How A Teacher Accidentally Built One of Africa’s Greatest Empires

so how did a teacher build one of the most powerful states in african history? now this story starts around the 1700s with this man called osman danfodil. and osman is probably in his 20s when all this begins and he's living in northern nigeria in a land made up of many small kingdoms called the hausa states. osman is a teacher and the preacher of islam. at this point he had dedicated his entire life to educating people about islam and spreading the religion as far and wide as he can. but he found a very big problem. their smaller hausa state had rulers but many people were not happy. there was too much fighting, too much heavy taxes and even though many people were muslims, their leaders were not always following islamic teachings. so he decided to do something about all this. he began to preach. he spoke about justice, about living a better life and he told the leaders to rule fairly. at first the leaders called sultans let him be. he didn't seem like much of a threat. he was just an ordinary preacher. but one day the state he currently lived in called gobil had a new sultan, a man called yunfa. yunfa used to be osman's students. now you would think that he would support his teacher and even become a better leader since he had learned so much from him. but that's not what he does. he felt threatened by osman's growing influence. so he stopped some of his activities and eventually sent him out of his state. but this plan backfired because so many people left gobil to join osman and he began to gather new supporters from other regions. and when sultan yunfa learned about this, he snapped. like how dare osman leave his state to go build something even stronger and powerful. he was not about to let this happen. so he declared a war on him and his followers. osman was then elected as the commander of the faithful by his followers, marking the beginning of the sokoto states. they formed an army and went to war with the sultan. but unfortunately they lost. but instead of giving up, they came up with a brand new plan. instead of fighting directly all the time, they used smarter methods like surprise attacks. many ordinary people joined them too because they were tired of bad leadership and high taxes. between 1804 and 1808, the war continued and didn't just attack gobir, they attacked other hausa states. now many people died but in the end, osman kept winning. they captured important states like kanu, kastina, daura and finally they defeated gobir itself. in 1809, osman's son called muhammed bello built a new city called sokoto and this became the capital of the sokoto caliphate. after the war, the new state kept growing from 1808 to around 1830. it expanded into many areas and became one of the largest states in africa, covering places that are now part of nigeria, black, cameroon and burkina faso. osman then forged his step back from power in 1815. he chose to live a quieter life and focused on teaching and writing. in 1817, he died peacefully at the age of 63 and after his death, muhammed bello, his son, became the new sultan. his brother abdul lahid dan fojo also helped lead, controlling the western parts of the empire and this helped keep the state strong. but how did the caliphate work? at the top was the sultan in sokoto and under him were local rulers called emirs. the sultan ruled from sokoto but he gave powers to the emirs. these emirs controlled different regions but had to follow islamic law and obey the sultan in sokoto. each emir had to report to the sultan, pay taxes and show his loyalty to him every year and this system helped them control the large area of land they had. they built new towns and these new towns had walls for protection. they built schools for learning and markets for trade and this helped their economy grow. in many places, people joined the new system and accepted islam. islam spread very fast and became the new religion in the region. new laws based on islam was also introduced but not everyone agreed. some communities fought back and kept their traditional beliefs. the growth of the sokoto caliphate happened in three stages. first, from 1804 to 1808, they focused on winning the houses states nearby. second, from 1809 to 1815, they expanded east and and third, from 1815 to 1840, they strengthened their control and dealt with smaller rebellions. by the end of this, the capital had become very large and powerful. now the interesting part is that they conquered other strong kingdoms and empires, not just smaller houses states. one example was the lupe kingdom. it was powerful but had internal problems. osman's brother, abdullahi, attacked it and because the kingdom was already divided, it fell and after that, the caliphate replaced a new leader there and introduced islamic law. another example was the oyo empire. this empire was already weakening because of internal fights. a city called ilawin which was connected to sokoto attacked oyo many times and in the end, oyo collapsed. the sokoto caliphate also spread into areas you now know as black and benin. in these places, the caliphate fought local rulers, won and then set up new governments. the caliphate also affected a powerful empire called the kanem bono empire. they did not fully take over it but they weakened it badly. they burned down its capital city and defeated its army and even though bono survived, it was never as strong again. but this is where the story becomes more complex. the caliphate was rich but much of that wealth came from slavery. many people were taken during wars and orders were bought and sold. in fact, the last part of the population were slaves who worked on farms and plantations. land in the caliphate did not belong to individuals in the usual way. it was seen as belonging to the whole community. but the sultan or emirs could give land to families to use. they could pass it to their children but they could never sell it. the caliphate also focused strongly on education and one important figure was osman's daughter nana asmal. she was highly educated and helped teach many women across the region. even though women covered themselves as part of their culture, they were still allowed to learn and many women became educated. nana asmal even started a movement to teach women in different communities. leaders like osman den fojo and muhammed belu wrote many books. now here comes the shocking part about this teacher. osman became so popular across africa that his ideas did not stay in one place. other leaders saw what he did and tried to do something similar. like in mali, a man called seku ahmed started the masina empire. he followed osman's ideas and created a new islamic state. another leader called el haj umatol created the tokule empire. he also learned from the sokoto caliphate and used war to build his own state. there was also the wasaulu empire led by samuri turi. even though it was not exactly the same kind of movement, it still spread islam and used force in some cases. all these movements changed west africa and helped spread islam widely. but one day, the british stepped in. after an important meeting called the berlin conference, european countries started dividing africa among themselves. the british moved into northern nigeria and by 1901, they began attacking the sokoto caliphate. in 1903, the british defeated the last strong resistance. the sultan at that time tried to fight back but he failed. that same year, the caliphate officially ended as a political power but their story did not completely end. the title of the sultan of sokoto still exists today, not as a political ruler but as a religious leader. the influence of the caliphate is still seen in west africa, in religion, in culture and in history. and that, orga di fam, is how one teacher built one of the strongest empires in west african history. i am posting 45 videos about the 45 kingdoms and empires that existed in africa before colonization. if you want to learn more about those kingdoms, then subscribe to my channel right now, orga di. see you tomorrow!