BAUCHI, a region of British West Africa, part of two prov inces, Bauchi and Plateau, of Northern Nigeria, and noted for its tin mines. It lies north of the Benue river and west of Bornu. It includes the central Nigerian plateau—a great treeless plain over 4,000f t. above sea-level, separated from the lower plains by precipitous walls—the valley of the Gongola and other rivers, and hilly regions. In 1926 the plateau proper was detached from Bauchi provinces, and with other areas constituted the Plateau province, with the town of Jos as capital.
The upper classes are Fula, and there are some Hausa and Kanuri (Bornuese), but the bulk of the people are pagan tribes in a low state of civilization. Sixty-four tribes sufficiently differ entiated from each other to speak different languages have been reported upon. Hausa is the lingua franca of the whole. Amongst the tribes many were cannibals, and all the pagans went about practically naked. Their usual weapons were bows and arrows, but the tribes living on the plateau were horsemen and depended in battle on the charges of their mounted spearmen.
The name "Bauchi," which is of great antiquity, signifies the "Land of Slaves," and from the earliest times the uplands had been the hunting ground of the slave-raider.
Mohammedanism had been partly adopted by the upper classes in the i8th century, if not earlier, and a certain degree of civiliza tion attained. Early in the 19th century the son of a Moham medan native ruler, educated at Sokoto, accepted the flag of Dan Fodio and conquered the country for the Fula. The name of this remarkable soldier and leader was Yakoba (Jacob). His father's name was Daoud (David), and his grand-father was Abdullah, all names which indicate Arab or Mohammedan influence. The town of Bauchi and capital of the province was founded by Yakoba in the year 1809, and the emirate remained under Fula rule until the year 1902. In that year, in consequence of de termined slave-raiding and the defiant misrule of the emir, a British expedition was sent against the capital, which submitted without fighting. The emir was deposed, another chief put in his place, and the country brought under British control.
Gombe, which is included in Bauchi province, is a Fula emirate independent of the emirs of Bauchi. It forms a rich and im portant district. It was at Burmi in this district that the last stand was made by the religious following of the defeated sultan of Sokoto, and here he was overthrown and killed in July 1903.
The tin mines on the Bauchi plateau are worked by public companies on areas leased from the government. The centre of the tin-fields is in the Jos division, where the ore had been worked and smelted by the natives for at least 1 oo years before exploita tion by Europeans began in 1904. This was followed by a "boom" in 1910 and by 1926 the export had reached over I0,000 tons annually. A light railway had already connected Jos with the Lagos-Kano line, and in 1928 the completion of a standard gauge (3ft. 6in.) branch of the Eastern railway put the tin-fields in direct communication with Port Harcourt.