Mohammed Ali Nicholas Sa’id: de esclavo a veterano de la Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos

Muhammad Ali Sa’id, que tomó el nombre de Nicholas Said después de haber sido bautizado, procedía del estado musulmán de Borno en la década de 1850. Seguirá un periplo que le llevará a través del Sahara hasta La Meca, Istambul y San Petersburgo. Posteriormente viajó como criado por Europa occidental, el Caribe y Norteamérica. Su trayectoria desde que era hijo de un poderoso general y gobernador en Borno hasta su estatus esclavo en el Imperio otomano y, después, como sirviente libre entre la nobleza rusa, le llevó por último a alistarse en el 55º regimiento de Massachusetts integrado completamente por negros durante la Guerra Civil en los Estados Unidos.Muhammad Ali Sa’id, who was renamed Nicholas Said upon his baptism, came from the Muslim state of Borno in the 1850s, following an odyssey that took him across the Sahara, to Mecca, Istanbul and St. Petersburg. He susbsequently traveled as a valet through western Europe to the Caribbean and North America. His trajectory from the son of a powerful general and governor in Borno to his enslaved status in the Ottoman Empire and then to a position as a freed servant to Russian nobility ultimately led to his enlistment in the all-black 55th Massachusetts Regiment during the Civil War in the United States

Revolutionary Mahdism and resistance to early colonial rule in Northern Nigeria and Niger

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented May, 1979In early 1906 the French, Germans and British faced a series of challenges to their continued subjugation of the Sokoto Caliphate. An uprising which began in December 1905 in French Niger in the region of Dallol Mawri and Dallol Bosso, 160 km south of Niamey and 250 km west of Sokoto, spread north up the Niger River valley past Niamey through Zaberma and east across the boundary with British Northern Nigeria to the vicinity of Sokoto itself. Several British and French officials were killed. Another rising erupted in German Adamawa, far to the east, and the call for revolt was heard in Bauchi, Gombe, Kontagora and other parts of recently-conquered British territory. As these events demonstrated, resistance to colonial rule did not respect the new boundaries which European imperial decisions had imposed on the Sokoto Caliphate. In the west - around Sokoto and in the Niger valley - resistance against the French and British was reasonably, well coordinated, considering the difficulty of communication. The eastern uprising against the Germans does not appear to have been connected with the western movement and indeed had different roots than its western counterpart. Nonetheless, the risings of 1906 were all Mahdist, advocated the expulsion of the Europeans, and called for the overthrow of those Caliphate officials who did not join the Mahdist cause. The British, French and Germans were successful in crushing these revolts, but the dangers presented by a coordinated revolt were real enough. (2) Not until these revolts were crushed can it be claimed that colonial rule had been firmly established

Concubinage and the status of women slaves in early colonial Northern Nigeria

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 21 March 1988The establishment of British rule in Northern Nigeria (1897- 1903) did not ameliorate the condition of female slaves, particularly concubines. The policy of Indirect Rule, as implemented under High Commissioner Frederick Lugard (1900-1906), required an accommodation with the aristocracy of the Sokoto Caliphate, which constituted most of the area that became the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. As is well known, individual officials who opposed the conquest were deposed, but the aristocracy itself was kept in place. Indeed under colonial rule many of the powers of the aristocracy were enhanced. In order to achieve the support of the aristocracy, the Lugard Administration had to compromise on many issues, and one of the most sensitive of these was concubinage. The issue touched the nerve of patriarchal Muslim society. Women in general held an inferior position in society, both legally and in fact. Concubines and other slave women were even worse off than free women. For the British, the treatment of women was not an important issue and there was virtually no reluctance in accepting the status quo to the extent that other policies allowed. The problem was that concubines were slaves, and British policy was committed to the reform and ultimate demise of slavery. This article explores the tension between patriarchal Muslim society and British colonialism over the status of women. Concubinage was allowed to continue. It is apparent that women had to accept their subjugation, but sometimes they resisted