sokoto jihad

Sokoto Jihad (holy war) was organized and led by Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio which in or around 1804 wedged war against Hausa states whose government had been corrupt, oppressive, and exploitative and unislamic. Uthman Dan Fodio was born in 1754 at Maratha and was well learned in Islamic knowledge, Law and Rhetoric’s. He began his teaching and preaching in 1774 at the age of twenty. In the course of his teaching and preaching, he travelled wide in Rima basin covering Gobir, Zamfara and Kebbi, winning to his side a great number of followers who when the time was ripe, were to become the mujahiddun (the jihadists) who confronted, defeated and overthrew the rulers in the Rima basin. In the first place, there had been high degree of oppression and exploitation of the talakawa (commoners) by the Masu sarauta (rulers). This oppression and exploitation is perpetuated through the collection of numerous taxes and levies, occasional confiscation of peasant property, forced labor, compulsory military service and enslavement. The Ulamas (court judges) made matter worse as they were so perverted in their judgments that it was impossible for the commoners to obtain redress anywhere. The Sarakunan yaki (war chiefs) were not left out in the victimization, torture and exploitation of the commoners both in peace and wartime. During war, their lawless acts would create terror and in peacetime, they turned to banditry and looting of the commoners property. Furthermore, the emergence of Gobir as a dominant state in the region in the 18th century with its ruthless and destructive military tactics as it sought to build its power through military activities created tension and worsened the deplorable condition in which the commoners found themselves. These untoward conditions, coupled with the corrupt life style of the rulers and the unislamic practices of the kings and malamais who even though they professed to be Muslims and acknowledged their communities as Islamic, are