BIRNIN SHEHU,THE CITY OF SOKOTO: A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY, c.1809-1903
BIRNIN SHEHU,THE CITY OF SOKOTO: A SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY, c.1809-1903
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Date
1982-10
Authors
ABUBAKAR, SALEH
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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.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of History,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
28TH OCTOBER, 1982
Keywords
BIRNIN,, SHEHU,, CITY,, SOKOTO,, SOCIAL,, ECONOMIC,, HISTORY,