Minjibir is a
Local Government Area
A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...
in
Kano State
Kano State (Hausa: ''Jihar Kano''جىِهَر كَنوُ) (Fula: Leydi Kano 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤲𞤮𞥅 ) is one of the 36 states of Nigeria, located in the northern region of the country. According to the national census done in ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
. Its headquarters are in the town of Minjibir, about 20 km northeast of the state capital
Kano
Kano may refer to:
Places
*Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria
* Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State
**Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries
**Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...
.
It has an area of 416 km and a population of 213,794 at the 2006 census.
The
postal code
A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...
of the area is 702.
Minjibir was historically known as a center of
textile
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...
production, particularly
handweaving, which was formerly a source of livelihood for most households. Along with the surrounding villages, Minjibir was known for producing white
wide strip-woven ''bullam'', blue-black ''bunu'', and black-white checked ''saƙi'' cloths. The town's proximity to the city of Kano facilitated commerce. In 1949, a large workshop was set up in Minjibir by the
Kano Native Authority; it was called the Kano Textile Training Center. This subsequently closed down. Later, Minjibir handweavers set up their own
dye pits in order to bypass professional dyers and thus turn a higher profit. When
Ashiru Abdullahi visited Minjibir in 2018, he found that handweaving is no longer done in Minjibir itself, but rather in the outlying village of
Gidan Gabas. Their main customers are traditional rulers as well as participants in horseback processions following
Eid al-Fitr and
Eid al-Kabir. While the handweaving of strip-woven cloths has steeply declined in Nigeria since the 1970s, Abdullah noted that a number of young men worked as handweavers in Gidan Gabas, thus keeping the tradition alive in the area.
References
Local Government Areas in Kano State
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