Chapter 34
December 1851. The first of the southeast Jihads was declared against the Kingdom of Benin.
Benin had been established as a state in the late 13th century and had become an 'empire' in the 15th century. It was not so much a state as a protection agency. The Oba(emperor) of Benin served as a protector. His population paid him taxes and labored for him in exchange for his protection. Otherwise they were free to do anything. The language and culture was not enforced as the empire remained heterogeneous and localized according to each group within the kingdom, though a local Enogie (or duke) was often appointed by the Oba for specific ethnic areas.
The first Europeans to reach Benin were the Portuguese under João Afonso de Aveiro in 1485. This painting of a Portuguese captain meeting the Oba is from a slightly later date
Thus by 1851, Benin was a weak and decentralized little state ruled by the newly crowned Oba Adolo(His father Oba Osemwende had supported Dahomey against Sokoto a few years ago). The question then naturally arises, why then did the Oba so foolishly humiliate the Jihadi flag? The answer to this lies within himself. The Oba of Benin was considered to be a god. There was a cult of the Oba and in fact anyone caught saying that the Oba did such human things as eating, sleeping and bathing would be beheaded(despite those things being true obviously). Thus had the Oba submitted to the Sokotans, his empire would have crumbled anyway. Additionally the Oba did not expect the Sokotan army to march on another conquest so soon after their massive campaigns in the west. Like many others, he failed to understand the force of religious zeal.
The Jihad was led by Umaru Bin Ali's clique of generals. The Oba could only recruit some 15000 mostly untrained warriors against the mighty Sokotan army. The campaign itself was nothing out of the ordinary. Umaru surrounded the entire kingdom with troops but left one route open for the Oba to retreat. Despite having never read Sun Tzu(obviously) he knew that it was better to let the enemy retreat than have him fight to the death.
Then the Sokotan army marched into Benin and swiftly occupied it. It was the events after the fall of Benin that were interesting. The Oba, now stuck outside the kingdom and surrounded by hostile forces found himself in a precarious position. He was god incarnate. He could not just give up his kingdom and the Sokotans were asking for just that, in exchange for his life and that of his family which had been captured by Umaru Bin Ali's army. Umaru wanted to capture the Oba alive and convert him to Islam. He wanted to force the population to convert by converting their god. Until now in its entire history, the Obas of Benin had given up small bits of territory here and there but never their entire kingdom. The Oba still had some 14000 troops and could have continued the war....................but then he heard about the incident at Akure.
A view of Akure from the hill
Akure was an important town to the north of and had competed with Benin for being the capital city throughout its history. The incident at Akure through native perspective was like this,
The Sokotans, after taking the town had decided to rest for the night. The local chief had seemingly agreed to convert to Islam and had been spared but he had other ideas. The chief had a large stable in the town full of huge elephants. At midnight, as the Sokotans occupied various houses in the city, the chief drugged his elephants and let them loose to rampage. Now there was one particular home where more than 30 Sokotans were camping and this home was about to be charged by several elephants at once. But even as the natives watched, the Sokotans climbed up on the roof and arranged themselves in neat ranks. Then they fired their guns. As one rank finished, it sat down to reload and the second fired. Once the second finished, the first fired again while the second reloaded. Nearly 7 elephants were shot point blank before they could reach the house. The local chief was later crushed under an elephant's foot as a warning but Umaru refused to kill the people of Akure for their chief's mistake. This incident shocked the natives and it became a legend.
When the Oba heard this story, he held a meeting with his chiefs to discuss surrender. But so impossible was this thought that the chiefs instead arrested the Oba and had him strangled to death. In their eyes, his discussion of surrender had proved that he wasn't a real Oba. How could a god surrender?
Nevertheless, after the Oba's death, the leaderless army surrendered anyway.
A painting of the last Oba Adolo of Benin by a contemporary British painter
In reality those soldiers in Akure were just a few of the many who had been training in Lagos since the past year. Denton Sinclair had managed to atleast train them to 16th and 17th century European skill levels if not modern. He would never know that his actions would lead to a radical social and political change.
The campaign was a success. Umaru Bin Ali had achieved total victory with minimum bloodshed and upon his return to Sokoto, he was highly felicitated. Usman Amadu however criticized the whole episode as a successful campaign but an unsuccessful Jihad. In his eyes, Umaru had lost the initiative by letting the Oba retreat just to prevent bloodshed. He pointed out that by doing so, he had given up the one good chance that Sokoto had of rapidly converting the population to Islam. Further he also stated that since Umaru hadn't rectified his mistake by slaughtering the population, Sokoto now had a provinceful of pagans inside the Jihad.
He wasn't entirely wrong. The 'Oba' tradition would continue and the locals would continue to support the Oba's son as the new Oba despite the latter's forced conversion to Islam by the Sokotans after their conquest.
Lastly Usman Amadu also pointed out how the campaign had strained the Sokotan army and treasury further. As it turned out, he was right about the economy. The next Jihad would not be possible until more than a year later as many of the Fulani and Hausa troops hadn't returned to their fields and livestock in years!
Many members of the Ulema agreed with Usman Amadu and this diminished the reputation of Umaru's victory. Umaru made the mistake of insulting the Vizier for trying to protect his son-in-law from the noble Jihad and thus diminishing his masculinity. A furious Usman Amadu immediately called back Tukur Zaki from Lagos and had the Sultan give him the title of 'Haji'. The battle lines in the Sokotan court were swiftly drawn. A new era of internal strife was beginning.