The Fulani are found all over West Africa from the Futa-Jalon region to the Cameroons. Ethnographically, they are accepted as Hamitic by race although there have for some time been various theories propounded on them: some people say that they originated from Persia, some say from India and some others even connect them with the Philistines of the Bible 1. Leo Frobenius says that they migrated to the south-west from Fezzan in order to escape the oppression of the “Gara”, identified by him and others with the Garamantes of Herodotus 2. Meek, after considering various hypotheses, holds the view that the Fulani are probably a very ancient Libyan tribe whose original home was Egypt or Asia. He considers the nomad Fulani as the purest representatives of the Hamitic element in Nigeria 3.
Taylor, for his part, arguing philologically on the basis of certain biblical names and record, concludes that “it seems quite reasonable to suppose that the original Fulani came from western Asia and settled in Africa, probably via Egypt, in the dim ages before the Christian era”. 4
While the knowledge of the precise origin of this race still remains hidden from us, it is, however, a recognized fact that within historic times the people were known to exist in Africa and also to be migrating from west to east in the continent. They were as well known to be a distinct race from the negroid peoples among whom they lived and with whom they intermarried 5.
Socially, the Fulani are divided into two main groups—the nomad Fulani and the settled Fulani. The nomad Fulani, known differently as Bororo, Bororooje, Bororo'en, Firian Kiriabe or Abore 6, move from one place to another in search of pasture for their cattle. They supply the settled population of their area with dairy products and even today nomad Fulani women hawking milk and butter are familiar sight in the principal towns and cities of the Northern States of Nigeria. The nomad Fulani do not intermarry with the settled population, whether Fulani like themselves or non-Fulani.
The settled Fulani, called by the Hausa as Fulanin Gida 7, on the other hand, intermarry with others, particularly, in Nigerian context, with the Hausa among whom they largely live in the country 8, and with whom they have had the longest intermingling there. This intermarriage has become so widespread that this branch of the Fulani race runs the risk of being completely absorbed eventually by their hosts unless fresh infusions of pure Fulani blood take place among them. Already, such physical features and behaviour as are characteristic of the Hausa are markedly noticeable in the offspring of the intermarriage between the Fulani and the Hausa, and often does one meet today such of the offspring who choose to be known as Habe rather than Fulbe 9—two other names by which the Hausa and the Fulani are known respectively. We certainly cannot today assert as categorically and audaciously as did Lady Lugard about seventy years ago that “the Fulah of today is as distinct from the pure Negro as was the first Fulah of whom we have record” 10.
Within these two main groupings of the Fulani, there are other sub-groupings according to the degree of settlement in the case of the Fulanin Gida, or that of nomadism in the casr of the case of the Borooro'en 11.
Fulbe is the name the Fulani call themselves as a group, Pullo being the singular form of the word. They are, however, called different names by different peoples: Fulani by the Hausa and the Moors; Felata by the Kanuri, Teda and Eastern Sudanese; and Peuls or Peuhls by French writers 12. Their language is called Fulfulde in Nigeria and Masina; Pular in Senegal, and Pulpule in Fula Jalon 13.
Although we do not know precisely the original home of' the Fulani before they migrated to West Africa 14, they are, however, known by the eleventh century to have reached Upper Senegal, for as a result of the conquest of the ancient kingdom of Ghana in 1076 by the Murabit Abd Bakr b. 'Umar there were fresh migrations within the Western Sudan and “Fulbe from Termes and Tagant also moved to Fuuta Toro” 15. It was from here that Musa Jakolo, the eleventh ancestor of 'Uthman dan Fodio, migrated with his people and settled in Birnin Kwoni in the Hausa state of Gobir where 'Uthman himself was later to make his name as an historical figure. By 1754, when 'Uthman was born, the descendants of Musa Jakolo had moved to Marata, 'Uthman's birthplace, and during his childhood the family moved again to Degel.
The Fulani of Nigeria were wholly nomadic when they entered Hausaland in about the thirteenth century 16. They probably entered in a continual drift rather than in any great influx at any one time. This continual drift is echoed by 'Abdullah b. Fudi when he says that his forebears, themselves Fulani, “preceded the Fulani in Hausaland by seven years” 17. Their practice is that the nomad Fulani would, on moving elsewhere from a place in which they had pastured their cattle, leave behind them, in the principal town of the area, some of their leading members who would serve as intermediaries between the rulers of the place and the other Fulani. Those left behind gradually settle down and increase in number both by natural means and the migration into the area of new fellow tribesmen.
With the passage of time, coupled with the readiness of the settled Fulani to mix with their hosts, they came to be regarded as subjects in the Hausa states, capable of influencing the course of events. They increasingly occupied positions of eminence to be reckoned with by both the Habe ruling classes and the less priviledged Hausa and Fulani members of the population. The leaders of the settled Fulani grew in prestige as a result of their superior intelligence 18 and knowledge above those of their Hausa hosts, and eventually won the support of a considerable section of the population, both Hausa and Fulani. Among such Fulani leaders in Hausaland at the beginning of the nineteenth century was 'Uthman b. Fudi, popularly known as Usuman dan Fodio.
The Hausaland occupies an area roughly from about 9° to 14° N. latitude and from 4° to 11° E. longitude 19. It is part of the West African savannah and is bounded to the north by the Sahara and to the south by the rain-forests. It constitutes the largest single bulk among linguistic groups that occupy the sector between Lake Chad to the east and the Middle Niger to the west 20. Originally, the region stretched farther north than at present but the Hausa people were forced to move their northern boundary southward as a result of the push by the Banu Hilal 21.
Unlike the Fulani, the Hausa were not a distinct race but a group of city-states united only outwardly by a common language and culture. The word Hausa is used to designate both the people and their language. As a result of their zest for travel and trade they are found today all over West and Central Africa, and small comunities of them are also found “in all the countries of the Maghreb and in the city of Medina.” 22 Consequently, the language is widely spoken and understood from practically the southern coast of the Mediterranean to the banks of the Congo. Among the indigenous languages of Africa, south of the Sahara, it is second only to Swahili in both importance and extent of usage.
The origin of the Hausa, like that of the Fulani, and most other West African peoples, is uncertain. Hausa legend has it that they originated from a prince of Baghad called Abuyazidu 23 who, after a quarrel with his father, started wandering about, married a Borno princess on the way, and eventually settled in Daura where, for killing a terrifying snake in a well, he was rewarded with the hand of the queen, the ruler of the place, in marriage. The first seven among his offspring became the founders of the seven original Hausa states known as Hausa Bakwai. These were Daura, Kano, Rano, Katsina, Zazzau, Gobir, and Garun Gabas 24. These founders are regarded by legend to be the seven legitimate children of Abuyazidu. There were seven others who were his illegitimate children and who formed what are legendarily called Banza Bakwai or the Upstart Seven 25. These were the states of Zamfara, Kebbi, Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Yoruba and Kororofa 26.
It may be pointed out here that the claim to a lineage connected with the Middle-East is not peculiar to the Hausa; rather, many of the West African peoples legendarily trace their ancestral origins to Mecca and the areas beyond it. While such legends may seem doubtful on the face of it, they need not be brushed aside without due investigation. A case in point is such legend connected with the Yoruba, one of the Banza Bakwai states mentioned above. It is believed that they originated from one Lamurudu (Nimrod), a king of Mecca, and that when they migrated from there, they brought along with them a tied-up book called “Idi”. This book is preserved till today in the shrine at Ile-Ife in Western Nigeria.
It is my belief that if access could be had to this tied-up book, untied and studied, much light will certainly be thrown on this particular legend. We need not take it for granted as recorded by Johnson 27 that the book “was a copy of the Koran”, or that of “the Holy Scriptures in rolls”. 28 Nothing short of a look at the contents of this tied-up and venerated book should satisfy modern scholars. Even if it turns out to be the Qur'an or the rolls, much light could still be thrown on the legend from the style of writing and the paper used. After all, printing had not been introduced into the Middle-East at the time of the migration 29, and the contents of the book, if there are any, could only have been hand-written, be it the Qur'an or the scroll.
Moreover, such investigation can throw some more light on the Hausa themselves since the Yoruba legend, as does the Hausa's above, makes mention of a common origin with some of the tribes in Hausaland. In point of fact, the similarity between the two legends is striking. For example, both of them give the causes of their respective migrations as being, in each case, a quarrel between father and son-between Abuyazidu and his father, the king of Baghdad, in the case of the Hausa; and between Oduduwa 30 and his lather Lamurudu, the king of Mecca, in the case of the Yoruba.
If we can, therefore, interpret the Hausa legend noted above, it would stand to reason to derive from it that two major migrations had taken place from the original home of the fourteen states mentioned. The Banza Bakwai states seem to have been the first to migrate, and by slow process of infiltration they settled in groups in the area we now call the Central Sudan, west of the Borno-Kanem state. After their settlement, the second major migration took place, taking the Hausa Bakwai along the path previously followed by their predecessors and landing them in a neighbouring region to that occupied by the first settlers.
At this stage, there took place one or both of three possibilities.
This hypothesis can be supported by a consideration of the positions occupied on the map by the different states under discussion 32. It would be seen that, compared with the Banza Bakwai states, the Hausa Bakwai ones of Daura 33, Katsina, Kano, Rano and Zaria are more closely knit together, as if in the form of a cluster. Gobir, the most war-like of the group, forged its way farther ahead and eventually subdued Zamfara. According to the legend itself, Garun Gabas was, right from the start, an isolated city-state, and it would consequently not have been easy for it to move together with the others in the time of crisis.
It appears from the map also that as a result of the newcomers' pressure both Kebbi and Zamfara were probably pushed westward; Yoruba, Nupe, Gwari 34 and Yauri, southward; while Kororafa 35 was pushed eastward.
The view is also supported by the fact that some, at least, of the so-called Banza Bakwai states are known to have possessed civilizations older than those of the Hausa Bakwai 36.
We know of the inhabitants of Kororofa who occupied the eastern end of this belt, that they were long-haired, and apparently of the higher physical type which was brought to perfection in the Songhays. At a very early period we hear of them and of the people of Nupe as practising the arts of smelting, of smith's work, of weaving, dyeing, etc., and as being well clothed in neat cotton robes. Their local civilization would appear to have preceded the more northern civilisation of the Hausa States proper 37.
From the foregoing, therefore, it becomes apparent that two migrations had originally followed each other into what is known today as Hausaland, and that the second migration, on its arrival, forced the first one to move from its original settlement. It is the descendants of the second migration that formed, during the eleventh and the twelfth centuries, the Hausa States known in history.
The earliest mention of the Hausa In recorded history was during the thirteenth century when Ibn Sa'id (d. 1286) referred to a people called al-Hausin, who lived west of Lake Chad and were regarded as a branch of the Zaghawa tribe in the state of Kanem 38. This was followed in the fourteenth century by the account given by Ibn Battuta (1302-77) who, in 1352-3, recorded that Gobir was a pagan country. Subsequently, al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) icl), reporting his journey to the Central Sudan in the early fifteenth century, mentioned Afnu 39 whose king was Mastur 40. In the sixteenth century, Leo Africanus (1492-1526), after his commissioned journey through the Western and Central Sudan, described places in Hausaland, which included Kano, Katsina, Gobir and Zamfara. Our most authoritative and reliable account, however, on the Hausa is the record given in the seventeenth century by the Timbuktu historian, 'Abd al-Rahman … al-Sa'di 41 in his Tarikh al-Sudan.
Even though Hausa legend tends to portray some sort of union among the city-states, possibly at the beginning of their existence, they are, in point of fact, known in history to be independent states often hostile to one another. Partly as a result of their disunity, they suffered subjugation, at one time or another, by external powers such as Kanem-Borno, which annexed Kano in the 13th century 42, and Songhai which ravaged Kano, Katsina, Zamfara and Zaria in the 16th century as recorded by Leo Africanus 43. They were also subdued for a time by Kororafa during the 17th century.
Traditionally, each Hausa State was regarded as having a specific function to perform for the common good of all the states. For example, Gobir was considered a warrior state, while Kano and Katsina were trading centres. Rano and Daura were industrial and spiritual centres respectively, and Zaria was regarded as the slave market of Hausaland 44. The area in which each state was situated justified its function.
The identical function of both Kano and Katsina created a bitter conflict between the two states, from the 15th to the 19th centuries, for the commercial supremacy of the Central Sudan. The 17th century witnessed a relative weakness on the part of Kano which was being attacked from different sides: by Borno in the east, Kebbi in the west and also by Katsina. It was eventually occupied by Kororafa in the second half of the century, while Katsina maintained its own independence, although remaining a nominal vasal to Borno 45.
The commercial interests of Kano and Katsina also created a link between each of them and the outside world with the result that they were the first Hausa States to be influenced by Islam. According to their chronicles, Islam was introduced into both of them in the fourteenth century: during the reign of 'Ali Yaji (1349-85) in the case of Kano, and the reign of Muhammad Korau (1320-53) in that of Katsina. The acceptance of Islam was, however, confined at this time to the ruling class, until in the middle of the fifteenth century when Fulani teachers from Mali came to settle in Hausaland, and taught the people more Islamic sciences than hitherto known to them. This was during the reign of Sulta-n Ya'qub (1452-63) of Kano 46.
Under his successor, Muhammad Rimfa (1463-99), Islam became firmly established in Kano, and Islamic law became the guiding principle of the State. This ruler is reputed for having sought advice from Al-Maghili 47 on Islamic jurisprudence.
From this time onward Islamic influence continued to be felt generally in Hausaland to a varying degree from one State to another and also from the ruler of a state to another ruler of the same state. Islam was accepted or rejected according to the whims of the ruler that be. And although Hausa culture continued to be influenced, to a great degree, by Islam, the people frequently reverted to their original animism and traditional belief's. This was the situation in Hausaland until the beginning of the nineteenth century when 'Uthman dan Fodio led his jihad against the dissident Hausa Sultans.
Although the Hausa States were politically in constant subjection to foreign rulers, nevertheless they often managed to preserve some local autonomy. Consequently before the eighteenth century was out, Kano had started to regain its commercial predominance from Katsina, and eventually came to rank high in fame and prestige.
After constant struggles over the centuries, first with the Tuaregs and later with Katsina, Gobir had, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, emerged as the most powerful Hausa State, having both Zamfara and Kebbi under its suzerainty. It was in this powerful state that 'Uthmdn dan Fodio grew up and began his career as a preacher and a teacher. It was here also that he started a jihad which eventually won him and his followers an empire that lasted about a century.
Notes
1. C.R. Niven. A Short History of Nigeria. Ibadan, 1963, p. 30.
2. Leo Frobenius. Atlantis, vol. VI. Jena, 1921, p. 165 Cf. Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. III, 1936, art. PUL.
3. C.K. Meek. The Northern Tribes of Nigeria. vol. I, Oxford, 1925, p. 26.
4. F.W. Taylor. A Grammar of the Adamawa Dialect of the Fulani Language, Oxford, 1953, p. ix.
5. Lady Lugard. A Tropical Dependency. London, 1905, p. 22.
6. J. S. Trimingham. Islam in West Africa, Oxford, 1959, p. 12, n. 1.
7. Viz. Fulani of the house; i.e. Sedentary Fulani. They are also called town Fulani.
8. This is not meant to diminish the extent of their intermixing with the peoples of Adamawa and adjacent areas.
9. A number of friends, particularly from Kano, Northern Nigeria, from whom I have asked their preference have readily chosen Habe. Those from Adamawa, on the other hand, prefer to be known as Fulani.
10. Lady Lugard. loc. cit.
11. For these sub-groupings, see D.P. L. Dry. The Place of Islam in Hausa Society, a Ph.D. thesis in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, pp. 13-16.
12. J.S. Trimingham. op. cit., p. 11, n.2. They are also called other names by other groups of people.
13. ibid. p. 12, n.2.
14. For a traditional account of the origin of the Fulani, see 'Abdullah b. Fildi: Ida'al-nusukh man akhadhlu 'anhu min al-shuyukh, ed. & trans. M. Hiskett as “Material Relating to the State of Learning among the Fulani before their Jihad”, B.S.O.A.S. XIX, 3,1957, p. 552, CE F.W. Taylor: op. cit. p.x.
15. J.S. Trimingham. A History of Islam in West Africa, O.U.P., 1963, p. 30.
16. H.A.S. Johnston. A Selection of Hausa Stories, Oxford, 1966 p. xxi.
17. Abdullah b. Fudi. Ida'al-nusukh… op. cit.; Hiskett. Material … op. cit., p. 552 & 560.
18. O. Temple. Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, Lagos, 1922, p. 399, says as follows: “The least drop of Filane (Blood) in a native, however, is clearly demonstrated by his superior intelligence, and generally by the comeliness of his exterior.”
19. Lady Lugard. op. cit., p. 238.
20. H.A. S. Johnston. op. cit., p. xiii.
21. J.S. Trimingham. A History, op. cit. p. 128.
22. H. A.S. Johnston. op. cit., p. xi.
23. Viz. Abii Yazid.
24. H.A.S. Johnston, op. cit., pp. 111-113. Zazzau, or Zegzeg, is the Zaria of today in Nigeria; Garun Gabas is also called Biram.
25. H.A.S. Johnston, op. cit., p. xvii.
26. Also spelt Kwararafa.
27. Samuel Johnson. The History of the Yorubas. Lagos, 1960, p. 4.
28. Samuel Johnson. op. cit., p. 7.
29. Printing was introduced into the Middle-East in the 19th Century following the capture of Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte.
30. Viz the ancestor of the Yoruba.
31. Supra. p. 19.
32. For example, see J.S. Trimingham. A History… op. cit., map 3, pp. 112-113.
33. Spelt Dawra in the map referred to.
34. Gbar in the map referred to.
35. Kwararafa or Jukun in the map.
36. “The Oldest Nigerian”, in West Africa, March 4, 1967, p. 303, where it is reported that archeological finds in Yorubaland has been radiocarbon dated to B.C. 9, 150+/- 200; whereas finds from another area northward in the savannah belt of Nigelia was B.C. 7,200+/-150.
37. Lady Lugard. op. cit., p. 258. Cf: p. 240 where the Yoruba are said to have a “descent of more than respectable antiquity” to that of the Hausa Bakwai.
38. G.P. Bargery. A Hausa-English Dictionary, O.U.P., 1934, p. ix.
39. A name used to designate the Hausa in the area of Lake Chad.
40. This is meant to be a proper noun.
41. He is 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Abdullah b. 'Imran b. 'Amir al-Sa'di al-Timbuktu (1004-1066 A.H., 1595-1655/6 A.D.)
42. Thomas Hodgkin. Nigerian Perspectives. O.U.P., 1960, p. 22.
43. M. Crowder. The Story of Nigeria. London, 1962, p. 41.
44. ibid., p. 38.
45. Thomas Hodgkin. op, cit., pp. 30-31.
46. J.S. Trimingham. A History…, op. cit., pp. 130-132.
47. Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Karim al-Maghili (d. 1532), a native of Tilimsan in Algeria, North Africa.
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