Thread by @MainTheory

The River Niger flows in an unusual direction. While most rivers take a fairly direct route to the sea, the Niger instead runs directly away from the Atlantic Ocean (which is nearby its source), to make a run towards d Sahara Desert. The mystery of the River Niger 'made' Nigeria.

Explorers for a very long time couldn’t make sense of the flow and termination of the river. Without the mystery associated with the course of the Niger, the history of Nigeria would be very different.

Beginning from the time of Augustus Caesar, the Romans launched expeditions to cross the Sahara desert and to determine the source of the River Nile. They used five routes and one of the expeditions went through the Tibesti mountains, toward Lake Chad and actual Nigeria.

The Lake Chad expedition was done by Julius Maternus, a Roman explorer/trader who described a mammoth “lake of hippopotamus and rhinoceros”. Maternus returned to Rome with a two-horned rhinoceros. The Rhino was a sensation in Rome - due to its performance in the arena.

Emperor Domitian (was so impressed with the beast that he minted coins bearing its image. After Maternus, the lure of what lies in the interior of Africa continued to haunt the restless Western mind. Europeans actually.

In 1796, Mungo Park became d first European to reach the mid-course of the Niger in Segou (Mali), after surviving a journey where many had died before him. He made it because of the kindness of the natives who pointed him in d right direction and saved him from beatings& hunger

Indeed, at the end of his journey he wrote “whatever difference there is between the negro and European, in the conformity of the nose, and the colour of the skin, there is none in the genuine sympathies and characteristic feelings of our common nature.”

Park returned home to tell the tale of his travels. He was hailed in London as the first to bring home news from the Niger River. His account of his travels sold well and a song was composed to celebrate him. Some business people in London sensed an opportunity.

Inspired by the success of his first trip, the British government enlisted Park to make a second trip. This time he was charged with finding the source, course, and mouth of the Niger. His sponsors hoped that the journey would settle the question of where the River ended.

They also wanted to know the extent of the wealth of the kingdom beneath. There were two views at the time. One school of thought, following the Romans, insisted that the Niger flowed into the Nile. The other school believed that the river flowed into a great lake (Lake Chad).

In January 1804, Park embarked on his second journey, accompanied by 36 soldiers. Most died of sickness before ever reaching the Niger. Ravaged by malaria. By the time they reached, all that remained of his retinue were a guide, three slaves and four soldiers!

They continued to sail past villages without stopping to offer the expected gifts to villagers along the river (as was the custom) and shooting at the slightest hint of danger. Unimpressed by Park’s single-mindedness and rash behavior, his local guide soon abandoned him.

Not long after, they arrived in Bussa (now New Bussa in Niger State) where they were ambushed by the locals. The townspeople mistook them for an advance party of Fulani attackers. Mungo Park threw himself into the river and drowned while trying to make an escape.

Could Mungo Park have 'discovered' the River Niger if he was accidentally killed by the natives living in the area along the River Niger?

The news of the tragedy soon reached England along with tales of a splendid country called Bornu under a certain powerful Sheikh Al-Khaneim. The British apparently heard news about him in Tripoli (Libya).

At the time, Al-Kanemi was locked in both physical and ideological war with Uthman Dan Fodio. He argued that since the Fulani Jihad was predicated on paganism and misrule, the Fulani Jihadists had no right to strike at a state like Borno which had been Muslim for at least 800 yrs

The clash of religious ideologies going on in the North East today is not new. Al-Kanemi’s argument is still being echoed against Boko Haram.

On 17 February 1823, a team of British explorers from Tripoli reached Borno. One of them, Hugh Clapperton decided he wanted to travel across the River Niger and maybe retrieve the belongings of Mungo Park.

In 1824, Clapperton arrived at the court of Muhammed Bello in Sokoto. He was cordially received by Sultan Bello, whom he found reading an Arabic translation of a Greek maths textbook - Euclid’s Elements. We now have leaders who act like they've not read anything meaningful.

In the course of their conversation, Bello told him he was aware that the British had begun to colonize India. Remember there were no radios at that time. To Bello, England had conquered India by trickery and he wondered out loud about Clapperton's intentions.

According to Clapp’s written account of events, the Sultan drew up a map of the River Niger, the country's vegetation, and even gave a vivid written description of the people across the Niger - the Yoruba. He returned to England shortly after.

On Clapperton's second trip to Sokoto, the Sultan was ready to forestall any attempt to seize his caliphate. Clapperton was detained and in his diary described the new mood of the Sultan: “He was desired to say that I was a spy...

...hinting at the same time, that it would be better I should die, as the English had taken possession of India by first going there by ones and twos until we got strong enough to seize upon the whole country”.

Clapperton died of malaria in Sokoto, as a prisoner of the Sultan. British ‘exploration’ continued nevertheless. After defeating Lagos in 1851 (thread here: ), the British quickly expanded their presence.

By 1902 Frederick Lugard felt it was time to move against the Sokoto caliphate and Kano. Kano was the focus of the hostility to the British.

An incident happened at Keffi in Nassarawa - the British Resident in the area, Captain Maloney called on the Magaji of the town to respond to allegations of slave raiding leveled against him.

The Magaji refused to meet him. The Resident issued an order for troops to come out, the Magaji rushing from his house, murdered the British resident with his own hand before troops could reach the spot. He escaped from the city immediately.

After the murder of Maloney, he and his followers fled to Kano, still outside the limit of British administration. At Kano, the Magaji was greatly received by the Emir. Who showered gifts on him for his act of bravery.

Shortly after this, the Emir of Zaria was also suspected of having attempted to poison the British Resident officer. The plot failed and he was promptly arrested. Poisoning was a kind of tactic used against British officers back then.

With the death of Maloney and the failed assassination of the Resident, it became very clear to the British that the Hausa and Fulani are not willing to serve two masters. Attahiru the first was then Sultan - a princely man who was described as always dressed in white.

The situation was such that all eyes were now turned to the north. Suddenly the question turned upon whether Great Britain or Sokoto was to be the permanent head of the area.

There Hausa have a proverb “only by fighting can the stronger man be found out”; and everyone agreed that a trial of strength would have to take place to determine which of the two was stronger. News of the impending battle traveled across from Ilorin to Chad to Oyo.

The comment of the Emir of Kano upon the murder of the British Resident represented a very general feeling. “If the little town of Keffi could do so much…what could Kano not do?” Confidence level so high.

On January 29th of 1903, Lord Lugard gave the order to advance on Kano. 1050 men in total. The Kano forces put up a stiff resistance at the walled town of Bebedji but were unable to prevent the British force from capturing Kano. They were able to slow down their advance tho.

British forces arrived outside Sokoto in mid-March. Hundreds, thousands of Muslims shrieking Allahu Akbar, mounted and on foot, marched forward. Drumming and horning with Quranic chants - ; they ran forward. The British forces opened machine gun fire on them - Rat-tat-tat-tat-ta

Later in the day, British officers went over the battlefield to shoot the wounded. Some mooched around the dead bodies, seeing if there's anything worth having on them." What they thought was gold (and they hacked off someone's leg to get at it) turned out to be brass. SMH.

"Soon all was calm. A number of Muslim faithful died by the score around the mystic green flag of the Sultan.” The green flag of Islam was the ancient banner of Uthman Dan Fodio, and Attahiru's men managed to recapture it from the British.

The British were in control of the city, but Attahiru held the countryside. He quickly marched away from Sokoto and used the flag to rally his people into a resistance force. His movement rapidly assumed the proportions of a Jihad. At least, most saw it as a Jihad.

It would be easy to assume that Boko Haram's activities are a recent phenomenon, but that would not be accurate. British troops walked into the area to fight the locals – the area had been under Islamic rule for the previous hundred years. Terrible precedence.

In Sokoto, Lugard had organized a public ceremony to install a successor to Attahiru. As at Kano, he chose the Sultan's brother, also called Attahiru.

After the ceremony, they continued to pursue Attahiru's forces "in a south-easterly direction”. Soon they reached a walled town named Burmi, near the banks of the Gongola river (in Adamawa). The force that arrived at Burmi met instant resistance.

Burmi had often opposed the Sultan, but they were even more firmly against submission to the Christian British. Here, the British suffered a heavy defeat and they fled the town before nightfall.

Attahiru and Burmi prepared to resist the inevitable British counter-attack. On July 27th, at 11 a.m., the attack began with a shelling of the town walls with machine gun fire, followed by an advance on the main gates.

Boyd Alexander, one of the soldiers, described the preparations at Burmi: "The defenses had been strengthened…construction of double trenches revealed a degree of ingenuity unexpected in the natives…all the women and children had been sent away...”

As the troops neared the trenches and got within the angle of the walls, suddenly the air was benighted with clouds of arrows and shouts of Allah! Allah! arose upon a deafening sound of drums.

So tremendous was the surprise of the shock, that the leading column was forced to fall back on its supports, and the men refused to go on, for they said the place was full of charms ('juju').

A Major Marsh, who had been directing the operations from the square, realizing the critical position, went down at once to the fighting line to lead the assault; but he had no sooner come within the line of fire than he was struck in the thigh by a poisoned arrow.

The poison was probably one known as onaye, from the Strophanthus plants, which is quick-acting, paralyzing the heart muscles in within a short time. He died within 20 mins. It’s the kind of thing called ‘jazz’ or juju.

After a day of hand-to-hand fighting amidst the town’s mud huts, and aided by machine gun fire, the British eventually prevailed. The Muslims, refusing to surrender, had made their final stand at the mosque.

Attahiru was praying in the mosque when the attack was made, and hearing that the British had carried the gate, went down to save defeat. His dead body was found ‘protected’ by a heap of bodies of his personal followers bearing the green flag of Islam - the banner of Dan Fodio.

Once identified, the body was decapitated, and photos of head and corpse were circulated throughout Northern Nigeria, to prove to surviving supporters that he was dead.

End.

Too long I guess. If you're here, congrats.🤩

For further readings, you can check out free online editions of:
Journal of a second expedition into the interior of Africa - Hugh Clapperton
A tropical dependency - Flora Shaw (Lord Lugard's wife)
From the Niger to the Nile - Alex Boyd
Death of a Sultan - Richard Gott