Modibbo al-Hajj Usmanu (1884-1970): The life of a Muslim teacher and judge in Bogo (North Cameroon)

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Title:	Modibbo al-Hajj Usmanu (1884-1970): The life of a Muslim teacher and judge in Bogo (North Cameroon)
Authors:	Adama, Hamadou Amadou, A.M.
Year:	1998
Periodical:	Sudanic Africa
Volume:	9
Pages:	71-89
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Cameroon West Africa
Subjects:	ulema biographies (form) History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft Ethnic and Race Relations Law, Human Rights and Violence
About person:	Modibbo al-.h¯ajj Usmanu (1884-1970)
Abstract:	In 19th-century Western and Central Sudan, in the wake of the Sokoto jihad and the incorporation of new lands, there was a movement of scholars, notably from the west (Sokoto-Masina) to the east (Fombina, the southern region of the Adamawa emirate). These scholars from the west played significant roles in the entrenchment of Islam by acting either as judges, religious leaders or teachers in the various places where they settled. Modibbo al-.h¯ajj Usmanu, who was born in Sokoto in 1884, left for Kano at the age of twenty, and subsequently also studied at Yola and Garwa. He settled in Bogo in the Marwa area of North Cameroon in 1921, where he opened a Koran school. This biography considers his youth, his itinerant life as a student, the nature and contents of his teaching, and his role as a Muslim scholar and as a judge who performed his duties in both colonial and postcolonial settings. App. (manuscripts in the private library of Modibbo al-.h¯ajj Usmanu at Bogo, former students of Modibbo al-.h¯ajj Usmanu), bibliogr., notes, ref.