bida

Bida

town and traditional emirate, Niger state, west-central Nigeria. The town is on the Bako River, a minor tributary of the Niger, and lies at the intersection of roads from Jebba, Zungeru, and Agaie. Originally a small settlement of the Beni (Bini) people, a subgroup of the Nupe, it was captured about 1531 by Tsoede (Edegi), the founder of the Nupe kingdom and the first etsu Nupe ("king of the Nupe people"). When the kingdom was conquered about 1806 by Fulani warriors, its central region was incorporated as the Nupe emirate in the Fulani empire. Emir Usman Zaki proclaimed himself etsu Nupe in 1835; and, after defeating Umar Bahaushe, a rival Fulani emir, in the Nupe civil war (1847-56) at Bida, he named Bida to replace the emirate's old capital at Raba (Rabba), 67 miles (110 km) west.

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