¹ In the 1971 (vol. XII) issues of J. Afr. Hist., for example, there are numerous articles on firearms. See also the collection of papers on the theme ‘War and Society in Africa’, which includes several on the role of firearms, in the Proceedings of the Social Science Council, University College, University of East Africa, Nairobi, 1969. These papers are being edited for publication by Bethwell Ogot.Google Scholar

² ‘Firearms in the Central Sudan’, J. Afr. Hist. XII, 2 (1971), 215–39.Google Scholar

³ Ibid. 239.

⁴ Fisher and Rowland repeat the commonly held view that the Central Sudanese states depended almost exclusively on North Africa for their supply of arms. While this is doubtless true for the states of the eastern Central Sudan, the emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate acquired their munitions almost entirely from European merchants trading at Nupe. The evidence to support this statement is documented in considerable detail in J. P. Smaldone, ‘The firearms trade in the Central Sudan in the nineteenth century’, in McCall, Daniel F. and Bennett, Norman R. (eds.), ‘Aspects of West African Islam’, Boston University Papers on Africa, V (Boston, 1971), 151–71. Again, the necessity of giving full weight to the evidence from the Caliphate is apparent.Google Scholar

⁵ F. O. Confidential, no. 1871, p. 8; F. O. Confidential, no. 2023, Simpson's, W. H.Report of the Niger Expedition, 1871, 17, 19Google Scholar (also extracted in Hodgkin, Thomas (ed.), Nigerian Perspectives: An Historical Anthology (London, 1960), 294–5;Google Scholar also cited by Flint, John E., Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria (London, 1960), 25);Google ScholarCrowther, Samuel A., Report of the Overland Journey … (London, 1872), 13.Google Scholar

⁶ Smith, M. G., Government in Zazzau 1800–1950 (London, 1960), 190.Google Scholar The corrected dates for Yero's reign are derived from Last, D. Murray, ‘A solution to the problems of dynastic chronology in 19th century Zaria and Kano’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, III, 3 (1966), 467.Google Scholar

⁷ Low, Victor N., ‘The Border States: a political history of three Northeast Nigerian Emirates, ca. 1800–1902’ (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1967). 225, n. 2. and 239. This is probably an exaggerated figure.Google Scholar

⁸ Ibid. 289; Katagum fieldnotes. I am grateful to Dr. Low for permitting me to use his fieldnotes on warfare in the border emirates. Katagum participated in this trade with Rabeh despite explicit orders from Sokoto to the contrary.

⁹ M. G.Smith, Katsina fieldnotes, book 5, p. 37a. I am greatly indebted to Dr Smith for allowing me to consult his extensive fleldnotes and unpublished manuscripts on several of the emirates.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ubah, Chinedu N., ‘Kano Emirate in the nineteenth century: a study of political developments’ (unpub. M.A. thesis, University of Ghana, 1965), 126.Google Scholar This also is probably an exaggerated number, but it is certain that Kano did have several hundred muskets and rifles, perhaps more than 1,000. See Northern Nigeria Annual Reports, no. 409 (1902), 75, 87, 88, 92, and no. 437 (1903), 174;Google ScholarMuffett, David J. M., Concerning Brave Captains (London, 1964), 92–3, 97, 168, 172–8, 184, 200–3.Google Scholar

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¹² G. Rohlfs estimated in 1866 that Umar had 1,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry armed with muskets: Ellison, R. E., ‘Three forgotten explorers of the latter half of the 19th century with special reference to their journeys to Bornu’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, 1, 4 (1959), 323.Google Scholar Several years later Gustav Nachtigal, who visited Umar's arsenal personally, estimated that it contained about 1,000 guns of all kinds: Sahara et Soudan, trans. Gourdault, Jules (Paris, 1881), 351.Google Scholar These estimates are consistent with later ones which average about 1,500 firearms: C.O. 879/58/580, Wallace to Chamberlain, encl. 1 in no. 44, 5 Mar. 1901, p. 104; C.O. 879/72/684, Lugard to Chamberlain, no. 22, 17 May 1902, p. 55. It is probable that Bornu obtained many of its firearms from its vassal state, Zinder, which on one occasion is reported to have supplied Bornu with 800 muskets: Documents Scientifiques de la Mission Tilho (1906–1909), 3 vols. (Paris, 1910–1914), II, 447.Google Scholar The dates for the reign of ‘Umar have been established by Brenner, Louis, ‘The Shehus of Kukawa: a history of the Al-Kanemi dynasty of Bornu’ (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1968), 94, 132–3, 217 (Appendix I).Google Scholar

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¹⁹ For a more extensive review of the evidence, see Smaldone, J. P., ‘Historical and sociological aspects of warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate’ (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1970), 124–8.Google Scholar The present article is based upon research done in preparation for this dissertation, which is to be published in revised form as Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar

²⁰ This change is documented in Smaldone, ‘Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate’, 50–3, 116–19. The best description of the modified battle order, with an accompanying sketch, is in Mission Tilho, II, 524–6. See Smith, Government in Zazzau, 96–8, for the infantry-cavalry-reserve pattern.

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³⁹ Temple, O., Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, ed. Temple, C. L., 2nd edn. (Lagos, 1922), 437;Google ScholarBrenner, , ‘The Shehus of Kukawa’, 158.Google Scholar

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⁴¹ For more extensive descriptions, see Smaldone, ‘Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate’, chap. 2, 17–33, and 143–56; also Muffett, David J. M., ‘Nigeria—Sokoto Caliphate’, in Crowder, Michael (ed.), West African Resistance (New York, 1971), 268–99.Google Scholar

⁴² F.O. 97/436, Whitford to Hamilton, 19 Dec. 1865.

⁴³ Smith, , Government in Zazzau, 177, 185–7;Google Scholar see Last, ‘A solution’, 467, for dates of the emirs' reigns.

⁴⁴ Mockler-Ferryman, , Up the Niger, 198–9, 204Google Scholar; C.O. 879/33/399, pp. 12, 20, 21. There is evidence that, even in previous centuries, Central Sudanese rulers had kept armies in the field for years in order to subjugate recalcitrant peoples. Fisher and Rowland cite the examples of Mai Idris Alooma of Bornu and Sarkin Kano Kanajeji who, in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries respectively, were reported to have campaigned the year round, laying waste to the farmlands of their enemies and preventing them from planting or harvesting new crops. Such prolonged sieges effectively disrupted the agricultural cycle of these people, who were ultimately starved into submission. However, the nineteenth-century Ilorin example appears to have had a different motivation. The warriors at Ofa were engaged less in siege warfare than in actual offensive operations against Ibadan. Of a served as a war-camp or staging area for mounting attacks on Ilorin's Yoruba enemies. Of a took on all the manifestations of a permanent military encampment, with its large population (7,000), mud walls, and town-like appearance.

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⁴⁶ The extent of the rulers' control over firearms seems to have varied from one state to another. In theory the ruler enjoyed an exclusive monopoly of these instruments of force. Such a prerogative followed from his role as the personification of the state which, by definition, monopolizes the means of legitimate physical coercion. In practice, however, the control of firearms sometimes devolved upon the fief-holding officials, who armed their own slaves with these weapons. Thus in Bornu and Wadai, as Fisher and Rowland point out, certain notables were able to use their firearms to assert their independence of the throne (‘Firearms in the Central Sudan’, 235–6). In Zinder, on the other hand, Sultan Tanimu used firearms to enhance royal power. In the Sokoto Caliphate most of the emirates employed firearms to centralize politico-military organization; however, in relation to Sokoto, it appears that the emirs' possession of guns enabled them to become more independent of the Caliph's authority.

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⁴⁸ In making this broad distinction between feudality and bureaucracy, I have relied upon Mosca, Gaetano, The Ruling Class, trans. Kahn, H. D. (New York, 1939), chap. III, 70–102.Google Scholar The applicability of the concept ‘feudal’ to precolonial Africa is still the subject of considerable debate. Jack Goody has argued that the concept is inappropriate in the African context: see ‘Feudalism in Africa?’ J. Afr. Hist., IV, I (1963), 1–18,Google Scholar and his elaboration of this view in Technology, Tradition, and the State in Africa (London, 1971), in which the original article appears as chap. I.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ ‘Feudal’ and ‘bureaucratic’ elements had existed in the Central Sudanese state structure for centuries. The relative strengths of the two varied considerably in the history of individual states and in the region as a whole. It is tempting indeed to regard Central Sudanese history in terms of shifting forces, changing balances, the moving arm of a pendulum, recurring cycles, or other mechanistic metaphors, and to see the centralizing tendencies of the nineteenth century simply as a repetition of the ‘bureaucratic’ phase. Such a view fails to consider the possibility of alternatives. It is our contention that the increasing availability and use of firearms made possible for the first time the elimination of the ‘feudal’ element and the consolidation of the ‘bureaucratic’.

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⁶⁵ There was, of course, the potential danger of these powerful slaves usurping the ruler's power and authority and becoming in effect a sort of praetorian guard. In Ilorin and Bornu, for example, slave officials came to wield considerable power and at times could act independently of the ruler. In the final analysis, it was the vigour and ability of the ruler which determined the degree of control he exercised over his subordinates.

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