Bussa, also known as Boussa in older texts, was one of the main cities and kingdoms of the

Borgu Borgu is a region and former country split between north-west Nigeria and the northern Republic of Benin. It was partitioned between British Empire, Great Britain and France by the Anglo-French Convention of 1898. People of Borgu are known as B ...

federation in northern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. It was the farthest navigable point on the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Nige ...

from the coast, just above the rapids. The town site is now covered by Lake Kainji, which was created in 1968 with the construction of the Lake Kainji

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

. The town was re-located to what is now called

New Bussa New Bussa is a town in Niger State, Nigeria. It is the new site of Bussa after the Kainji Lake Kainji Lake, in North Central Nigeria, is a reservoir on the Niger River, formed by the Kainji Dam. It was formed in 1968 and is a part of Niger St ...

History

Bussa was founded by Woru, the eldest son of

Kisra ''Kisra'', also spelled kissra (), is northern Sudanese popular thin fermented bread made in Sudan, Chad, South Sudan, Algeria and some parts of Uganda and Kenya. It is made from durra or wheat. There are two different forms of ''kisra'': thin ...

, and the became point from which the Wasangari spread throughout Borgu. They developed a political system that incorporated the indigenous Karabonde earth-priests as important members of the royal court. Although it is the oldest and traditional leader of the Borgu confederacy, Bussa was sometimes overshadowed by the more economically and politically powerful city of Nikki. Bussa was attacked by the

Songhai Empire The Songhai Empire was a state located in the western part of the Sahel during the 15th and 16th centuries. At its peak, it was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its lar ...

in the 1490s, in 1505, and again in the middle of the 1500s. Despite fierce resistance, the Songhai occupied the city and devastated the surrounding region. After the collapse of the Songhai Empire in 1593, the

Oyo Empire The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba people, Yoruba empire in West Africa. It was located in present-day western Nigeria (including the South West (Nigeria), South West zone, Benin Republic, and the western half of the North Central (Nigeria), North Cent ...

moved in and reduced Bussa to a tributary. This lasted until 1783, when Borgu regained independence by defeating Oyo at Gberegburu. In 1806, British explorer Mungo Park drowned near Bussa while on his second expedition to trace the course of the Niger River.

Richard Lander Richard Lemon Lander (8 February 1804 – 6 February 1834) was a British explorer of western Africa. He and his brother John were the first Europeans to follow the course of the River Niger, and discover that it led to the Atlantic. Biogr ...

(1804–1834) an explorer relates that after the death of Mungo Park, the inhabitants of Bussa were attacked by a raging epidemic, which was regarded as a visitation from heaven. "Take care not to touch the whites lest you perish like the people..." By the 1820s, Oyo was a shell of its former self.

Fulani The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, ...

jihadists had taken control of

Ilorin Ilorin is the capital city of Kwara State located in the Western region of Nigeria. The city is a major hub for transportation and commerce in the region. . Retrieved 18 February 2007 Although Ilorin is classified under the North-Central g ...

and ransacked the capital. Alaafin Oluewu looked to Borgu, which was also suffering raids, to join him in an 1837 effort to push back the Muslims. The king of Bussa joined an army led by Siru Kpera, the king of Nikki, which had initial success but eventually suffered a calamitous defeat. Of the main leaders, only the Bussawa escaped. During 1894-1898 Bussa was disputed between Great Britain and France. In 1897, Bussa became part of the British Niger Coast protectorate.In 1915, an uprising took place in Bussa against the British policy of

indirect rule Indirect rule was a system of public administration, governance used by imperial powers to control parts of their empires. This was particularly used by colonial empires like the British Empire to control their possessions in Colonisation of Afri ...

. In 1920 the Emir of Bussa converted to Islam, and the population gradually followed his example in the following decades.

References and sources

;References ;Sources * * * *

External links

{{commons category, Bussa
Nigeria Travel - see Kainji National Park
* Reclus, Elisée, ''The Earth and Its Inhabitants ...: West Africa'' (D. Appleton and Company: 1892) History of Nigeria Songhai Empire