Pre-1500 — Ancient settlement#
Kebbawa (a Hausa sub-group descended from the Songhai-period frontier population), Zarma and Dendi settle the Rima-Niger confluence and the western Sokoto plains from at least the 13th century. The *Banza Bakwai* — the "illegitimate seven" Hausa states in the Bayajidda legend — sometimes counts Kebbi as one of its seven (alongside Zamfara, Kororofa/Jukun, Yauri, Gwari, Nupe and Yoruba).
1500 — 1804 — Pre-colonial polities#
Muhammadu Kanta (r. c. 1516–61), originally a commander in the Songhai imperial army, breaks with Songhai after the Battle of Tara (c. 1517) and founds the Kebbi (Kanta) Empire at Surame — a UNESCO-tentative-listed walled city with a perimeter of approximately 14 km, the largest stone-built urban fortification in pre-colonial central Sudan. Kanta defeats the Bornu army at the Battle of Nguru (c. 1545) and pushes Kebbi's effective sphere from Air in the north to the Niger bend in the south — one of the few Hausa states to defeat both Songhai and Bornu in the same generation. After Kanta's death the empire fragments but the Kebbi throne, now seated at Birnin Kebbi, retains its prestige.
1804 — 1903 — The long 19th century#
Kebbi is the Hausa state that resists the Sokoto jihad longest. Sarkin Kebbi Hodi defies Usman dan Fodio for two decades after the jihad. The Battle of Gawakuke (1836) — see Battle of Gawakuke — is the decisive engagement: Sokoto's Sultan Bello (and his commander Aliyu Jedo) destroys the Kebbi army and Sarkin Kebbi Karari is killed. Argungu becomes the Kebbi capital-in-exile, maintaining a recognised throne and a nominal independence (and an annual fishing festival — the *Argungu Fishing Festival*) that survives to the present.
1900 — 1960 — Colonial provinces#
British WAFF takes Argungu without resistance in 1903 (Argungu having long been hostile to Sokoto and seeing the British as useful counter-balance). Sokoto Province within Northern Nigeria. The Argungu Fishing Festival, suspended during the colonial period, is revived in 1934 under the patronage of the Sardauna.
1960 — present — State creation chain#
- 27 May 1967 — North-Western State (capital Sokoto).
- 3 February 1976 — Sokoto State.
- 27 August 1991 — Babangida hives off Kebbi State (capital Birnin Kebbi) from western Sokoto. Argungu becomes a first-class emirate within the new state.
- 2018 onwards — Kebbi becomes a corridor for banditry from Zamfara into Sokoto and Niger Republic.Northern Abandonment Cycle