Yauri

Yauri is a historic kingdom and traditional emirate in Kebbi State on the Niger River, probably founded by the Reshe (Gungawa) people, and by the mid-14th century was counted among the banza bakwai, the "seven unsanctioned states" of the Hausa-speaking peoples. Muhammadu Kanta, founder of the Kebbi kingdom, conquered Yauri in the mid-16th century; Yauri became essentially independent after Kanta's death around 1561 but continued paying tribute to Kebbi into the mid-18th century. Around 1810, the Hausa ruler of Yauri pledged allegiance to the Emir of Gwandu, overlord of the Fulani empire's western emirates, becoming the first Fulani-era emir of Yauri.

The emirate's capital has moved several times: from the original town of Bin Yauri, to the Niger River island of Ikum in 1850 under Emir Suleimanu dan Addo, and finally to Yelwa in 1888. When the Kainji Dam was built and Kainji Lake formed in 1968, the reservoir submerged Foge Island, the town of Bussa, and part of old Yelwa itself — a reminder of how much of the historic Yauri emirate now lies underwater.