Usman Dan Fodio in Attempting

Usman Dan Fodio

In attempting to record and understand the life of someone as complex and impactful as Usman dan Fodio, one must be careful note not only his impact during his life, but also the reverberating influence he had following his death in 1817. With that in mind, this examination of Usman dan Fodio's life and work will include not only his life in and subsequent flee from the city-state of Gobir, the Fulani war or jihad, and subsequent creation of the Fulani empire, but also the influence he has had on the modern state of Nigeria, both as a religious and political leader. Doing so will help to reveal some of the nuance of a man equally committed to writing poetry and history as maintaining political and religious leadership, someone who wrote a stricter moral and legal code for the region while simultaneously encouraging relative equality for women in terms of education and social standing.

Although Usman dan Fodio was born in 1754, the key turning point in his life comes in 1802, when he is forced to flee the city-state of Gobir for fear of an assassination attempt

. However, his life previous to 1802 is worth considering, because it offers some clues into the background and motivations of a man whose rise to power appears simultaneously reluctant and perfectly executed. By the 1780s, when dan Fodio was a prominent advisor "at the court of the Sarkin (king) Gobir Bawa Jangorzo, there was little reason to believe that the support he attracted would be used for a movement against the Gobir government" because Usman had "initially refused to become embroiled in political disputes," instead remaining content to serve as a religious leader and advisor, encouraging a more rigorous practice of Islam as well as evincing a desire to reform the predominantly practiced religion of Gobir, which blended Islam with regional religions

. In order to understand how dan Fodio went from a trusted advisor to the leader of what was essentially a popular revolt, one must examine the way in which a number of different interests coalesced behind Usman dan Fodio, finding his proposals for religious reform to contain space for the enactment of their own political, social, and religious goals.

As mentioned previously, Usman dan Fodio's most explicitly stated interest in challenging or questioning the ruling elite of Gobir was not, at least originally, political, but rather born out of a desire to see Islam practiced accurately and strictly. At the time, "many pre-Islamic practices and beliefs coexisted with their ostensibly Koranic-based counterparts" so that Sufis like dan Fodio felt as if they were implicitly supporting a "decadent" and corrupt government

. Nonetheless, the support dan Fodio gained (enough to overthrow the king of Gobir) was not strictly religious, because even then "many of the Torodbe mallams doubted his mission of reform, while others were comfortable enough at court to dislike the prospect of change"

. Thus, while dan Fodio did not necessarily express revolutionary sentiments at this point, any notions he had about transforming the practice of Islam in Gobir strictly through the intervention of religious leaders were quickly dispelled, and he was forced to deliver his message outside the usual channels, where it was received gladly by those oppressed by the very ruling class dan Fodio had previously tried to convince.

During his time in Gobir, serving as a religious leader and advisor, dan Fodio found that despite his entreaties "it became clear that the ruling dynasties of the various Hausa states were unwilling to dispense with the non-Muslim rites that buttressed their authority, Usman began to sanction the establishment of autonomous Muslim communities throughout Kasar Hausa," something which irked the ruling classes and activated not only those mallams which believed in his reform efforts, but also any of the impoverished, taxed, and marginalized who saw in dan Fodio a chance for greater political and social power

Thus, in addition to attracting the support of both the city-dwelling and pastoral Fulani nomads, Usman dan Fodio found support in the "Hausa peasants who were oppressed by slavery, excessive taxation, governmental corruption, and the imposition of customary rights that entitled the aristocracy to the pick of their daughters, as well as their beasts of burden," who found dan Fodio's teachings "of an Islam in which fellow Muslims would not be enslaved and government would be administered with social justice" especially attractive

. Thus, "emphasizing ethnicity or religion as causes of the Sokoto Jihad, at the expense of concerns of economics and political power, is misleading," because "it is more accurate to conclude that religion and ethnicity coincided with these political and economic grievances to initiate the Jihad"

. To say that Usman dan Fodio found himself in the right place at the right time is to discount some of his political and military brilliance, but it is at least worth acknowledging that although Usman ultimately led the jihad, the political and social conditions necessary for this revolution had already been in existence for some time.

It was perhaps dan Fodio's ability to encourage revolutionary thoughts in not only the somewhat comfortable classes, but also the oppressed masses which ultimately raised the suspicions of the ruling elite, culminating in an assassination attempt which forced Usman dan Fodio to flee Godir. However, this attempt on his life only bolstered his ranks of followers, and in 1804, Usman would begin the war which ultimately produced the Fulani empire across what is now Nigeria.

Dan Fodio's flee from his hometown of Degel in the Gobir kingdom is worth taking a moment to consider because it carries an additional religious, political, and psychological weight not visible without further consideration. As P.J. Shea notes, "the single most momentous event in Hausaland in the nineteenth century was the Islamic jihad of Usman dan Fodio and his associates against the various Hausa monarchies, and their neighbors, who it was charged had compromised Islam with irreligious, corrupt, and idolatrous practices," with dan Fodio's jihad formally beginning "when […] Shehu Usman dan Fodio, made his hijra (flight) from Degel (in Gobir kingdom) to Gudu (just beyond the borders of Gobir) in February, 1804, an act which withdrew the Islamic community of the Shehu from the corrupt Hausa state of Gobir"

. This act was crucial to the beginning of the jihad for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, as previously mentioned, dan Fodio's flight formally severed his religious community's ties to the official government of Gobir, revealing his intention (whether decided before or after the assassination attempt) to not only confront what he saw as religious failures with words, but also with the military might of his assembled followers. Thus, his flight was firstly a political act almost akin to a formal declaration of war, serving to publicize and dramatize the schism already present in the religious arena.

Secondly, dan Fodio's flight "was a self-conscious act in imitation of the original hijra of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, and thus had both practical and symbolic importance for the Muslim community"

. Thus, his flight served a secondary political and theological purpose of allying his life story and image with that of Muhammad, a propaganda coup only made possible by the king of Gobir's attempt on dan Fodio's life. Following his flight to Gudu, dan Fodio's ranks swelled through the travels and teachings of his newly liberated religious movement, and the jihad spread throughout the region. Thus, the rapid successes of dan Fodio's jihad arose not only from his message of social justice, which activated the oppressed and resentful against the ruling classes, but also because of his skill for propaganda and messaging which allowed him to dramatize not only the efforts of the jihad itself, but also his own life in order to establish himself as a reluctant, if capable leader, forced into this position of power by the fear and resentment of the king, a narrative that likely aided him in recruiting those groups which may been leery of someone who was previously so closely tied to the monarchies.

Following his escape from Degel, "from 1804 until 1812, dan Fodio and his followers successfully routed the incumbent Hausa rulers and established a new caliphate, based in Sokoto, over the sometimes confederated, sometimes battling kingdoms that had reigned over what was to become northern Nigeria"

. This caliphate would come to rule the Fulani empire, and although "after dan Fodio's death, the caliphate unity came under great strain, as successors vied for preeminence," dan Fodio's work uniting Nigeria would have reverberations for centuries to come, both political, religious, and even geographical

In fact, one of the more dramatic effects of dan Fodio's life, at least in terms of geography, ecology, and commerce, "was to clear a way for the southward movement of pastorlists," essentially transforming the entire system of commerce, migration, and food production across the region by opening up new pastures as well as new markets for foods such as cheese

. Other long-term effects of Usman dan Fodio's life include the inspiration of a new class of jihadis over a hundred years later, when "a violent confrontation took place between a sect of Muslim fanatics and the Nigeria Police Force in Maiduguri in October 1982" due to the sect in question's belief that they needed to confront what they saw, like dan Fodio, as a liberalized corruption of Islam