Sabon Gari — "new town" in Hausa — was established by the British colonial administration in 1913 as a segregated quarter for southern Nigerian migrants, traders, and civil servants who were not permitted to live in the Muslim Old City. Today it remains Kano's most cosmopolitan district: predominantly Christian, densely commercial, and containing the city's liveliest concentration of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and street food.
If you are not Muslim and want to eat or drink in the evening, Sabon Gari is where you will end up. The streets around the market are packed with stalls selling suya (grilled spiced beef), akara (fried bean cakes), pepper soup, and nkwobi (spiced cow-foot). The area feels decidedly different from the Old City — faster, noisier, more chaotic, and more willing to engage with strangers. It is best explored on foot in the late afternoon and evening, when the food stalls come alive.