The Kadara (also Ajuah (Ajure), Adaa and Adara) people make up one of the largest ethnic groups in southern Kaduna, an area south of the present state of Kaduna in Nigeria. Other names are the Azuwa, Ajuwa and Azuwa.
Kadara people speak the Adara language, a north Plateau language of Nigeria.
Adara people can be found in the sub-saharan African Countries and they are only found in Nigeria. They can be found in Benue and some parts of Kaduna state like Kajuru and Kachia local government areas. Communities along the area include Magunguna, Idazo, Ungwan Galadima, Ungwan Guza, Etissi, Ungwan Ma’aji, Ungwan Dantata, Ungwan Araha 1 & 2, Ungwan Goshi, Ungwan Shaban, Ungwan Jibo, Ungwan Maijama’a, Ungwan Sako, Ungwan Maidoki and Ungwan Masaba.
Kadara land covers an extensive area of
about 8,090 square kilometers. There is an
estimated population of about 3.9 million
people according to the 1973 census
(National archives, Kaduna 1977).
Because of the teeming population of this ethnic group, the Kaduna state government recently created two new chiefdoms in Kadara land with Kachia and Kajuru as their headquarters.
The Kadara people believed in the existence
of a supreme being, creator of the universe.
He could be reached through much lesser
spirits found in the ancestral world, spirits of
certain animals, stones and a host of
impersonal forces. Also living among the
Kadara are adherents to both Christianity and
Islam.
About 55% of the Adara are Christians while some also adhere to Islam.
The Kadara people are an ethnic group that
enjoys living together in small villages as
their settlements, with the organization of administration based on the village settling.
They are great farmers and hunters.
Among the common and most stable food
crops grown are Guinea corn, millet, maize,
rice, cotton, groundnuts, tobacco, sugar cane,
ginger, yams, beans and soy beans as the
main cash crops. Another important aspect
of agriculture engaged in by the Kadara is
animals rearing such as cattle, sheep, goats,
pigs and poultry.
One tradition traces the origin of the Kadara
to the Dala Hills in Kano State. Another oral
tradition maintains that they (especially the
Kadara of Ankuwa) migrated from the area
around the Plateau Hills, west of Plateau
state Nigeria to their present settlement.
Temple, a historian, maintains that little is
known of their origin and history, beyond the
facts that they have inhabited their present
territories from centuries ago, and the
mention of the Beri-Beri invasion and
conquest of Kajuru. (Temple C. L., Notes on
the tribes of the northern Nigeria, London
1962 .179).
One thing interesting about the two traditions
of the history of the Kadara people is that
both trace their origin to the Hills of Dala
and Plateau. It is little wonder then that
areas presently occupied by them are around
the Hills and mountainous regions.
Adara people have suffered from ongoing communal conflicts in Nigeria, especially herder-farmer conflicts in Nigeria, including in Kaduna State. The President of Adara Development Association in a statement accused governor Nasiru El-rufa'i as the main agent behind there suffering. The people had also writing a letter to the governor indicating "we are suffering" from your leadership. Recall on the unfortunate slain of the paramount ruler of Adara Land, the Agom Adara, Dr. Maiwada Galadima, who was ambushed in October, 2018 on the Kaduna-Kachia expressway, after being abducted and later killed even after a ransom was paid for his release.
Approximately 400 years ago, the Kadaras (Kaduros, Adaras) lived in the area of Kufena Rock near Zaria City, but they gradually moved south during those years, scattering out over approximately 3,000 square miles in the Kajuru and Kacia districts of the Zaria emirate and in Adunu in Niger State in Nigeria. They have been subject to Muslim domination by neighboring Kanuri,* Hausa,* and Fulbe* peoples. The Kadaras have paid tribute, in the form of slaves and produce, to those tribes for the last two centuries, and especially since the slave raids of 1894 when Emir Yero of Zaria devastated them.
Before their migration south from Kufena, the Kadaras were adept at making pottery, smelting iron, raising cattle, and producing grains. Today the Kadara social organization revolves around exogamous localized patrilineages. Their animist religión focuses on a belief in Onum, a God-creator whom they associate with the sun.
After the imposition of British authority in the Kadara area, the slave raids and plunder-taking gradually declined. The Kadaras practice subsistence horti- culture, raising ginger, millet, guinea corn, beans, and citrus producís. They live in social systems characterized by patrilineal descent and patrifocal residence. They have accepted public school programs and are Christians. Most Kadaras today can be found in the Minna División of Niger State and the Kajuru, Kachia, and Chikun districts of the Kachia División of Kaduna State.
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