The Hidden History of Hausa Enslavement Under the Sokoto Caliphate

I have looked into the historical records written by scholars about the Sokoto Caliphate. And I have discovered a great and harsh truth. The truth is that after Usman dan Fodio and his Fulani warriors seized the Hausa kingdoms, they turned the Hausa people into slaves. This was not an accident or a mistake. This was a carefully planned system. Its purpose was to destroy the dignity of the Hausa people, to remove them from power, and to force them to become slaves in their own land.

The System of Selling Hausa People in Slave Markets
After conquering the Hausa kingdoms, the Fulani did not leave the Hausa people in peace. They captured thousands of Hausa men, women, and children and turned them into slaves. Then they sold them in large slave markets that they established within the Caliphate. A major such market was located in the city of Kano. A researcher named Charles H. Robinson visited Kano around 1896. He witnessed slaves being sold in the Kano market, where as many as five hundred could be seen being sold in a single day. The slaves sold in the Kano market were mostly Hausa people captured in slave raids from surrounding villages and towns.

As a result of this system, it is estimated that within the Sokoto Caliphate, approximately two and a half to five million people were captured and turned into slaves. This number represented about fifty percent of the total population of the Caliphate at the time. To understand the scale of this slavery, one study estimated that if all the slaves within the Sokoto Caliphate were gathered together, they could fill the entire city of London, England. This enslavement of the Hausa people, scholars have stated, became the second-largest slave system in the world in the 19th century, surpassing almost any other form of slavery seen in African history.

The Methods the Fulani Used to Enslave the Hausa People
There were several methods the Fulani used to enslave the Hausa people after the jihad. First, they continued to launch raids on Hausa villages and towns. A report from that period stated that the annual tax the Emir of Kano paid to the Sultan of Sokoto was paid in slaves. And the painful truth is that those slaves were all captured from surrounding Hausa villages. This led to continuous warfare within the land, as raids were constantly launched against Hausa villages to capture slaves. The slave raids were on such a scale that they devastated and nearly wiped out communities in large areas, disrupting trade in major cities like Kano and Zaria.

Second, large plantations were established within the Caliphate, and captured Hausa people were forced to work on these plantations. A historian, Mohammed Bashir Salau, wrote in detail about the plantation system in Fanisau in Hausaland, where thousands of Hausa people were sent to work as slaves on farms. The expansion of plantation agriculture under the Sokoto Caliphate depended entirely on slave labor.

Third, a special system of “royal slaves” was established. These were slaves who were considered high-ranking and were given military and administrative positions. But despite this status, they remained slaves of the king and were part of the slavery system. This system caused many Hausa people to enter the governance structure of the Caliphate, but as slaves, not as free people.

The Impact of Slavery on the Hausa People
This enslavement of the Hausa people after the jihad caused a terrible impact on Hausa society that we still face today. First, the wealth of the Hausa people was looted. Their farms were seized, their homes were seized, their properties were seized, and given to the Fulani who participated in the jihad. This made the Hausa people beggars in their own land.

Second, the dignity of the Hausa people was destroyed. Before the jihad, the Hausa people had kings who ruled for over 800 years. But after the jihad, the Hausa kings were replaced with Fulani emirs. The Hausa became common subjects under Fulani rule. This made the Hausa people lose their dignity in the eyes of the world.

Third, the Hausa people were enslaved in their own land. Millions of Hausa people suffered at the hands of the Fulani as slaves. They were sold in markets, forced to work on plantations, and turned into commodities. This slavery caused the Hausa people to fall behind economically, educationally, and developmentally.

The Attitude of the British
When the British conquered the Sokoto Caliphate in 1903, they discovered the slavery system that the Fulani had established. But instead of abolishing this system, they allied with the Fulani and allowed the slavery system to continue under colonial rule. The British used the Fulani as instruments of indirect rule and allowed them to continue enslaving the Hausa people. This allowed slavery to continue until the early 20th century.

The Usman dan Fodio Caliphate sold Hausa people as slaves after seizing the Hausa kingdoms. This is not a lie. This is not a fabrication. This is the truth that many historians have documented. Even today, we are still suffering the consequences of that slavery. Therefore, it is our duty to know our history, to understand what was done to us, and to strive to reclaim our rights.

This is the historical truth. This is what was done to our ancestors. And this is the reason why we must stand up, take control of our own destiny, and build a better future for the Hausa people. May Allah help us.
K-Y