Born Then
1804–1808

Life during the Fulani War and the Sokoto Caliphate

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

Usman dan Fodio led a jihad that overthrew the Hausa kingdoms and founded the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest states in nineteenth-century Africa. Its wars and raids produced many captives, and slave labour on plantations became central to its economy.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from our model, estimated from the sources.

Around the same time