Amina (also Aminatu, died 1610; pronunciationⓘ) was a Hausa[2] historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (now city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now the north-west region of Nigeria.

Amina was born in the middle of the sixteenth century CE to King Nikatau, the 22nd ruler of Zazzau, and Queen Bakwa Turunku (r. 1536–c. 1566).

[5][4] According to oral legends collected by anthropologist David E. Jones, Amina was brought up in her grandfather's court and was favored by him.

[6] At age sixteen, Amina was named Magajiya (heir apparent), and was given forty female slaves (kuyanga).

At this point, Amina had distinguished herself as a "leading warrior in her brother's cavalry" and gained notoriety for her military skills.

[4] She is still celebrated today in traditional Hausa praise songs as "Amina daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man that was able to lead men to war.

[5] Legends cited by Sidney John Hogben say that she took a new lover in every town she went through, each of whom was said to meet the same unfortunate fate in the morning: "her brief bridegroom was beheaded so that none should live to tell the tale.

As the British historian Michael Crowder has noted, after Amina's death...ruling class Hausa women experienced a steady diminution in their influence and were systematically deprived of their authority and autonomy.

[7] Additionally, Amina has been credited with ordering the construction of a distinctive series of ancient Hausa fortifications, known as 'Amina's walls',[10] and with introducing kola nut cultivation in the area.

[12] One of the earliest textual sources to mention Amina is Muhammed Bello's history Ifaq al-Maysur, composed around 1836.

[15][16] There is also a local chronicle of Zaria itself, written largely the nineteenth century but extending to 1902, published in 1910, that gives a list of the rulers and the duration of their reigns.