Between the Gun and the Name: A Necessary Truth About Banditry, Identity, and the Pain of the Hausawa
There is a heavy silence that hangs over the towns and villages of the Northwest and Northcentral Nigeria. It is the silence of a people who are waiting, waiting for the sound of gunshots, waiting for the rustling of cattle in the dark, or waiting for the news of yet another kidnapping. I write this not to fuel a fire, but to state a fact that everyone sees but few dare to articulate plainly.
I believe there are good people amongst the Fulani tribe. I have met them. I have broken bread with them. I have seen their hospitality and their humanity. To label an entire ethnic group as irredeemable is not only false, but it is also the lazy logic of a bigot.
However, we cannot confuse ethnic identity with criminal reality. The evidence is overwhelming: the banditry and kidnapping that have brought the Northwest and Northcentral to their knees are predominantly perpetrated by Fulani herders and their militia offshoots.
This is not “hate speech.” This is situational awareness. From the forests of Zamfara to the highways of Kaduna, the testimonies of survivors, the intelligence reports of security forces, and the patterns of attacks point to a specific demographic wielding the AK-47s .
But here is where the conversation becomes uncomfortable.
The Pain of the “Hausawa”
There is a movement rising among the Hausawa. It is not a movement of hatred, but of survival. For years, the indigenous agrarian communities have been at the mercy of these gunmen. Yet, when they cry out, they are met with a peculiar form of cruelty: name-calling.
In the urban centers, the elite defenders of the status quo tell the beaten and the displaced that they should not “awaken.” They mock them with names like “Habe,” “Maguzawa,” “Kafirai,” “Arna,” “Jahilai,” and “Bayi” .
Let us dissect this. These are not mere words; they are weapons of historical subjugation.
The “Habe” and “Maguzawa”:
These terms are used to paint the indigenous Hausa as “pagans” or “slaves,” stripping them of their history as the original custodians of the land before the arrival of certain groups.
The “Kafirai” and “Arna”:
By labeling non-compliant victims as infidels, the violence is given a religious veneer, justifying the silence of the faithful.
To tell a child whose father has been shot, whose mother has been taken, and whose farm has been burned that he is a “Kafiri” for defending his home is the height of tyranny. You cannot tell a beaten child that they should not cry out their pain. You cannot tell a displaced farmer that he should not advocate for his own survival.
The “Hausawa movement” is not born of tribal superiority; it is born of the existential threat of bandits with guns and, more treacherously, their defenders in the Urban areas who gaslight the victims while the victims bleed.
A Rejection of Historical Justifications
This brings me to the ideological root of this problem. I have said it before, and I will say it again: I do not believe in the Jihad carried out by Usmanu Danfodiyo.
Let history be clear. While some scholars argue that the 1804 Sokoto Jihad was a religious reformation meant to correct syncretic practices, the reality on the ground for the common man was a brutal conquest . It was a campaign that used religion as a vehicle to massacre innocent aborigines and subjugate the Hausa states.
I do not believe in any person, whether in 1804 or 2026 or any other time in history, who uses religion to justify the shedding of innocent blood to satiate “religious gods.” The legacy of that Jihad created a social structure where one group was designated as the “ruling class” and the other as the “subject class” (the Habe). We are seeing the violent echoes of that structure today.
The bandits are not fighting a holy war; they are armed with modern rifles, but they are riding on the historical horse of impunity.
My Candid Observation
If we are to solve this crisis, we must stop lying to ourselves.
- Yes, there are good Fulani. In fact, some of them are also victims of these bandits, as the criminals rustle their cattle and force them off grazing routes.
- Yes, the bandits are predominantly Fulani. PeacePro and other bodies have noted that the insurgency has evolved into an ethnic militia structure, and pretending otherwise only emboldens the killers .
- Yes, the Hausa have a right to self-defense. To deny a people the right to advocate against being labeled “Maguzawa” while their daughters are taken is not “peacebuilding”; it is complicity.
The solution is not ethnic cleansing. It is justice. It is the disarmament of the bandits, regardless of their tribe. And it is the dismantling of the ideological frameworks that allow urban elites to dismiss the cries of rural “Habe” as the complaints of infidels.
The child in Katsina or Sokoto does not care about the historical revisionism of the Jihad. He cares about seeing the sunrise without hearing gunfire. And if the world will not protect him, do not be surprised when he picks up a stick, shakes off the slur of “Kafiri,” and fights back.
History does not turn on the axis of political correctness. It turns on the axis of truth. And the truth is bloody, complicated, and urgent.
Shalom!
~ by Hakim Adam
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