Article Details

This study offers a critical historical, anthropological examination of internal imperialism in preColonial Africa. Scholarship on pre-Colonial imperialism in Africa provides big data on the dynamics of intergroup relations among autochthonous groups and nationalities in the continent. This study focuses on the complex relationship between the Fulani and indigenous peoples of northeast Yoruba land from 1840-1897, characterized by invasion, excessive plundering, and domination. The study aims to examine the impacts of Fulani’s hegemony over northeast Yoruba land. The study of the period can be enriched with political and anthropological discussion. Data indicate Fulani’s incursions into northeastern Yoruba land for sixty(60) years, which was designed as a jihad. The source materials used include ethnography, oratures, and literary sources. Methodologically, the study uses political, anthropological discursive paradigms and field-based examination of the dynamics of the political interplay among the groups involved. It is explanatory and quantitative in presentation. This study reveals the variables of political, cultural, and social engagements, law, order, conflict, and governance between the Fulani and the peoples of the northeast Yoruba land. Research findings reveal that Fulani rule was imperialistic, marked by excessive inhuman and material exploitation, demographic dislocation, and political manipulation. The study concludes that Fulani’s domination has severe political, anthropological, and historical implications, and it establishes that the unity of the oppressed people led to the defeat of the Fulani and their expulsion from Yoruba land. The study reiterates that Fulani’s presence in the traditional communities of Northeast Yoruba land was internal imperialism

Fulani, Internal imperialism, Jihad, Political anthropology,