Muhammad Hamman Yaji (1863-1929) was Emir of Madagali, Nigeria, part of the Adamawa Emirate.[1] He is known for his personal diary which records daily life and activities from 1912 to 1927 as a Fulbe raider and slave trader near the border of present-day Adamawa State, Nigeria, and Mayo-Tsanaga, Far North Region, Cameroon.[2][3] Over a nine-year period, Yaji reportedly carried out over one hundred raids, rustling much livestock, enslaving some 2,016 captives, and killing at least two hundred men, one hundred and sixty-eight of whom he notes specifically.[4]
Hamman Yaji | |
---|---|
Born | Muhammad Yaji c. 1863 |
Died | 1929 | (aged 65–66)
Era | Kamerun |
Known for | Raiding, slave trading |
Notable work | Diary |
Title | Emir |
Term | 1902-1927 |
Movement | Mahdism |
Father | Ardo Bakari Njidda |
Originally written in Arabic, his diary provides a rare local perspective on early 20th century sub-Saharan daily life under colonial rule.
Further reading
edit- Lovejoy, Paul E.; Hogendorn, Jan S. (1993). Slow death for slavery: the course of abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521374699.
- Yaji, Hamman (1995). Vaughan, James H. (ed.). The Diary of Hamman Yaji. A. H. M. Kirk-Greene. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-36206-3.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Van Beek, Walter E. A. (2012). "Intensive Slave Raiding in the Colonial Interstice: Hamman Yaji and the Mandara Mountains (North Cameroon and North-Eastern Nigeria)". The Journal of African History. 53 (3): 301–323. doi:10.1017/S0021853712000461. ISSN 0021-8537.
- ^ Yaji, Hamman (1995). The diary of Hamman Yaji : chronicle of a West African Muslim ruler. James H. Vaughan, A. H. M. Kirk-Greene. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-36206-7. OCLC 30779238.
- ^ Vaughan, James H. (2012). "Yaji, Hamman (1863–1929)". In Gates, Henry Louis (ed.). Dictionary of African biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5. OCLC 706025122.
- ^ Green, Toby; Rossi, Benedetta (2018-07-26). Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past: Essays in Honour of Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias. BRILL. doi:10.1163/9789004380189_022. ISBN 978-90-04-34883-7.