THE CALIPH’S SISTER = Jean Boyl — Bag ‘Jean Boyd's biography of Nana Asma'u is a oud tour de force, blending scholarship with sympathy. a: and an imaginative understanding. a! Ina milieu apparently dominated by men, =| the role of Nana Asma’u in war, as in learning, tS) contradicts the stereotypes we have of Muslim =| women before colonialism began in West Africa. ay Rarely the life of such A Q| y is the life of such a woman su wel | documented. The wealth of historical evidence q has enabled Jean Boyd to write a convincing 8) pioneering study ina newly sign L the actual words and works of African Muslim women in the past.’ Murray Last, University College, London % aa ay a! g 8 Nana Asma’u shows how the sister of Caliph Muhanad Bello successfully used her position to promote inthe 1793-1865 Teacher, Poet and wine dunt Md Islamic Leader si ecg en eta en JEAN BorD a tne eegion with present-day Niger Cove pica ol Dray Eve npn Dak pd veanarteare inedin Coa in CASS — (> tt nee ————_____rrguiuatmsrasee Raat S06, Hal Sue end Cen 236 ony 019 se boyd ‘tac boy en “heise in ae NS ers Ata fe 8-183 ‘Suwon. 0 (mye mpegs Hectes ino ean fat SSF a wn ic ape te ee Si pin Pk ‘ony owe Utara iie DEDICATION ‘his book is for Dick and wie girs because they have helped to produce it itis also for the now generation of Nigerian women fescarciers. who, I'am sure, are soon going {o unravel the great conuibutons made by ‘worn to tir society.Contents recimtcat seis Languages ~ Arabic, Folfulde, Hausa Takhmis Metre ‘Acrostic construction ‘Translation Works modelled on others "THe WIDTH OF ASUA‘U'S TEREST Health Eaiueaton of women The Shae's law and women ‘The Women and bor! ‘The Family Women as sustainers History Eschatology Politics Theology The Caliphate and idealism1 2 1 The - Collaboration berwe Contents List of ltusurations, List of Maps Acknowledgements Preface ‘An Inuoduetory Note Asma'u's Barly Life Parents; Faily Life: Education “The Barly Jihad ‘Special Challenges faced by Women: the Gemaye “The Setlement of Sokow Mareage the Fall of Atkalawa Literary Activity at Sita the She's Death |. Collaboration between Asia’ and Bello Rovowod Filing Poca ow Teas Invasion Poets fou Women Sains 3. Asma’u's Development of her Role ‘Colurl Role of Women Leaders; Asma'u's Perceptions; tie Ys mete: Gawakuke ~ Asma’w’s Eple Accs Bell's Death ‘Asma’u and Gidado Accession of Ally the Works on de Sch and Bello writen by Gidado; We Parallel Works writen by Asma'y a 3 2 sa3s, The Caliph’s Sister ‘A Gobir knife with a tine leather sheath 36 & 37. Lily-roter and Open-bill 38. 39. 40. 4 a 4B. 44 45, 46, 4 48. 4, 50. 31 32, 33, 54. 55, 56, sr. 38. 39, 60. t 62 a. 6a, 6s 66, (bieds common near Wario) A camel drummer {A Bororoje (nou-Mustin A Tuseg artist's impression of Muhammad Bello ‘A spear held by the present Wazi's helper, Shel ‘Cocaka A goriba palm wee ‘The patter of Gidado's and Asmua’y's work A maroki (praise-singes) who makes a livig by panegyrizing pawons ‘A quotation from Muhanad Bello used on a present-day greeting card Putant . The entrance to a large house ‘An inkpot and pen ‘A gist on a donkey “The genealogy of the jl of Teche village A Fulani woman Ibrahim Dabo's Qur'an ‘Asma’u's poem on Dan Mati ‘A Saharan shield ‘The algaita (hor) A baobab tree ‘A white gudate bull ‘The Mower of the maje ree ‘Asma’u's pocm modelled on her Father's lanmulet containing 4 verse of the Qur'an ‘A ichly dressed horseman ‘The room called amini at Dan Yallis house in Yabo ‘The badge of Nana Day Secondary Sciool, Sokol, 1986 Women yan-taru 7 39 oo ol a a 83 66 67 » 7 n 35 76 16 # 80 BI BI 2 84 6 a8 v0 on 2 oa 95 9 100 List of Maps |. Pre-Jihad States 6.1800 ‘The Gewaye 1804-1810 “The Position of T ‘The Position of Ibxa’s camp at Dundaye ‘The tides of some women leaders in various regions ‘The postion of Wurmo ‘The position of Gawakuke 3. Caliph Aliyu’s route to Kotorkoshi 2 2 35 a 38 59 86The Caliph's Sister 8. Away from the Centre 1842-1850 ‘Asma'u's System of Education; Caliph Aliya’s Problems Desth of Gidado 9. Asma'u's Widowhood at Wumo Her Perceptions of Wumno and Her Pat inte Caliph’ Election 10, Final Years: Her Legacy er Vigorous Verse ln Old Age: How She is Perceived: Her Diseiples Notes Sense of Values: PART TWO. A Brief Overview of Nana Asma’u's Works Glossary ‘An Outline Chronology Bibliography Index ” 84 2 10 136 M2 148 165 List of Illustrations ‘Aline from Sonnore Gidado Carved calabashes HL Tioeing a furrow 12 A giginya wee 13. A guinea-com head 114 Some verse fram the poem Tabbar Hakika al rte) of Gobir ial wumpet)formety of Gobi, 1. A poem by the Sheu dated 1789 2, Prayer beads: used as at aid to mediation (itr) 3. A woman from western Sokolo 4, The leat of the faru wee 5. Talla the present Inna of Gobir 6 Riding at ox 7. Anseeher 8. A mounted drummer 9. 10. now of Soketo 17, Acemioe ferry 18, A group of scholars 19, Posi by Asia'y 20. Poem by Bell 21. A Tumeg camel salle 22, Bello's words about his smth 23. Asuia'a’s eaislaton of Bello's words 24. Datura, a herb used to induce hallucinations 25, A Tuareg i 26. A tlausa pel eareying hr baby om her back 22. The Inna dressed as 8 mans 2B, the sword captured by Inns Yar Bukuwa 31, The turban as wor by men and jit 32. ATulani iil 33. A tatirist oF book cover for manuscripts 34, Dye-ite B 6 16 18 2» 2 Fr 26 26 2 30 30 3 4 36 7 37 x” 40 “4 4% “6 46 a e 0 50 55 55 56Acknowledge «ments I man withthe person to whom 1 owe the bigest det, my husband: Dick Boyd whose checrfuineses ad fran have ale Umeny forme: thas never grudged te tne Ihave spent at ny books and har ofees normed constancive cto on even Ung Ifve writen. seo tanks Rachel wa een forte nro 9 hivelvement Tantei age ray oer os hele tae planed ow the Seay Wacssh Sania Ka MS Sayed ORendomanSoksiy, Atha" Muhsummats Maga end Mary Rave sisted ne“ Of uve outers T veal neo melon fs fow: Malai Wababs and Nakao for aie yeus of sri Bid Wiliams for his cof hindneas, Mod tbo ae fo beled Ine, Sun Gobir Muhann Tor thes marvelous es | hal obit avr Holingwon ox al Une typng, sd Chop Moot, eno iis who id une maypsseprtestonaly MP ed tol evéayon else sino To hep me ovr the last ihny yous vould neiably ae thee mile of onting names Terie wah simply to sy "ThankYou" Preface How this book came to be written te remote beginings of The Caliph’s Sister can be idemiied with the work did inahe early 1960s for die Sultan of Sokoto. On the eve ‘of Ui vst of the Preside of Niger Republic to Sokoto in 1960 was fsked 1o help put the new buildings ofthe Palace In onder. In the ‘months which followed I arranged the Sultan's private apartments, watched over by his emerald- and crimson-robed bodyguards. 1 organised cocktail parties, wached and counted linen, cut out rains, supervised’ the cooking and serving of a banquet for visit Commonwealth parliamentarians and wied to lay out a t. The Sultan allowed me to come and go as 1 wished, a vege which enmbled me to see life atthe cout a a insider. The Palace had been built by Mubammad Bello and frequented. by ‘Asma’, I saw some of the old rooms before they were demolished and liad places of historical interest described to me by the Sultan hinge. ae able to observe how the Cour functioned on #day-to basis: I saw the Sultan residing over the Shari'a Appeal Coun, is Couucil Chamber, watched the regalia being prepared forthe pageant ofthe Id festival, got to kitow his usted servant Deke, un! became Muent in Hausa, These expetiencss were very ueeful 19 tne when, wenty years late, I started to write tis biography. Even before I started work on the book I found my connections with the paid dividends whenever { went. outlying aras in search of I. The people of Sokoto are hospitable, courteous people, vertices [nirays fel especially welcome and I usink it was because of the work I had done in 1961. The stat of my interest in history is anwier story. hy 1964 we went to live in Katsina, where one day in the Kefar Keke Gisls Primary School { read ue following seitence on Uie blackboard: “David Leivingstove was bom ina fonely tone cotage at Blantyre in the year 1813." Thought ic quite inappropriate co teach such things to 10. year-old Mustin gies living n a place connected over the ceniuries sitThe Caliph's Sister ‘of education and, Uianks largely to tie generosity of Murray Last, ‘my tupervisor, I was invited lo give papers at seminars held i Pa (December. 1983), Chicago (April 1984), Ilinois (April 1984), Bayreuth Gly 1984) SOAS (November 1984) as not easy. ln 1985 I wrote eight Fie BIC World Service which were spreading knowledge of a remarkable wor in January 1987 we were honoured to be asked by the Emirate Council, in x letter signed by Wazisl Junaidu, to make a ret journey to Sokoto. For four weeks we were able to renew fr ships and collate information, and we acknowledge with gratiude ‘our debt t0 our hosts. a. vii An Introductory Note “There are many excellent books on the origin, extent, organisation fund history of the Sokoto Caliphate already in print. This ino- ductory note has been writen to help the absolute newcomer 19 ‘West Atvican Islaie history. The Calipi's Stier is about a Muslim woman called Asma'y whose mother tongue was an ATriean language, whose skin was brown. She was bors wien Uie French Revolution was at is hefght ina village called Degel situated in the dry, sandy plans of Hausa- land, which form pat of the Wester Sudan, The word ‘Sudan’, used by the Arabs to descrite the lands south ofthe Sahara, includes the Sudas of Ue Nile as well asthe Western Sudan which is north of the Niger, ‘Nigctia, a county delinented and named by the British, wat 3 word today Nigeria encompasses the places where she lived. It is a land of great contrasts: the people of the coastlands fringing the Auantic are different from those living in hnordiem Hausaland: their languages are muusally incompr: hhensibe. In dhe north, in contrast to the south, the horse had great value inthe nineteenth century. The strengis of an army layin the humor of is cavalry: merelsots md men of wealth rode horses ‘whieh were beautifaly eaparisoned. Donkeys were ridden by Villagers at alko wsed 9 caey Toads: camels were the means of Uuaneport on the fringes of dhe desers, ind pack-oxen were Hidden by nomads, Noe of these animale could survive the scourge of the Isetse-ly in the jungles ofthe south, so cultural contact was cast~ westwards between the many varied peoples in Ue Sudan, and also onwards ing and across the immense and dangerous Sahara desert Inthe place where Astis'y was bom, no rin fell during eight nouths of every yeat, 20 Vado routes, ie paths taken by calle rovers, and the ways Uodden by armies were all dictated by the iy of waterholes, When the rains came in June, preluded by violent storms, dhe laid was planted with millet and guinea-com ‘without sehicl the populations of the Sudan could not survive. The vunfarmed African bush, with is herbs, medicinal plans and fruits,Fhe Calle s hater avs soenbes ane Doedbale and Honea’, ae cand, mand bnoaht Boones Is vate apantiaienbs a poatbins bay we which there wrt oleae of ape nowned imanecriph. In Pebiumy 1976, theretore, Ebon appraise the He people of what {called ‘the complexity of hee writings and the range of her imtellectual accomplishments’, and told them that the writing of the chapter would have to be delayed! ‘The Waziri’s manuscripts had not been catalogued and were, for the most part, in a parlous condition. I liad no idea whatsoever what each of the poems contained, so I asked Waziri to describe each one to me, and came to realize that most of her works were dated. This was the key factor which made the writing of a biography possible. Had she not dated her poetry it would have been difficult ever to understand the significance of the corpus of het work. ‘The Waziri was extremely helpful and allowed me to take the manuscripts away and have them photocopied on the only photo- copier which then existed in Sokoto, at Government House. Nothing was ever straightforward or easy: the driver of the car bearing Ure photocopies drove recklessly, causing the hundreds of neatly stacked copies to be thrown around the car. It took four days to sort them out. ‘The preliminary translations took two years to do. I concentrated first on the works in Fulfulde, which are the most nunicrous but also the most difficult. The poetry was written for court ciscles and therefore an understanding of the shared knowledge it contains is necessary. Also, it was written in western Fulfulde dialect; and few scholars read nineteenth-century Fufulde today. The tragedy was that the Waziri, whose eyesight had been failing for years, was now blind. Thad then to search for a substitute scholar, someone wlio spoke Fulfulde fluently, who was skilled as a translator, had been educated in the traditional ways of the Jihadi scholars, had received the handed-down interpretations of difficult passages — and was willing to work with me! Incredibly, the only man who I now realise could possibly have filled the bill was a friend of Mallam Sidi. Alhaji Muhammadu Magaji is a farmer, cattle-owner and a very leamed and pious man. By April 1978 1 was able to put together a Uee-volume descrip- tive and systematic catalogue of Asma’u’s works which I circulated to colleagues for comment. A catalogue is however not a biography. To understand why she wrote her poetry I had to read widely about the events of her time, which involved reading works in Arabic not yet translated, Fortunately Mallam Sidi, by this time a Judge, was Vrepane Lack ne Seshaste atid Bie dae peed nee bay giv expert andl Buowledge, Ewa ofa enon ay Eat whi Hine te Swale the thing property? mud acyister fox an Mh In 1980 1 joined the Sokoto State History Bureau as a Senior Research Feliow and started to write. In order to understand how it felt to ride long distances 1 rode up the Rima valley from Wumo to Sabon Bimi accompanied by two horsemen, Saidu and Nakabo; 1 slept in a mouse-infested cotton store in one village and in a dowless room with the liorse tack in another; I took every drop of drinking water because the water-holes were infested with guinea worm. On another occasion I journeyed to Niamey to find out about ‘women Icaders among the Zaberma people and, because 1 found inyself in the middle of an attempted coup, was temporarily arrested. In 1982 I spent days with the two Innas of Gobir, and made a tong tek into Niger Republic to climb Zana Hill, mentioned by Asma’ in her poem Gawakuke, where we were almost stranded. ‘The manuscript, which eventually opened a window onto a different aspect of Asma’u’s work, was the list of her students. 1 asked niyself if it would be of value to go to the villages mentioned in the document and ask the women if they knew anything about ‘Asina’u’s pupils who were supposed to have lived there. At the first village, in Shuni District, 1 told the Village Head about my quest. He was sceptical and so were the members of his retinue. Then the elderly women came. ‘They were apprehensive and rather alarmed by this sudden invasion, ‘Yes, we do know about Asma’u’s pupil, her name was Aisha, and we know who her successors were.” Successors! This implied that there was continuity, and that the women knew about genealogy and history. ‘The ladies I questioned had a great deal to say, the Village Head was impressed, and 1, much encouraged, went from village to village 2ig-zagging my way round as the months went by, covering 1,500 kilometres, very often on appalling roads. As usual, Sarkin Kudu provided a 4-wheel-drive vehicle and an escort Eventually I had to make enquiries at the place of pilgrimage, the Hubbare, which is a sensitive arca. It proved impossible, even with Waziri's permission, to conduct an interview there, but I was fortunate that a friend was able to arrange a discreet meeting with one of the madibes in his own house. ‘The thesis from which this book was developed reached the North London Polytechnic on our 25th wedding aniversary, 27th July 1982. 1 cominued to compite material about the Asmawian systemdhe Calls Savter with the t wut trade: and with a long, tadition of Islamic scholarship, I tied to write something to replace the texts used and in the process discovered that | would have 40 know more about Sokoto. In 1967, on our retum to Sokoto, | put together a simple out history of the Caliphate and was advised to read it to the Waziri before trying to get it published. This was the beginning of a long association with a man whose family has been at the cenue of the Caliphate administration since its beginning: his ows intel- Iectualism is a by-word in Nigeria, What is more, he is, although 1 was not aware of it at the time, the great-great-grandson of Asnia’v. He taught me history in the only way he knew, the traditional way of the Caliphate scholars. He did not dole out information on demian he pointed me in various directions and expected me to produce work which would stand up to his detailed scrutiny. Initially 1 w dismayed by his approach, which was always challenging and never easy. He is, by nature, impatient of carelessness. Eventually 1 grew to appreciate his skills as a teacher and enjoyed the sessions we liad together, especially when, as time passed, he allowed me to meet him in his public shigifa, traditionally the place where the Waziris have debated with students. On one occasion the Grand Kadi of Agadez arrived, black-tobed and turbanned. The Waziri invited me to stay on ~ the thtce of us sat on mats on the floor while the Grand Kadi and Waziri discussed a case involving nomadic ‘Tuaregs. For me it was like stepping back into another century. By 1969 when I was in charge of the Government Capital School it was my good fortune that the first man appointed to teach Islamic Religious Knowledge at the school was Sidi Sayudi. The son of a famous scholar, the Ubandoma of Sokoto, Mallam Sidi had grown up in a milieu where the Shehu, Mutammad Bello and other Jihadists were spoken of as if they had died yesterday, so present were their works and deeds in the minds of the twentieth century scholars. He and 1 decided to translate into Hausa Caliph Muhammad Bello's great work Infak al-Maisur (a history of the Jihad), and to visit the baitletields, ribats, tombs, hill forts and campsites mentioned in the book. In this endeavour we were greatly helped by Sarkin Kudu, the Sultan's son, who saw to it that we never lacked transport and guides. Some of the battleficlds were very remote: Jaru north of Sabon Birni we could reach only on horseback, and the sites of some of the ancient hill settlements had been lost — Jata is a case in point. We had to plan long and difficult journeys and put up with trying conditions. At Kiyawa we were followed by 1 inhaled smoke from a paraffin lamp and I; at Kaura our evening meal was so covered with dead flies we were unable to cat. The roads sometimes fizzled out altogether, as at Kajin-Kajin, and on many occasions the horses I rode were far too spirited for me. It took us two years to visit all the sites. Most of them, I later found, had very strong associations with Asma’. either because she had been there or because she had mentioned them in her poetry. 1 eared a great deal, not least from M, Sidi himself. I came to appreciate his sense of values, his asceticism. his picty and above all his wide-ranging intelligence. He taught me to speak the distinctive Sokoto dialect of Hausa, Sakkwatanci, an accomplishment which ‘was at great asset when 1 went alone into the villages in the 1980s. Looking back it scems as though the stage had been set for my next venture, the work on which this book is based: I had become known to the Sultan, whose word could unlock many doors in Hausaland, I was the Waziri’s student, 1 spoke Sakkwatanci, I had translated the Infak, a book central to an understanding of the Jihad, and {had visited most of the places associated with Asma’s. Unexpectedly the impetus came from an outside source. A chapter ou Asma’u was needed for a book about women to be published as put of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts ond Culture (FESTAC) and the person approached said he could not do it and proposed my name as author. This was in August 1975. The proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm. ‘I have not heard of the Iady from Sokoto, Mrs Boyd,” wrote the co-ordinator in Ife, ‘IE th cannot be your own contribution, I would like it to be’ a joint contribution by you and the lady. We are anxious not only to ieam about our own lieroines but also that our own people should do the writing. Itgives a greater air of authenticity and you as a Nigerian are likely to bring more insight and understanding of the subject into your study.” ‘The state of my knowledge, and that of most people, about Asma’u was sketchy. She was certainly famous, but the known facts were few, and were limited to the following: she was the Shehu's daughter ‘and the sister of Bello, whom she had helped, in a miraculous way, when he was making his final attack on Alkalawa; she wrote poetry and her five compositions in Arabic were included in the standard list of Jihad literature. Everyone knew of her but no one I spoke to was able to tell me any details about her life. When I first went to see Waziri on this topic I was unaware, even, that he was her descetidant. It was lic who dropped the bonibshiell. ‘She wroteThe Caliph's Sister with the trans-Saharan nd with a long tradition of Ist scholarsh to replace the texts used in the process discovered that 1 would have to kirow more about Sokoto. In 1967, on our retum to Sokoto, I put together a simple outline history of the Caliphate and was advised to read it to the Waziti before trying to get it published. This was the beginning of a long association with a man whose family has been at the centre of the Caliphate administration since its beginning: his own intel- lectualism is a by-word in Nigeria. What is more, he is, although 1 was not aware of it at the time, the great-great-grandson of Asma’. He taught me history in the only way he knew, the traditional way of the Caliphate scholars. He did not dole out information on demand; he pointed me in various directions and expected me to produce work which would stand up to his detailed scrutiny. Initiatly f was dismayed by his approach, which was always challenging and never easy. He is, by nature, impatient of carclessness. Eventually 1 grew to appreciate his skills as a teacher and enjoyed the sessions we had together, especially when, as time passed, he allowed me to meet him in his public shigifa, traditionally the place where the Waziris have debated with students, On one occasion the Grand Kadi of Agadez arrived, black-robed and turbanned, ‘The Waziri invited me to stay on ~ the three of us sat on mats on the floor while the Grand Kadi and Waziri discussed case involving nomadic Tuaregs. For me it was like stepping back into another century. By 1969 when I was in charge of the Government Capital Schoo! it was my good fortune that the first man appointed to teach Islamic, Religious Knowledge at the school was Sidi Sayudi. ‘The son of famous scholar, the Ubandoma of Sokoto, Mallam Sidi had grown up in a milicu where the Shehu, Muhammad Bello and other Jihadists were spoken of as if they had died yesterday. so present were their works and deeds in the minds of the twentieth century scholars. He and 1 decided to translate into Hausa Caliph Muhammad Bello’s great work Infak al-Maisur (a histoty of ue Jihad), and to visit the battlefields, ribats, tombs, hill forts and campsites mentioned in Uie book. In this endeavour we were greally helped by Sarkin Kudu, the Sultan's son, who saw to it that we never Jacked transport and guides. Some of the battlefields were very remote: Jaru north of Sabon Bimi we could reach only on horseback, and the sites of some of the ancient hill settlements had been lost — Jata is a case in point. We had to plan long and difficult journeys and put up with uying conditions. At Kiyawa we were followed by Preface baboons: at Sabon Bimi | inhaled smoke from a paraffin lamp and became violently ill; at Kaura our evening meal was so covered dead Hlics we were unable to eat. The roads sometimes fizzled out altogether, as at Kajin-Kajin, and on many occasions the horses 1 rode were far too spirited for me. It took us two years to visit all the sites. Most of them, I later found, had very strong associations with Asma's, either because she had been there or because she had mentioned them in her poetry. I Ieamed a great deal, not least from M. Sidi himself. I came to appreciate his sense of values, his asceticism, his piety and above all his wide-ranging intelligence. He taught me to speak the distinctive Sokoto dialect of Hausa, Sakkwatanci, an accomplishment which ‘was a great nssct when I'went alone into the villages in the 1980s. Looking back it scems as though the stage had been set for my next venture, the work on which this book is based: { had become known to the Sultan, whose word could unlock many doors in Hausaland, I was the Waziri’s student, I spoke Sakkwalanci, I had uanslated the Infak, a book central to an understanding of the Jihad, and L had visited most of the places associated with Asma’u. Unexpectedly the impetus came front an outside source. A chapter ‘on Asma’ was needed for a book about women to be published as, part of the 2nd World Black and Aftican Festival of Arts and Culture (FES'TAC) and the person approached said he could not do it and proposed my name as author. This was in August 1975. ‘The proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm, ‘I have not heard of the Iady from Sokoto, Mrs Boyd.’ wrote the co-ordinator in Ife, ‘IF this enunuot be your own contribution, T would like it to be’ a joint comibution by you and the lady. We are anxious not only to ican about our own licroines but also that our own people should do the writing. It gives a greater air of authenticity and you as a Nigerian are likely to bring more insight and understanding of the subject into your study." ‘The state of my knowledge, and that of most people, about Asma‘ was sketchy. She was certainly famous, but the known facts were few, and were limited to the following: she was the Shehu’s davghter ‘and the sister of Bello, whom she had helped, in a miraculous way, when he was making his final attack on Alkalawa; she wrote poetry and hier five compositions in Arabic were included in the standard list of Jihad fiterature. Everyone knew of her but no one I spoke to was able to tell me any details about her life. When 1 first went to sce Waziri on this topic f was unaware, even, that he was her descendant. It was he who dropped the bombshell. ‘She wrote~~ ——_ — a The Calis inter saws Hass elephants, lyestan, ede gays aan pune ytd by momiadie te vates H weathy weal an siehopes sehuitars assembled round thet euler Shehu dan Fodio, Asma’u’s father, He was a preacher who fought a Jihad and won. He was leaned, pious and resolute; he was also a prolific writer, as were his brother Abdullahi, his son Mulanimad Bello ~ and others, including Asma’u herself. These authors left an amazing literary legacy which historians of the Westem uadition have been using, since the 1960s, to piece together the story of an Islamic Revolution which changed, or affected, an area the size of ‘Wester Europe. In his own lifetime the Shehu was regarded with awe, and was greatly revered. When lie died, in 1817, the spell was broken nid his successors had to contend with an upsurge of warfare waged by ousted rulers bent on recovering power. ‘Muhammad Bello who succeeded his father was a skilled admini- strator, a pious and upright judge and an intepid warrior. ‘This Caliph’ valued his sister Asma’u on account of her character and intelligence; she played a meaningful role in the Caliphate and was given encouragement by her husband, Waziri Gidado After Bello’s death in 1837 Asma’u was foremost among those who kept alive the ideological flame of the Islamic Revolution led by her father. Others included her sisters, five of whom were also writers. It was Gidado's and Asma’u's grandsons who had to face the invading British in 1903, and contol of the Caliphate passed from their hands. PAICE onl1 ASMA’U’S EARLY LIFE Nana Astna'u Fodio, a twin, was bon in about 1793! in Degel, a smvall settlement lying 25 miles north-west of Sokoto, which was only an unimportant hamlet in the year of her birth. The twins” father, Shel dan Fodio, had just retumed with his family from an Islamic teaching tour in Zamfara which had occupied him for five years, and where he had written the important book Tiya’ al-Sunna which brought him recognition as a great scholar. UKATSIN, were educated. His father Muhammad was known as Fodio (Fodiye 3The Caliph’s srster 4 alle the language of the Fula?) eau “the tea tence the Shehu’s own name, ‘dan Fodio’, ‘son of the “His | nother, Hauwa and his matemal grandmother Rukayya were also camed and were among the teachers of the community, Two | housand kilometres away in Futa Toro” there was at least one Mauritanian woman teacher; so women scholars were tot untieard of, and there is evidence of notable scholarly women in Timbuktu who had the title ‘Nana’, Nevertheless it is the degree to which women were encouraged to become educated in the Fodio extended family which is unusual and of great interest. Asma‘u wrote retro- spectively, in 1837, of Joua Kawuuri, Qur'anic scholar who benefited people in m: Yar Hindu the Qur'anic scholar who settled disputes: 1a Lubel who was acutely intelligent... Aisha saintly and pious . .. Habiba Ue teacher of women and a woman of great presence... . and miany others who hhad memorised the Qur'an and were of great piety, who preached the beneficial Faith and received great blessings.’ Asma’u's mother, Maimuna, was the Shehu's first cous Maimuna's mother and the Sheltu’s father were brother and sister. However, it seems that Maimuna had been brought up enjoying a degree of freedom which the Shehu thought unwarranted. As a bride she had felt shut in at home and expressed the need to go to the market where she could count on meeting her friends as they came to sell dairy produce in the customary way. The Shehu persuaded her of her folly: he did not accept the habits of his kinsmen and kinswomen any more than he accepted the ways of the Hausa, who comprised the majority of the population. His mission was to revive the suana (way) of the Prophet Muhammad nnd to remove customs and innovations which were not sunna. He wrote in Iya’ al- Sunna: towns ICs obligatory on every learned person not to keep quiet because i vations have appeared and spread ... The Hadith says ‘when tribulations appear and the learned one keeps quiet, on hhim there Js the curse of God" ‘Most of the people are ignorant of te Shari'a [law] and it is obligatory on every fagih [scholar versed in the law}... that they should go out 10 the people in order to teach them their religion.* ‘The home into which Asma‘u was bom, therefore, was unusual: it was unlike the homes of Fulani nomadic herders just as it was untike those of the sedentary Hausa agriculturalists and merchants. The Shel as avery young man —he was only about 20 when he married Maimuna — set his own house in order and then made his views 4 Asmna'u’s Larly Life known duongh the Bullulde pocty which he started wi before Asma’u's birth. In one poem he described what h ie oppressive’ customs of they fail 19 dress, house and feed their wives adequately, they show favouritism between one wife and another and make unwise and hasty marriages without due thought ... They revile their wives ... and beat them excessively ... they do not educate them and if they divorce them they spread malicious tales about them thereby ruining their chances of re- marriage ... others refuse to divorce unhappy wives... My goodness! [ir}. All these things are evidence of ignorance. He went on: Some women ate in wouble ... because their husbands think of nothing but some mett eat huge meals avay from home without caring to know if ‘wives have enough (0 eat .. Uiey are hot-tempered and when angry tefuse to speak to their wives ... others never joke happily with them nor do they share their sexual attentions equally amongst them ... they sit stoking their beards in contentment outside homes which are iitue better than hovels ... they are hard by nature and fault-finding by disposition... Uiey confine their wives too closely ... Uhey neither educate them them: selves nor allow tient to beuclit from being educated by others . ‘A wonnen should protect her honour and stay at home ... and show a pleasant and gracious manner to her husband... giving him Jue respect... i gsalie ot pg ue 535 oil esa) pete rartyptete agyiina aybLanydany 3 Carstroyselory alloy af iesinh oapeon il py yi aly olaljpsei s35ai® os 1. A poo by the Shu dated 1789 5the yeh vanes oany reversal of hes Houiines seh egnanmanty ab sungatsney dessay Cuba) A woke Jaco bier dowsty atl cannot Womentolk take heed! Do wie who g claim food and clothing tro het busbar not do communal farm work and do not assist in herding ... cover yourselves up and spin the thread you need to clothe yourself with... if you 0 on visits to the tombs of pious saints downot have arguments ..and if you Have to go to the well to draw water, do not misbehave ... if you meet on social occasions do not engage in back-biting gossip ... the best thing is to let the men-folk go to the market, but if circumstances compel you to go you must dress in a restrained manner, covering yourself up from ead to ioe ... there is no reason why a wife should not (because of custom} ulter the name of her husband or be considered ill-mannered for doing 0, nor should she avoid (aking her meals with him ... Allal sent the Prophet Muhammad to us and we must therefore learn from his example. One of the pictures which emerges from these poems is of the Shchu's own home, where it seems lie enjoyed occasions of relaxed informality with his wives, whom he enjoined to stay at home but who were expected to take advantage of every opportunity to advance their education providing that they dressed in Ure pre- scribed way and comported themselves in a sensible manner 1793 he had four wives, Maimuna, Aisha, Hauwa and Hadiza, and he already had 21 children, although some of these had dicd in infancy, Asma’ and Hassan were the 22nd and 23rd of his children; his eldest son Sa’ad was aged 17, and Muhammad Bello, with whom Asina’u was to be so closely associated, was 13. ‘On the seventh day alter their birth the twins Hassan and Asmia'u were carried into the entrance hall of the Shehu's home, and in the presence of friends and relatives their names were minounced and prayers offered that Uiey would grow up in the Faith. Hassan was given the name of the Prophet's twin grandson; Asma‘u the name of the girl who took food to the Prophet when he was a fugitive in hiding = an unusual choice, because it is more traditional to name all twins, male and female, after the historical Hassan and Hussain Maimuna’s children did not thrive well; eight of her 11 childre failed to reach adulthood, a surprisingly high number. In contrast, in Ure same household, all of Hauwa’s five children survived. When Asina’u was very young, Maimuna died and so did the Shehu’s fourth wife Hadiza, He remarried because it was his custom always to have four wives: Jumbajjo, Hafsatu, Hajo, Ta-Baraya and Asma’ Fure all had their place in the years 1796-1805 but none had children by him and none had the permanence of Aisha and Hauwa who in all bore 16 children and eventually outlived their 6 Hun ay Dendy Life Ihueshond Abstua wary Ranawonr ans Tyo parka, Hannya ditmpaisd thems frome the many other Asta, snd Hauwwas ia the Community: both aya anil ama mean Smother” aud garkis, inv this xt, evidently refered to the Shehu's house. Aisha and Hawa were Sulis (ascetics) who reached the high- est ranks in the Sufi hierarchy and lived lives of great asceticism, For Asma’u ‘Aisha was saintly and pious, ceaselessly keeping to the path of Allah’, and ‘Hauwa practised alms- giving to the extent that she possessed very little of her own: she meditated in solitude in her room, saying her prayet-beads, keeping silence, indicating replies with her head’. ‘These two women brought up Asma’ in Uieir rooms where prayer, contemplation and the recital of prayer sequences using beads (zikr) were normal daily activities carried out with solemnity and meticulous attention to detail. During Asma’u's infancy the She had profound Sufi experiences: he wrote in his book the Wird: When I reached forty years five months and some days God drew me to him and 1 found the Lord of djinns and men, our Lord Muhamunad ~ ive him peace, with him were the Companions and ais, Then they welcomed me and sat me down in 2. Prayer beads: used as “ an aid to meditation (si) ‘may God bless him and the Prophets and the Ss Uieir midst* ‘The fist impressions printed on her parents were undergoing intense hysi Shehu's example inspited her life: that is evident from her poctry. She revered him in every possible way, but she herself remained reticent about writing anything to do with paranormal phenomena (Karama). They do not sccm to have featured in her life as they did in Aisha’s and Sauwa’s, for example, or indced her husband’s, ‘With the other boys and girls Asma’y attended classes, whilst she was still too young to Jeam to read, but when old enough she began to recite the fatiha, the opening Sura of the Qur'an, which is recited cach time a worshipper kncels (rak’a) in daily prayer. Eventually the words she had commiitted to memory were written down for her, a few at a time initially, on a writing board made from natural unpainted wood. When she felt confident enough to read the words written on her boasd, she took herself to tie teacher, a lady of the 7#B You should know that the qualities of Fhe (aliph's Suter mid vead the childven to her Shetwas then piven anew verse to prepare, Al cated like this, boys and gitls alike. each child made progress commensurate with his or her abi Education was rooted in the Qur'an and flowed in a single stream.’ Classes were held in the momings and late afternoons. At other times everyone was expected to make something. following the example set by the Prophet Muhanad who had patched his own clothes and his daughter Fatima who had ground grain in her own quem. Little girls helped as best they were able: they kept an eye on smaller children, brought and carried things, teased out the seeds embedded in bails of cotton and tried their hand at more difficult tasks such as pounding grain and blending flour-balls imo milk. ing, thatching, shoe-repairing, mat-making, hair-plaiting ad ng were among Ure skills taught. ‘The Shehu made rope, household, spi Abdullahi Fodio, his brother, bound to shafts the arrowheads used in hunting. Muhammad Bello, who eventually succeeded the Shelu as Caliph, made mats and rope from kaba palm-leaves. The work- ethic was so deeply ingrained in him that many years later, in a book called Tanbih al-sahib, he rejected the notion that a man need not work if his excuse is that he is totally occupied with religious duties (ibada). “The Prophet Jesus asked a man what his work was and the man replied that he was a holy man; Jesus then asked him who fed him and when the man replied it was his brother, Jesus exclaimed, “Your brother is holier than you"."* ‘The days at Degel were of overriding importance to the life of Asma’, The Shehu was an attentive father and drew his children close to him: *his face was relaxed and his manner gentle’, wrote Muhammad Bello in Infak al-maisur. ‘He never tired of explaining and never became impatient if anyone failed to understand.” The efficacy of his teaching and the way in which Asma’u transmitted what she leamed from him can be illustrated by the following passage from Infak: ie heart fall into two groups, those leading to danmation and those leading 10 salvation, Those teading to damnation ase conceit, vanity, envy, ill-will, failure to make obligatory eligious expenditure {zakkaj, showing off, greed for status, greed for wealth, boasting, evil thoughts towards Muslims ... those leading to salvation are repentance, pusilication of service to Allah, pal scrupulousness, reliance on Allah, entrusting matters to Alialt, acq scence to the destiny ordained by Allah, fear of Allah, fear of tie suffering inllicted by Allah, hope in Ue mercy of Allah? And there are women in villages near Sokoto today who can recite 8 Nuna'w y Barly Lye ie Hey say, “is is what Asma tanght our pan mothers and what we continue to teach’ ~ uot only evidence of the part she played in the transmission of knowledge, but a testimony to the effectiveness of the educational system. “The Shichu observed his children closcly ~ Asma'u tells how he recognised and commented on the special qualities of Ahmad Atiku (Caliph 1859-66) when Ahmad was a small child at Sifawa. But he had no special favourites: Muhammad Bello he described as a master of political strategy; to Abubakar Atiku (Caliph 1832—42) he mparted Sufi secrets; he foretold his own death to Fatima, wile of Aliyu Jedo the war commander; and he showed Asma'u how certain future events had been made known to him. It is, however, a widely held view that Asima’u, next after Muhammad Bello, inherited the Shebu’s baraka (divine blessing). ‘The Shchu's ability to bring out the best in people was a gift not Jinited in its effect to his children. His kindly manner, his erudition, his personal example, and his ability to make difficult concepts easy drew people from far and wide to Degel, so Uhat by the time Asma’y was bom his home village had tumed into a centre of leaning with an importance out of all proportion to the size of the settlement. He had prosely- tised in Zamfara ia the 1780s, and in the 1790s he undertook a journey through the kingdom of Kebbi to the Niger river with his brother Abdullahi, They journeyed from Degel through country abounding in ante- ope, elephant, wild pig and tion. At market places they halted and preached, reaching 3. A woman Gom western out to ordinary men and women who had — very little knowledge of Islam. They arrived at Yawuri and crossed the Niger river visiting Ilo, an ancient kingdom where ‘Kirikasa’ was the title of the priest’ of an earth fentility cult, and “Bakwerkwe" Uhat of the chief magician. Later the ide auother expedition, this time into westemm Zamfara, d to whom God had ordained repentance’, wrote these 4 ‘and all reps Abdullahi.” ‘These conversions, and the growing number of people who left their homes in Gobir, Zamfara, Kebbi and elsewhere to join the Shebu's congregation, affected the altitude of the Hausa kings towards 'y became agitated and, influenced by evil men and spirits they tried to put a stop to this movement lest it should 9The Calphes seter ity. Av the tun to understand what was going on, th and at attempt was made on his life in the palace of the Chief of Gobir, an attempt which he urged his companions to keep silent about ‘and pray God Most High that we may never again meet with this unbeliever’ From here it was only a step to an overt altack on a group of tis followers, an attack which took place during the month of Ramadan, 1803.'7 Asma’u was ten years old when she saw the survivors of the action, which had been notable for its bloodshed and brutality. These survivors had been wrested from the grasp of their captors by the young men of Degel as they had been marched, in an act of deliberate provocation, past the settlement on their way to Gobir. The arrival of the weak, bloodstained aud frightened women in the home of the Shehu in 1803 marked the end of the Degel days. From thenceforth until she died, 62 years later, wherever Asma’ lived she was to be acquainted with warfare, meetings to discuss tactics and strategies, the cleaning of swords of congealed blood, the preparation of food supplies for fighting men, trumpet calls to arms, the building of forts, settlement of new lands, desires for peace, arrival of booty and slaves, and the allures of power. Through all this. she drew on her certain knowledge of what the Shehu had set out to achieve and what she had witnessed at Degel. She made a positive contribution to Jihad theory and was a sustainer of the moral integrity of the Caliphate, not as a unique and formidable wonman, nor as a voice speaking from a separate power-base, as did the Queen Mothers in Hausa states. She spoke in a social miliew where men and women could talk on the same’ themes as equals. What is more, she eventually became the surviving representative of Degel. Sa’ad died at Degel prior to 1804, Sambo was a reclusive Sufi Hassan died in 1817, Bello in 1837, Fatima in 1838, Buhari in 1839, Atiku in 1842 and Hadiza around 1845. From 1845-1884, Asma’u ‘was in a very special position; her influence did not fade ns she grew older, it increased, and there is a case for her to be cousidered as one of the major Caliphal leaders. 10 THE EARLY JIHAD ‘The attack on the Shelw’s followers, described in Chapter 1, triggered off the Jihad. The first thing to happen was the issuing of an order expelling the Shehu from Gobir. ‘The Chief of Gobir sent a message to the Shehu ordering him to take his family away and leave Degel. He was not to take any of his followers with him, Thereupon the Shehu replied, I will not part with my people, but I am. prepared to leave along with all those who wish to follow me. Those who choose to stay can of course do so’, We made our Hijira [departure] from their midst in the year 1804.! ‘The events of February 1804-November 1805 are extraordinary in the history of Islamic warfare, because the women of the Jama'ar Shebu followed in the wake of the army and shared in the privations sullercd by the men. They walked more than a thousand kilometres, bivouacking in the open, often hungry to the point of semi- starvation, They had with Uiem their children and all their be- longings and were frequently attacked by determined and aggressive cnemies, Had they been overwhelmed and annihilated, as often seemed probable, the loss would have been irreparable because the educated corps of women were agents religiewt who transmitted knowledge to the young, thus playing a meaningful role, and helping to keep the fabric of society intact. This was a characteristic feature of the Jama‘a and a mark of its distinction. The replacement of the alimas (leamed women) was impossible, and their importance was cru Led by the Shehu's wives, Aisha lya-garka and Hauwa Inna- garka, Uie women drew courage from the examples set by the Prophet's family and other Muslim women of his era — Aisha who had carried leather bags of water to quench the thirst of the wounded on the battlefield of Uhud, Rabi who had assisted the wounded from the scene of conflict, Fatima who had wiped the blood from theThe Caliph's Suser Prophet's sword, Unum Raqida who had dressed wounds, Uni Amarah who, sword in hand, had fought at Ubud and Umer Attiya who had cooked for the Prophet's Companions at seven battles. ‘The Shehu's trek was roughly circular in direction, the starting point being Degel. Thisty-five years later in 1839, Asma'y com- posed a poem which is famous. its title, Wakar Gewaye, means quite literally “Song of the Circular Journey’? The sae aanten Gewaye > ems pF hia ; R Degeyphiore a = Blrnin Kabbt Map 2 ‘There was a slight delay in departure to allow Hadiza, the Shehu’s eldest daughter, to give birth to her firstbom son, later to be the well-known historian Abdulkadir b. Mustafa; then the Jama’a left Degel, never to retum. Men, women and children set off with their cooking pots, mats, pestles, mortars, waterskins, cattle, books and grain, in a long winding column, From the outset they were short of riding and pack animals: Muhammad Bello said they had only 20 horses and they were glad of the offer of camels from a Tuareg ally. “Agali came and carried the Shelu's books’, wrote Asma'u, She and the other women-folk walked alongside the donkeys and pack-oxen. taking the household equipment, gad rode when they were tired. ‘The Shehu reached Gudu where ‘under the faru tree which was his 12 The Lardy Juba 4, place the oath of alleiance to hin was taken" significance of this event affected the whole of the Western Si ‘uid changed its history. The Shehu now owed political allegiance to no one: as Imam he commanded his own men, a situation intolerable to the Chief of Gobir, Yunfa, who organised an expedition which he ed in person, to elinmtinate the Shehu. Yunfa travelled in style, with fine clothes, carpets and cushions to add comfort to his camp life, He had cavalry, a heavy brigade which wore chain-mail shirts and rode padded horses, and a contingent of ‘Tuareg spearmen mounted on camels. The Shehu lacked Yunfa’s mobility: his men were, for the most part, bowmen, but they gave evidence of their stamina by covering 40 kilometres on foot during the 24 hours preceding the battle, which took place on 2ist June 1804, at Takin Kwato.! The Shehu remained in his base at Gudu where the women and children also stayed: the 4, the leaf ofthe fora wee proxiniity of the Shehu to the families meant that they were privy to all the activities which occurred and in particular to the arrival of the entire Jama’a army, on the eve of the battle, from its position on the hills commanding the approaches to Gudu. They came with the news that Yunfa had outflanked them and was poised to attack from the west, The men were exhausted and hungry and many of thein paused to eat the food prepared by uie women, before regrouping at dawn. ‘Then they marched swiftly towards the cnemy and made a surprise attack on the Gobir camp. ‘Yunfa and his army were souted. He fled leaving his armour and horses 10 be captured, togeuier with his [personal belongings sucht as) drums, his [ceremonial] sun-shade, his shocs, his sword and even his kolanuts. Al nese things were taken to the Sheu, Asma’u echoed later the jubilation she felt at the time. *Yunfa and hhis men ran without pausing to took back." Nevertheless Yunfa, when he regained safety, caused a blockade to be set up round Gudu. No food was allowed throught; so alter dhe battle of Kwato we took stock of our affairs, thinking how to get food because the enemy stopped us doing this... in fact when we came on 13The Caliph’s Sister the Hifira we did not bring much food, omy our families, our animals, so on. The crisis placed important responsibilities on the women to put foodstuffs to the optimum use, but when conditions worsened snd starvation became a possibility, the Shehu decided to scek refuge in the greener valleys to the south. So the whole Jamna’a started out again, Asma'u recorded the name of every halting place, Malib: Gungunge, Inname, Galoje, Kaurogo, Dingyaui, Sifawa, Jarcdi, Magabci — each one imprinted on her memory. The vulnerable slow- moving column reached Magabci in August, at the beginning of the harvest, and a camp was made on the stony hillside which over- looked the valley. ‘The women-folk were by this time challenged in anew way: their cultural homogeneity was lost when the first captured wonien, taken at Tabkin Kwato and from the fringes of Gobir, entered their homes to share in their conjugal rights. The captives were not only unletered, they represented a threat to religious conformity because they were knowledgeable about bori, the practice of Hausa, non-Muslim ecstatic. spirit- possession.’ Many of them were devotees of the cult, the head of which was the Inna of Gobir, the Chiefs sister, a woman whose wraditional influential role was symbolised by the distinctive male garb she wore on ceremonial occasions. Bort involved the use of hallucinatory herbs, hypnotic drumming, confidence in magic and belief in the efficacy of animal sacrifice, all of which were anathema to Islam. Concubines bore'children who were not slaves but free, with all the rights that the ciildren of wives had. This fact is convincingly verified by the election of Aliyu b. Bello to the office of Caliph in 1842, His mother was Bello’s concubine Ladi, captured at Rabah in the carly days of the Jihad ‘The invasion of the wives’ domain by alien women who bore Uie children of their master and shared his love, presented a three-fold challenge. First, the wives had to accommodate the newcomers emotionally, exercising tact and patience. Second, they had to strive to keep the homogeneity of the Jama’a intact by educating the concubines and requiring from them religious conformity. Third, they had to ensure that the minds and hearts of the half-Gobir 4 5. Te’Allah, dhe present Inna of Gobir The tarly Juhu ildren, often recognis were free from any knowledge of bori, tsafi (magic) and the spirits which were supposed to dwell in caves and wees. ‘The new generation had to be a uniform breed. The roots of Asma’u’s great educational work lic in these early years when, as yet unmarried, she taught clementary knowledge, later to be sct down in verses like those written in 183 prayer is performed five times in the course of a day and a night; endeavour Tocatry out all acts of religious observance: if what you do is unacceptable to Allah (because of concealed sins} your outward display of piety is in tion was not without historical precedent. The two of the Jama’a, Inna and lyn-garka, mindful of the sunna, constantly drew on the history of the Prophet for guidance. He had two Jewesses as consonts after the defeat of the Banu Quraizah and the Jews of Khaibar, one of whom became a Muslim and was a ‘Mother of the Faithful’, There was also a Christian girl, ya, sent as a present to him from Egypt, who bore him the Jonged-for son of his old age, Ibrahim. ‘Yo return to the campaign. In September 1804, the Shehu made his decision ‘to retum to the enemy's country with all our families so that we might find an opportunity to engage the enemy’.’ How many set out from Magabei is uncertain. However, Bello said of one disastrous encounter, "so at one stroke on that day about wo thousand men went to their glorious rest’, a figure which perhaps represented a quater of the army. Not all the men took their families with tiem, For example some nomads gave allegiance to the Shehu, left their young men with him, then faded into the savannah with Uieir families and herds, and some Kebbis left their families in situ in Kebbi, In all, perhaps 8,000-10,000 people prepared to invade Gobir." «d by their previous experiences, the Jama’a could not risk 1g short of food again, It was essential to take geain in the most easily transportable form ~ Unreshed com in sacks. Each person required half a pound of grain a day, so calculations had to be based oa daily requitement of not less tan 4,00Ibs. of grain for a period of 40 days, since it was hoped the campaign would be brought to a successful conclusion by early December when Ramadan started. Pure grain represents about two-thirds of the weight of the grain heads, and a bundle of millet yiclds about 40Ibs. of grain. 15The Calipls soser The work of removing the Hueshing,, wae the women”s, at Mapabei, in order to provision the army, the women threshed about a quarter of a million pounds of heads by hand in wooden mortars, What they did not Uiresh was bought, donated as sadaka (alms), or collected en route. The Hausa comm northem Kebbi ‘assisted the Shehu in the war against Gobir. work was enormous: the women thteshed and winnowed the com, filled woven-grass, or leather, sacks, with grain, prepared dried savoury mixtures (daddawa, gabu, sabarado) for soups, and con- cocted dried milk granules thickened with flour and flavoured wi honey (murje). Bot their work was only part of the great co-operative cffort of the entire Jama. Men procured sacks and sad- dies, they scoured the bush for acacia trees to make into bows, kalgo trees for bark to make into ropes, silk cotton ces for the kapok used in saddle pad- ding, kiriya for tool handles, the shea- nut butter tree for the oil which is a wonderful skin emollient, the plant sainya which had the nick- name ‘mother of medicines’ (uwar magunguna). They bound arrow-tips on to shafts, procured weapons, bits, stirrups, water-skins, sandals, thigh- 6. Riding an ox Jength boots for long-distance riding. clothing for the oncoming cold season, and pack animals in great numbers, camels, donkeys and oxen, On or about 17th October 1804, the invasion of Gobir by the ‘people's army’ of the Jama’a began. It was an extraordinary ‘The Shehu set out with all that he had, his womenfolk, his chi his brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, grandson, friends, books, animals and household paraphemalia. The Jama’a moved into Gobir like a ship moving imo a dangerous sea. All on board faced the same perils, men and women alike. Fear, pain, hardship, injury, death, hunger and bereavement were shared experiences which’ made Asina’u strong and courageous. Her character was formed in the battlefields. The first major attack on the coterie of women occured a hundred kilometres northeast of Magabci at Kirare where the cliffs of Taloka widen.” The Shehu had made a camp similar in all 16 The Panty Ubant ranaly non, abs bau ie ok Tau hes, hen tens ver bea, and a pects to the cane of the saw fannily ful temporary bars uekhay) 1 com stalks equipped with mats aud k from holes doy ried up made fiom ue basic i s prepated weeks previously in Magabci. The army fighting at Atkalawa, the capital of Gobir, were engaged in a bitter struggle in the course of which their assault on the fortress failed. Some of the ‘Tuaregs among them, believing they were on the losing side, ‘collected a force and started raiding our families in Kirare ... one of them sent us a letter and wamed us what they were doing’." ‘The reaction was immediate. Abdullahi returned to Kirme and a decision was reached to evacuate the families northwards to rejoin the main body of the army which was still at Alkalawa under the gencralship of Mulammad Bello. ‘This was indced like walking into the lion's den, a brave move which almost at once had tragic consequences. A few miles from Alkalawa the enemy came upon them in full force and decimated Uiem, Asma’s listed the names of those ‘who obtained martyrdom the Imam Muhammad Sambo, Sa’ada, Riskuwa, Zaidy, the son of Farouk, Ladan, Nadumana, and many of those who had memorized the Qur'an, as well as scholars of the community." We had no warning tll we saw the encmy close up on us ... They routed our people and a multitde of our best men found martyrdom. Our fugitives réached our camp close to our houses and Abdullahi, my father’s brother, ‘went out to aid them although he was crippled ith a leg wound at the time. The Shel too followed with hin and prayed the Lord God to drive away our enemies. Two Uiousand men fay dead on the field: it took the rest of the ‘men two days to bury them. Martyrs of the Faith, they were buried unwashed to ascend into Heaven with the dust of battle upon uiem."* “It was very pitiable’, wrote Asma’u 40 years later. “The massacre was a terrible misfortune.” ‘The women under these circumstances were as exposed as the to danger and were their partners in the crisis. ‘They attended wounds, bound up sword-cuts and washed weapons free of blood. They also comforted the widows and orphans. There was no family left unaffected by the disaster. A camp was made at a place near Alkalawa, the city which was surrounded by a deep dry moat and high smooth walls. The Shehu’s camp had for its defences a tangled mass of dense thom thickets and most of the month of Ramadan was spent there."” *We were in great 7The Caliph’ Sister stress for fack of provisions and also ist tous." Yet in January 180) Ikalawa in order to make a last tempt to take it. "We went there on te first of the month of Shawwal a1 sed there with our families. Our isks were to defend our families and esiege Alkalawa."” The enemy came vom east and west, sometimes in a ody, sometimes in groups: the situ: on from a miliary point of view was ery insecure. The women heard the ce-hoo" cries of the attacking horse- nen, the howls of men transfixed by pears and the groans of those pierced sy barbed arrows. There was no food ind starvation was imminent. It was herefore ‘decided to go to Zamlara 7. An archer southwards} because many of our men had been killed at Tsuntsuwa and Alkalawa and others had been wounded. We were Uso desperately hungry and it was essential to find food."® The srievously weakened Jama'a moved slowly southwards, its retreat covered by Muhammad Bello, who at times could not raise a uufficiently strong rear guard because many of his men and their orses were so weak ‘The Jama’a limped out of Gobir both metaphorically and lite: ally. Children showed signs of hunger ~ swollen bellies and heads, sunken eyes and cheeks, stick-like limbs. There had been a general lowering of resistance to infection, sores developed quickly from minor cuts, rodent ulcers grew from sores, the skin was inelastic and prone to impetigo, scabies and ringworm, and many suffered from the effects of guinea-worm, “the cause of a man dragging his fect.” Asma’u prayed: ‘Bless Muslims with food and clouhing, bless herds- men with good pastures, let the townspeople be healthy, give us fat cattle, goats, sheep and camels" all of which were absent on the Gewaye. wecount of the uxany lives ided to move claser to The Shehu regrouped his forces at anew camp deep in the bush of westem Zamfara at Sabon Gari From there his brother Abdullahi Bayero attacked Bienin Kebbi and was us ... booly was oblained including gold and silver. Bravo Bayerol 18 The Canty tab rywosiag, somes le acted tis elder bnother Moses (a Iw fron spitetul, envious 1 pecathy, eae ay 1 fike Tiss acted to foielded the He ele he St towards the She histetical reference} peop te.” With the western fi sccure and food supplies flowing in from Kebbi, the Shehu's position was temporarily improved but the Jegitimacy of his cause was undermined by his own men who ‘raided in the lands of Zamfara, the host state, without our knowledge". This led to a rift which Muhammad Bello, so greatly admired by ‘Asma’, tied to mend by upholding ‘the rights of everyone, show- ing favo to neither his friends nor his relatives ... he was unjust to no one ... he unfailingly welcomed the Fulani, Tuareg, Hausas and Arabs who came to him’. When his attempts at con- ciliation failed he attacked centres of resistance with perseverance. “We pursued them up into the mountain [Kanoma]® until we came to a place where our horses had to stop. There we dismounted and xed on foot until we reached the top ... and fought the enemy Uill dusk." The enmity of Zamfara was thus aroused and food again became a problem, so the Jama’a moved on once more, this time to Gwandu near Bimnin Kebbi, the place conquered by Abdullahi a few months earlier. “At the end of (the month of) Sha'aben the Shehu entered Gwandu. He remained there through the month of Ramadan and the month of Shawwal, then the Tuaregs gathered under their Chicf Agunbalu and attacked." Exactly a year after the retreat from Alkatawa the Jama’a was again fighting for its life, ‘The battle opened at Alwasa with an unlawful and brutal attack by Jama'a soldiers on fticndly villages. The men refused to obey the commands of Abdullahi and Bello, evidence that the ideological cohesion of the Jama’a had been weakened. Abdullahi concluded: “they have chosen the world in order to pursue their hearts’ delight They burn to taste forbidden pleasures: they devour them as beasts devour grass.’ He contrasted them "to my friends who dicd in the Jitad at ‘Tsuntsuwa, Kirae and Abwasa, AU of them knew te Qur'an by heart, all were teachers, all were hospitable, all were all were ‘a theme taken up by the 17 elegies she kuter wrote, For Ure backsliders, the cortupt, the greedy and the al she held up examples of worthy lives to copy. In her clegies no one was praised for feats of anns, equestrian skills or great wealth, only for virtues similar to those set out by Abdullahi in his poem. The Jania’a forces were pushed back and the enemy ringed Gwandu. They were clearly visible on the black stony hills, their 49 Asma'uThe Caliph's saver chief diommer Akanzeminai chanted the prises of Apumbute calling him wan muaza {the champion]". Bitter fighting took pl and the enemy even forced entry into the camp! “Very brave your men were kilied — Zago, Duwo, Mujedo."” Suddenly, some say miraculously, the enemy tuned. Acconing to Abdullahi ‘Our women followed us up by hurling stones at them and they were left there in the sun’ for the kites, eagles and hyenas to devour. Asma’u, her character forged on the battlefield, retained a steely quality throughout her life which never softened and her later military verse demands to be tead in the light of her personal experiences as a young girl. From her experiences too grew the empathy she felt for Bello, “my shaikh ... my bosom friend, my brother” 8. A mounted drummer 20 ‘THE SETTLEMENT OF SOKOTO Asma’u married Gidado, Bello's best friend.' As youths Bello and Gidado studied together and often uavelled in Gobir, visiting scholars and collecting books. When the Jihad started, Gidado Fought shoulder to shoulder with Bello and acted as his aide-de- camp, liaising between the Shel, who remained at headquarters, and Bello who was a front-line general, They remained the closest of nds all their lives, their singleness of purpose enabling ther to anticipate each other's actions and read cach other's minds. Commenting on this in his book al-kashf wa'l bayan, Gidado said: wy occasions I hac to act without direct instructions from Bello, only later to discover that what Chad done was in accord with what he had wanted. For example, on one occasion 1 reached Daura and found the Emir Ishaq sick, so I installed his son Zubair in his place. Later on, at Kazawe, I found a letter awaiting me from Bello, instructing me to do what Thad just done. Gidado was tice years older than Bello and nearly seventeen yeus older than his bride. He had been born near Gwandu and was istantly related to Hauwa Inna-garka dhrough his mother. His given name was Usuman: Gidado was a sobriquet, but it was one usually attached to someone named Muhammad because it means “Beloved, just as Muhammad Bello means Muhammad ‘the Helper lof Religion)" and Muhammad Sa’ad means Muhammad ‘of Good Omen’, all referring to the Prophet. It was not only unusual for anyone called Usuman to be given the nickname Gidado, it was unknown; the naine, it scems, was camed through his devotion to the Sheu and the Shehu’s successor, Belto. Asmia‘u called her husband ‘the Peace-Maker’ (Jom Maslaha) in the elegy she wrote after his death. This title was derived from fom, a Fulfulde word meaning ‘chief, and masalihi, an Arabic word meaning ‘reconci a 2The Caliph’s Sister He zealously cared for the public good. He was genetous, hospitable and hhe took upon himself responsibility for suangers. He honoured Whe elders of the Shehu’s Jama’a and protected the rights of everyone, great and small alike, He also honoured the Shetu's womenfolk, his children and his kinsmen ... He was generous in every respect... constantly attending to te needs of the populace, making sure they had good food and water supplied, calming their fears, explaining matters to Wem.” Viahidayaaitalina igs > Qiiteajstivoishass 9. A line from Somore Gidado Gidado, Jom Mastaha (Wie Beloved, the Peace-Maker) wats the catalytic force in Asma’u’s life, His attitude towards her enabled her character to develop and, remembering that he had authority over her, permitted her to react to situations and interact with people. If he had not been of equable temperament he would not have allowed her to give rein to her intellectual and welfare activities. If he had not been Bello’s closest companion he would not have fostered Asma’u’s convergence of interests with her brother. If he had not been generous he would not have shared his writing activities with her after Betlo's death. This most befitting marriage was arranged by the Shehu, for in Maliki law a maiden cannot personally contract herself in marriage. The contract is between the bridegroom aid the egal guardian of the bride: it takes the form of a promise to pay the nuptial gift (sadaki) to the wife herself as a token of recognition and respect. Asma’u was prepared for her wedding day at home in keeping with historical custom rooted in the traditions of the Prophet, whose daughter Fatima was adorned and perfumed for her marriage to Ali by Aisha and Umm Salama. ‘The perfuned water for Asma’u's martiage was a concoction of sweet smelling ingredients such as heuna leaves (lalle), kobl (kwalli), myrrh Gawul), cloves, frankincense (anu), dates, the leaves of the gingerbread plum tee (gawasa) and kola (gogo), a treatise on whi was written in 1586 by al-Ghasani doctor at the court of Sultan Ahad al-Masur of Morocco. Scented, her hands and feet coloured with henuna, and freshily instructed in the purification ceremony of al-qhusl used after each monthly period, at 22 10. Carved calabashes The Settlement of Sokuto the cessation of confinement discharges, and also after connubial relations, she was conducted to Gilado's house by her women relatives, just as Aisha was conducted to the Prophet's house by her mother Umm Kuman, Her room had been first fumished, and then decorated with carved calabashes and gourds, At Gidado’s house she met his first wife whose name is not known, and is three young sons, the youngest of whom, Adde, later married Asma'u’s sister Marya ‘Asma‘u’s first marital home was at Salah,’ a very small place tucked into the fold of a narrow V-shaped valley to the east of Gwandu. ‘The ribat (fortified camp) built by Muhammad Bello was clustered on a stony slope just above the ribbon of Fertile soil in the valley bottom where onions and sugar-cane could be grown. It was at Salah that Muhanunad Bello's concubine Ladi gave birth to Aliyu ‘who became Caliph in 1842, and at Salah that he made plans to carry the final assault against Alkalawa in 1808. He raised his flag on the rocky hillside above his house, which still stands, and it fluttered Uncre for 40 days, a symbol that the army was being mobilised. Bello’s version of events leading to the overthrow of Gobir is laconic: When the rains came I sont to some of our provinces commanding them 10 ‘make ready for au expedition 10 Atkalawa ... on the morning (of the battle} we took up positions, Namoda to the north, Aliyu Jedo to the east, Umaru Dallaje to the west. J was in uie south and in overall command ... our men entered Alkalawa killing and capturing, The Chief of Gobir, Yunfa, was killed, together with the warriors who were his bodyguards. Thanks be to Allott... when Alkalawa was takeu ... the news spread everywhere, The ‘whole backbone of the enemy was broken.* ered for us the fortress of four community”, while Asma’u’s account simply concluded, “The battle of Al prestige". IL is common knowledge in Sokoto that it was Asma'u who iclped Bello’ at the battle. In towns and villages almost anyone asked would answer, "Nan? not she who helped Bello at Alkalawa?’ Alternatively one might hear, ‘against Gobir’, of ‘against the Chief of Gobir’, but the gist is Uie same. Oral tradition from Gobir sources has it that ‘when the Shehu was at Sifawa with his friend Umaru Alkamu, Asmia’u took a stick from the fire and sa “Let me help my Bello (Gellona)." She hurled the burning brand 23 yw took place and Islam gained in power andThe Caliph’'s Sister into the city of Alkalawa and we blazed with fire.’ Yet another is as follows: Bello and the Chief of Gobir were locked in conflict at Atkalawa. ‘The bate raged, then the Shehu went to Wumo and said to his daughter, "You see how Bello Is struggling at Alkalawa’. At that point Asiia’u took a buming brand and pointed, saying, “Burn Alkalawa". Then we fire con- sumed the city.” ‘The fall of Alkalawa was the single most important event of the Jihad, ‘The whole backbone of the enemy was broken’ as a result, and in popular folk memory it was Asma’u who provided the means. ‘She was, at the time, fifteen years old, too young to have made a name for herself as an author, too unread to have been an accepted interpreter of the Shehu's works, and too immature to have made any outstanding contribution to the society in which she lived; but the story, because it is believed, is essential to an understanding of the veneration in which she is still held more thant a hundred years after her death. ‘There is no written source of the story: neither Asmna’u, nor Bello, nor Gidado mentioned it in their writings. This is interesting because the most striking of the Shehu's miraculous isterves the course of the Jihad was during the difficult siege of Kanu which suddenly caught fire."* icident was recorded by Gidado in Raud al-jinan and by Bello in Infak and is the only miracle of the Shehu described as such by Muhammad Bello, who shared with Asma'u and Abdullahi Fodio marked reticence con- ceming karama (supematural phenomena). Gidado, on the other land, in the introduction to his book al-kashf wa'l bayan, defended the recording of karama which, he said, ‘increased the enthusiasm of the faithful and were useful in promoting the Faith’. Yet Gidado did not include the story which is generally believed 11+ Hoeing « furrow about the part played by his wife in the conquest of Alkalawa, while including several other stories involving her with remarkable happenings in the life of her father. One is led to the conclusion that ‘Asma’u's supporters elevated her to a miracle-working saint, which is not surprising for, in spite of the scepticism of some modem scholars, miracles are still recognised and many people in all sections of the community believe she was born with great powers and exercised them, 24 The Settlement of Soketo ‘The immediate and long-term effects of the fall of Alkalawa were irreversible. At one and the same time the Jama’a began to settle in what Abdullahi called ‘the unworked lands” between Gwandu and Gobir, and the people of Gobir cither fell into captivity and became the tillers of the land, or fled northwards to form a centse of resistance which was a continuous threat to the Caliphate through- Out the rest of the ninetcenth century." Tsibiri was he centre's name. Among those who became captives on 3rd October 1808 were Yunfa’s mother Maitakalmi, but not his chieftainess-sister, the Inna, at whose house, according to Gobir legend, Yunfa rejected his brother's suggestion that he should fee. The Inna probably died fighting, dressed in her turban and damara, the combat-cummerbund worn to tie robes close to the body, lem the wearer free {0 manoeuvre. Another captive was Katambale, Yunla’s wife, who, om being told she had been allocated to her husband’s vanquisher Bello, is said to have bowed to her fatc with the defiant words, “if there is no milk, { shall have to drink water’, a phrase preserved in the song which bears her name, "Katambalili Katambaliyo’ which is still a popular girls’ clapping song. In 1809 Bello began to use the captives to build a ribat at Sokoto against possible aggression from the north. The Shel remained in Goraidu where he retained his imam-ship, but the management of ethe new Caliphate was, in Asma'u's words, ‘divided up ... The Shel gave his brother {Abdullahi} the west ... the eastern part was, given to Bello his sow.” The west she described as ‘Nupe, Songhai, Yorubalund and Borgu’; the cast Zazzau, Katsina, Kano, Daura, Bauci and Adamawa, ‘The Sokoto ribat was only 700 metres in diameter, from Kofar ‘Taramniya (the Gum Tree Gate) to the house of Bello’s lieutenant Abubakar Jada which stood at the northem perimeter. Neverthe- {ess a wall two kilometres long was needed to encompass this small area which ad in times past been a settlement of weavers and dycrs (when the present Sultan's house was being reconstructed in 1960 ‘cient dye-pits were discovered)."The ganuwa (city wall), which has now disappeared, was four metres high and its construction required about 12 cubic metres of earth and stones for every lincar metre, a total of 24,000 cubic metres. A cubic metre is the equivalent of sixty head londs, the total being equal to a million and a half head loads, The first homes were constructed in ways familiar to the Gewaye trekkers: with fencing (darni) woven from cornstalks. The major source of timber for the later permanent buildings was the siginya palm tree, the preferred type being mashi (the one which 25The Caliph’ Saver had died waturally) because it was diied-out therefore totally immune to the destuctive white ant, Flat roofs were rendered waterproof in various ways: sometimes a layer of wood ash was spread on the roof before the final layer of build- ing clay, sometimes babbaruja (the crushed su baked crust left on dried-out ponds), and som times the top was painted with amazaro (a paint made from crushed rock) and zarta (a chemical deposit from Nayed skins found in tanning vats). Walls were weather-proofed by painting them with red makilba made from the de-seeded pods of the locust-bean tee, or with a black substance made from burned hemp (gawai na rama).”. “The work of assembling and preparing all the materials lasted over several seasons: it was supervised by a number of people, including Gidado under whose authority the maintenance of public buildings was eventually established. According to Asma’u, "he was in charge of repai ing ... the mosques and other city buildings .. including the city gates’. The establishment of an integrated Islamic Caliphate in Hausaland brought with it many problems. Answers to questions connected with the government and seiticment of the new lands were always being sought from the Caliphal leaders and some degree of flexibility had to be allowed. As the Shehu explained, ‘anyone entering in this affair [government] ought to concentrate on studying the history of Abubakar, Umar, Uthman, Ali and Hassan’ (the Arab Caliphs who succeeded the Prophet after his death in 630 A.D.)." When practical questions arose however, for example om the ki : of farm organisation to produce guittea-com efficiently, a pragmatic line was adopted. In the case of land management, the traditional Gobir system was uscd, as shown from the traveller Hugh Clapperton’s observations in 1824." The complex problems involved in running ure Caliphate had been partly anticipated in 1806 by the Shehu and Abdullahi, who each wrote a major work on the political organisation of the state, called respectively Bayan wujub al-hijira and Diya al-hukkarn, 26 12, A giginya toe 43. A guines.com head The Settlement of Seka Jor cl Masti lng deseaibed the a andbook for the ror” for the antirs nt to answer all aiministrative questions and fumish the theoretical basis of the Shehu’s Islamic government’. However, it was not in the isolation of their own minds that they formulated their ideas: for example, his book Bayan wujub, the Shehy quoted from 102 authors includ- ing the great intellects al-Ghazali and Ibn Khaldun, the jurists Abu Hanifa, 1bn Hanbal, al-Maliki and al-Shafi'i, and scholars bom as far apart as Cordoba in Spain (al-Utbi) and Turkestan in modem USSR (al-Nasafi). There were inevitable conflicts of idealism versus pragmatism, of the universal claims for truth against the practical needs of politics. The leaders of the Jihad recognised them and acknowledged divergences of opinion among themselves, a pluralism sanctioned by the well-attested hadith found in al-Jami al- Saghir by Jalal al-Din al-Sayuti; “the differences of 0 the learned within my community arc a sign of God's grace’. "The time of the aftermath of the capture of Alkalawa was, in spite of all the political pressures, a fruitful one in literary terms. The Shehu, Abdullahi, and Bello, being urged to provide sound advice, ‘conscious that they had lived through momentous times, and feeling the need to provide historical records to guide future generations, wrote prodigiously. The Shehu had moved to Sifawa, half a day's ride from Sokoto, and Abdullahi and Bello were nearby, Abdullahi ‘at Bodinga, and Bello at his temporary camp at Takataku. Asma’u was cightcen at the start of the five-year stay of the Shehu at Sifawa. It seems that neither she nor Gidado wrote anything, this activity being concentrated in the hands of the people most looked to for advice and guidance — the Shel, Abdullahi and Bello. When Bello, the last of these thuce, died in 1837, another period of intense fiterary activity took place, in order ‘to explain the practices of the Sheu and for you to hear what was done in his time’, ‘to tell you the story of the Shehu'" and ‘to set down Bello’s characteristics’.”” Nine works in all were written by Gidado and Asma’u~ four by him, five by her — because they were by that time the custodians of the history and ideology of the Jama’a, and they wrote remembering the seminal importance of the literature of the Sifawa period. “The most widely known and popular work written by the Shehw at Sifawa was Tabban Hakika, a poem still being printed and cir- culated. To the poem, written in Fulfulde, Bello added rakhmis (an additional three lines to the original couplets). Later Asma'u took the couplets and translated them into Hausa, the form in which the poem gained its popularity with the title and refrain becoming 21 Prote waniors andThe Caliph's Sister abbat Hakika. Her brother Isa wrote his sakhmis to her trans- ition, the whole becoming a kind of family enterprise. The poem popular because it encapsulates and makes intelligible the rinciples of justice on which the Caliphate was based: it is at the Maserati s NLS lsjeysslawgy BLE LNpES 9 SRB bea ighaS Hees tp 828 gga spol andil gS 956.8 )5 ipa? i pa Sb Lajuipapthonarpla [aasstbonbicdys Soe bce dg, any 14, Some verses from the poem Tabbat Hakika same time a waming to exploiters and a tool in the hands of the oppressed, a series of admonitions to the populace and an aid to rulers. ‘Obey the Caliph’, it says but wam hhe who becomes Caliph to cat up his people and ... to plunder and cheat ... will bum, itis an absolute certainty. Do not misuse authority to oppress ie people or «prevent the oppressed from complaining». use awful means to redress wrongs, and obey the judiciary ... but any judge who changes the law is an infidel ... do not enslave free men, forcefully misappropriate land, toot the treasury, illegally take booty, cleat your companions ... break the trust vested in you ... intercept aud sssault women... orbe unfair to your wives ... but wives! do nat leave your homes without compelling reasons or use charms against co-wives. Cohesion between the Caliphate centre and the subordinate emirates was not reinforced by dynastic marriages. The Shelu’s daughters married within his immediate circle; Asma'u married Bello’s friend Gidado, Hadiza the scholarly Musdafa, Fatima the Amir al-Jaish (Field Marshal) Aliyu Jedo, Hafsatu the scholar Dambo, and Hannatu, it is thought, married the warrior Namoda. ‘There was however an exception: a granddaugliter, Mohammad 2B The Settlement of Sokow Bello's child, married the Emir of Kano Sulaiman, and Gidado and ‘Asma‘u conducted her there, dispelling notions that the Shehu ever inteniled purdah to be a prison, or a wedding a joyless occasion.” ‘Asma’u rode on horseback, a retum joumey of a thousand kilo- metres, wo enter Kano, the first great city she had ever visited ‘Whew you entered Kano 1 was with you, I saw how Asma’u was received by the women of Kano and Gidado by the men’ said the Shehu, as reported in Raud al-jinan. To Gidado, the Shehu's ability to ‘sce’ Asma’ when she was in a distant place was evidence of his mystical powers; the account was included in Raud al-jinan for th sole reason, Nonetheless the story is illuminating in other ways. The Sheltu's words imply that Asma’a was well received, perhaps even acclaimed, by many women. The conclusion reached here is that, by the age of 23, Asmia’u was recognised as a person of sign nd that news of her success became widespread. The question we need to ask is, was she writing? No work has yet been found to prove that she was committing her thoughts to paper during her father's lifetime, Her twin brother, however, wrote a number of works which, although undated, were definitely written before 1817. Not very much is known about Hassan, but one of the concrete facts is that he died seven mouths after the Shel, in November 1817, atthe age of 25. Waziti Junaidu says he was leaned, paticnt, even- tempered, generous, and brave. He was also a writer. He wrote a history of the early classical Caliphs at the age of 22 and later added a commentary; he also wrote nine poems.” The existence of his works sustains the hope that Asma’u was also writing in her early twenties, jcuce will be discovered to show that at least part of her greatly enlarged to accommodate his supporters. His prestige and influence were enormous: tradition says crowds waited at his house daily just to catch a glimpse of him. For this reason, he seldom rode out, a rare occasion being the visit of an important Tuareg leader. When, on escorting his visitor to the city gate to say farewell, the Shel caught sight of the flourishing garden inside the walls of Bello’s house, he commended him for working in the gasden with his ‘own hands and setting a public example. The Shehu himself lived a life of great asceticism, owning only one set of clothes, giving away the richly embroidered gowns, fine horses and all the other par phemnalia which came to him by right as victor. The sword of Yun probably of German origin, was given to the Shelu's son-in-l Aliyu Jedo, and remains in the possession of his descendant, 7 29The Caliph s duster huge, foment shaken to warn of the approach of the Chief of Gobir, was given 10 Gidado and is now in the Sokoto muse deep-noted trumpet. the pare,” became Bello’s, Use regalia of the Sultan of Sokoto. Mf-a mark of the Shehu's asceticism was his steadfast refusal to accumulate possessions, then a mark of his perseverance was the way in which he carried on preaching into old age, a feat which Asmna’u later emulated, She wrote very briefly of his death: He lived for two years in Sokoto ... in the first year he preached with great gamesiness ... then he became ill, and died o Monday the 21st of April 1817, in the middle of the night. May Allah be merciful to him and may we be reunited with him in Paradise.» 15. The kuge (ceremonial ratte) 16, ‘The pore (ceremonial trumper) of Gobit formerly of Gobis, now of Sokoto 30 COLLABORATION BETWEEN ASMA’U AND BELLO ‘The Shelu’s death in 1817 did not come suddenly so people had tine to prepare for it, witness the plans which were laid to ensure a smooth succession, On the other hand disruptions had also been planned. For example, an ambitious man within the Shehu's camp, Abdussalam, who had already made his discontent known, pre- pared for further defiance, and the dispossessed Hausa chiefs planned to intensify their campaigns to reclaim their lands. The Shehu's deauh, for Asma’y, ‘was a terrible event which caused the Breatest anxiety’, even though it was not unexpected. On 21st April 1817 he died, and on 231d April Bello was acclaimed Caliph “the congregation of Believers chose Bello and pledged their allegiance to him. He for his part ordered them to prepare to altack the insurgents", ‘The anosphere was very tense and demanded unity of purpose by the Jansa‘a, ‘To ensure this Bello ordered the discontented Abdussalasn, who believed he had been unjustly treated by not being given a governorship commensurate with his contributions to the Jihad, to come in person to pay his allegiance. Abdussalam complained to Bello that the blood relatives of the Shehu had been given ‘the lion's share’,? ‘Where is the share of Abdussalam?’, he asked. He consorted with the angry Hausa chiefs and fanned the flames of their rebellion. Thus from the outset of his reign Bello hiad severe internal problems, which were not helped by the discom- ture suffered by his uncle Abdullahi, whose possible bid for the ule of Caliph Bello had dealt with by closing the gates of Sokoto to him. Loyalty, obedience and allegiance were central to discussions on policy and decision-making in the year which followed the Shehu's death, In a book he finished in 1820, al-gayth, Bello wrote: ‘the populace must unite under one leader to whom they must give 31The Calph’s Sister their unconditional loyalty so that outside threats will be overcome”, a theme echoed by - Asma'u in a poem written forty years later. ‘Obedience to the Caliph is obliga- tory. itis the command of Allah’, ‘Ie who 1e- fuses will suffer public humitiation and demo- tion’* might well have been written with Abdussalam in mind, - because Bello dealt ere with him severely. The Caliph rode out at the head of a strong force capturing the fortress at Kware and dispersing the enemy. Abdus salam himself died of wounds at a place called Bakura ~ kura means hyena, so to this day his memory is mocked. “He got his “share” alright, that of the hyena!” ‘This book is not about warfare, but an understanding of the main dispositions of the enemy is important if an insight is to be gained into Asma‘u’s poetry which, throughout her life, was written in response to important events, many of them to do with war situa- tions. Rebellions in Zamfara were fierce local affairs and no con- federation of Zamfara chiefs seems to have been formed.’ In the north the situation was different because the Gobir chiefs formed an alliance with the Katsina Hausa chiefs and established a base centred on the twin towns Maradi and ‘Ts alliance was joined from time to time by Tuareg chiefs from the north:* the result | The position of Tsibiri 42 oY Bore 1809 32 Collaboration between Asma'u and Bello was a mobile aggressive force which held together throughout the nineteenth century. Although Bello himself said uiat the whole backbone of the enemy was broken when Alkalawa was taken in 1808, the enemy regrouped nnd became the perpetual opponents of the Caliphs, For writers like Asna’u the Jihad never ended; warfare was part of her life, so it is important to know the two main reasons why it never ceased, at least as far as the north-cast frontier was concerted, First there was the economics af the situation. The exiles at Tsibiri and Maradi were on the edge of the scrui-desert where drought was a recurrent problem. ‘They had to make annual raids into the more productive lads of the Caliphate to acquire cattle, geain, sheep and other commodities.’ These raids led to a Fecting of insecurity, the establishment of a line of ribaes and the custom of sending annual retaliatory raids into Gobir-held country. The second reason why warfare continued was the sense of injustice felt by tre Gobir people, wlio viewed the Caliphate rulers not as Islamic reformers, but usurpers. The execution by impalement of Salihu Sarkin Gobir in 1814 caused great anger and bitter resentment among his people." Gobir historians say that it has remained an obstacle to the norml- isation of relations, and the impalement is said to be the reason why Gobir people will not eat tsire, meat spitted on sticks. Bello’s military problems were indeed grave: for example two of hig leading generals were killed before 1820, Abubakar Jada leading, Ure attack against Abdussalam, and Namoda fighting the ‘Zamfarawa at Kiyawa, Nevertheless this was a very fruitful time for him in literary terms. On topics pertinent to the prevailing political fone against mien who misappropriated booty, another against giving aid to the enemy. He mingled these with exercises as intellectual as adding lines of poetry Of his own to Uhe poetry of others, the exercise known as raklunis."” He also wrote his text-book on administration, al-gayth. Its against this background of grief caused by the Shehu’s death, the renewed outbreak of fighting, and Bello’s own resurgence of literary activity that Asma’u's first dated work appears. She may have started to write much earlier, like her twin brother, but her litst known work is dated 1820. Her mentor, according to what she herself said, was Bello, and we have to consider how, at a time of crisis, the special relationship which existed between them was developed. The clues are found in Asma‘u’s own works. In short she first became involved in sorting out the Shehu's books; then her literary talent came to the notice of Bello; finally, some kind of 33the Calyph’s Sister imellectual collaboration was established between Urem, evidence of which is found in several works. Alter the Shehu's death, Asma'u wrote of her husbauid: He collected Uie works of the Shel together and had them copied because he feared they would be lost forever if he did not act. So Usuman Gidado can be likened to the third Caliph Usuman wo collected ure Qur'an of the Prophet, for Muslims to read." asa youth in about 1770 and many documents were stored in the rooms of his wives who survived him— Aisha, Hauwa, Hadija and Shatura— and also in tie room of his con- cubine Mariya. It seems renson- able to assume that Asma’y, who as a daughter of the housc, had better access to these documents than Gidado, and was assured of the help of Aisha and Hauwa, who had been married to the Shehu for more than forty years, were perfectly familiar with his works, and kindly disposed to Asma'u whom they had brought up. Gidado was extremely busy with the affairs of state, for the secretariat, which produced the correspondence for both the Wazir and the Caliph, was part of his household, The writing was done in the courtyard of the house by scribes while others stamped the completed letters with the seal of the Caliph under the supervision of the Chief Scribe."? The lettcrs were taken for checking to Gidado, Uke Wazir, who read Uiem through, He must have been too busy to do the work of collecting the Shehu’s books unaided; it is probable that Asma'u sorted and sifted the manuscripts in her own room anid left the job of tracing missing works to her husband, who sent out scribes to track Urem down and recover them. It was he who had them copied, but Asma'u’s diligence, imelligence and skill were noticed, remarked on and acknowledged. ‘The occasion which gave rise to the first picce of evidence we have of Bello and Asma’u's blending of literary interests had its origins in the sahel to the north of Sokoto. In [818 a reformer named Mohammed al-Jelani'? found himself in conflict with a powerful Tuareg chief named tbra. Eventually Jelani fled for safety to Sokoto where he found sanctuary. Ibra Uien sent a message to Bello saying, 34 18. A group of scholars Collaboration between Asma’ u and Bello “Ido not wish to fight you. I was hunting and I wounded a guinea- fowl. It flew off and entered your house. Let me have my wounded guinra-fow! back’. fo this Bello replied, "Your guinea-fowl is in the pocket of my robe. He who tries to take it will have to tear my robe first’. Making excellent speed and apparently without detection, for he was not intercepted, Ibra invaded the Caliphate in the company of the Chief of Gobir, Ali, and camped outside the gates of Sokoto at a distance of about four miles. Gidado recorded: ‘When Ibra’s force approached, Bello went to the war-camp we established outside the city gate and { joined hin. It was Thursday evening, Ie said to me, ‘Stay here: 1 will go back to the mosque and preach to the people. Whiatever you hear, seud word to nicl” He rude aud feft me in the camp and ft was not long before I heard the sound of te drums of Ibra at Dundaye. 1 went to the mosque where I found Bello delivering a sermon. [told him the news but he did not pay attention to what f was telling him. He was too busy delivering the sermon to the Jama‘a, but when he finished it we returned to the camp." The position of Ibra's camp at Dundaye SOKOTO ‘old Town Mapa At this point Asta’u, full of anxiety, went to Bello’s house and to the room of her childhood friend Aisha, Bello's wife. Aisha told her that Bello had left a message for her, a text from wre Qur'an (Sura XCIY verse 5), fainna ma’al ‘usuri yasuran (‘so verily with every difficulty there is relict”), Taking this text, so the story goes, Asma’ composed a poem of 14 lines in the form of an acrostic, the first syllables of cach line when read vertically forming the quotation. 35The Caliph's Sister New evidence, however, has recently come to light which in: dicates that events may have been a little different than at first Uiouglt. For Bello himself wrote a 14-line acrostic poem based om the text fa'inna ma‘al ‘usuri yasuran, ‘There ate other similarities between the texts apart {rom tite fact Uat both spring from the same source, Both thyme in ra and some verses correspond. For example verse 3 in Asma’u's work reads, ‘Come to Allah, receive of his abundance. All good things come from Him’, while Bello’s reads, “The bounties of God are many, they bring along with them bene- ice and triumph’. However, there are two important dissir : itten’ in Arabic whereas A in Fulfulde; Asma’u's contains @ topic in verse 9 which is not ects papayas ys03 engnapeUiaad Saye Se big SUE Hada hg Lake Fo enki nse ane Guyty Regs tatty eerie : yisetiabetaye al Bapebtenatyce Beeps iret aes pratt, relate yrs Nigel yribabtotlenns pt pik phatugs 19. Poem by Asma’ 36 Cottaburation Dewween Asma’ and Bello Vaddsiay PELDguorss woh DrODS UES aba taale ibU, aye De ey GS ata FE UI, ese FR eS Sosbaly s oi DB yA aitlade ds vy pod nea WV gt aaah bee iN ete Whove ds PAUUS 509 Ba see Poa Jean pe phatase BFK WH, Bids oy cpt PASE D ADDY odd Se abe PDE AMES aah elk 20, Poem by Bello mentioned in Bello’s work —‘we pray for victory that the rebellion of Ibra may be overcome’. We ae left with the problem, which pocm came first, Bello’s or Asma‘u's? Hers is dated, his is not. Ifhers came “first then the original story, which said Bello left a text for her, is correct, and on this she composed her poem. If Bello’s came first hen the probability is that he left not the text but the poem for her, which she translated and adapted, probably on the spur of the moment, a fent which was evidence of the maturity of her linguistic and creative ability. ‘The conclusion of the story of the invasion of the Caliphate was that bad omens destroyed Ibra’s self-confidence and he told Ali it would be best to tur and go home. According to Gidado All said to him, “If we return immediately we will perish, fet us therefore stay the night here, as if intending to attack Sokoto. fn the morning we will skirt the fortress 10 the west and south and go to Gandi". When they did this our scouts went out and started to fire on them, Allah caused theit defeat and Ibea fled untit his horse collapsed and his turban fell off, They teft so many camels and saddles that ‘each of tie Muslims took as many as ten camels."* 7 2. A Tuareg camel saddleThe Caliph’s Sister Another example of the convergence of Asma’y and Bello's literary interests is found in the poctry they produced when their Uncle Abdullahi died at Gwandu in 1828. It was the practice to w clegies about great people, a practice both Asma'u and Bello followed. Bello's work in Arabic!” has 27 verses, Asmia'u's Fulfulde"* has 21, his rhymes in ba, hers in ta, One would expect their themes to converge because they were both writing of a person renowned for his courage and learning. Bello mentioned his valour = ‘many a time did he command his troops against [enemy] squad- rons and it was through his efforts Uiat they won"; Asma'u did not Bello said of his scholarship, ‘there was no-one to equal him’, und fisted the subjects of which he was master — ‘commentary on the Qur'an, Hadith, jurisprudence, fatwa, grammar, rhetoric and also philology ... The mosques he adomed with his prayers." Asma‘ expressed herself vividly: Abdullahi was unique among the Shehu’s brothers and famous for his scholarship and for his tireless teaching. He was like twin rivers constantly flowing for the benefit of those who wished to drink: one was ue knowledge, the other was the law. Just as the Niger provides water for all Hausa-land, its waters spreading out in all directions, so he graced every endeavour through his learning and his exemplary attendance at the mosque. Every facet of scholarship, the mosques, schools ... everything he touched he illuminated. ‘These two poems viewed as different aspects of asingle person would seem inconclusive evidence of literary collaboration if it were not for passages in both which leap out from the page. Bello wrote, “The Shehu was the sun ... and his brother Abdullahi was the full moon ‘Asma’u’s verse was similar: ‘The Shehu was the sun of his time, his younger brother was the moon ... and Bello is their heir’. ‘This may be a coincidental use of phraseology: on the other hand, it may be that Asma’y saw Bello’s work ad decided to borrow his metaphor. Bello’s lengthy book Kitab al-nasiha"? was dated 1836 and was about women Sufis who inspired rulers, preached to women, and ‘commanded respect; it ended with an account of the notable women of the Shehu's generation. «It was written to draw attention to the worth of women Sufi intellectuals and emphasise the need for Uiem. in the community — thereby, perhaps. revealing that there had already been a two-fold falling off of standards, on the one hand by women who indulged in trivial pursuits rather than learning, and on the other by men who failed to educate their women and valued them only for domestic virtues. Bello opened his book with long quotations from the Hadith 38 Collaboration between Ayma'u and Belle showing various aspects of the Prophet's dealings with his family. ‘This was followed by short biographies of Sufi women of the tenth to fourteenth centuries AD living in the Middle East: these included Ummu Baniyna, a relative of Caliph Abdutaziz, who gave away her possessions joyfully; Rabi'a al-Adawiya of Basra, famed for her asceticisnr; Rayi'a to whom the death of Caliph Harun al-Raschid was revealed; Ubaida bint Abi-Kilab of whom one author wrote, ‘I witness that I have seen men and women, old and young pure in heart but no one-with such finely developed sensi hers’; Zahara, ‘black as a tree that was bummed", who lived 1 Jerusalem; Fatinia bint Abbas who was a teacher of figh and frequently climbed into a pulpit to preach to women; and T: bint Usuman to whom ‘kings aud te great” canie to pay th respects. After 34 such examples, the nantes of the Suli women of the Shehu's generation followed. Bello wrote about his mother: ‘She was pious, ascetic and exceedingly generous. She had powers of Karama and kash, always praying and fasting. She ate nothing which she had not earned by her own labour. She read the Qur'an constanily. She was Bracious and kept up good relatiouships with Her f aUitod jna/ hg Lape she IilBI8S 15 98,445 LassigdyshlaltxdLepuyibaiysiiyt, gry sae SIS Sa apgotedgeld 9 Ue Maliye dQalsayd vo plga IBM85 979 ston SiGe shell Lal os1o p> lye Np Nting LalgZhegiost tinal rLec eevee estou Ue 1b Sapo 2) )ya1 9 alg oe 22. Bello’s words about his mother Asina‘u took Bello's work, dated 1836, and translated it within a year into both Fulfulde and Hausa. ‘The iain text of the Fulfulde version has yet to be found — only the final two pages have survived — so the text under consideration here is the Hausa one which has 83 verses, We know that hers is derived from his because his is dated a year before hers, aud because she used the same names in the same order, There are, however, notable differences, the first 16 pages of 39caliphs Sister admonitory hadith in Bello’s text were omitted by Asma’, as were most, but not quite all, of the biographical details included by Bello. For example Bello spent six pages on Rabi'atu al-Adawiya and included many of the famous stories about her. ‘These Asnia’u omitted. Her brief account was as follows: 23. Asma'u's translation of Bello's words Rabi’atu of Adawiya stood atthe fiead of all pious people. She was zealous, had gifts of kasi, was radiant. She usted exceeding all oer ‘women, She was a truly pi jade a thousand rakas prostrations| every day and nig . of Judgement we shall hear of her zeal, Rabiatu, daughter of isima‘il, who so eamestly prayed. The most radical departure from Bello’s text was a special section inserted by Asma’u between the part dealing with Middle Easter women and that dealing with the Shelu's women-folk. In her own poem Asma’ perceived the congregation of women Sufi saints as intermediaries, just as the Sheu by his poem al-Oadiriya had ‘ardently sought Abd al-Qadir's intercession on the Day of Judgement ... seeing Abd al-Qadir as one of the nobles upon whom the wicked like himself should seck refuge’.” Asma‘u declared: Ihave listed their {the womten Sufi saints") goodness. May te Lord give me grace to repent my sins and { hope for forgiveness in the name of their Breatness. { hope my sins will be wiped away Uwougl their honour. ‘Asma‘u’s poem is not simply a translation of Bello’s book, nor is it even an abridgement of what he wrote, it is something new, fashioned from the material he gave her and me: aid to devotions. It was more than an interesting example of the collaboration between brother and sister because it pressed home the lesson that Sufism, picty and scholarship were not the preserves of men but were acceptable and desirable in a woman. Furthermore 40 Collaboration benween Asma’ and Helle ‘an historical group of women Sufi saints existed to which the Shehu's womenfolk belonged, and Asma’u’s generation too, thus under- sing the point that such women were part of the mainstream of religious life, had made contributions to the moulding of society, nd could continuc to do so. 4ASMA’U’S DEVELOPMENT OF HER ROLE Bello wanted all activities and every idea to show cvidence of wholeness, continuity and integration. He required all people to work with a sense of common purpose towards the establishment of a prosperous society rooted in Istam. His ideas were encapsulated in his book al-gayth, a chapter of which expounded a neo-platonist philosophy of goverment which probably came to him via the works of the eleventh century Persian philosopher al-Ghazali. In af- g0yth, Bello argued that the educated elite which sustained the rule of law could only exist where there was prosperity. This same rule of law demanded a Caliph whose uprightness was beyond question. ‘The Caliph was sustained by the army, which was maintained out of taxes paid by the people in conditions of prosperity. In pursuit of his aims Bello recognised that women constituted a factor to be taken into account because they were the prime educators of the yo He knew that most captured women, the concubines, were kno’ ledgeable about bori (see Ch.2), a cult which was dangerous and subversive to Islam, so he turned to the best educated women he knew to stem the tide and bring all women into line, a task he dared not leave to the majority of husbands and fathers. Had the Shel not persistently criticised them for neglecting the education of their women folk?! This action of Bello’s was within his own family tradition and was also sunna because ‘mothers of the faithful” were not unknown in the years which followed after the Prophet Muhammad's death. What is more, we read in Bello’s own work Kitab al-nasiha that the Prophet had told his daughter Fatima, "You are the leader of the women of your time’ — so the concept of women's leadership was not innovative. ‘There was, in addition, a strong tradition of wonten’s leadership in the Western Sudan. The names of the women's leaders changed a2 Asma'u's Development of her Role The titles of some women leaders ' MALT i tabard i NIGER eMagram = Auigira* WIGERIA CAMEROON O00 Fee 300" tea Foo tons SE emin boundaries of modern states Maps from place to place ~ Zima, Waymanzon, Inna, lya, Tambara, Magram, Magajiya, Maigira, Sarauniya, to name but some ~ just as i$ varied.” The Maigira of Biu had to remain sexually a man’s black robe ‘on ceremonial occasions. ‘The Tambara was the most i enureprencur though she had no connect j. The Waymanzon presided over holey, a form of bor hhad a variety of rituals and functionarics connected with drinking potions made of the hallucinatory sceds of the hairy thomn-apple tee. In Abuja the bori fetish was a stone two feet long and a foot broad set in the ground in the chief's house: blood was poured over it when the occasion demanded. In Tsibiti the Inna proceeded annual ly to sncrifice at n tree inhabited by a serpent called Si Asma'u was the woman chosen by Bello to lead the Caliphate 43The Caliph’ s Sister women in the paths of orthodoxy, to tum them if necessary from the slippery slopes leading to what she herself called “the Satan named ori’! Her position must have been perceived by many of the ordinary captive women she came in contact with in terms of the roles played by traditional women leaders, even though Asma’u's functions were very different from theirs. A Gobir woman captive's understanding was limited to her own experience and she therefore related what she saw to what she knew. She was used to sceing an authoritarian woman wielding power, and responded to Asma'u's authority. ‘The present Inna of Gobir is well able to describe her role and functions.’ In the first place, each Inna was a sister of the Chief and appointed by him, therefore to the captive women Ue clioice of Asma’u by her brother Bello was understandable and fitted into a familiar conceptual framework. Asma’u’s relationship to Bello was Jike a signpost in a strange landscape pointing to a well-known place. ‘The women tumed to her for help and advice just as many of then: had previously tumed to the Inna who was sarkin mara duka, chief of all women. ‘Their problems were about unhappiness, sickness and sterility.* Some were dealt with by Asma‘u through the application of the Shari'a, some by counselling patience and reliance on earnest prayer, some by medical advice based on a knowledge of the Hausa pharmacopoeia, Arabic textbooks and Sufi beliefs. And herein lies the esseutial aud crucial difference between Asma’u’s leader- ship and the Inna’s, for the Inna’s remedies in the final analysis relied on bori, magic, the use of hallucinatory herbs, hypnotic drum- 24, Datura, « herb used ming and animal sacrifice.’ Asma’u’s did to induce hallucinations not. Cases needing the application of the Shari'a included, as far as a captive woman was concemed, the locating of young children from whom she had been separated in the confusion of capture. Bello made specific mention of the separation of mothers from their children in al-gayth. Other matters affecting wives as distinct from concubines related to requests for legal divorce made by women and refused by husbands, the right of a woman to have custody over her unmarried daughter or pre-pubescent son, and requests for relense from marriage by unhappy young newly married girls who lacked 44 Asma’u's Development of her Role any legal grounds for divorce but hoped for Asina’u’s intercession, Such requests when male convincingly were taken seriously because unhappy girls, if they ran away, constituted a threat to the established moral order. ‘The foundation, through fai decisions, of an acceptable system of family law was one of the requirements of the era and one in which the senior leaned women exercised some influence. They counselled women and only sent such cases to court as they could not deal with themselves by guidance and exhortation and the exercise Of the legal acumen they had accumulated 25. A Tuaieg git Unoughout their education Quite separate from the legal cases were the problems associated with the rivalries present in polygamous houscholds. Gidado him- self had five sons by Asmia'u and 21 sons plus 21 daughters by other wives and concubines." There were jealousics and stresses in such situations. Each wife tried to sccure the affection of her husband and promote the interests of her own children, activities which stirred competitive feelings in her co- wives. The use of kwarce (charms) to over- come rivals was only one way of upsetting the peace: back-biting gossip was another. ‘These were condemned by Asmia'y who taught her students 10 be patient. She instructed them to distance themselves from prohibited sins such as lying, avarice, hatred and envy,’ and she advocated as an alter- native to hvarce recourse to the Qur'an,” recitation of which brought tranquillity. For ‘Asma’u, ‘whoever reads the Sura Hal Ata ‘ala’l “Insan will have peace of mind and heart. If he cannot read it but copics it, rubs it off into water and drinks it he will atain the same goal.” The sura contains the following two verses: v.12 And because they were Patient and constant He will Reward them with a Garden And [garments of] silk. 45The Caliph’ s Saster ¥.24 ‘Therefore be patient With constancy to the command Of thy Lord and hearken not To the sinner or the ingrate Among them, Sterility, depression, and mental illness were among the major asons why women sought help through the metaphysics of bori ad the wizardry of boka. Itis interesting that whereas, for example, .sma'u advocated the reading of Sura 89 in order to be blessed with male child, she gave no clear indications of the measures to be ken to overcome sterility. Her remedy was, we have to assume, to ake camest prayerful supplications because, rere is nouting as effective as secking Allah's protection. Allah the ‘xalted said, ‘He grants the requests of Uiose who believe and do righteous ceds and he increases (their possessions} from te abundance’ ... embers of the community of the Prophet, may Allah bless and protect, im, asked, “Is our Lord close at hand so we can talk to Him in whispers, oF ar away so that we have to shout [in order to reach) Him?” Then was avealed the verse, ‘I am close at hand to answer the requests of ie upplicant if he beseeches Me. ‘The Inna of Gobir was also the uwar-deji"? and wwar-gari.!? T ormer title indicated that she was in charge of the marriage arrange- nents of all the royal offspring because deji means ‘royal brood’. Ihe title invar-gari (which was also given to Asma‘u) is of special terest, because it means ‘mother of the own’, all the inhabitants, not just women, The inna of Gobir was the ‘chief” (sarki) of women A — — ut ‘mother’ (uwar) of the ‘town’ (gari), where town" had a wide meaning even in terms of erritory. Uwar seems to imply not only mother’ but co-partner in the context of Gobir decause the Inna had administrative functions within the state. These were at least three n number. She collected taxes and had a umber of women officials whose titles reveal he categories of artisans from whom they collected taxes, including builders, rice- srowers, dyers and butchers. She acted as regent if she stayed in the capital during the chief's absence, and she was present on the saltlefield on occasions. in her active role as uwar-gari, she dressed 1 trousers, boots, a man's robe, a man’s turban, and as a badge of 46 Asma'u's Development of her tole ollice wore adeep crowned maifa hat made of very finely woven soft straw," Dressed in this fashion she was indistinguishable from a ‘man, particularly as she rode a horse in the astride position. ‘Asima’y at a literary level was a political commentator and war historian; her role neither grew out of nor was the equivalent of the Inna’s, but people understood it, and accepted it, because there had always been women whose role transcended gender. For example, according to Gobir historians" it was at the Inna’s house in 1809 that Yunfa decided to reject his brother's suggestion Ural he should fice, and where he made up his mind, instead, to fight 10 the death, Twenty yenrs later Bello had occasion to launch a Uuce-pronged attack on the Gobir stronghold of Konya, which was defended on thtce fronts by the Gobir army led by tluce people, the Chief, Ali, the Inna and Galadima, Gobir sources say that it_was to the Inna that spies first went with the news that All was having sccret talks with Bello and it was she who decided ony a aug the appropriate action to take. Filly yeas 7 {yew later the Gobir Chief Ibrahim at Tsibiti appointed his cousin Inna Yarbukuma to be sole regent at Sabon Bimi, Legend has it that her damara (belt) was a foot wide, and when she walked down the street, straw was spread on the ground in from of her to prevent her boots from getting dirty. To further illusuate the point that Yarbukuma wielded real power the follow- ing story is told about her in Gobir. The Caliphate ruler of Zamfara, on realising that Yarbukuma was in charge of Gobir, let it be known that he thought the Gobirawa were weak for looking to a woman for authority. ‘The Inna decided to launch an attack on him, and he was, captured. She allowed him his freedom, but only after he had submitted his sword to her . The actual sword exists and is session of Yarbukuma’s descendant, the present Inna, jst a background of family intellectuntism, and in a milicu where leading women had a political role, that Asima’y’s verse written in 1825 ~ ‘Oh Allah, quell all the rebellions of Hausa and speedily destroy Maradi and Talata'™* was accepted ‘as one of the weapons she hurled at the enemy’. ‘Throughout her life she continued to comment on military situations. In 1844 she wrote of Sarkin Gobir: 47The Caliph's Sister Mayaki and his allies stand rebuked and have retreated in disgrace. ‘Uheit forces were put to flight and they have gone into hiding ... six hundscd and sixty men were killed, the important ones among them being decapitated.” In old age she described how, after a battle, Uke corpses of their leaders were strewn about and the vultures and yenas said to each other, ‘wlio docs this meat belong to?" and they were told, “itis yours, there is no need to squabble today’. In 1820, aged only 27, Asma’y was one of the instruments used by Bello to fashion society. She expressed herself in Wat year as follows in Tanbih al-ghajilin: Among [ways of showing] love of the Messenger are obedience 10 his commands: avoidance of things prohibited by him ... : endeavour torccite the Qur'an and understand and act by it: affection for the Mus! community shown by working for its interests and defending it against injuries or losses. What did she expect of the women with whom she had grown up in Degel, what did she admire in them and praise? The elegy she wrote about her closest friend Aisha is revealing.” Aisha was a remarkable woman, full of virtue, forbearing, upright, a pious servant of Allah, She was among those who guard themiseives from evil by saying extra prayers at night, saying Weir prayer beads, giving aln reading the Qur'an, rooting out oppressors, and taking on heavy respon sibilities. She brougit up orplians and gave assistance to widows, She was a pillar of suength to her family and was good to strangers and kinsmen alike, ‘Two of the criteria which Asma’u used in judging people are identifiable in uhis passage. ‘They are piety and ‘affection for the Muslint community’, exemplified by working for the public good, a task from which women were neither exempted nor excluded. Asma’u's sister Fatima” died in 1838, just after her full brother Bello. Her piety seems to have been close to the Sufism practised by her mother. Asma'y wrote of hr sister: "She fasted a lot and went into silent religious seclus but Fatima did not allow her devoutness to stand in the way of public service, Her work centred around her position as the wife of the leading general of the age, Aliyu Jedo. Asma'u praised her saying: ‘she organised the production of pro- visions when an expedition was mounted.” She 48 29. A woman pounding com Asma’ u's Development of her Kole hhad a lot of responsibilities.” In addition ‘she succoured the com munity with her many acts of charity. feeding relatives and strangers alike, She sorted out problems and urged people to live peaceably. ‘Asma'u approved of public service and lauded the life of Zaharatu.” a midwife, who was neither scholar nor Sufi but was ‘pious, pei severi in an ordinary kind of way. Like Fatima she cxcmplified the spirit of willing service to the community by cheer fully answering calls to help whenever they were made. “The community benefitted from her work as a layer out of bodies and women benefitted from her skills as a midwife; Zaharatu was full of good works.” Asnuiu was identified ns sarkin mata duka (chief of all women) by iptive women; as an uwar-gari figure by the general populace: as a ‘mother of the faithful” by her peer group; and as a shaikha (scholar) whose writings tran- scended gender by the intelligentsia. She functioned as one of Bello’s aides to integrate women into a society whose ideology was rooted in Islam. There was a ¢ for women and a place for their Jeader. A woman was able to cam herself a living by spinning,™ an occupation over which women had’ a monopoly to the 7 extent tat they organised the marketing 30. Awoman spinning Uweed of spun read either through direct purchase or Urough commission agents. There was also a market run by women for women ttear Gidado's house which, in a much attenuated form, existed until the 1970s. ‘The wives of principal people are occupied in directing female slaves in their work, cooking their husband’s food, cleaning cotton, dressing, hair, teeth and eyebrows, sending slaves to niasket to sell cotton, grain and various foodstulfs, wrote Commander Hugh Clipperton when he stayed as Gidado’s guest in Sokoto in 1824. Clapperton, who was either uninterested in, or not very well informed on, the sociology of Sokoto society had no access to the Indies of Gidado's household. It is however note~ worthy that he commented: “They [the women] are allowed more liberty than the generality of Muhammedan women’. ‘work was in the education of women, in order to equip them to bring up the next generation of children within the 49I Caliph’ s Sister desired ideological framework, From the beginning the Shehu had preached against the allures of wealth and the panoplies of power, and his brother Abdullahi had inveighed against those ‘whose purpose is the ruling of countries and their people to obtain delights end acquire rank." The poems Asma'y composed between 1830 and 1862 for her students pointed the way; indeed one of tem was entitled Godaben Gaskiya,”” “The Path of Truth’ Listen to my song, let us repent and leave sin, let us do good works that perchance we may be joined with Ahmad {the Prophet Mulanunad). Let us perform prayer properly for you know that if prayer is right, tie whole of teligion Is right, Let us seck for knowledge for itis with knowledge that God and the Prophet are followed. The Sufi litany, prayers and meritorious effort lead us to the Prophet, likewise also patience In woubles, worshi patience in poverty, and wishing for a Muslim everything you wish for yourself. The Day of Resurrection is a day of terror and fear to everyone except the Most Excellent of Mankind, Muhammad; people are exposed together with the sins they have conuniited. The stench of the adulterer is worse than the stench of a dead decaying animal. The tongues of the slanderers, hypocrites and perjurers will hang down to their breasts. The ostentatious, even if he is zealous in his worship, will be discarded. Th proud and those who practise tyranny will tot meet Ahmad nor will he who emberzles and takes bribes, nor he who despises his parents and is a backbiter. Poems like these were meant to be committed to memory and sung by ordinary men, women and children. Godaben Gaskiya was written in Hausa, a significant point. Three quarters of her peda- gogic verse was written in Hausa, compared with only one in ten of her elegies. She was atcacher of the masses, not only of the scholarly lite. 31, The turban as worn by men and jas She perceived rural woman as being a class in need of education, The scheme she devised for this was practical and her approach methodical. And so with the increasing confidence which maturity brought she began, eventually,” to reach out into Uie rural society 50 Asma’ u's Development of act wee which lay beyond the peripheries of main towns. She evolved away of bringing the women to her which has continued to exist until the present day. She chose mature women of learning, intelligence, but above all of reliable character, to head women’s village units, and she gave each lender a malfa hat which was the symbol of authority used by the Inna of Gobir. To emphasize the transfer of authority she gave each jaji (leader) a strip of red cloth which was tied round the brim of the hat; the ceremony of handing over the red cloth was called nadi, which was.the word used when authority was conferred on a male title-holder. ‘The red cloth was even called a rawani (turban), although it was not worn in the same way as a man wore his. The importance of the symbolic hat, and the ceremony of the adi, were not lost on the population. “The women who came to Asma’ came under her acgis with all the implied protection which her sponsorship accorded them, None of the descendants of her pupils could remember a single story of these women students being attacked in the old days, and thought the question of the women's safety irrelevant, even though the n-never travelled with male escorts and included young, unmarried girls in their midst. “The education system was devis ages of about 14 and 44 to stay at home and look alter their families. The students were the young girls and the older women each of whom was eligible to participate providing that, in the first instance, she obtained the permission of her husband or father. The jajé also urged ench woman and git to set off with the right intentions, which meant she lind to be fully determined to learn all she could and to renew her Faith, acting Uoughout with great picty. Even the gifts taken to Asima’y had to be without taint: things. gained through corruption, deceit, greed or misetliness were tainted and she told her pupils'she did not want them. When the time came to set out, the jaji made up her list of participants and collected the gifts proffered by women who could not go becnuse of their families, or because they were old. These gills of honey, grain, cloth, butter and thread were used by Asina't in her welfare services among the sick and disabled. Once the women had aésembled they set out. At the front were the best singers, who led the others in choral singing. On the donkey which carried the gifts to Asma’u would also ride one of the smaller girls who was tired, and in the centre walked the jaji conspicuously dressed. In a long line they wended their way to Sokoto: at night they camped where they were, or in the homes of friendly fellow students. 51 sd to allow women between thedhe Calph’s Jeter When they reached Asuia’y they went to her apastments and were ziven refreshments. She talked to the older women who relayed to rer the problems sent to her by the women left at home. Through listening to her they leamed how to apply the law, and make common-sense assessments. She received the young girls, smoothing her hands over their heads and praying they would marry good husbands and bring up their children in he Faith.” Each group stayed with her several days and were taught poctry which they committed to memory. When they finally departed they set off home with enthusiasm, keen to spread the word. Of one jajé Asma’ wrote: Its human nature to long for happiness in the world, but only a fool sceks happiness here where pain and pleasure are mixed, where the moments of joy are followed by times of bitterness. I accept the misfortune [of her ‘death and remember Hauwa the jaji who loved me, a fact well knows by everybody. During the dry season, the wet season, the harvest, the time of dust-storms, and at the start of Uie rains, she was on the roads bringing ple to me. She wamed them to come in good faith, for te intention was portant, she said, and so was coming for the love of the Shehu. As for myself, I taught diem about religion, tumed them from error and told them about the essential religious obligations like ritual ablution, prayer, alms, hhajj, the fast, al of which ase compulsory for adulls.I taught them what is permissible in Ure Faith and what is forbidden so Wicy would know how to act. I Instructed them to distance themselves froin prohibited sins such as lying, avarice, hatred, envy, adultery, Uiefl and sclf-estecm. 1 said Ucy should repent because these’things lead to perdition. My pupils and Usci children are well known for their good works and peaceful behaviour in th community. May Allal forgive ier, have mercy upon her ard unite he with the Shehu in Paradise, May Allah grant this request and reward her for her good works which she performed with the blessed ald of the Shchu.? The pupils referred to by Asma'u, and their practising descen- dants, are known as the yar-tart, meaning ‘associates’. Used out- side the context of women’s Islam in the Asmawian tradition, the word yan-taru can be employed in a number of different ways — to refer to people gathered to watch a sporting event for example. Within the context of women’s Islam, however, the word takes on a specific meaning and it is possible to speak not only of yan-taru but, also of “the yan-taru movement’, the existence of which is known primarily only to its members and to scholars of the Asmawian tradition like the Waziri of Sokoto, Dr. Junaidy. It is not a secret, society, but it is not widely known because it operates within women’s Islam and is therefore not overt. What is more its members, when they do visit the city, look like ordinary yan-ziyara (pilgrims) 52 Asma’u's Development of her Kote as they walk along the streets. Among the crowds the maifa-hatted leaders are no longer conspicuous. 33THE LATER JIHAD ‘We catch a glimpse of life in Sokoto through the eyes of an English visitor who was Gidado’s guest in 1824. This guest, Commander Hugh Clapperton wrote: L was conducted to the house of Gidado where apartments were provided for me and my servants. After being supplied with plenty of milk I was lelt to repose myself. The Gidado, an elderly man, arrived at midnight, He spoke Arabic extremely well, which he said le had leasned solely from the Koran’ Gidado was aged about 50 at this time, and there is no evidence to suggest why he should have looked ‘elderly’ ~ loss of teeth for example, or arthritic joints. He was physically and mentally very active, and had just retumed from Kano when Clapperton saw him. “Good old Gidado’ was how he described Asma'u's husband in another place, a description which contrasts with Uiat given of Bello who was ‘a noble looking man forty four yeats of age altiough much younger in ‘ive foot ten inches high, poruly in person, with a curling black foreead, a Grecian nose and large black n the heart of Gidado's house, made no reference to the English visitor in her writings: strangers from the Mediterranean Tittoral were not uncommon, and in any case she wrote only about affairs as they affected her. Even in the elegy she wrote about her husband she did not mention his describing instead all that he did in connection with helping the poor and needy, his work as a host to visitors, his preservation of the Shehu’s manuscripts and his supervision of work within the city walls ~ in most of which she was involved. When Clapperton was 54 The Later Jihad living under Gidado’s roof she was 31, ‘tall, fair complexioned, and very teat about her person and her belongings’ according to family traditions? Women of the household, as reported by Clapperton, were dressed in cotton striped with blue, white and red, long to te ankles. ‘They wore brac lets of hom, glass or coral, had their hair plaited ‘turned up like a crest on the top of the head’ and razored to give a high forehead. Their eyebrows were trimmed, cyes outlined with antimony, hands and feet hennacd, and “their teeth dyed red’, a reference to the habit of putting n wad of tobacco into the lower lip. The habit was not universally adopted although it is still common. A mid-twentieth- _, century propagandist produced a document 32, Aulus gil Condenuning its use and quoted an untraceable work allegedly by Asma’ to bolster his argument, She is supposed to have said in a work which is almost certainly a forgery, fone can argue that tobacco may be used medicinally but its habitual use is forbidden because it dehydrates the body, is a feckless waste of money, detracts from the appearance and from a person's dignity, it reduces @ person's air of respectability, and is addictive, Anyone who takes itis a fool. There is no further argument The writer of the document assumed that words spoken in the name of Asma’u carry authority, and that the populace at large recognises that authority. ‘Asmia‘u’s room which is still standing, was large and circular with a steeply pitching roof’ Her bed was raised from a floor covered with clean white sand. Her library, in the days before the introduction of bound books,’ con- sisted of manuscripts which were kept side tadirish (lenther slip-cases) which in rm were put inside satchels hung from 33- A tadirsh or book cover he walls to keep them safe from gritty for mumseripts Saharan dust, destructive white ants, and disastrous rain-leaks in the wet season. Asma’u’s day was organised round the prayer times. Clapperton’s account describes how people rose at day-break, washed, said their prayers, ‘counted beads’ (zikr), sipped fura (a milk drink), ate rice with butter at 10 a.m., said prayers at 2 p.m., 35The Caliph’s Sister again at 4.30 p.m., again at sunset, then ate ‘pudding’ (novo) with meat ot fish, Prayers ended the day. Food included bread from wheat, melons, figs, onions, dates, salt from Bilma in the Sahara, plantains, mutton, beef ‘in great plenty’, potatoes, and fish ‘which afford the poor people of Sokoto a very considerable part of their food’. Gidado, Asma’u's husband, dressed in a red cap with bluc tassel, white turban, white shirt “short in the skirts’, large white fobe, white trousers trimmed with red and green silk, and sandals or boots. His arrival in the women’s part of the house would often have beet heralded by the tread of his footwear — no one else entered with anything other than bare feet.” By 1824, Asma'u had two children;* Abdutkadir, who was to succeed his father, was fifteen, and Ahmadu was aged four. She may, during the period 1810-20, have had miscarriages or she may have had a condition which led to temporary sterility, no one knows. In 1830, when she was 37, she had another son, and two more followed, in 1832 and 1834, by which time Abdulkadir had married his cousin Maryam and had produced Asma'u's first grandchild. It is significant that although during the lifetime of Bello, her mentor, she was involved with her functions as a mother, bearing and nursing children, these functions did not impair her ability to write, nor disqualify her from participation in the affairs of the Caliphate. At that time Sokoto was a prosperous place. ‘It appeared to me the most populous town I had visited in the interior of Aftica’, wrote Clapperton, Women were the spinners of cotton thread which was woven into cloth, a major export of the Caliphate. In Sokoto prized cloths were woven by Nupe weavers who had settled in the area:” woven of fine thread, striped effects were produced in blue, black and white, and robes were embroidered with 34. Dye-phs intricate designs. Dyeing was a craft linked to the textile industry and there were seven, possibly nine, dye-pit locations within the environs of Sokoto city. The dyed cloth was taken to places as distant as Timbuktu to the west and Adamawa to the east, each about a month's journey from the source of manufacture. The most prosperous master dyers worked at Marinar Tsamiya, which is still a 56 The Later Jihad thriving concem, having successfully blended new techniques with traditional expertise. ‘The tanning of hides and leather-smithing were two other flourishing industries in the nineteenth century. Commander Clopperton said the dycing of tanned goatskins was ‘the principal manufacture of the city’; and another traveller, Heinrich Barth," described the making of leather articles as ‘the most celebrated branch of manufacture in Sokoto’. The leather- workers made sandals, wrigh-length boots, containers for honey, butter, snuff and cosmetics, sacks to hold grain, waterskins, book satchels, shicids, sheaths for knives, scabbards for swords, saddles, bridles, stirrup leathers and other horse accouuements, decorations for hats and 7 thonging for amulets, Wood-tumers produced 7% A Gobi wile pestles and mortars, potters made water-coolers, eather sheath jugs and clay griddles for frying cakes. ‘All this, however, was marred by guerrilla warfare. According to Clapperton, the trade of Sokoto is at present inconsiderable owing to the disturbed state of the surrounding country ... a lad in the service of Gidado liad his hand dreadfully wounded by the people of Gobir ... The river is a resort and luiding place of rebels ....on April 15th a column of a thousand people and fificen horsemen was attacked by Gobirs. In 1825 Asina'u showed her concer when she wrote ‘I pray Allah will give victory, destroying unbelief and fortifying religion. Oh Ullal quell all the rebellion: Her prayer was answered; Bello and the Chief of Gobir, Ali, agreed on truce terms which gave Bello control of the lower end of Uke river valley, and the Gobirawa the upper half. Ali made his capital at Dakurawa and Bello went to live at Wumo in a house built on an exposed windswept bluff with a panoramic view of the valley. He went there in a state of readiness to defend the commercial capital, Sokoto, should the truce be broken. Asma’, in a poem of great interest, which is discussed at length in Chapter 9, maintained that it was the Shehu who had first indicated that a settlement of special significance would be built at Wurno. ‘The truce with Gobir was successful and was reinforced by @ victory in the south won by Bello’s cousin over the Kebbi Chief Karari, As a result Karari's son, a boy named Nabame,” went to live 7The Caliph's Sister The position *Dakurawa 10 of AU Ong of Wurno NGobie e050 7 Alkalawa rared 1808 Degele the Shehiis *Wurno home before 180: built by Ballo % ©1830 Sokato built 1809 P55 Fo ums MAP 6 at Bello’s court with the hope that, in due course, he would assume the leadership of his people and become a firm ally. ‘About the time that Bello went to Wumo, and the truce was made, a distinguished visitor arrived in Sokoto. It was Alhaji Umar," newly retumed from Mecca and Medina. The significance of his arrival, as far as this present work is concemed, is that one of Alhaji Umar’s follows, Alhaji Said, wrote a book in his old age which contains contemporary descriptions of events known to Asma’u. Alhaji Sa’id greatly admired Bello: he wrote that ‘during his reign Hausaland flourished greatly ... he was a good adm strator’."? Nevertheless the Gobir hierarchy were chaling under the pence terms agreed by Ali. Many versions exist about the events which led to a new outbreak of hostilities. They culminated in the biggest set battle of Bello's entire reign at a place called Gawakuke, an event described in detail in one of Asma’u's finest works." One Gobir version says that Ali was sent a package containing a set of butcher's knives by the Inna, a calculated insult which implicd that Ali was a Fulani slave. Fulanis never butcher their own cattle, they leave the task to men they hire for the purpose. Ali's brother Baciri was involved in the plot to disrupt the peace and was probably instrumental in persuading the Maradi Chicf Rauda to join in. Asma’y, however, put the blame on the Tuareg Chief Ibra whose enmity had continued to smoulder since the Jelani affair (see Chapter 4) and the related unsuccessful invasion of Sokoto in 1821 “It was Ibra," she said, ‘who rose and called to the kafir chiefs of 58 The Later Jihad Maradi and Gobir.’ Similarly, as Alhaji Sa’id wrote, ‘Ibra and Ali attacked the town of Kataru, destroyed it, and slaughtered the women and children’, ‘The nows reached Bello and he addressed a congregation, quoting to them from Sura IX of the Qur'an Ucatics with kafirai who lind treacherously broken their terms were denounced. Alhaji Sa'id, who was present, gave Uie following account of Bello’s address: If God wills, tomorrow I will ake the field, Do you realise that what these people have done in slaughtering women and chitdren is unlawful? But if God gives us the victory anyone who takes a fifteen-year-old may slaughter him, ‘clear indication of the kind of retribution which Bello intended to take on the enemy. ‘Asina’u explained what happened next: During the months of Ramadan, Shawwal and Zulka‘ida loyal Muslims gathered together. Then Bello sent letters to the eastern allies telling tem to come with speed.” ei On the first of Zuthajj Bello rode out of Wumo at the head of his 36 & 3. Lily-roter and Open-bill men and joumeyed up the valley _(bitds common near Wamo) to keep his rendezvous with the ‘eastem allies’; the Emir of Kano was among them, The timing was significant in two respects: first, The position of Gawakuke agers fost sey ana jAWAKUKE DS,The Caliph's Sister since the initial attacks Bello had allowed four months to elapse before retaliating, thus obeying the Qur'anic injunction contained in Sura 1X. Second, he had set out in March at the onset of the hot season when temperatures rose daily into the 100s, the sun was overlicad, and there was little cloud to veil it. At Urat time of year surface water was scarce and campaigns wete usually avoidcd because neither men nor animals could be watered. ‘A few days were spent at Lajinge.” Asma’u continued, ‘where the castem allies including the Emir of Kano Ibrahim Dabo joined him.” She records that Bello’s forces assembled before him and ‘swore an oath never to fice the field’. From Lajinge Bello swung across the plain of the river and followed the wadi which led directly to the enemy camp at (“© wy Dakurawa about 50 kilometres distant. Ibra, Ali, Baciri and Rauda stayed their ground and waited. ‘Once out of the main valley, Bello ran into difficulties with water supplies. ‘At Bulaici’, wrote Asma’u, 38. A camel drummer the hill there was parched: apart from a tree or two the only vegetation was thom grass, Thirst tormented the men as they frantically searched for a source of water. Bello told each man to dig a hole into the hillside and water would be found, Each man obediently followed these instructions and each one found water. We witnessed an astounding thing when te water came. Undoubtedly Muhammad Bello showed Karama, Water poured forth, I saw it with my own eyes. ‘These verses raise a number of interesting ideas, the first being the possibility that Asma’u was indeed there: ‘I saw it with my own eyes’, It seems at first sight unlikely that she would have travelled with the army. However, we know that she travelled frequently between Sokoto and Wumo, she was a determined woman, and women were witnessed by Clapperton travelling with Gidado. ‘Gidado arrived with a numerous train of attendants’, he wrote, ‘the women behind, some riding on horseback asuaddle, some on camels." Her verses have the vivacity of a first hand account and the first version of the poem was written soon after the battle, Whatever he case, it is clear that something extraordinary happened at Bulaici, for Asma’u’s words are confirmed by Aliaji Sa'id, who wrote: oo The Later Jihad Bello took the desert road ... the people suffered greatly from thirst, almost to the point of destruction, Bello took his lance and struck it in the ‘ground saying to Mash who was in charge of his water supplies, ‘Dig here.” ie dug a lite and the water welled up. He ordered each man to dig in his own place. They dug and the water welled up in each place.” This account was written in the early 1860s, several yess after Asma'y had written the second edition of her pocm. Was this indeed a miracle performed by Bello? Djibo Hamani says in a recent work tat there was a stream at Bulaici which was known as a cattle watering-place. ‘The stream was fed by a subterrancan aquafer. ‘It was enough to dig only a little even in the dry season.” Whatever the explanation, luck secis to have been on Bello’s side. His army's advance from Bulaici to Kuraima, where he camped ‘on the eve of Id al-Kabir, was monitored by etiemy forces. Gobir sources say Ali expected to be killed because he had broken the original treaty and he instructed his younger brother Mayaki to take ‘care of his soon to be orphaned children who numbered tamanin da ‘goma (80 plus ten). Mayaki ~ his name in translation means ‘the warrior’ —had to affect some illness to avoid taking part in the battle, so he squeezed the juice of a strong onion into his eyes.** Thus ‘afllicted” he escaped death and lived to become a future Chief of Gobir and a great scourge of Bello’s successors. This is Asma'u description of the battle scene: At Kuraima Bello preached to the warriors. He ordered them not to arouse or excite the enemy by lighting fires. Next moming he mounted and rode to Gawakuke where he established his positions. He said the men shiowld remain silent and immobile. Very shorly afterwards Ibra arrived with his army which included a great number of pagan archers,” possibly of non-Muslim Fulani igin, as well as his own well organised jounted wartiors dressed in black robes, wousers and turban, with a spear in the right hand and a silver embossed white shield on the left arm, 39. A Bororoje (non-Musiim) —_Asina‘u continued: Fuland ‘Then Bello ordered the flags 10 be brought and unfurled. He told his men to gird themselves, for the kafirai would be put to shame. He then gave the order and the mien took up their weapons, ‘The speats looked like fields of ripe com heads. Madi, Danyero and 6The Caliph’ s Sister Abduwa advanced with the standaids to the head of the army and the host moved forward. ‘With standards flying, Bello rode at the head of his men, Spears and swords flashed in the sunlight surrounding the matcliless Caliph. ‘They were numbertess ike, locusts. On his aurival bate commenced.” The bodies of the slain resembled lines of reaped cox Rauda and Ali were engaged first. Ibra aud Baciri managed to flee. The heads of the chemy warriors fell and Ibra’s army will never again cetum =a very prescient observation, for the battle, or more accurately Ibra's death the following year, marked the end of the intervention by Tuareg chiefs in the Caliphate. Ibra escaped from Gawakuke and raided a number ‘of settlements on his route northwards into the desert. He was followed by revengeful warriors and his camp was surrounded. His luck held and he escaped again, but with a head wound which apparently reopened the following year as a result of a hunting accident, causing his death. “The death of his Gobir ally, Ali, was no less dramatic. When the battle was lost, TEX he dismounted at a place called Tillon ‘Maje, placed his shield on the ground and. seated himself on it, a traditional gesture » ay va 4 40, ATuseg acknowledging defeat and inviting the sword thrust. Baciri, his brother, who has been blamed by Gobir historians for Sy engineering the disastrous repudiation of the treaty, lost his horse and fled the field riding pillion on a camel. Overtaken by 41. An wis’s ens Mayaki he was ordered off the camel and Multammad Dello so they say, was set down in the Gundumi desert and pushed into a pig's hole to die. Bello kept his promise and spared no male over the age of 15. Alhaji Sa’id reported that they left the women and children un- disturbed, but he estimated the number of enemy dead at 25,000. Major General C.H. Foullkes, who passed by Gawakuke in March 1902, saw ‘a large mound by the side of the path, about twenty feet high, which the Chief said contained the remains of 20,000 men who had fallen in a great battle in the past’. With a hint of sardonic 62 The Later Jill humour Asma’u described the camage, the spilled brains and de jated birds of prey ‘talked’ to each other about And still Bello had not finished with the cnemy. Two days after Gawakuke he set off in pursuit of the fugitives who had escaped death, and found them at Zana, The hill at Zana, where jackals are seen in the: open to this day, was held in special veneration by the Gobir people because the wadi which gave life-giving water to Daku- rawa originated in Zana, and because 42. Aspear held by wie present thie thick scrub was a haven, a place of Waziri's helpet, Shehu refuge in troubled times. To protect its Cocake magical properties a black bull was sacrificed on its summit annually: it had, therefore, special signifi- cance. Bello pursued his enemy to Zana and in its steep ravines and rocky slopes slew all he could find. He then took his own dead to a site in a tiny green oasis and buried them there: the graveyard, covering about five actes, is conspicuous today because it is the only uncultivated land in'a place where every inch of fertile ground is tilled. The rest is desert. Asma’u wrote that, ‘a camp was made in which the army stayed for seven days. Bello isc Bello implemented the policy he had decided upon — jon of hostile lands. He appointed his son Aliyu to commiid the new ribat at Lajinge, and his son Fodio to command Shinaka: bouh Aliyu and Fodio had Gobir mothers. He installed Asma‘u's twin brother's son at Mamona, the third link in te defence chain which stretched downstream to Wumo, which he himself continued to command After the army had returned, and after Ue harvest [November] Uiere was lvouble at Anka" which Belio quelled, Uren he retumed to Wurno where for seven months he was ill. When his condition became worse ue Muslim Community became deeply worried. On Thursday, the twenty-fifth of Rajab 1253 he died and went to heaven, Asma‘u's husband Gidado, Bello’s lifelong he died.” end, recorded how He sent a letter to his brothers telling them of his approaching death, He 63The Caliph’s Sister instructed them to unite together as Muslims and be vigilant, he directed em to follow what Allah said in Sura UL verse 103 of dhe Que‘an: And hold fast All together by the Rope Which God [stretches out for you} and be not divided Among yourselves .. ‘And Sura IV verse 1: Reverence God through whom Ye demand your mutual (rights) and [reverence] Uie wombs [That bore you} He built a room before he died and said he should be buried there. He cled he was not to be taken to Sokolo. Before he died he recited the words of the Shalada twee times and also’a verse from the Qur'an, Sura XVI verse I: When their term expires ‘They would not be able To delay {the punishment} For a single hour, just as ‘They would not be able To anticipate it {for a single hour). ‘Then he fell on his pillow but before his lead reached the pillow he died, Asma'u wrote only about affairs as they affected her, and nothing affected her throughout her life as much as Bello’s death.” he first poem she wrote about him was completed in the year in which he died. It has a poignancy and appeal which exceeded nuything she subsequently wrote, Jn tears I call on Allah and compose this poem for Whe Caliph, $0 Us heat, s0 full of love, will be soothed ...] am berclt of te great enduring Jove and absolute confidence I shared with my brother, His magnaninity, his literary instruction ... T shall never enjoy the like again ... I toss and tum and retum again to Allah ... [weep as I say my prayer beads, and when 1 uy to sleep I tum restlessly in grief as I remember Bello. Unite us in the realms of Paradise olt God ... 1am like someone left in the wildemess alone Tam like an infant who has been left pitiful and enfeebled without mother or father ... Bello helped me in every respect ... he was my teacher ...1 pray that he may see the face of the Prophet the Chosen One. 1 pray Uiat Allah will give us aid now that Bello is gone.” COLLABORATION BETWEEN ASMA’U AND GIDADO ‘The profound effect that Bello's death had on Gidado is seen in his virtual retirement from public life, although, as a matter of courtesy, and by force of habit, he continued to be called Waziri. The functions of his office were carried out by the fist son Asma’ bore him, Abdulkadir, then aged 30. ‘The new Caliph was Abubakar Atiku, Bello’s full brother. ‘The two Caliphs were dissimilar in looks, demeanour and style. Bello was tall, Auiku short. Bello was ‘a noble looking man’, to quote Clapperton: “he was a very pleasant companion’ according to Asmia‘u. Alhaji Sa’id described Atiku as ‘down-looking, he seldom raised his hend’, Clapperton called him ‘cruel’, Bello was a pra ist: Atiku interpreted the law in its narrowest seuse. Allaji Said quoted him as saying: “If you see me straying from the path of the law lich set mie straight in it, even with the stroke of a whip and J too will set straight all who stray from the legal path.” Alliaji Sa’id continued, ‘He changed many abuses’. What docs this mean? Docs it indicate that Bello had strayed from the Shari'a? Asmia’u said of Bello: "He was never ill tempered, he was pleasant to everyone. Only if the law was broken did he become angry, in which case he was implacable and could not be appeased.” In another place she declared that ‘he upheld the Shari'a, honoured it, implemented it, that was his way, everyone knows’. For an interpretation of the word ‘abuses’, therefore; we must look at the ways in which Bello. sought to reconcile the populace and bind up wounds through legitimate administrative and social concessions. One example is the way in which he encouraged Asmn’u to become uwar-gari, kind of Inna figute to the women, Another example was the way in 65The Caliph’s Sister which he recognized that most men no longer felt inspited to fight the Jihad on ideological grounds alone, and required inducement. As he wrote in al-gayth, payments made to warriors are the best possible use to which State funds can be put, for it is the warriors who put Ucir lives at risk In order 10 safeguard the community. Therefore they must be given satisfactory rewards. Payment is made in two ways ~ wealth from the Treasury and land. The Treasury, which Is the accumulated wealth collected by Mustims, hhas Seven sources of revenue, the first of which is booty. We know from Gidado that Bello did not interfere if a man was lucky enough to get extra booty: there is no direct evidence to show that Atiku's interpretation was stricter, but in 1842 the army on cam- paign against Gobir refused to obey Atiku's command to advance against the enemy and he was forced to wm for home.! This was not a totally new development:” serious cases of indiscipline had ‘occurred previously. Nevertheless the repercussions were long- fasting. It is clear that Atiku’s methods were harsh and that, although he won the support of the Imam of the mosque and others, he failed to carry the majority. Used as he was to Bello’s ways, Gidado could not work with Atiku, Perhaps, too, he was ageing. Considered ‘old’ by Clapperton in 1824, he may have been showing signs of physical ill-health by 1838, which meant that Atiku’s decision to live in his own house in Sokoto, and not in Bello’s, was an obstacle too troublesome to overcome.’ The old familiarity which had existed between the two houses of Gidado and Bello, which were situated close together, had gone. The ‘warmth, the mutual respect, and the joys of close friendship, so central to Gidado’s life, disappeared with Bello’s death. From the memory of them sprang fe of great’ |= —A—- intensity which were shared by Gidado and 43. A goriba palm wes ‘Asma‘u. Their sorrow and grief compelled them to write and the works which emerged from their literary partnership provide historians with essential information ‘The poetry and prose written by Gidado and Asma’u in the period 1837-40 form a patter. Asma'u wrote the first work of the series, Sonnore Bello, just after his death, ‘In tears I call on Allah and compose this poem for the Caliph so that my heart, so full of love, will be soothed.’ She 66 Collaboration between Asma'u and Gidado Til minor work Mi major work Asua'y Gidado | 4 Som ko Bello 3 Riliage/tatar gonye 4 Koiwi TShew 5 al-kashf wal bryan 6 Ravd al —Jinan i Majmu khisal ii Majo ashab onBdllo on Shey onBullo on Shehu ae a3 DO mt ly 44, The pattern of Gidado's and Asma'u's work wrote two versions of the poem, one in Fulfulde, the other in Arabic: both were dated 1837 and both have had takhmis added. For example in verse 5 the original couplet read: When I uy to sleep I tum restlessly in grief as I remember Bello I pray God will reunite us, Three fines were then added which matched the ori cally and kept to the same thythm, rhyme and metre. The completed verse was: Ttoss and tum And return again to Allah on whom I rely I weep as I say my prayer beads When I try to sleep I tum restlessly in grief as 1 remember Bello 1 pray God will reunite us. Fulfulde was Asma'u’s mother tongue and through it she rencted with spontaneity and verve to situations as they occurred. Her freshness, vigour and her emotional involvements are glimpsed in her Fulfulde verse, Her works in Arabic convey the feeling that they were ‘set’ pices carefully composed. Her works in Hausa were didactic in content, written to educate, In Fulfulde Asma’u's character emerges ~ responsive, frank, direct, appreciative, con- cemed, practical and strong. In 1838 she wrote in an appraisal of Bello’s character in Fulfulde — 67The Caliph's Sister “Itis my intention to set down Bello's characteristics and explain his ways’! and in the 30 verses which followed she encapsulated the quintessence of Bello's character. She concentrated on the man, not his achievements. She made no mention of his lineage, nor of his prowess on the battlefield. She did not list his friendships nor did she speak of the rulers with whom he was in alliance. She said nothing of his grandeur, his power o the empire which he ruled. Her poem was, tue to the tradition in which she had grown up, the emphasis on unworldliness, duty, probity and picty being a requirement of the genre. It conuasts with traditional Hausa praise-songs. According to Dr. Hiskett, in Hausa praise-songs there is much bombast in which the singer lists his patron's exceptional prowess and virtues, emphasizes his relationships ‘with kinsmen and courtiers and describes him rhetorically with laudatory personifications and images drawn from what seem to be a conventional repertoire... The song of Wambai (of Kano 1618~ 23) was ‘male elephant lord of the town, Abdulla ike a bull hippopotamus’. Modem songs written about leaders, tell of the dignity and majesty of the emir or politi- cian, remark on his generosity — on which the singer depends — dwell on the size of his retinue of cars and the excellence of his lineage. Such declamatory works boost the status of the a it ; pera concemed in an immodest manner. ‘maroki (prnise-singen py Ararat (oisesinge) “In her poem Gikko Bello Asma’u said Panegyrizing patrons Bello was learned in all branches of knowledge and feared God in public and in private... he set an example in the way he was unworklly.... he upheld the Shari'a ... he eschewed worldly things, he was modest, thoughtful and calm ... he never broke a promise ... he divorced himscif entirely from bribery and flung back at the givers those who offered monty for titles. One day Gerenge fa ruler of Bukwuyur) sent him a splendid gift. Bello told Zitaro [the envoy! {o return the bribe to the sender with the following message: “have no to do with forbidden things. The gift was sent for unlawful purposes and is therefore itself unlawful’... He (acilitated leaming and commerce ... he propagated good relationships between different wibes and between Kinsmen ... lle was a very pleasant companion ... he shouldered responsi bilities and patiently endured adversities ... le was resourceful and could undo mischief no matter how serious because he was a man of ideas ... He 8 Collaboration beoween Asma and Cidade was respectful to important people and was hospitable to all visitors includin Jajrai (Clapperton, for example} .... He brought good people near him and distanced himself {rom people of ill repute ... These are his characteristics and although 1 have brought but a few examples of the many Tktiow, they are sufficient {0 provide the hearer with a model to enwulate and benefit from, Bello died on the 25th of the month of Rajab 1253 A.IL. (26 October 1837). Asma'u wrote Sonnore Bello in the year 1253 and Gikko Bello, quoted above, in 1254. In that same year, 1254, in the month of Rajab, Gidado completed his book al-kashf wa’ bayan. Perhaps Gidado's came before Asma’u’s, pethaps it did not. There is no textual evidence to show the order in which they were written because neither was derived from the other, Husband and wife wrote their personal accounts straight from the heart. Gidado was a writer neither by inclination nor aptitude. The book al-kaslif seems to have been the very first work of his own that he ever wrote. His, declared purpose was "to describe the character of Muhammad Bello and his karama,’ — his powers over the physical world. This is significant because karama was a topic mentioned in neither Asma'u's Sonnore nor her Gikko; in other words, what was central to Gidado’s work was not mentioned in Asma’t's. Gidado divided his book, which was written in Arabic prose, into four parts. The Introduction, only two pages long, was about Bello's, birth and background. Section One, which had 15 pages, was about Bello’s life before the Hijira in 1804; Bello did not join in children’s games ... he tived with his matemal grandmother mitt he was ten ... the Slichu told his children he would not take them to the King’s palace, but to the Palace of Allah... Bello liad 2 dream in which the Prophet appeared in a place which Bello later recog- nized on the day he was proclaimed Caliph ... Gidado joumeyed with Bello to obtain books from scholars ... Bello journeyed safely through a place patrolled by a dangerous lion, ‘This abridgement is sufficient to indicate how different Gidado’s account was from Asma’u’s. His style was anecdotal: the book was a recital of remembered occurrences which Gidado authenticated by their very inclusion, Concem over the completeness of the contents of his tribute to Bello took precedence over attempts to arrange thom in thematic or chronological order. This is seen in Section Two where, for example, a story of Bello’s encounter with a lion en route to Sokoto from Abdullahi Fodio’s funcral in 1830, found on page 16, is followed on page 17 with an account of an incident which occurred “9sit Sie wie lofe nt heme when Bello was living at Salah in 1808. As indicated above, the book was primarily about Bello’s karama: he passed safely through lion infested county ... he knew what was going fon in Gidado's house even when he, Bello, was siccping ... he knew before hie reached the fortress Kalambaina that he had tio need to take the place by force because Allah had already given it to him before his arrival, Each incident could be explained, by those not wishing to believe in ‘miracles’, in terms such as extra-sensory perception, telepathy or premonition. Even the last incident, the visit by four thousand birds to Bello’s house during his Inst illness, which recalled a similar visitation to the house of Ali, the Prophet's son-in-law, could have an explanation. Over the river wheel huge flocks of tiny birds - at a distance a flock resembles a black cloud moving at remarkable speed. It would be at least possible for one of these flocks to land ona house. In Bello’s case the timing was taken as an omen, To some any attempt to explain these ‘miracles’ is unnecessary. Nevertheless we are helped to an understanding of Gidado’s book if we try to view it in context. Bello’s life itself had encompassed more experiences than those normally lived by men, and his contemporaries were very aware of this. They saw his feats of arms, literary prowess, adminis- trative genius and his piety as conclusive proof that he had been endowed with amazing gifts. ‘How can any man accomplish what he has accomplished without the help of Allah?" they asked; they therefore stood in awe of him. What is more, there was the constant and terrifying expectation, present all over the Islamic world at various times, that the Mahdi, the Islamic Deliverer, the presager of the End of the World, would appear. People, therefore, were receptive to the idea of miracles and para-normal phenomena, (8 BLES Cli aa Uys AW LEY yas LAS A Geert Jad eed tad te ha (Sehie Mand Bey 46. A quotation from Muhammad Bello 70 Where, then, is the evidence that Gidado and Asma’u were working in partnership? In the first instance they occupied the same house and each knew what the other was doing. The alternative is to assume that they were unaware of each other’s activities, a pro- position which is untenable because Asma’u supplied Gidado with some of his material, as evidenced in Raud al-jinan.* Almost immediately al-kashf was completed, or possibly before it had been completed, Gidado and Asma’u tumed their thoughts towards the Shehu and began composing works about him, Within a few weeks Gidado had finished the short book Majmu khisal Sheikh “Uthiyan which formally set forth the Shehu's role: this was of course already’ well known, but the book had a fascination because the author included a list of the followers who had chosen to live as the Shehu's neighbours at Degel. This was a roll-of-honour and may well have aroused in the ageing survivors of the first inspired period Of the Jihad a desire to have their loyalty and discipleship recorded. In a similar way, Bello’s companions wanted their association with him set down. Whether Majmu khisal triggered off an approach being made to Gidado to compose such lists of names is not known, but this is precisely what happened ‘Asma‘u and Gidado collaborated on the books they wrote on the Shehu. Gidado sitting in his work room (shigifa) was available to the public and could discuss with friends, neighbours and colleagues names to be included in the rolls-of-honour for the Shehu and for Bello, Asma’ needed access to these lists to finish her own work: Gidado meanwhile needed her to talk about various happenings at Degel which had concemed her and had also revealed the Shehu's powers of karama, Gidado's work, Raud al- Jinan was frst ofall alist of the Shehu's karama ‘which’ said Gidado, ‘I have myself observed’. ‘This highly personalised account was as anecdotal and episodic as al-kashf, and was Followed by list upon list of names — the Shehu's sons and daughters, uncles, aunts, advisers, mu'ezzins, servants, judges, disciples, com- wanders, deputies, teachers, cont students, and finally his réciters of the Qur'an. ‘This book is central to a study of the Shehu, just as Asma'u’s two long poems are. The first Of the poems was Filitago, translated into Hausa by her brother Isa and known by the title Wakar Gewaye: the opening line of which is for 1 41, The entrance to large houseThe Caliph's Stster many a household phrase to this day.’ The second, Ku’iwi's' Shei, was also translated into Hausa by the same brother: together the poems are evidence of the shared interests and collaboration which existed between man and wife, and of the intellectual freedom both enjoyed to make their own interpretations of events. The poems also show how orderly and disciplined Asmau's approach was when in a reflective mood, a different side to her character from that revealed by the passion she felt on the death of Bello. One of the results of this anguish was her book Tabshir al-ikhwan about Qur'anic remedies for specific emotional, mental and physical maladies. “When light enters the heart’ she said, ‘darkness departs from it and it is guided aright. No matter how difficult to attain a desire may be, you must frequently bless Him (The Prophet} for He is the mediator between us and our Lord, the Exalted." Following her own injunction she wrote a long poem, in Hausa, in praise of the Prophet, in the same year as Tabshir, 1839. ‘God has enjoined us all to praise Him ... that we might obtain light and radiance of heart, that we may be cleansed." Whatever her pain, however, Asma'u retained her practical and determined disposition. In the elegy she wrote about her brother, Buhari, she included a strong condemnation of the enemy, and named the places where they were regrouping. This shows that she suffered no kind of breakdown during the years of anguish, and her stamina is revealed in a poem recently discovered which says she suffered throughout with a broken hand. = ‘Strengthened by her experiences in 1842 Tz she wrote Godaben Gaskiya (‘The Path of Truth’) on the terrors of the grave and the delights of paradise. It ended with these words: You know my heart is luminous with happiness and with joy of calling the name of the | =—=—=——=—=—=—— Excellent One, the Prophet Muliammad. For ‘48, An inkpot end pen that is my provision for the journey I make inthis poten world, and I will not stop until the day I cease to exist. hope I will obtain His approval ... If anyone asks who composed this poem, say that it is Nana, daughter of the Shehu, who loves the Proplict. To retum to the political scene, the background against which ‘Asma’u's works must be viewed. In 1842 Caliph Atku mounted a campaign against the Chicf of Gobir, Mayaki. The attack was launched in the month of Ramadan and there was fierce fighting followed by organised destruction of the crops of the enemy by 2 Collaboration between Asma Wand Cidade Atiku's forces. The Caliph then ordered another advance but his men refused 10 cary out his instructions. According to Waziri Junaidu, He ordered another attack, but it was obvious that his forces had lost their will to wage the He therefore crossed the river and made towards home, There had been no hint of sickness when he first set out. The onset of his faial ness occurred there on the 27th of Ramadan, He was carried to Nasarawa in Zamfara where he spent eighteen days. Then he mounted his horse and rode to Katara, On that Thursday he died on alighting, may God. bemerciful to him and cause his blessings to be returned to us. The date was the 20th of Shawwal."" Another phase in Asma’u’s life was about to begin. BFhe Calle s hater avs soenbes ane Doedbale and Honea’, ae cand, mand bnoaht Boones Is vate apantiaienbs a poatbins bay we which there wrt oleae of ape nowned imanecriph. In Pebiumy 1976, theretore, Ebon appraise the He people of what {called ‘the complexity of hee writings and the range of her imtellectual accomplishments’, and told them that the writing of the chapter would have to be delayed! ‘The Waziri’s manuscripts had not been catalogued and were, for the most part, in a parlous condition. I liad no idea whatsoever what each of the poems contained, so I asked Waziri to describe each one to me, and came to realize that most of her works were dated. This was the key factor which made the writing of a biography possible. Had she not dated her poetry it would have been difficult ever to understand the significance of the corpus of het work. ‘The Waziri was extremely helpful and allowed me to take the manuscripts away and have them photocopied on the only photo- copier which then existed in Sokoto, at Government House. Nothing was ever straightforward or easy: the driver of the car bearing Ure photocopies drove recklessly, causing the hundreds of neatly stacked copies to be thrown around the car. It took four days to sort them out. ‘The preliminary translations took two years to do. I concentrated first on the works in Fulfulde, which are the most nunicrous but also the most difficult. The poetry was written for court ciscles and therefore an understanding of the shared knowledge it contains is necessary. Also, it was written in western Fulfulde dialect; and few scholars read nineteenth-century Fufulde today. The tragedy was that the Waziri, whose eyesight had been failing for years, was now blind. Thad then to search for a substitute scholar, someone wlio spoke Fulfulde fluently, who was skilled as a translator, had been educated in the traditional ways of the Jihadi scholars, had received the handed-down interpretations of difficult passages — and was willing to work with me! Incredibly, the only man who I now realise could possibly have filled the bill was a friend of Mallam Sidi. Alhaji Muhammadu Magaji is a farmer, cattle-owner and a very leamed and pious man. By April 1978 1 was able to put together a Uee-volume descrip- tive and systematic catalogue of Asma’u’s works which I circulated to colleagues for comment. A catalogue is however not a biography. To understand why she wrote her poetry I had to read widely about the events of her time, which involved reading works in Arabic not yet translated, Fortunately Mallam Sidi, by this time a Judge, was Vrepane Lack ne Seshaste atid Bie dae peed nee bay giv expert andl Buowledge, Ewa ofa enon ay Eat whi Hine te Swale the thing property? mud acyister fox an Mh In 1980 1 joined the Sokoto State History Bureau as a Senior Research Feliow and started to write. In order to understand how it felt to ride long distances 1 rode up the Rima valley from Wumo to Sabon Bimi accompanied by two horsemen, Saidu and Nakabo; 1 slept in a mouse-infested cotton store in one village and in a dowless room with the liorse tack in another; I took every drop of drinking water because the water-holes were infested with guinea worm. On another occasion I journeyed to Niamey to find out about ‘women Icaders among the Zaberma people and, because 1 found inyself in the middle of an attempted coup, was temporarily arrested. In 1982 I spent days with the two Innas of Gobir, and made a tong tek into Niger Republic to climb Zana Hill, mentioned by Asma’ in her poem Gawakuke, where we were almost stranded. ‘The manuscript, which eventually opened a window onto a different aspect of Asma’u’s work, was the list of her students. 1 asked niyself if it would be of value to go to the villages mentioned in the document and ask the women if they knew anything about ‘Asina’u’s pupils who were supposed to have lived there. At the first village, in Shuni District, 1 told the Village Head about my quest. He was sceptical and so were the members of his retinue. Then the elderly women came. ‘They were apprehensive and rather alarmed by this sudden invasion, ‘Yes, we do know about Asma’u’s pupil, her name was Aisha, and we know who her successors were.” Successors! This implied that there was continuity, and that the women knew about genealogy and history. ‘The ladies I questioned had a great deal to say, the Village Head was impressed, and 1, much encouraged, went from village to village 2ig-zagging my way round as the months went by, covering 1,500 kilometres, very often on appalling roads. As usual, Sarkin Kudu provided a 4-wheel-drive vehicle and an escort Eventually I had to make enquiries at the place of pilgrimage, the Hubbare, which is a sensitive arca. It proved impossible, even with Waziri's permission, to conduct an interview there, but I was fortunate that a friend was able to arrange a discreet meeting with one of the madibes in his own house. ‘The thesis from which this book was developed reached the North London Polytechnic on our 25th wedding aniversary, 27th July 1982. 1 cominued to compite material about the Asmawian systemdhe Calls Savter with the t wut trade: and with a long, tadition of Islamic scholarship, I tied to write something to replace the texts used and in the process discovered that | would have 40 know more about Sokoto. In 1967, on our retum to Sokoto, | put together a simple out history of the Caliphate and was advised to read it to the Waziri before trying to get it published. This was the beginning of a long association with a man whose family has been at the cenue of the Caliphate administration since its beginning: his ows intel- Iectualism is a by-word in Nigeria, What is more, he is, although 1 was not aware of it at the time, the great-great-grandson of Asnia’v. He taught me history in the only way he knew, the traditional way of the Caliphate scholars. He did not dole out information on demian he pointed me in various directions and expected me to produce work which would stand up to his detailed scrutiny. Initially 1 w dismayed by his approach, which was always challenging and never easy. He is, by nature, impatient of carelessness. Eventually 1 grew to appreciate his skills as a teacher and enjoyed the sessions we liad together, especially when, as time passed, he allowed me to meet him in his public shigifa, traditionally the place where the Waziris have debated with students. On one occasion the Grand Kadi of Agadez arrived, black-tobed and turbanned. The Waziri invited me to stay on ~ the thtce of us sat on mats on the floor while the Grand Kadi and Waziri discussed a case involving nomadic ‘Tuaregs. For me it was like stepping back into another century. By 1969 when I was in charge of the Government Capital School it was my good fortune that the first man appointed to teach Islamic Religious Knowledge at the school was Sidi Sayudi. The son of a famous scholar, the Ubandoma of Sokoto, Mallam Sidi had grown up in a milieu where the Shehu, Mutammad Bello and other Jihadists were spoken of as if they had died yesterday, so present were their works and deeds in the minds of the twentieth century scholars. He and 1 decided to translate into Hausa Caliph Muhammad Bello's great work Infak al-Maisur (a history of the Jihad), and to visit the baitletields, ribats, tombs, hill forts and campsites mentioned in the book. In this endeavour we were greatly helped by Sarkin Kudu, the Sultan's son, who saw to it that we never lacked transport and guides. Some of the battleficlds were very remote: Jaru north of Sabon Birni we could reach only on horseback, and the sites of some of the ancient hill settlements had been lost — Jata is a case in point. We had to plan long and difficult journeys and put up with trying conditions. At Kiyawa we were followed by 1 inhaled smoke from a paraffin lamp and I; at Kaura our evening meal was so covered with dead flies we were unable to cat. The roads sometimes fizzled out altogether, as at Kajin-Kajin, and on many occasions the horses I rode were far too spirited for me. It took us two years to visit all the sites. Most of them, I later found, had very strong associations with Asma’. either because she had been there or because she had mentioned them in her poetry. 1 eared a great deal, not least from M, Sidi himself. I came to appreciate his sense of values, his asceticism. his picty and above all his wide-ranging intelligence. He taught me to speak the distinctive Sokoto dialect of Hausa, Sakkwatanci, an accomplishment which ‘was at great asset when 1 went alone into the villages in the 1980s. Looking back it scems as though the stage had been set for my next venture, the work on which this book is based: I had become known to the Sultan, whose word could unlock many doors in Hausaland, I was the Waziri’s student, 1 spoke Sakkwatanci, I had translated the Infak, a book central to an understanding of the Jihad, and {had visited most of the places associated with Asma’s. Unexpectedly the impetus came from an outside source. A chapter ou Asma’u was needed for a book about women to be published as put of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts ond Culture (FESTAC) and the person approached said he could not do it and proposed my name as author. This was in August 1975. The proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm. ‘I have not heard of the Iady from Sokoto, Mrs Boyd,” wrote the co-ordinator in Ife, ‘IE th cannot be your own contribution, I would like it to be’ a joint contribution by you and the lady. We are anxious not only to ieam about our own lieroines but also that our own people should do the writing. Itgives a greater air of authenticity and you as a Nigerian are likely to bring more insight and understanding of the subject into your study.” ‘The state of my knowledge, and that of most people, about Asma’u was sketchy. She was certainly famous, but the known facts were few, and were limited to the following: she was the Shehu's daughter ‘and the sister of Bello, whom she had helped, in a miraculous way, when he was making his final attack on Alkalawa; she wrote poetry and her five compositions in Arabic were included in the standard list of Jihad literature. Everyone knew of her but no one I spoke to was able to tell me any details about her life. When I first went to see Waziri on this topic I was unaware, even, that he was her descetidant. It was lic who dropped the bonibshiell. ‘She wroteThe Caliph's Sister with the trans-Saharan nd with a long tradition of Ist scholarsh to replace the texts used in the process discovered that 1 would have to kirow more about Sokoto. In 1967, on our retum to Sokoto, I put together a simple outline history of the Caliphate and was advised to read it to the Waziti before trying to get it published. This was the beginning of a long association with a man whose family has been at the centre of the Caliphate administration since its beginning: his own intel- lectualism is a by-word in Nigeria. What is more, he is, although 1 was not aware of it at the time, the great-great-grandson of Asma’. He taught me history in the only way he knew, the traditional way of the Caliphate scholars. He did not dole out information on demand; he pointed me in various directions and expected me to produce work which would stand up to his detailed scrutiny. Initiatly f was dismayed by his approach, which was always challenging and never easy. He is, by nature, impatient of carclessness. Eventually 1 grew to appreciate his skills as a teacher and enjoyed the sessions we had together, especially when, as time passed, he allowed me to meet him in his public shigifa, traditionally the place where the Waziris have debated with students, On one occasion the Grand Kadi of Agadez arrived, black-robed and turbanned, ‘The Waziri invited me to stay on ~ the three of us sat on mats on the floor while the Grand Kadi and Waziri discussed case involving nomadic Tuaregs. For me it was like stepping back into another century. By 1969 when I was in charge of the Government Capital Schoo! it was my good fortune that the first man appointed to teach Islamic, Religious Knowledge at the school was Sidi Sayudi. ‘The son of famous scholar, the Ubandoma of Sokoto, Mallam Sidi had grown up in a milicu where the Shehu, Muhammad Bello and other Jihadists were spoken of as if they had died yesterday. so present were their works and deeds in the minds of the twentieth century scholars. He and 1 decided to translate into Hausa Caliph Muhammad Bello’s great work Infak al-Maisur (a histoty of ue Jihad), and to visit the battlefields, ribats, tombs, hill forts and campsites mentioned in Uie book. In this endeavour we were greally helped by Sarkin Kudu, the Sultan's son, who saw to it that we never Jacked transport and guides. Some of the battlefields were very remote: Jaru north of Sabon Bimi we could reach only on horseback, and the sites of some of the ancient hill settlements had been lost — Jata is a case in point. We had to plan long and difficult journeys and put up with uying conditions. At Kiyawa we were followed by Preface baboons: at Sabon Bimi | inhaled smoke from a paraffin lamp and became violently ill; at Kaura our evening meal was so covered dead Hlics we were unable to eat. The roads sometimes fizzled out altogether, as at Kajin-Kajin, and on many occasions the horses 1 rode were far too spirited for me. It took us two years to visit all the sites. Most of them, I later found, had very strong associations with Asma's, either because she had been there or because she had mentioned them in her poetry. I Ieamed a great deal, not least from M. Sidi himself. I came to appreciate his sense of values, his asceticism, his piety and above all his wide-ranging intelligence. He taught me to speak the distinctive Sokoto dialect of Hausa, Sakkwatanci, an accomplishment which ‘was a great nssct when I'went alone into the villages in the 1980s. Looking back it scems as though the stage had been set for my next venture, the work on which this book is based: { had become known to the Sultan, whose word could unlock many doors in Hausaland, I was the Waziri’s student, I spoke Sakkwalanci, I had uanslated the Infak, a book central to an understanding of the Jihad, and L had visited most of the places associated with Asma’u. Unexpectedly the impetus came front an outside source. A chapter ‘on Asma’ was needed for a book about women to be published as, part of the 2nd World Black and Aftican Festival of Arts and Culture (FES'TAC) and the person approached said he could not do it and proposed my name as author. This was in August 1975. ‘The proposal was not greeted with enthusiasm, ‘I have not heard of the Iady from Sokoto, Mrs Boyd.’ wrote the co-ordinator in Ife, ‘IF this enunuot be your own contribution, T would like it to be’ a joint comibution by you and the lady. We are anxious not only to ican about our own licroines but also that our own people should do the writing. It gives a greater air of authenticity and you as a Nigerian are likely to bring more insight and understanding of the subject into your study." ‘The state of my knowledge, and that of most people, about Asma‘ was sketchy. She was certainly famous, but the known facts were few, and were limited to the following: she was the Shehu’s davghter ‘and the sister of Bello, whom she had helped, in a miraculous way, when he was making his final attack on Alkalawa; she wrote poetry and hier five compositions in Arabic were included in the standard list of Jihad fiterature. Everyone knew of her but no one I spoke to was able to tell me any details about her life. When 1 first went to sce Waziri on this topic f was unaware, even, that he was her descendant. It was he who dropped the bombshell. ‘She wrote