the historical connection.

**The name Kandake (Candace in English) is a Kushite name. It is found originally in Meroe/Nubian culture. The Greeks thought that Kandake was a proper name but it is a royal title and the female version of Kain/Kano appearing first in the book of Genesis. This is likely the origin of the title Khan and King.

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Like this post? Stop by and read “Queen Amina of Zazzau: Who Was She?” Queen Amina led an army of 20,000 soldiers, conquering towns to the north and south in the Nupe and Jukun kingdoms, and through Kasashen Bauch.

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