He is thought of as someone who founded an empire, even though the word is somewhat inappropriate because of the decentralisation of the power structure he established. He is also thought of as the originator of a sweeping intellectual tradition; he saw himself as a reformer of the territories he invaded. That is the image one encounters today in both Niger and Nigeria.
It is, of course, more widespread in Nigeria: Sokoto is in that country and the largest share of the territory invaded by him is part of it today. There is still a sultan in Sokoto, a descendant of Dan Fodio. Families there are very large and polygamous, so there are lots of people who can claim to be the heirs of Usman Dan Fodio.
Whether they are or not is another matter… But it is interesting to see how many people lay claim to this legacy in Nigeria today. It is a lineage regarded as very prestigious. There are also people who descend from one of the imams appointed by Dan Fodio, they like to tell how their ancestor received the jihad banner from the hands of the great Usman Dan Fodio himself, and thus they still retain a share of his authority.
On the other hand, he did behave like the Prophet, he surrounded himself with a group of companions, followed in his footsteps to show that he was a pure product of Islam, as a Salafist might do today. For example, Boko Haram lay claim to his legacy, which is, of course, historically absurd since they originate in the Borno empire which had already existed for a thousand years at the time, and which fought against the jihad.
And not only with weapons. The struggle was also theological. For them, the Fulanis are opportunists who seize upon Islam as a pretext for invading neighbouring territories. They will echo the words of Mohamed Al-Kanemi, who saw Dan Fodio as a Muslim concerned with the purity of the faith but who also said that in Borno people adhered to Islamic practices since at least the 11 th century, made the pilgrimage to Mecca, had nearly permanent contact with the northern and Eastern Sahara; hence they had a much longer history and their Sunni Islamic faith had no need of being reformed.
These groups forget that the advance of Christianity has marked the whole 20 th century in Africa and Nigerian history in general. One could spend hours explaining the evolution of the relationships between all those communities, but there are Christian groups which are happy just to fan the flames of the Muslim-Christian conflict and set up lobbies in other countries, especially in Europe, to keep that image alive.
How do you explain that? True, ideas did circulate but each time the conflict had a primarily local character, which is also true today as a matter of fact. That map merely conveys a sense of how widespread the conflicts were, but it is impossible to determine to what extent all the areas and especially the rural ones were affected by these jihads. When they arrived in Africa, they applied the same model, and they even theorised its application precisely on the basis of the Sokoto sultanate.
Usman escaped and started moving among rural communities preaching, teaching and writing. In the year , Sheikh Usman and hundreds of his followers migrated to Gudu where he continued to propagate Islam.
While at Gudu, Usman dan Fodio declared a holy war jihad against King Yunfa of Gobir Rimfa's son and successor and his people as he felt their way of life did not correspond with the teaching of Islam. The declaration of the holy war spread across the Hausaland and many people volunteered to join his army. In , he formally declared a holy war on the whole of Hausaland. In , Usman and his followers conquered Gobir, Kano, and other Hausa city-states. He retired from battle in and returned to teaching and writing but his armies continued their conquests until This religious revolution united the Hausa states under Islamic law, and in , led to the establishment of an empire called the Sokoto Caliphate, composed of emirates and sub-emirates, many of which were built on the sites of previous Hausa states.
The Sokoto Caliphate became the most powerful economic and political system of the region during the 19th century, and contributed profoundly to the Islamization of Northern Nigeria.
His Islamic religious empire included most of what is now northern Nigeria and parts of Niger as well as northern Cameroon. The holy war inspired a series of holy wars throughout West Africa at the time and Islam became the dominant faith among the people of West Africa. In , the Sokoto Caliphate, with an estimated population of over 20 million people, had become the most populous empire in West Africa.
African Roots is supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. Got an opinion about the stories making headlines? International SMS charges apply. Ad essa seguirono i jihad che, con successo, furono proclamati nel , e Futa Jalon tra il e il , che portarono alla creazione di questi tre Stati musulmani africani. Shehu Dan Fodio was a descendant of one of the clans Torodbe Toronkawa of urbanized ethnic Fulani people living in the Hausa Kingdoms since the early s in what is now northern Nigeria.
He belonged to the Maliki school of fiqh Islamic jurisprudence and a staunch follower of the Athari Islamic Creed. Shehu Dan Fodio taught Maliki fiqh in the city-state of Gobir until He formed and began a social revolution according to Islamic teachings which spread from Gobir throughout modern Nigeria and Cameroon, and was echoed in a jihad movement led by the Fula people across West Africa. Dan Fodio declined much of the pomp of rulership, and while developing contacts with religious reformists and jihad leaders across Africa, he soon passed actual leadership of the Sokoto state to his son, Muhammed Bello.
Shehu Dan Fodio wrote more than a hundred books concerning religion, government, culture, and society. He developed a critique of existing African Muslim elites for what he saw as their greed, paganism, violation of the standards of Sharia law, and use of heavy taxation. He encouraged literacy and scholarship, for women as well as men, and several of his daughters emerged as scholars and writers.
His writings and sayings continue to be much quoted today, and are often affectionately referred to as Shehu in Nigeria. Some followers consider dan Fodio to have been a mujaddid, a divinely inspired "reformer of Islam".
Shehu Dan Fodio's uprising was a major episode of a movement described as the Fula jihads in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It followed the jihads successfully waged in Futa Bundu, Futa Tooro, and Fouta Djallon between and , which led to the creation of those three Islamic states.
Sultan of Sokoto,Amir al-Mu'minin,Imama en.
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