Fulani Empire of Sokoto (West African History S.)

344 Pages·1967·7.402 MB·English

by  Hugh A.S. Johnston

THE FULANI EMPIRE OF SOKOTO

WEST AFRICAN HISTORY SERIES
General Editor: Gerald S. Graham
Rhodes Professor of Imperial History, University of London
THE FULANI EMPIRE
OF SOKOTO
H. A. S. JOHNSTON
London
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
IBADAN NAIROBI
X967
Oxford University Pressa Ely House, London W.i
GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
CAPE TOWN SALISBURY IBADAN NAIROBI LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA
BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA
KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG TOKYO
© West African Graphic Company Ltd., 1967
Preparation and publication of this
series has been made possible by the
generous financial assistance of Over-
seas Newspapers Group, Freetown,
Lagos, London, and West Indies
Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd.,
Bungay, Suffolk
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations and Maps vii
Proper Names ix
Notes on Rare and Unpublished Sources xi
Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgements xv
I Hausaland and the Hausas i
ii The Fulani 17
in Shehu Usuman dan Fodiyo 26
rv The Start of the Jihad 35
v The Jihad in Sokoto 46
vi The Jihad in Katsina, Kano, and Zazzau 60
vii The Jihad in Bomu 73
Vin The Jihad in Adamawa and Bauchi 80
ix The Consolidation of the Empire 91
x The Religious Controversy with El-Kanemi and the
Death of Shehu 102
xi Sultan Bello—the First Ten Years 113
xii Sultan Bello—the Second Ten Years 122
xiii The Jihad in Nupe and florin 133
xiv The Middle Years 145
xv Trade and the Economy 155
xvi The Machinery of Government 165
xvii Cracks in the Edifice 177
xviii The Kebbi Wars 187
xix Gathering Clouds 196
xx The Royal Niger Company 206
vi Contents
xxi Sultan Abdu 218
xxii A Year of Disasters« 230
xxiii The Fall of Sokoto 240
Epilogue 252
Appendix I: Miscellaneous Notes on: (1) Date of The
Kano Chronicle ; (2) Date of Bornu’s Suzerainty over
Hausaland; (3) Leo Africanus and the Songhai In­
vasion of Hausaland; (4) Amina of Zazzau; (5) The
Empire of Muhammadu Kanta; (6) Date of the
Expulsion of the Gobirawa from Air; (7) Nomen­
clature of the Fulani; (8) The Fulani and their
Language; (9) The Tuaregs; (10) Abdullahi’s
Spiritual Crisis; (11) Bello and the Sack of Yandoto;
(12) Origins of the Kanuri; (13) Cowry Shells as a
Currency; (14) Katsina as a Trading Centre; (15)
Hausa Participation in the Jihad in Hausaland;
(16) The Fulani States of the Upper Niger; (17) The
Fulani Drive to the Sea 259
Appendix II : Genealogical Tables 269
Appendix III: Sir Frederick Lugard and the Kano-
Sokoto Expedition of 1903 274
Glossary 287
Bibliography 291
Index 297
ILLUSTRATIONS
i (a) An old Hausa facing page 20
i (b) A Hausa girl 20
2 (a) A Fulani youth 21
2 (ô) A Fulani girl 21
3 (a) Tabkin Kwatto 28
3 (b) The place of prayer at Tabkin Kwatto 28
4 Tuaregs 29
5 Aerial view of the Rima Valley between Sokoto and
Alkalawa 48
6 A typical landscape in western Sokoto 49
7 Aerial view of Sokoto City 64
8 A market scene in Zamfara 65
9 The Rima River near Argungu 192
10 The Emir of Yauri’s Palace 193
ii The Kano city wall in 1903 208
12 Fulani with their cattle near Kotorkoshi 209
MAPS
i Hausaland in the 17th-! 8th centuries facing page 17
2 The Fulani Empires of Sokoto and Gwandu 97
3 The Central Sudan 161
4 Kano Emirate 225
5 North and West Africa 241
6 Sokoto and Gwandu 256

PROPER NAMES
O
ver the greater portion of the area once covered by the Fulani
Empire of Sokoto, Hansa is the mother tongue and there is no part
where it is neither spoken nor understood. Consequently, the general
rule in this book has been to use proper names in their usual Hausa
form, even when this is a corruption of the language from which the
names were originally derived.
To this general rule there are of course exceptions. First, in spell­
ing, the Italian c now used in Hausa has been replaced by ch. Second,
where a name has acquired an anglicized form, this has been adopted
in preference to the more correct but less familiar original. Hence
Sokoto (which incidentally is pronounced to rhyme with cockatoo)
rather than Sakkwato and Timbuctoo rather than Timbuktu or
Tambutu.
With Moslem names, where the bearers were Africans, the general
rule has been followed and the names have been given in their local
form. Hence Muhammadu (or sometimes Mamman, Mamudu, or
Muhamman) rather than Muhammad. But where the bearers were
Arabs or Arab-speaking North Africans, the names have been pre­
served in their correct form but spelt in the normal English fashion,
for example, Abd el-Kadir.
The first Emir of Gwandu, who plays an important part in this
history, poses a special problem because he was a Fulani who wrote
in Arabic. As an historical figure, therefore, he appears as Abdullahi
and as an author as Abdullah.
With place names, though there is a growing measure of standard­
ization, a number of variations still have currency. Some of them,
such as Garin Gabas and Kalembina, are incorrect and should be
discarded. With others, however, where the best spelling is still an
open question, a choice can legitimately be exercised. Hence Hadeija
rather than Hadejia and, among proper names, Fodiyo and Jaidu
rather than Fodio and Jedo.
Finally, certain usages adopted in this book must be briefly ex­
plained. The Fulani rulers, to mark their greater devotion to Islam,
have been styled ‘Emirs* whereas their Hausa predecessors, though
nominally Moslem from the fifteenth or sixteenth century onward,
have simply been termed ‘Chiefs*. By the same token the Hausa
States, after the jihad, reappear as Fulani Emirates. This procedure
x Proper Names
is perhaps a little arbitrary, but it makes for clarity. To the same end
the title of ‘Sultan’, which, being superior to that of ‘Emir’ should in
theory have been used to describe the rulers of Gwandu and Bornu
as well as those of Sokoto, has been reserved for Sokoto while
Gwandu has had to be content with ‘Emir’ and Bomu with ‘Mai’.
Similarly, the courtesy title of ‘Shehu’, though it subsequently
became the official style of the rulers of Bornu, has been reserved for
Usuman dan Fodiyo while El-Kanemi and his successors have been
accorded the title in its uncorrupted form of ‘Sheikh*.
Other names and titles which carry special connotations have been
defined in the Glossary.