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The seat of the Empire, which the Fulani
created in the nineteenth century, was Hausaland. To understand
their achievement it is therefore first necessary to survey the
geography of that country and to review briefly the origins and
history of its inhabitants.
Hausaland forms part of the belt of savannah, which stretches right
across Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. This belt is
sandwiched between the desert in the north and the equatorial
forests in the south. By the Arabs it was called the Beled es-Sudan,
the land of the blacks, and the Sudan is the generic name by which
it is still known. Within it, Hausaland occupies the greater part of
the sector between Lake Chad in the east and the Middle Niger in the
west.
Hausaland is thus part of a plain that
stretches away for fifteen hundred miles to the west and two
thousand to the east. It contains no mountains and possesses no
natural frontiers. Essentially it is a gently undulating landscape
with fertile valleys, populous and cultivated, lying between
watersheds and plateaux that are often barren or waterless and
therefore empty and clothed in bush. With minor variations this
theme repeats itself over hundreds of miles and only occasionally
does a chain of reddish hills, a wide shallow river, or a town of
flat-roofed houses appear to give variety to the scene.
Climatically the year falls into two distinct parts, The rainy
season starts in May or June and lasts until September or October.
For the rest of the year, apart from a little irrigated farming,
there is not much to be done on the land. The long dry season from
November to May has therefore always been a time of opportunity when
the people have been free to turn their hands to other pursuits-to
their crafts, to trade, to learning, and of course to war.
The geographical position of Hausaland has also proved to be
historically significant. There, at the base of the Sahara, it
became the meeting place of two distinct ethnic and linguistic
strains, the indigenous Sudanic strain and the Hamitic strain 1
from North Africa which, from time to time, flowed across
the desert and mingled with it.
To understand the origins of the Hausa people it is first necessary
to review the history of North Africa. In the latter part of the
Roman era the Mediterranean littoral was populous and civilized. Its
peace and prosperity depended upon two conditions, the authority of
Rome and the fact that its long southern frontier was protected by
the desert. Early in the first millennium, however, this security
was undermined by the introduction of the camel into the Sahara and
the appearance soon afterwards of predatory, camel-riding nomads.
For a time thereafter the legions were still strong enough to keep
the nomads at bay, but as the power of Rome waned, unity and order
began to give way to fragmentation and chaos. In the sixth century,
it is true, the country was reconquered for the Eastern Emperors,
but revolts soon followed and in any case the authority of Byzantium
never matched the departed strength of Rome. By the seventh century,
therefore, the half-Roman cities of the littoral and the petty
Berber principalities of the interior were enjoying a precarious
freedom that made them vulnerable to reconquest 2.
It was not long before new conquerors appeared. In
the middle of the seventh century the Arabs, fired by the new faith
of Islam, began their westward march from Egypt and, in the space of
a generation, overran the whole of North Africa. The indigenous
people were unable to withstand the onslaught and had to submit. But
at this period the Arabs were not sufficiently numerous to do more
than impose themselves as a ruling aristocracy. They settled in the
towns, but made no attempt to colonize the countryside where the
Berbers remained preponderant 3.
For the next four centuries the two peoples ran uneasily in this
double harness. The Arabs recruited Berbers into their service and
with their help conquered Spain and threatened France. They also Put
pressure on them to adopt the Moslem religion and the Arabic tongue.
By degrees they succeeded in these objectives, but their subjects
resented being treated as inferiors and so the process of
assimilation was extremely slow. According to Ibn Khaldun, the
Berbers fell into apostasy no fewer than twelve times 4 and
certainly they were constantly in revolt against Arab domination 5.
Even though the Berbers were not at this stage deprived of their
land, it is probable that their inferior status, the penalties
suffered by those of them who did not adopt Islam, and the constant
turmoil of wars and rebellions induced some of them to emigrate to
the south and west. Such a movement was perfectly feasible, for by
this time the principal caravan routes of the Sahara had already
been established and were largely under the control of the Tuaregs
who were themselves a Berber tribe 6.
In the middle of the eleventh century, four centuries after the
Arabs had first appeared in North Africa, there came the second Arab
invasion. This time it was not just an army but two whole Bedouin
tribes that were involved. The impact was therefore completely
different because the invaders were in search of land, particularly
land for pasture, and not just conquest or domination. The first of
the two tribes settled for a time in Libya, but the second, the Beni
Hilal, overran what is now Tunisia and thence spread westward until
in due course they reached the Atlantic 7.
The Bedouin of the Hilalian invasion had little in common with the
Arabs of the original conquest. They did not settle in the cities
but took possession of the countryside in a way that their
predecessors had never done. Moreover, being pastoral nomads, they
had no interest in settled agriculture and so they either destroyed
the irrigation systems that had been preserved from Roman times or
else allowed them to fall into disuse 8.
The Berbers, for their part, did not submit tamely to being driven
from their homes and their land, and the struggle between the two
peoples caused further devastation. Indeed, according to Ibn Khaldun,
it gradually reduced the country-side to utter ruin with the debris
of monuments and buildings bearing witness to the places where towns
and villages had once stood 9.
The upheavals that accompanied this invasion caused major changes in
the distribution of population in the Maghreb. Those Berbers who
were not killed or enslaved were forced to withdraw from the fertile
plains and either to fall back on the mountains, where the majority
of their descendants are still to be found, or else to retreat
southwards towards the desert 10.
This point is proved beyond doubt by the fact that their language,
which yielded everywhere else to Arabic, has survived in corners of
the Atlas Mountains and in oases like Tuat and Ghadames 11.
Those who fell back on the mountains were hemmed in by the Arabs and
had to defend and maintain themselves as best they could until at
length they were more or less assimilated. But, for those who had
retreated to the confines of the desert, the Saharan caravan routes
provided an outlet. As the pressure of the Arabs on them, and of
their population on the land, grew greater, so more and more of them
must have been tempted to take this means of escape.
About Hausaland, on the other side of the Sahara, we do not know
very much. The tribes inhabiting it at this period probably belonged
to the Sudanic or Chadic groups and recent discoveries suggest that
they were not nearly as primitive as was at one time believed. They
had been smelting and working iron, for instance, for at least five
hundred years and perhaps more 12.
By the eleventh century they seem to have been living in settled
communities and the fact that some of these were governed by queens 13
and probably observed matriarchy, a custom more common among Berbers
than Sudanic Negroes, suggests that they had already been influenced
by previous waves of Berber immigration.
There is no doubt that at some period a considerable number of
Berbers crossed the Sahara, settled among these people, and
intermarried with them. We do not know exactly how and when this
movement took place; nevertheless, though the evidence is scanty,
there are certain inferences to be drawn from it. First, for
physical reasons, the migrations could hardly have occurred before
the camel had appeared in sufficient numbers to open up the caravan
routes of the desert. Secondly, if they had taken place later than
the fifteenth century the migrants would have been Moslems,14
which they seem not to have been, and the events
would surely have been recorded in the historical documents that
were then beginning to be compiled in the Sudan instead of only
surviving as a myth in the folk memory. Thirdly, the migrants seem
to have consisted not of tribes or clans, which preserved their
racial characteristics and were strong enough to fight for the land
or pasture that they needed, but of small groups, mainly of men, who
were glad to marry local women and settle down peaceably. This
suggests that they were refugees who had lost not only their homes
but very often their families as well.
This evidence indicates that
the migrations cannot have occurred much earlier than A.D. 500 nor
later than A.D. 1500 and increases the probability of their having
been caused, or at any rate greatly stimulated, by the upheavals
that accompanied the two Arab invasions of North Africa and by the
long period of unrest and sporadic warfare that came between them.
If this theory is correct it means that most of the movement took
place between A.D. 650 and 1100. It is conceivable that it was
spread more or less evenly over the whole of this period, but if
that had in fact been the case its impact at any one time would have
been negligible and it would have been most unlikely to have given
rise to any historical legend. From the fact that there is such a
legend, and a very strong one at that, it can be argued that there
must have been a point of time when the momentum of the migrations
reached a peak and that the impression it made was great enough to
produce the legend. From a North African standpoint we should expect
that point of time to coincide with the Hilalian invasion of the
eleventh century which did more than any other single event to
disrupt the life and economy of the Maghreb. This date, as we shall
see, dovetails neatly into the probable date of the Hausa legend.
Indirect though all this evidence is, there seems to be a strong
probability that the crucial period of ethnic alchemy, which was to
produce the Hausa people and the Hausa language, came between A.D.
1050 and 1100.
The legend that the
Hausas cherish about their origins could well be a simplified myth
based on such a chain of events. It tells how Abuyazidu, 15
a prince of Baghdad, made his way to Daura, slew the
monstrous snake that lived in the well and terrorized the
townspeople, and was rewarded by being made the consort of the
Queen. Their children and grandchildren subsequently became the
founders Of the seven Hausa states. It seems probable that this
legend crystallized the folk memory of the union between the Berber
migrants and the indigenous peoples of Hausaland who were perhaps
already partly Berber in blood and custom. It also suggests that the
newcomers brought a higher civilization with them and that the union
came about peacefully through intermarriage and assimilation.
How long the process of fusion took we do not exactly know, but if,
as seems likely, there was early intermarriage and no fighting, it
is reasonable to suppose that it was completed more quickly than the
contemporary fusion of Norman and Saxon in England. One of the first
products of the union was probably the Hausa language-which
certainly goes back to this period and which is now classified as
belonging to the Chado-Hamitic 16
or Chadic 17 group. Though basically
simple, it is nevertheless a flexible medium, with a surprisingly
rich vocabulary, and with Swahili it is now one of the two most
important languages of black Africa.
While the language was evolving, the Hausa city-states began to
emerge as separate powers. The original seven, which are known as
Hausa Bakwai, were Daura, Kano, Kano, Katsina, Zazzau, Gobir, and
Garun Gabas 18.
Together they cover an area that is about two hundred miles square
and, though Hausaland has subsequently widened its frontiers, this
region still forms its core.
At a later stage the Hausas extended their influence over
neighbouring peoples who in some cases adopted their speech and in
others merely spoke Hausa as a second language and followed a
similar way of life. This group, known as the Banza Bakwai, which
can be loosely translated as the Bogus Seven, is a heterogeneous one
and comprises some peoples who are now indistinguishable from the
original Hausas and others who have little in common with them. In
this secondary group the States of Zamfara and Kebbi and to a lesser
extent Yauri, became most closely identified with and assimilated to
the Hausas.
For our knowledge of early history in Hausaland we rely partly on
the lists of Chiefs that have been preserved in most of the States,
partly on oral myths and traditions which have been handed down from
one generation to another, and partly on the chronicles in which
those myths and traditions have, at some indeterminate time in the
past, been recorded.
In the seven authentic Hausa States, with the notable exception of
Gobir, the lists of Chiefs begin with the appropriate son or
grandson of Abuyazidu and are thereby linked to the Daura Legend.
They sometimes give the number of years that each Chief reigned and
thus make it possible to calculate the dates when the dynasties were
founded. Comparisons between these lists naturally reveal serious
discrepancies, particularly in the period before the year 1500. The
Kano chronology, for example, gives A.D. 999 as the year when
Bagauda, the grandson of Abuyazidu, became Chief 19,
whereas in Katsina the date assigned to his brother Kumayo falls a
hundred years later 20.
This is not altogether surprising, however, and what is perhaps more
significant is that there is a measure of conformity to a common
pattern. In Kano the number of Chiefs in the Hausa era is given as 43, 21 in Katsina as 38,
22
in Zazzau as 60,
23
in Daura as 48,
24
and in Kano as 40
25.
Among the Banza Bakwai, Zamfara is said to have had 42
Hausa Chiefs 26
and Yauri, which was probably a younger foundation, 29 27 Of the
early written records, much the fullest and most important is The
Kano Chronicle 28.
It is written in Arabic and purports to give the history of Kano
from the tenth century right down to the early twentieth century.
Although several copies of it have come to light, the archetype has
never been traced and is probably no longer in existence 29.
For this reason it is difficult to estimate when the Chronicle was
first compiled, but internal evidence suggests that the date
probably falls in the eighteenth century 30.
From then on the Chronicle was no doubt a more or less contemporary
record which was probably brought up to date each time a Chief died,
if not more often. So far as the preceding period is concerned,
however, though the Chronicle may well have embodied earlier written
fragments, it must be regarded in the main simply as the first
repository of Kano's oral traditions. Moreover, even if earlier
fragments were in fact embodied, they are unlikely to have been
written before the end of the fifteenth century when El-Maghili, a
divine and jurist whom we shall soon meet again,
visited Hausaland and founded the tradition of Arabic letters
31.
It can therefore be asserted with some assurance that before the
year 1475 The Kano Chronicle had to depend entirely on memorized
traditions, that between 1475 and its compilation in the eighteenth
century it probably relied partly on memorized traditions and partly
on existing written fragments, and that only after the unknown date
of its compilation did it become a contemporary written record.
These considerations, while obliging us to approach the older
history with great caution, do not mean that the early passages need
be dismissed as worthless. On the contrary, there is independent
evidence to show that the Hausas are capable of memorizing and
transmitting historical facts with a very fair degree of accuracy
over several hundred years 32.
Like many other ancient records, The Kano Chronicle is often lacking
in continuity and historical perspective, so that on some occasions
the narratives that it begins are left unfinished, while on others
major events are passed over in silence but trivial episodes are set
down in unnecessary detail. Nevertheless, for all its faults, it
does give us a general picture of how the civilization of Hausaland
developed. We see, for example, how Kano grew from a settlement to a
town, from a town to a city, and from a city to a city-state. We are
shown the steps by which neighbouring towns like Gaya and Karaye,
which were perhaps equally ancient but happened to be less populous,
were drawn into Kano's orbit. We watch the stages by which the
countryside was populated, first by the voluntary movement of free
men from the city to newly founded towns and villages and later by
the plantation of slaves and dependents in rural settlements. We
learn of an exodus of pagans in the fourteenth century and we detect
in it the tensions that preceded the establishment of Islam.
Finally, when Kano has already outstripped all its rivals, we see
smaller city-states like Rano and Kudu being gradually swallowed and
digested.
By reading between the lines we are also able to learn from the
chronicles the nature of the society which developed in Hausaland.
The States were ruled by Chiefs from the earliest times but these
Chiefs, though they wielded the powers of life and death, were far
from being unfettered autocrats. On the contrary, they stood at the
apex of an elaborate bureaucracy of titled officials and of a
separate hierarchy of territorial magnates whose position had much
in common with that of the feudatories of medieval Europe in that
they were bound, when called upon to do so, to render military
service with a stipulated number of armed followers at their backs 33.
So long as a Chief retained control of this political and military
machine he wielded great power. If once he lost the confidence of
the courtiers and grandees, however, he could easily be deposed and
many Chiefs in fact suffered this fate 34.
With each State disposing of its own feudal army, and with a
campaigning season of seven months in every year, wars were, of
course, frequent. The fighting was usually confined to the feudal
armies and probably affected the life of the common people no more
than did the wars of medieval Europe. The prizes for the victors
were booty and prisoners who could either be ransomed or enslaved:
Conversely, the penalties for the vanquished were the loss of their
lives, liberties, and possessions. As a protection against the
hazards of war, towns and villages took to fortifying themselves,
the towns with massive walls built of sun-baked clay and the
villages with wooden stockades.
Although there was no coinage, cowry shells were introduced in the
early eighteenth century and thereafter served as currency 35.
Taxation was also levied from a very early date. In Kano, for
example, a land-tax was imposed as far back as the thirteenth
century and a cattle-tax from about the year 1640 onwards 36.
By the fourteenth century the pattern of the future had already
begun to emerge. Then, as now, the States of Kano and Katsina formed
the core of Hausaland, the one famous for its trade and the other
for its learning. To the north, occupying the semi-desert country
that is now called Air, was Gobir, noted for its warriors. To the
south was Zazzau, the main supplier of slaves. To the west was
Zamfara, originally one of the Banza Bakwai but now well within the
pale of Hausaland. These were the five leading States. In the second
rank came Daura, Yauri, and Rano, the last already overshadowed by
Kano and about to be absorbed. Of the original seven, only Garun
Gabas had failed to grow at all and had remained an obscure village.
The tally of the future was not quite complete, however, for in the
west Kebbi was still only a province and had not yet been forged
into a kingdom, while in the north-west the area which was later to
become Gobir was also waiting for an aristocracy and a paramount chief.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were periods of special
importance in the history of Hausaland because, thanks to the
opening of new communications with the outside world, religion,
learning, and commerce received a new impetus. The ruling classes of
Boron in the east and Mali in the west had been converted to Islam
generations before and the fact that the Hausa States remained pagan
for so much longer shows how far removed they still were from Arab
influences. The first mention of Islam in The Kano Chronicle occurs
in the region of Yaji (A.D. 1349-85) when Wangarawa or Mandingoes
were said to have introduced the new faith from Mali and persuaded
the Chief to adopt it 37.
It is doubtful, however, whether he was a very firm convert, for
neither he nor his brother who succeeded him took Moslem names and
later his son Kanajeji (A.D. 1390-1410) reverted to paganism 38.
It was, therefore, only with the accession of the fourteenth Chief,
Umaru (A.D. 1410-21), that Islam can be said to have been firmly
established 39.
Among the other States of Hausaland, Katsina was converted at about
the same time as Kano and there the first Moslem Chief is identified
as Muhammadu Korau who reigned from about 1380 to 1430 40.
Zazzau, however, seems to have remained pagan much longer, for no
Moslem name appears in the list of Chiefs until the early sixteenth
century when the eighteenth Chief, Abu, who in any case was probably
installed by the invading Songhai army, succeeded to the throne 41.
For Zamfara we have no date, but the first Chief to bear a Moslem
name was the twenty-fourth, Aliyu 42, and it is therefore
possible, indeed likely, that this was a forcible conversion
dictated by Songhai. So too, probably, was the conversion of Gobir
whose thirtieth Chief, Muhammadu, seems to have been the first to
embrace Islam 43. Yauri, on the other hand,
which escaped the Songhai invasion, remained pagan until the
accession of the eleventh Chief, Gimba, in 1578 44.
It is clear from the pages of The Kano Chronicle that for several
generations a struggle went on between the new religion and the old
pagan beliefs. The final consolidation of Islam, directly in Kano
and Katsina and indirectly in the other States, was the work of the
North African divine and jurist, El-Maghili, who came to Hausaland
towards the end of the fifteenth century. His visit happened to
coincide with the reign of Muhammadu Rumfa who was the greatest and
most enlightened of all the Hausa Chiefs of Kano. El-Maghili
evidently found him an apt pupil and wrote for him a treatise on the
responsibilities of rulers 45.
The contrast between the brutality and callousness, which
characterize the early oral literature of the Hausas and the
high-minded principles, laid down by El-Maghili show how important a
part Islam played in advancing the civilization of Hausaland.
It was no coincidence that a great expansion of trade occurred
during the same period as the establishment of Islam. Both can be
attributed to a series of improvements in communications which took
place at this time and which had the effect of converting Hausaland
from a backwater to a centre of commerce and industry. The first of
these developments came in the fourteenth century, when a new
caravan route linking Kano with Ghat, in the northern Sahara, was
opened, with the result that trade with North Africa could flow
direct instead of having to go round by Lake Chad or the Niger Bend 46.
The second development, which took place relatively soon afterwards,
was that the Darb el-Arba'in, the old caravan route that had linked
Egypt to the gold-bearing areas of Ashanti by way of the lower Nile,
Chad, and HausaIand, was reopened after having been closed for the
previous three centuries by the hostility of the Christian kingdom
of Nubia 47.
The third was that with the decay of the northern route between
Egypt and the Niger (initially because
of the depredations of the Syrte Arabs and later perhaps
because of the chaos which followed the collapse of the Songhai
Empire) the southern route through Hausaland became the main artery
between east and west 48. These changes must have had the effect of transforming
Kano from a place of purely local significance first into a major
entrepôt of the trans-Saharan commerce and then into one of the
principal meeting places for north-south and east-west trade. They
thereby set the city on the road to becoming the greatest commercial
and industrial centre of the Sudan and laid the foundations for the
subsequent growth in the prosperity and importance of the whole of
Hausaland.
As the Hausas are a virile people, it is surprising to find that
they were almost always under the domination of some other power.
The cause of this paradox seems to have been that, as the leading
States were of roughly equal size and strength, none of them ever
succeeded in establishing its predominance over the others. Another
reason is perhaps to be found in the nature of the people who,
though physically tough, are generally good-natured and easy-going.
They can fight if they must but they are not ambitious for power and
their interests lie much more in trade than war.
If the five major empires of the Sudan, Ghana and Mali lay too far
to the west for their authority ever to have reached Hausaland. At
one time or another, however, the other three — Songhai,
Kanem-Bornu, and Sokoto — all fought for and enjoyed the
suzerainty of the Hausa States. The first of the three to impose its
authority was Kanem-Bornu and the date was almost certainly the
first half of the fifteenth century 49.
As the Hausa States were becoming populous and wealthy, however,
they made a rich prize which Bornu was not for long allowed to enjoy
in peace.
The first challenge came from Songhai in the early sixteenth
century. In the western Sudan, as the authority of Mali had
declined, so the power of Songhai had grown until at length the new
empire had completely swallowed up the old. With its capital at Gao,
on the middle Niger, Songhai's centre of gravity lay much farther to
the east than that of Mali. It was not surprising, therefore, that
sooner or later the eyes of its rulers should have turned towards
the Hausa States on their eastern borders.
In the year 1513 Askia Muhammad, having consolidated his possessions
in the west, marched into Hausaland at the head of a powerful army.
Thanks to the famous traveller, Leo Africanus, who visited Hausaland
very soon afterwards, we have an independent account of this
invasion and its sequel. According to him the Hausa States resisted,
but failed to combine and were destroyed one by one. The Chiefs of
Gobir, Katsina, and Zazzau were killed in the fighting. The Chief of
Kano was captured when the city fell, but was restored to his throne
on condition that he paid a third of his revenue to Songhai as
tribute. The other States also became tributaries and before his
departure Askia installed Residents in each of them who “mightily
oppressed and impoverished the people that were before rich” 50.
Bornu, the nominal suzerain, seems to have done nothing to defend
its vassals, but this is not altogether surprising because, as we
shall see later it was preoccupied at the time with troubles of its
own.
In his description of Hausaland Leo mentioned the abundance of corn,
rice, and cotton, the large herds of cattle, the wide range of
crafts, the wealth of the merchants the thriving commerce with other
nations, and the civility of the people 51.
If he is to be believed, it is clear that the Hausas of the early
sixteenth century had already achieved a high measure of
civilization. Apart from the shadowy Amina, a daughter of the Chief
of Zazzau to whom all kinds of legendary achievements are attributed
52,
the only Hausa in history to display imperial ambitions was
Muhammadu Kanta who began his career as one of Askia's lieutenants.
His paternal forbears are said to have come from the east and to
have settled in Katsina a few generations earlier. His father held
the title of Magaji and seems to have been a Village Head. His
mother was a Katsina woman, some say the daughter of the Chief of
the day. Kanta himself was a turbulent youth and when his father
died he was passed over and his brother was appointed to the family
title and office. Mortified by this slight, Kanta went out into the
world to seek his fortune. He collected round him a following of
kindred spirits and with them he seems to have founded a community
of his own in the Lower Rima Valley, which at that time was a
marcher province on the western fringe of Hausaland 53.
When Askia's army appeared he threw in his lot with the invaders. It
is safe to assume that he took an active part in the subjugation of
the Hausa States and that his prowess won him recognition. At any
rate he seems to have been appointed governor of his adopted
province 54.
Two years after conquering Hausaland, Askia led his army against the
desert centre of Asben which he annexed after defeating and
expelling its Tuareg inhabitants. Kanta was dissatisfied with the
share of the booty assigned to him and therefore threw off his
allegiance and proclaimed himself Chief of Kebbi 55. It was an act of
extraordinary daring as Songhai was now at the height of its power
and controlled almost the whole Sudan between the Atlantic and Lake
Chad. Askia's response to Kanta's revolt was to send an expedition
against him, but Kanta met and defeated it 56.
During the next thirty years Kanta not only resisted all the
attempts that first Songhai and then Bornu made to suppress him but
went on to carve out for himself, at their expense, a not
inconsiderable empire. At its height it stretched from the Sahara to
the Niger 57,
but it was a personal creation and disintegrated very soon after his
death. Nevertheless, Kebbi survived as one of the leading States of
Hausaland and the tributary provinces of Arewa and Zaberma remained
loyal.
As the power of
Kebbi began to decline in the second half of the sixteenth century,
so that of Kwararafa increased. The sudden rise and almost equally
sudden fall of the riverain kingdoms of the Jukuns are among the
strangest features of the history of the Sudan. For a hundred years,
from about 1600 to 1700, they were supreme on the Middle and Lower
Benue and dominated all their northern neighbours. During this
period their armies captured the city of Kano, came very near to
taking Katsina, and even threatened Boron 58.
But by the beginning of the eighteenth century they were a spent
force.
It was only after the decline of the Jukun power that Boron was able
to reassert its suzerainty over Hausaland. In 1734 the Mai, or
Sultan, marched westward with a large army and apparently succeeded
in overawing his former vassals without the necessity of fighting.
Kano and Zazzau certainly agreed to resume the payment of tribute
and we know that in Zazzau a Resident was left behind to collect and
transmit it 59.
No doubt the same practice was adopted in the other States as well.
About two generations earlier, an event had taken place in the
north, which was to have important repercussions all over Hausaland.
This was the expulsion of the Gobirawa from Air 60.
As has already been mentioned, the Hausas consider Gobir as being
one of the original States and as having a common ancestry with
themselves whereas the Gobirawa, or at any rate
their ruling classes, repudiate both the Daura legend and the
idea of a common ancestor. Almost certainly the explanation of this
apparent paradox is that the origins of the ruling classes and the
common people are altogether different 61.
At this time the common people were probably ordinary Hausas who
lived in a marcher province and who, like the Kebbawa before the
rise of Kanta, happened to have no paramount chief of their own. The
ruling classes, on the other hand, were probably migrants from the
cast who arrived in Hausaland much later than the Berbers. They
themselves claim to have come from Arabia by way of Bilma and to
have settled in Aïr 62,
but Sultan Bello was told that they were descendants of the Copts
and had come to Air from Egypt 63. Be that as it may, in Aïr
they were living in the territory of the Tuaregs and when at length
they quarrelled with their hosts they were driven out. They
thereupon moved south to the region which lies just north of the
bend of the Rima River and there they were apparently accepted by
the inhabitants as a ruling aristocracy. They were thus assimilated
into Hausaland and their leader, whatever his previous status,
became Chief of Gobir.
The Gobirawa soon proved themselves to be turbulent neighbours. For
generations they had been accustomed to the lawlessness of the
desert and even if they had wanted to take up a sedentary life,
which was doubtful, the rainfall of their new home was hardly
sufficient to support them. Internecine warfare was not new to the
Hausas and indeed the pages of The Kano Chronicle are full of
accounts of it.
But the Gobirawa seem to have brought a new aggressiveness to the
fighting and in the period which elapsed between their migration and
the middle of the eighteenth century they were successively engaged
against Kebbi, Zaberma, Gurma, Aïr, Katsina, and finally Kano.
Their armies ranged far afield from the borders of Bornu to the
great bend of the Niger. In these battles they were generally
victorious and no doubt captured many slaves and much booty. But the
wars were in no way decisive and when they were over life went on
much as before 64.
About the middle of the eighteenth century, however, Gobir, under
its Chief, Babari, embarked on a war which was to take a very
different turn. Zamfara, which straddled the fertile upper basins of
the Rima, Sokoto, and Zamfara Rivers, was a rich prize, which the
Gobirawa had probably been eyeing for some time. At all events they
went to war with Zamfara. And this time they did not content
themselves, as they had in the past, with slaves and booty. In about
1755 or 1760 they brought the struggle to a successful end by
sacking the capital, Birnin Zamfara. After that they proceeded to
occupy the whole of northern Zamfara and to build themselves a new
capital at Alkalawa which was more or less in the centre of their
greatly enlarged territory 65.
After its defeat, Zamfara ceased to be a coherent entity. In the
unoccupied parts of the country, it is true, individual towns
preserved some measure of independence, those in the cast leaning on
Katsina, which was now hostile to Gobir 66, while those in the south
relied for immunity on their remoteness. But the State as such had
been shattered beyond repair.
In 1734 Gobir, in common with the other Hausa States, had allowed
Bornu to reassert its suzerainty, but Bornu had subsequently made no
attempt to curb Gobir's aggressiveness or to save Zamfara from
extinction. This inactivity was interpreted as weakness and, later
in the century, Gobir threw off its allegiance 67.
In this move it was certainly followed by Katsina 68
and probably by some of the other Hausa States as
well.
As the end of the eighteenth century approached Gobir was again at
war with Katsina. This time the cause of the hostility was Maroki,
the fugitive Chief of Zamfara, who had shut himself up in the
fortified town of Kiyawa near the Katsina border. While the Gobirawa
besieged the place, Maroki called on the Chief of Katsina for
help.
A Katsina army was sent to relieve him and at the battle of Dutsin
Wake it inflicted a severe defeat on the Gobir forces 69.
Nevertheless, the struggle for Kiyawa went on and it was not until
1801, when Gobir suffered another defeat and Chief Yakuba was
killed, that the siege was finally abandoned 70.
These events — the failure of the Hausa States to cohere, their
internecine rivalry and warfare, the decline of Bornu, the
dismemberment of Zamfara, the general hostility aroused by Gobir's
aggressions, and the reverses suffered by Gobir at the hands of
Katsina and the Zamfara diehards — were all to play a significant
part in preparing the way for the rise of the Fulani and the
establishment of their empire.
Notes
1. These traditional
classifications are no longer generally accepted, but they are
familiar and well understood and they will serve for the present
purpose.
2. E. W. Bovill, The Golden
Trade of the Moors, London, 1963, p. 41-49.
3. Ibn Khaldun. See J. S.
Trimingham, A History of Islam in West Africa, Oxford, 1962, p. 18.
4. Trimingham, op. cit. p. 18
5. Bovill, op. cit. pp. 57-58.
6. Ibid. pp. 5-54.
7 Trimingham, op. cit. p, 19.
8. Bovill, op. cit. p. 58.
9. Trimingham, cp. cit. p. 19.
10. Ibid.
11. R. Mauny, Tableau Géographique
de l'Ouest Africain au Moyen Age, Dakar, 1961, p. 462.
12. Mauny, op. cit. p. 316.
13. S. J. Hogben and A. H. M.
Kirk-Greene, The Emirates of Northern Nigeria, London, 1966, p. 147.
14. Mauny asserts that by this
time the assimilation of the Berbers to the Arab way of life, and
therefore to Islam, was complete (op. cit. pp. 461-2).
15. The name has several
variations and is sometime given as Bayajida.
16. D. Westermann and M. A.
Bryan. The Languages of West Africa, London, 1952, pp. 170-4
17. J. H. Greenberg, Languages
of Africa, The Hague, 1963, p. 46.
18. The name of the seventh
state is sometimes given as Biram, but this is in fact the name of
the first legendary ruler and Gamn Gabas, which is what the village
is
still called, is preferable as
the place-name.
19 The Kano Chronicle
(henceforward K Ch in footnotes). For an English translation see H.
R. Palmer, Sudanese Memoirs, Lagos, 1928, vol. III, pp. 92-132.
20 F. de F. Daniel, A History of
Katsina (bound cyclostyled copies published in Nigeria), p. 28.
21. K Ch (Palmer, pp. 99-127).
22. Daniel, op. cit. pp. 28-36.
23. Mallam Hassan and Mallam
Shu'aibu, A Chronicle of Abuja, translated and edited by Frank
Heath, Ibadan, 1952, pp. 36-37. The Chronicle (henceforward Ch
A) was written in about 1945 to
record the oral legends and traditions that had been preserved in
Abuja.
24. Palmer, op. cit. vol, III,
pp. 142-3.
25. Kano District Notebooks
(henceforward DNBs), History of Kano.
26. Sokoto DNBs, History of Anka.
Another list published by Hogben and Kirk-Greene (op. cit. p. 415)
gives 44 Chiefs in the Hausa era.
27. Gazetteer of Kontagora
Province, 1920, p. 20.
28. In addition to Palmer's
English translation there is a Hausa translation in vol. II of
Labarun Hausawa do Magwabtansu (LHdM), published by the C.M.S.
Bookshop, Lagos, 1933, pp.
22-74.
29. Apart from the risks of
destruction by fire or white ants, which are ever present in
Hausaland, the climate renders paper so brittle that after fifty
years it begins to
disintegrate.
30. See Note 1 in Appendix I.
31 A. D. H. Bivar and M. Hiskett,
“The Arabic Literature of Nigeria to 1904”, Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. XXV, 1, 1962, p. 106.
This judgement is in broad
accord with that of the explorer Barth who, quoting the Imam Ahmed,
asserted (Travels, vol. II, pp. 255-6) that the earliest written
historical records in Bornu
dated from the first half of the sixteenth century.
32 M. Hiskett, “The Song of
Bagauda”, BSOAS, vols. XXVII, 3, and XXVII, 1 and 2. The Song
covers the same historical ground as The Kano Chronicle. It was
not recorded until about 1920-5
but it is completely accurate both in names and dates back to 1807.
Beyond that, although dates go astray, it continues to agree
with The Kano Chronicle on
names, with only one discrepancy, as far back as 1651.
33. M. G. Smith, Government in
Zazzau, London, 1960, pp. 34-72.
34. K Ch.
35. K Ch (Palmer, p. 123).
36. Ibid. pp. 101 and 119.
37 K Ch, pp. 104-5.
38 Ibid. pp. 107-8.
39. Ibid. pp. 108-9. “The Song
of Bagauda” also identifies Umaru as the first Moslem Chief. See
Hiskett, op. cit. p. 369.
40. Daniel, op. cit. p. 29.
41. Ch A, p. 36.
42. Sokoto DNBs, History of Anka.
In the slightly longer list quoted by Hogben and Kirk-Greene, Aliyu
appears as the thirtieth Chief.
43. Gazetteer of Sokoto
Province, 1920, p. 12. In the much longer list given by Hogben and
Kirk-Greme (op. cit. p. 416) Abdullah, the fifty-fourth Chief, has
the
first Moslem name.
44. Gazetteer of Kontagora
Province, p. 19.
45. The Obligations of Princes,
translated and edited by T. H. Baldwin, Beyrouth, 1932.
46. Mauny, op. cit. pp. 429-37.
47. Mauny, op. cit. Mauny puts
this event in the fourteenth century, but The Kano Chronicle
(Palmer, p. 109) states that it was only in the reign of Abdullahi
Burja
(1438-52) that the Bornu-Ashanti
section of the route was opened.
48. Ibid.
49. See Note 2 in Appendix I.
50. Leo Africanus, The History
and Description of Africa, translated into English by John Pory,
1600, London, 1896, pp. 828-31. Leo was a Moor whose family
had been expelled from Spain and
who was himself captured by the Christians in the Mediterranean and
carried off to Rome where he wrote his book. For an
assessment of the credibility of
his statements on the Songhai invasion of Hausaland see Note 3 in
Appendix I.
51. Ibid.
52. See Note 4 in Appendix I.
53. LHdM, Vol. I, pp. 36-37.
54. Hogben and Kirk-Greene, op.
cit. p. 238.
55. Ibid. pp. 238-9.
56. LHdM, vol. I, p. 37.
57. For particulars of Kanta's
Empire, see Note 5 in Appendix I.
58. K Ch (Palmer, pp. 116-22)
and Daniel, op. cit. pp. 10-11.
59. Gazetteer of Kano Province,
1921, p. 9, and Ch A, p. 5. Both authorities agree on the date.
60. For an estimate of the date
see Note 6 in Appendix I.
61. Hogben and Kirk-Greene, op.
cit. p. 368. '
62. Ibid.
63. Sultan Muhammadu Bello,
Infaku'l Maisuri (Inf M), translated or paraphrased and edited by E.
J. Arnett in The Rise of the Sokoto Fulani, Kano, 1912, p. 12.
64. LHdM, vol. I, pp. 6-14.
65. Gazetteer of Sokoto
Province, pp. 10-11.
66. Daniel, op. cit. p. 13.
67. LHdM, vol. 1, p. 14.
68. Daniel, op. cit. p. 9.
69. Daniel, op. cit. pp. 13-14.
70. Gazetteer of Sokoto
Province, pp. 11-12.
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