Constructing Colonial Power: Tradition, Legitimacy and Government in Kano, 1903–63

Abstract

This article deals with the development of indirect rule in Kano Emirate of Northern Nigeria. It focuses on the day-to-day relationships between the local African political elite and a succession of British colonial officers in order to understand how the Kano government was recreated in the colonial period. It argues that African elites played the central role in the formulation and practice of indirect rule in the region. The contradiction between the need of the British to rely on local rulers and their desire to produce a more progressive form of local government gave the Kano emirs and their political allies opportunities to shape the structure of both the Kano government and colonialism. Emirs Abbas, Usman and Abdullahi Bayero used these opportunities to resist and undermine colonial policies, as well as to defend and create the local government that they wanted, often as part of a larger debate over how best to define what was and was not corruption. In the end, the Kano Emirs succeeded in creating a powerful and exploitative Native Authority, which was at the same time regarded by the British as the hallmark of advanced bureaucratic rule.

Acknowledgements

This paper was presented in a different form at the conference: ‘The Bloody Writing is For Ever Torn: Domestic and International Consequences of the First Governmental Efforts to Abolish the Slave Trade’, 8–12 August 2007 in Elmina, Ghana. I thank my commentator, Joseph C. Miller, for his suggestions and feedback. I also thank Murray Last, Ibrahim Hamza, Bogac Ergene and Amani Whitfield for their helpful comments.

Notes

Many others have focused in these issues in other contexts and in different ways, see: Roberts, Two Worlds of Cotton; Mamdani, Citizen and Subject; and Berman and Lonsdale, ‘Coping with the Contradictions’; Vaughan, Nigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power in Modern Politics, 1890's–1990s.

For an interesting discussion of these issues, see Spear, ‘Neo-Traditionalism and the Limits of Invention in British Colonial Africa’, 3–27.

Ibid., 26.

On royal slavery in general, see: Stilwell, Paradoxes of Power. During the nineteenth century, royal slaves played a vital role in Kano: they led armies, guarded the emir, collected taxes, served as police, and played a host of other roles as well. They were a central part of how Kano—and many other Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate—functioned.

Others have noted how difficult transformative colonialism was to achieve. Sara Berry, for example, has labelled this kind of British colonialism ‘hegemony on a shoestring’. See Berry, No Condition is Permanent, 24–40.

Both Shobana Shankar and Brian Larkin have in different ways explored the nature of Hausa engagement with colonial and western values. See Shankar, ‘Modernizing Missionaries and Modernizing Emirs in Colonial Hausaland’, 45–68 and Larkin, ‘Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers’, 406–40.

However, the cream of the Kano army did indeed return to Kano and fought the British, co-led by Sallama Jatau who had managed to escape after Kano fell. They were in the end defeated 26–27 Feb. 1903. See in general, Fika, The Kano Civil War and British Over-Rule.

A system that easily rivalled that of the largest slave systems of the Americas, see Lovejoy, ‘Plantations in the Economy of the Sokoto Caliphate’, 341–78; Lovejoy, ‘The Characteristics of Plantations in the Nineteenth Century Sokoto Caliphate’, 1267–92; Hogendorn, ‘The Economics of Slave Use on Two “Plantations” in the Zaria Emirate’, 369–83; Hill, ‘From Slavery to Freedom’, 395–426; Smith, The Economy of Hausa Communities in Zaria; Smith, ‘Slavery and Emancipation in Two Societies’, 239–290; Salau, ‘The Growth of the Plantation Economy Sokoto Caliphate’.

The population of the Caliphate was in the range of 8–10 million. The slave population estimate is based on the assumption that 15–20 per cent of the population were slaves, or a maximum of 2.5 million slaves. See Lovejoy and Hogendorn, Slow Death for Slavery, 1. In general, see Smith, Government in Zazzau; Smith, Government in Kano.

Roberts and Miers, ‘The End of Slavery in Africa’, 7. On anti-slavery and abolition in general, see Eltis, The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas; Temperley, British Anti-Slavery, 1833–1870; Temperley (ed.), Emancipation and its Discontents; Drescher, Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition; Drescher, Capitalism and Anti-Slavery; Davis, Slavery and Human Progress; Davis, Inhuman Bondage; Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery.

To use Lovejoy and Hogendorn's words. See Lovejoy and Hogendorn, Slow Death for Slavery. Often, it was the slaves who seized the initiative and tried to force their own emancipation. See for example, Klein, Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa.

See Lovejoy and Hogendorn, Slow Death for Slavery, especially Ch. 1 and 7.

See also Getz, Slavery and Reform in West Africa and the many articles in Hay and Craven (eds.), Masters, Servants, and Magistrates in Britain and Empire.

See for example, Vaughan, Nigerian Chiefs. There is of course a much broader literature, see: Hobsbawm and Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition; Nicolson, The Administration of Northern Nigeria; Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.

See Lovejoy and Hogendorn's excellent discussion on abolition, slavery and indirect rule in Slow Death for Slavery, 64–97. See also Lennihan, ‘Rights in Men and Rights in Land’, 111–39 and Nwabughuogu, ‘The Role of Propaganda in the Development of Indirect Rule in Nigeria’, 65–92.

See for example, Frederick Lugard's own justification, Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. Lugard's policies and ideas on indirect rule were of course developed over time in a variety of memoranda, see: Memorandum no. 1: ‘Duties of Political Officers’; Memorandum no. 5: ‘Taxation’; Memorandum no. 6: ‘Slavery’; Memorandum no. 7: ‘Use of Armed Forces’. Lugard, Political Memoranda edited by A. H. M. Kirk Greene. For earlier instructions, see Lugard,, Instructions to Political Officers, on Subjects Chiefly Political and Administrative (1906). See also Orr, The Making of Northern Nigeria; Temple, Native Races and Their Rulers; Margery Perham, Native Administration in Nigeria.

See for example Hamza, ‘Cargill's Mistakes’.

Tukur notes that the British relied on the advice of Adamu Jakada, who was a Kano trader and a British agent. See Tukur, ‘The Imposition of British Colonial Domination on the Sokoto Caliphate’, 275.

The other contenders were Aliyu's brother, Waziri Ahmadu and Galadima Mamudu, another brother. This is recounted by Smith, Government in Kano, 396–400. This unanimity would not last long. The appointment of Abbas, while initially popular, was also fraught. Between 1893 and 1895, a civil war had been fought in Kano between the supporters of Abdullahi Maje-Karofi's progeny (the supporters of Yusufu) and those who wanted a son of Emir Mohammad Bello on the throne (the supporters of Tukur). The appointment of Abbas therefore threw flames on a still simmering conflict by giving the emirship to the family of Abdullahi Maje Karofi. Likewise, those persons who were not given offices by Abbas because they fought against the British nursed particularly bitter grievances against the new emir.

See Smith, Government in Kano, 405–06.

The key slaves were Ajuji who was appointed shamaki, Allah Bar Sarki who was made dan rimi and Habu who was appointed sallama. These three titles lay at the top of the slave title-holding system in Kano. Each had a household in the palace, a long list of subordinates, and specific duties to perform, including land and tax supervision and the control of palace communications among many others.

As Festing noted: ‘… most important of all is the fact that we have here not only to organize a new system but have to destroy an old and dangerous one’. See Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna [NAK] SNP7/8 1545/1907.

Ubah notes that the Acting High Commissioner, William Wallace, effectively permitted this policy change, something Lugard, who left Nigeria in 1906, never would have done. See Ubah, Government and Administration of Kano Emirate, 53.

On Districts, see for example Lovejoy and Hogendorn, Slow Death For Slavery, Garba, ‘Taxation in some Hausa Emirates’ and Abdullahi Mahadi, ‘The State and Economy: The Sarauta System and its Role in Shaping Society and Economy of Kano’.

See Northern Nigeria Annual Report, 1904, 227.

Cargill defended his policies when questioned about whether the pace of the district reforms was proceeding too quickly by noting that Kano was different from other Hausa emirates: ‘clannish feeling for the Hakemai [sic] living inside Kano is non-existent’ because Emir Abbas and his immediate predecessors had been ‘in the habit of making arbitrary appointments, ousting hereditary families in favour of their own relatives, transferring towns from one Hakimi to another, and undermining their position by concentrating the power in the hands of their palace slaves’. See NAK SNP 7/9 1538/1908. Temple later noted that the envoys ‘from the central authority care nothing for the interests or opinions of people whom he rarely visits and whom he considers his inferiors’. See NAK SNP 7/10 3635/1909.

See, for example, Ubah, Government and Administration of Kano Emirate and See Lovejoy, Mahadi, and Muhktar, ‘C. L. Temple's ‘Notes on the History of Kano’ (1909), 7–76.

NAK SNP 15/3 Acc 392.

Ubah, 54. See also NAK SNP 6/3 136/1907.

Cited by Tukur, ‘The Imposition of British Colonial Domination’, 276.

Ibid.

NAK SNP 6/4 c. 111/1908.

NAK SNP 7/9 2949/1908.

NAK SNP 15/3 Acc 377.

NAK SNP 6/3 136/1907. See also NAK SNP 15 377/1908.

These slaves were two of the three highest-ranking royal slaves.

NAK SNP 15/3 Acc 377.

NAK SNP 7/8 5112/1907.

Cited by Tukur, ‘The Imposition of British Domination’, 279.

Indeed, Palmer once told Governor Percy Girouard that ‘A native man can no more understand the idea of joint rule of Emir and Resident than he can understand the doctrine of the Trinity’. Cited by Ubah, 52.

NAK SNP 15/3 no. 378, cited by Tukur, ‘The Imposition of British Domination’, 277.

NAK SNP 15/3 378/1907.

NAK SNP 15/3 378/1907.

In a letter to the Acting Resident Festing, Percy Girouard, High Commissioner of Nigeria, stated that ‘I am in full agreement with Dr Cargill when he stated in a late communication to me that it was, in his opinion, necessary to rule through a native administration … either Emirs, or directly through Hakimai’. See NAK SNP 16/3 136/1907.

This episode has been discussed by myself and others elsewhere, see especially Ubah, Government and Administration, Lovejoy, Mahadi, and Muhktar, ‘C. L. Temple's “Notes on the History of Kano” [1909]’, and Stilwell, ‘“Amana” and “Asiri”: Royal Slave Culture and the Colonial Regime in Kano’, 167–88.

See Tukur, 281.

NAK SNP 7/9 1538/1908.

Girouard on Cargill, 1908. Lugard Papers, Rhodes House, Mss Brit. Emp. S. 63. I thank Ibrahim Hamza for bringing this citation to my attention. See also The National Archives [NA] CO 446/61 that discusses his disappearance. This was not the first time Cargill experienced these kinds of problems. He had previously come under the delusion that he was the secretary to the Prince of Wales and Dr Blair noted was only with great difficulty that he was ‘restrained from acting in comfirmity [sic] with this belief’. See NA CO 446/56. The same report notes that Cargill had been subject to ‘grandiose delusions’.

NAK SNP 6/5 44/1909.

NAK SNP 6/5 44/1909.

NAK SNP 6/5 44/1909. Temple even stressed that he wanted Palmer away from the Province where he would be in contact with more ‘white men’ who would not encourage Palmer's flights of fancy with gossip and intrigue as did the ‘black man’.

NAK SNP 6/5 44/1909.

NAK SNP 6/5 44/1909.

I should note that Residents were often away on leave or ill. Between 1910 and 1925 many Acting Residents were appointed, including a presumably chastened Palmer for a short period in 1910. Nonetheless, the Residents in substantive charge of the Province remained Gowers and Arnett. Palmer later became Lt Governor of the Northern Provinces, so his career bounced back from this episode.

NAK KANOPROF c. 111. Governor Girouard fully supported Temple's policies and Lugard's version of indirect rule. Girouard believed that it was essential they pursue a policy that depended on the local native administration rather than direct rule. He emphasised that the advice of Residents might amount to ‘direct instructions’ but it was essential that the ‘Native Administration’ understood that policy came from the central government. These comments show just how much Cargill, Festing and Palmer played fast and loose with official policies on the indirect rule.

NAK KANOPROF c. 111.

See Lovejoy, Mahadi, and Muhktar, ‘C.L. Temple's “Notes on the History of Kano”’, 7–76. This kind of influence has been demonstrated for places other than Kano. See for example Osborne, ‘“Circle of Iron”: African Colonial Employees and the Interpretation of Colonial Rule’, 29–50.

NAK KANOPROF c. 111. Temple noted that difficult conditions in Kano were created ‘if the ordinary channels through which the natives are accustomed to direct official business are ignored … if the minor official is dealt with directly by a European without the knowledge or consent of his senior, the inevitable result is that the former loses his respect for the latter, while the later through jealously tries to thwart or even remove the former’.

M. G. Smith first dealt with the nature of corruption in Northern Nigeria. See Smith, ‘Historical and Cultural Conditions of Political Corruption Among the Hausa’, 164–94.

Revenue in 1908 was £25,000 and in 1917 reached £70,000. Smith, Government in Kano, 430.

This point is also made by Nast, Concubines and Power and C.N. Ubah, 91.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921. H.R. Palmer noted that that with the exception of those who receive small stipends from the Native Treasury royal slaves ‘make what they can and live as they can’.

Although these oppressive practices were no doubt common, as M. G. Smith noted in a later period. See Smith, ‘Historical and Cultural Conditions of Political Corruption among the Hausa’, 187–90.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

Palmer realised that royal slaves were still powerful. He commented that the waziri was only the waziri in name, whereas royal slaves were ‘the real Wazirai of the Emir none the less’. By this, Palmer meant that royal slaves were the real advisors of the emir and administrators, whereas he had hoped that the waziri—a so-called ‘responsible’ title-holding free official—would have played that role. See NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

H. R. Palmer noted that: ‘… salaries for district heads and sub-district heads have been instituted, (but whereas) some, e.g. Chiroma, Madaki, Makama, draw (good) salaries, the following of high rank, Sarkin Bai (£260), Wombai (£240), Barden Kano (£160), Sarkin Gaya (£250), Galadima (£200), must be augmenting their incomes from other sources’. See NAK SNP 10/3 139p/1915, also cited by Smith, Government in Kano, 433.

The charge that Abbas was a drunkard is of course one that people were reluctant to make out of fear they would demean the former emir and his family. The people in Kano who told me these stories will therefore remain anonymous. Some people told me the fight was over British currency reforms, others that they argued about the status of sabon gari—the so-called strangers' quarters. Other scholars have discussed the death of Abbas, see Ubah and Tukur, for example.

Interview with Dan Madanin Alhaji Nura Mohammad, 9 March 1998. The words used here were both zalunci signifying cruelty and oppression and rashawa signifying bribery.

Interviews with Dan Madanin Kano Alhaji Nura Ahmad, 9 March 1998.

See Interview with Wakilin Gabas Alhaji Mohammad, 10 March 1998 and the interview with Alhaji Mohammad Hassan, 10 March 1998. This occurred outside of Kano as well, see NAK SNP 7/8 3095/1907.

While Usman was certainly ill, it is also likely that he used the excuse of illness at times to get his way with British officials. He was clearly taking an active role in some political decisions throughout his reign.

NAK SNP 9/12 635/1925. Likewise, during his 1921/22 trip to West Africa, William Hugh Migeod was taken by Arnett to see Emir Usman, whom he called ‘an old blind man’, he noted: ‘There were what seemed to be hundreds of men about doing nothing except taking an intelligent interest in all that was going on.’ See Migeod, Through Nigeria to Lake Chad, 294–5.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

The phrase of Pierce, ‘Looking Like a State’, 894. See also interview with Wakilin Gabas Alhaji Mohammad, 10 March 1998 who noted that: ‘During [Usman's reign] the slaves were not given salaries so they used to get money from the people who came to see the Emir, but according to them they were not [perpetrating] an injustice’.

Interview with Dan Madanin Alhaji Nura Mohammad, 9 March 1998. See also Steven Pierce's excellent discussion of the state and corruption in ‘Looking Like a State’, especially 896–908.

Interview with Alhaji Muhktar Kwaru, 31 July 1996 and interview with Dan Rimi Abdulkadir Kwaru, 10 March 1998 and 10 July 2000.

See, for example, interview with Alhaji Aliyu Waziri, 27 Feb. 1996.

Nast makes the point that not only was Usman old and often ill, but he knew little about the palace or its rituals because he spent so much time in his district, Ringim. See Nast, Concubines and Power, 150.

The Arnett Papers, Rhodes House Library, Mss Afr. s.952.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

Major B.O. Budgen made note of his own attempt to check the ‘abuses’ perpetrated by royal slaves in order to gain the ‘confidence of the peasantry’. See NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

NAK SNP 10/9 120p/1921.

NAK KANOPROF 5579A. These events are also discussed by Ibrahim Hamza, ‘Dorayi: A History of Economic and Social Transformations’.

This was also justified on the grounds of morality.

NAK KANOPROF 5579A.

NAK KANOPROF 5579A.

Although this had only come to the attention of the British in 1923, it is clear that houses had been seized for a number of years previously.

Steven Pierce has written an excellent article on the gendered dimensions of these events. See Steven Pierce, ‘Farmers and “Prostitutes”: Twentieth Century Problems of Female Inheritance in Kano Emirate’, 463–86.

Resident, Kano Province to Secretary, Northern Provinces, 15 March 1924, enclosed in NAK KANOPROF 5579A.

Interviews with Alhaji Muhktar Kwaru, 31 July 1996 and Makaman Dan Rimi Mustapha and Mallam Aminu, 1 April 1998 and East, 73.

NAK KANOPROF 5579A. Lt. Governor Palmer commented: ‘Exactly the same thing was going on in 1920’.

Usman actually instructed the local Malams to stop handling all inheritance cases, providing the emir with an opportunity to handle more cases and to manipulate them, see John Weir Chamberlain, ‘The Development of Islamic Education in Kano City, Nigeria, With Emphasis on Legal Education in the 19th and 20th Centuries’ (PhD, unpublished, Columbia University, 1975), 194. In regard to the gidan sarauta, C. Wightwick, the Acting Resident of Kano Province noted that the question of keeping a register of all ‘giddajen sarota’ was raised, but to ‘to bring such a register up to date in the first instance would give rise to numerous cases of malpractice’. See NAK KANOPROF 5579A.

We need more research on the commercialisation of land in this period. Sule Bello noted that in the 1920's the commoner's debt load increased, which led to the sale of land to speculators. See Bello, ‘State and Economy in Kano’, 146 citing NAK SNP 10/7 316p/1920.

Rhodes House, Arnett Papers, Box 6/3. Handing over notes, Kano Province, Arnett to Wightwick, no date.

SNP 10/8 316p/1920.

Emphasis added. NAK KANOPROF 5579A. See also Arnett's comments dated 29 July 1924: ‘The conversation referred to my Mr Wightwick … was really a discussion of some length in which the Waziri took part. The Emir accepted, though somewhat reluctantly, the inevitable conclusion of the argument and confirmed it after I left Kano by a written communication to the Resident Kano Division …’ A similar practice occurred on the local level with regard to the female inheritance of farms, see District Officer Carrow's comments, which refers to the seizure of an elderly widow's farm by a Village Head in Gezawa district. The woman had occupied the farm (and paid tax) for eight years after the death of her husband. After her son died, the last remaining male heir to the farm, the Village Head seized the property because he ‘wanted to sell the farm or give it to a friend …’

Minute by Resident, Kano Province, 24 March 1924 and Memorandum ‘Farms and Houses-Inheritance by Women’ by E.J. Arnett, 23 July 1924, both enclosed in NAK KANOPROF 5579A.

See Stilwell, Paradoxes of Power for an expanded discussion. Eventually the British built on much of the land claimed by the emir. In Kano, the Central Hotel occupied what was formerly important agricultural land, as did the European suburbs of Bompai and Nassarawa and the Emirate Council building across from the palace. The British colonised space to disrupt control of land and the walking and donkey transport that tied the palace to these parts of rural Kano. I thank the late Philip J. Shea for talking this idea through with me.

NAK SNP 7/13 5785/1912.

NAK SNP 7/13 5785/1912. The estates were Gasgainu, Yokanna and Sawaina.

The ‘big three’ being the shamaki, dan rimi and sallama. See NAK SNP 7/9 2949/1908 that names slave estates directly and suggests that they were absorbed into new districts but continued to be run by the royal slaves in charge of them.

NAK KANOPROF 1708 Vol. I, NAK SNP 15/1 Acc 289, and NAK SNP 7/13 5785/1912. In general, many of the most important royal estates were located within relatively easy walking distance to Kano which enabled fast and efficient transport of the foodstuffs produced on the Emir's farms to the Emir's central palace in Kano city proper. These estates were not subject to taxation. In 1935, three of the Emir's largest agricultural estates, Madarin Taba, Gogel and Giwaram, were located in Dawaki ta Kudu. Giwaran was measured at 333.00 acres and Gogel at 152.58 acres. The estates attached directly to the offices of royal slaves were also located close to Kano City in what became known in 1908 as ‘Chiroma’ District. This district was a creation of the British, and absorbed all or part of thirteen other districts, including: Shamaki, Dan Rimi, and one-half of Dan Buram (which included the royal gandaye Yokanna, Gasgainu and Sawaina). The districts attached to the office of Sallama were amalgamated in the district of Turakin Manya, to the southeast of Kano. It seems clear that these slave districts were not formally abolished, as the senior royal slaves retained their control over farms attached to their offices until 1925 or 1926.

See Kano State History and Culture Bureau Archives [HCB] 2568/1933: ‘Kano had always been regarded, as compared, for instance, with Katsina, as ultra centralised and the absence of important chiefs from the capital no doubt made the lapse to abuse easier and more rapid. Equally rapid, however, was the process of rehabilitation though in order to confirm the position of new advisors somewhat drastic action had to be taken in 1925 to eliminate the illegitimate holders of power’.

M. G. Smith suggests that Usman was told he would have been deposed had he not done so. See Smith, Government in Kano, 454.

This amount is now equivalent to roughly £3,300,000. The elite now has access to Nigeria's oil wealth, in the early colonial period elite wealth came directly from regular people's pockets.

Rhodes House, Arnett Papers, Box 6/3. Arnett to Gowers, 7 Dec. 1924.

Some thought too much so. After his death, Abdullahi's sister noted that she felt her brother had been ‘willfully subservient to British authority and culture’. See Nast, Concubines and Power, 154, citing an interview with Mai-Daki, 24 Oct. 1989.

Rhodes House, Arnett Papers, Box 6/3. Handing over notes, Kano Province, Arnett to Wightwick, no date.

Rhodes House, Arnett Papers, Box 6/3. Handing over notes, Kano Province, Arnett to Wightwick, no date.

No member of the King-making council was ever allowed to contest for or hold the title of emir.

NAK SNP 17/8 K. 105 vol. III.

See NAK SNP 6/4 c. 111/1908 and Ibrahim Aliyu Kwaru, ‘Waziri Allah Bar Sarki, 1865–1917’.

Some oral informants concurred with the archival record. According to Wakilin Gabas Alhaji Mohammad, the changes in the twentieth century were dominated by the eventual shift in the centre of power in the court from royal slaves to free officials. See interview with Wakilin Gabas Alhaji Mohammad, 10 March 1998: ‘At that time everything was under their control, they had to be seen before the emir could be seen and the resident had to see them before the emir could be seen so later the British assigned someone called the senior councillor and all the Hakimai [district heads] were placed under him’.

NAK SNP 17/8 K. 105 vol. III.

Smith, Government in Kano, 456–57.

NAK SNP 17/8 K. 6892.

Ibid.

Composed initially of the Madaki Umaru, Sarkin Bai Abdulkadir, Waziri Gidado, three enemies of the royal slave community.

NAK SNP 17/8 K. 6892.

Cited by M.G. Smith, Government in Kano, 461.

Interview with Mallam Umaru Sarkin Gida, 1/2/1976, Yusufu Yunusa Collection.

Interview with Sallama, 20 Sept. 1975, Yusufu Yunusa Collection. Abdullahi is also said to have opened a new gandu at Wudil. It also appears that the gandaye in Takai were still in operation after the accession of Abdullahi.

Interview with Mallam Umaru Sarkin Gida, 1/2/1976, Yusufu Yunusa Collection. These farms offered a means to supplement the income of the emir, to secure food for the palace, and to provide sources of patronage for those in the palace slave community who remained in Kano after Abdullahi ‘freed’ them en masse.

See Alhaji Mahmood Yakubu, An Aristocracy in Political Crisis and Murray Last's Review of Yakubu, 147–8.

For another example of this process, see Alhaji M. Yakubu, ‘Coercing Old Guard Emirs in Northern Nigeria’, 593–604. Yakubu makes the point that the British in the 1950s attempted to reform the Native Authority system provide for the inclusion of the new breed of nationalist politicians. Those emirs who refused, balked or resisted were coerced into making changes—which led in Bauchi to the abdication of Emir Yakubu.

See Nast, Concubines and Power, Ch. 5.

See Paden, Religion and Political Culture in Kano, 267. See also interview with Wada Dako, 21 Feb. 1998.

Ibid., 267.