Chapter 38
Denton Sinclair arrived in Sokoto on the 14th of February 1854 and went to rest early hoping to serve as a mediator in a potential region wide conflict in a wild exotic foreign land the next morning. Instead when he woke up on the 15th, he suddenly found himself in a wild exotic foreign land which had changed rulers overnight.
Before midnight Sultan Ali passed away in his sleep. An hour before that he called upon Umaru Bin Ali and the iman of Sokoto. Mere minutes after the Sultan's passing, Umaru Bin Ali was proclaimed as Sultan Umaru Ali in the presence of a very few loyal officers. By this time, Usman Amadu had also heard of the new happenings. Without waiting for dawn, Umaru Bin Ali boldly called upon all the chiefs and generals of the Sultanate already in Sokoto and crowned himself again for a second time with a more lavish ceremony. After this his father's body was prepared for the funeral. While all this went on, Usman Amadu and his supporters could only watch. Their plans of sidelining the young prince had failed and now he was their new sovereign.
After a few more hours, Usman Amadu was approached by some of his radical followers and enemies of Umaru Bin Ali to ignite a civil war or try to assassinate the new Sultan. Similar demands were made about imprisoning Usman Amadu by Sultan Umaru Ali's loyal successors. He however reacted to all such tensions by proclaiming Usman Amadu as his Vizier. Meanwhile Denton Sinclair who watched these perplexing happenings with interest writes,
"By dying much earlier than expected, Sultan Ali robbed Usman Amadu of time and a chance to play political machinations for crowning his own Sultan. Morever even after the coronation, the Vizier found himself without options for when he looked to his soldiers they were too weary to support any new rebellion, when he looked to the Ulema it declared its support for Umaru Bin Ali, when he looked at the new Sultan's brother Muazu Ahmadu, he displayed no interest in becoming Sultan. The final straw was Umaru's declaration of Usman as Vizier for his regime. With such a direct sign of rapprochement displayed by the new ruler, the remaining nobles and the few who neither loved nor hated the new Sultan immediately switched over and swore fealty to him for he lacked neither charishma nor bravery!"
Denton Sinclair left Sokoto after a few more days with his notes and presents from Sultan Umaru Ali to the British. In the next few days, Umaru truly attempted to end his feuds by holding talks with Usman Amadu and agreeing to various demands which would have been seen as 'too generous' at other times. One of the biggest was the permission to launch a war against the friendly pagan kingdom of Calabar which he personally did not like due to his acute sense of chivalry. Another was the granting of the fiefdom to one of Usman Amadu's relatives.
Civil war had been avoided but the conflict of interests would continue.
On the 17th of March 1854 Sokoto demanded that the Ededem Effiom II convert to Islam immediately. His refusal was met with war!
