Maitatsine: Let's go back in time..

Mohammed Marwa

Many think that Boko Haram is a new thing. But there was a much deadlier set than Boko Haram known as the Maitatsine set, headed by Maitatsine Marwa. I have known about this set for years, I wrote about them in a news outifit I owned, in 1992 when I was still living in the USA. Maitatsine spoke against the use of radios, watches, bicycles, cars and the possession of more money than necessary. In 1979, he even rejected the prophet-hood of Mohammed and portrayed himself as an annạbi (Hausa for "prophet"). His followers terrorized Christians, Muslims and everything on sight. It all came to a crescendo the day they meticulously sent over 5000 to their early grave in 1980.

The military moved in full force and annihilated him and his followers. That was the day Maitatsini terror set ended. I am bringing this history up because many do not know about it. A report by Sunday Trust, that Boko Haram might be ending their reign of terror which I blogged earlier today, had many saying it was impossible that BH can stop or be stopped. Well this is to let them know that Boko Haram is not new, and that one day it might also come to an end like her earlier deadlier predecessor.  After the break, read "Maitatsine: Tale of religious war in the North", a superbly written article that will tell you all you need to know about the mayhem of the Maitatsine during their reign of trepidation.

The streets of Kano in North-Western Nigeria were often tempestuous in early and mid 1980, owing to the activities of one Mohammed Marwa, an heterodox religious crusader. He reportedly hailed from Marwa in Cameroun but was based in Kano. His nickname, Maitatsine, came about because he was always speaking in halting Hausa, usually saying, ‘Wanda bata yarda ba Allah ta Tchine’, which translates as ‘May Allah curse the one who disagrees with his version.’ A fiery preacher, Maitatsine who controlled a great followership in Kano, Maiduguri and other communities across northern Nigeria would rain curses on the government and all its policies, as he would urge his followers to unseat all organs of government in the country. Initially, he was ignored by both the Federal and Kano State governments but when the seething rage and many other open atrocities being perpetrated by Maitatsine and his disciples were becoming a clear case of insurgency, the military then waded in.

The Maitatsine revolts

In December 1980, Maitatsine’s armed group, the Yan Yatsine undertook a mass slaughter in the streets of Kano, against which the military promptly launched counter-attacks. An author, Elizabeth Isichei, writing on the incident, says “the city (of Kano) was convulsed by what was virtually civil war, and 4,177 died, among them Maitatsine himself.” In October 1982 also, almost two years after the death of the Maitatsine group leader, another crisis broke out in Bulumkutu, 15 kilometres from Maiduguri, Borno State between the Maitasine attackers and the military. About 3, 350 persons were killed in the battle. In early 1984, more violent uprisings occurred in parts of northern Nigeria. In this round of rioting, Musa Makaniki, a close disciple of Maitatsine, emerged as a leader and Marwa, the original Maitatsine’s successor. From the new leader’s activities, more than 1,000 people reportedly died in Yola, the capital of Gongola State in March 1984 and roughly half of the city’s 60,000 inhabitants were left homeless. Makaniki fled to his hometown of Gombe, where more Yan Tatsine riots occurred in April 1985. After the deaths of several hundred people, however, Makaniki retreated to Cameroon, where he remained until 2004 when he was arrested in Nigeria. Around this time too, serious fracas involving the Maitasine group also broke out in Rigasa village near Kaduna, where some deaths were recorded. Also in 1985, around when the Maitatsine group was already waning in influence, a battle occurred in Gombe, in Bauchi State, where about a hundred souls were lost.

The man, Maitatsine

Maitatsine was originally from Marwa, north eastern Nigeria, which was at one time part of Cameroon. After his early education, he reportedly relocated to Kano, Nigeria around 1945. This Kano dissident preacher had a long history of being incarcerated as his series of activities virtually turned him to a jail bird. The British colonial authorities sent him into exile at a time, but he returned to Kano shortly after independence. He was thereafter jailed in 1962 over his violent acts. While going about with his ‘foot soldiers’, Maitatsine became famous for his controversial interpretations of the Holy Qur’an. He boasted that he was a great prophet, branding himself a mujaddid in the mould of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio. Although a Koranic scholar, he seemingly rejected the hadith and the Sunnah and regarded the reading of any other book apart from the Qur’an as paganism. Maitatsine and his men kicked against the use of radios, watches, bicycles, cars and the possession of more money than necessary.

By 1972, he had had notable followers who also led other armed religious warriors known all over northern Nigeria as Yan Tatsine. His followers were also involved in a serious clash at a mosque in Kano’s Sabongari in 1972 that resulted in loss of many lives. In 1975, Maitatsine was arrested by the Nigerian police for slander and public disparaging of political authorities. But that arrest rather than whittled down his influence, rather made it soar as he began to enjoy public sympathy. As from that moment, he began to receive acceptance from religious authorities, especially after he making hajj, the Muslim’s holy pilgrimage to Mecca. As his following increased in the 1970s, so did the number of confrontations between his adherents and the police. His preaching attracted largely a following of youths, unemployed migrants, and those who felt that mainstream Muslim teachers were not doing enough both for the religion and the communities.

Maitatsine’s activities took a fresh dimension in 1979, when he reportedly equated himself with Prophet Mohammed (SAW), saying he himself was an Anabi (prophet). By December 1980, he incited his Yan Tatsine troops of armed loyalists to attack other religious figures and any police man or officer sighted in the street. This then forced the Nigerian Army to become involved. A summary of armed clashes between 1980 and ’85 arising from his teachings and group’s activities, according to accounts, claimed the lives of no fewer than 5, 000 persons.

But the man Maitatsine died in December 1980 shortly after sustaining injuries in one of the clashes but this did not stop his foot soldiers that carried on with the crusade until they were eventually crushed in 1984. According to media reports, the military cremated Maitatsine’s remains, which now rest in a bottle kept at a police laboratory in Kano, till date.

MIRROR