Sokoto Caliphate: The Great Fulani Empire that Crashed Almost as Soon as it Rose

Relative to most powerful ancient African empires, the prominence of the Sokoto Caliphate was fleeting, comparable to a short burst of energy. In 1837, about three decades after it was established, the caliphate was the most populous empire in West Africa, with a population of about 10-20 million people.

According to British historian John Iliffe, Sokoto was the most developed state of pre-modern sub-Saharan Africa. In its prime, its territory spanned over 1,000 miles, including parts of modern-day Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Burkina Faso.

However, by 1903, the once formidable empire was conquered and dissolved into two main parts: the northern provinces of the British protectorate of Nigeria and the German colony of Kamerun (now Republic of Cameroon).

The Violent Origins of the Sokoto Caliphate

In 1804, a Muslim Fulani scholar named Usman Dan Fodio from Gobir, one of the Hausa States, launched a jihad on Hausaland. Dan Fodio, a force of a man, was ready to both purge the land of the religious impurity upheld by its leaders and to secure a superior standing for his people.

Yet Dan Fodio did not only bank on the support of the Fulani, an ethnic minority that had long been sidelined since their arrival in Hausaland in the mid-16^thcentury. Instead, he cleverly recognized the deep dissatisfaction that laid in the hearts of the impoverished Hausa masses and then used it to his advantage.

From the 1790s, Dan Fodio began imprinting in the minds of the Fulani and the Hausa commoners the urgent need for reform. To the Fulani, who were mostly devout Muslims, his focus was on highlighting the idolatrous practices, sexual immorality and corruption amongst the Hausa nobility. To the Hausa, he emphasized how their leaders’ failure to provide for their welfare went hand in hand with their failure to adhere to the Islamic tenets. He soon acquired a massive following, some of whom infiltrated strategic political positions that would prove instrumental to the coming revolt.

Sarkin Yunfa, the king of Gobir, caught on to Dan Fodio’s worrisome influence. Thus, Yunfa—who had ironically been a student of Dan Fodio’s in the past—began to clamp down on his followers, capturing, killing and imprisoning them in large numbers. Dan Fodio responded by personally embarking on efforts to secure the release of the captives, earning him a threat of assassination from Yunfa.

Dan Fodio, alongside some of his followers, subsequently fled to nearby Gudu where he was soon proclaimed Sarkin Musulmi (Chief of the Muslims). He then accused Yunfa of issuing a proclamation that only those who had inherited the religion from their fathers should be Muslims, and that handkerchiefs should not be worn by women or turbans by men. Muslims were very displeased with this proclamation as it threatened the spread of Islam.

Dan Fodio launched the holy war by sending messages to Malam Adamu at Adamawa and Malam Yakubu at Bauchi to stage a coup d’état in those towns in response to the people’s idolatrous practices. Attacks were then replicated throughout Hausaland and beyond, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Dan Fodio’s forces seized the Hausa States of Katsina and Daura from 1805, Kano in 1807, and finally Gobir in 1809. That same year, dan Fodio’s son Muhammad Bello founded the city of Sokoto and made it the capital of the new Sokoto Caliphate.

By 1810, the Fulani had established hegemony in Hausaland, with the former Hausa States paying tribute to Sokoto in cowries, slaves and cloth. The Fulani also went on to conquer surrounding non-Hausa states such as the Plateau Province, the Jukun, Tiv and Idoma, part of Kabba, and as far as Ilorin in the northern part of the Oyo Empire.

Dan Fodio’s revolt was so sweeping that Muhammad el-Kanemi, the Sheikh of Bornu, described him as an imperialist acting under the guise of religious leadership. It also inspired a series of jihads that led to the creation of Islamic states in other parts of the Sahel region, including present-day Senegal, Mali and Chad.

The Great Sokoto Caliphate

Less concerned with the administrative aspect of leadership, Dan Fodio handed over the reins of the Eastern part of the empire to Bello, and the Western part (with its capital at Gwandu) to his brother Abdullahi. Other Fulas who survived the war were installed as Emirs or clan heads of various districts. The Emirs enjoyed a level of independence and autonomy in ruling their designated emirates.

The Sultanate—the trio of Dan Fodio, Abdullahi and Bello—championed scholarship among their subjects, contributing hundreds of poetry books and texts on religion, politics and history. In fact, this was Dan Fodio’s focus as a leader—teaching and writing—and many of his Arabic and Fulani books are still in circulation today.

After Dan Fodio died in 1817, his son Bello claimed the seat of the Sultan of Sokoto—a title that Dan Fodio had held in essence, but shied away from being called. It was under Sultan Bello’s reign that the empire reached its zenith. Having established such an invincible military force, Sokoto enjoyed a period of peace and prosperity across the Eastern savannah that was rare for its time.

However, this supposed peace did not extend to the multitude of slaves who formed the backbone of Sokoto’s economy. By 1900, the empire had between 1 – 2 million slaves, a slave population that was second only to the USA’s (4 million as of 1860) amongst modern slave societies. Dan Fodio had made it such that only non-Muslims could be slaves, so that conversion to Islam was an incentive for emancipation.

The Sokoto Caliphate inherited the economical benefits of trade and agriculture from the former Hausa States and other conquests and built on them further. The hordes of slaves were used to work and expand the empire’s plantations.

The Fall of the Sokoto Caliphate

By the 1890s, the empire began to disintegrate. Even though the central territory had largely enjoyed peace, many of Sokoto’s vassal states never fully accepted the Caliphate’s rule, especially with regards to the forced Islamization of the people and imposition of the Sharia Law. This sparked conflicts that lasted for years and eventually erupted into a civil war.

Concurrently, European colonizers had taken interest in the region and had begun to invade the empire’s periphery. In the southern part of the empire, British General Frederick Lugard used the internal division to his advantage and gradually worked his way to the capital. In the north, Germany’s Schutzruppe (troops) launched expeditions in Adamawa (in Cameroon).

The then Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Attahiru I, set up a quick defence of the capital and fought the advancing British troops, but ultimately lost out to them. Consequently, Attahiru and what was left of his following fled the empire.

By 1903, the Sokoto Caliphate had completely come under British and German rule. The British colonial masters, who controlled over 80% of the former empire, allowed the Sultan to remain as a ceremonial ruler with some influence over the people but no real political authority.

Till today, the Sultan of Sokoto is merely a religious and cultural leader in the city that is modern Sokoto, the remnant of the empire.