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On the River Niger in Kebbi, the hippopotamus is carved on the emir's buildings, protected by royal order, paid for when it eats a farmer's rice, and, by custom, sat upon by every newly crowned emir. Even after it killed a fisherman, nobody in Yauri would harm it.
Yauri sits on the River Niger in Kebbi State, in Nigeria's far north-west. For the people of this old emirate, two things sit at the heart of life: the river itself, and the great animal that lives in it. They call the hippopotamus the beast of blessings.
Most people in Africa think of the hippo as a frightening animal, huge, bad-tempered and best avoided. It is in fact a plant-eater. It lives on grass and fruit, and it is most at home in rivers. In Yauri it has become far more than an animal. It stands for unity, for blessing and for peace, and it is the emblem of the emirate.
A senior title-holder of the emirate, the Galadiman Yauri, Alhaji Mu'azu Na-Mallam, explained to Weekend Trust in 2025 how that came about. When the time came to design an emblem for the emirate, he said, the elders chose the hippo because it is known as both strong and peaceful. Wherever it lives, it brings calm, unless someone disturbs it. It also stands for all the good things the river gives. That emblem is now carved on the emirate's buildings, and it reminds everyone in town that the Niger flows right through their lives.
Another member of the emirate council, the Rukubun Yauri, Alhaji Usman Hassan, looks after river and farming affairs. He said herds of hippos have long lived in Yauri's waters. Anyone who grew up there, he said, remembers seeing them, especially in the dry season when the river drops and the animals are easier to spot. To him, seeing the hippos is a sign that the river is still healthy.
And the river matters. It waters the farms and feeds the fishermen. Yauri, he said, is one of the few places in northern Nigeria where rice can be grown three times in a single year. The area has gold and other precious stones too. But it is the river, with its fish, its farmland and its hippos, that holds the local economy up.
Professor Yasinu Abubakar, an economic historian and an adviser at the federal Hydroelectric Power Producing Areas Development Commission, known as HYPPADEC, told the paper why Yauri treats the hippo as sacred. The animal, he said, has been in Yauri's waters for as long as the town has existed. In colonial times the British put extra weight on protecting it. From long ago, he said, it has been seen as an animal that must not be hurt or killed.
Then he described a custom that sounds almost unbelievable. When a new emir of Yauri was crowned, permission had to be asked from the governor to capture a hippopotamus. The new emir would then have his photograph taken sitting on top of the animal. It was a picture of his authority, a ruler resting on the strongest creature of the river, and it showed how much the people of Yauri honoured the hippo, as a sign of strength, unity and blessing.
The hippo also has a part in Yauri's best-known celebration, the Regatta, a river festival run by the emirate. It was stopped for a while because of insecurity, but the present emir, Dr Muhammad Zaiyanu Abdullahi, brought it back, and it was held in 2024. People in Yauri hoped it would be held again with help from the Kebbi State government and HYPPADEC, which, Professor Yasinu said, supports it more than any agency apart from the state itself. The commission, he added, has also worked on projects to keep the hippos safe and to help people use the river's riches without wasting them.
For ordinary people in Yauri, the hippo is simply part of growing up. A resident named Zayyanu Sa'idu said he had known since childhood that the hippo was an animal to be respected. It is shown to guests for their enjoyment, especially during the yearly Regatta. And the emirate has given an order that nobody may attack it.
That is not always easy. Many farmers grow their crops on the river banks, and the hippo does not know the difference between wild grass and someone's field. Sometimes it eats the crops. But the emirate has an answer for that too: anyone whose crops are destroyed by the hippo can be paid compensation. So people put up with the damage. They do not kill the animal, and they do not hurt it.
Another man, Mallam Umaru, said the same. The hippos come out in the evening to graze, he said, and sometimes they wander into farms. Then he told a sadder story. Not long before, a fisherman had been working at the river bank. Without knowing it, he was close to a baby hippo lying by the side of a pond. The mother must have thought he meant to harm her young. She charged him and wounded him so badly that he died.
Even then, nobody called for the hippos to be killed. The emirate's answer was a new order: fishermen must keep away from the river banks, especially in the rainy season. The people moved back, and the animal stayed where it was.
That is perhaps the clearest picture of what the hippo means in Yauri. It can ruin a harvest. It can even take a life. Yet the town has chosen to share its river with it, to put it on its buildings, and to let it stand for the peace and blessing it hopes to keep.
