THE SHEHU 'UTHMAN DAN FODIO THE REFORMER, THE RENOVATOR AND THE FOUNDER OF THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE 1774 - 1817

Abstract

The 18th and 19th Centuries saw a series of revolutionary movements in the Western Sudan; movements that brought more or less radical social, economic and political changes which lasted until the European colonization and remain significant in the contemporary states of West Africa to this day. Of these revolutionary changes - that of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio, in the then Hausa States has been the greatest and with the most lasting effects. This study is about the Shehu’s movement, the impact it had up to the flight (Hijra) which preceded his (Jihad) the Holy War which took place between (1804-1810) and was crowned with the founding of the Sokoto Caliphate (1809-1812) which lasted until the advent of the British in the early years of the Twentieth Century. The purpose of this study is to analyse the movement within an Islamic frame of reference. Its rationale stems from the fact that the approach of earlier works on this movement has been largely imperialistic or western-secular and hence unable to appreciate fully the Islamic character of this movement. The study is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the cultural, socio-economic and political aspects in Hausa land which led to the emergence of the Shehu and his famous movement. The second one tackles the first phase known as the phase of preaching. The third chapter deals with both the phase of planning and organising as well as the phase of emigration. As for the last chapter, it is devoted to the phase of the holy war against Yunfa the King of Gobir who was a lukewarm Muslim and his subjects who were mixing Islamic with pagan ones and the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate. The study shows that the movement of Dan Fodio was geared to the objective of the restoration of the Islamic order. In his efforts to realize his objective, the leader of this movement had the Prophet as his model and the Sacred Qur'an and the Authentic Sunnah as his frame of reference. The conception and strategy of revolution he adopted was different from other movements. For example, Sheikh al-Mahdi in the Sudan took to confrontation with the establishment from the start while Dan Fodio conceived his mission as renovation (Tajdid) and took his time to bring about an intellectual revolution before the physical confrontation. Despite the shortcomings of the movement, it managed to accomplish noble achievements and made greater contributions to fighting animistic beliefs, pagan practices and heretical deeds on one side and on the other hand, the spread of true and pure Islam and the enlightenment of the people of Hausa land which led to the founding of the Sokoto Caliphate (1809-1812) which lasted until the advent of the British in the early years of the Twentieth Century.