Madagali, the Europeans and the diary….

 In the early 20th century, Hamman Yaji, the Fulani ruler of Madagali, developed a unique and intensified form of slave raiding, extending it into the Mandara Mountains proper. This paper describes and analyzes his slaving strategy, tactics and results in the light of his diary, which records his restructuring and management of this economic sector, contemporary written sources, oral traditions and ethnography. It pays particular attention to the responses of the montagnard groups on which he preyed and develops an interpretation of the nature of the interface between the Fulani and the montagnard resistance.

 The montagnards on whom Hamman Yaji preyed consisted of numerous ethno-linguistic groups speaking related Chadic languages and organized into small chiefdoms rarely exceeding a few thousand inhabitants (Figure 1).

 

While such groups are sometimes described globally as Kirdi, a word of Kanuri origin meaning “pagan” (http://www.mandaras.info/Kirdi.html), this term is derogatory. I therefore refer to the groups on whom Hamman Yaji preyed as “montagnards”, for even if resident on the plains they drew from the same symbolic and cultural reservoir (David and Kramer 2001: 216-18) as the inhabitants of the highlands. When some moved down onto the plains, they retained and continue to retain aspects of the montagnard cultural pattern.

The northern Mandara Mountains had been occupied by small groups of farmers since at least the second millennium BC (MacEachern 2012: 52-55). From perhaps AD 1200 settlement began to increase and in the 15th-16th centuries there is local evidence of communities constructing impressive monumental sites, probably related to major periods of drought (David 2008). Montagnards practiced local religions and made their living by the subsistence farming of staple millets and numerous other crops, the labor-intensive husbandry of small numbers of cattle, sheep and goats, and poultry, and various crafts including iron smelting and smithing (Hallaire 1991; Sterner 2003).

The effects of natural disasters and increasing slaving pressure on surrounding areas exerted by the Wandala (or Mandara), Borno, Baghirmi and, in the 19th century, Fulani states stimulated immigration into the mountains, mostly of individuals and kin-based groups who were absorbed into established communities, where they sometimes eventually took over political leadership (Seignobos 1991a and b), as for example among the Mofu-Diamaré (Vincent 1991: 149-246) and, according to oral traditions, the Sukur (http://www.sukur.info/Soc/Legends.htm).

Madagali, the Europeans and the diary….

“The … [northern districts of Madagali, Cubunawa. and Mubi] taken over by this

province … are the most lawless, ill-governed places I have seen in Nigeria … Slave

dealing and slave raiding are rampant … chiefs of minor importance were given

rifles with which they were encouraged to attack the wretched pagans [who are]

hiding like frightened monkeys on inaccessible hilltops … of course, everyone goes

about fully armed: spears, shields, bows and arrows, clubs, etc. (The British

Resident, Yola province, in 1920, cited by Anthony Kirk-Greene 1958: 84) ‘