16/12/2021
21 SALIENT FACTS GATHERED FROM HISTORY ABOUT THE HAUSA PEOPLE
(By the Hausa Christians Foundation [HACFO])
1) There are 3 major belief system among the Hausa people Group of Nigeria : The Hausa Traditional Religion (Maguzanci), Christianity and Islam.
2) Islam was not the original religion, the tradition and the culture of the Hausa people. It is not indigenous to the Hausaland and it was brought in just as Christianity came in.
3) Prior to Islamization, the Hausa had their own traditional religion and afterwards the Non-Muslim traditionalists (Maguzawa) retained some of their pre-Islamic traditions and religion.
4) Islam arrived in the Hausa land in 14th And 15th century. As at 2019, the Hausaland has been under Islamic dominance for about six centuries (600 years).
5) Muslims arrived in Hausa land as ma-chants civil servants, judges, scholars and missionaries.
6) The Fulani immigrated from Senegambia eastward (eastern and northern Senegal). Two groups of Fulani live in the Hausa land : The Fulbe Na'i, (cattle Fulani) and Fulbe Sire(Town Fulani)
7) By the end of the 18th century the socio-political condition in Hausa land gave rise to jihad led by Foremost Islamic leaders. The reasons used to justify the Fulani jihad and jihadists’ propaganda were the political oppressions of the peasants (talakawa) by the Hausa rulers, the syncretism of the Hausa Muslims and the demand for Muslim Sharia (Islamic law).
8) The rural Hausa were lured to join the jihad in massive numbers showing their opposition to the Hausa ruling class and supporting the claim that they were oppressed. The Hausa Muslims fought side by side with the Fulani soldiers and themselves led the successful jihad against Gobir, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Kebni, Adamawa, Zaria (Zazzau) and Bauchi.
9) Meanwhile, the accusation that Hausa rulers were syncretists was mere propaganda just for the Fulani's to win the sympathy of the gullible rural Hausa in order to use them in securing victory to become the rulers of the Hausa land.
10)At the end of the 18th century, the Fulani or Fulbe moved into the Hausa land in large numbers and in 1805 they became the religious and political rulers after Usman Danfodio the Shehu (Sheikh) of the Sokoto caliphate overthrew the Hausa kings. Islam and Fulani rulers dominated the Hausaland and the Fulani
established Islamic rule over the Hausaland.
11)The Fulani's became the religious and political rulers and leaders of the Hausaland while the Hausa people became their followers (slaves) and praise makers.
12)The British colonial Administration was established in Northern Nigeria in January 1900 and it lasted until 1960.
13)The British fought and eradicated slave trading and slavery between 1900 and 1930s. The mission of British was to abolish slave trade sponsored and Practiced by the Sokoto Caliphate.
14)During the British Colonial era, both Islam as a religion and Fulani as an ethnic group received preferential treatment from the British Colonial officials. The British considered themselves superior to all non-White people and the Arab, were considered superior to the darker skinned people. Therefore, the Fulani were considered to be superior to the darker skinned "Negroes ".
15)The British officials were the overseers (the residents and district offices) and the Fulani were considered “natural rulers” who could look after their racially less distinguished subjects, the Non-Muslims traditionalists.
16)The Hausa people eventually ended up without centralized administrative machinery or constituted judiciary institution. Each lives on his own and independent of others.
17)Islam informs and influences people perception of identity authority and legitimacy. And so the facts that anywhere Islam goes, the people lose the identity.
18)The sole purpose of the Usman Danfodio jihad against the Hausaland was purely political power because even the Muslims were killed just for the Fulani jihadists to find their way. It was about dominance, subjugation and abuse of humanity for power and absolute control.
19)We can therefore conclude that the Hausaland was colonized three times by the Muslim Arabs, the Fulani jihadist and the British. Christianity only came to restore the hope and sense of dignity and restore the Hausaland to union with God through Christ Jesus.
20)The legend of Bayajidda was nothing more than the 18th and 19th century political propaganda of the Fulani jihadist as in the Hausaland existed even before the so-called Bayajida came.
21)The use of the term Maguzawa was a derogatory term on those Hausas who rejected Islam.
THANK YOU FOR READING. PLEASE, DO WELL TO SHARE WITH OTHERS. ONLY THE TRUTH SETS FREE!
© Hausa Christians Foundation (HACFO)
Department of Research and History, 2021
[email protected]
