Because of the jihād in Oyo, the capital district of Oyo was completely abandoned by 1836 through flight and slavery; the previously heavily populated region around the capital was transformed into a virtual desert, which it remains largely to this day. The conflict is often referred to as the Yoruba wars in the scholarly literature and is sometimes even characterized as a civil war; it is clear that the establishment of Ilorin as a recognized part of the Sokoto Caliphate was more than a civil disturbance, and, even more relevant, that the jihād was primarily responsible for the collapse of the Oyo state and the concurrent and subsequent warfare that resulted in the enslavement of the overwhelming majority of people who became part of the Yoruba diaspora.32 Hence the resulting activities of Yoruba in both Cuba and Brazil have to be considered, in my opinion, as an outgrowth of the jihād movement of West Africa, not merely an extension of slave resistance that was associated with the age of revolutions. The complexities of ethnicity and the struggle that arose from religious conflict affect an interpretation of the Malês uprising in Bahia and also Yoruba resistance in Cuba and Muslim unrest in Sierra Leone.33 By the time of Muhammad Bello’s death in 1837, Ilorin had successfully established its supremacy over the northern Yoruba country under Fulani leadership, while opposition to jihād was firmly established at the new Yoruba centers to the south, especially at Ibadan. Where Oyo had once controlled an extensive part of Yorubaland that stretched to the sea at Porto Novo and Badagry and included Dahomey, its port at Ouidah, Mahi country, and parts of Borgu, its territory was steadily whittled away by 1836.
Bishop Samuel Crowther, himself of Oyo origin, attributed the destruction of Oyo towns in the 1820s to Muslims, whom he called Fulani even though many spoke Yoruba, and whose origins beyond that cannot always be determined.34 Similarly, Clapperton and his servant, John Lander, reported the destruction of towns in the 1820s, which they attributed to Muslims, whom they also identified as Fulani. These accounts are based on their personal observations while traveling from Badagry to Katunga, the capital of Oyo, in 1826–27 and on observations by Lander and his brother in 1830. As Clapperton and the Lander brothers seem to have understood, the degree to which people spoke more than one language and the role of Islam as a revolutionary force in Oyo made ethnic labeling complicated. Their description of a corridor of destruction extending from the coast along the main commercial corridor to the heart of Oyo and the capital at Katunga included reports on Owu.35 Other contemporary sources confirm the complexity of ethnic identification and the importance of religion as a decisive factor. Crowther met several “Yoruba” soldiers in 1841 and 1857 in the service of the Nupe emirates. They spoke fluent Yoruba but also spoke Hausa, Nupe, and Fulfulde, and because they were in the employ of the Muslim emirates, they were referred to as Fulani, as they were known in Hausa.36
There are two theaters of jihād that remain to be discussed: first, the regions of the Benue River basin to the east and south of the central Hausa emirates, which were under Sokoto after the division of the caliphate in 1817, and second, the Niger River valley and the area to the west of the caliphate’s capital districts, which paid homage to Gwandu. The eastern portion included Gombe, Bauchi, and, above all in importance, Adamawa. The region was to the south of Borno and with some exceptions, especially in the Jukun area, had few centralized states and was largely devoid of a Muslim population except for itinerant merchants and wandering Fulani pastoralists. By contrast, the region under Gwandu to the west consisted of a series of small emirates, with the exception of Masina, which in any event became the independent jihād state of Hamdullahi after 1817, although it maintained diplomatic relations with Sokoto. Historically, most of this region had once been part of the Songhay Empire.
Buba Yero, leader of the Fulbe in the Gongola River valley, had already been conquering territory in what became Bauchi and Gombe even before the jihād.37 There were no centralized states in this region, and hence when the jihād was declared in 1804, he quickly pledged his allegiance. He then continued his campaign to subdue the various decentralized ethnic groups in the region and fashion a state centered on the town of Gombe in the Gongola River valley. He also issued flags of his own, most notably to Hammarwa, the head of the Fulbe who had migrated from Kiri in the Gongola valley, in 1812. Hammarwa specifically targeted the Jukun state of Kona that straddled the Benue, with its capital at Akuro. Muri was founded as the capital of the Fulbe Kiri in 1817. Hammarwa’s campaigns against the dispersed non-Muslim ethnic groups resulted in gradual expansion from Muri to the south and southwest. However, Hammarwa fell out with his overlord in Gombe, a punitive expedition was sent to Muri in 1833, and Hammarwa and his son were both executed. Thereafter, Sokoto intervened and established Muri as a separate emirate.38
Bauchi emerged as an emirate in the region east of the Jos Plateau, which, like Gombe, was an area without centralized states and whose population was almost entirely non-Muslim. In 1804 ʿUthmān dan Fodio gave a flag to one of his students, Isiyaku, who was from the area where Bauchi would emerge as an emirate, but Isiyaku apparently died before reaching Kano on his way to implement the campaign. The question of who should succeed him was referred back to the Shehu, who opted to give the leadership to Isiyaku’s student Yakubu (1753–1833), who had been with Isiyaku at Degel studying with the Shehu. Yakubu was unusual in that he was not Fulbe but came from the Gerawa, who were generally not Muslims, although Yakubu’s father and grandfather were Muslims and had been good friends of Isiyaku. Yakubu was the only person who was not Fulbe to become the head of one of the emirates; the other two leading non-Muslims, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān of Nupe and ʿAbd al-Salām of Zamfara, never attained that distinction. Yakubu raided as far as the Benue River, conquering Lafia Beriberi, the Wurkan hills, parts of the Gongola River valley, and Leri. His son Ibrāhīm succeeded him and had to face revolts of Ningi, Dass, and Duguri.
Shehu dan Fodio appointed Moddibbo Adama as the supreme leader for the region south of the Benue River, which was another region without centralized states, and in reference to his key role the emirate became known as Adamawa, although it was also known as Fombina, or the lands of the south in Fulfulde. Adama marshaled the Fulbe in this area to form military units and found towns that were then recognized as part of the emirate. In this way the Fulbe established Garoua, Maroua, Rai, Chebowa, and Gurin and later Ngaoundere, Tibati, Kontcha, and Banyo. Adama also had to navigate rivalries among the Fulbe clans that required the use of force, as in conflicts between Rai Bouba and Yola and of Tibati with Ngaoundere and Yola. Adama ruled from 1809 to 1847 and was succeeded by Lawal, who ruled from 1847 to 1872.39 As head of Adamawa, Adama was referred to as lamido, Fulfulde for “ruler,” rather than as emir.40 Adama received his flag from the Shehu in March 1809 and in 1810–11 led the campaign against Mandara and Borno, but failing to consolidate his position there, he subsequently issued over forty flags himself and by 1825–30 was responsible for founding Ngaoundere, Banyo, Kontcha, and Tignere on the Mambila Plateau. In 1841 he established his capital at Yola on the Benue River.41 Adamawa or Fombina, with an area of 100,000 square kilometers, had forty subemirates, the most important of which were Tibati, Ngaoundere, Rai-Buba, Maroua, Banyo, Garoua, and the capital at Yola.42
In contrast to the expansive extension of the jihād to the southeast of the Hausa heartland of the Sokoto Caliphate, the consolidation of the emirates to the west of Gwandu was small scale, although it nonetheless encompassed a territory along the Niger River and to the west of the Niger that was still of considerable size. Eight emirates were established west of Gwandu, mostly in the Niger River valley. Nine small emirates were established west of Gwandu, mostly in the Niger River valley, although Liptako, with its capital at Dori, was located 120 km west of the Niger River.
The Justification of Jihād
The deep concern expressed by the Sokoto leadership over the issue of slavery has prompted Humphrey Fisher to suggest that ʿUthmān dan Fodio may have been a “Muslim Wilberforce,” which is a useful comparison in attempting to provide a perhaps shocking equation of thinking over the issues of slavery. According to Fisher, “One of the major causes of the jihād which began in Hausaland in 1804 was the increasing enslavement of free Muslims,” which ʿUthmān dan Fodio and