The jukuns

A Sudanese Kingdom: an Ethnographical Study of The Jukun-speaking Peoples of Nigeria by C. K. Meek (1931)

The Jukun Tribe

When Ashu Manu came to the Jukun throne, presumably about the beginning of the nineteenth century, we enter the realm of reliable history, and it will clarify matters if we digress for a moment to summarize shortly the history of the Fulani of Bauchi, Gombe, and Muri, who succeeded between them in reducing the Jukun to a disorganized group of scattered villages.

When Usuman dan Fodio began the Fulani Holy War at the beginning of last century he appointed lieutenants throughout the territories of Northern Nigeria to reduce the local inhabitants.

In the region of Bauchi, Yakubu, one of his former pupils, was given the chief command ; while in the lower reaches of the Gongola River, and subsequently at Gombe, Buba Yero, another pupil of Usuman's, became his master's representative.

Further south, Hamarua surnamed Modibo, a younger brother of Buba Yero, took control of operations in the region of Muri.

*  Courourfa [Kororofa/Kwararafa] - 1794 Africa, with All Its States, Kingdoms, Republics, Regions, Islands, &c. Improved and Inlarged from D'Anville's Map http://catalog.afriterra.org/viewMap.cmd?number=261
Yakubu ruled at Bauchi from 1805-43, and during this period conquered the whole of the country between Bauchi and the Benue.

With the aid of his lieutenant, Madaki Hassan, who was posted at Wase, the Jukun communities in the region of Akyekura, Dampar, and Wase were brought under Fulani subjection ; while further east, with the assistance of Buba Yero (1826-41), the Jukun towns of Pindiga, Gwana, Yangkari, etc., were also successfully brought within the Fulani pale.
The Muri Fulani under Hamarua (1817-33) attacked Kona and swept off the map those numerous Jukun towns which had studded the country in the region of the abandoned city of Kororofa.

These onsets reduced the once powerful tribe of Jukun to the few scattered remnants which we now see, and there can be little doubt that large numbers of Jukun who had escaped death in war found their way as slaves to Sokoto and other northern regions.