On Sokoto Jihad In Borno On the surface, most of us seem to think that Sokoto jihad of 1804 was, in a sense, taken to all the communities that after the jihad fell under the direct authority of the concomitant Caliphate. As if, we may have thought, Danfodio, our revered shayk, marched from one community to the other fighting the Jihad until he had brought the whole of the constituent parts of what came to be Sokoto Caliphate under his control. This belief appears to have been the analogy read into the peculiar case of Borno insofar as the jihad was concern. Certainly Eurocentric scholars bent on reducing what was clearly a reform movement that timely circumstances of those days prompted, as could just anywhere, and did contemporaneously in many places, to a mere Fulani imperial tendency towards empire-building, were responsible to giving rise to such beliefs. That was why the role even of El Kanemi in neutralizing the uprising was I think according to a certain Tilho aimed at usurpation of the Sayfawa power. In truth, in most places the jihad (action) in those areas as Alkalawa and so on, its sermons, teachings etc, served as an inspiration to take the same measures against problems that appear to be virtually common, and in some, particularly Borno, opportunity to address emergency exigencies of their time. With this preliminary, we can go on to give a brief account of the Feleta Rebellions in Borno. First, most, if not all the Fulanis who, actually yes, rebelled against the Sayfawa Establishment of Borno were settlers there. There had been Fulani community there as early as the 15th century, or earlier. First as nomads, attracted by the pasture Lake Chad provides, and eventually as a result of the sedentarizing facilities available there, especially the complementarity that existed between the nomadic and settled people of the place, they became semi-sedentarized. With the integrative policies of the state, especially during Mai Alauma (1570 - 1603) they began to feel themselves within the fold of the strong and waxing Bornoan identity, while still maintaining their distinct ethnicity. Imam Ahmad Ibn Furtua told us that Mai Alauma went into war with the Tuaregs in defence of the Felata, meaning they enjoyed equal right for state protection and others alike... ...we continue gadan in sha Allah
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:53:10 +0000