Hamman Yaji
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 |
Muhammad Hamman Yaji (c.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]
Written in Arabic and translated into English by a British colonial official, his diary provides a rare local perspective on early 20th century sub-Saharan daily life under colonial rule.
Contemporary culture
Researchers and locals have noted numerous parallels between the life and actions of Yaji and the former leader of jihadist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, both of whom have acquired “an almost mythical aura in the local imagination.”[5]
Further reading
- 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
- Muḥammad Bello (caliph)
- Akinpelu Obisesan (colonial Nigeria diarist)
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ Beek, Walter E. A. van; Chétima, Melchisedek (2025-08-01), Chauvin, Emmanuel; Langlois, Olivier; Seignobos, Christian; Baroin, Catherine (eds.), "Chapter 1 Is History Repeating Itself? Boko Haram and Hamman Yaji", Conflict and Violence in the Lake Chad Basin: Insecurity in Central Africa, Berghahn Books, pp. 25–45, doi:10.1515/9781836951094-006/html, ISBN 978-1-83695-109-4, retrieved 2025-08-10