Muri (town)

Muri is a town and traditional emirate in the northwestern Taraba State of eastern Nigeria, approximately between 9 and 11 40 E. and 7 10 and 9 40 N. The Benue River is nearby, and the portion on the southern bank of the river is watered by streams flowing from the Cameroon region to the Benue. In 1991, the town was estimated to have a population of 56,570. The valley of the Benue has a climate generally unhealthy to Europeans but there are places in the northern part of the province, such as the Fula settlement of Wase on a southern spur of the Murchison hills, where the higher altitude gives an excellent climate.

In 1817 Muri was founded as a Fulbe jihad state.

In 1892 - 1893 it was a de facto French protectorate, under Governor Louis Mizon (b. 1853 - d. 1899).

In 1901 it became a 25,800 m². province of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria, bordered S. by Southern Nigeria, SE. by German Cameroon, E. by the province of Yola, N. by Bauchi, W. by Nasarawa and Bassa with an estimated population of about 828,000. The district of Katsena-Allah extends south of the Benue considerably west of 9° E., the approximate limit of the remainder of the province. The province is rich in forest products, and the Niger Company maintained trading stations on the river. Cotton is grown, and spinning thread, weaving and dyeing afford occupation to many thousands. Muri province included the ancient Jukon empire together with various small Fula states and a number of pagan tribes, among whom the Munshi, who extended into the provinces of Nassarawa and Bassa, were among the most turbulent. The Munshi occupy about 4000 m². in the Katsena-Allah district. The pagan tribes in the north of the province were lawless cannibals who by constant outrages and murders of traders long rendered the mail trade route to Bauchi unsafe, and cut off the markets of the Benue valley and the Cameroon from the Hausa states. Only two routes, one via Wase and the other via Gatari, passed through this belt. In the south of the province a similar belt of hostile pagans closed the access to the Cameroon except by two routes, Takum and Beli. For Hausa traders to cross the Muri province was a work of such danger and expense that before the advent of British administration the attempt was seldom made.

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