Adamawa

Adamawa is a region of West Africa, on the Benue river, named after Modibbo Adama, the Fulani leader who began a jihad there in 1809. It is now mostly in north-east Nigeria, with parts in Cameroon.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed C. E. J. Whiting, uses the name in two senses: for the area conquered by the Fulani jihad and their sphere of influence, from Marua to beyond Ngaundere and from Rei Buba to west of Yola, and for the Yola province of northern Nigeria, which was known until 1927 as Yola Province. The Benue is the main river, the Mandara mountains lie north of it, and a massif over 5,000 feet lies south of it. The region is agricultural and pastoral, with no large towns. Its population in 1931 was 1,024,755, of whom 674,516 were recorded as Muslim, 348,791 as animist and 1,425 as Protestant. ¹

Usman dan Fodio's jihad around 1804 drew in Modibbo Adama, who had studied in Bornu. In 1806 Usman gave him a flag and sent him home to start a jihad, and in 1809 he began it from Gurin. He moved his capital to Ribadu in 1838, to Joboliwo in 1839, and finally founded Yola in 1841, where he died in 1848. The Fulani conquests were often raids, and the administration was feudal, with lesser chiefs owing tribute to the lamido, but the fiefs tended to become independent. Religion is mainly Islamic among the Fulani, with many animist tribes and Christian missions. Dr Barth was the first recorded European explorer in 1851. The British occupied Yola in September 1901, and the Germans took Garua in March 1902; the boundary was fixed in April 1903. ²