Thread by @RealOlaudah

MAITATSINE: The Story of a FOREIGNER who laid the foundation for modern day "BOKO HARAM" in Nigeria.
Thread.
This article is written in honour of innocent and defenceless Nigerians who lost their lives to senseless religious killings.

It is my hopeful prayer that their deaths won't be in vain and that supernatural justice find these religious extremists and let them all be buried in the same earth that drank the blood of the innocents and be consumed by the same worms that know no race or religion.

INTRODUCTION
Mohammed Marwa (1927-1980), nicknamed "Maitatsine", was a controversial Islamic preacher in Nigeria who died in 1980 at the age of 53.
His nickname "Maitatsine" in Hausa means "the one who curses" and refers to the curses he lays during his public speeches against...

the Nigerian state.
His followers were known as the Yan Tatsine, a Militant Group which were responsible for 4 bloodbaths in Kano.
It should however be noted that at that time, Abubakar Rimi was the governor of Kano State and his government was the property of Aminu Kano‘s...

People’s Redemption Party (PRP), an opposition party to Shehu Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which was at the center.
Hence, rather than cut down the rise of Maitatsine while it was still fresh, the federal and state governments handled the issue with child's gloves...

and decided to play politics with the whole situation until Maitatsine’s influence grew beyond political control.

BACKGROUND
Maitatsine was originally from a place called Marwa in the northern part of Cameroon, which was where he gained his education.
In 1945, he moved to Kano, Nigeria where his popularity rose because of his controversial preachings on the Qur'an.

Maitatsine outrageously spoke against the use of cars, bicycles, radios, watches, and having more money than necessary.
The British colonial authorities sent the preacher into exile, but he returned again to Kano shortly after the country's independence.

By 1972, Maitatsine had gained much more influence and a notable and increasingly militant following called the Yan Tatsine.
In 1975, the Nigerian police again arrested Maitatsine for slander and public abuse of political authorities, but it was somewhat too late because he...

had began to receive acceptance from religious authorities, especially after his pilgrimage to Mecca for Hajj.
Maitatsine regarded himself as a prophet, and saw himself as a mujaddid in the image of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio.

Although he was Quaranic scholar, he rejected the Hadith and the Sunnah and regarded reading of any other book asides the Quran as Paganism.
Maitatsine's preaching soon began to attract mostly the youths, unemployed migrants, and those who felt that their normal Islamic teachers

were not doing enough for their communities.

HIS SON'S DEATH
There was Information that Maitatsine had a son named Tijani whose death devastated him and was a turning point in the life of the man who will go on to turn Kano into a bloody battle field.

His son, Tijani was rumoured to have been shot while on an outing with his friends and when the man saw his son's lifeless body who was killed in an unclear circumstances, he cried in agony, “Oh the people of Kano, what have I done to you to deserve this?”

Maitatsine had cause to believe that it was the government that was behind his son's death and from then on, the fate of thousands were sealed in blood.

HIS TEACHINGS
Maitatsine was a forceful and very persuasive speaker whose teachings were infested with anger and rage.
Maitatsine instructed his followers to consider any form of Western influence as a sin, and that they should be aware that westernization has corrupted Islam.

It was reported that Maitatsine would usually say ‘whoever uses wristwatches, radios or ride bicycles, - Allah ya tsine maka albarka! Meaning; ‘May God deprive you of His blessings!’ This was how he eventually earned the nickname -Maitatsine from the people of Kano.

Considering the fact that many of Maitatsine's followers were already too poor to even afford such aforementioned luxuries, his teachings became quite easy to follow and enforce as even his followers who had these items gladly destroyed them.

Maitatsine's voice continued to become louder and believed, as he went on to preach that he was on a mission to save the world.
He even went as far as condemning the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW), and customized his own copies of the Holy Qu’ran with his name in place of the holy..

prophet's.
He said again that anyone who reads any other book apart from the Holy Qu’ran was a pagan and would inescapably be destined for the unquenchable fires of Hell.

Maitatsine gained reputation in Kano as a noble scholar and an expert in the interpretation and commentary of the Holy Quran.
He was so good at it that they named him Mai Tafsiri - the exegesis, in-depth explanation and/or critical interpretation of the Holy Quran.

The then Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi 1, who incidentally was the grandfather of the now deposed Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, was shocked at Maitatsine’s audacity and was one of his most hated critics.

GOVERNMENT'S REACTIONS
About 40 years ago, precisely 18th December, 1980. Shehu Shagari - A Fulani teacher was the first civilian executive President of Nigeria, but the country he was leading was on fire, set aflame by an energetic extremist who spoke in "poisoned" Fulani.

The security operatives under his leadership were helpless and even Shehu Shagari - the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the federal republic seemed all very confused and went on blaming external forces for being 'jealous of Nigeria’s growing international influence’.

The madness, accompanied with sheer violence, horror and terror that followed from the dark ideas of one old foreigner was about to consume the nation.
Sheer madness accompanied with agonizing destruction followed as major cities burned.

Uncontrolled, unbridled and untamed hordes of insurgents displaying all sorts of crude and primitive weapons like stones, catapults, clubs, swords, bows and arrows, dane guns, leopard skins serving as their bulletproof vests and charms moved from house to house raiding, burning,

looting, maiming, raping and killing the people of Kano as they wished.
It was hell on earth for the Kano people, but despite how unsophisticated their weapons were, the pattern of destruction they followed was so completely brutal that in just days, over 4,000 Nigerian souls...

were lost, most of them, Maitatsine’s followers.
Efforts made towards identifying many of the corpses were however not easy because their eyes, ears, noses and tongues were decapitated and some removed.
Bodies were deliberately mutilated by devilish & angry Maitatsine attackers.

To be continued.

TAKING ADVANTAGE
Considering that Boko Haram have claimed over 4,000 Nigerian lives since 2009, it would however be inhumane to appreciate their scope and degree of violence over this sect that killed as many Nigerians in just 2 weeks.

Maitatsine had become a fast growing terrorist, with up to 6,000 followers who are ready to march to the death on his vehement orders.
For the first time in the nation's history, thousand of lives would be lost due to religious differences.

Alhaji Muhammadu Marwa "Maitatsine" had migrated from the town of Marwa (Maroua) in northern Cameroon to Kano State in 1945.
His hometown, Marwa, was the center of cotton industry and the then capital of the Far North Region of Cameroon.

The predominant religion of the Marwa people is the Sufi Islam, and the migrated Maitatsine had to settle in the warm and more hospitable city of Kano where he adjusted and easily adapted to their ways of life.

Marwa, the town where he came from spoke Fulfulde, which is also language of the Fulanis, so it was somewhat easy for him to blend in.
In 1960, Nigeria gained her independence from British colonialists, but the politics that followed in Kano State was nothing close to peaceful.

Kano politics was infested with senseless jostling for political power, and Maitatsine who was already gaining strong followership, took advantage of this abnormality and rode on the resultant wave of disorderliness created by the power-hungry politicians.

HIS ATTACKS
As Unemployment rate soared, crime rate increased, poverty was becoming a lifestyle and the people of Kano were becoming disgruntled as they got tired of the fumbling and corrupt politicians.

It was at that point in time Maitatsine decided to launch his own movement with a simple but brutally efficient message which was to oppose the government and even orthodox Islam itself.

The Cameroonian migrant had transformed himself into an untamed beast, one that would terrorize the world’s most populous black nation.

Maitatsine strikes:
By the early quarter of December 1980, blood of Nigerians flowed on the streets of Kano.
An uprising had taken the ancient city, led by Marwa himself and carried out by the Yan tatsine cult.

Alhaji Maitatsine did not even wait for Governor Rimi to unleash his men as he saw attack as the best form defence.
On December 18th, 1980, the terror group launched a series of coordinated attacks on government buildings, schools, churches, and police stations.

They spared nothing in their way and moderate Muslims and Christians felt the brunt of their hatred.
Earlier on the day of December 18th 1980, Maitatsine had visited the normal venue where he preaches - the Shahuci Playing Ground, which was a vastly open field where he and...

his people were stopped by about 150 policemen who insisted they would not be holding any religious activity as they did not have a permit.
Before anyone would say "Jack Robinson", an argument broke.

The police made a very costly mistake that day as they underestimated the number and strength of the sect.
Before they knew it, three force units were on the ground, overpowered in the twinkle of an eye as over 3,000 sect members armed with knives, daggers, bows and arrows and...

dane guns descended on them.
It was real chaos that day as all 13 police vehicles were burnt to the ground, murdering four policemen, while others scampered aware with varying degrees of injuries and abandoning their weapons in the hands of the jubilant Maitatsine terrorists.

"Yau zamu sha jinni"
After their victory that day, they decided to take on the city of Kano itself.
With the new found confidence they got, they marched on, spreading to Yan Awaki, Fagge, Koki, Kofar Wamba and other places, and on the way, they were shouting: "Yau zamu sha...

jinni!” meaning ‘today we shall drink blood!"
By the next day, on the 19th, the terror gang were already in firm control of strategic locations such as the popular Fagge Mosque, the Sabon Gari Market, a cinema house and even some schools.

For the next 11 days, the Police were utterly powerless in stopping Maitatsine as they rampaged all over the city, leaving sorrow, tears and blood as Nigerians fled for the neighbouring states, losing immeasurable properties.

The government landed blows on the sect one after the other and by the time the madness ended, over 4,000 lives were wasted.
While a frenetic BBC crew jumped into the center of action in order to interview fleeing Nigerians, government security forces responded...

brutally as efforts to control the madness resulted in hundreds of suspects being rounded up by the Nigerian police and military to be summarily executed.
Desperate times. . .
Desperate times required extremely desperate measures, but the Nigerian government made some costly...

mistakes, especially with the extrajudicial killings of both guilty and innocents.

MAITATSINE'S POWER
Marwa became so powerful to the point he operated his own autonomous government where followers regarded other Muslims as heretics and lived in an isolated section.
Maitatsine launched scathing verbal abuses on the city's imperial ruler - Emir Sanusi.

From within the comfort of his Yan Awaki residence.
Maitatsine's impunity and ego was backed up by thousands of eager youths who were at his beck and call, and were even ready to carry out his flimsiest instructions to the last.

The Emir's judgement:
By the year 1962, Emir Sanusi 1 released a royal edict indicting Marwa of various crimes, one of which included preaching illegally and engaging in "shatimati" or abusive speech in fiqh.

The obstinate Maitatsine was brought before a qadi, an Islamic judge who sentenced him to 90 days in jail and after completing his sentence, he was quickly deported to Cameroon.

Everyone thought it was the end of all the troubles, but little did they realise that the battle was just beginning.
Maitatsine returned with renewed vigour, anger and hate as the Nigerian populace would suddenly be given a rude awakening to the latest brand of terror in town.

Maitatsine was not blind to the developments as he was a very clever man. In time, he would go on to make his boldest claim ever by telling his enthusiastic followers that he was the forerunner of the much-awaited Mahdi (Saviour) who would wipe away their tears and take...

them to the Promised Land.
Maitatsine promised to rescue his people from tyranny, banish infidels, bring peace to the land and erase all their sufferings.
He declared all the Hadiths and Sunnah as false and said that no true Muslim should follow them.

He went further to ban all his followers from facing Ka’aba in Mecca, while praying and even criticized the rakats of Muslim prayer (salat). Maitatsine didn't stop there, he also instructed that no one must say Allahu Akbar while praying whoever said so was condemned to Hellfire.

This pronunciations irked The Emir of Kano and the clerics but Maitatsine dropped yet another shocker. He simply declared himself the nabeey (Prophet) and that the prophet Muhammad be considered as any other Arab and his excited followers shouted praises and truly believed...

in his new gift of prophethood.
Maitatsine declared other Muslims, Christians and people of other faiths as candidates of hell fire and in his eyes, their deaths was not only a rewarding experience, it would be of no consequence.

DEATH
In 1980, The Yan Tatsine continued attacks on religious figures and the Nigerian police forced the Nigerian army to become involved.
Subsequent clashes led to the deaths of around 5,000 people, including Maitatsine himself who died shortly after sustaining fatal injuries...

in the clashes which was as a result of his wounds or from a cardiac arrest (heart attack).
An article published by the SundayTrust magazine in 2010, reported that Nigerian military cremated Maitatsine's remains, which now rest in a bottle and kept at a police laboratory in Kano.

There were also reports that after his death, copies of the Quran found in his home were already altered with the Prophet Muhammad’s name replaced by Maitatsine’s own name.
But his death would not be the end.

AFTER HIS DEATH
Maitatsine did not end their attacks after their leader's death.
In fact, just the same way Abubakar Shekau took over Boko Haram after Mohammed Yusuf was killed in Maiduguri, so did a certain Musa Makaniki take over the Yan tatsine and fled to Yola with other...

Maitatsine members and in 1984.
The Kano experience was repeated in Yola, with about 1,000 people dying and half of the over 60,000 population of Yola ending up homeless.
After the 1982 riots in Bulumkuttu near Maiduguri by Maitatsine members who had fled Kano, in Kaduna,...

they left about 3,000 dead people in their wake.
Soon after, Musa Makaniki’s riots in Yola were quenched by the military under the leadership Muhammadu Buhari, and he ran to Gombe State where after a year, the Yan tatsine terror gang again killed hundreds of people.

He was then pursued into Cameroun and was finally arrested in 2004.

RELATIONSHIP WITH BOKO HARAM
Now, Imagine we replace Mohammed Marwa (Ya tatsine founder) with Mohammed Yussuf (Boko Haram founder).
Now, Replace Kano State with Borno State and then Shehu Shagari (NPN) with Goodluck Jonathan (PDP).

Also, don't forget to replace Abubakar Rimi (PRP) with Ali Modu Sherriff (ANPP).
Are you now seeing the similarities between the Yan tatsine and Boko Haram?

• The way it started and began to grow.
• How the governments at both state and federal level played played politics with the whole situation.
• How ignoring them allowed them to create an enclave governed by their own laws.

• The increasing confrontations with the police as their members multiplied.
• Separating themselves from other muslims and attack on other Muslims.
• The anti-government and anti-technology message.
• How ignorance allowed them to stockpile weapons.

• Confrontations that led to many deaths.
• The killing of their leader of their founder.

© Mkbtdevice
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