Usman dan Fodio

Usman dan Fodio, known as the Shehu, was born in 1754 in Gobir in Hausaland, in what is now northern Nigeria, into a family of Fulani scholars of the Torodbe clan. His father, Muhammad Fodiye, was a learned man who strongly influenced him, and the name dan Fodio means the son of Fodiye, 'the learned'. He became a noted Islamic scholar, preacher and teacher.

In the late eighteenth century he preached across Hausaland, calling for religious reform and criticising what he regarded as the corruption and injustice of the Hausa rulers. His teaching attracted many followers, including some who had once been the king's own students, and the king of Gobir placed restrictions on his preaching.

In 1804, after the Gobir ruler Yunfa moved against his community, Usman withdrew from Gobir with his followers and declared a jihad. The war lasted until 1808, when his forces captured Gobir, and by then they had taken over much of Hausaland and created the Sokoto Caliphate, which became one of the largest states in Africa in the nineteenth century.

Dan Fodio declined much of the pomp of rulership and devoted himself to teaching and writing. He passed the actual leadership of the state to his son, Muhammad Bello, and divided its western and southern territories to his brother Abdullahi. His family produced a remarkable intellectual tradition, including his daughter Nana Asma'u, a poet, teacher and scholar who championed the education of women.

Usman dan Fodio died on 20 April 1817 in Sokoto, aged 62, and is buried at Hubbare Shehu. His jihad inspired later movements across West Africa, including those of Seku Amadu and Umar Tall, and the caliphate he founded lasted until the British conquest in 1903. Historians continue to debate the methods and consequences of the jihad, including conquest and the displacement of Hausa political systems, alongside its legacy in scholarship, literacy and administration.