Arewa

Arewa is a Hausa language term for north, one of the cardinal directions. Its popular usage in contemporary Nigeria sometimes suggests a northern Nigerian regionalism or proto-nationalism. In both Nigeria and Niger Republic, Arewa is the name of very specific historical entities: in Niger and Nigeria a pre-colonial state, and in Nigeria a small local government region.

In Nigeria, it simply refers to the local term for geopolitical area north of River Niger and River Benue that geographically split Nigeria into north, west and east. In Niger, it has a very specific meaning. Arewa (Niger) is a small pre-colonial animist dominated state of the Dallol Maouri valley, known for the indigenous "Maouri"/"Mawri" Hausa culture. In Nigeria, Arewa Dandi is a "Local Government Area" in Kebbi State, and has been called simply "Arewa" in the past.

In Nigeria, "Arewa" means beautiful one in the Yoruba Language. This is derived from the Yoruba word "ewa", which means beautiful.

In post independence Nigeria, some use the word as a general term for Nigerian Hausaland: a contraction of "Arewacin Nijeriya" (Northern Nigeria). Much of the north was once politically united in the Northern Region, a federal division disbanded in 1967, and was previously home of the seven Hausa states, later the Sokoto Caliphate in the pre-colonial period, and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate under British colonial rule.

Northern Nigeria regionalist groups, such as the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Arewa Media Forum based in Kaduna, and the related Arewa House and Arewa People's Congress are examples of this usage. These groups do not advocate independence from Nigeria, and focus on cultural unity of the so-called Hausa–Fulani community which forms the majority in the north of the nation.

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