BIRNIN SHEHU, THE CITY OF SOKOTO: A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY, c.1809-1903

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BIRNIN SHEHU, THE CITY OF SOKOTO: A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY, c.1809-1903

ABSTRACT

The nineteenth century has been a period of farreaching changes in the economic, political and social systems in virtually all parts of the Nigerian savanna. One significant aspect of these changes concerns the development of new towns and cities which owed their origins to a set of broadly similar forces, one of which was the social revolution known to history as the Sokoto Jihad. Unfortunately, this urbanization of the nineteenth century has not been studied by scholars of the Jihad, who prefer instead to discuss the ideas, ideals and conflicts that shook the age, as it were, and systems or forms of government that were evolving. Yet, as a product of economic and social change not only in that period but also, like the Jihad, having roots in the economic and social past, this urbanization merits serious attention. Even on a merely physical plane, the products of this urbanization (Sokoto, Yola, Gombe, Gwandu, Jalingo, Jega, Bauchi, etc.) remain to this day the most visible legacy of that period. But that is not all, for though relatively young compared to olderestablished settlements (many of which, such as Kano, Katsine. and Zaria were centuries old even by the beginning of the nineteenth century) the settlements produced by this spate of urbanization have had a tremendous impact on the course and shape of history, deriving largely from their being centres of power, of education, manufacture and commerce. And while many of these settlements developed identities and characteristics that were broadly similar, they also exhibited significant differences deriving from their specific experience. Thus while both Sokoto and Yola cut a figure as aristocratic cities, the scholar element was more pronounced in Sokoto society, identity end administration than it was in Yola where for the most part, clan leaders dominated the field, the ascendancy of the lineage of the Modibbo Adama notwithstanding. Nor was Yola able to develop a manufacturing and commercial base to the same extent as Sokoto did, since the integration of the Yola hinterland into the extensive commercial networks of the central Sudan began fairly late compared to regions further to the north and north-west. These and other differences point to important variations in the local and historical conditions that affected the development of these settlements and we cannot fully understand the processes at work until we have studies of several or some of these settlements in different ecological and social settings. This study therefore hopes to provide a beginning in that respect. Furthermore, Sokoto’s links with the Jihad of the nineteenth century and through that with the history of large parts of the Nigerian savanna, make it the most important of these new settlements of the nineteenth century. Though a vast amount of literature has been churned out on the Sokoto Caliphate, Sokoto Jihad, Sokoto Fulani, etc., not much has been written about this Sokoto itself nor about social and economic history of the ‘Sokoto Caliphate’, ‘Sokoto Jihad’ or the ‘Sokoto Fulani’, etc. This study hopes therefore not only to redress this imbalance, but also to provide a. framework for the study of the history of settlements and the nature and dynamics of urban social organization in a specific cultural and historical context. Chapter One of the study provides a useful introduction by analysing the general ecological conditions in which the city evolved. A historical section of this chapter looks at the way in which the history and relationship of settlements has been changing in the Rime basin especially in the century or so before the Jihad, and how the Jihad itself affected demography and the configuration and function of settlements. Since one of the consequences of the Jihad was the rise of Sokoto to prominence, Chapter Two looks at the origins of Sokoto, its changing role and functions, and its growth from a tiny hamlet at the beginning of the Jihad in 18O14 to a large and populous city barely twenty years later. The chapter attempts to show the role of immigration, of the effects of changing power relations, and also of contemporary currents of economic and social relations and change, in this process. Chapters Three and Four discuss craft production and the commercial economy of the city. The nature of specialisation, the organization of production and the peculiarly urban form and institutions of production, economic organization and exchange, are as much as possible clearly brought out, and the relationship between production and social structure hinted at. In Chapter Five the philosophy, goals and character of (urban) administration as practised in nineteenth century Sokoto, and its relation to the social structure and to the historical conditions in which the city has had its origins, are discussed. In Chapter Six, the concluding chapter, the development of the city in the period c.1837-1903, the structure of its society and its kind of urbanism, are analysed.

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