By SHEHU SANI
THE Northern Nigeria of today comprises 19 states, and to a very large extent, Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Despite the heterogeneous ethnic composition of the North, the Hausa-Fulani ethnic group still predominates, with over 70 percent of its people belonging to the Hausa-Fulani ethnic stock. By extension, the historical evolution of the Hausa group is closely linked with other ethnic groups that can be found in the region.

The source of origin of Hausaland has been a subject of conjectures. There is a tradition which states that Hausaland was founded by a man named Abuyazigu (Bayajida). Bayajida was said to have fled from his father in Baghdad (the present Iraq) after a quarrel. On his way, he arrived at Daura (Hausaland) now in Katsina State and allegedly helped to kill a terror snake which had menaced the people for a long time. In appreciation of his gesture in killing the snake, the Queen of Daura, was said to have married him and a son, Bawo became the product of the union.

Bawo later got married, but still had a concubine. Legend had it that the wife gave Bawo seven legitimate sons and the concubine also gave Bawo seven other illegitimate sons. These sons proceeded to establish the 14 Hausa states. This actually is the legend, but the true origin of the Hausa remains a subject of historical conjectures.

The 19th century tourist, Heinrich Barth, in trying to establish the genealogy of the Hausa, links them with the Atlanter of Herodotus. It is, however, certain that some of the people we now refer to as Hausas had lived in a more interior part of the present Northern states than that which they now occupy. The Hilal invasion brought into these lands Tuaregs, who were said to have been driven southward by the Barber Tribes of North Africa.

Tuaregs and Barbers

For sometime, the Tuaregs and Barbers lived in harmony and intermarried. Their intermarriages produced half-castes. These half-castes were said to have migrated southwards and founded various states, the most ancient of which appears to be Biran. Biran is considered to be the ancestor of the Hausas. His descendants, Daura, Gobir, Kano, Rano, Katsina and Zaria were the founders of the kingdom which still bear these names.

These descendants together with Biran were called the seven legitimate Hausa states (Hausa Bakwai). The other states whose population had been mixed through intermarriages with foreign elements (Nupe, Gwari, Yauri, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kebbi) were known as bastard Hausas. (Hausa Banza Bakwa).

These resulting kingdoms varied in extent. The oldest; Biran and Rano were not much larger than their capitals. However, the others developed considerably. The rulers of the various Hausa states are called Sarakai (Emir). Although they exhibited a slight variation in culture, they had homogeneity of language.

Islam  in Northern Nigeria

The first contact with Islam by the people of Kano and the entire Hausa-land and by extension Northern Nigeria was in 1370. It was introduced by merchants and scholars from Western Sudan (Mali) during the reign of Ali Tsamia, between 1349 and 1385. Ali Tsamia was also called Sarkin Yaji because of his hot temperament.

He was at that time, the ruler of Hausaland. Apart from Islam, which was newly introduced at that period, there were other traditions, such as the bori-cult which was very influential. The rulers at these times did not reject Islam completely nor did they adhere very strictly to the principles and the teachings of the Holy Qur’an. Consequently, they were called pagans by revivalist and fundamentalist Hausa-Fulani.

In Kano, at that time, the king had the power to decide what the state religion should be, and with such power, Ali Tsamia, made Islam the official religion. In the process, he built a mosque and by his authority ordered the people of Kano to pray five times a day. He equally appointed Islamic officials such as Imam, Muezzin and Quadi. However, the fact that the king had accepted Islam did not mean that everybody else accepted it.

Indeed, many people, after the demise of Ali Tsamia, were said to have refused to embrace the Islamic religion, and were deeply attached to their ancestral or traditional religion. In fact, the six successive rulers after Ali Tsamia were said to have equally refused to embrace Islam.

During the reign of Mohammed Rumfa (1463-1499), Islam had penetrated Kano which was then inhabited by the Hausa people called Maguzawa. It was after the conquest by Uthman Dan Fodio (1802-1817) that Islam began to spread among the Maguzawa people. By the time the British arrived the area, it was estimated that about half of the Maguzawa had accepted Islam.

Before the arrival of Islam, the Maguzawa had a belief in Allah as the Supreme Being who could be approached or invoked through other deities. They also had a belief on the last day when Allah will judge everyone, punishing and rewarding each person accordingly.

The Maguzawa people also believed in and worshipped spirit (Iskoki or Iskokai) who inflicts or removes suffering from people when they are invoked. The religion of Islam appealed to the Maguzawa people because the beliefs and dictates of the religion were in synchronization with those of the Maguzawa.

However, as time passed, some of the spirits were believed to be good and lived in the city where they were considered and compared to Muslims who lived in the city. The black spirits were seen as being purely wicked and evil and were considered as Maguzawa who lived in the bush.

Traditional religions

Therefore, in many of the Hausa states, we saw how Islam existed side-by-side with traditional religions. Severally, there were frequent wars of proselytizing and supremacy between these Hausa states, yet, there were a number of factors which encouraged the development of unity among the Hausa states. One of them, and perhaps the most cogent, was the Bayajida legend which served as a unifying factor among the different Hausa sub-groups.

The importance of the legend was primarily the fact that it provided the belief that all Hausa states had a common origin and derived from common ancestors. Another potential rallying point for unity among the Hausa states was Islam.

Maitatsine uprising in Kano in 1980
The 1980 Maitatsine uprising marked the watershed of large-scale ethno-religious conflicts comparable to a small-scale war in a smaller nation. It has become a landmark reference of ethno-religious conflicts in African nations by local and international media, policy makers and strategic political analysts. It was a conflict that heightened the Nigerian security operatives’ sensitivity to the activities of legal and illegal aliens on her shore.

The 1980 Kano Maitatsine massacre was said to have been ignited by a violent confrontation between the authority and the Al-Masifu sect led by Alhaji Muhammadu Marwa Maitatsine.  The Al-Masifu members estimated between 3000 and 5000 denounced ostentatious display of wealth, such as owning houses, wearing Muslim customs, such as facing Mecca while praying, an act which an average Kano Muslim considered sacrilegious.

The sect members, therefore, sought to purify the practice of Islam to conform with the teachings of their leader. Perceiving the security implication of Maitatsine’s doctrine and disruptive behaviour, the security agents had swiftly swooped on him in his residence and hurriedly deported him and few of his lieutenants back to Cameroon. He managed to return to Nigeria towards the end of 1978.

After a two year period during which the sect members increasingly intimidated citizens living near their enclave in Kano and a month after which a policeman was killed by the sect members, the then Kano State governor, Mohammed Abubakar Rimi, felt that enough was enough. He decidedly sent a letter to Maitatsine and his followers ordering them to leave Kano immediately. The sect leader received the governor’s order, but decided to ignore it, damning any consequences of his action or inaction.

The beginning of the end for the Maitatsine’s reign of terror came exactly three weeks after the governor’s expulsion letter was issued. On December 18, 1980, the Al-Masifu sect members allegedly attacked orthodox Muslims praying outside Kano city grand mosque.

Police attempt to bring the situation under control was rebuffed by the sect members and the governor of the state was thus constrained to ask the Federal Government to send in the military. After some initial resistance that lasted about ten days, the army and airforce went into action and dislodged the sect from its enclave in Kano city.

Orthodox muslim residents
At the same time, during the crisis, the orthodox Muslim residents of Kano sought out and killed anyone suspected of belonging to the sect. This resulted in heavy casualties with the combined team of the Nigerian Army and Airforce having an upper hand in the confrontation.

Realising this, some of the sect members armed with bows and arrows and a number of modern weapons, mainly seized from the police and army, retreated to a nearby village, and the fighting continued until January 3, 1981. At the end of the confrontation and the military campaign against the sect, over 4, 177 people, including Maitatsine, some policemen and a reporter with Nigeria’s Daily Times newspaper, had been killed and another 8,712 sustained different levels of injuries. Property worth several millions of naira were reportedly lost in the conflict.

The Taliban
The world first became aware of a group called Taliban when they were appointed by the Pakistan’s government to protect a convoy attempting to open a trade route between Pakistan and Central Asia. This group, made up of Afghans trained in religious schools in Pakistan along with former Mujahidden holy warriors who were the Islamic fighters of AI Queeda, proved effective as bodyguards.

Continues  tomorrow

Comrade Sani is leader of the  Socialist Front and Northern Civil Rights Society Coalition