Causes of the Jihad of Usman Ɗan Fodio: a historiographical review

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the historiography of the causes of the Jihad of Usman Ɗan Fodio. While classifying them under separate headings as religious, ethnic and socio-economic causes, the paper argues that the historian should integrate all these explanations within a coherent framework in order to account for the multi-dimensional process of transformation of northern Nigerian society triggered by the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate.