The past is the way forward: Ireti Bakare Yusuf, Fola Fagbule discuss the making of Nigeria

Did you know that Usman dan Fodio educated his daughters? And that Nana Asmau Usman wasone of the leading persons in her father’s court? Did you also know that Lugard was overly propped by the media, no thanks to a newspaper editor named Flora Shaw? In this conversation, Ireti Bakare-Yusuf, theatre producer, award nominated- documentary film-maker, feminist, radio & TV broadcaster began the maiden journey of her show, Danfo Conversations on Nigeria Info – 99.3 FM with Fola Fagbule, co-author of the book: Formation- The Making of Nigeria, From Jihad to Amalgamation. In this extremely revealing journey Ireti and Fagbule took co-travellers to fascinating points in Nigeria’s history as captured in the book.

Ireti: Uthman Dan Fodio led the Fulani jihad back then. He had such large impact on the shaping of Northern Nigeria. We start from 1904, and then we go forward. There was a particular woman who was part of the jihad; Nana Usman, who I would like us to talk about.

Fagbule: Prior to the formation, the caliphate was multiple city states that spoke the same language; the Hausa language. And they have similar traditions and culture. They also had similar religion, in terms of Islam, but they were fundamentally independent city states. The first time they became a loose federation was during the jihad that was led by Usman Dan Fodio, which started in 1804.

We talked about that jihad because if those states had not been consolidated into Sokoto Caliphate, there would not have been an entity for the British to come in and conquer and utilize as an administrative frame work to use as Northern Nigeria. So we talked about the origins of the Fulani Jihad, about the key protagonists, the battle that happened, the political environment, and we talked about the impact on the ordinary people.

Ireti: Tell us about Usman Dan Fodio, his family, what he was like. We’ve all heard about him but when we look back on history, we will like to know about the character of the person.

Fagbule: He was from what you will today call a middleclass family that were part of the elite class in one of the old Hausa States called Gobir. He was like the most educated. He learned the Koran from a very young age, reciting it at home with his parents. His father was a very educated, respected, learned person. He came to be known as: “Usman the son of the Jurist.” It was because of his father who was a well-known, well-educated individual in Gobir. And so he learned the Koran at home and then continued his study of Islamic jurisprudence and understanding of the history of Islam prior to Caliphates and Emirates elsewhere in the world.

He had understanding of the essence of the religion, and the meaning of Sharia and all of that. Then he began to make use of his knowledge to speak to others and to preach in his neighbourhood and to gather followership. He was articulate. He was eloquent and he had a lot to say. He was a charismatic preacher who built up a followership, the same way you will find charismatics even today. He began to build up a populace. People who admired his lifestyle and what he had to say about social justice of the inequalities and injustice the people were facing in the Hausa City States.

He began to grow and became so notable that even the ruling elite and the kings of the state in which he lived wanted to meet and spend time with him in their courts. He was providing advice to them. As it turned out, he was quite strict and rigid to his adherence to Islam and he was focused on following the pure Islam, which was not the case with the ruling elite at that time. And so he fell out over a period of time with the king of his country and he departed from the court. Eventually, tension began to build up between his followers and those of the traditional rulers in the Hausa states. Since he was Fulani by ethnicity, a lot of his supporters and followers were amongst the Fulani elites in the state. They were among the merchants and the educated class, the ones who had some means and were among the important people in the society. They began to probably see an opportunity to take over the states.

Caller: You’ve been talking about Usman Dan Fodio, of the Jihad wars and all. Is the war still on in Nigeria or is it still going on under a different guise?

Fagbule: It’s an interesting question. Part of the reason we wrote this book is because we want people to understand the beginning of things. One of the quotes that we like of Chinua Achebe says: “You have to know from where the rain began to beat you, if you want to get dry.’’ It’s important to understand where the rain began to beat you in the first place. We wanted to go back to the beginning, and it is true that many of the crisis and the conditions we have in Nigeria today began in pre-colonial Nigeria. We talked a lot about crisis, about access to water, access to land, access to grazing fields and so on and so forth, that continue to disturb us today, and many of these had their origin in pre-colonial Nigeria, the formation.

Ireti: We’ve been talking of Usman Dan Fodio. Let’s talk about Nana Asmau Usman.

Fagbule: She was one of his daughters. She was well educated. She was very important and one of leading persons in the court of Usman, son of Fodio, who became the first Caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate. She was extremely important in the area of education; women education in particular. She was a writer, an author and a custodian of a lot of the history of the caliphate. In fact, a lot of the information we have today, we only have because of the archival work that she did. A lot of writings that she put together. She was an extremely influential figure in the early Sokoto Caliphate. We describe her and her husband as the “hands of the king.” They were very important in assisting the king in ruling a very large state, which was the largest state at that time that existed in this part of the world.

Ireti: Is it safe to say, Usman Dan Fodio was a male feminist back in that time? Because people say we don’t have feminists in Nigeria at that time and here we are talking about Nana Asmau who was very educated and who went about educating and empowering women with knowledge.

Fagbule: I wouldn’t go as far as calling Usman Dan Fodio a male feminist. He certainly did have what you would call liberal views at that time about the role of women in the society. At that time it was not always the case that people understood the importance of the fact that women ought to have to have the kind of roles in the society as anyone else. So, for example he gave the women education. Several of his daughters were educated. As we point out in the book, his only requirement was that male and female sat separately, while he taught all of them at the same. So you can say liberal attitude for the time, but I would not call him a feminist.

Ireti: There is a verse ‘Buhari versus Atiku.’ You said the first contest between two men named Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari over the highest office in Nigeria, took place in 1837 following Sultan Bello’s death. Later, Atiku came out on top, succeeding his brother as the Sultan of Sokoto.  

Fagbule: To this particular fact, we owe it to Feyi’s (co-author) eyes for spotting this in the many history books we were reading. We found it as an interesting fact that two individuals with the exact same names had vied for the highest office in their country which was to become the 2nd Caliph in the Sokoto Empire in 1837 and Atiku won that. It is a very interesting coincidence for the names.

Ireti: Can you suggest ways our younger generation can preserve their history?

Fagbule: I think it is easier for history to be preserved these days because of social media and a lot of work we’re doing is being recorded real time. But that’s not sufficient. I think we should be deliberate in curating the experience of the present generation. A lot of work needs to go into that. We need culture curators; folks who are attentive to study the way things are changing, why it is changing, how things are changing. And the thinking of young people is influencing the evolution of the society. I think that’s a huge amount of work.

Ireti: What effect does the removal of history from the school curriculum have on the Sore Soke (speak louder) generation? (Yemisi Ransome Kuti sends in a message) Please ask the author what is the effect of climate change in Nigeria particularly with reference to the current unrest around Fulani herdsmen?

Fagbule: We wrote a bit about her ancestor – Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti. It was fascinating just tracing their evolution as a family from way back. To her question, it’s an interesting question. One of the things we spotted in The Formation, is the state of Lake Chad in the 19th Century and we did quote some first-hand account of what the aquatic environment was like on Lake Chad when it was visited by foreigners for the first time sometime the 1800’s.

We also talked of the impact of the beginning of desertification even at that time, in the Sahel region, from the Sahara all the way down to the middle of Nigeria. We talked about the impact of that on resource availability, on the communities, crisis in the communities. That crisis didn’t begin today. That’s a part of history of Nigeria and it has accelerated obviously with climate change. It might continue to accelerate not just with climate change, but with urbanization and the change with the structure of the economy from being focused on agriculture to other means by which money can be made and exports generated. The problem is multifaceted. It’s not only climate change, but the economic structure of the country.      

Ireti: When people talk about the Fulani herdsmen issue right now, if you mention climate change, the cause and effect, people tend to dismiss it. Can you bring that in as a historian, having written this?

Answer: I can only talk about what we came about in history. I am not an expert in security matters or what is happening in the North of Nigeria today. I can’t speak specifically on that but I do know that from what we saw in the history there were indications of the beginnings of this kind of crisis. I always say that it’s not one thing. But it’s not and it’s always dangerous when you oversimplify something and call it the result of just one factor. Because there are many factors including, governance and economic structure which I mentioned earlier, including historical antagonism between communities and so on that have played a role and are playing a role.

Ireti: Let’s talk about the chapter you named the “Glorious Incompetence.” I will read some few lines. “Early in December 1901, nearly hundred years after the first white man appeared on the Niger, the first invasion of Biafra began. More than 80 heavily armed Europeans organized into four separate columns, supported by more than 2100 black equipment carriers, and 1550 soldiers commenced an expedition into the heart of the densely forested enclave, hinterland adjacent to Eastern bank of Niger….”

Fagbule: We called this the first invasion of Biafra, obviously acknowledging the subsequent invasion of Biafra that happened more than sixty years later. We find this very interesting because what had existed in that part of the country prior to this invasion were independent communities living in relative independence; in relative isolation, from the rest of the country, and they had lived in that manner for hundreds of years.  They have a highly developed cultural system by which they operated. They had their judicial system, they had their oracle. The Arochukwu oracle was extremely important. They had a system of government that was dominated by the Aro confederacy and they existed for hundreds of years. They were extremely influential in the slave trade. We described the state of affairs in the Igbo country. This was the first time outsiders were forcing their way into the country. So we talked about the back story of how that invasion was possible, what made it possible; the economic and whole factors that affected the situation, the character of the individuals particularly the British administrators that were making the decisions to invade this previously independent country.

We called them the ‘Glorious Incompetents’ because a lot of their decision making were extremely poor. A lot of the things they did were quite unnecessary and considered quite unnecessary even by contemporary observers. It’s not just about Feyi and I. Reports and enquiries by superiors, contemporaries and watchers questioned their actions. So invasion of Biafra, Benin Empire, Benin City was one of those we talked about. We focused on how disastrous those invasions were and how terribly incompetent a lot of their actions and decisions were.

Ireti: I’d like you to talk about the Oyo Empire and the Desirable or Undesirable Fredrick Lugard.

Fagbule: Wetalked about the Oyo Empire just the way we talked about the Caliphate because it was an important existing organization that influenced the structures of modern Nigeria. In fact, what you had in the Sokoto Caliphate was a consolidation of previously independent people that influenced the creation of Nigeria. The case of the Oyo Empire was the disintegration of a previously centralized governing authority into multiple competing powers in the Yoruba country. All these influenced Nigeria in the evolution of British influence. We talked about the spectacular secession of Afonja from the Oyo Empire. Of how Afonja the ruler of Ilorin, seceded from the country that his ancestors had helped to build; the economic and political factors that led to that secession. We talked about Ilorin, the most powerful state, besides the Oyo Empire at that time, how that secession triggered a huge crisis across all aspects of Oyo Empire. If you think about it, a most powerful sub-state decides to go on its own, not only decided to go on its own, but decided to ally with people from another country. It has a huge impact on your ability to remain in control of the places, that you previously controlled and that’s exactly what happened to the Oyo Empire. It disintegrated and there was a lot of infighting and wars, and ultimately Ilorin itself, which had aligned with Sokoto Caliphate in order to wrestle itself from, Oyo rule, was itself dominated and incorporated into the Sokoto caliphate.

It became one of the last places to be added to the Sokoto Caliphate alongside the Nupe later on. So, we saw how that the disintegration of Oyo led to the evolution of a city state called Abeokuta, who were previously themselves subjects of Oyo, but became independent after the secession of Ilorin, and we saw how they quickly set up themselves to be allied with the British because it was extremely important. It was an existential issue for them. They were surrounded by enemies in Dahomey, enemies in Oyo, enemies among the Ijebus. So if they were going to survive, they needed allies with a very strong foreign power and the British fulfilled that role for them.

Ireti: One of the things that I love in the book is how you talked about trade; the three types of trade that took place. The human trade that took place in 1770; the palm oil trade which is 1870 and today’s crude oil which was found in 1917. Where do we go in 2070? But before we even get there, let’s talk about Lugard.

Fagbule: Lugard was a British administrator who in our view, has gotten far more credit than he deserved as far as the Nigerian story is concerned. The reason for that was that he was married to a Newspaper editor named Flora Shaw. She was an extremely important and influential person in the UK, in the British media system. She was highly connected to a lot of people, she was friends with George Goldie, who was the one who employed Lugard to come to Nigeria in the first place. She was a lover of George Goldie as we pointed out in the book. She was very close to Winston Churchill, who at that time was a very young, upcoming politician in the British politics. She was very close to all the leading players and so, because of this and partly because of his own strong and stubborn character and the fact that he was a relentless self-promoter, Lugard elevated himself into, in theory of being the most knowledgeable person about Nigeria and all things about Nigeria, as far as the British were concerned. And then he burnished those credentials when he was sent out to do something called the “West African Frontier Force.” He burnished his credentials by being a very strong, disciplined soldier. He was also a good writer. He wrote about everything that he did. That was also very good for him. When he ultimately was given the support and mandate by the British government to go and take over what was historically a private company called, the Royal Niger Company in modern day Nigeria, he went there and from his own initiative began to conquer adjacent States; previously independent states like the Sokoto Caliphate. 

He was quite an ambitious person. He was an imperialist and believed that it was a their right to conquer anyone that they could in that area. And so, he did conquer the Sokoto Caliphate and created the country that became known then as Northern Nigeria, and that became his most important achievement until the time in his life. We talked about how ultimately he was removed from northern Nigeria by the actions of the indigenous people who revolted against British rule. And we talked about circumstances that led to Lugard’s departure from Northern Nigeria. But because he was such a relentless self-promoter and had an influential wife, he continued to be relevant and ultimately, when the decision was made to consolidate and form a country that is called the protectorate of southern Nigeria, to amalgamate that with Northern, the decision was taken to appoint him as the individual who would do that. He came back to Nigeria after a period of time as the governor of Hong Kong. And then we talked about the rest of his career and how he was removed from Nigeria for the second time by a strong opposition, a violent opposition to his rule in Nigeria. So we tried to re-contextualize the life of Lugard in Nigeria, because we did think that he got more credit than he deserves in Nigeria.

Ireti: An argument came up on twitter about how it was flora Shaw who gave the name Nigeria to Nigeria. How did we end up with the name?

Fagbule: Nigeria is named after the River Niger. I think that we are clear and that it is not debateable. The question is – how did Nigeria get its name? Flora Shaw was the first person in a newspaper article that she wrote in the late 1800s in which she referred to this “Niger area” as Nigeria, “which we may now properly call Nigeria.” But there were evidence that, that was not the first time that people will refer to this area as “Niger area.” She wrote that in a newspaper in 1896 or so. The importance of this is that she wrote it down and it was published, and she was acknowledged as one of the first persons to start using that term. But the term was already being used by other people; perhaps, people not as prominent as flora Shaw. She is being credited because of the newspaper article as being the one who named Nigeria. The name Niger goes way back into antiquity. Even before the slave trade; even before significant interactions between the Europeans and Africans. Information goes back to Tuareg expression, “River of rivers” because the river was so large and important in the lives of the people around it. So Niger means in ancient language, River of rivers. And then that became the dominant name for that river and then ultimately as I said, Flora Shaw was the first person to call the place, “Niger area” and more properly, known as Nigeria in writing.

Ireti: Nigeria is now formed. Tell us how events outside of Nigeria, helped in the formation of Nigeria, including the world wars.

Fagbule: World War 1 changed the world entirely in so many ways… Nigeria was not different from other parts of the world. Nigeria was seriously impacted. From being barely conquered by the British and most of the people that were required for conquering of this new British territory, had to go and fight in Europe against the Germans and against all the powers that were contending for global supremacy at the time. And so the local people looked around them and noticed that the oppressors and conqueror is busy with other things; is occupied and is not powerful any more. They began to revolt. That’s how revolts began to break out in the country, multiple revolts. I don’t think we did justice to it in the book in terms of the number revolts that broke up across the country, because the local people figured out that the Europeans were weak and they actually did try to get rid of them in their entirety.

It is one of those interesting things in history to say, if they have been weakened any further in that war, what would have happened in a place like Nigeria? In time they were able to rally and organise to put down these revolts. There were certain consequences. For example, Lugard’s departure from Nigeria was on account of one of these revolts which were bloody and his bosses were not happy with him. One of those revolts was triggered by him introducing a new tax system, that he was warned against introducing, because it was foreign; it was alien to the area and it is not how the people did things. He introduced it and that created a lot of crisis which led to a violent revolt that ultimately ended up with him being removed from Nigeria.