The architecture of city walls and gates in northern Nigeria.

Major northern Nigerian cities like Kano, Zaria, and Katsina were originally surrounded by crenelated monumental city walls pierced with gates, some of which have been conserved into the twenty first century. While these walls and gates have pre-colonial histories that date to the distant past (eleventh to sixteenth centuries), almost all have been redesigned to reflect contemporary architectural aesthetics. The traditional architecture of city walls and gates were built by skilful Hausa master builders, using the indigenous building material - mud. Over time, the ancient skills, and the traditional architecture, have mostly been lost, as these walls are replaced with modern designs and materials. This paper is based on the assumption that the conserved or redesigned architecture of city gates and walls in Kano and Zaria reference or deny the past. The paper also focuses on their origins, aesthetics, function and meanings, and how the conservation of the walls demonstrate regard for transmitting Hausa cultural heritage to present and future generations. The visual images from online repositories were used as basis for the analysis while the cultural history of the cities were used as geographic and historic scenarios in order to highlight the reasons for the existence of these walls. Does the continuation of the walled-city tradition reference or deny the past? The analysis reveals that constant conservation, renovation and preservation of the cultural heritage are necessary, because the indigenous building material used, namely mud, is impermanent. While there still are conscious efforts to conserve the pre-colonial traditional wall in Kano and create a continuum by intersecting it with the contemporary architectural traditions of walls and gates, there is no ongoing conservation of city gates and walls in Zaria, as they have all been redesigned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]