Local history
Zaria's walls are going back to the ground
Seven hundred years of earth fortification, and no clear answer to who is supposed to maintain them.
North-West
Zaria
Kaduna State
11.0855° N, 7.7199° E
A walled city that became a university town without giving up the walls.
About this place
Zaria is two towns that share a name. There is the old walled city with its gates, and there is Samaru, built around Ahmadu Bello University, which is among the largest universities in Africa. Students and traders use the same roads and largely ignore each other, which is its own kind of arrangement.
Everything from Zaria
1 story, newest first.
History in Zaria
Local history
Zaria's walls are going back to the ground
Seven hundred years of earth fortification, and no clear answer to who is supposed to maintain them.
Field notes from Zaria
Chidiebere Okafor
You can tell where the wall has been dug into recently: the cut face is a different colour for about a season before it weathers back. Walking a two-kilometre stretch, I counted eleven fresh cuts. Nobody was hiding it; the earth is good and it is free.
Where to go next
Editorial adjacency rather than distance — somewhere it makes sense to go from here.
