Kano Durbar

The Kano Durbar is regarded as the Durbar in Northern Nigeria. This is the one that all the dignitaries turn up to see. We were up in the stand on the walls of the Emir's Palace with ambassadors etc - not so much a family day, but very fancy. There's a lot more money around these parts and you can see it in the horses and costumes...

It's still the same deal with parent's getting their kids all dolled up so that they can be seen in the right circles...

Whilst the Durbar ground is huge, the general public was not allowed in, masses of police and army folk keeping them outside the gates - a real pity really.

each family came through and presented themselves to the Emir

There were some seriously fancy costumes etc

some, however, were probably a little too fancy. More kind of Elton John going in to battle on a horse...

a future Emir...?

The Emir's cavalry made a grand entrance with plenty of explosions and dust raising as they literally stormed the parade ground - you wouldn't want to bump into these guys in a dark alley

Emir's Cavalry

Emir's Private guards

The Emir himself

The Emir gives a speech to the crowd

Each family gets to charge at the Emir at full pace to show their strength (one guy actually fell off)

The Emir's guards circled the Durbar ground and let off their ancient Dane guns that had been packed full with black powder... seriously loud stuff. After the thirtieth shot my ears started to hurt and my heart was skipping a few beats

I managed to get one the explosions on film - way too much black powder...