Shehu Usman bin Fodiye

By Umaru Yusufu

Usuman dan Fodio (1754-1817), West African Fulani chief, scholar, and teacher, who founded the Sokoto sultanate in present-day northern Nigeria. Born in Maratta in the Hausa kingdom of Gobir, the son of a Muslim scholar, he was thoroughly imbued with Islamic culture, and by the

age of 20 began to teach, travel, and preach. Gathering fame and followers, he won important concessions from the sultan of Gobir, but these were later rescinded when the sultan feared Usuman was becoming too powerful. The final break came in 1804, when Usuman, elected imam (leader) by his followers, declared a jihad, or holy war. The immediate cause of this jihad was that one day; he saw some of his students in chains among a group of slaves about to be sold to slave dealers, when he demand to know why, he was only told that it was the kings orders. It was said that he reacted by freeing them saying that a Muslim could not enslaved a fellow Muslim but when the King hard what he did he ordered his immediate arrest. Someone however alerted him and so he run together with a handful of his followers. It was while they were running that some of his students named him an Imam and demanded that choose commanders to lead a jihad. He agreed and chooses his son Muhammad Bello and one of his students Umarun Dallaje Korau, to be the commaders. (Umarun Dallaje Korau was later to be the Flag bearer that entered Katsina and subsequently the ancestor of Dallajawa ruling house of Katsina royalty in the present day Katsina town in Nigeria.) Within a few years, aided by his son Muhammad Bello, Usuman was in charge of most of Hausaland; the capital of Gobir fell in 1808 and the sultan was killed. Usuman's forces turned east toward the Kanem-Bornu Empire, which, however, effectively checked their advances by 1812. Usuman dan Fodio chose Sokoto as the capital of his caliphate and a base for the spread of Islam and the expansion of the Fulani Empire. In the holy war known as the Fulani Jihad, lasting from 1804 to 1830, Usuman and his followers took control of most of present day northern Nigeria and adjacent parts of Cameroon and Niger. Usuman then withdrew from active government and devoted his last five years to scholarship, leaving a prodigious body of writings. Muhammad Bello, also a brilliant scholar, expanded his father's empire southward into Yoruba country. It was still intact in the early 20th century, when the British occupied it. His name is also spelled Usman dan Fodio and Uthman dan Fodio. Reference: "Usuman dan Fodio." Microsoft Encarta 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.