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Plantations in the Economy of the Sokoto Caliphate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Paul E. Lovejoy
Paul E. Lovejoy
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
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At a time when coastal West Africa was responding to the growth of ‘legitimate’ trade, the Sokoto Caliphate was experiencing dramatic expansion in the plantation sector. Plantations (gandu, rinji, tungazi), which used slaves captured by the Caliphate armies, were established near all the major towns and were particularly important around Sokoto, Kano, Zaria and other capitals. Plantation development originated with the policies of Muhammad Bello, first Caliph and successor to Uthman dan Fodio, who was concerned with the consolidation and defence of the empire. Besides promoting the economic growth of the capital districts of Sokoto and Gwandu, Bello's policy encouraged the expansion of the textile belt in southern Kano and northern Zaria. Similarly, the desert-side market in grain also benefited from the emphasis on plantations. The result was the greater integration of the Central Sudan region into a single economic zone. The role of plantations in the economy differed from that of plantations elsewhere in the world. Market forces tended to be weaker, and no single export crop dominated production. Rather, the orientation towards the desert-side sector indicates that opportunities for expansion were limited, while the importance of textile manufacturing reflects the relatively weak links with European and other textile production. Other differences included a system of Islamic slavery which encouraged emancipation, a close connexion with slave raiding and distribution, and a system of land tenure which often resulted in fragmented holdings. Stronger links with the world economy did develop in parts of the Caliphate towards the end of the nineteenth century. Nupe and Yola were drawn more closely into the world market through the greater use of the Niger and Benue rivers, but these changes only marginally affected the wider Caliphate economy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , July 1978 , pp. 341 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 The research for this paper was supported by the Canadian Social Science Research Council, a grant from the Ahmadu Bello University Research Board and the History Dept. A.B.U. The paper benefited from the comments of Isaacman, Allen, Wright, Marcia, Klein, Martin, Hogendorn, J. S., Egnal, Marc, Hopkins, A. G., Tambo, David, Duffill, M. B. and Law, R. C. C.. The maps were drawn by the cartography section of the Department of Geography, York University. Earlier versions of this paper were given at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 1976Google Scholar, and at the Conference on ‘The Cultivator and the State in Pre-Colonial Africa’, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1977Google Scholar. This preliminary discussion is being expanded into a book-length study of plantation economy and society in the Sokoto Caliphate.

2 For earlier discussions of the Central Sudan economy, see Lovejoy, P. E. and Baier, S., ‘The Desert-Side Economy of the Central Sudan’, Intern. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XIII (1975). 551–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lovejoy, P. E., ‘Interregional Monetary Flows in the Precolonial Trade of Nigeria’, J. Afr. Hist. XV (1974), 563–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lovejoy, P. E., Caravans of Kola: Hausa Trade with Asante, 1700–1900 (Zaria, forthcoming)Google Scholar; Baier, S., ‘African Merchants in the Colonial Period: A History of Commerce in Damagaram (Central Niger), 1880–1960’, Ph.D. thesis, unpublished, University of Wisconsin, 1974Google Scholar; and Shea, Philip, ‘The Development of an Export Oriented Dyed Cloth Industry in Kano Emirate in the Nineteenth Century’, Ph.D. thesis, unpublished, University of Wisconsin, 1975Google Scholar. For a comparison with other savanna areas, see especially Johnson, Marion, ‘The Economic Foundations of an Islamic Theocracy—The Case of Masina’, J. Afr. Hist. XVII (1976), 481–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For interaction between the Sokoto Caliphate and Masina, see Stewart, C. C., ‘Frontier Disputes and Problems of Legitimation: Sokoto–Masina Relations, 1817–1837’, J. Afr. Hist. XVII (1976), 497–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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25 Shea, , ‘Black Cloth’Google Scholar, quoting C. W. J. Orr, Trade Prospects, 26 Oct. 1904, C.O. 446/43 (1907), no. 30132, Public Record Office, London.

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30 This analysis conflicts with that of Polly Hill, who considers that Zaria is outside the core-region; ‘Slavery to Freedom’, 406–7.Google Scholar

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36 Hogendorn, , ‘Two Plantations’Google Scholar; Smith, , ‘Slavery and Emancipation’; 239–80Google Scholar; Shea, , ‘Dyed-Cloth Industry’Google Scholar; Lovejoy, , Caravans of Kola, chapter VGoogle Scholar; Lovejoy, and Baier, , ‘Desert-Side Economy’, 566, 568–9Google Scholar; Baier, and Lovejoy, , ‘Tuareg’, 401, 406–7Google Scholar; and interviews conducted at Kudan, , Makarfi, , Hunkuyi, and Zaria, , Lovejoy-Maccido Collection, 1976.Google Scholar

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42 Smith, M. G., ‘Hausa Inheritance and Succession’, in Derrett, J. D. M. (ed.), Studies in the Laws of Succession in Nigeria (London, 1965), 241–5Google Scholar; Smith, , Hausa Communities, 20–40Google Scholar; and Hill, Polly, Rural Hausa: A Village and a Setting (Cambridge, 1972), 38–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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44 Ibid.

45 This conclusion differs from that advanced by Hill, who considers Zaria and Kano distinctly different, the first being ‘Fulani’ and the second ‘Hausa’. This ethnic approach fails to account for class differences which are partially disguised in those terms and it suggests a geographical separation which did not exist; see ‘Slavery to Freedom’, 402, 406–7.Google Scholar

46 See the forthcoming study of Stewart, C. C. on Bello's policies. The best published account remains Last, ‘Bello's Social Policy’, 56–9.Google Scholar

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61 Interviews in the Yunusa Collection, 1975.

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