My life: By Ahmadu Bello Sardauna of Sokoto, Chapter 2 continued

Bello was a good scholar and read anything he could find in Arabic. He wrote a number of books, of which the most important, Im Fakul Maisuri, is a history of the Fulani, and Raulatal Afkari is about local government. Unfortunately, the fighting 

in various parts of Hausaland at this time, being for the most part under direction of men without Bello's understanding of the value of learning, brought about the destruction of ancient Hausa records then existing in other capitals.

Sultan Bello must have been a remarkable man, for he lived through twenty years of very testing time. The countries of Gobir and Zamfara, whose kingdoms had been des troyed by his father, revolted against him, but he subdued them finally after several campaigns. At the same time he had to control his vast empire and to advise and direct the Emirs of very distant places. It is difficult to describe how remote these places are from cach other, even in these days of good roads and fast cars.

Then there were no roads at all. However important a man might be, the fastest way he could get about would be on horseback. By this method of transport it would take him nearly forty days to do the journey from Yola to Sokoto, travelling everyday, and that takes no account of the difficulties and dangers of the route, the swollen rivers, hostile people and bandits, savage animals, sickness and accident to man and horse. And yet that is how it had to be done. Even Kano, the most important centre of the Empire then, as it is now, was twelve days' march away, and that lay across great waterless areas. The Sultan's control could not have been close or intimate, but it must have been effective.

Even at the start things were not at all easy. When the Shehu died in Sokoto in I817 he expressed the wish that Bello should succeed him as Sarkin Musulmi, or Commander of the Faithful for the Western Sudan, while remaining as ruler of Sokoto in charge of the Eastern Empire. However, this was not known to the Shehu's brother Abdullahi, who was at Gwandu at the time and who thought he would succeed his brother as a matter of course. No sooner had he heard the startling news that the Shehu had willed otherwise than a rising broke out at Kalam Baina, near Gwandu, whose people had gone over to a rival. Things looked pretty bad, but Bello with generosity and promptitude sent men to his assistance and the revolt was crushed.

The two rulers met after the victory. Bello was on his great war-horse, Abdullahi on a mare, as befitted his position as a learned Mallam. Bello, being the younger man, made ready to dismount to salute his uncle, following strict etiquette; his uncle waved him to stay where he was and then bowed in his saddle and greeted Bello as Commander of the Faithful.

Thus by mutual tact the rift was closed. What might have been a disastrous breach was healed, and ever since then our two families have lived in perfect friendship and amity. This was just as well, as they both had their hands full in their own territories and mutual rivalry would have had serious consequences. 

One of the Gwandu difficulties I have already touched on in passing. This was the state of affairs between the Ilorin Emirate and its neighbours. Though the actual ruler of Gwandu keptout of it as much as he could, the problem remained a nagging difficulty during six reigns and must have been constantly at the back of their thoughts.

In 1817 a man called Afonja was Governor of Ilorin, then an important Yoruba town and part of the domains of the Alafin of Oyo. He broke away from his master and declared himself independent. Feeling a little insecure, he made friends with a Sokoto Mallam, one Alimi; the latter called together numbers of Muslims, including Yoruba Muslims, to form an army to defend Ilorin from the inevitable attack. They say that Alimi, who was in many ways similar to the Shehu, a man of piety and learning, only lent his name and his great influence to this force. Others say that he was an ambitious adventurer only interested in carving out a kingdom for himself. However that may be attacks were beaten off successfully. Then the Muslim auxiliaries became out of hand: Afonja enlisted Yoruba help to drive them out, but not only did they fail to do so, but Afonja himself was killed and his body was burnt in Ilorin market. Alimi died and his son, Abdulsalami, followed him in power.

But he was a very different kind of man and he asserted him self at once. He was given a flag from Gwandu and his new Emirate took its place in the Western Empire (under Gwandu).

From that time an almost Continuous state of war existed between the Emirs of Ilorin and the Chiefs of the Yorubas, especially those of the new town of Ibadan which grew up at this time and completcly overshadowed Oyo. These wars went on with varying success and at one time it appeared as though the ancient prophecy, that the Fulani would dip the Holy Koran in the sea, would come to pass. A Fulani column penetrated south of Ibadan, but the fortune of war turned against them and the chance never came back.

In the end the fighting was stopped by British intervention from the coast and Colonel Lugard's activities on the Niger at the end of the last century. These wars had reached no conclusion or proper settlement when they were interrupted, and have always caused soreness between the two races. This is still not cured and much of the dificulties of the past few years must be regarded in this light, however much it may be denied in some quarters.

The main difficulties of the Eastern Empire were revolts by the suppressed peoples of Gobir and Zamfara who had been brought under Sokoto, but other revolts broke out at intervals all over the Empire. All these took much time and energy and patience to suppress and in spite of all efforts were constantly breaking out again and again. Much trouble camne from the old Hausa rulers who had taken refuge in Damagaram which is now part of the Republic of the Niger.

Sultan Bello became attached to the town of Wurno, and lived there later on rather than in Sokoto, It lies over the hills from my Rabah and in the next valley, that of the River Rima. It was here that he died in 1837, just as Oueen Victoria came to the throne, so far away from us and yet destined to have so much effect on our own lives and fortunes, And it is here that he lies buried. With him are my grandfather and his two brothers, the two Alius who were both Sultans.

It is a pretty place as one descends from the hills. The river winds through a wide valley and the gentle foothills run down to it: they are covered, but not densely, with low trees, and the houses and compounds are scattered about them. It has been my privilege and pleasure, while I have been Premier, to restore this tomnb of my ancestors and to surround it with a new and permanent wall. 

Between the time of Sultan Bello and the present day there have been sixteen Sultans, of whom nine have been on my side of the family, that is, in the descent from Bello himself. It is not usually the custom in Nigeria, certainly not in any part of the North, for the succession to be automatically from father to son, though at times it may so happen. On the death of the ruler the small council of 'king-makers' meet and go through the extended family. They then pick the most suitable candidate for the appointment: he may be from the late ruler's family, or may be from a parallel family having a common ancestry. In Sokoto, for example, the succession has varied between Sultan Bello's family and that of his younger brother Abubakar Atiku (who was Sultan from 837 to 1842). 

Until recently the Governor had the legal right to approve the selection of the 'king-makers' at his discretion, but before Independence a Council of Chiefs was set up who go into the whole matter and whose advice must now be accepted by the Governor. They also concern themselves with the conduct and discipline' of all grades of chiefs.

On the I5th March, 1903, a British column reached Sokoto from Kano under General Kembal and Colonel Morland: there was only a little fighting at Sokoto and there were no casualties on either side. The heaviest engagement was between the Kano people under their Waziri and the British advance guard near the great rocks of Kwatarkwashi, I40 miles from Sokoto. Today the railway runs a few miles to the west of this place and there is a good all-weather airfield just beyond it. It lay on the direct route from Kano which the British were following; some ofit runs through dificult country.

The Emir of Kano had in fact been on a visit to Sokoto and Wurno at the time of the march on his capital and was returning with the escort he had with him when they fell in with the British column. He had not Aed' from Kano as the High Commissioner said in his report. This was due to a confusion with some of the Emir's Councillors who had got away just before the attack.

Looking at it all now with all my present knowledge I see that the constant fighting bore heavily on the people : that the courts were just and carried out the law faithfully within their rights; that the taxation, though not unjust in principle, was sometimes unfair in its incidence, and, as has happened so often in all parts of the world at various epochs, the lowest class, being the least influential and unvocal, suffered more than it should have. Changes were bound, in the nature of things, to come; we could not have resisted external influences much longer and, even if some had wished to do so, the effect of education, which too must have come to us before very long, would have forced a general tidying up.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the attack on Kano and Sokoto may be, the British were the instrument of destiny and were fulflling the will of God. In their way they did it well.

Even at the actual time there was no ill-will after the occupation. We were used to conquerors and these were different: they were polite and obviously out to help us rather than themselves.

We soon realised the difference between Lugard's government and the ambitions of the Royal Niger Company. Though they chased the Sultan across the country and killed him, they supported the new Sultan Muhammadu Atahiru, my father's first cousin, who was ruler when I was born, and his Councillors.

They made no drastic changes, and what was done came into effect only after consultation. Everything went on more or less as it had done, for what could one Resident, an assistant and a few soldiers in Sokoto do to change so vast an area as Sokoto Emirate ? The new position was so generally respected that when the unfortunate outbreak took place at Satiru the Sultan was among the first to go to the help of the British in Sokoto. 

Another matter which caught the imagination was that the incident which actually started the Shehu Usuman dan Fodio on the Fulani wars took place in 1803. A prophecy was made known that the Fulani Empire would last for one hundred years. No one then was greatly surprised when its end came on the grazing ground outside Sokoto almost exactly one hundred years later. Exactly fifty-six years later, to the very day, the Northern Region was granted self-government when the British Governor handed over power to me and mny government on the balcony of gleaming Lugard Hall in Kaduna.