Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67/1

AAR.
Muslims' Eschatological Discourses on Colonialism in Northern Nigeria*
Muhammad S. Umar

IVlAHDISM, A FORM of Islamic messianism, holds that at a time when the world is filled with inequity, irreligion, and generalized moral failure, the Guided One (al-Mahdt) will come to re-establish justice, make Islam prevail in the world, and thereby restore moral balance as a necessary step toward the end of the world. In Islamic eschatology the coming of alMahd constitutes one of the "signs of the hour" heralding the end-time. Following the imposition of colonialism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Muslims invoked mahdism to comprehend colonialism and to authorize responses to it. This article examines critically original Arabic and Hausa treatises demonstrating the comprehension of colonialism in terms of mahdism and the other "signs of the hour"with specific references to colonial northern Nigeria. The essay argues that mahdist discourses on colonialism are better understood in the larger
Muhammad S. Umar is Assistant Professor of Islam in the Department of Religious Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3104. * This article is a revised version of a paper I presented at the conference on "The Apocalyptic Other: Millennial Views of Unbelievers among Jews, Christians and Muslims," Boston University, Center for Millennial Studies, November 2-4,1997.1 would like to thank the organizers of the conference for the opportunity to present and discuss the earlier draft at the conference. I collected part of the materials presented in this article in the course of field research in Nigeria between 1992 and 1994 supported by a grant from the joint committee of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation.

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framework of Islamic eschatology, for which the appearance of the mahdi is one of the many signs. In light of the imminent end of the world signaled by imposition of colonialism, mahdist responses to colonialism sought to avoid damnation and to secure salvation in the hereafter. It follows, therefore, that "mahdist resistance to colonialism" was not an end in itself but only a scene in what the mahdists believed to be the unfolding eschatological drama. Critical examination of the religious concerns of the mahdists reveals a conception of colonialism as a threat to spiritual salvation in the hereafter and to moral balance in the here and now. By highlighting how Islamic eschatological discourses on colonialism were constructed and contested, this article contributes a richer appreciation of an important aspect in the interface between Islam and colonialism. FROM IDEOLOGY OF RESISTANCE TO MODE OF DISCOURSE Previous studies of mahdist responses to colonialism in northern Nigeria and in West Africa as a whole have rarely paid sufficient attention to the roots of mahdism in the broader context of Islamic eschatology. For example, in identifying the Satiru uprising of 1906 with a "revolutionary mahdism and resistance to colonial rule," Lovejoy and Hogendorn conceptualized mahdism in three steps that begin by first identifying the different political positions mahdists had advocated: 1) "tolerance of established authority . . ."; 2) "severe criticism of existing Islamic regimes . . . in expectation of meeting the [m]ahdi"; 3) "replacement of incumbent Muslim officials by [m]ahdist clerics...."; and 4) "revolutionary action with the intention of destroying the Muslim state and the class structure on which it was based" (219). In the second step Lovejoy and Hogendorn follow this characterization of mahdism in general with three additional features that "revolutionary mahdism" shares with other types of mahdism, namely: 1) "primacy of religious conviction, especially the belief in the imminent arrival of the expected mahdi"; 2) hostility to colonial rule without the accommodation to European rule adopted by other mahdists; and 3) opposition to the government of the Sokoto caliphate both before and after the colonial conquest (229). In the third and final step Lovejoy and Hogendorn (229) distinguished revolutionary mahdism "from all other strands of mahdism in four respects," namely: a dimension of class struggle; an ethnic dimension reflecting class division; expected appearance of Jesus as well as the mahdi himself; and not encouraging emigration (hijra) to the east. Lovejoy and Hogendorn duly note the "primacy of religious convictions" but fail to explore fully the significance of that conviction. Instead, they emphasize political and social aspects.

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This preoccupation with the social and political aspects of mahdist responses to colonialism is not unique to Lovejoy and Hogendorn. The literature reveals a consensus that mahdism was well established as a platform of political opposition in pre-colonial West African Muslim societies in general and in northern Nigeria in particular, where mahdism played a crucial political role in the Sokoto Caliphatethe nineteenth-century Islamic polity that ruled the area before the British imposed colonial rule in 1903. The literature also shows the ambivalence of lauding mahdists for their "resistance" against colonialism and lamenting the ineffectiveness of the mahdist resistance due to its religious/superstitious ideology. This ambivalence can be traced to the 1960s and 1970s when "resistance to colonialism" was a romantic theme in the literature on independence from colonialism (Sharevskaya; Fernandez 1964,1978). And even in the 1990s Lovejoy and Hogendorn temper their apparent celebration of "revolutionary mahdism resisting colonialism" with the lament that: "because the mahdists believed in millennial vision and relied on supernatural powers, they undermined their effectiveness on the battlefield" (242-243). The secondary literature also criticizes British colonial policies towards mahdism as misguided over-reactions, driven by irrational fear of the colonial regime against all forms of resistance, especially resistance informed by what colonial authorities were wont to regard as "religious fanaticism" (Lavas; Hodgkin; Adeleye; Al-Hajj 1973; Buttner; Uba; Sa'eed). And consistent with the general literature on messianic and millenarian movements, scholars usually invoke relative deprivation theories to explain mahdist responses to colonialism (Schwartz 1976, 1987). In his historical survey of "Islamic Millenarian Tradition in West Africa" Peter Clarke concludes that "the appeal of and the social constituency of mahdism in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial West Africa and Nigeria were in large measure determined by the following interrelated variables: the existence of a disaffected clerical class outside of and antagonistic to governments that were seen to exploit and oppress the masses, a pool of students and young people who were expected to be militant, and sizeable numbers of very poor who for the most part possessed no representative institutions or channels by means of which they could express their grievances or obtain redress" (43-44). Schwartz captures the central weakness of relative deprivation theory when he rhetorically asks: "where across this imperfect world has relative deprivation ever been absent or a crisis lacking?" (1987:528). He also notes that "millenarian movements have not 'burst out' where relative deprivation has been most apparent" (528). Following Schwartz, I contend that mahdist discourses on colonialism are not restricted to the underprivileged classes, for even the colonial regime participated in mahdist discourses friendly to its own purposes.

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The literature on mahdism and colonialism points to a comman conception of mahdism as an ideology of resistance. However, in a notable dissent Jack Goody stresses that mahdist movements in colonial context should be accounted for in terms of both domestic indigenous and external colonial dynamics, adding that "the Mahdi of 1904/5 was but one of a long line of such reformers, some sparked off by outside events, others by factors in the structure of religious thought and others by an individual's desire for power, prestige and property" (155). Goody gives the least attention to religious dynamics as compared to his detailed examination of the social and political dynamics. But for Coulon, mahdists and Islamic reformers "were not in any sense destroyers of colonialism," and he sees their focal point remaining essentially religious (356). Coulon did not, however, differentiate between jihadists who wanted to establish Islamic polities and mahdists who sought salvation in the hereafter in light of their conviction of the imminent end of the world. This article emphasizes the eschatological doctrines on which mahdists constructed discourses that authorized divergent responses to colonialism. The conception of mahdism within the framework of Islamic eschatology appears also in studies that dissent from the consensus on mahdism and colonialism identified above. While acknowledging the existence of mahdist expectations in the pre-colonial era and that colonial conquests were not "the sole cause of the rise of mahdist expectancy during... 19 and early 20 centuries ," Hiskett emphasizes that the imposition of colonialism was "among the most dramatic signs in a total pattern of prophecy [emphasis added] that now seemed about to be fulfilled" (1984:272). Basing his analysis of this "total pattern of prophecy" on a number of Hausa poems, Hiskett asserts that it was inevitable that some Muslims should identify the colonialists with "the mahdist monstrous enemiesGog and Mogog and the terrible Dajjal, the Muslim antiChrist." Significantly, these poems are of the genre of wac, the didactic compositions applying the moral whiplash on "Muslims for their failure to observe Islam properly, thus causing God to loose Christians [as Muslims named the colonialists] upon them." Similarly, Dangambo (1979, 1980) finds that the mahdist expectations still active in the first two decades of the post-colonial era show the same dominance of religious concerns in the mahdist themes of wacz compositions. As this article demonstrates later, northern Nigerian treatises on mahdism and colonialism belong to this didactic genre of Islamic literature, which has its identifiable mode of discourse. But the relevant point to note here is that, given this continuity of mahdism from the pre-colonial era down to the post-colonial period, it follows that the emphasis in the secondary litera-

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ture on mahdism as an ideology of resistance to colonialism should be re-evaluated to recognize and account for the continuing appeal of mahdism not only in the colonial period but in the pre-colonial and the postcolonial periods as well. Elaborating on what Hiskett terms "a total pattern of prophecy," this article argues that rather than simply providing an ideology of resistance against colonialism, mahdist discourses on colonialism advocate different responses, including religious revival and moral restoration in order to attain salvation in the hereafter, the imminence of which was indicated in part by the imposition of colonialism. The article also demonstrates that whereas "revolutionary mahdism" against both Muslim and colonial political authorities is a rare spectacle, the mahdist didactic literature stresses the normative imperative of Islamic eschatological doctrines that form an important part of the Islamic theology that Kenny shows to impact the everyday life of Nigerian Muslims. DISCOURSES IN A "TOTAL PATTERN OF PROPHECY" Close examination of mahdist primary texts reveals divergent discourses advocating different responses towards colonialism. These texts seem to address a set of questions: Was the imposition of colonialism one of the "signs of the hour" heralding the end-time? If so, with which particular sign should colonialism be identified? Would the appearance of the mahdi be the next sign to follow the imposition of colonialism identified as a "sign of the hour"? Perhaps the most important question was: What should Muslims do if colonialism was indeed one of the "signs of the hour"? The available mahdist texts addressing these questions follow the conventional modes of Islamic eschatological discourses. It is therefore imperative to understand those modes of Islamic discourses before examining mahdist discourses on colonialism. Islamic traditions affirm the belief that Muhammad is the seal of prophecy. As the last in a long series of prophets who had appeared in the course of human history, Muhammad's prophethood is among the signs of the imminent end of human existence on earth. Thus, in a sense, the founding of Islam was, in fact, an eschatological event. The Qur'an emphasizes eschatology more than any single theme. Cragg notes that nothing is more certain in the Qur'an than "the Day of Judgement," and that: "Eschatology finds the Book [i.e., the Qur'an] at its most stern and its most fervent..." (43). This Qur'anic emphasis is "abundantly glossed" by traditions of Muhammad, and a "whole didactic literature is grafted on to this stem" (Gardet:236). To understand Islamic eschatological discourses, one needs to separate Qur'anic verses from their later interpretations.

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Qur'anic Eschatology The Qur'an affirms in many different ways that the universe will definitely come to an end. An apocalypse will herald the end-time with a series of unmistakable signs that will, among other things, include a spectacular reversal of the natural order of things: mountains melt, oceans dry up, the sun rises in the West and sets in the East, etc. Following this apocalypse, humans will be bodily resurrected to stand in a grand assembly anxiously awaiting receipt of a script detailing their righteous and sinful deeds and with the appropriate divine judgment entered thereto. A favorable judgment permits entry into paradise where the saved ones will enjoy endless pleasure and bliss; but an unfavorable judgment condemns one to hell-fire to suffer all kinds of torments without respite (see, for example, Qur'an chapters 75-88). The Qur'an proclaims this eschatology with a pervading aura of certitude that makes it sheer folly to doubt the inevitability of the end-time (Smith and Haddad; O'Shaughnessy). Moreover, the Qur'an avers that any such doubt is bound to disolve once these "overwhelming events" suddenly sieze upon those who doubt the posibility of their occurrence. Frequently the Qur'an adduces the pattern of plant life with its seasonal death and rebirth as proof that humans would indeed be resurrected (e.g., Qur'an 78:14-17; 79:27-46; 80:1-41; etc.). The vividness of the Qur'anic depictions of eschatological events led Sayyid Qutb (al-Taswr al-Fannt ft al-Qur'an, Cairo, n.d., and Mashhid al-Qiymaft al-Qur'an, Cairo, n.d.), one of the foremost Islamic exegetes of the twentieth century, to argue that pictorial imaging (al-taswr) is the dominant form of Qur'anic discourse and that Qur'anic verses on eschatology nearly always aim to evoke vivid images. The complexity of Qur'anic eschatology cannot be fully explored here; however, some important aspects need to be emphasized for their relevance to understanding mahdist discourses on colonialism. First, the dominant theme in Islamic eschatology is the assertion of the overwhelming power of God: the eschaton is, in fact, the ultimate demonstration of the "Absolutely Powerful." Often the Qur'an states that the divine power that had originally created the universe ex nihilo is the same power that will exclusively and totally control the eschatological drama. Since assertion of overwhelming power is central in the Qur'anic depictions of eschatology, it should not be surprising that the imbalance of power that undergirded colonialism is also central to mahdist discourses on colonialism, as will be demonstrated presently. Second, the Qur'an emphasizes repeatedly that no onenot even the Prophet Muhammadknows precisely when the eschatological drama

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will begin. God alone knows the Hour. However, the "signs of the hour" are many and knowable. Consequently, a major preoccupation of Islamic eschatological discourses revolves around the "signs of the hour": What are they? What is their proper sequence? How does one recognize the "signs"? Determining the "signs of the hour" becomes a discursive strategy of both asserting and contesting positions in mahdist discourses on colonialism. In a sense, mahdist discourses amount to little more than determining whether or not the imposition of colonialism was indeed a "sign of the hour" and, if so, whether or not the appearance of the mahdi would follow as the next sign. Third, the mahdi does not appear in the Qur'anic articulations of eschatology, but many traditions (hadtth) of Muhammad, as well as other Islamic sources, do mention the mahdi. There is a paradox here. On the one hand, studies of mahdism do not take into account the Islamic belief that the appearance of the mahdi is only a sign of the more important event of the end of the world. This omission has not been unique to studies of mahdism in colonial West Africa, for the omission can also be seen in the literature on mahdism in the wider context of Islamic history. The emphasis in this wider context has been on the political aspects of mahdism, perhaps justifiably so on account of the significant political roles of mahdists in different periods of Islamic history, particularly among the Shi'a (Sachedina; Arjomand; Blichfeldt). On the other hand, Muslim theologians do not list belief in the expected appearance of the mahdi as one of the "necessary beliefs" constituting orthodox Islamic faith (McNeill and Waldman: 157-164; Barney^-SS).1 This means that Muslims could easily dismiss any claim to being the mahdi, or even the entire complex of mahdist beliefs and expectations. In fact, Ibn Khaldun notes that the traditions on the appearance of the mahdi "have often been refuted by means of certain (other) traditions" (157). No Muslim, however, could dismiss lightly the Qur'anic affirmations of the other aspects of Islamic eschatology discussed above. Because of these Qur'anic affirmations, those Islamic eschatological beliefs carry a normative imperative more forceful in the everyday life of ordinary Muslims than the political dicta of mahdist claimants. This point means that we should pay attention to the relative importance of both the religious concerns in Islamic eschatological discourses on colonialism and the political spectacle of a
1 While al-Ash'ar (d. 935) is the founder of the predominant Sunni theological orthodoxy, which is, in fact, named 'Ash'arism after his name, Al-Sansl's creed has been the more popular summation of Sunni theological doctrines. See Aqtdat ahi al-tawd al-sugr by Muhammad b. Ysuf al-Sanus (d. 1490) in the English translation by Barny (46-55). Both al-Ash'ar and al-Al-Sanus list belief in the various signs of the hour as necessary articles of Sunni orthodox Islamic faith. For a more extended discussion of Islamic theology, see Wolfson.

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"revolutionary mahdism" in revolt against both Islamic and colonial authorities. Interpretations of Qur'anic Eschatology Given the Qur'anic emphasis on eschatology, it should not be surprising that Muslim exegetes amplify the many vivid scenes in the eschatological drama. In analyzing this commentarial amplification, Schimmel notes that the "astounding number of descriptions of the Day, the Hour and the Knocking One in the earliest revelations [of the Qur'an]" account for "the abundance of spring poems in which the imagery of resurrection is used" (234-235). Schimmel also observes that: "Many mythological tales and many allegorical stories were woven around the events before and during the Resurrection, such as the return of Jesus and the arrival of the Mahdi (235). These additional motifs and minutiae represent one obvious difference between the Qur'anic and the exegetical versions of eschatology. Only some of the important features of the vast exegetical literature can be briefly emphasized here for their relevance to understanding Muslims' eschatological discourses on colonialism.2 First, the exegetes amplify greatly the Qur'anic emphasis on divine justice in judging human responsibility. Smith and Haddad note that more than the classical authors Islamic modernists affirm explicitly "the link between ethical responsibility in this world and accountability in the next" and that "one feels in reading these modernists a real sense in which eschatology is now [emphasis in the original] in the immediateness of human ethical responsibility" (106). Muslims' eschatological discourses on colonialism reflect this theme in seeing a moral causation for the imposition of colonialism. Second, Muslim exegetes stipulate the prevalence of inequity as a precondition for the appearance of the mahdi and charge him with the prominent task of restoring social justice. Eschatological discourses on colonialism repeat this central theme, thereby lending credence to the common invocation of relative deprivation to explain mahdist responses
2 In their analysis of the commentaries on Qur'anic eschatology, Smith and Haddad draw a distinction between "classical Islam" and "modern Islam." They find that classical authors emphasize: "a general affirmation of the agony of death and the role of cIzr'll [the angel of death], the journey of the spirit to the presence of God, the questioning in the grave by [the two angels] Munkar and Nakir, punishment (and reward) in the tomb, the continuing relationship of body and spirit in the realm of the barzakh, and some indication of the awareness on the part of the dead of the continuing ministrations of the living to them" (104). In contrast, modernist Islamic writers ignore or reinterpret these traditional concepts by "attempting to elucidate the basic Qur 5anic theme of continuity between this life and the next" (104). In addition, Smith and Haddad find that modern Islamic writers "are generally more interested in discussing the nature of human responsibility and accountability than in articulating details of the life after death. Their approach to the material is homiletic rather than didactic; they are concerned less with the teaching of particulars than with preaching the message of the meaning of death and resurrection for the living of an ethical life" ( 104).

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to colonialism. Yet it is imperative to realize that restoration of social justice constitutes only one of the mahdi's many roles. The relative importance of the mahdi's restoration of social justice should be seen in the broader sequence of the eschatological drama that equally emphasizes other themes such as divine judgment, the absolute power of God, individual moral responsibility, and the denouement in salvation or damnation. Rather than simply lauding mahdism as an ideology for social justice, this article demonstrates that mahdism is better understood as a mode of Islamic eschatological discourses for advocating and contesting diverse issues (including social justice). Third, while not neglecting the Qur'anic focus on the sequence of apocalyptic events that will begin the eschaton, exegetes pay detailed attention to how individuals will participate in the eschatological drama, beginning right from an individual's death and continuing in the tomb up to the irruption of the apocalyptic events. As earlier noted, the determination of the sequence of the "signs of the hour" constitutes a discursive strategy for both advocating and contesting positions in Muslims' eschatological discourses on colonialism. This brief analysis of Qur'anic eschatology and its subsequent exegetical elaboration demonstrates the differences between the two. However, the following section on authorization and disputation of different responses to colonialism also illustrates the invocation of motifs from both the Qur'anic and the exegetical visions of eschatology. DIVERGENT VOICES IN MULTIPLE DISCOURSES Hausa and Arabic texts by Nigerian Muslims construct different eschatological discourses to advocate divergent responses to colonialism. One discourse advocates armed confrontation, another calls for withdrawal, and a third admonishes moral restoration and religious revival, while a fourth discourse supports the colonial regime. Discourse for Armed Confrontation First, one mahdist discourse explicitly identifies colonialism with specific "signs of the hour," including generalized moral failure and the imminent appearance of the mahdi. This discourse urges Muslims to respond to colonialism by pledging allegiance to the soon-to-appear mahdi and to support him in armed confrontation with colonial authoritiesthis corresponds to the "revolutionary mahdism" earlier discussed. An anonymous Arabic poem of eighty-six lines illustrates this point clearly.3 In the
3 A manuscript copy of this poem is preserved as NU/Paden 36 in Arabic Manuscript Collection, Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, IL (abbreviated hereafter NU/Herskovits).

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first lines the poet identifies the colonialists in the Qur'anic terms for Christians, ahi al-kitb (people of the book) and al-nasr (Christians), and then further characterizes the colonialists in many Qur'anic tropes that rebuke the "people of the book" for refusing to recognize the prophethood of Muhammad. The poet implores the Almighty Allah to rescue Muslims from the disaster of colonial conquest (lines 8-32). Repeatedly, the poet stresses that without a favorable divine intervention, the colonialists will succeed in replacing Islam with Christianity. To avert this outcome, lines 33-45 pray to the Almighty to send the mahdi to wage war against the infidel colonialists. This invocation of divine power points to the intersection of the temporal and the religious in mahdist discourses on colonialism and alerts us to the inadequacy of seeing only resistance. Discourse for Withdrawal The anonymous Arabic poem just discussed differs significantly from the famous Hausa poem on the imposition of colonialism in northern Nigeria, the Walcar Nasara, "The Poem on Christians." AbdulRadir attributes Walcar Nasara to the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Addahiru II, who was killed by the British colonial army in the battle of Burmi in 1903 (6366).4 Walcar Nasara shows immediate and urgent focus on the military superiority of the British colonial forces (lines 1-33), and realizing the futility of armed resistance, it advocates withdrawal (hijra) as the most appropriate response.5 Significantly, Walcar Nasara does not employ the mahdist theme in its comprehension of colonialism. Instead, it invokes other eschatological "signs of the hour," including the attribution of moral lapses to those who embraced the Christians (lines 33-46). The concluding lines of the poem most clearly illustrate the preoccupation with securing salvation in the hereafter in Muslims' eschatological discourses on colonialism: The hour of the day of judgment is fast approaching, Among the conditions is the advent of the Christians. The hold of Gog and Magog would be the next to bring its ills, They willfillthe world more than the Christians.
4 Bello Sa'id (443-447) brought this poem to light first, and since then 'Dandatti AbdulRadir (63-66) has published a complete Hausa text, while Hiskett (1984:63-66) has published a partial English translation. An Arabic script {ajami) copy is preserved as NU/Falke/1569, NU/Herskovits. I also collected manuscript copies in ajami during field research in Sokoto, December 1993. All translations of excerpts from this poem are mine. 5 Apart from its literal meaning of withdrawal/migration, hijra has doctrinal significance in Islamic history: it means Prophet Muhammad's relocation from Mecca to Madina, where he founded the first Muslim community c. 610 CE.; it also marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. For discussions of invoking hijra to give Islamic authorization for withdrawal from colonialism, see Umar; Robinson; Hanson; and Mas'ud.

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Our remedy is to dependfirmlyon God, We should rely on Him to prevail upon the Christians. Even if no one heeds, I have done my part to admonish. I am with the Almighty, and not with the Christians. Salvation in the hereafter will not be in the hand of humans, Hence no one could condemn me to hell-fire. It isfromGod that I seek salvation, and [also]fromthe Messenger, Who had been granted the right of intercession on our behalf. We beseech you, God, to let us die with our faith, For apartfromthe Christians, morefrightfulevents are yet to come. The day of dying and the day of judgment These shouldfrightenany human more than the Christians. Here I conclude this poem, thanks be to God, With the power of the one who created us and the Christians. By constructing an eschatological discourse on colonialism without mentioning the mahdi, this poem supports a contention of this article that Muslims' identification of colonialism as a "sign of the hour" should be understood in the larger framework of Islamic eschatology in which mahdism forms a part. The poems advocacy of withdrawal from colonialism points to the discursive employment of eschatology to authorize a response to colonialism other than resistance. Discourse for Moral Restoration and Religious Revival Another discourse alludes to colonialism by stressing that many of the "signs of the hour" were, in fact, present during the colonial era. But rather than supporting a withdrawal from, or mahdi-led resistance against colonialism, this discourse advocates moral regeneration and religious revival as the necessary preparations for the imminent end of the world. The articulation of this discourse appears in many anonymous Arabic epistles and short treatises on the "signs of the hour" that were widely circulating during the colonial period. A specimen is the epistle dated 1923 from "Abdallah b. Muhammad, attendant at the Prophet's garden in Madina, addressed to the Muslim community and to be carried from village to village and country to country, giving warning of the consequences of evil deeds, and stressing the necessity for purification before the last day."6 Similar concerns are expressed in an anonymous Akhbr al-S'ati, "News of the Hour," tentatively dated 1950.7

6 A copy of the Arabic manuscript of this epistle is preserved as IAS acc.no. AR. 57 in the Papers of Ivor Wilis, NU/Herskovits. 7 National Archives, Kaduna, (Nigeria), ZARPROF, D/AR1/142: Akhbr al-S>ati, 11 ff. See also NU/Paden 36, NU/Herskovits.

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A variant voice in this discourse holds that the imposition of colonialism had resulted in a generalized moral failure, which indeed could be seen as a sign of the approaching end of the world. However, this voice stops short of proclaiming that the other major "signs of the hour," including the appearance of the mahdi, were imminent. In this case, the imperative is to reject all claims to being the mahdi. In a sense, this voice articulates the general view that prevailed among the vast majority of Muslims in colonial northern Nigeria. For example, Sokoto traditions disparage all mahdi claimants, singling out "the Satiru revolutionary mahdists" for special ridicule (Johnston: 162-167; Alhassan). One can characterize the responses of moral regeneration and withdrawal as forms of passive resistance to colonialism. However, apart from missing the religious themes in these discourses, such charaterization obscures also the significant differences in the various eschatological discourses on colonialism. Discourse Supporting the Colonial Regime A fourth discourse speaks on behalf of the colonial regime, seeking to deny Islamic legitimacy to mahdist opposition to colonialism. While this discourse seems to lead to the same imperative as the third discourse, the significant difference between the two is that for the proponents of the third discourse the rejection of mahdi claimants does not necessarily imply support for the colonial regime, whereas the fourth voice explicitly supports the colonial suppression of mahdism. The best example of the articulation of this discourse comes in a very interesting fatwa (legal ruling) against mahdists. In 1925 the British sought and obtained di fatwa from Islamic judges in Mecca with which to refute mahdist pretenders. Munshi Ihsanullah, a Muslim from India working as a clerk in the British consulate in Jeddah, obtained the fatwa for G.J. Lethem. In 1924 the colonial regime in Nigeria assigned Lethem to make "exhaustive enquiries" on the Nigerian Muslims visiting or residing in Egypt, Sudan, and the Hijaz and to report on their actual or potential subversive activities. The questions for the fatwa asked: "What do you, the ulema of the Holy Place of Mecca, say about the person or persons appearing in India and elsewhere who claim to be the expected Mahdi? Is their claim justified and acceptable or are they deceivers and false prophets? If they are false prophets and deceivers please give the reasons why, and also state what punishment may be inflicted upon them and their followers according to the Shari'ah?" (Tomlison and Lethem:51). The mention of India suggests that the British were also pursuing a similar policy of appropriating Islamic ideas for controlling Muslim agitation in colonial India. But the most interesting question is the one about what punishment should be inflicted on mahdist claimants. This under-

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scores explicitly the British purpose of asking for the fatwa: to add one more instrument of controlling mahdist agitation in British colonies. The question of whether a mahdist claimant is a false prophet could get only one predictable answer from any Islamic judge: since the belief in Prophet Muhammad as the seal of prophets is a cardinal Islamic creed, it follows that any mahdist claim to prophecy is false. Shaykh Muhammad Habibullah al-Shinqiti, the preacher of the Two Holy Cities who wrote the principal opinion, had, in fact, already written a book in which he had "fully proven all such who claim to be the expected mahdi or Isa [i.e., Jesus Christ] to be liars and deceivers both by the traditions [of the Prophet Muhammad] and the verses [of the Qman]" (Tomlison and Lethem:51). He therefore refers to the views he had already expressed, noting "there is no need to add anything to my pamphlet in order to prove such [Mahdist] claims false" (Tomlison and Lethem:51). In this thoroughly polemical pamphlet Muhammad Habibullah al-Shinqiti argues forcefully against the current belief in the imminent appearance of the mahdi (19). He affirms the Islamic orthodoxy of the belief that the appearance of the mahdi is one of the "signs of the hour." However, he asserts that all contemporary mahdi claimants must be rejected because they all lacked the defining characteristics of the true mahdi. He also argues that many of the "signs of the hour" that should precede the appearance of the mahdi, especially the return of the Prophet Isa and the disappearance of the Qur'an, were not yet in place (21). This argument illustrates the discursive employment of determining the sequence of the "signs of the hour." On the punishment to be inflicted Shaykh al-Shinqiti quotes classical Islamic legal authorities to recommend discretionary punishment (ta'zir). He elaborates that, if the mahdist claimant and his followers declared other Muslims infidels, the punishment changes drastically: "By proclaiming as kafir [Arabic for infidel] all Muslims who did not believe in him, and by their belief in him they had committed kufr, and according to the Sharicah are themselves kafir, and if this takftr is on account of them denying the al-sunna, i.e., the prescribed law, then they must be killed if they do not repent, and if they deny it on account of the continued traditions, then their punishment is in the hands of the Imam" (Tomlison and Lethem:52). Clearly, eschatological discourses on colonialism advocate normative imperatives that cannot be violated with impunity. Other prominent Islamic legal authorities in Mecca concurred with this opinion, thus adding legal weight to the fatwa that Lethem thought would be "useful in Nigeria to persuade Emirs and leading mallams of the spuriousness" of mahdist claims circulating in Nigeria (Tomlison and Lethem: 46-60). Lethem also thought that because Shaykh al-Shinqiti,

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who wrote the principal opinion was a West African and was confirmed by the Maliki mufti, the fatwa should have an "added weight to Nigerian Muhammedans"northern Nigerian Muslims adhere to the Maliki school of Islamic law. Lethem recommended that the colonial administration in Nigeria should recruit a special agent to work at the British consulate in Jeddah to provide useful intelligence on Nigerian residents and pilgrims in the Hijaz, including "Fulani irreconcilables, emigrants from Nigeria, and some members of an ignorant and narrow-minded priesthood who have been tools of such movements as the Pan-Islamism of a former day" (Tomlison and Lethem:60). The complexity of eschatological discourses on colonialism call for more than a binary classification of mahdisms of revolution and reaction, or resistance and collaboration. A careful analysis shows that the most urgent question for the mahdists was: Since the imposition of colonialism had signaled the imminent end of the world, what should Muslims do individually and collectively to secure salvation and avoid damnation in the world to come? This article cannot examine in detail all these mahdists compositions. A critical analysis of two poems can, however, illustrate some important points, especially the preoccupation with religious issues in the mahdist discourses on colonialism. EXPLICIT MAHDIST DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM The Arabic poems of Zumcatu b. al-Imam Muhammad al-Fulati8 illustrate the explicit treatment of colonialism as a "sign of the hour." Two of Zumcatu's poems, Dliyya (a poem rhyming in the Arabic consonant dal) and cAjHb al-Asfr ("The Wonders of Travels"), record the poet's travel experiences in many parts of colonial West Arica.9 In the 171 lines of the Dliyya, Zum'atu judges social practices he had observed in his travels as indications of the moral decline and religious degeneration resulting
8 Not much is known about Mallam ZunVatu's life other than what his poems record about his extensive travels in West Africa. It would be rewarding to trace the numerous towns and peoples he mentions in his poems. He states that the occasion for composing his AjHb al-Asfr was "after his return from a visit to his brothers who reside[d] in Yola." This leads Hunwick (345-355) to suggest that Zumcatu "would appear to be originally from Yola" in the Adamawa Province of northern Nigeria. However, my field interviews (1992-94) in Kano suggest that the family of Mallam Zum'atu migrated from Kano to Kumasi, Ghana, where Zum'atu was born. The father became the imam of the Kumasi mosque. My source indicates further that Mallam Zum'atu was well-known for his wide travels and that during his many short visits to Kano (lasting three to four months) he stayed in Mabusa near the Sheshe quarters in the old city of Kano. For more on the life of Zum'atu, see Odom. 9 Copies of hand-written manuscript of Zum'atu's Arabic poems are preserved as NU/Paden 173, and NU/Hunwick 255, NU/Herskovits. All subsequent references to these manuscripts will be abbreviated in the main text as NU/Hunwick or NU/Paden respectively, followed by the appropriate folio (page) number. All the English translations of Zum'atu's Arabic poems are mine.

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from colonialism. He laments that Muslims could not reverse this negative situation because of the overwhelming power of the colonizer. In cAjHb al-Asfr, a poem of 202 lines, Zumcatu prays to Almighty Allah for protection against the negative consequences of colonialism and for deliverance from the overwhelming power of the colonizer. Unlike other Muslims who wrote on colonialism, Zumcatu does not rationalize the participation of Muslim rulers in the colonial administration under the British system of indirect rule (Umar). Instead, he condemns unequivocally Muslims' acquiescence in colonialism. The opening lines of the Dliyya illustrate Zumcatu's eschatological conception of colonialism: 1) I have seen an amazing condition in familiar things, And dangers that will appear in the land, 2) With the things that God had predestined among us; What God had decided for humans shall come to pass. 3) Surely, those are signs of the Mahdi Who will soon appear in our midst. 4) No child obeys parents any longer, Nor do the learned ones speak straight [truth] anymore. 5) In the Land of the Blacks will soon appear Mischievous and stubborn rulers, 6) Quarrelling endlessly On who should rule the land. 7) Then justice will not be done; Nor will a ruler take the lead in jihad; 8) Nor will judges decide cases justly Except a few righteous individuals. These lines proclaim the presence of some key "signs of the hour" by simply enumerating the imminent appearance of the mahdi first but without giving it any special attention over and above the other signs: families are breaking down; the learned are not speaking the truth; rulers are becoming tyrannical, mischievous, and quarrelsome; and only a few Muslim judges are deciding cases justly. All these problems point to the generalized moral failure that, like the appearance of the mahdi, constitutes another "sign of the hour." Zumcatu's enumeration of the imminent appearance of the mahdi along with these other "signs of the hour" supports the contention that mahdist discourses on colonialism are more fully appreciated in the larger framework of Islamic eschatology. This contention reveals that rather than resistance to colonialism a different agenda preoccupies mahdist discourses on colonialism.

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The next ten lines (9-19) stress a generalized moral failure as a veritable indication of the imminent end of the world. Although sermonizing on moral failures was a common theme in Muslim religious poems even in the pre-colonial period (Hiskett 1975; Dangambo 1980), Zumcatu names colonialism as the cause of the moral deterioration he had observed. In line 9 he states that Christiansas he identifies the British colonialistsand their "crooked laws" are prevailing. He also connects colonialism to moral decline by lamenting that rather than staying in their marital homes, Muslim women are frequenting "barracks" for prostitution (NU/Paden 173, f.2). The supposed frailty of female morality is, of course, a familiar theme in male moral discoursesand can perhaps be simply noted for the male chauvinism that it is. However, the seemingly off-hand reference to "barracks" is loaded with negative signification that needs to be highlighted here. In Muslim discourses on colonialism in northern Nigeria "barracks" signify not only the areas inhabited by colonial military formations but also other colonial spaces, including residential quarters, commercial and industrial areas, and political and administrative buildings. More importantly, "barracks" signify the lifestyle of the colonizer in contrast to the lifestyle of Muslims, a distinction meant to highlight the immorality of the colonizer's lifestyle. "Barracks" are those spaces where Islamic norms are flouted at will: alcohol consumption and prostitution are believed to be particularly prevalent and indulged in with impunity. Hence R.C. Abraham's Dictionary of the Hausa Language (1946:83-84) defines barikanci (i.e., Barrackism) as "the undesirable ways of p[ersons] in bariki. . . rest-house, European station, barracks. . . ." Zum'atus mention of barracks in the context of moral decline among Muslims reveals the connection he sees between that moral decline and colonialism: barracks tempt Muslims with their libertine lifestyles, and therefore Muslims should avoid barracks. It also reveals Zumcatu's conception of the otherness of the colonizer, a point discussed more fully later. Zumcatu also links colonialism to moral decline by lamenting that Muslim youth have abandoned studying Islam and have instead taken to alcohol and that "imitating the Christians has become the goal." The poet goes on to list other moral lapses that he sees rampant among all classes of Muslims. He complains that children of the ulama have become like pagans, while the ulama themselves, who ought to know better and preach against such lapses, have become worse: 22) You see the ulamatheir preoccupation is towards womanizing, Covetousness, lying, and mischief; 23) Some of them have abandoned salt Hence, they miss the righteous path.

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24) For by salt major sins are forgiven, And the status of one is enhanced among people. 25) By salt also one attains salvation in the Hereafter, And gains all the pleasures of paradise. (NU/Paden, f.2) These lines disclose the extent of the moral and religious decline that the poet sees among the colonized Muslims. Salt, the obligatory devotional prayer that Muslims should observe five times daily, is the most important Islamic religious practice. Qur'an 4:101-103 commands Muslims to observe thefivedaily salt in all circumstances; even Muslim combatants under enemy fire should observe salt As Zumcatu states in the above lines, steady observance of salt rewards Muslims in both the here and now and in the hereafter. Given the centrality of salt, Zumcatu's assertion that even ulama were no longer observing salt during the colonial period, shows that he thought colonialism had undermined the core of Islamic moral and religious foundations. The poet then links this serious moral and religious failure to other key "signs of the hour": 36) You will see every species in this world Are being scattered like locusts. 37) After this day, the sun will rise In the west: Woe has befallen humans! 38) Gog and Magog will come; They will cause mischief on earth! 39) Rivers will not be enough to quench their thirst, And plants will not grow on the banks of any river! 40) Then the one-eyed Anti-Christ too will come, Amidst anguish and drought in the land. 41 ) Woes upon woes, and more woes Upon the ones who did not follow the path of righteousness! These lines reveal the dreadful events that constitute the eschatological drama. But line 41 is especially significant for its allusion to righteousness as the escape from the anguish of fearful events to unfold. Righteousness leads also to a favorable verdict on judgment day, thereby permitting entry into paradise, a happy epilogue to the eschatological drama. On the other hand, unrighteousness begets an unfavorable verdict and eternal damnation in hell-fire. Thus, the eschatological identification of colonialism yields an imperative for the religious revival and moral regeneration necessary for salvation in the hereafter. This shows the appearance of the mahdi as one act in the eschatological drama. Compared to the paramount importance of the final act on salvation or damnation, the appearance of the mahdi is of minor significance. In other words, the real issue at stake is salvation in the hereafter.

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Yet, mahdist discourses are not entirely oblivious to the earthly problems that colonialism brings about. In particular, the power imbalance that undergirds colonialism is one major theme. Zumcatu characterizes emirs as slaves to the British, who frequently summoned the emirs to Kaduna, the colonial capital of northern Nigeria. He disparages emirs' travels to the new center of power by the simile of an unshepherded herd turning to anyone who beckons (NU/Paden 173, f. 3). The poet also bemoans that: "In this day, people of the truth have been humiliated/and by their humiliation the obdurate had become exalted." Zumcatu does not see a way to change this sad state of affairs because he believes that "no one could overrule what the Christians have decided" (NU/Paden, f. 5). Thus, in addition to characterizing colonialism as a cause of moral and religious decline among Muslims, the poet reveals a realism that indicates his conception of how an imbalance of power undergirds colonialism. Zumcatu portrays the intersection of religion and power under colonialism more clearly in these lines: 79) The insane quarrels with the Christians, For they have gained superiority and control. 80) The Lord has given them favors, And made them better than all of humanity. 81 ) He who denies their power will be hurt, And will pass the night on the floor without sleep. 82) Don't you see that in the towns of every land, They are establishing barracks? 83) They have appointed D[isctrict] 0[fficers] for every land, And Residents to rule over everywhere. 84) They have brought churches to misguide; Their schools are of no use 85) Save [for] old lies and confusion, Monstrosity, cruelty, and apostasy. 86) Their devotion is but whistling, singing, And clapping; it has no guidance. (NU/Paden, f. 6) Zumcatu acknowledges the superior power of the colonizer and avers that it is self-destructive to oppose that power. He sees the power of the Christians (i.e., the British colonialists) in terms of Qur'an 2:47: "O Children of Israel call to mind the special favor which I bestowed upon you, and that I preferred you to all others." Although this verse refers specifically to Children of Israel, Zumcatu is obviously subsuming Christians into that category because the Qur'an often refers to both Jews and Christians as one group, "people of the book." The poet is also expressing the Islamic belief that power belongs to God alone. This belief implies that,

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although the British colonialists have overpowered Muslims, it is still within the power of God to reverse the situation. One can recognize Zumcatu's desire for such a reversal in how he again alludes to the Qur'an (8:35) to characterize negatively Christian modes of worship. While revealing once again the importance of religious concerns in eschatological discourses on colonialism, Zumcatu shows an ambivalence towards the British colonialists conceived as Christians. On the one hand, Zumcatu acknowledges that God has favored the colonialists over all others. He is also fascinated with the "many wonders" of the colonialists, including the ease with which the British conquered Muslim towns and cities and exiled Muslim rulers such as the Sultan of Sokoto and the emirs of Yola and Kano. Yet, on the other hand, he attributes "lies, monstrosity, cruelty, apostasy, etc." to the British. Similar negative characterization of the colonialists is also notable in Zumcatu's second poem on colonialism, the cAjHb al-Asfr, where he once again protests the many moral lapses he sees everywhere in West African Muslim communities under colonialism. In contrast to the Dliyya's fascination with the many wonders of the colonialists, the prayer concluding cAjHb alAsfr is a severe criticism of the colonialists; 192) May the Lord of the Throne protect us from any fitna,10 And from the evil of what is coming to these lands, 193) And from the evil of the Germans, and the trickery of the English, And from the evil of America and the multitude of the Russians, 194) And from the evil of all the types of pagans And from the evil of soldiers, and the carriers of [the colonial] arsenal, 195) And from the evil of all types of Christians, Such as the iniquity of the French, or the dishonesty of the Indians. 196) For they do not uphold trust, Nor do they preserve promise; they are shameless. (NU/Paden, 173:27-28)
10 Literally, fitna means temptation, fascination, trial, and civil strife. The Qur'anic usage of fitna in more than sixty different verses always has negative connotations. Among others, these include: using fitna as an instrument of divine chastisement by putting one through trying difficulties (Qur'an 7:155; 5:41; 51:14; 6:53; 29:3; 38: 24; 44:17); as temptation by Satan to disobey Allah's commandment with the grave consequences that entail (Qur'an 2:102; 7:27; 22:53); and as fanciful desires for worldly material comforts that constrain piety and righteousness (Qur'an 8:28; 20:131; 64:15). Other Qur'anic usage of fitna with strongly negative connotations include the identification of fitna as the antithesis of religion and as civil strife, oppression, and mischief on earth. Fitna in the sense of civil strife seems to be the meaning implied here. For a discussion of the identification of colonialism as fitna, see Umar: 177 ff. For a discussion of the wider historical and political significance of the various meanings o fitna, see Fisher:225-260.

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In praying for the protection of the Almighty against the "the evil of all types of pagans and Christians" Zumcatu displays a highly ideological conception of the religious otherness of all non-Muslims, particularly the colonialists. He makes no distinction between, on the one hand, the British, French, and Germans, the three colonial powers in West Africa, and, on the other hand, Americans and Russians who did not have colonies in the regionexcept, of course, the American settler colony of Liberia. His inclusion of Indians in the negative category of the nonMuslim other is particularly indicative of Zumcatu's inclination to assert unambiguously the primacy of difference between Muslims and nonMuslims. Zumcatu ignores completely the fact that some of the Indians who served under the British colonial administration in northern Nigeria were Muslims. Muslims' view of Christians as implacable foes ideologically informed Zumcatu's association of Christians (i.e., the colonialists) and pagans with nothing but evil and fitna. If this negative attitude is juxtaposed with the earlier noted fascination with many wonders of the colonialists, Zumcatu's ambivalence towards colonialism emerges in bold relief. This ambivalence points to two important issues: power and otherness. As earlier noted, Qur'anic verses on eschatology emphasize that the absolute power of God controls solely and exclusively the entire eschatological drama. Similarly, Zum'atu calls attention to the overwhelming imbalance of power that allows the colonialists to bring about the "amazing condition in familiar things." As the absolute power of God brings the world to an end, so also the overwhelming power of the colonizer terminates the social world of the pre-colonial era. In a sense, the comprehension of colonialism within the framework of Islamic eschatology allegorizes the colonial termination of a social universe. As Rudolf Otto will have us believe, an encounter with the absolute power of God results in both attraction and repulsion. Perhaps Zumcatu's experiences with the overwhelming power of the colonizer account for his ambivalence towards the British colonialists; moreover, that the overwhelming power belongs to a religious other must have added to Zumcatu's ambivalence. A powerless other is usually not a problem. But a more powerful other does present problems; a religious other who is also more powerful is doubly problematic. If one follows Eliade's characterization of the sacred as power and the profane as powerless, then a more powerful religious other represents a reversal of religious conception of the natural order of things, or in the vocabulary of Islamic eschatology, a veritable "sign of the hour." Perhaps it is no exaggeration to say that an imbalance of power is the key towards understanding both the religious and temporal aspects of eschatological discourses on colonialism.

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CONCLUSION The main argument of this article, that mahdism is more a mode of discourse than an ideology of resistance, elucidates how different individuals and groups comprehended colonialism and authorized divergent responses accordingly. This invites a critical re-examination of different mahdist responses to colonialism beginning from the nineteenthcentury (the thirteenth-century in the Islamic calendar), which Schwartz (1987:524) characterizes as "a century of world-wide mahdist movementsnorthern Nigeria (1804), India ( 1810,1828, and 1880), Java (1825), Iran (1844), Algeria (1849,1860, and 1879), Senegal (1858), and the Sudan (1881)."11 Conceptualizing mahdist discourses on colonialism in the broader framework of Islamic eschatology gives primacy to the voice and agency of the colonized; it privileges interpretation over explanation (Idinopulos and Yonan). This approach yields a new understanding of colonialism as a threat to moral stability and spiritual salvation without overlooking the power imbalance that undergirded colonialism. This means that if we think of messianic, eschatological, apocalyptic, and millennial belief systems as modes of discourse, we will see divergent convictions, interests, hopes, and fears being articulated, contested, and defended. This discursive approach seems all the more necessary in the broader contexts of both the universality and diversity of "Millennial Themes in World Religions." Bowie observes that while relative deprivation theories may explain the social conditions for the emergence of some millenarian movements, "millenarianism can also be a tool of the powerful" (13). Seeking an alternative explanation, Bowie invokes theories of ritual structure (the transition from "preliminal" to "liminal" and "postliminal") to show that because of their negative perceptions of the world, millenarian movements abort the ritual process at the liminal stage, partaking of the transcendental divine vitality, rather than "to complete the ritual and reconnect with the here and now" (16-17). Bowie then combines the theories of relative deprivation and ritual structure to conclude that "those who feel that they have a stake in society, or feel able to fulfill their expectations by political and social means, are likely to develop a theology
il It should be noted that in addition to the colonial impact, reformist tendencies and the specific social and historical conditions within Muslim societies contributed to the eighteenth and nineteenthcentury events in the Muslim world. It is also important to note that the jihad movements that swept West Africa during the same period fit into the global pattern of Islamic continuity and change in the modern age that Voll analyzes in three dimensions, namely, "specific local conditions," "basic dynamics of modern world history," and "continuity of the Islamic experience." Voll's approach alerts us to avoid the simplistic assumption that the West African jihad movements were simply the outcome of an "external impact."

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and ritual expressions which reconnect them to here and now, whereas those suffering 'relative deprivation' are susceptible to millenarian beliefs, and are likely to develop rituals which emphasize death and a move to the transcendent, without the final conquest of vitality and return to the everyday world" (18). In other words, both the privileged and the deprived construct eschatological discourses to render opposite positions meaningful and legitimate. It should be easy to recognize the eschatological and apocalyptic themes in the raging debate among the American foreign policy experts about the end of the "Cold War" and the "New World Order" in terms of "The End of History and the Last Man," "The Coming Anarchy," "The Clash of Civilizations," etc. (Rourke; Zakaria). These elite discourses should leave no one in doubt that the deprived (relative or absolute) have no monopoly over eschatological discourses.

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