Nana Asma’u

• Religion — Islam • Name — Nana Asmau (Nana Uwar daje) • Born — 1793 • Birthplace — Degel, Sokoto Caliphate • Died — 1864 • Place of death — Sokoto Caliphate • Other Names — Nana Uwar daje Nana Asmau bint Shehu Usman dan Fodiyo • Region — West Africa • Occupation — Islamic scholar, Humanitarian Services, entrepreneur • Denomination — Sunni • Jurisprudence — Maliki • Creed — Ash'ari • Main Interests — Poetry, women's education, social protection, women's rights • Tariqa — Qadiriyyah • Influences — Usman dan Fodio • Influenced — Muhammed Bello

Nana Asmaʾu was born in 1793 in the remote community of Degel. She was named after Asmāʾ bint Abi Bakr, a Companion of Muhammad. During her childhood, she lived through the Fulani War (1804–08), a campaign of jihad which established the powerful Sokoto Caliphate, an Islamic empire. The daughter of the Caliphate's founder Usman dan Fodio (1754–1817) and half-sister of its second Sultan, Muhammed Bello (died 1837), she outlived most of the founding generation of the Caliphate and was an important source of guidance to its later rulers. From 1805, members of the Caliph's family came to great prominence, including the Caliph's female relatives. While Nana Asmaʾu became the most prominent, her sisters Maryam and Fatima, and the Caliph's wives Aisha and Hawwaʾu, played major literary and political roles in the new state. Like her father, Nana Asmaʾu was educated in tafsir (Qur'anic studies), and placed a high value upon universal education. As exemplars of the Qadiriyya Sufis, dan Fodio and his followers stressed the sharing of knowledge, especially that of the sunnah, the example of Muhammad. To learn without teaching, they thought, was sterile and empty. Thus Nana Asmaʾu was devoted, in particular, to the education of women. Like most of the rest of her family, she became a prolific author. Her scholarship extended across law, theology, mysticism, history, and politics, reflecting a comprehensive Islamic intellectual training.

Among her more than 60 surviving works written over 40 years, Nana Asmaʾu left behind a large body of poetry in Arabic, the Fula language, and Hausa, all written in the Arabic script. Many of these are historical narratives, but they also include elegies, laments, and admonitions. Her poetry often analysed social conflicts, religious reforms, and leadership ethics. Her poems of guidance became tools for teaching the founding principles of the Caliphate. Asmaʾu also collaborated closely with Muhammed Bello, the second Caliph. Her works include and expand upon the dan Fodio's strong emphasis on women leaders and women's rights within the community ideals of the Sunnah and Islamic law.

The surviving written works by Asmaʾu are related to Islamic education. For much of her adult life, she was responsible for women's religious education. Starting around 1830, she created a cadre of women teachers called jajiss, who travelled throughout the Caliphate educating women in the students' homes. In turn, each of these jajis used the writings of Nana Asmaʾu and other Sufi scholars, usually through recited mnemonics and poetry, to train crops of learned women called the ƴan-taru, or "those who congregate together, the sisterhood." To each jaji she bestowed a malfa, a hat and traditional ceremonial symbol of office of the Hausa animist priestesses in Gobir, tied with a red turban. The jajis thus became symbols of the new state, the new order, and of Islamic learning even outside women's communities. The network also: • Provided marital guidance • Assisted childbirth • Offered communal counseling This makes it one of the earliest structured female scholarly networks in Africa. In part, this educational project began as a way to integrate newly conquered pagan captives into a Muslim ruling class. It expanded, however, to include the poor and rural, training teachers who travelled across the sprawling Caliphate.