NGURU TOWN
By Abdullahi Sani Nguru town, northwestern Yobe state, northern Nigeria, near the Hadejia River, a seasonal tributary of the Komadugu Yobe River, which flows into Lake Chad. Precisely when the town was founded is unknown, but by the early 16th century it had been incorporated into the Bornu kingdom (see Kanem-Bornu) of the Kanuri people and was the seat of the galadima, the Bornu governor of the western provinces. Nguru’s location in the disputed area between the Hausa states and Bornu led it to be temporarily occupied by the forces of Muḥammad Kisoki, the Hausa king (1509–65) of Kano, 150 miles (240 km) west-southwest. Nguru was also the site about 1561 of the major victory by Kebbi, a Hausa state to the west, over Bornu; but Bornu succeeded in regaining the town shortly thereafter. Nguru once again became the seat of the galadima about 1808, when Fulani warriors almost destroyed the town in their victorious jihad, or holy war. Since the arrival of the railroad in 1929, Nguru has b...