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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2012
The religious government and society of contemporary Northern Nigeria have their historical roots in a jihād (Muslim holy war) which was waged there in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The leader of thai jihād, Usuman dan Fodio, sought to establish a Muslim form of government over the Hausa city-states of what is now Northern Nigeria; his movement had the effect of replacing most of the nonorthodox, and in some cases non-Muslim, Hausa rulers with orthodox Muslims who, like himself, were Fulani.
NOTE SUR L'INTERPRÉTATION ETHNIQUE DU JIHĀD DES PEUL
Les différences de statut ethnique entre les Peul et les Haoussa, dans l'actuelle Nigéria du Nord, ne peuvent pas être attribuées aux caractéristiques ethniques qui ont été relevées par quelques auteurs comme particulières aux Peul avant leur Jihād de 1804. Ces caractéristiques présumées nʼétaient pas significatives avant le Jihād et nʼen ont pas été la cause. Aussi, ces auteurs qui considéraient le Jihād comme la tentative de l'un des groupes pour dominer l'autre, attribuent-ils les distinctions ethniques actuelles à une situation antérieure au Jihād. Les différences actuelles de statut se développèrent à partir du Jihād lui-même, de son exercice et de son issue. Bien qu'il ne fût pas effectué uniquement dans des buts ethniques ni dans l'intention d'établir la prépondérance d'un groupe sur l'autre, il n'en eut pas moins cet effet. Consécutif à l'installation, comme dirigeants, des Musulmans orthodoxes qui se considéraient supérieurs à leurs sujets non-Musulmans ou non-orthodoxes lesquels, pure coïncidence, étaient en majeure partie Peul, un statut plus élevé échut en fin de compte aux Peul et un inférieur aux Haoussa. Des sources anciennes, comme la chronique de Kano, confirment l'interprétation selon laquelle l'attitude des chefs Peul, à l'égard des Haoussa en tant que peuple, se modifia soudainement après le Jihād. Un élément supplémentaire apparaît: le fait que, dans les distinctions actuelles, le statut ethnique est lié dans une mesure complexe à celui de gouvernant et de Musulman. Par la suite, comme les groupes se sont mélangés encore davantage et que l'Islam est devenu la religion des Haoussa, tout autant que des Peul, les caractéristiques ethniques ou ‘pseudo ethniques’ se sont valorisées pour distinguer entre gouvernants et gouvernés.
page 286 note 1 Smith, M. G., ‘The Hausa System of Social Status’, Africa, xxix (1959), p. 240.Google Scholar
page 286 note 2 For example, see Urvoy, Yves, Histoire de l'empire du Bornou (Paris, 1949), p. 96.Google Scholar
page 286 note 3 For an example of this claim, see Lugard, Lady, ‘Nigeria’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, lii (1904), p. 574.Google Scholar
page 287 note 1 Hiskett, M., ‘Material Relating to the State of Learning Among the Fulani Before Their Jihād’, BSOAS (Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies), xix (1957), p. 576.Google Scholar
page 287 note 2 Abdullah dan Fodio, ‘Idā’ al-nusū 
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page 287 note 3 Bivar, A. D. H. and Hiskett, M., ‘The Arabic Literature of Nigeria to 1804: A Provisional Account’, BSO AS, xxv (1962), p. 140.Google Scholar
page 287 note 4 On the events of the war, see Arnett, Edward J., Gazetteer of Sokoto Province (London, 1920), pp. 18Google Scholar ff. The way in which one Hausa ruler, Bawa Jangworzo, dealt with the demands of a Fulani learned man, Usuman dan Fodio, is discussed in Waldman, Marilyn Robinson, ‘The Fulani Jihād: A Reassessment’, Journal of African History, vi, 3 (1965), pp. 333–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 287 note 5 Meek, C. K., The Northern Tribes of Nigeria (London, 1925), i, p. 100.Google Scholar
page 287 note 6 For example, see Stenning, D. J., Savannah Nomads (London, 1959), pp. 73–74Google Scholar: ‘The Fulani rulers added to their proselytizing zeal an ethnic consciousness derived no doubt from their long history as alien minorities among the Negro populations of the Western Sudan.’
page 287 note 7 Waldman, ‘The Fulani Jihād: A Reassessment’.
page 288 note 1 de St. Croix, F. W., The Fulani of Northern Nigeria (Lagos, 1945), pp. 6–8Google Scholar, and Stenning, Savannah Nomads, p. 6, give excellent descriptions of this interaction.
page 288 note 2 Smith, H. F. C., ‘A Neglected Theme of West African History: The Islamic Revolutions of the 19th Century’, The Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, ii (1961), p. 172.Google Scholar
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page 288 note 4 Hajji Sa'id, Tarī al-Sokoto (tr. C. E. J. Whitting; Kano, 1950?), p. 11.
page 289 note 1 Bovill, E. W., The Golden Trade of the Moors (London, 1958), p. 231.Google Scholar
page 289 note 2 Gowers, W. F., Gazetteer of Kano Province (London, 1921), p. 60.Google Scholar
page 289 note 3 Arnett, Gazetteer of Sokoto, p. 24; Arnett, , Gazetteer of Zaria Province (London, 1920), p. 10.Google Scholar
page 289 note 4 Arnett, , History of Sokoto (Kano, 1923?), p. 24Google Scholar. The possibility of ethnic prejudices or generalized hostility to the Hausa, for whatever reason, among the lower ranks of fighters on the Fulani side should nevertheless be explored when and if the relevant material becomes available.
page 289 note 5 Quoted in Burns, Alan, History of Nigeria (London, 1958), p. 47.Google Scholar
page 289 note 6 For example, see one of Usuman's exhortatory poems in Robinson, C. H., Specimens of Hausa Literature (Cambridge, 1896), pp. 60–64.Google Scholar
page 289 note 7 ‘Kano Chronicle’, in Palmer, H. R. (ed.), Sudanese Memoirs (Lagos, 1928), iii, p. 128.Google Scholar
page 289 note 8 Idem.
page 290 note 1 Barth, Henry, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (London, 1857), ii, p. 120Google Scholar. We should of course like to know more about the degree to which the subsequent practical needs of establishing themselves as rulers were buttressed by this early Fulani reaction of fear, and about the length of time which the process of polarization took to complete itself. Also, how did the anti-Hausa feelings among some Fulani override the more tolerant attitudes of the highest leaders?
page 290 note 2 Ibid., p. 185.
page 290 note 3 Yeld, E. R., ‘Islam and Social Stratification in Northern Nigeria’, British Journal of Sociology, ii (1960), p. 115.Google Scholar
page 290 note 4 Smith, M. G., ‘The Hausa System of Social Status’, Africa, xxix (1959), p. 240.Google Scholar