Alhassan Dantata, an Agalawa merchant of Kano, victim of the Fulani tyranny and great grandfather of Aliko Dangote - By Gbonka Ebiri
Prior to their arrival in the Fulani people from Futa Jallon in Northern Nigeria, the Hausa kingdoms were a confederate of very prosperous nation states. They were the best traders in the whole continent for leather products and textiles and held large merchant bases in Katsina, Gobir, Kano and Zazzou. Trade in these regions were so vast that caravans came all the way from the ottoman empire and North Africa. . The agalawa merchants of Kano were the middle men who traded with the Arabs and traders from Sudan. One of the very important commodities traded at the time was Kola nuts, which was introduced by a legendary Hausa female ruler known as Queen Amina.
After the Jihad, the fulani leadership destroyed the prosperous Hausa kingdoms and turned it into a region of mass poverty and hub of slavery. It destroyed the merchants bases and persecuted the Agalawa merchants. One of the persecuted merchants at the time was the Dantata family. The famous Alhassan Dantata at some point was a slave of the fulani overlords and his family had to part with vast fortunes to buy his freedom. They fled to Ghana and the Fulani destroyed the agalawa merchant base at Kano. They took the fertile lands of the North for the fulani herdsmen who were being wooed at the time to stop the seasonal migrations and settle in the Hausa lands permanently. They forced the natives into a life of slavery so much that half of the native Hausas were stripped of their freedom. Over 50% of the hausa natives were slaves in their ancestral home. The largest concentrations were in Sokoto, Yola Kano, Zaria, katsina and Ilorin emirates
A German explorer called Heinrich Barth who travelled to many parts of the North in the 1850’s observed ‘slavery exists on an immense scale in the Hausa lands. There are many private individuals who have more than a thousand slaves….. Yola had so many slaves that the emir Mohammed Lowel built a slave village in Rumde to contain slaves. These slaves where used for farm labor. Every year Mohammed Lowel enforced a yearly tribute of five thousand slaves from his subjects. ( Barths Travels in Nigeria)
The hausa people were at the verge of fighting back when the British arrived and further favored the presence of the Futa Jallon emirs, so much that after independence, they not only ensured that the North had a bigger region and more advantage over the south in voting blocs, but also restricted the champion of the hausa masses ( Aminu Kano) who was ready to retake the North through the ballot boxes and totally destroy the emirates of the Hausa kingdoms under Fulani immigrant invaders.
The fulani leaders who eventually cause collateral damages come as humble friends, endear themselves to the people, give them false promise of a better future and bargain with the powerbrokers who think they would have a better stake in a fulani government but hold regrets when it is much too late. Such heavy weights to suffer such fates include Afonja, Zik, Abiola, Ekweme and currently Tinubu.
As they further gain grips on the country, they are determined to disenfanshise the south like they did the Hausa people. they hate western education and most especially history. After they have ensured that all histories of the hausa kingdoms is lost to them, so much that they are alienated from their past great leaders like queen Amina of Zaria and King Rumfa of Kano. They have ensured that history is striped out of school syllabus in the south and ensure certain records that expose future generations to their cold-hearted tendencies like their role in the civil war remains unspoken
. In the 60’s when Ahmadu Bello became the premier of the North and Middle belt region. He structured the region very much like his great grandfather ( Dan Fodio) and tried to use religion as a weapon to subdue the North into conformity. He turned down Awolowo’s offer to help in ensuring free education in the North through migration of kids to the primary schools of the west. In 1962, he founded the Jamaatu Nasril Islam ( Society for the victory of Islam) and sent muslim teachers (mallams) throughout the region using the same blue print of his great grandfather who secretly tried to recruit natives through an organized koranic school structure and was restricted by Sultan Nafata from sending disciples out to teach and recruit in disguise thereby frustrating Dan Fodio’s effort to share his dream of the prophet. (in the dream, he was granted a green mantle, special turban and a command to raise the sword against his enemies and lead his followers to a new era of prosperity in the Hausa kingdoms). Not until after the saultan’s son (Yumfa) ascended the throne was he able to fully consolidate his army to launch the jiahad. Ahmadu Bello used this organized system to lead many conversion campaigns focused in the middle belt. The movement was called Ahmadu Bello’s Jihad by politicians in the west who held great reservations for the system. this organized structure remains in the North today and ensures that the hausa remain perpetual slaves carrying slates and taking koranic classes while the Fulani elites enroll in western schools. A second attempt under Jonathan to ensure mas education in the North was quickly proscribed in the early stages of Buhari presidency.
Prior to their arrival in the Fulani people from Futa Jallon in Northern Nigeria, the Hausa kingdoms were a confederate of very prosperous nation states. They were the best traders in the whole continent for leather products and textiles and held large merchant bases in Katsina, Gobir, Kano and Zazzou. Trade in these regions were so vast that caravans came all the way from the ottoman empire and North Africa. . The agalawa merchants of Kano were the middle men who traded with the Arabs and traders from Sudan. One of the very important commodities traded at the time was Kola nuts, which was introduced by a legendary Hausa female ruler known as Queen Amina.
After the Jihad, the fulani leadership destroyed the prosperous Hausa kingdoms and turned it into a region of mass poverty and hub of slavery. It destroyed the merchants bases and persecuted the Agalawa merchants. One of the persecuted merchants at the time was the Dantata family. The famous Alhassan Dantata at some point was a slave of the fulani overlords and his family had to part with vast fortunes to buy his freedom. They fled to Ghana and the Fulani destroyed the agalawa merchant base at Kano. They took the fertile lands of the North for the fulani herdsmen who were being wooed at the time to stop the seasonal migrations and settle in the Hausa lands permanently. They forced the natives into a life of slavery so much that half of the native Hausas were stripped of their freedom. Over 50% of the hausa natives were slaves in their ancestral home. The largest concentrations were in Sokoto, Yola Kano, Zaria, katsina and Ilorin emirates
A German explorer called Heinrich Barth who travelled to many parts of the North in the 1850’s observed ‘slavery exists on an immense scale in the Hausa lands. There are many private individuals who have more than a thousand slaves….. Yola had so many slaves that the emir Mohammed Lowel built a slave village in Rumde to contain slaves. These slaves where used for farm labor. Every year Mohammed Lowel enforced a yearly tribute of five thousand slaves from his subjects. ( Barths Travels in Nigeria)
The hausa people were at the verge of fighting back when the British arrived and further favored the presence of the Futa Jallon emirs, so much that after independence, they not only ensured that the North had a bigger region and more advantage over the south in voting blocs, but also restricted the champion of the hausa masses ( Aminu Kano) who was ready to retake the North through the ballot boxes and totally destroy the emirates of the Hausa kingdoms under Fulani immigrant invaders.
The fulani leaders who eventually cause collateral damages come as humble friends, endear themselves to the people, give them false promise of a better future and bargain with the powerbrokers who think they would have a better stake in a fulani government but hold regrets when it is much too late. Such heavy weights to suffer such fates include Afonja, Zik, Abiola, Ekweme and currently Tinubu.
As they further gain grips on the country, they are determined to disenfanshise the south like they did the Hausa people. they hate western education and most especially history. After they have ensured that all histories of the hausa kingdoms is lost to them, so much that they are alienated from their past great leaders like queen Amina of Zaria and King Rumfa of Kano. They have ensured that history is striped out of school syllabus in the south and ensure certain records that expose future generations to their cold-hearted tendencies like their role in the civil war remains unspoken
. In the 60’s when Ahmadu Bello became the premier of the North and Middle belt region. He structured the region very much like his great grandfather ( Dan Fodio) and tried to use religion as a weapon to subdue the North into conformity. He turned down Awolowo’s offer to help in ensuring free education in the North through migration of kids to the primary schools of the west. In 1962, he founded the Jamaatu Nasril Islam ( Society for the victory of Islam) and sent muslim teachers (mallams) throughout the region using the same blue print of his great grandfather who secretly tried to recruit natives through an organized koranic school structure and was restricted by Sultan Nafata from sending disciples out to teach and recruit in disguise thereby frustrating Dan Fodio’s effort to share his dream of the prophet. (in the dream, he was granted a green mantle, special turban and a command to raise the sword against his enemies and lead his followers to a new era of prosperity in the Hausa kingdoms). Not until after the saultan’s son (Yumfa) ascended the throne was he able to fully consolidate his army to launch the jiahad. Ahmadu Bello used this organized system to lead many conversion campaigns focused in the middle belt. The movement was called Ahmadu Bello’s Jihad by politicians in the west who held great reservations for the system. this organized structure remains in the North today and ensures that the hausa remain perpetual slaves carrying slates and taking koranic classes while the Fulani elites enroll in western schools. A second attempt under Jonathan to ensure mas education in the North was quickly proscribed in the early stages of Buhari presidency.
what they did to the Hausa kingdoms, they are determined to do in the south. They would not stop until they destroy its education system, enforce the Fulani minority as head of all ministries, take important lands for their cattle to graze, take wealth of the south as spoils of war as they spread poverty, ensure destruction of history and frustrate all attempts of the natives to reconnect with their past and maintain their ancestral pride. They do not belong here and hold no loyalty to anywere in Nigeria as their ancestral home. Nigeria would never prosper under a Fulani leader. We should never allow a fulani politician appeal to us, regardless of his tricks and gimmicks. Buhari should be the very last to ever fool a southern electorate. They will forever remain immigrants from Futa Jallon that came to take spoils of war regardless of how the sell any candidate from their stock.
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