Kwararafa Confederacy
Kwararafa | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 13th/14th/15th century–c. 1840 | |||||||||
| Status | Confederation | ||||||||
| Capital | Santolo (first) Pindiga or Tagara Bepi/Kwararafa Uka Wukari | ||||||||
| Common languages | Jukun Takum language | ||||||||
| Religion | Traditional African religion | ||||||||
| Aku and Sangari | |||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||
• Established | c. 13th/14th/15th century | ||||||||
• Disestablished | c. 1840 | ||||||||
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Kwararafa (Hausa: Kororofa) was a multiethnic state and confederacy centered along the Benue River Valley in what is today central Nigeria. It was situated south of the Hausa States and southwest of the Bornu Empire. Kwararafa rose to prominence before 1500, and terrorised its more powerful neighbours in the 17th century. It declined throughout the 18th century due to various factors, and had collapsed by the early 19th century. The Jukun dynasty of the Wukari kingdom took control of the remains of the Kwararafa state. The period of Kwararafa's martial expansion and hegemony is prominent in the oral traditions of the Benue Valley.
The connection of the "Kororofa" in the Kano Chronicle to the Jukun was first made by a colonial officer, possibly incentivised to empower indirect rule through the Jukun over other groups. There is also virtually no record of Kwararafa's invasions north in the oral traditions of the Benue Valley, and Kwararafa's history is largely pieced together by accounts of outsiders. As such a minority of scholars have doubted whether the confederation existed at all.