West Africa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries witnessed the eruption of several major “holy wars” across the wide expanse of its savannah, from the Senegal River to Lake Chad. Each holy war, or jihād, represented the emerging interests of a militant, rural Islamic community, and resulted in both substantial conversion of the peasantry and widespread social change. The leaders of the holy wars were renowned clerics who were committed to the comprehensive Islamization of their respective societies; that is, they endeavored to bring government and social order into conformity with Islamic law (sharīa). While these movements constitute a dominant theme during this period, it is important to note that there were concurrent exceptions to these expressions of militant Islam. The Kunta religious scholars (shaykhs) are one example, as they provided leadership for the Qadiriyya brotherhood (ṭarῑqa) from their base near Timbuktu, and used that influence to support the descendants of one jihadist (Amadu Sheku of Maasina) against the claims of another (al-ḥᾱjj Umar). A second example can be found in the policies of the clerical leader al-Kanemi of Bornu, who militantly opposed the expansion of the Sokoto Caliphate in the name of holy war.

The polity of Bundu, located in what is now eastern Senegal along the border with Mali, also ran counter to the grain of jihadic activity.