The Fight of Amino Kano, Indigenous Hausa Shia Muslims Against Fulani Sunni-Muslim Dominance

This article is for only those who cherish HISTORY and also want to understand how things actually work. The post may be long, but it will do you lots of good if you read to the end.

“Of all the 19 million Almajiris in Northern Nigeria, none is a Fulani. They are all Hausa, in the majority, coupled with other ethnic groups”.

“The Fulani marry fewer wives, have fewer children, train them all in good schools while encouraging the Hausas to marry many, bear many kids for the purposes of voting and violence”.

The Shia movement in Nigeria is far from what meets the public eye; it’s a movement of freedom, emancipation, and recovery of a hitherto lost identity. You are very much mistaken if you believe what the Sunni led government of Nigeria tells you about the movement. Stay with me and know why!

Of all the ethnic nationalities subdued in Nigeria by the Fulani, the worst hit are the Hausa. These folks have lost almost everything, including their pants; oh yeah, including their pants. Lol!

Among some few Hausa elites that understood how their people were weakened and made handicapped by the Fulani, was Malam Aminu Kano of blessed memory. He tried but was unable to withstand Ahmadu Bello (the Sardauna of Sokoto), a Fulani, who had support from Britain and other Northerners, including his fellow Hausa indigenes. He was frustrated and he struggled till death, but the Hausa remained in slavery. After so many years, El Zakzaky came, but with a religious dimension.

Before I continue, let me first of all establish how the Sunni (a sect of the Muslim/Fulani ruling class in Nigeria) and Shia (Sect of El Zakzaky/mainly Hausa) fracas all started. Buckle your seatbelts, please. The journey is rough.

You see, Shia (Shi’ite) Islam, is one of the two main branches of Islam. This part of Islam holds that Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be unto Him) designated Ali Ibn Ali Talib as his legitimate successor. Shiites point to the sermon of the Holy Prophet at Johfah, near Rabigh in Hejaz, Saudi Arabia, shortly before his death in 632 CE, where Prophet Mohammed made the famous declaration “to whomsoever I am Mawla, Ali is also their Mawla” as the bases of their claim. The entire drama is collectively referred to as the “Event of Ghadir Khumm”.

Shiites believe that this divine mandate was scuttled as a result of the incident of Saqifah.

History holds that while Ali Ibn Abi Talib (the proposed successor) was attending to details as regards the Prophet’s funeral, some of Prophet Muhammad’s companions, on noticing that there was no member of the Prophet’s family around, pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr as Caliph. This event was reported to have taken place at Saqifah. That singular act by them automatically gave birth to the Sunni Muslim sect.

The question of who the rightful Caliph was after the Prophet Mohammed has evidently divided the Muslim faith, not just only across religious lines, but also equally across political lines. While the Sunni politically lean towards Saudi Arabia, the Shiites, on their side, lean toward Iran.

Theologically, Shia beliefs and rituals slightly differ from that of the Sunni. While all Muslims pray five times a day, Shiites, according to Wikipedia, believe that “one has the option of combining Dhuhr with Asr and Maghrib with Isha, as there are three distinct times mentioned in the Holy Quran”. The Sunni only give room for such combination under certain circumstances. In other words, the stopping of Shia protesters in Nigeria today is because of the problem that has been right from the day prophet Mohammed died and nothing more. Hope you are all following.

The Sokoto jihadist conquest of 1804 was carried out with the swords of Sunni Muslims. Mallam Usman Dan Fodio and his gang of Holy Bandits, in proclaiming Hausaland for his Fulani tribesmen, had done so in the name of Allah, through his messenger Prophet Muhammad, as upheld by Sunnism. After the Jihad, they installed only the Fulani (Sunnis) as Emirs to rule over the Hausas, and they have been trying to sustain this hegemnoy at all cost.

Late Mallam Aminu Kano was an Hausa man who aspired much to extricate his people from the subjection they suffer since the conquest of the 1804-08 jihad led by Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio. The existing Hausa kingdoms at the time were taken over by the Fulani jihadists under the command of the Wahhabi Sunni leader who proceeded to install only Fulani as emirs to rule over Hausaland till date.

Late Malam Aminu Kano (an Hausa), from pre-independence era through the First Republic etc, was all out to challenge the British colonial rule, the Fulani emirs and was firmly against feudalism. Aminu Kano challenged the exclusion of women from partisan politics, a thing the Fulani hated. He loved the poor and the downtrodden; those they call “Talakawas”. Even more, he fought for their equality and taught them how to say no. He was thoroughly hated by the British and the Fulani for this. The same feudal system that Aminu Kano fought and died for is what El Zakzaky is fighting today, but towing or let’s say, starting from a religious angle.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 influenced Zakzaky and he firmly believes that establishing a novel way of worship can wake people up from slumber and empower a reawakening of the poor to build a new Northern Nigeria. This firmly held belief is precisely what puts him at odds with the Sokoto Fulani ruling cabal. The activist movement started much later. Before then, we never had such a movement in Nigeria.

Sokoto fears that Northern Nigeria may likely soon witness her own version of the “War of Roses” should the movement be allowed to grow sufficiently enough to present the choice of an option to the very same masses that the Caliphate had, for centuries, kept under its suppressive grip through the very efficient combo of poverty and illiteracy. This will expose the mirage of a united North and consequently, take away power and influence from the “Seat of the Caliphate”.

It is not mere coincidence that the state in the whole of the federation that was first to launch holistic persecution of the Shiites is Sokoto state back in 2007, when the then governor, Attahiru Bafarawa, ordered the demolition of the Shia Islamic Center in the state. For the records, it was under Attahiru Bafarawa that the Sharia legal system was introduced to Sokoto state. This ex-governor, being such a radical character, had insisted that the contiguous Sharia states in the Far North should completely ignore the statement of the then Nigeria’s Justice Minister who had earlier declared Sharia to be unconstitutional. Islamic education was given utmost priority in primary and secondary school during his time.

The Fulani will do everything possible to see that the Shia ideology doesn’t grow and get out of hands. Because if it does, then people will start asking questions and may then send the Fulani back to Guinea from where they had migrated to resettle in Nigeria. Already, these Shi’ite guys don’t take orders from the Sultan, neither do they subscribe to any Emir. From the moment Sharia was introduced, Zakzaky was firmly against it.

From governors, ministers, local government chairmen etc are mostly Sunni Muslims. The Fulani don’t want to leave a place for Shia because they don’t want an uprising. Since they have traditionally placed themselves as the Sultan and Emirs to rule the Hausas forever, they are also adding a political angle to it.

Enslaved Hausa and other ethnic groups in the North should see this movement as the only way to free themselves from Fulani domination and rule or failing that, remain slaves and be used just for massing electoral votes and trouble making as needed.

Culled from: www.lnc-usa.org