Africa

CHAPTER 16: WEST AFRICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND THE ENDING OF THE SLAVE TRADE

KEY POINTS

• Islamic jihads in the western Sudan

Origins: the Fulbe (or Fulani)

The ‘jihads’ of Futa Jalon and Futa Toro

Usman dan Fodio and the founding of the Sokoto caliphate

The Sokoto caliphate

Borno in the nineteenth century

The Tukolor empire of al-Hajj Umar

Samori Touré and the rise of the Mandinka empire

• The ending of the Atlantic slave trade

The economic background to abolition

African resistance and the abolition of slavery

• West African commerce in the nineteenth century

‘Legitimate commerce’, raw material exports and European intervention

• Sierra Leone and Liberia

Islamic jihads in the western Sudan

Origins: the Fulbe (or Fulani)

• Wars waged in the name of Islamic ‘jihad’

• Reality: wars for political control or creation of a new state

• Fulbe: the main Muslim leaders of these wars

• Hitherto generally pastoralist, separate from agricultural population

• Subjected to heavy demands for taxation or tribute

• Turning to Islam, Fulbe saw their rulers as corrupt practitioners of Islam

• Therefore justified wars of rebellion as jihads to restore pure Islamic law

The ‘jihads’ of Futa Jalon and Futa Toro

• Since early 16th century, Fulbe pastoralists in highlands of Guinea

• Expanding herds brought conflict with settled agriculturalists

• 1725: Fulbe rebelled against non-Muslim rulers

• By 1750 they had created the Fulbe-dominated Islamic state of Futa Jalon

• This inspired similar movement south of lower Senegal River:

• 1769-76: Muslim Tukolor and Fulbe created new Muslim state of Futa Toro

Usman dan Fodio and the founding of the Sokoto caliphate

• Usman, son of...