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A History Manuscript in Hausa Ajami from Wurno, Nigeria by Malam Haliru Mahammad Wurno1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2014
Extract
This manuscript is a history of the family of Muhammad Buji, who led a migration from the town of Bunkari in Argungu (Sokoto State, Nigeria) to Wurno, sometime capital of the Sokoto Caliphate. It is important as an illustration of the ongoing historiographical tradition of Islamic west Africa in local languages, and as evidence of the strong historical sense and continuing production of historical documents by certain of the scholars of the area.
Wurno was constructed ca. 1830 by Muhammad Bello, Sultan of Sokoto and successor of Usuman dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate. Its primary purpose was to defend Sokoto from the northeast, and it replaced Magarya as the principal ribat (frontier fortification) and residence of Bello in that area. It also became the staging point for the annual dry season campaigns against the Gobirawa and other enemies of the Caliphate. When the Caliph himself was resident there, it became the capital of the state. Barth referred to it as such in his account of his travels. Wurno was the capital with more and more frequency as the nineteenth century wore on.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © African Studies Association 1989
Footnotes
1.
I wish to thank professors John Hunwick at Northwestern University for help with the script, and Neil Skinner at the University of Wisconisn-Madison for help with the translation. Any errors are entirely my fault. This manuscript was collected while doing research for a Ph.D. degree in history at UCLA on a Fulbright grant from the Institute of International Education during 1984 and 1985.
References
Notes
2. See Last, Murray, The Sokoto Caliphate (London, 1967).Google Scholar
3. For Bello's theories of ribat, see Last, , “An Aspect of the Caliph Muhammad Bello's Social Policy,” Kano Studies, no. 2 (July 1967)Google Scholar; Bello, O., “Development Orientation of the Caliphate of Muhammad Bello: Tanbih al-Sahib ʿ ala ahkam al-makasib,” al-Muntaka, no. 2 (October, 1983), 53–65Google Scholar; Muhammad Bello, Kitab al-Ribat wa 'l-Hirasa (MSS: Ibadan University Library, Ahmadu Bello University Northern History Research Scheme).
4. Barth, Heinrich, Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (3 vols.: New York, 1858), 3: 122-27, 561, 135.Google Scholar
5. Alhaji, Kabiru Maidabo, “The Evolution of Wurno and Its Relations with Sokoto in the 19th Century c. 1820-1903,” (B.A. dissertation [History], University of Sokoto, 1985), 30, 35, 84Google Scholar; joint interviews by John Philips with Malam Haliru and Hakimi Fadama, 14 and 21 April 1985.
6. Information concerning Malam Haliru's family and background from an interview by John Philips on 12 March 1985.
7. Philips, John, ed. and trans., “Two Arabic/Hausa Histories From Wurno,” Annals of the Japan Association of Middle East Studies (AJAMES), 4 (1989).Google Scholar