1. The further south the jihad traveled the thiner the caliphate-aligned forces were stretched. Given that many of the caliphate's military surrogates had thin forces and small, sometimes makeshift, encampments in areas heavily populated by non-Muslims, their military advantages diminished as warfare and raids became a prolonged affair and sometimes they made peace with their limitations and simply tried as much as they could to survive in a hostile, largely non-Muslim area.
2. Warfare was expensive, requiring horses, constant supply of treasure and food. Repeated raids into non-Muslim territories reached a point of diminishing return, yielding less treasure to equip and replenish fighting forces. Moreover, as non-Muslim peoples devised escape strategies to avoid being captured and enslaved, lucrative slave raids produced fewer and fewer slaves as the nineteenth century wore on. In fact once the frontiers were denuded of slaves and treasure, caliphate forces had to travel further and further south exposing themselves to greater risk, and getting very little in return as target communities moved further away from raids or moved to high grounds inaccessible to cavalry.
3. This is one of the reason why caliphate-aligned state entities began to raid one another for slaves and treasure and began to sometimes raid within their own territories, capturing and enslaving people that had previously been declared Islamized or subdued under Jizya or Amana accords.
4. Which brings me to the intense rivalry and infighting among and between caliphate-aligned states and actors. They undermined each other. In some sectors, some of the caliphate entities in fact entered into accords with non-Muslim polities in order to both survive and undermine a Muslim rival (One example is Jema'a. Ningi remained outside the caliphate and forced several caliphate states to reach accords with her). These rivalries and intra-caliphate raids and warfare gradually destroyed the internal cohesion of the caliphate imperial system and blunted its fearsome war machine.
5. The rivers Benue and Niger were natural barriers that protected non-Muslim peoples on their Southern banks from caliphate raids. Although much later in the 19th century, caliphate-aligned forces occasionally crossed the Benue during the dry season and conducted raids on the Southern banks, the raids were sporadic, predictable, and ineffective, and as a result were mostly successfully resisted by my ethnic kinsmen in the Agatu sector of Idomaland before the British intruded into the picture.
6. It is also safe to say that the maneuvers of mid to late 19th century British imperialists in the Nigerian area slowed, truncated, and supplanted the caliphate in some sectors. One exaple is the Niger-Benue confluence region, where the Royal Niger Company emerged as the dominant military and political force in the late 19th century, replacing and subverting caliphate interests and even intervening in local emirate rivalry to instal favorites and remove recalcitrants in places like Kontagora and Bida.
In other words, the story of the jihad's failure to reach across to the South of the Niger-Benue is much more complex than a simple story of successful and heroic resistance would suggest. I love the Imesi story, and there are several of such stories in areas where jihadists raided or attempted to raid in what is now called the Middle Belt, but it is important to bear in mind that the caliphate was plagued by several contradictions and that its military strategy of pushing ever southwards with raids was unsustainable given the resources at its disposal, the law of diminishing returns, and the demographic, political, and environmental challenges it faced outside the caliphate's Hausaland borders.
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
-- On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 5:24 AM, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
Abu,My problem with your presentation of Dan Fodio is its monolithic cast.Your analysis looks rather simplistic, if I am not being unkind in using that expression.
I consider it simplistic because it begins and ends with an uncritical valorisation of the Dan Fodio self described vision.You do not adress the fact that one of the reasons given for his jihad was to purify the practice of Islam from syncretism, with social injustice being another factor.You have also not addressed the charge raised on this group of his autocratic style of carrying out his imposition of rule, as exemplified by the destruction, murder and scattering of a community of scholars who disagreed with his modalities.The Wikipedia essays is available to us all and yet your invocation of scholarship on the subject is yet to go beyond the very clear summations in that essay.The question I continue to ask-in the pursuit of this so called revolution, what price is paid by the methods used?Your argument would have been richer if you endeavoured to grapple with the question of the relationship between ends and means and the complexity of motives of the Dan Fodio so called revolution.Dan Fodio succeeded in installing a new social order in the states he captured, but at what price?What is the lasting legacy of his brand of puristic Islam as represented by the quote from the Wikipedia essay which you have not addressed, the quote asserting that a state ruled by an unbeliover is one that must be deserted by Muslim believers?Finally, please let us come off the high horse that Boko Haram has no legitimacy in Islam.That is not true.That amounts to a simplistic reading of Islam.The group goes out of its way to quote Koranix texts that support its vision.Do you want me to present those texts here?Also, the Koran contains sufficient rhetoric for murderous groups to draw inspiration from. I can post those passages here if you insist.While you keep urging breadth of scholarship, the linear and simplistic narratives in terms of which you analyse these complex social and cultural phenomena have long gone out of fashion in historical and cultural scholarship.While some members of this group of scholars are self consciously invoking scholarship but only decorating personal limitations of vision, some Nigerian centred groups are examining in a trenchant manner, the place of the Fulani in Nigeria, in a manner that provokes questions about the centrality of Fulani in Nigerian politics as devolving from Dan Fodio's time. When that debate has ripened sufficiently, I will collate and post it here.thankstoyin--On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 8:34 PM, <amomoh2002@yahoo.com> wrote:
Adepoju,
Its hard for me to continue this discussion because you want me to accept your palpably false premises and comparisons. l guess there is problem with your having basic knowledge of the Jihad.
All l can say is that the Jihad was a revolution because it upturned existing ruling classes and state systems and replaced them with new ones governed by central authority from Gwandu. Second, the ordinary people who had suffered oppression and injustice in the hands of the Habe rulers embraced the Jihad because it talked about new values, norms, system of justice etc. Things that before now were so strange to those states. This was how the Sarauta system and Masu Sarauta arose.
You need to understand the shaping dynamics of the time and why Dan Fodiyo disgreed with Ulamahs of Kanem-Bornu empire. The key argument was who wanted to maintain status quo and privileges vs. who sided. With the oppressed- using the same weapon: Islam.
The over 200 books alluded to by Prof. Emeagwali tried to address all issues relating to human life. And from Dan Fodiyo to Mohammed Bello & Nana Aisha, they all became authorities because of their quest for knowledge. That structure collapsed by 1903 under Attahiru. The British used the centralised system to impose rule on the north, and subsequently imposed divide and rule on what became Nigeria.
Boko Haram does not have this kind of pedigree and its claims have no roots in Islam.
I conclude with the fact that a gun has different meanings for Ernesto Cghe Guevara, a revolutionary, and for Oyenusi, the armed robber. If you claim that because Che and Oyenusi used violence and that that is all what matters, then you miss out on the Fanonian clarion call: violence could be emancipative and redemptive, but it could also be dangerous and harmful-depending on who deploys it. Read the chapter "Pitfalls of National Consciousness" in his book "The Wretched of the Earth". The long preface to it by Jean-Paul Satre, may also suffice for this purpose. When people of ideas, driven by the passion and quest for justice and emancipation make enormous sacrifices to achieve change, they should not be ridiculed. Dan Fodiyo was a man of ideas. The Boko Haram folks are anti-intellectual.
AbuSent from my BlackBerry® wireless deviceFrom: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com>Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2012 19:14:56 +0100ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSubject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATIONThanks, Abu, for referring us to authoritative works on the Jihad.I would be pleased to see you use that knowledge in addressing the charge that the jihad was largely an imposition of an Islamic centred authority through military means and that such a historical template provides a context or even an inspiration for a similar plan of imposition being pursued by the Islamic terrorists Boko Haram.That is my central point in this debate.toyin--On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 7:06 PM, <amomoh2002@yahoo.com> wrote:
Prof. Emeagwali,
The three most authoritative works l ever read on the Jihad are Murray Last's magesterial book, Mahmud Moddibo Tukur's selected writings edited by Tanimu Abubakar and a Reader on the Caliphate edited by Yusufu Bala Usman.
I have made the point about the need to historicise our assertions on the Jihad. I have also made the case for more measured iin our claims, especially when we are unsure about what we are saying. I am modestly acquainted with the wider literature on the subject of the Jihad, purely out of my unquenchable taste for knowledge. And when l urge others to do similarly, it should not come across as academic arrogance, but a challenge.
Those who wish to rely on Wikipedia for serious scholarship are just being lazy. Even my students in my university, at the National Defence College, Abuja and all the universities where l have gone to examine Ph.D theses, they know l frown on wikipedia as a scientific and reliable source of information. If, for example, you search for "Area Boys" on Wikipedia, the only information you will find there is a copious text from a piece l wrote way back in 1994. It tends to impose my views on the subject. But the bigger catch is that some of the information posted on Wikipedia have no sources and you cannot hold anybody liable if you are contradicted or challenged in a rigorous scientific context. "I didn't know" will never be an acceptable answer for such a tragedy.
Abu
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
-----Original Message-----
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2012 13:15:12
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
Point noted. This also emphasizes the complexity of the movement and the fact that numerous
interest groups and foes were involved. . It was not the monolithic
crowd implied by a previous commentator. I believe Abdullah pointed to the struggle
within Islam in determining who was a good muslim and indeed what direction the
movement should take. Yandoto was apparently a casualty of this internal conflict.
I am sure that we would all like to know more about Yandoto.
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali<http://www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali>
www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Zacharys Gundu [takuruku@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 9:22 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
Prof Gloria,
Yes Danfodio left a legacy of many books but he also destroyed many other books and scholarly communities that did not agree with him. The most important of these scholarly communities he destroyed is Yandoto(close to Gusau). Yandoto was actually a' University ' whose scholars disagreed with Danfodio on the modalities for his Jihad. They saw through his attempts to foist a Fulani leadership on 'Hausaland' in the name of Islam and opposed his use of force. He moved against the town, destroyed it and burnt its library. The scholars were scattered. The dominant literature on the Jihad has tended to silence some of these contradictions and it is time those who are interested in what really happened begin to look at aspects of dossonance here.
Just food for thought.
Zacharys Anger Gundu
Department of Archaeology
Ahmadu Bello University
Zaria. Nigeria.
234-8038995052
234-7081634391
--- On Sun, 9/9/12, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday, September 9, 2012, 9:28 AM
Usman dan Fodio was an itinerant scholar- activist who cherished learning. His
family left a legacy of 200 books including 65 books on the sciences- on the eye, purges
hemorrhoids etc. The Masilih, a medical text on diagnostic procedure and treatment is also a product
of the Dan Fodio era. Dan Fodio's daughter Nana Asmau was a poet. Usman dan Fodio was no retro- fundamentalist.
His regime actually helped to elevate the status of women, to some extent, in terms of inheritance and property rights,
but not totally, of course .That battle is yet to be won.
As Abdullah pointed out, the revolution itself was complex. Some have classified it as a class war and a revolt
against aristocratic privilege and corruption. We know for sure that there was a rejection of taxes on
cattle and some of the taxes imposed on merchants by the political elite. The enslavement of some members of the faith
was also a bone of contention. In fact some of the captives of the region who found themselves on the other side of the Atlantic
waged their own jihads that they considered to be freedom wars. The 19th century jihads of Brazil are well documented.
Wikipedia has to be used with great caution. In fact I do not acknowledge it as a scholarly source. By noon tomorrow
that article that Toyin has cited may be substantially modified and the sentiments therein reversed.
Anyone can add anything, at any time, for any reason- covert or overt - to Wikipedia.
Wikipedia consists of a series of sand castles that can be washed away by the waves or tsunamis
at any moment in time. I definitely agree with Abu on this issue.
Toyin should go back to the article - assuming it is still recognizable
in the 24 hours since he saw it last- and turn it upside down or inside out.
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Ibrahim Abdullah [ibdullah@gmail.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=ibdullah@gmail.com>]
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 10:10 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
The level of ignorance here is simply amazing: from conflicting sans
culottes violence from the bottom-up in the name of islam to reading
the present political geography into a past that was as truncated as
it was complex.
The Jihad of 1804 in Kasar Hausa did not go uncontested; it was
neither an Hausa project nor a Fulani Jihad as the Ibadan school has
consistently labeled it. Usumanu simply took the Habe aristocracy to
task for not praticing Islam in the way it should: his quintessential
claim. And when the Habe aristocracy resisted they did so on the same
grounds: questioning Usumanu's claim to speak for muslims.
The most dramatic confrontation on this issue took place between the
Jihadists and the ancient Kingdom of Kanem-Borno now under the Islamic
scholar: El Kanemi. The debate between the Jihadist and El-Kanami
centred on: Who is a Muslim!!!! This is important because the exchange
here seems to miss the point about Islam/the nature of Islam in the
then Kasar Hausa.
The second point is that there was NO Northern Nigeria in
1804/pre-1804; Nigeria did not even exist; and not yet the
geographical expression that Awo claim it was. Northern/Southern
Nigeria is a colonial invention of the post-world war one era when
Nigeria was imagined from above.
Hope this helps.
On 9/8/12, shina73_1999@yahoo.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=shina73_1999@yahoo.com> <shina73_1999@yahoo.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=shina73_1999@yahoo.com>> wrote:
> Abu,
> Adepoju has said what he thinks he knows about jihad and Boko Haram. And he
> has been consistent in pushing his claims towards what he thinks is the best
> way to resolve the issue. Why don't you also benefit us with your own
> knowledge? At least you know enough to claim that not every military
> conquest amounts to colonialisn, and I agree. It is not enough to simply
> refute. We are all Nigerians and need to brainstorm as much as we can on
> this matter. On the issue of jihad, Dan Fodio and Boko Haram, we all can
> learn a lot. And I suspect that is the essence of being part of this forum.
>
> Adeshina Afolayan
> Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: amomoh2002@yahoo.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=amomoh2002@yahoo.com>
> Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 18:06:46
> To: Toyin Falola<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>
> Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>
> Adepoju,
> Your long response open you up to further problems. I will pose just two of
> them as questions. What is colonialism? What is "Muslim imperialism"? I
> guess you can find more appropriate phrases for the point you are trying to
> make. Let me assure you that it is not all forms of military conquest and
> domination that amount to colonialism. Also, to attain imperialism requires
> a specific form of capitalist development.
> Here is the core point Prof. Emeagwali makes and l agree, "To conflate Boko
> Haram with Uthman dan Fodio is counter-productive
> and misleading".
> I am not urging you to become a specialist on Jihad. But Wikipedia and
> merely reading a book by David Cook do not necessitate such a conflation.
> You misled yourself. That's why l urged for deeper and better reading of
> the literature.
> As a rule, l do not venture into terrain l do not know enough to make
> informed comment on.
> Your comment is not informed and it is misleading. That is the core point.
> And reading your long piece below further convinces me that you know very
> little about the subject.
> Abu
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com>>
> Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 18:29:47
> To: <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>
> Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>
> I referenced the Wikipedia essay because it gives ready access to
> relevant information and is also rich in specialised
> scholarly references.
>
> The essay is a serious scholarly work, as befitting a study of such a
> pivotal figure in history.
>
> The fundamental point I am making about Dan Fodio does
> not require any specialised knowledge, though.
>
> The point is this-
>
> Dan Fodio imposed his perception of Islam on Northern Nigeria through
> a violent jihad and his successors took that jihad into the rest of what is
> now Nigeria until they were stopped in South West Nigeria.
>
> Are those points in doubt?
>
> Secondly, I have difficulty seeing the fundamental difference between
> Boko Haram and Maitasine except in terms of scope of ambition.
>
> The core similarity is trying to force others to identify with one's brand
> of extremist Islam.
>
> Dan Fodio is venerated because he succeeded in his jihad.
>
> He succeeded through military victory, not
> through force of ideological persuasion.
>
> He was therefore a colonialist, a Muslim imperialist using
> an interpretation of Islam as a means of political domination.
>
> Dan Fodio is described as pursuing a purer form of Islam which
> he imposed on the already Islamised Hausa.
>
> His successors went further to propagate the doctrine of the imposition of
> religio-political ideology by military force beyond what is now Northern
> Nigeria.
>
> A number of Nigeria's Northern states already practice Sharia.
>
> So, why is Boko Haram agitating for the entire nation to become an Islamic
> nation?
>
> May such demands not be related to Dan Fodio's alleged demarcation between
> a country ruled by unbelievers and that ruled by believers, urging
> believers to desert such countries?
>
> The Wikipedia essay makes the following claim:
>
> "In his book *Tanbih al-ikhwan 'ala ahwal al-Sudan* ("*Concerning the
> Government of Our Country and Neighboring Countries in the Sudan*") Usman
> wrote: "The government of a country is the government of its king without
> question. If the king is a Muslim, his land is Muslim; if he is an
> Unbeliever, his land is a land of Unbelievers. In these circumstances it is
> obligatory for anyone to leave it for another country".
>
> Does anyone deny the correct attribution or this translation of this quote
> from Dan Fodio ?
>
> If it is disputed, it should not be difficult to get translations of the
> work and see for oneself.
>
> The bottom line here is-
>
> ideologies,
> and particularly religions, particularly the Abrahamic religions
> of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been renowned for zealotry
> and extremism, on account of a monolithic and exclusivist conception of
> truth that excludes all other claims as practised in the unrefined forms of
> the Abrahamic tradition, creating an enabling space for
> political adventurers, from Israelite nomads to the medieval Church to
> jihadists to pursue efforts at subjugating others in the name of religion.
>
> Usman Dan Fdio used the tools of military violence available to him. Boko
> Haram uses terorism.
>
> Unlike Boko Haram Dan Fodio is not described as attacking Christians.
>
> Can we really distinguish his vision from that argued by and for Boko
> Haram?
>
> A Northern Nigerian Muslim explaining the logic of Boko Haram described the
> group as attacking the 'corrupt secular authority' represented by the
> Nigerian government.
>
> How is that to be distinguished from Dan Fodio's claim to pursuing
> the imposition of strict Islam, among other reasons because he wanted
> to eradicate social vices from the rulers of the Hausa states?
>
> How is this logic different from efforts to link Boko Haram with social
> injustice, particularly injustice claimed to be directed against
> Northern Nigeria, an argument that is the central chorus of vocal voices
> from the North, an argument that neatly sidestepping the recurrence
> of extremist and imperialist Islam in history and its resurgence in
> Africa and Afghanistan, tries to place the enture burden for this terrorist
> menace on the Nigerian government, with the underlying subtext evoked by
> another wing of opinion from Northern Nigeria that Northern Nigeria must
> have the Presidency for its inadequacies to be adressed?
>
> I increasingly think Northern and Southern Nigeria should be divided.
>
> If such a division had existed, we might not have Boko Haram. If it
> emerged, it might have been dealt with in a more forthright manner.
>
> The fight against the group is complicated by the fact that its members
> are concealed among a high density population of fellow Muslims and
> ethnic affiliates whose loyalty is divided by terror, ties
> of religion, ethnicity and alienation from the leadership of a
> non-Muslim and non-Nothern President, whom vocal Northern figures tacitly
> encourage to place all their inadequacies on, after decades of rulership at
> the national centre by their own brethren, rulers who seemed to have
> impoverished their own people more than they have done the rest of the
> country.
>
> For scholarly correlations of violent Islam, from Dan Fodio, through
> Maitasine and Boko Haram, one could see
>
> David Cook, "Boko Haram: A Prognosis
> <http://bakerinstitute.org/publications/REL-pub-CookBokoHaram-121611.pdf>
> "
>
> and
>
> Adesoji Abimbola "The Boko Haram Uprising and Islamic Revivalism in
> Nigeria<http://129.132.57.230/serviceengine/Files/ISN/125780/.../5.pdf>",
> who argues on this background to the crisis:
>
> 'The [Nigerian Muslim ] conservatives insist on a unitary view of society
> that recognizes no difference between state and religion, and they advocate
> making Nigeria an Islamic state administered according to the principles of
> Sharia law. For them, all Muslims belong to the umma (community), and the
> idea of a secular state is atheistic or syncretistic. Apart from
> challenging the Muslim affirmation of religious principles – especially the
> Sharia – the imposition of secularity, according to them, amounts to a
> cultural affront to a significant portion of the population and reduces
> them to the status of second-class citizens. Although this view is claimed
> to be a Quranic injunction, it does not enjoy popular acceptance among
> liberal Muslims who maintain that such a view does not imply the need for
> the Islamization of Nigeria nor does it endorse non-acceptance of the
> constitu- tional provision of the secularity of the state (Imo 1995: 58-59;
> Ibrahim 1998: 39-66; Ilesanmi 2001: 529-554)"
>
> Is this presentation, which certainly depicts Boko Haram,, not a
> restatement of the Dan Fodio script ?
>
> thanks
>
> toyin
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 8, 2012 at 3:55 PM, <amomoh2002@yahoo.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=amomoh2002@yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>> Prof. Emeagwali,
>> I am fast realising that this forum is a space people also use to REVEAL
>> their ignorance about many things, without knowing.
>> How can Wikipedia be a source of scientific information to make such wild
>> claim about Uthman Dan Fodiyo when there is a very rich corpus of
>> literature on the Jihad, on Islam in West Africa and Empires of West
>> Africa?
>> Abu
>> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>>
>> Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
>> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 00:16:49
>> To:
>> usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com><usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>>;
>> Mwananchi<Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Mwananchi@yahoogroups.com>>; wolesoyinkasociety<
>> wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com>>; Jos ANA Discussion List<
>> josana@yahoogroups.co.uk<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=josana@yahoogroups.co.uk>>;
>> nigerianauthors<nigerianauthors@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=nigerianauthors@yahoogroups.com>>;
>> mbariliterarysociety<mbariliterarysociety@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=mbariliterarysociety@yahoogroups.com>>;
>> writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com><
>> writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com>>
>> Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
>> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
>> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>>
>> To conflate Boko Haram with Uthman dan Fodio is counter-productive
>> and misleading. To link the group with Maitatsine may be closer to
>> reality .
>>
>> Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
>> www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
>> www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali<
>> http://www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali>
>> www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [
>> usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU [
>> toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=toyinvincentadepoju@gmail.com>]
>> Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 4:22 PM
>> To: usaafricadialogue; Mwananchi; wolesoyinkasociety; Jos ANA Discussion
>> List; nigerianauthors; mbariliterarysociety;
>> writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=writerswithoutborders@yahoogroups.com>
>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - BOKO HARAM : THE EDUCATIONAL
>> IMPERATIVE : INTEGRATING WESTERN AND ISLAMIC CIVILISATION AND EDUCATION
>>
>> The Nigerian Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has initiated a war and
>> waged it for years against the Nigerian government, Christians and
>> Muslims it considers its enemies in the Muslim dominated Northern
>> Nigeria.
>>
>> The group describes the goal of this war as that of compelling the
>> government to make the country an Islamic state and to drive Christians
>> out
>> of Northern Nigeria.
>>
>> The group has carried out spectacular large scale murders, possibly in
>> the
>> thousands, of Christians and government agents, and targeted or killed
>> individual Muslims, in pursuit of its goal.
>>
>> The group, whose popular name name Boko Haram, means Western education is
>> forbidden, also bombs schools.
>>
>> The current situation can be described as one of confusion within
>> Northern
>> Nigeria and the rest of Nigeria since there seems to be no harmony of
>> perspectives on how to manage this crisis.
>>
>> The ideological vision of Boko Haram, its similarity to the less virulent
>> but also violent Maitasine uprising in the North some years ago, and the
>> relationship between ideology and violence as a means of enforcing a
>> perspective of Islam on a populace demonstrated by Uthman Dan Fodio<
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usman_dan_Fodio>, the father of contemporary
>> Islamic civilisation in Northern Nigeria, implies that the central issues
>> at stake in this struggle against Western civilisation need to be
>> addressed at the level of ideology and practice.
>>
>> Failure to do this implies that such uprising could recur as they have in
>> the past, in various forms, from Dan Fodio to the present.
>>
>>
>> Uthman Dan Fodio initiated a jihad - in this case, an effort at
>> Islamisation through violence- as a means of imposing his preferred
>> form
>> of Islam on the Northern Nigerian Muslim Hausa population.
>>
>> Boko Haram, like Maitasine in the past, is also engaged in a violent
>> jihad to impose its form of Islam on the Northern Nigerian population,
>> Muslim and non-Muslim.
>>
>> The jihad initiated by Uthman Dan Fodio eventually tried to push into
>> the rest of what is now Nigeria until it was stopped in the South-West.
>>
>> Boko Haram has also initiated a similar jihad, but so far, has been
>> unable
>> to penetrate significantly beyond the North.
>>
>> This recurrence of efforts to impose an ideological orientation through
>> violence, as in the jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio and his successors and the
>> later examples of Boko Haram and Maitsine suggest that such developments
>> may be expected to continue as a continuity can be traced from from
>> the
>> time of Dan Fodio to the present.
>>
>> What is the challenge here?
>>
>> How best may Islam in Northern Nigeria be accommodated to the
>> overwhelming
>> presence of Western civilisation, the civilisation Boko Haram is fighting
>> against?
>>
>> The sheer paradox and possibly even frustration experienced by these
>> Islamic terrorists in their fight against Western civilisation is that
>> the
>> central tools of that fight are derived from the secular culture of the
>> West, the guns, bombs and communications technologies developed after the
>> West had defeated the suffocating hold of the Christian church, a hold
>> that
>> was a deterrent to bold scientific and technological development.
>>
>> While recognising this paradox, the delusions of fanatics like Boko Haram
>> should not blind us to the real issues that such fanatical behaviour
>> might
>> led one to dismiss as backward and deluded.
>>
>> People of religious faith might want something more not evident for them
>> in the overwhelmimg dominance of Western civilisation.
>>
>> It is stated that some Muslims in Northern Nigeria are uneasy with
>> Western
>> education although that does imply support of the violence of Boko Haram
>> or
>> Maitasine.
>>
>> How should such uneasiness be addressed?
>>
>> Can Islamic civilisation and education replace Western education
>> successfully in today's world?
>>
>> Is it possible to harmonise both?
>>
>> If so, what are the essential qualities of both forms of civilisation and
>> education that need to be harmonised for best results?
>>
>> Addressing these issues implies that a central question is addressed
>> without resorting to extreme solutions that support completely one
>> position or another, for or against Western or Islamic education.
>>
>>
>> Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
>> Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>
>> Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
>> "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa
>> Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at
>> Austin.
>> For current archives, visit
>> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit
>> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to
>> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa
>> Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at
>> Austin.
>> For current archives, visit
>> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit
>> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to
>> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
>>
>>
>> --
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa
>> Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at
>> Austin.
>> For current archives, visit
>> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit
>> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to
>> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa
> Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
> For current archives, visit
> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> For previous archives, visit
> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> To post to this group, send an email to
> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
>
>
>
> --
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa
> Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
> For current archives, visit
> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> For previous archives, visit
> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> To post to this group, send an email to
> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
>
>
>
> --
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa
> Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
> For current archives, visit
> http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> For previous archives, visit
> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> To post to this group, send an email to
> USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
>
>
>
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<http://us.mc1605.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment