MURRAY LAST -- Ph.D. – Professor at University College London

The short answer is, yes, historians & anthropologists have used factions as analytical tools for understanding politics in Hausaland (esp. Prof. M.G.Smith) - and these factions have often been given labels - lineages or even ethnic groups. But the start or stopping of wars, except in the case of civil wars (i.e. wars between groups in the same state), has been more complicated, not least because the 'enemy' may have its hands forced by odd circumstances to engage in hostilities. In the case of the famous Sokoto jihad, the eventual winners - the strongly Muslim party - did not really expect to win: they were forced into self-defence. Eventually, the strongly Muslim forces were taken over by young 'area boys' who used the opportunity of battle to loot for both women and fine goods. I don't think they can be classed as a faction in any normal sense of the word. You might, of course, decide to label the jihad as a kind of civil war - effectively any war where there is regime change can be seen as a civil war of some sort or another. Secondly, the decision to go to war is one thing, to get enough people to join you in war is another: so straightforward self-interest may not necessarily raise the support of enough people for you to win. Hence the need for ideas or ideology - as in a jihad - or simply profit/loot.  People can also fight if they see their women and children at risk; but they may equally decide to emigrate. West Africa has quite a tradition of emigration - a decision clearly taken by the elders but impossible to do without wider agreement. Finally, "elites" in west Africa often would include merchants whose interests may well not be furthered by conflict; many of these merchants were also Islamic scholars, whose religious interests might not actually support jihad, let alone their commercial ones. Whether you'd refer to them as a coherent 'party' or a faction is problematic: there is a long-standing tradition that scholars do not engage in fighting, so that when the Sokoto jihad took place it was a significant shift in attitudes to warfare, a shift which many scholars did not agree with even tho' they were relatives or fellow members of an ethnic group.

Motives are always hard to unravel - in Islam, only Allah knows a person's intentions. And the quest for power, for wealth or whatever, isn't as straightforward in Hausaland as western analysts (and you?) might wish to assume.. For example, rebellions are relatively rare - why? The answer usually lies in that it's better just to emigrate. Power's based on the number of people you have: emigration weakens those in power, yet one usually can't stop people moving away - esp. as there is usually a nearby group who'd welcome some extra people. Attracting people to you then becomes an important principle; their self-interest may coincide with yours, if you play your cards right.

Must go! Good luck.

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ANDREW F. CLARK -- Ph.D. – Professor at University of North Carolina, Wilmington

Jonathan:

You raise some very interesting and intriguing questions. I tend to agree with you based on my
overall familiarity with the West Africa situation, esp. in regards to the Hausa
city-states....I do wish I could be of more assistance but best of luck!

Andrew F. Clark, UNC Wilmington

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JOHN THORNTON -- Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles – Professor at Boston University

Jon,
 
As for your questions. There are only a few places in West Africa where we can think of city states, or where that terminology is used regularly. These are the Hausa states of modern day northern Nigeria, and the mouth of the Niger Delta in modern southeastern Nigeria (Calabar, Bonny, Dony). There is some literature about them, for example, the Hausa state of Kano had an Arabic language chronicle of their history, know now only in a 19th century recension, but perhaps incorporating documentary materials back to the 16th century. It is fuzzy and weak on details, sometimes no more than a paragraph or two on each king. It's probably true that factions played a role in their history, for example one can see the sixteenth century kings building up independent estates through slaves and using them to go forward, but this is very weakly documented. The best secondary work on these are done by Diereck Lange (who has almost his whole corpus on line under his name, though he often writes in French or German), but there are interesting chapters on it in the UNESCO General History of Africa and in the Longman's History of West Africa (ed. Ajayi and Crowder). These are older books but unfortunately scholarship on early Africa has fallen from grace and little is being done. You can also find the whole Chroncile, translated into English with notes by Palmer either on JSTOR or on-line. The notes are old and the specialists criticize the translation, but it will probably serve your purposes....
 
Best,
 
John

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