under the auspices of the Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History. The need to discuss the issue of jihād in the context of the Atlantic world and the contemporary political scene derives from numerous conversations I have had with Rina Cáceres Gómez, to whom this book is dedicated.
GLOSSARY
ajami—Languages other than Arabic written in Arabic script
al-ḥājj—Honorific title for someone who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca
alkali (Hausa)—Judge
Bilād al-Sūdān—Land of the blacks, that is, sub-Saharan Africa and specifically the Sahel and savanna
birni (Hausa)—Walled town
bori (Hausa)—Spirit-possession cult
caffa (Hausa)—Land grants based on clientage
ceddo—Warlords, military governments of the western Bilād al-Sūdān
diwal—Provinces of Fuuta Jalon
fadama (Hausa)—Irrigated land
Fulani (Hausa)—Fulbe
gandu (Hausa)—Plantation, depending on context; land worked collaboratively on the basis of kinship
gona (Hausa)—Farm
Ḥadīth—Oral traditions of the Prophet Muhammad
hijra—Flight, withdrawal of the Muslim community to a sanctuary
hurumi (Hausa)—Land grants based on clientage
imām—The leader in prayer at mosques; by extension, the leader of the Muslim community
jamāʿa—Muslim community
jihād—Muslim holy war
ribāṭ—Fortified town, often on a frontier
rinji (Hausa)—Plantation
rumde—Slave estates, plantations; also rimaibé
salafi—Adherence to strict interpretation of Islamic law and rejection of innovation
sarki (Hausa)—King, chief; but when used with a specific title, sarkin, as in sarkin gandu
sarkin bori (Hausa)—Chief of the bori spirit possession cult
sarkin gandu—Overseer of a plantation, i.e., “chief of the gandu,” i.e., plantation
Sayfawa—The dynasty of Borno
Sharīʿa—Islamic law
shurfa—Claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad
ṣūfī—An adherent of Sufism, a mystical approach to Islam
ṭarīqa—Sūfī brotherhood, for example, Qādiriyya, Tijāniyya
tawaye (Hausa)—Rebellion, specifically in 1817
tungazi—Plantation in Nupe
wathīqat—Document
zane (Hausa)—A woman’s body cloth
zawāyā—Muslim clerical communities in the southern Sahara
ORTHOGRAPHY
The way of writing names, places, and things is a complicated matter. I have attempted to follow a set of procedures that are not necessarily always logical but that I hope are consistent. For names and terms, I have preferred Arabic renditions, such as ʿUthmān rather than Uthman or Usman, but in the case of Muḥammad I have generally chosen Muhammad, except when individuals have preferred Mohammed or some other form. I have adopted the Hausa form, ‘Abdullahi, rather than other forms of ʿAbdullāh.
With respect to Hausa names, I have avoided implosive distinctions, thus dan Fodio, not the hooked “d” for ďan (son of). In cases where names were historically written in Arabic, Fulfulde, and Hausa, for example, I have arbitrarily selected one designation, as in ʿUthmān dan Fodio, rather than Usuman or Usmanu ďan Fodio or Uthman ibn Fūdi. I have chosen to use jihād throughout, but in roman type, rather than to anglicize the term as jihad. When I refer to primary texts in Arabic, I have employed diacritics, as I have with sources in French, German, and Hausa, although I apologize for any lapses or mistakes. It should be noted that Hausa names and words sometimes have an apostrophe, which is not to be confused with Arabic diacritics.
As for the names of places, I have preferred the present spellings of names as they occur in modern countries, hence Borno rather than Bornu or Bornou and Ouidah as opposed to Whydah.
In the case of Fulfulde names, I have adopted Fuuta Jalon, Fuuta Toro, and Fuuta Bundu rather than Futa Jallon, Futa Toro, and Futa Bondu and other variations. For ethnic terms, I have avoided adding the English plural form “s” or “es” and have instead used the same term for both singular and plural, hence Hausa, not Hausas. Fulbe, Fulani, Pulo, Fula, and other variations are a problem, but I have tended to use Fulbe except when the context is clearly one in which the Hausa form, Fulani, seems warranted.
With respect to distances, I have used kilometers rather than miles except in quotations.
INTRODUCTION
This book had its genesis in the realization that scholarship has not necessarily been crossing boundaries, particularly in the incorporation of African history into mainstream global history, and therefore the nature of the discourse on important subjects has frequently been neglected.1 This is a particularly serious problem in the contemporary world, when militancy and aggressive confrontation have characterized the relations between Muslims who refuse to accept complacency and toleration when global capitalism and Western domination perpetuate inequities and injustice. Ignorance and simplistic interpretation characterize the CNN approach to the coverage of the news. Efforts to control resources—petroleum, minerals, agricultural production, labor migration—reinforce the wealth of the few who control companies and receive the support of countries who advance the interests of capitalist resources in the name of free enterprise in what is factually restrictive and monopolistic concentration of wealth in the elites that profit from corruption and secret arrangements that benefit the few, whether or not altruistic motives or occasional acts of generosity are implemented through donations that cleanse dirty money by attaching the names of the rich to institutions that guarantee a place in history.
The role of Islam in the modern world is often misunderstood, and the role of Islam in West Africa even more so. The terrorism of al-Qaeda and its affiliates in northern Mali and southern Algeria is attributed to an infusion of foreign ideas from the Middle East without recognition of the long tradition of Muslim resistance and political fervor in the region itself that stem from the poverty imposed by political decisions. Similarly, the murderous path of Boko Haram and the earlier Maitatsine movement in Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon is approached with
