GUARDIAN Friday, February 25, 2000 The second Jihad By Reuben Abati THE religious riots in Kaduna, and the current tension between Christians and Moslems in the North, arising from the gradual but ominous spread of the Sharia in Northern Nigeria ought to be considered, in the light of historical evidence, as the re-invention of the Othman Dan Fodiyo Jihad as I insist, The Second Jihad. This is not the first time since the First Jihad in 1804 that religious differences would constitute an issue in the politics of the North, but this is perhaps the first time that the issue will be so systematised, so dogmatically, that it immediately approaches the revolutionary proportions of The First Jihad. There are many similarities in terms of ideology, purpose and method between The First Jihad, and this present one. What we are confronted with is a cynical contest for power or hegemonic spaces, this is politics at work, and religion - the Islamic religion is the vehicle which the Moslem North, the Caliphate, the Fulani hegemony has always used as a means of intimidating real and imaginary opponents, in order to grab more space for itself and to frustrate the possible growth and flowering of the opposition. The Othman Dan Fodiyo Jihad had gained real momentum around Feb. 21, 1804. It is perhaps an accident, a curious one, that it is also about this period in 2000 that the Sharia Revolution currently sweeping through Northern Nigeria began to result in ideological explosions. The 1804 Jihad spread like wildfire from Gobe to Katsina, Kano, Daura, Zamfara, Kebbi, Zaria, Nupeland, and the Northern fringes of the old Oyo Empire. In 2000, the Second Jihad is also beginning to spread. In four years, it would have been exactly two centuries since 1804 but the patterns now emerging are familiar. A proper departure point for this premise is to argue that The First Jihad, like The Second Jihad, was based on an Islamisation principle, at the core of which was the imposition of the Sharia as an overraching concept of organisation and relations and as a prevailing legal orthodoxy. But what was eventually practised was not a pure Sharia, just as the Sharia in Zamfara today is a strange type, but a Sharia that was tainted by hegemonic aspirations. Prior to 1804, the Fulanis had already emigrated to Northern Nigeria from Sudan and elsewhere, but they constituted an outsider group, an alien constituency, and were so treated by their Hausa host-communities who were not Moslems, but African animists. Transiting alien groups are often subjected to manifest psychological torture and the Fulanis were not immuned to this fact of social co-existence. A proud, aristocratic group, they resented their hosts, and sought power and more space. Othman Dan Fodio who eventually led the revolution complained bitterly about Hausa rulers who had gone astray from the path of Allah, and who had "raised the flag of the Kingdom of the world above the flag of Islam and are thus unbelievers." The objective of The First Jihad then, was to raise the flag of Islam, and push the unbelievers out of power. In less than a decade, the Fulani Moslem warriors had totally overtaken Habe country. Emirates were established with Fulanis as the new aristocrats. It was a vicious and determined revolution, sweeping through the entire North. The Fulanis however could not capture the Kanem Bornu Empire but they succeeded in displacing the Seifawa dynasty and changed the course of Kanuri history significantly. Other ethnic groups in the North, and around the Middle Belt including the Junkuns and the Gwaris were not spared. But it was the colonisation of the Hausas that was most remarkable. Hausas became subservient to the Fulanis. They were displaced, even if the new conquerors adopted the language of their victims. But the real danger in this is that Fulani anthropologists continue to insist on that score, that the Hausa is a language group, not an ethnic group. This of course, is imperialist discourse. It is the weapon, in addition to Islam, that has been used to suppress Hausa nationalism, and other forms of independent self-assertion in Northern Nigeria. The Jihadists did not stop in the North. By 1820, Alimi, and his son Abd' Salam had succeeded in establishing a Fulani dynasty in Ilorin. It was the Ibadan army in 1821 that saved the Southern fringes of the Oyo Empire from being overrun by the Jihadists. Our argument is that the strategy of the Jihadists has not changed since 1804, instead it has undergone several stages of re-construction. It has been helped through that period by certain other forces. The first notable force is British imperialism. By 1901, the British had more or less smashed the Sokoto Caliphate. Lord Lugard, for example, exercised such enormous powers that he could depose the Emirs of Yauri, Bida and Kontagora. But the British eventually changed their minds, and propped up the Caliphate in order to be able to control Northern Nigeria and to actualise their obnoxious divide and rule policy. Imperialism was so successful in the North on that account. The second force, is the military which the British helped the Hausa-Fulani to hijack, and which the Fulanis have used for over three decades in independent Nigeria as a means of stealing advantages. Thus, the philosophy behind the Jihad comprises the following elements: the destruction of anything possible that seems to give advantages to the opposition, the stealing of those advantages and their eventual appropriation, a determination to cause mayhem through any means, fear of primordial isolation, and a desperation for power. These are the same elements behind The Second Jihad. The same fear of isolation and helplessness that set up the Fulani aliens against the Hausas are reproduced in the enthronement of democratic rule and the cry of marginalisation that is currently issuing forth from the North. The marginalisation that is spoken of is not in terms of physical representation in political offices (that is the problem of the Igbos) but the manner in which democratic rule has removed the dirty hands of Northern opportunists from the treasury and other sources of easy wealth which has served that class so well for so many years. There is also something about democracy which does not sit well with feudalists. The implication is that the aristocracy of the elite is threatened and the prevailing orthodoxy can be questioned. The Moslem-North has captured power for so long because, it does not encourage anyone to ask questions. With democracy, minority Christian groups, the Gwaris, Junkuns and Hausa nationalists could really begin to ask questions, and that could subvert the gains of the Jihad of 1804. Hence, a Second Jihad would seem inevitable as a means of checking this openness that democracy is all about, and which The Sharia interprets narrowly as the commandment of God in what is at best, a reactionary fashion. So, again, when Sani Ibrahim, the Governor of Zamfara State says he would support any state in the South which wants to adopt the Sharia, he is merely invoking the spirit of Allimi, the nemesis of Afonja and Solagberu of Ilorin, and the quip by the Sardauna in the 60s, that they would dip the Koran in the sea. When the Jihadists boast of Arab support for their cause, they only remind us of the terrible role played by the British in strengthening the Hausa-Fulani hegemony. The references to the South of Nigeria ought to be investigated. The issue at stake, in my view, is both democracy and the long rivalry between the North and the South. Every policy that will nationalise either a trend or innovation is immediately feared by the political North because Southerners given their advantage in education, are better positioned to benefit from it. The rivalry between the North and the South is vicious also because it is in many ways, a Moslem-Christian rivalry. There are Moslems in the South, but they have learnt to live in a secular state, and for that reason, they are despised by their fellow Moslems in the North. The standard project of the political North has always been to dismantle anything that will offer advantages to the South; and this is why when the North, through the military, took hold of the Nigerian state, they simply destroyed its institutions. It is beginning to look as if the intention is to ground Nigeria by all means. The North that is feeling like an outside group is determined to hold down the rest of the country to its level and preferences. One other problem is Obasanjo. He is the finest prong that the South has produced in contemporary Nigerian politics. He just turns out to be a Christian. For a Moslem-Northerner, that is like Christianising the state. It is even worse, the man is a born-again Christian, and he continuously makes a public show of that. Now, they can no longer tell their Arab friends that this is a Moslem country. The struggle to ensure that all non-Moslem symbols are removed from the public space is a vicious one. That is why they would burn churches in Ilorin and kill Christians in Kaduna. The first and the second Jihad are thus based on a conspiracy, and that conspiracy is obvious. Which is why it is unfortunate that the Obasanjo government is treating the problem with so much levity that it is offensive. President Obasanjo had once boasted that the Sharia will "die a natural death." What is now obvious is that no Nigerian president should ever talk like that. By talking like that, Obasanjo only showed how much of Nigerian history he understands, and because this is not really much, he unwillingly strengthened the hands of the Jihadists. They have since gained confidence, and are beginning to behave as if they intend to win a special victory for the second centenary of the First Jihad. But, if the Northern states all decide to go Islamic, can they stop the rest of us from going away? I am against the option of going away. We are not opposed to Islam but we think anybody who lives in a decent society must obey the rules of that society. It is not religion they seek to promote but their own craving for power. The challenge, then, is to stop the Second Jihad. The Ibadan army saved the Yorubas by using force. The British humiliated the Fulani Caliphate through a combination of force and open conspiracy. We must throw everything at the Jihadists. We must force Northern Moslems to live in a secular state. If that requires having a civil war, well, let's get ready. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------