AREWA HOUSE: A Guide for Foreign researchers.

By Gokhan Kovac

AREWA HOUSE — COVID-19 has significantly limited travel but I would like to share my experience with an archive center in Nigeria, especially for Western and African researchers.

Located in Kaduna city, one of the most important places in Nigeria’s political history, this center is known as Arewa House.

You can reach here with a 2-hour train ride from the capital Abuja. I wouldn’t recommend a road trip because the Abuja-Kaduna highway is not safe.

Arewa House, affiliated to Ahmedu Bello University (ABU) Zaria is considered the memory of West African and Nigerian history. Kaduna: https://t.co/APuubsrZFw

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“Arewa House means ‘north house‘. This center in Kaduna was used as the administrative center of Northern Nigeria by Sir Ahmedu Bello, The Sardauna of Sokoto before being assassinated in Nigeria’s first coup attempt in 1966.

For more on Sir Ahmedu Bello and assassination: https://t.co/kUFeeP42aZ

The Arewa House has an archive, library, research center, and a museum where Ahmedu Bello’s house is exhibited today.

The Arewa House, one of the most important historical centers of the country, displays information about Nigeria as well as the belongings of tribes in the country.

This center has a guesthouse at affordable prices for domestic and international researchers. Here to have good thoughts, some renowned academics from Turkey, Ahmet Kavas with its affiliates International Research Center for Islamic History, Arts and Culture (IRCICA), our teacher had participated in the conference held in Abuja.

The cost of researching in Arewa House is very little if you have come to Abuja. Istanbul-Abuja flight 1.000 USD, Abuja-Kaduna train: 5 USD and Accommodation daily: 20 USD.

But as I said, if you come to Abuja, the rest is easy. The train journey is also very enjoyable

In this archive, there are documents in Arabic, English, French, and Hausa. Documentation for West Africa, African-Ottoman relations, or Nigeria can be found here. You can find current books at the bookstore here.

If your trip to Kaduna has started, Hasan Celebi in Turkey researching in Nigeria would recommend you visit the calligrapher’s art training center by Yusha Abdullah. You can get a beautiful painting as a gift: https://t.co/aUVncjMObf

Beautiful photos from Arewa House captured by Gokhan Kovac

By Gokhan Kovac is a Journalist at Anadolu Agency and student at the University of Istanbul, Turkey

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