Introduction
This
article is going to start with a brief of my personal journey of discovery
about the poets and scholars of the Sakkwato Caliphate. The first time I read
about Sakkwato Caliphate was when I was in primary school from a book titled Karamin
Sani. There was a passage on the battle at Tafkin Kwatto culled from Infaku
of Caliph Muhammadu Bello. At that time I could not appreciate the story for
there is no prior basis for that. Secondly, although I heard about Shehu
Usmanu Danfodiyo and I heard over and over again my grandma sing Begore
a poem by Nana Asma’u and also heard about Hubbare in Sakkwato. I have no
picture of what Sakkwato Caliphate was. The situation has not improved even
when I went to secondary school. I was a good student of history in my forms 1
and 2 and I learnt about Mali, Ghana, and Songhai empires but not about
Sakkwato. After two years I went to science school, thus cut off from history.
What
actually helped me was the bookworming
attitude that I developed that I always read and read any book of interest
from Astronomy to Egyptology. By the time I completed my secondary education
and got admission into the then University of Sokoto, I luckily came across a
book titled The Sakkwato Model by Usmanu Bugaje, that was the beginning of my
voyage in the vast ocean of scholarship about Sakkwato. After reading that
book I begin to be thirsty of more knowledge about the history of that Great
State. From then on, I began to feel that University of Sokoto should be
renamed to Usmanu Danfodiyo University. I even wrote a letter to the Editor
(New Nigerian) but never posted it, yet whenever I wrote to my friends, my
address is always Usmanu Danfodiyo University not University of Sokoto. Within
few years that dream came true.
With
time, I learnt from seminars and few publications more about Sakkwato, and
when I decided to register for courses in Hausa (as the only Social Science
Student in the class), I was taught about some poems written by the Jihad
leaders. I was taught about the literal interpretation of poems like Godaben
Gaskiya, Ma’amare and Tabban
Hakika among others, but I could actually not appreciate it as much. My
interest at that moment was fiction and not poetry. Later I read Studies in Sokoto Caliphate edited by YB Usmanu. I then got and read
State and Society in Sokoto Caliphate
edited by Kabir Gandi and Ahmad Kani. I also read Sokoto
Caliphate by Murray Last. But the two books that actually influenced me
most were A Revolution in History and Islamic
State and the Challenge of History by Ibrahim Sulaiman. All these books
taught me more about what and how the Caliphate came into existence, how it
declined and what we are to learn from it.
One
important missing link is that although I read fairly well about the Jihad,
the leader of the Jihad and Caliph Muhammadu Bello and a little on Shaikh
Abdullahi Fodio (from Shehu Umar’s classic work) there is little about Nana
Asma’u. I know about Nana Asma’u ‘Yar Shehu first from my grand mother.
With the passage of time I began to develop some interest about who Nana
Asma’u really was, what were her contributions to the Jihad and so on. But
above all I wanted to learn about her “Yan
Taru movement, I first heard in a seminar at UDUS. It was from the
knowledge of the 'Yan Taru movement that I was able to appreciate and situate Wakar
Ahmada my grand mother’s favourite. It was also with that background
knowledge that I came to understand more about my grandfather’s sister Hauwa
who though I met (before her death) but was too young to appreciate her
learning. Gwaggo, my dad always tells us was a pious and learned woman who
taught women about Islam, in fact my grandma learnt Wakar Ahmada and other
aspects of knowledge from her. Perhaps she was a Jaji (a cadre of literate,
itinerant women teachers within the ‘Yan Taru movement, who disseminated
Asma’u’s instructive poetic works among the masses).
I
visited Hubbare for the first time in 1996, I knew about Jean Boyd but I am
yet to know about Nana Asma’u. When Caliph’s
Sister (by Jean Boyd) was published in 1989, I saw its review, but there
was no way I could get that book at the time. So I remained ignorant about
Nana Asma’u, a woman I admire even before I know who she actually was.
The
opportunity of coming to the United States came to me through the Fulbright
Fellowship in August 2001. I met Dr. Sarki Abba Abdulkadir (who works at the
same University I am doing my fellowship) In our long discussion about the
problems of our society, we discovered that we share same interest about the
model of Sakkwato Caliphate. He showed me a book titled Collected
Works of Nana Asma’u Daughter of Usmanu ‘dan Fodiyo (1793-1864) compiled
and edited by Jean Boyd and Beverly B Mack. I then remember seeing a copy at
the ABU bookshop but at the time I could not afford it. I then went into
action, trying to see if I could get and buy that book online, I got it and I
bought it. But most interestingly, I got Caliph’s Sister and One Woman Jihad
(Boyd & Mack). From these triad I learn about Nana Asma’u. In fact I
learnt about Sakkwato Jihad of 1804 more. After reading these books I then
realised how much I personally learnt but how much many other people are
missing by not knowing all that happened in our pre-colonial past.
The
Challenge
Now
I realised that what I learnt so far about Sakkwato Caliphate is enormous but
also a challenge. I asked myself beside the very thin and narrow folkloric
knowledge available to the ordinary man in the street, how many people in the
current area once Sakkwato Caliphate actually know about this great Islamic
revivalism? How many people realised that we in the 21st century
have a lot to learn from the 1804 revolution? How many of us read the books
written by the Jihad leaders? How many people can situate the re-introduction
of the Shari’a legal system within a wider social-history context in
northern Nigeria? Above all what does Shari’a really stands for, for the
Muslim ummah?
The
answer without fear of contradiction is very little. Most of the published
knowledge about Sakkwato Caliphate is in the English Language, thanks to the
late Professor Abdullahi Smith who initiated the reconstruction of our
historiography. Few of the Jihad books were publish in Hausa (Infaku
and Nurul-al-bab for example) the
language majority can read and appreciate, even those few books published are
not in circulation.
After
working for years to create a body of Hausa readers through the Hausa Literary
Movement (erstwhile known as Soyayya
writers). I now fully agree with one of the leaders (Sunusi Shehu Daneji) of
the movement’s assertion that people should stop discouraging the movement.
This is because, as he puts it “when you develop some one’s reading habit,
it is easier to educate him’. Thus, a Hausa housewife who learn to read in
Hausa roman script just to read a love story for instance, would also read a
book by or about Nana Asma’u written in Hausa language. Jean Boyd and
Beverly Mack described Nana Asma’u’s genius as laying “in transforming
the women’s organization that had existed among the non-Muslim women prior
to their capture, and channeling their interests and needs into organizing
representative of the Jihadic community’s values. Through her organization
of itinerant women teachers of other women (the ‘Yan Taru…) Nana Asma’u
made working for the community both desirable and honorable” (Collected
Works.pp7). Don’t we think that the failed Better Life, Family Support and
Poverty Alleviation programmes would have been successful (at least in Muslim
north) if based on the framework of the ‘Yan Taru Movement? The Islamic knowledge revivalism through
Islamiyya schools for women has more to learn from Nana’s model.
We
can see how easily a book on any aspect of Islam sells. Go to any Hausa books
centre and you will see how books and pamphlets-some genuine some not- are
being bought and read, people are today hungry of Islamic knowledge. In fact
religious books sell more than fiction ones (an organised study on Kasuwar
Kurmi Islamic book distribution system is yet to be undertaken by our revered
Hausa scholars) but majority of the readers were initially ‘fiction
readers’.
We
could not accuse scholars of not translating Jihad leader’s books, Malam Isa
Talatar Mafara has translated a corpus of books by Usmanu Danfodiyo and other
Jihad leaders and most were published by the History Bureau Sokoto, but where
are they today? They are not in circulation. There are also another corpus
translated by Alkali Sidi Suyudi between 1976-80 but remain unpublished decade
or decades after. Below are some examples from Boyd and Mack bibliography:
Title |
Author |
Date
of translation |
al-Tibyan
li-huquq al-ikhwan |
Abdullahi
Danfodiyo |
circa
1976-80 |
Siyar |
Abdullahi
Danfodiyo |
circa
1976-80 |
Diya’
al qawa’id wa nathr al fawa’id li-ahl al maqasid |
Abdullahi
Danfodiyo |
circa
1976-80 |
Kitab
al-nasab |
Abdullahi
Danfodiyo |
circa
1976-80 |
Lubab
al-mudkhal fi adab ahl al-din |
Abdullahi
Danfodiyo |
circa
1976-80 |
al-Ghaith
al-wabl fi sirat al imam al-adl |
Muhammad
Bello |
circa
1976-80 |
Kitab
al Nasiha |
Muhammad
Bello |
circa
1976-80 |
Raudat
al-afkar |
Abdulkadir
B Mustafa/ |
circa
1976-80 |
Wasiyya |
Gidado
Dan Laima |
circa
1976-80 |
Raud
al-jinan |
Gidado
Dan Laima |
circa
1976-80 |
Source:
(Boyd & Mack 1997)
The
list above is just a tip of the iceberg and contains mainly books, i.e. not to
talk of poems majority of which are towards teaching of the Islamic knowledge
and mobilisation. School children are supposed to be taught about The Sakkwato
Model (apology to Bugaje). It is a shame that my children could sing ‘Wakar
Sangaya” but could not sing Wakar
Ahmada. Not because it is not available, but because I didn’t pay
attention until recently. I struggled to get Mazan
Jiya a book that contains some briefs about Hausa City-states and the
Caliphate. I organised my children and younger brothers and sisters, to read
the book in group and I am happy that the little they learnt has introduced
them to the superiority of civilisation of the Caliphate. We need to produce
more and more works at children, adult and scholars level in Hausa about the
Sakkwato Jihad. There is so much ignorance among the population about these
great scholars and their works.
By
making such materials available our children and we would be able to
appreciate our past but also prepare us towards ensuring a just society. The
issue of Shari’a is a misunderstood case because majority of people
(including Muslims) are not knowledgeable about what Shari’a entails. Many
people erroneously restrict Shari’a to hudud
only. Shari’a is beyond courts and cutting hands, stoning the adulterer and
lashing the drunkard. The goal of the Shari’a is about developing a just,
prosperous and peaceful society. The example of the Islamic State under
Muhammad Bello as reported by Clapperton during his visit to Sokoto in 1826 is
worth sharing:
"The
Laws of the Qur’an in his (Sultan Muhammad Bello’s) time, were so strictly
put in the forth . . . that the whole country, when not in war, was so well
regulated that it is common saying that
a woman might travel with casket of gold upon her head from one end of the
Fellata (Fulani) dominions to the other." (Emphasis mine)
This
is what is expected of the Shari’a system, bulk of the supporters of
Shari’a in the so-called Sharia’a States are the masses who are looking
for a just system that can improve their lives. It is therefore a challenge
for those States that re-introduced the Shari’a to be courageous enough to
educate people about the goals of the system but also exemplify it by being
just and keeping trust.
Some
people have contributed a great deal to the cause of propagating the Jihad
ideals. A film producer (for instance) by name Alhaji Ganyama (now Hon.
member, National assembly) has in conjunction with the Sokoto State
Government, produced an excellent movie on the life and times of Usman
Danfodiyo, some years before the civilians took over power. The movie titled Nurul
Zaman is however still not released for whatever reasons. With these types
of movies that could bring about social change kept away from the public, one
wonders what Sokoto policy makers are thinking about. We actually need
individuals, foundations and authorities to encourage and help to produce more
historical films like the life and times of Caliph Muhammadu Bello, Shaikh
Abdullahi Fodiyo, Nana Asma’u, Caliph Attahiru I and other most recent
exemplary leaders. These movies would be a great way of mobilising the sick
society we today live in. with books and movies; we can have a transformation
of attitudes and become a better society.
It
is therefore high time for us to look back and learn, the Hausas are saying Waiwaye
adon tafiya.
Yusuf Adamu is the chairman of ANA Kano, currently a Fulbright Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.