Nana Asma'u bint Usman ‘dan Fodio

Nana Asma’u bint Usman ‘dan Fodio (b. 1793–d. 1864/5 ce; Gregorian calendar dates vary in concordance with the Islamic calendar) was a Fulani poet, scholar, and teacher of both men and women in the area that gave rise to the city of Sokoto, in northern Nigeria. She was also an activist who used her poetic works to model behavior and promote reformed Islam. The clan name Fodio (also spelled Fodiyo) means “learned”; all children in the extended family were educated by their mothers and fathers. They were literate in Fulfulde, their first language; in Arabic, the pedagogical language; and Hausa, the lingua franca of the region. All three languages were written in Arabic script. Several individuals, including Asma’u, also acquired a working knowledge of spoken Tamchek, the language of the itinerant Tuareg. Asma’u was a daughter of Shehu Usman ‘dan Fodio (b. 1754–d. 1817), leader of the Sokoto Jihad (1803–1830) of Islamic reform, which began when she was ten years old. As an intelligent, articulate youngster, Asma’u readily absorbed the political ramifications of local kings’ oppression of Muslims and syncretic practices of non-Islamic and Islamic customs, which actions precipitated the Jihad. When she began to write her own long poetic works, the poems included her views about these conflicts, character evaluations of the primary historical personages of the time, and straightforward explanations of Islamic tenets of belief. Influenced by Qur’anic literary style, Asma’u wrote her poems in specific rhyme and meter, rendering them more easily memorized through repeated recitation. These mnemonic devices were useful in the program of women’s education of women, the ‘Yan Taru (Hausa, “the Associates”), which Asma’u established for the purpose of re-educating society according to reformed, mainstream Islam. Also evident in her poetic works are the theosophical perspectives inherent in Qadiriyya Sufi tenets (based on the teachings of Iranian Abdul Qadir Gilani, b. 1077–d. 1166 ce), which framed the Fodio family’s Islamic practices. Asma’u’s father’s mystic Sufi experiences began around the time of her birth and are said to account for his having named her; Asma’u was a twin, and the Islamic custom was to name twins gender-appropriate versions of Hassan and Hussein, commemorating the Prophet Muhammad’s grandsons. The Shehu duly named his son Hassan, but Asma’u was named after the historical Asma, daughter of Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s close friend. The historical Asma was known for having saved the Prophet Muhammad and her father by providing them with water during their escape from Makkah on their hejira to Medinah. The Shehu is said to have seen in a dream that his daughter would be equally important to the success of his own hejira and promotion of reformed Islam. That Asma’u’s ‘Yan Taru program has served to educate rural women for a century and a half since its inception proves the Shehu’s expectations about Asma’u’s legacy correct.