Usman Dan Fodio and the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate in Western Africa (1810s) Usman Dan Fodio (Arabic: Uthman ibn Fudi), religious scholar, reformer, and political leader transformed the Hausaland of West Africa to become the Sokoto Caliphate, a precursor of Modern northern Nigeria. Dan Fodio was born in 1774 CE and died 1804 CE. Known later in life to his students as “the Shehu” (a corruption of the Arabic Shaikh, meaning “The Scholar”), Dan Fodio hails from a prestigious family descending from Musa Jokollo, a great scholar of the 15th century. Born in the village of Maratta, near Konni in Sokoto state of modern day Nigeria, his family later migrated to Degel where he received his formative education. Dan Fodio established a religious movement in Hausaland, West Africa which culminated in the Sokoto Caliphate. The effects of his religious and political movement remain, with both local representation and international followers existing until today. At an early age, Dan Fodio was trained in the traditional Timbuktu system of learning. This system was prominent in West Africa at the time and was the foundation of Orthodox Sunni Islamic education in the region. Founded on the methods developed by the scholarly Tuareg tribes in Mali, it was constantly being added to and improved upon due to the introduction of information from the surrounding areas of Morocco, Tunis, and Egypt. Students of this system were expected to master the disciplines of Arabic grammar, rhetoric, logic, theology, Prophetic biography, Islamic law (specifically the Maliki school), legal theory, inheritance law, and spirituality (Tasawwuf). Advanced students would move on to other topics such as medicine, astrology, history, and mathematics (as it related to inheritance specifically). Such students, among them Dan Fodio, would learn and teach simultaneously. In addition, students would enter a system of apprenticeship under a recognized master teacher. At the age of twenty and after apprenticing with numerous scholars, Dan Fodio began to teach publically the sciences he studied. This was around the years 1774-75. While interacting with the masses Dan Fodio began to oppose what he felt were zealous acts and false claims made by both scholars and mystics. He preached against the traces of animism (a practice that associates spiritual powers or essence to animals, plants and inanimate objects), tribal custom, and syncretism that had crept into Muslim religious practice. Through his poetry and preaching, he confronted many questionable practices such as grave worship, veneration of trees and other customs, sorcery, as well as many unethical practices in business and unhygienic personal practices. He focused on calling the people to what he believed was the “religion of God”: correcting the bad innovations that crept into their lives and encouraging them to follow the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. His iconoclastic teachings gained him notoriety. The power of these teachings in motivating the masses was noticed by some local rulers, resulting in an attempt on his life by unnamed assailants. After this assassination attempt, Dan Fodio along with his students and followers confronted one of the more prominent rulers of the area: Sultan Bawa. They presented to him a list of demands that included the right for Dan Fodio to call others to God in Sultan Bawa’s lands, allow others to respond to that call, to treat anyone wearing a turban with respect (as turbans were symbolic of religious status and piety), to free all political prisoners, and to not burden the subjects with taxes. The Sultan agreed to these demands and news of his acceptance was met with approval by the people of the area. This cemented Dan Fodio’s place in the peoples’ minds as someone not only concerned with their spiritual and religious affairs, but someone intimately concerned with their worldly welfare as well. Freeing political prisoners endeared him to leaders in surrounding areas, as several of the prisoners freed were royalty or subjects of rival areas. With this act, his number of followers in his home region and surrounding lands grew larger. One report holds that over one thousand scholars joined his ranks at one time after news of these demands being met reached them. After Dan Fodio’s return to his birthplace of Degel he began openly teaching, preaching, and organizing tours to the surrounding areas and beyond to proselytize. By 1793 CE Dan Fodio’s position in Hausaland solidified. He began delegating his students to preach and teach in his stead. Following the dissemination of his proselytization, Fodio began to concentrate his efforts on the training of his closest students and authoring books. Most of these books directly addressed the issues facing people in the Hausaland. The most famous of these was “Revival of the Tradition and Eradication of Innovation” in which he establishes the fundamentals of his religious thought while delineating how the animism, innovation, and syncretism prevalent in the area was in contradistinction to that belief. Although Dan Fodio’s initial agreement with Sultan Bawa awarded him significant freedoms for outreach, by 1794 CE both Sultan Bawa and his successor Yaqub were dead. This led to new challenges for the predominant power structures in the region. Dan Fodio and his followers, by virtue of their community outreach and educational programs, were poised to fill the power vacuum resulting from Bawa’s death. Noticing this, several local kings began to persecute Dan Fodio and his followers. They limited their movements and confiscated their property. Around the year 1797 one such king, Sultan Nafata reversed Sultan Bawa’s proclamation. In order to curb the spread of Dan Fodio’s call, Nafata declared that no one but Dan Fodio was allowed to preach in public. He also stipulated that people of other faiths not be allowed to convert to Islam. For Muslims he prohibited men from wearing turbans and women from wearing veils. Around the same time Dan Fodio and his followers were being persecuted, he had a dream that was to him a spiritual epiphany. Dan Fodio dreamt he saw the Prophet Muhammad (which held great symbolic meaning for Muslims). With the Prophet in his dream was the Sufi mystic and scholar, AbdulQadir al-Jilani along with a group of other saints. In this dream, Dan Fodio was granted a green mantle, a special turban, and a sword named “The Sword of Truth.” He was to raise this sword against his enemies and lead his followers to a new era of prosperity. It was after this that he started to encourage his followers to arm themselves as this was now seen as an integral part of faith. As time passed and Sultan Nafata died, his son Yunfa assumed the throne in 1802 and continued his father’s policies of persecution. In 1803 he attempted to assassinate Dan Fodio. Unsuccessful, he then attacked a sizable group of his followers. After these two events, Dan Fodio wrote another key tract in his theological construct titled “Important Questions for the People of Sudan”: an outline of the obligations of leadership, emigration, and Jihad. This was a pivotal point in Dan Fodio’s career. His writings transformed from purely religious discourses to ones that notably addressed political and social issues. Interesting to note is that this switch in tone did not happen until after significant repression of Dan Fodio and his followers’ religious freedoms by the local authorities. JIHAD IN WEST AFRICA After the attempt on his life and on the lives of his followers, Dan Fodio absconded to an area, known as Gudu, where the Fulani tribes rallied around him. He was then pledged allegiance to and given the title: “Commander of the Faithful” (Arabic: Amir al-Muminin). It was here that Dan Fodio declared Jihad against Yunfa. Dan Fodio’s followers went to war, decisively routing Yunfa’s troops in battle near Lake Kwotto. After this, Dan Fodio divided his followers into three groups, each under their own banner and led by one of his students. Each of these groups proceeded to different areas of the Hausaland to establish Dan Fodio’s rule and quell any opposition. ESTABLISHING THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE By 1808 Yunfa and his allegiants were defeated in total, the lands they ruled captured, and by 1810 most Hausa states were in the hands of Fulani leaders appointed by Dan Fodio. By this time, the Jihad had been completed. When he began his call, religion was either sidelined, repressed, or excluded from public discourse totally. Dan Fodio now oversaw a Caliphate at the forefront of public conversation, modeled on his religious guidance. To manage the new territories under his rule Dan Fodio appointed his son Bello in the East in the west and his brother Abdulahi in the west. The life of Dan Fodio set a precedent for his brother and son as well as the lower appointees in the new Caliphate. His simplicity and piety was in stark contrast to the Hausa tribal rulers that came before him, who often burdened the poor with taxes and tributes. A man of austere nature and deep faith, Dan Fodio’s characteristics inspired his followers to emulate his example when assuming official positions in the Sokoto Caliphate. This bolstered the masses’ acceptance of their new rulers and brought about social stability and confidence in the new caliphate. END OF LIFE After the establishment of the Caliphate and a division of state powers, Dan Fodio withdrew from active management of state affairs. Resolving himself to a scholarly life after this, teaching and writing from his home in Sifawa, then later in Sokoto. He died in the year 1817 and was buried within the city walls of Sokoto where his tomb stands today. Before his death, he intimated that his son Bello should take over as “Commander of the Faithful”. While his brother Abdulahi took issue with this line of succession, Abdulahi was more than sixty miles away. He was unable to reach the Sokoto court until after Bello had been formally elected. While this period after Dan Fodio’s death was marked with some tension, challenges to the country as a whole brought to two together. After military challenge to Abdulahi’s rule of the western region, Bello came to his aid. Recognizing this gesture, Abdulahi acquiesced to Bello’s power and authority. The Sokoto Caliphate lasted for one hundred years until the British declared Northern Nigeria a British Protectorate in 1900. Joe Bradford See also: Further Reading: Bugaje, Usman M. The Contents, Methods, and Impact of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio’s Teachings. 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