RUMOURS OF MAITATSINE: A NOTE ON POLITICAL CULTURE IN NORTHERN

NIELS KASTFELT Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 The Maitatsine movement DURING THE FIRST half of the 1980s the 'Maitatsine' movement was an explosive factor in Nigerian society. During the 1960s and 1970s the founder of the movement, the Camerounian Muhammadu Marwa, alias 'Maitatsine', established himself as an unorthodox Koranic teacher in in northern Nigeria. He gradually built up a closely knit local community of followers, united by their belief in the doctrines of Maitatsine and later engaged in violent attacks upon other Muslims in Kano.1 Maitatsine practised as a Koranic teacher, yet seems to have rejected the Hadith and the sutmah, and at the same time to have condemned the reading of any book but the Koran as 'paganism'. He denounced the use of radios, bicycles, watches and the possession of more than an absolute minimum of money. He apparently rejected the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad and eventually, in 1979, seems to have declared himself an annqbi (Hausa for 'prophet', especially the Prophet Muhammad).2 Maitatsine and his followers, many of whom were Koranic students, con- stantly attacked what they saw as the corrupt religious practice of the established Islamic community of Kano.

The author is a member of the Institute of Church History, University of Copenhagen. 1. Accounts of the Maitatsine movement and the uprisings include the official Report of the Kano Disturbances Tribunal of Inquiry (the Aniagolu Report), 14 April 1981; G. Nicolas, "Guerre sainte' a Kano', Politique africaine, 1 (1981), pp. 47-70; Raymond Hickey, 'The 1982 Maitatsine Uprisings in Nigeria: a note', African Affairs, 83 (1984), pp. 251—6; John E. Lavers, 'Popular Islam and Unpopular Dissent: religious disturbances in Northern Nigeria', paper delivered at the Conference on Popular Islam in Twentieth Century Africa, University of Illinios/Program of African Studies, Urbana, April 1984; Peter B. Clarke and Ian Linden, Islam in Modern Nigeria: a study of a Muslim community in a post-independence state 1960-1983, Entwicklung und Frieden, Wissenschaftliche Reihe 32 (Matthias-Grunewald-Verlag and Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Mainz and Munich, 1984) pp. 107-9,119-22; Paul M. Lubeck, 'Islamic Protest under Semi-Industrial Capitalism: *Yan Tattine explained', Africa, 55 (1985), pp. 369-89; Allan Christelow, 'Religious Protest and Dissent in Northern Nigeria: from Mahdism to Qur'anic integralism', Journal, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, 6 (1985), pp. 375-93; Allan Christelow, 'The 'Yan Tatsine Disturbances in Kano: a search for perspective', The Muslim World, 75 (1985), pp. 69-84; Elizabeth Isichei, 'The Maitatsine Risings in Nigeria 1980-85: a revolt of the disinherited', Journal of Religion in Africa, 17 (1987), pp. 194-208; Mervyn Hiskett, 'The Maitatsine Riots in Kano, 1980: an assessment', Journal of Religion in Africa, 17 (1987), pp. 209-23; Peter Clarke, 'The Maitatsine Movement in Northern Nigeria in Historical and Current Perspective', in Rosalind I. J. Hackett (ed.), New Religious Movements in Nigeria, African Studies Volume 5 (The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston/Queenston, 1987) pp. 93-115. 2. As pointed out by Lavers, one should be careful to accept the claim of Maitatsine's prophethood, which may be a sterotype resulting from insufficient reliable data. Lavers, 'Popular Islam and Unpopular Dissent', p. 6. 83 84 AFRICAN AFFAIRS The anti-authoritarian and unorthodox religious character of the Maitatsine movement was combined with a strong social and political radicalism, emphasized by its rejection of the authority of the Kano State government and by the social composition of the Maitatsine followers, most of whom were recruited from among the urban poor of northern Nigeria. The first major confrontation between the Maitatsine movement and the Nigerian authorities occurred in December 1980, at a time when Maitatsine may have had between 2,000 and 3,000 followers. Violent Maitatsine Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 assaults upon other Kano residents and an assumed Maitatsine plan of taking over the Central Mosque of Kano eventually made the Nigerian police, and later the Nigerian army, move in against the Maitatsine head- quarters in Kano. The Maitatsine followers brought out their weapons and the subsequent battle resulted in the deaths of several thousand persons, including Muhammadu Marwa himself. The massive military force developed by the Nigerian government put a violent end to the Kano uprising but did not wipe out the Maitatsine move- ment which later spread to other northern Nigerian cities. Subsequent risings in and in 1982, in Yola in 1984 and in Gombe in 1985 proved that the Maitatsine followers might have lost the battle of Kano but that they were prepared to have a try elsewhere.3. The Maitatsine risings had a great impact upon the Nigerian political scene in the first half of the 1980s. First of all, a vast number of people (estimated at anything between 3,000 and 10,000, or even more) were killed in the extremely violent clashes between members of the Maitatsine movement and the Nigerian army and police. Apart from this, the risings brought about increased state control over Nigerian Muslims (and Christians as well), principally aimed at getting a stronger hold of non-registered itinerant preachers and thereby eliminating this supposed source of 'fanaticism'. This policy was whole-heartedly backed by the Islamic establishment of northern Nigeria which joined hands with the military government in order to suppress the Maitatsine movement and similar attempts at questioning the religious practice and supremacy of the northern Islamic elite.4 In a historical perspective the alliance of the Islamic leaders with the government represented a continuation of that policy of controlling religious dissent which has been a major concern of the northern Nigerian Islamic elite since 3. It should be emphasized diat one might question whether these risings were actually carried out by followers of Maitatsine. They may have been cases of general social protest classified and stigmatized by Nigerian government and religious authorities and by the mass media as expressions of 'Maitatsine fanaticism', see Lavers, 'Popular Islam and Unpopular Dissent', p. 7. 4. This was demonstrated, for instance, in the speeches by the Head of State, military governors and Islamic leaders accompanying the Eid-El-Fitr celebrations at the end of the Ramadan in June 1985. See The Nigeria Standard, The Guardian (Lagos) and the Daily Times of 20 June 1985 and statements of the Sultan of Sokoto, the F.rnir of Kano and other Islamic leaders quoted in the Report of the Kano Disturbances Tribunal of Inquiry, paras 322-7, pp. 84-5. RUMOURS OF MAITATSINE 85 the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate in the early nineteenth century.5 The exact nature of the Maitatsine movement is difficult to capture. For one thing, reliable data are virtually inaccessible because of the explosive political implications of the whole Maitatsine issue. Furthermore, the very notion of 'Maitatsine' may well have been turned into a convenient ideologi- cal construction which was used by Nigerian government authorities and religious elites to marginalize and stigmatize social and ideological dissent, and consequently to blur the actual nature and scope of the Maitatsine Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 phenomenon. No matter how difficult it may be to describe the Maitatsine movement precisely, the very concept of 'Maitatsine' was indeed a social fact in Nigeria in the first half of the 1980s. A multitude of rumours about the Maitatsine movement put it at the centre of many daily conversations and discussions and turned 'Maitatsine' into an important element of political thinking, especially among Nigerians outside the corridors of power. The Maitatsine rumours, therefore, provide an interesting body of information on aspects of popular political culture in Nigeria.

A murder in Yola One set of rumours was generated by a minor incident in Yola, state capital of Gongola State and the scene of the Maitatsine rising of February and March 1984 in which probably more than one thousand people were killed.6 Around 9 o'clock a.m. on Sunday 9 June 1985, a three and a half year old girl, Fatima Garba, was killed near her home in Yola. Fatima Garba, daughter of retired Sergeant Fatu Garba, was murdered by a man who was in turn mobbed by the witnesses of the murder. The dead girl and her murderer were subsequently taken to Yola Teaching Hospital, the murderer being admitted in a state of unconsciousness. The murder of Fatima Garba immediately created a state of panic among the residents of the Rumde ward in Yola, close to which the girl was killed, and which was the base of the Maitatsine followers during their uprising in 1984. Those witnessing the murder took to the street, shouting that the Maitatsine people had struck again. They were soon followed by residents of other parts of Yola. During the morning thousands of people fled their homes, taking their essential belongings with them. Some fled Yola altogether, but most rushed for the army and police barracks and police stations in Yola for protection. The officer in charge of Yola Police Station

5. See M. Last, 'Aspects of Administration and Dissent in Hausaland, 1800-1968', Africa, 40 (1970), pp. 345-57. 6. See '100 die in Yola clashes', West Africa, 5 March 1984, p. 527; 'Roots of the Yola riots', West Africa, 12 March 1984, p. 539; 'Yola returning to normal', West Africa, 12 March 1984, p. 581; Lavers, 'Popular Islam and Unpopular Dissent', p. 7. The following account of the murder case is based on oral information and newspaper reports collected in Gongola State in June 1985. 86 AFRICAN AFFAIRS ordered all off-duty staff to be combat ready and the policemen on duty were sent to the scene of the murder. On hearing the rumours that the Maitatsine followers had struck again, the military governor of Gongola State, Major-General Muhammadu Jega, went to Yola Teaching Hospital himself where he saw the dead girl. He made a statement to the hundreds of people who had rushed to the hospital for news and refuge, asking them not to panic and assuring them of the government's readiness to control the situation.7 The Gongola State Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 Commissioner for Information later signed a statement for Governor Jega, saying that Fatima Garba's murderer was believed to be a lunatic who killed her with a sharp metal implement. The Sole Administrator of Yola Local Government, retired Major A. A. Tahir, later issued a statement encouraging people to return to their homes since the murderer had himself died in hospital. The Sole Administrator's statement, however, was soon neglected when it turned out that the murderer was still alive in the hospital. During Monday 10 June, the day after the murder, things returned to normal in Yola.

Rumours This event would in itself have been rather insignificant were it not for the multitude of rumours which immediately sprang up after the murder of Fatima Garba. The rumours were related by many kinds of people, different in terms of occupation, ethnicity, religion, age and sex, and thus recruited from a broadly composed group.8 As will appear from the analysis below, the rumours dealt with a wide range of subjects associated with the murder and the Maitatsine movement. Most of them, however, shared a common underlying view of political power which claimed a direct and secret link between the Maitatsine movement and sections of the social and political elite. On this, as on most other points related to the particular doctrines and practice of the Maitatsine movement, the Gongola State rumours, as the following analysis will show, were in line with the bulk of rumours circulated in northern Nigeria between 1980 and 1985. There is good reason to assume, therefore, that the rumours analysed below do not only represent fairly consistent and widespread views in Gongola State, but are also typical of attitudes widely held in northern Nigeria as a whole during the early 1980s. According to their themes the rumours can be divided into two major groups. The first group concentrated on the identity of the murderer. 7. The government, governors, etc. mentioned in the text refer to the Buhari administration which was overthrown in August 1985. 8. I collected the rumours in Gongola State immediately after the murder episode. Most of the persons whose rumours the following analysis is based upon were townspeople, occupied as traders, businessmen, artisans, clerks, government employees, and pastors. They represented several different ethnic groups, included both Muslims and Christians, were between ca. 20 and 60 years of age, and were predominantly male. RUMOURS OF MAITATSINE 87 The rumours clearly saw him not as an 'ordinary' lunatic, as claimed by the authorities, but as a follower of the Maitatsine movement. In the rumours many indications of this were brought forward. Witnesses of the murder were said to have reported that the murderer had sucked the blood of the dead girl's body, a method generally believed to be employed by the Maitatsine followers. In popular imagination this method formed part of the overall picture of the Maitatsine followers: they were cannibals, they drank the blood of their victims, which constituted a riteo f initiation for new Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 adherents of the movement, and they kept skulls filled with blood in their houses.9 The Maitatsine followers, in short, were attributed many of the characteristics often ascribed to socially and culturally marginal groups or to peoples of other cultures. This, of course, contributes to blurring the actual nature of the Maitatsine phenomenon even more. Another point supposed to indicate the murderer's Maitatsine connec- tions was the fact that the murder took place near that very area in Yola which in 1984 had been the base of Musa Makaniki, the leader of the Yola Maitatsine rising in 1984. Ideas on the true identity of the murderer were further nourished by speculations on the murder weapon. The murderer was said to have used a sharp knive, (in some rumours a machete), and since nobody had ever seen the man with a knive like that, it was supposed to indicate that he had got hold of it from the Maitatsine movement, whose abundance of weapons had been documented during their uprisings since 1980. Other rumours did not stop at what might indicate the identity of the murderer but simply accepted the news that the murderer had himself told hospital staff at Yola Teaching Hospital that he was a follower of the Maitatsine movement, and that he had taken part in the Maitatsine rising in Yola in 1984. Some rumours, then, speculated on the murderer's Maitatsine connec- tions; others took it for a fact; and most queried the offical assurances of the authorities that the murderer was a lunatic. This whole body of rumours was aptly summarized by the Yola correspondent of the Nigeria Standard,

Is he really a lunatic? Is he one of those lunatics roving our streets? Why did he choose Runde ward [Musa Makaniki's enclave] for his operation? Or is he one of those fanatics who participated in the last Jimeta religious uprising but who could not be caught due to reasons beyond the common man's knowledge?10

9. See Lavers, 'Popular Islam and Unpopular Dissent', pp. 5-6; Christelow, 'The 'Yan Tatsine Disturbances in Kano', p. 70; Report of the Kano Disturbances Tribunal of Inquiry, paras 28-30, pp. 12-3 and para 172, p. 48 for reports on similar assumed Maitatsine characteristics. 10. Yusuph Yacoub, 'The Jimeta Maitatsine scare', The Nigeria Standard, 25 June 1985. Jimeta which is mentioned in the quotation, is a major township area of Yola. Thelast part of the parenthesis in the quotation is missing and has been added. 88 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

The second group of rumours emphasized the general point that the intricacies of this Yola murder story were 'beyond the common man's knowledge'. In elaborating this point the rumour bearers displayed a deep distrust of the authorities and simultaneously and implicitly formulated a specific view of the nature of political power. The main points of this implicit political criticism were that the authorities did nothing to suppress the Maitatsine movement, that they were afraid of it, and that they were in the pockets of the Maitatsine followers. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 The absence of policemen during and immediately after the murder of Fatima Garba was widely seen as a sign of the authorities' lack of will to deal efficiently with the assumed Maitatsine killer. Rumours and popular opinion took this as a further proof that the police were afraid of the Maitatsine people and would at all costs avoid an armed confrontation with them. As the Nigeria Standard put it, 'It is not surprising therefore that shocks run down their spines when there is an announcement that they should be combat ready'.11 Many wondered how the authorities would handle not only the assumed Maitatsine murderer but also the participants in the uprisings in Yola in 1984 and in Gombe in 1985. The question was rhetorical, since most people did not expect the authorities to do much, if anything, about them. This general distrust of the authorities was further nourished by the state- ments of the Sole Administrator of Yola Local Government, retired Major A. A. Tahir, on the murder. The Sole Administrator, as mentioned, soon declared that the murderer had died in hospital. This quickly turned out to be wrong and further supported the general view of the Sole Administrator's statement as misleading. His credibility was still further eroded by the circulation of another story. He was said to have admitted in private con- versations that a radio message of his asserting the death of the murderer was made in spite of his knowledge to the contrary. A visit to Yola Teaching Hospital had confirmed that the murderer was still alive but the Sole Admin- istrator should have conceded that he had made a wrong public statement to calm down the residents of Yola. The unwillingness of the authorities to deal efficiently with the murder case in Yola was emphasized by their refusal to face the facts of the situation, namely that the murderer was a follower of the Maitatsine movement. The Governor, the Sole Administrator and other officials explained the murder of Fatima Garba as the act of a madman which was generally seen as an attempt to hide the truth. The rumours, however, did not stop at querying the ability and willing- ness of the authorities to deal with the assumed Maitatsine murderer. The rumour bearers claimed a direct link between the authorities and the Maitatsine movement, a link being proved by the official refusal to admit the 11. Yacoub, 'The Jimeta Maitauine scare'. RUMOURS OF MAITATSINE 89 murderer's Maitatsine connections. A group of rumours stated that 'people in high places', 'the big men', were not just afraid of the Maitatsine people but also dependent on them and therefore protected them against disclosure and suppression. The Maitatsine people, it was said, possessed 'magical' objects which the 'big men' bought, believing them to protect against illness, road accidents and the like, and to ensure them of a long life. The people in high places were believed to support the Maitatsine movement with money as well; how else could one explain that the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 Maitatsine followers, always to be found among the poorest, could afford to buy all those weapons which they used during their uprisings?12 A further point emphasized in the rumours was the fact that after each Maitatsine uprising the government had appointed a commission of inquiry but, apart from the Kano commission of 1981, nobody had ever heard of the findings and conclusions of these commissions. The question, of course, then was why the government always chose not to publish the findings. And the answer was that the authorities were not seriously interested in suppressing the Maitatsine movement.

Rumours and political culture The murder case in Yola demonstrates that the Maitatsine complex was not just visible during the major violent uprisings between 1980 and 1985 but manifested itself in various types of situations which did not necessarily have anything to do with the Maitatsine movement itself. The actual con- tent of the Yola rumours may be true, or it may not. What is interesting about them, however, is that, besides conveying widely held views of the Maitatsine movement as such, they were concrete expressions of an under- lying political universe which indicates that the very notion of 'Maitatsine' acquired a more general conceptual status in relation to political thinking in northern Nigeria. In short, 'Maitatsine' became a good way of thinking about politics. It developed into a symbolic category which was instru- mental in associating otherwise apparently disparate phenomena related to power and ideology. The universe of the Yola rumours contains a picture of the Nigerian political elite, as well as of the Maitatsine movement, and what ties these two together is the invisibility of power. The political power of the 'big men', as it was demonstrated in its relation to the Maitatsine movement, was perceived as invisible and indeed 'beyond the common man's knowledge', as 12. Rumours from other parts of northern Nigeria linking the Maitatsine movement with people in high places are reported in Report of the Kano Disturbances Tribunal of Inquiry, e.g. para 138, p. 40; para 273, p. 72; para 286, p. 78; para 290, p. 79; Christelow, 'Religious Protest and Dissent in Northern Nigeria', p. 377; Isichei, 'The Maitatsine Risings in Nigeria 1980-85', p. 205; 'Forces behind riots , West Africa, 13 May 1985, p. 965; similar rumours circulated in connection with the career of the notorious armed robber Lawrence Anini in Benin City in 1986 and 1987; see Otwin Marenin, 'The Anini Saga: armed robbery and the reproduction of ideol- ogy in Nigeria', The Journal of Modern African Studies, IS (1987), pp. 267,273-4,277. 90 AFRICAN AFFAIRS the Nigeria Standard put it. The rumour bearers found support of this view in all the loose ends of the Yola murder case: misleading official state- ments; protection of the Maitatsine movement from people in high places; lack of any visible and eflScient government action against the Maitatsine followers; and the refusal of the authorities to recognize a Maitatsine man when they saw one, and instead conveniently explaining the whole affair away as the act of a madman. The power of the authorities and other people in high places was certainly there, but where it was, what it was like, and for Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/88/350/83/15279 by guest on 01 October 2021 which ends it was used, was beyond the knowledge of the common citizens. Political power might be invisible and yet the ambiguity of the rumours clearly connected it with the Maitatsine movement. That the special power of the Maitatsine people was invisible was certain enough: more than anything else this was demonstrated by their special magical power which was also beyond the common man's knowledge, and through which the Maitatsine people had gained power over and protection from the authorities and other 'bigmen'. In the political imagination of the rumours and their bearers two kinds of invisible power were thus interwoven into an opaque and impenetrable network: the invisible political power of the authorities and the invisible magical power of the Maitatsine followers. And the victims of this unholy alliance between the political elite and the magical urban underground were the common citizens of northern Nigeria. The rumours therefore not only reflect the general view that 'Maitatsine' may be dangerous. They also demonstrate that as a generalized concept 'Maitatsine' acquired its own significant place in popular political culture in northern Nigeria in the first half of the 1980s.