The Sokoto Caliphate (1804–1903) Part 1
Shortly before Napoleon crowned himself emperor of the French at the cathedral of Notre Dame in 1804, a revolution had begun to take shape some three thousand miles away in the sandy Sahel region of West Africa. Gobir was a Hausa state located south of the Sahara spreading across south-western parts of modern day Niger Republic and north-western parts of Nigeria. It was one of many independent Hausa states that often went to war for territorial expansion and supremacy. Islam arrived Hausa land in the late 13th century through traders from North Africa, Mali and Bornu. It became state religion in the 14th century after the ruling elite converted. Many Islamic scholars from across the Sahara visited Hausa land; some settled and never went back to their country. One of the most notable of the Islamic scholars to visit was the Algerian theologian Al-Maghili (d.1505). His famous treatise on Islamic governance –The Crown of Religion And The Obligations of Kings, written at the request of the Hausa king of Kano Abu Yaqub Muhammad ibn Abdullah Rumfa (d.1499) in the 15th century became the first official document to serve as a constitution for many kingdoms across Hausa land and beyond.
By the start of the 18th century, many pagan practices have encroached and eclipsed Islam in Hausa land. Although Islam was state religion, traditional belief in spirit worship was the predominant religion of the Hausa people who worshipped many spirit gods and goddesses. Some of these practices alienated the Muslims to the extent that they syncretised their Islamic belief with the pagan one; some even reverted to heathenism.
Uthman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Uthman (dan Fodio) began preaching against this eclectic mixture of Islam and paganism by the Muslim Hausa people of central Sudan. He wrote long poems in Fulfulde and Arabic condemning this syncretic way of worship and warned the rulers against corruption and oppression.
Dan Fodio was ethnically Fulani. The Fulani live across west and central Africa. In search of greener pastures for their cattle, they moved around a lot. However, some have settled in towns and cities and have abandoned their nomadic lifestyle. The Fulani originated from the valleys of Futa Toro in Senegal and Futa Djallon in Guinea. As of the 15th century, many have settled in different parts of Hausa land and were divided into clans. Dan Fodio was of the Toronkawa clan (or Toroube, its Fulfulde equivalent). Toronkawa is the Hausa nomenclature for the Fulani from Futa Toro where dan Fodio’s ancestor, Musa Jakollo emigrated from in the 15th century. There are other clans in Gobir, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, etc; clans such as the Sullebawa, Alibawa, Kasarawa, Dambazawa etc, all will be instrumental to the movement of dan Fodio as we shall see later.
Uthman Fodio was born in December 1754 (Safar 1168 AH) in Maratta, modern day Niger Republic. He was born into a family of scholars on both sides of his parents. His father, Muhammad Fodio earned the Fulani nickname “Fodio” meaning, “learned one” by his teaching and knowledge. His mother, Hauwa bint Muhammad was also from a very learned Fulani family. They lived at Degel, a Fulani encampment in Gobir.
Dan Fodio was taught the Qur’an by his father, simultaneously with reading and writing Arabic. He studied Arabic syntax and grammar under the supervision and guidance of Sheikh Abdurrahman Hammad. He then studied under his uncle, Uthman Binduri for two years. He did not only study books with Binduri, he also molded himself to the character of his uncle and teacher, “piety, asceticism, enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong”. This was a typical example of a student of knowledge (almajiri), who is not only required to study books under his teacher but also to adopt the character of his mallam. As important as all his teachers were to him, none had profound influence over dan Fodio than the controversial Tuareg scholar, Jibril Umar. Dan Fodio and his younger brother, Abdullahi, were students of Jibril. He was influential in shaping the idea of a jihad (in this case a revolution) to overthrow the Hausa kings who were “spreading corruption and oppressing their people”. Dan Fodio and his brother, Abdullahi, studied for about a year under Jibril in his home country of Adar, north of Gobir before he left for the Hejaz to perform the Hajj pilgrimage.
In 1774, twenty-year-old dan Fodio began preaching in major towns and cities. He attracted huge crowds; From the peasantry, oppressed by taxation and tyranny, to the disgruntled mallams (scholars) who were tired of defending every unjust and selfish decision their masters make. Many more people from across the Sudan flocked to Degel to learn from dan Fodio. As his brother, Abdullahi wrote, “most of the country, the common people and nobles were coming to the sheikh”. The new sheikh was believed to be ordained by divine providence to reform Hausa land and “free it from the evil of heathenism”. He travelled across Hausa land teaching and preaching puritanical orthodox Islam.
At this point, dan Fodio thought it expedient to approach the Hausa kings. He visited Bawa Jan Gwarzo of Gobir to explain to him the doctrines of Islam. Years later, Bawa became increasingly uncomfortable with dan Fodio’s revolutionary sounding sermons and soon summoned him along with other scholars to attend the Eid prayer of 1788 in the Gobir capital of Alkalawa. Bawa wanted to humiliate the sheikh in the presence of other scholars, to get rid of him for good. Instead, to Bawa’s disappointment, majority of the scholars sided with dan Fodio. His plan to eliminate him failed. To save face, he had to capitulate to dan Fodio’s demands. They included; to allow dan Fodio continue his preaching in Gobir, not to stop anyone from responding to his call, to treat with respect any man wearing a turban, to free all political prisoners, not to burden the subjects with excessive taxation. Also, to allow women to wear veils.
Bawa was old; he died the following year in 1789. His son, Yakubu, succeeded him. Barely five years after his accession, Yakubu marched to war with Katsina (a neighbouring rival Hausa kingdom) in 1794 and was killed. Yakubu’s brother, Nafata became king of Gobir.
Meanwhile at Degel, between 1793 and 1795, the sheikh was writing his first voluminous book addressing matters of innovation in the religion titled -إحياءالسنة وإخماد البدعة — ihya’ al-sunnah wa-ikhmad al-bid’ah (Reviving the Prophetic Traditions and Suppressing the Innovations) and also composing long poems in Fulfulde. Before this, his works — some 50 written texts were largely polemic responses to jurisprudential matters. Ihya’ al-sunnah elevated his status amongst the scholars.
Nafata was intolerant of dan Fodio’s ideology; he saw him as a threat to his rule and decided to withdraw some of the concessions made by Bawa to the sheikh. He declared in the markets that nobody in dan Fodio’s movement except the sheikh in person was allowed to preach and that no man should wear a turban and women who wear veils shall be punished.
Nafata’s ban was meant to undermine the movement. For example, the proscription on the turban and veil, which was the distinctive mark of Dan Fodio’s followers, was intended to obliterate any form of unity or cohesion amongst the followers of the movement. Nafata died shortly in 1802.
Yunfa succeeded his father and became king of Gobir. He turned out to be more impetuous and vicious in his opposition to the sheikh or any scholar who dared question his rule. In 1803, Yunfa clashed with a scholar, Abdussalam, who was a follower of dan Fodio. Abdussalam refused to pray for Waru, the chief of Gummi, a small chiefdom under Gobir’s control. Waru was ordered by Yunfa to quell an insurrection in Dosso, another country under Gobir. He passed through Gimbana, Abdassalam’s village; Waru asked for his prayers and blessing, but Abdussalam refused twice. Abdussalam’s refusal came after dan Fodio technically excommunicated the king of Gobir and all those associated with him in his writings. Dan Fodio wrote many texts describing who a Muslim is. These texts include: Hukm Jihal Bilad Hausa -حكم جهال بلد هوس (Ruling On The Ignorant People Of Hausa land) and نورالالبا ب — Nural Al-bab (Light Of The Intellect). When Yunfa heard of this, he was incensed. Yunfa ordered Waru to raid Gimbana. They killed and took captive some of Abdussalam’s people. This action infuriated dan Fodio. He asked Yunfa to free the captives to which he surprisingly agreed but afterwards changed his mind. Some followers of the sheikh were involved in an unsuccessful attempt to free the captives as they were being prodded away to Alkalawa. Yunfa decided to punish those involved. He asked that dan Fodio should not get involved. The sheikh was ordered to leave Gobir, taking along with him only members of his family. Dan Fodio refused; he rather called out his followers wherever they were in Gobir to migrate with him out of Yunfa’s territory if they wished to do so. It was obvious that Yunfa was not going to keep away from attacking Degel. Therefore, the sheikh decided to migrate with his followers before they suffer the same fate as those in Gimbana. Enraged at the sheikh’s defiance of his order, Yunfa attacked several of dan Fodio’s followers in their villages, killed the men, burnt their homes and took away their wives and children as captives. Dan Fodio called for a hijra (migration) similar to that of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ when he was persecuted in Makkah and he left for Madinah.
In February 1804, they began the perilous migration Gudu, north of Degel. The jamaa’a (followers of dan Fodio) gathered around the sheikh and declared him Amir al-mu’minin (commander of the faithful). They deliberated on the subject of jihad to defend themselves against the forces of Gobir who were about to attack them. They all agreed that it was lawful for them to wage a jihad against Gobir. The first to do the bay’aa (swearing allegiance) to the sheikh as Amir al- Mu’minin was his brother, Abdullahi, then his son Muhammad Bello and then his best friend and companion Umar al-Kammu.
At Degel, Dan Fodio wrote a pamphlet وثيقةاهلأ السودان – Wathiqat ahl Al-Sudan (A Letter to the People of Sudan) which outlines the criteria for the immigration and contains instructions on what is lawful and unlawful for a Muslim. Here is an excerpt from the pamphlet, the sheikh wrote; “This is a letter from Uthman ibn Fodio, the Amir of the believers to all people of Sudan and to whosoever Allah decreed among the brethren of the territories. It is indeed a useful one especially in our times. I say, and guidance is from Allah; my brethren, know that commanding good is wajib (obligatory) by consensus and that forbidding evil is wajib. To emigrate from the lands of the non-believers is wajib by consensus, and to support the believers is wajib by consensus. To accept the leadership of the Amir of the believers is wajib, and to obey him as well as all his deputies is wajib…” this pamphlet, among others, will serve as an important piece of document in the future of the empire that was about to be established.
With the stage set for the hijra, the sheikh and his followers moved up north to Gudu through Kalmalo, south of Birnin Konni in the northern parts of Gobir. It was a journey of 4 to 5 days and a distance of about sixty miles. They chose this route for its verdant abundance of grass for grazing their livestock which they brought along with them. Otherwise, it was mere thirty miles journey to Gudu. Muhammad Bello, the son of dan Fodio, himself a prolific scholar and future leader of the caliphate, was away at Kebbi, distributing Wathiqat ahl Al-Sudan, calling the people to emigrate with him. Together with Bello was Ali (Agali), a Tuareg from Jibril Umar’s home country of Adar. Agali tried to rally the Tuareg clans to support the sheikh but was unsuccessful. He was very helpful and supportive of the sheikh; he used his camels and donkeys to transport people and their properties to Gudu. His camels carried Dan Fodio’s library. It was a tradition for the scholars of Sudan to mount their library atop a camel. For example, when the erudite Timbuktu scholar, Sheikh Ahmad Baba regained his freedom after years of being held hostage in Morocco and was on his way home to Timbuktu in 1607, he was writing a book on the legality of smoking tobacco on the way back to his hometown. He apologised to the reader that with all his books mounted on a camel, he fears he might not give accurate references off head.
Alarmed at the number of people moving out of Gobir to join the sheikh, Yunfa declared a ban on emigration. The jamaa’a did not comply with his order; they kept flooding to Gudu. Soldiers looted and killed anybody found migrating. Very many lives were lost. Dan Fodio made this a casus belli; war was the inevitable step to stop this inexorable killings. Will they be able to overcome this great tribulation or will they capitulate? We’ll see that in part two next week.
To be continued…
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