² For details of the conquest, see Muffett, D. J. M., Concerning Brave Captains. A History of Lord Lugard's Conquest of Hausaland (London, 1964)Google Scholar; Dusgate, Richard H., The Conquest of Northern Nigeria (London, 1985)Google Scholar; Idrissa, Kimba, ‘La formation de la colonie du Niger, 1880–1922: des mythes à la politique du “mal nécessaire”’ (thèse pour le doctorat d'état, Université de Paris, VII, 1987).Google Scholar

³ Mohammad, Abubakar Sokoto, ‘A social interpretation of the Satiru Revolt of c. 1894–1906’ (M.Sc. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, 1983), 164, 172–3Google Scholar. Also see Idrissa, Kimba, Guerres et Sociétés.Les populations du Niger occidental au XIXe siècle et leurs réactions face à la colonisation (1896–1906) (Niamey, 1981), 171–2.Google Scholar

⁴ Hodgkin, Thomas, ‘Mahdism, messianism and Marxism in the African setting’, in Hasan, Yusuf Fadl, ed., Sudan in Africa (Khartoum, 1971), 109–27.Google Scholar

⁵ For example, Muhammad A. Al-Hajj labelled Hayatu b. Sa‘id a ‘revolutionary Mahdist’, but without explanation; see ‘Hayatu b. Sa‘id: a revolutionary Mahdist in the Western Sudan’, in Hasan, , ed., Sudan in Africa, 128–41.Google Scholar

⁶ Asmau G. Saeed has recognized three groups of anti-colonial Mahdists in the Caliphate: first, the local followers of Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad of the Nilotic Sudan; second, ‘revisionist Mahdists’ who awaited the coming of the Mahdi but did not emigrate or emigrated only reluctantly; and third, ‘spontaneous Mahdists’ who followed self-styled Mahdis. Saeed has made an important contribution in recognizing distinctions among Mahdists. This article clarifies her category of ‘spontaneous Mahdists’. See Asmau Saeed, ‘British fears over Mahdism in Northern Nigeria: a look at Bormi 1903, Satiru 1906 and Dumbulwa 1923’, unpublished paper presented at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1986; and ‘The British policy towards the Mahdiyya in Northern Nigeria: a study of the arrest, detention and deportation of Shaykh Said b. Hayat, 1923–1959’, Kano Studies, 11, 3 (1982–1985), 95–119.Google Scholar

⁷ Our reconstruction is based on a re-examination of available archival materials in Nigeria, Niger, France and Great Britain, including previously unused files in the Shillingford Papers, Mss. Afr. s.547, Rhodes House, Oxford. It is worth noting that the file on Satiru in the Shillingford Papers contains a large collection of official reports and telegrams on the uprising, many otherwise unavailable and previously unused by scholars to the best of our knowledge. A. A. Shillingford held an education portfolio, and the presence of this file in his papers, presumably a transfer made at some point from other files at headquarters, is unusual. We have attempted to balance the colonial materials, with their inevitable biases, through a reading of contemporary Hausa documents on Satiru and through a critical assessment of the scholarly literature, some of which is based on oral sources. Finally, Lovejoy, accompanied by Kimba Idrissa, conducted interviews at Kobkitanda and Karma in October 1988. These interviews confirmed and supplemented Idrissa's earlier work. Lovejoy wishes to thank Idrissa for his collaboration, without which the interviews could not have been undertaken.

⁸ Adeleye, R. A., ‘Mahdist triumph and British revenge in Northern Nigeria: Satiru 1906’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, VI (1972), 193–214Google Scholar; A. H. M. Kirk-Greene, ‘Crisis and choice in the Nigerian Emirates: the decisive decade, 1897–1906’, forthcoming; and Dusgate, , Conquest, 242–9Google Scholar. Also see Büttner, T., ‘Social aims and earlier anti-colonial struggles: the Satiru rising of 1906’, in Büttner, T. and Brehme, G., eds., African Studies (Berlin, 1973), 1–18Google Scholar; Al-Hajj, Muhammad, ‘The Mahdist tradition in Northern Nigeria’ (Ph.D. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, 1973), 194–9Google Scholar; Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 171–5Google Scholar; Tibenderana, Peter Kazenga, ‘The administration of Sokoto, Gwandu and Argungu Emirates under British rule, 1900–1946’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Ibadan, 1974), 164–72Google Scholar; Tukur, Modibbo, ‘The imposition of British colonial domination on the Sokoto Caliphate, Borno and neighbouring states’ (Ph.D. thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, 1979), 283–330.Google Scholar

⁹ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 151–68Google Scholar; Rash, Y., ‘Un établissement colonial sans histoire, les premières années françaises au Niger’ (thèse de 3e cycle, Université de Paris 1, 1972)Google Scholar; also see Le Grip, A., ‘Le Mahdisme en Afrique Noire’, L'Afrique et l'Asie, XVIII (1952), 3–16.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Rothiot, Jean-Paul, L'ascension d'un chef Africain au début de la colonisation: Aouta le conquérant (Dosso-Niger) (Paris, 1988), 167–72.Google Scholar

¹¹ Rapport politique du Commandant de Région de Niamey, Dec. 1905, Archives Nationales du Niger, Niamey (hereafter ANN) 15.2.6; Rapport politique mensuel, Région de Niamey, Jan. 1906, ANN 15.2.7; Ponty, Rapport no. 132, Kayes, 26 Mar. 1906, Service de Microfilm, Paris (hereafter SMP) microfilm 11G4; Mission Robert Arnaud, Rapport sur les mobiles islamiques des troubles de janvier à mars 1906 dans le territoire militaire, Kandy, 22 Nov. 1906, SMP microfilm 11G4; Lofler, Rapport sur le tournée de police executée dans la région troublée de Kobkitanda (28 Dec. 1905–15 Jan. 1906), 10 Feb. 1906, SMP microfilm 1D200. Also see Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 150–1.Google Scholar

¹² Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 148, 152–3Google Scholar; Rapport politique du Commandant de Region de Niamey, Dec. 1905, ANN 15.2.6; Rapport politique mensuel, Région de Niamey, Jan. 1906 ANN 15.2.7; Rapport politique mensuel, Région de Niamey, Feb. 1906, ANN 15.2.7; Rapport politique, Mar. 1906, Cercle du Djerma, ANN 15.2.9; Rapport politique et administratif, Région de Niamey, second trimestre, 1906, ANN 15.2.8; Bouverot, Rapport au sujet du rattachement des villages de Sambira et Koba Kitanda, Dosso, 5 Nov. 1907, ANN 5.2.3; Boutig, Monographic du Cercle du Djerma, 15 Nov. 1909, ANN 15.1.2.

¹³ Interview, Amirou Tinni Nouhou, chef de canton de Karma, 1 Oct. 1988. Also see Rapport politique mensuel, Région de Niamey, Jan.-Mar. 1906, ANN 15.2.7; and Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 155–70.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 156, 176–7.Google Scholar

¹⁵ His forces reportedly suffered 30 killed and five wounded.

¹⁶ Ponty, Rapport no. 132, Kayes, 26 Mar. 1906; Bouchez, Rapport sur le detachment de marche sur les operations dans le Djermaganda, Niamey, 13 Mar. 1906, SMP microfilm ID200; Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 167–9.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Mohammad (‘Social interpretation’) has estimated that the population of the town was 10,000. We believe this estimate to be exaggerated, although the influx of supporters certainly swelled the ranks; see H. S. Goldsmith, Annual Report, Sokoto Province 1906, SNP 7 2001/1907, Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna (hereafter NNAK).

¹⁸ Lt.Gov. Ponty's comments (Extract of report of W. Ponty, Lt.-Gov. Haut-Sénégal-Niger, p. 348, enclosed in C. F. Cromie, British Consul-General, Dakar, to Sir Edward Grey, 18 Sept. 1906, no. 34903, CO 446/57) on the apparent disunity of the Mahdists are perhaps ironic, considering the extent to which resistance crossed colonial boundaries, and the failure of the British and French to co-operate in crushing the 1905–6 uprising: ‘Fortunately for us these events have once again proved that when left to themselves the natives are incapable of the combination and union necessary to carry out a preconceived plan. Otherwise the situation might have been very serious’.

¹⁹ Malam Isa and Saybu Dan Makafo had sent letters to Caliphate officials calling on them to join the revolt. Malam, son of the emir of G wandu, was reported to have enquired whether or not a revolt had begun the day before the Id al-Kabir festival and was told by one of his followers that the revolt would begin the next day. British reports later credited the delay to strategy; Resident Burdon was scheduled to go on leave, and the Satiravva are said to have been waiting for his departure. See Burdon to Lugard, 5 Mar. and 15 Mar. 1906, Shillingford Papers.

²⁰ The people of neighbouring Tsomau failed to appear at Satiru for the Id al-Kabir, which was interpreted as lack of support for the revolt. In previous years the Tsomau Mahdists had attended the Id ceremonies. The village head of Tsomau, Yahaya had been a student of Maikafo, Isa's father, and Isa and Yahaya were related by marriage. Yahaya refused to recognize Isa's leadership and particularly his claim to be the successor to the Mahdi, as in Mahdist tradition. Johnston's, H. A. F. compilation of Satiru traditions (‘Dan Makafo and the Satiru rising’, in Johnston, , ed., A Selection of Hausa Stories (Oxford, 1966), 164Google Scholar) quotes Yahaya as saying: ‘How can we believe that you are the Prophet Jesus [Isa]…when we have known you ever since we were all children?’ The importance of the Isa tradition is examined later in the article.

²¹ Malam Yahaya, twelve other townsmen, and one woman were killed. Burdon to Lugard, 15 Mar. 1906.

²² Total deaths included three white officers and 27 African soldiers and carriers; see Goldsmith, Sokoto Province Annual Report, 1906. Lugard to Onslow, 28 Feb. 1906, Shillingford Papers, says three white officers and 25 African soldiers. Four of the wounded were able to make their escape. For a contemporary account of the reasons behind the British fiasco, see Orr, Charles, The Making of Northern Nigeria (London, 1911), 173–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also see Dusgate, , Conquest, 242–9Google Scholar; Adeleye, , ‘Mahdist triumph’, 200–14Google Scholar; Mohammad, ‘Social interpretation’.

²³ Lugard to Onslow, 21 Feb. 1906, in Northern Nigeria, Correspondence Relating to Sokoto, Hadejia and the Munshi Country, 1907, Parliamentary Papers [Cd. 3620]. In fact it proved to be the only serious reverse.

²⁴ Burdon to Lugard, 21 Feb. 1906.

²⁵ Burdon to Lugard, 26 May 1906, Shillingford Papers. Also see Frederick D. Lugard, Annual Report, Northern Nigeria, 1905–6, 371.

²⁶ Times (London), 21, 22, 23, 26 Feb., 6 Mar. 1906.

²⁷ Burdon to Lugard, telegram, 11 Mar. 1906, Shillingford Papers.

²⁸ Among the places burned between 16 February and early March were Runjin Kwarai, Runjin Gawo, Rudu Makera, Jaredi, Dandin Mahe, Zangalawa, Bunazawa, Hausawan Maiwa, and Kindiru. The towns of Shuni, Bodinga and Sifawa were evacuated. See Mohammed, A. S., ‘The songs and poems of the Satiru revolt, c. 1894–1906’, unpublished seminar paper, Department of Sociology, Ahmadu Bello University, 1985Google Scholar. Runji (rinji) signifies plantation. Many of the other settlements appear to have been slave estates, too. For a discussion of the terminology of Caliphate slave estates, see Lovejoy, Paul E., ‘The characteristics of plantations in the Sokoto Caliphate (Islamic West Africa)’, Amer. Hist. Rev., LXXXIV (1979), 1267–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁹ Burdon to Lugard, telegram, 28 Feb. 1906; Lugard to Secretary of State, 9 May 1906, Shillingford Papers. As one Sokoto cleric wrote at the time, ‘We have been conquered. We have been asked to pay poll tax and jangali [cattle tax]. We have been made to do various things, and now they want us to fight their wars for them. Let them go and fight themselves’. Malam Bako to Malam Jafaru of Argungu, Feb. 1906; manuscript in the Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna and quoted here as cited in Al-Hajj, , ‘Mahdist tradition’, 199Google Scholar. The capital districts of Sokoto and Gwandu had not been subject either to jizya (poll tax) or jangali before the conquest, and their imposition under colonialism was clearly a major grievance.

³⁰ Burdon to Lugard, 21 Feb. 1906.

³¹ Goldsmith, Sokoto Province Annual Report, 1906.

³² It was not for lack of ammunition; also captured were two cases of machine gun bullets in belts, and the rifle cartridges found on the slain mounted infantrymen. The machine gun and the rifles could conceivably have caused considerable damage if they had been employed. (See Lugard to Onslow, 21 Mar. 1906, and Burdon to Lugard, 22 Mar. 1906.) Ironically, it was lack of water that prevented the captured Maxim from being put into action. Its jacket, through which water circulated to cool the hot gun barrel, had been ruptured during the first battle. Why the rifles were not employed by the Satirawa is unknown. The operation of a breech-loader would no doubt be difficult for people who, so it appears, did not even possess flintlocks. Yet the organization and carrying through of this revolt shows plenty of initiative, arguably more than sufficient to overcome the rather minor technological barrier of loading and firing a rifle. We have come across no evidence to explain this absence of military enterprise among the Satirawa and their commanders. Had the British been met by rifle volleys and supporting fire from a Maxim, which presumably would have worked until it overheated, they would undoubtedly have prevailed anyway given their overwhelming strength, but the effect on public opinion might have been electrifying.

³³ Edwardes Diaries, 17 Mar. 1906, Rhodes House, Mss. Afr. r.106; Lugard to CO, 19 Jul. 1906 [Cd. 3620]; Goldsmith, Sokoto Province Annual Report, 1906.

³⁴ According to Tukur, ‘Colonial domination’, 478–9, the alkali was al-Mustafa Modibbo. According to oral testimony reported by Tukur, Burdon instructed the alkali to issue a death sentence for the killing of the British personnel. The alkali is reported to have objected on the grounds that the dead were not Muslims, so that it was not possible to impose a death sentence. The issue was resolved because Muslims had also been killed by the Satirawa; consequently al-Mustafa is said to have guaranteed to Burdon that a death sentence would follow.

³⁵ See Johnston, , ‘Dan Makafo and the Satiru rising’, 166.Google Scholar Johnston compiled this story from a number of sources. The portion about the trial is attributed to Malam Nagwamatse, whose father was present.

³⁶ Burdon to Lugard, 22 Mar. 1906.

³⁷ Evidence that the curse is still being taken seriously can also be found in the recent paper by Habib Alhassan, ‘Rashin Jituwa Tsakanin Malaman Satiru da Turawan Mulkin Mallaka (1906)’, paper presented at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, June, 1988. We wish to thank Ibrahim Jumare for drawing our attention to this paper, which reiterates the official Sokoto version of the revolt.

³⁸ Al-Hajj, ‘Mahdist tradition’, and Al-Hajj, , ‘The thirteenth century in Muslim eschatology: mahdist expectations in the Sokoto Caliphate’, Research Bulletin, Centre of Arabic Documentation, Ibadan, III, 2 (1967), 100–13.Google Scholar

³⁹ Al-Hajj, , ‘Mahdist tradition’, 169–70.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Adeleye, R. A., Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria, 1804–1906 (New York, 1971), 321–7Google Scholar; Adeleye, , ‘Mahdist triumph’, 193–9Google Scholar; Biobaku, Saburi and Al-Hajj, Muhammad, ‘The Sudanese Mahdiyya and the Niger-Chad region’, in Lewis, I. M., ed., Islam in Tropical Africa (Oxford, 1966), 425–39Google Scholar; Al-Naqar, , Pilgrimage Tradition in West Africa (Khartoum, 1972)Google Scholar; Last, Murray, ‘Administration and discontent in Northern Nigeria’, Africa, XL (1970), 351–2Google Scholar; Duffield, Mark R., ‘Hausa and Fulani settlement and the development of capitalism in Sudan: with special reference to Maiurno, Blue Nile Province’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, 1978), 9–32.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The discussion that follows is based on Biobaku and Al-Hajj, ‘Sudanese Mahdiyya’; Al-Hajj, ‘Mahdist tradition’; Umar Al-Naqar, The Pilgrimage Tradition; Duffield, ‘Hausa and Fulani settlement’ and Njeuma, Martin Z., ‘Adamawa and Mahdism: the career of Hayatu ibn Said in Adamawa, 1878–1898’, J. Afr. Hist. XII, 1 (1971), 63–4.Google Scholar The classic study of the Mahdist state is Holt, P. M., The Mahdist state in the Sudan (Oxford, 1958).Google Scholar

⁴² Adeleye, R. A., ‘Rabih b. Fadlallah and the diplomacy of European imperial invasion in the Central Sudan, 1893–1902’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, v, 3 (1970), 399–418Google Scholar, and Adeleye, , ‘Rabih Fadlallah 1879–1893: exploits and impact on political relations in Central Sudan’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, v, 2 (1970), 223–42Google Scholar; Hallam, W. K. R., The Life and Times of Rabih Fadl Allah (Ilfracombe, Devon, 1977)Google Scholar; Njeuma, ‘Adamawa and Mahdism’; Al-Hajj, , ‘Hayatu b. Sa‘id’, 128–41Google Scholar; and Lavers, J. E., ‘Jibril Gaini: a preliminary account of the career of a Mahdist leader in North-Eastern Nigeria’, Research Bulletin, Centre of Arabic Documentation, Ibadan, III, 1 (1967), 16–38.Google Scholar The continuation of this tradition of Mahdism under colonial rule in Northern Nigeria has been the subject of further research. See Ubah, C. N., ‘British measures against Mahdism at Dumbulwa in Northern Nigeria 1923: a case of colonial overreaction’, Islamic Culture, L, 3 (1976), 169–83Google Scholar; Saeed, , ‘British policy’, 95–110Google Scholar

⁴³ Even among many other Caliphate officials, such as Emir Zubeiru of Yola, who did not actually join Attahiru I, there were strong sentiments in favour of this brand of anti-colonial Mahdism. See Njeuma, Martin Z., Fulani Hegemony in Yola (Old Adamawa) 809–1902 (no place of publication indicated, 1978), 201Google Scholar. Some officials, such as the Emir of Gwandu, who acceded to office after the British conquest, wavered; their sympathies were with those who resisted, and they too interpreted their actions, at least in part, in the context of Mahdist beliefs. On the Emir of Gwandu's Mahdist sympathies, see Tukur, , ‘Colonial domination’, 233, 283–95Google Scholar; and Tibenderana, , ‘Sokoto, Gwandu and Argungu’, 162–3, 169–70Google Scholar. Mahdist sympathies were widespread among the aristocracy at the time of the conquest; see the translation of Arabic letters referring to the Mahdi which were written in the last years of the independent Caliphate in Backwell, H. F., ed. and trans., The Occupation of Hausaland,1900–1904, Being a Translation of Arabic Letters found in the House of the Wazir of Sokoto, Bohari, in 1903 (Lagos, 1927).Google Scholar The letter of a royal slave of Sarkin Kudu (emir of Yola) Zubeiru to the Sarkin Musulmi, which was written at the time of the British conquest of Yola ‘pledges allegiance to you by Allah and the Prophet and after you to the Imam Mahdi’ (pp. 67–8). Zubeiru fled Yola upon the British conquest on 2 Sept. 1901 and informed the Sarkin Musulmi that Imam Mahdi commanded his attention (pp. 74–5). Muhammadau Alhaji, brother of the emir of Missau, was also a Mahdist and joined Attahiru I (letter to Sarkin Musulmi, p. 77).

⁴⁴ Report of F. Cargill, Resident of Kano, in Frederick D. Lugard, Annual Report, Northern Nigeria, 1903, 177; Al-Hajj, , ‘Mahdist Tradition’, 166–84Google Scholar; Adeleye, R. A., ‘The dilemma of the Waziri: the place of the Risālat al-wazīr ilā ahl al‘ilm wa'l-tadabbur in the history of the Sokoto Caliphate’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, IV, 2 (1968), 292–4Google Scholar; Adeleye, , Power and Diplomacy, 283–4, 291Google Scholar; and Tukur, , ‘British colonial domination’, 137–45.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ A. Burdon, Report No. 2, Sokoto Province, 30 Apr. 1903, Sokprof 2/1 23/1903, (NNAK).

⁴⁶ Tibenderana, , ‘Sokoto, Gwandu and Argungu’, 162–3, 169–70Google Scholar; Tukur, , ‘British colonial domination’, 233, 283–95.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Burdon to Lugard, 26 May 1906, Shillingford Papers; Lugard, Annual Report, Northern Nigeria, 1905–6, 371; Goldsmith, Sokoto Province Annual Report, 1906.

⁴⁸ On the extent of accommodation with colonial rule, see Adeleye, , ‘Dilemma of the Waziri’, 285–98Google Scholar; and Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 148, 179.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Adeleye, , ‘Dilemma of the Waziri’, 285–311Google Scholar. The fullest account of the debate within the aristocracy and the best identification of the principal collaborators is in Tukur, , ‘British colonial domination’, 248–334.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Mohammad, , ‘Social interpretation’, 173.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 175–9.Google Scholar

⁵² Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 146.Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ Interview at Kobkitanda, 2 Oct. 1988.

⁵⁵ Leblond, , ‘Rapport destiné à l'élaboration d'un manuel tactique’, Journal de Poste de Dosso, 1910, quoted in Rash, ‘Établissement colonial’, 210.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ See, for example, Milot, Monographic du Cercle de Dosso, 1909, ANN 15.1.1, where the loyalty of Emir Bayero of Birnin Gaoure was questioned.

⁵⁷ Mohammad, , ‘Social interpretation’, 171Google Scholar; and Mohammad, ‘Songs and poems’.

⁵⁸ Cited in Mohammad, , ‘Social Interpretation’, 171Google Scholar, and based on an interview given by Saleh Abubakar, 14 Aug. 1975.

⁵⁹ For the situation in the areas to the west of the Caliphate, see Roberts, Richard and Klein, Martin, ‘The Banamba slave exodus of 1905 and the decline of slavery in the Western Sudan’, J.Afr. Hist., XXI, 3 (1981), 375–94.Google Scholar For the Caliphate, see Lovejoy, Paul E., ‘Fugitive slaves: resistance to slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate’, in Okihiro, G., ed., In Resistance: Studies in African, Afro-American and Caribbean History (Amherst, Mass., 1986), 71–95Google Scholar; Hogendorn, J. S. and Lovejoy, Paul E., ‘The reform of slavery in early colonial Northern Nigeria’, in Miers, Suzanne and Roberts, Richard, eds., The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988), 391–414.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Burdon to Lugard, 21 Feb. 1906, CO 446/53.

⁶¹ Conference of 28 Feb. 1906, no. 11115, CO 446/53.

⁶² Lugard to CO., 7 Mar. 1906, CO 446/53.

⁶³ Personal communication, Kimba Idrissa, 1 Oct. 1988.

⁶⁴ Burdon to Lugard, telegram, 28 Feb. 1906; Burdon to Lugard, 15 Mar., 21 Mar. 1906, Shillingford Papers.

⁶⁵ Idrissa, , Guerres et Societes, 147–69.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Burdon to Lugard, 15 Mar. 1906.

⁶⁷ Mohammad, , ‘Social interpretation’, 164.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ For a discussion of Hamza and the Ningawa resistance, see Patton, Adell Jr, ‘The Ningi chiefdom and the African frontier: mountaineers and resistance to the Sokoto Caliphate’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1975)Google Scholar; Patton, , ‘Ningi raids and slavery in the nineteenth-century Sokoto Caliphate’, Slavery and Abolition, 11 (1981), 114–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Linden, Ian, ‘Between two religions of the book: the children of the Israelites (c. 1846–c. 1920)’, in Isichei, Elizabeth, ed., Varieties of Christian experience in Nigeria (London, 1982), 79–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Linden, , ‘The Isawa Mallams, c. 1850–1919: some problems in the religious history of Northern Nigeria’, (unpublished seminar paper, Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University, 1975).Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Lovejoy, Paul E., ‘Problems of slave control in the Sokoto Caliphate’, in Lovejoy, , ed., Africans in Bondage; Studies in Slavery and the Slave Trade (Madison, 1986), 263.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ See Schön, Jacob Friedrich, Magana Hausa, Native Literature, or Proverbs, Tales, Fables and Historical Fragments in the Hausa Language. To which is added a translation in English (London, 1885), 161–2.Google Scholar

⁷¹ ‘The Prophet Jesus meeting with a skull to which he restored the power of speech’, in Schön, , Magana Hausa, 162–3.Google Scholar

⁷² Quoted in Hiskett, , Islam in West Africa, 272.Google Scholar

⁷³ Mohammed, ‘Songs and poems’. The location of Satiru has been the object of some confusion. Various sources have placed the village haphazardly; see, for example, Shenton, Robert W., The Development of Capitalism in Northern Nigeria (Toronto, 1986), 27Google Scholar; Harrison, Christopher, France and Islam in West Africa, 1860–1960 (Cambridge, 1988), 45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Idrissa, Guerres et Sociétés, map.

⁷⁴ Interview at Kobkitanda.

⁷⁵ Interview at Kobkitanda; Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 147–9.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 148–9.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Interview at Karma.

⁷⁸ For an excellent analysis of Caliphate class structure, see Tahir, Ibrahim, ‘Sufis saints and capitalists in Kano, 1804–1974: pattern of a bourgeois revolution in an Islamic society’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1975)Google Scholar, although his analysis should be amended in one respect: aristocrats and wealthy merchants did intermarry. We wish to thank A. S. Mohammed for his critique of Tahir's analysis. Mohammad points out that there is a common Hausa proverb: ‘maikudi abokin Sarki’, i.e. ‘the wealthy man is the friend of the sarki’. There were various alliances between wealthy merchants and the aristocracy, including political, commercial and marital.

⁷⁹ In addition to the oral traditions collected by Mohammad and Idrissa, there are several contemporary accounts of Satiru, including ‘Asalin Gabar Satiru’, in Edgar, Frank, ed., Litafi na Tatsuniyoyi na Hausa (Belfast, 1911), 1, 263–9, 431Google Scholar; and ‘Labarin Farkon Gabar Satirawa’, in Edgar, , ed., Litafi na Tatsuniyoyi na Hausa (Belfast, 1913), III, 404Google Scholar. To these should be added the poems and songs collected by Mohammad (‘Songs and poems of the Satiru rising’) and the compilation of Johnston, ‘Dan Makafo and the Satiru rising’.

⁸⁰ Mohammad, , ‘Social interpretation’, 171.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Burdon and Lugard realized this situation but easily convinced the Colonial Office that taxation was not a factor. See Oliver's and Antrobus’ minutes, Conference of 7 Mar. 1906, CO 446/53; Burdon to Lugard, 21 Mar. 1906.

⁸² Dupigny, E. C. M., Gazetteer of Nupe Province (London, 1920), 25.Google Scholar

⁸³ There is some discrepancy over the events surrounding Satiru in 1904. Mohammad (‘Social interpretation’, 159) claims that Maikaho declared himself Mahdi in January, apparently relying on Arnett, E. J., Gazetteer of Sokoto (London, 1920), 45.Google Scholar Arnett is wrong on a number of points relating to Satiru, however, and it may be, as other sources suggest, that Maikaho only came to the attention of authorities in February. As noted above, he probably did not declare himself Mahdi, only his agent.

⁸⁴ ‘Labarin Farkon Gabar Satirawa’, 404.

⁸⁵ Orr, Sokoto Province Report no. 1, 29 Feb. 1904, Sokprof 2/2 51/1904 (NNAK).

⁸⁶ Lugard's marginal note on Orr's Sokoto Report no. 1.

⁸⁷ Burdon to Lugard, 21 Feb. 1906, CO 446/53; and Lugard, Annual Report, 1905–6, 369.

⁸⁸ It has been assumed wrongly that Isa become the leader at Satiru upon the death of his father in early 1904 (see, for example, Dusgate, , Conquest, 242Google Scholar), but Burdon's report of 21 Mar. 1906 clarifies the situation.

⁸⁹ Johnston, , ‘Dan Makafo and the Satiru rising’, 163–5.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Burdon to Lugard, 21 Mar. 1906.

⁹¹ One cleric from Kano, Malam Danba, came to the attention of French officials and apparently to British officials in the Gold Coast as well. Danba was predicting the imminent arrival of the Mahdi; see Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 174Google Scholar, citing Robert Arnaud, Report no. 4, 11G4, Archives Nationales, Paris. He came via Sokoto and ‘was said to be preaching a holy war against Europeans’. (Ponty, Extract of Report.) Other Mahdist agents included Omaru Paruki, about whom we know nothing more, and Mohammed Othman, who was arrested in Bonduku in May 1905 and exiled to Dakar. Mohammed Othman's activities in the areas west of the Caliphate suggest that he had joined the revolutionary Mahdist ranks; see Goody, Jack, ‘Reform, renewal and resistance: a Mahdi in Northern Ghana’, in Allen, C. and Johnson, R. W., eds., African Perspectives: Papers Presented to Thomas Hodgkin (Cambridge, 1970), 143–56Google Scholar, and Emmanuel Terray, ‘Le Royaume abron du Gyaman de 1875 à 1910: de l'indépendance à l'établissement du pouvoir blanc’, in Piault, Marc H., ed., La Colonisation: rupture ou parenthèse (Paris, 1987), 296–7.Google Scholar

⁹² This reconstruction is based on Enregistrement de la correspondance de route, 1906, Journal de Poste de Dosso, ANN 5.6.1. See especially the entries for 12 and 18 March and

⁹³ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 147–171.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Rothiot, , Aouta, 179–82Google Scholar, has concluded otherwise on the basis of oral material. A critique of Rothiot's interpretation cannot be presented here, but it should be noted that traditions collected at Karma and Kobkitanda in September–October 1988 and a reading of available archival materials in Niger confirm Idrissa's interpretation.

⁹⁵ Ponty, Extract of Report; Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 148.Google Scholar Some reports claim that Saybu Dan Makafo was not totally blind but could see shapes. The extent of his blindness is not clear, but it was certainly sufficient that he was identified as such. Traditions at Kobkitanda, however, insist that he was totally blind from birth; oral information obtained from the elders of Kobkitanda on 2 Oct. 1988.

⁹⁶ Ponty, Extract of Report; Ponty, Rapport no. 132, Kayes, 26 Mar. 1906; Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 148Google Scholar; Johnston, , ‘Dan Makafo and the Satiru rising’, 163.Google Scholar Johnston's informants claimed that Dan Makafo could produce kola nuts at will and could levitate on his prayer mat.

⁹⁷ Ponty, Extract of Report.

⁹⁸ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 149.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 214–15.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 149Google Scholar; Burdon to Lugard, 5 Mar. 1906. Aman Beri as well was apparently preparing for revolt on the day of the Id.

¹⁰¹ The Mahdist agent, Musa, arrested in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast in 1905, may have been the Musa who was expected to appear. The connection between the Musa of the middle Volta basin and the Musa of the revolutionary Mahdist tradition at Satiru has yet to be explored fully. See Goody, , ‘Mahdi in Northern Ghana’, 143–56Google Scholar; and Terray, , ‘Royaume abron du Gyaman’, 296–7.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 149.Google Scholar Malams at Satiru utilized similar charms and spells.

¹⁰³ Interview at Kobkitanda.

¹⁰⁴ For a discussion of Mahdism in the middle Volta basin, see Goody, , ‘Mahdi in Northern Ghana’, 143–56Google Scholar; and Terray, , ‘Royaume abron du Gyaman’, 294–7.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Journal du poste de Dosso, 12 and 18 Mar., 5 Apr. 1906. Rothiot, , Aouta, 175–8Google Scholar, interprets these events differently.

¹⁰⁶ Rapport politique et administratis Région de Niamey, second trimestre, 1906; Rapport politique du mois de mars 1906, Cercle du Djerma; Rapport politique mensuel, Région de Naimey, mois de octobre 1906, ANN 15.2.7.

¹⁰⁷ Dusgate, , Conquest, 247.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Adeleye, , ‘Mahdist triumph’, 200.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Perham, Margery, Lugard: The Years of Authority, 1898–1912 (London, 1960), 259–60.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Edward Lugard (Sir Frederick's brother and close confident) and William Wallace, Acting High Commissioner after Lugard was transferred to Hong Kong later in 1906, carried out the investigation in response to enquiries from Walter Miller, the C.M.S. missionary in Zaria. See Wallace to Lugard, 31 Oct. 1907, Lugard Papers, Mss. Brit. Emp. 62, Rhodes House; Edward Lugard to FDL, 7 Oct. 1907, Lugard Papers. Also see the embarrassing typographical error, or so we assume, by Goldsmith that ‘all parts of stragglers were cut off’. Presumably he meant that all parties of stragglers were cut off; Sokoto Province Annual Report, 1906.

¹¹¹ Personal communication, A. S. Mohammed.

¹¹² Lugard, Annual Report, 1905–6, 367; Adeleye, , Power and Diplomacy, 322.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Hiskett, , Islam in West Africa, 272Google Scholar; H. S. Goldsmith, Report no. 30, Sokoto Province, Quarter Ending June 1906, Sokprof 2/2 625/1906 (NNAK).

¹¹⁴ Adeleye, , ‘Mahdist triumph’, 211Google Scholar.

¹¹⁵ Burdon to Lugard, 22 Mar. 1906.

¹¹⁶ Adeleye, , ‘Mahdist triumph’, 211.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Terray, , ‘Royaume abron du Gyaman’, 194–297.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Rapport de E. Roume, 15 August 1907. This document is reproduced as an appendix in Idrissa, , ‘Formation de la Colonie du Niger’, vol. 6, 2223–31.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Tibenderana, Peter Kazenga, ‘The role of the British Administration in the appointment of the Emirs of Northern Nigeria, 1901–1931: the case of Sokoto Province’, J. Afr. Hist., XXVIII, 2 (1987), 231–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Also see Tibenderana, , ‘The making and unmaking of the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Tambari, 1922–31’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, IX, 1 (1977), 91–134Google Scholar. The British were so concerned about the connections between Mahdism in Northern Nigeria and Sudan that a full report was undertaken; see Tomlinson, G. J. F. and Lethem, G. J., Islamic Political Propaganda in Nigeria (London, 1927).Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Hogendorn, J. S. and Lovejoy, Paul E., ‘The development and execution of Frederick Lugard's policies toward slavery in Northern Nigeria’, Slavery and Abolition, X, 1 (1989), 1–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹²¹ Lugard to CO, telegram, 14 Feb. 1906, CO 446/52, PRO.

¹²² CO 446/52, p. 567.

¹²³ Lugard to Secretary of State, 9 May 1906, CO 446/52.

¹²⁴ The implications of the Satiru revolt on the development of slavery policies is explored in Hogendorn and Lovejoy, ‘Lugard's Slavery Policies’, but will be examined in greater detail in a volume forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

¹²⁵ Rapports d'ensemble, Feb., May, June, Aug. and Dec, 1906 Cercle de Say, 16.5.1, ANN.

¹²⁶ To be examined in our forthcoming study with Cambridge University Press.

¹²⁷ Lugard, Annual Report, 1905–6, 373, provides a convenient summary of these pledges of support in British territory. For the importance of local military levies in the French sphere, see Idrissa, , Guerres et Sociétés, 148, 179.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ Burdon to Resident Sokoto, 11 Mar. 1932, SNP 15 Ace 312 (NNAK). Also see Burdon, , ‘Early Days in Nigeria’, West African Review, 03. 1932, 120.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ Tibenderana, , ‘Sokoto, Gwandu, and Argungu’, 166–70Google Scholar; Lugard, Annual Report, 1905–6, 373; Lugard to Secretary of State, 9 May 1906, CO 446/52, PRO.; Adeleye, , Power and Diplomacy, 325Google Scholar; Tukur, , ‘British colonial domination’, 283–95Google Scholar. For a contemporary account of the deposition of the emir of Gwandu, and his subordinate the Sarkin Jega, see Goldsmith, Sokoto Province Annual Report, 1906, and his Report no. 31, Sokoto Province, quarter ending 30 Sept. 1906, Sokprof 2/2 977/1906 (NNAK). Goldsmith also dismissed the alkali of Jega for refusing to try the Dangima on the charge of preventing the arrest of two agents from Satiru. See Tukur, ‘Colonial domination’, 462–92, citing J. A. Burdon, Sokoto Provincial Report no. 29 for the quarter ending 31 Mar. 1906, Sokprof 758/1906.

¹³⁰ Adeleye, ‘Dilemma of Waziri’.

¹³¹ Lugard, Annual Report, 1905–6, 373. Other emirate officials were rewarded in various ways; see Goldsmith, Report no. 31, Sokoto Province, 30 September 1906.

¹³² Tibenderana, , ‘Appointment of Emirs’, 239–43.Google Scholar

¹³³ Backwell, , Occupation of Hausaland, 78.Google Scholar

¹³⁴ Tibenderana, , ‘Appointment of Emirs’, 241–2, 247, 250.Google Scholar

¹³⁵ Burdon to Resident, Sokoto, 11 Mar. 1932; Burdon, ‘Early days in Nigeria’, 120.

¹³⁶ There would be later manifestations of Mahdism, but not revolutionary in their intent. The Germans faced a Mahdist uprising in Caliphate territory in northern Kamerun in 1907, but this had no connection with the 1905–6 revolt. See Bassoro, Ahmadou and Mohammadu, Eldridge, Histoire de Garoua: Cité Peule du XIXe siècle (Yaounde, 1977), 53–60, 275–7Google Scholar; reports by Zimmermann, and Strumpell, K., in ‘Die Unruhen in Deutsch-Adamaua 1907’, Deutsches Kolonialblatt, CCXXX (1907), 167–73Google Scholar; ‘Unruhen in Kamerun’, Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, 31 (3 08. 1907), 306Google Scholar; ‘Unruhen in Adamaua’, Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, 33 (17 08. 1907), 337.Google Scholar Similarly, the resurgence of Mahdism at Dumbulwa in 1923 was unrelated; see Ubah, ‘British measures against Mahdism’; and Saeed, ‘British policy towards the Mahdiyya’. In both these cases, the Mahdist adherents were associated with the ansar and maintained a connection with the Nilotic Sudan, which we have demonstrated had no direct influence on revolutionary Mahdism.