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The Adamawa Wars (1899–1907) were initially a series of military expeditions and border conflicts between the German Schutztruppe in Kamerun and the Fulani Sunni Muslim states and tribes that were a part of the Sokoto Caliphate (a Caliphate formed during the Fulani War), particularly the Adamawa Emirate in the northern half of the region. After these territories were annexed major resistance continued for years and several uprisings occurred.
For economic and political reasons, the Germans were determined to expand the colony into Adamawa,"History of Cameroon Since 1800" p.78 so exploration expeditions to survey the region began, with the intention of eventually taking it by force. However, until 1898, the Germans were still primarily focused on the Bafut Wars, attempting to conquer and pacify the chiefdoms of central and northwestern Kamerun, rather than spreading northeast.
Zubairu went to gather support in Sokoto Caliphate and returned with a large force of Fulani cavalry and infantry, and also appealed for support from the Mahdist movement in Adamawa, no longer an enemy to the Emir since the death of Hayutu ibn Said in the 1890s, and who sympathized with the Emir's call for jihad against the German invaders. However, informants told the Germans of Zubairu's plans, despite this the Germans wanted to hold peace talks in Garoua and use Zubairu as a puppet, allowing him to stay in power in return for his help winning over the other sultanates and emirates in Sokoto. Instead the Emir attacked Garoua with a much larger force in November 1901. However Zubairu was defeated and routed, his force suffered some 300 dead. Fleeing toward Maroua, Zubairu tried to raise another force, but Lieutenant Dominik led a small force of Schutztruppe in pursuit. At the decisive Battle another Fulani force of cavalry led by Zubairu and Ahmadu Rufai, supported by Mahdist sympathizers, was again defeated by the Schutztruppe, although Zubairu and Rufai again escaped.
After the Battle at Maroua, Zubairu and many of his supporters fled into the Mandara Mountains deeper into the Sokoto Empire. Hans Dominik had the local Fulani ruler Bakari Yadji executed for assisting Zubairu's escape in this region to Madagali, and his son Hamman was placed as local ruler instead."They Leave Their Jars Behind: The Conversion of Mafa Women to Islam" p. 84 With the military defeat and expulsion of Zubairu as a spiritual and political overlord of the Fulani in Adamawa, the German colonial administration annexed the region from Sokoto, broke the historic ties to the Fulani's center Yola and replaced them with the connection to the seat of the residency Garoua as a new political and economic center.
In April 1902, Sultan Umar of Mandara Kingdom swore allegiance to German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, and by early May 1902, an expedition had reached the southern shores of Lake Chad. Despite being in exile Zubairu sent agents to get revenge on the Germans. In January 1903, one of his agents, Yerima Mustapha, arranged to meet and then assassinated the German resident of Maroua, Graf Fugger, with a poisoned dart, prompting Dominik to engage in a harsh occupation of the city. Zubairu himself was killed later that year by his tribal rivals in British Nigeria. In 1903, Germany and British Empire officially partitioned the region, which was followed by the formal ending of the Sokoto Caliphate. This established complete German control of northern Kamerun up to the shores of Lake Chad in Bornu.
After a pilgrimage to Mecca, Mal Alhadji returned to northern Kamerun and, under the influence of the Mallam (Koranic theologian) Liman Arabu, began preaching the throughout Adamawa. In June he started a Mahdist revolt against German rule near Maroua, claiming he had been appointed to deliver them to the Mahdi out of colonial rule and from the Muslim rulers loyal to the German Empire,"Paideuma Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde" · Volumes 1-40, p.124 (1997). 9789973719591, Fondation Temimi pour la recherche scientifique et l'information. . ISBN 9789973719591 installing himself at Goudoum-Goudoum, gathering forces both from the Fula people and the Baggara Arabs in the far north. Simultaneously, Goni Waday, another Mahdist who recently travelled to Mecca, launched a revolt in Ngaoundéré having gathered support with his passionate sermons calling for a jihad from the Mosques of the city to expel the German Christians and restore the old caliphate.
Mal Alhadji moved north to defeat the Schutztruppe, burning down villages considered complicit with the Europeans along the way. In early July, the Mahdist force attacked the German camp at Malam-Petel (commanded by Capt. Zimmermann), but they were immediately met with gunfire, and after heavy losses had to retreat. Zimmermann's force pursued Alhadji, capturing him at Doumru. The Germans turned Alhadji over to the local ruler of Maroua, Lamido Soudi, and he was publicly beheaded in the Maroua market-place along with several of his accomplices. The Germans killed Mallam Arabu for playing a prominent role in Alhadji's revolt."Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde" · Volumes 1-40, p.125 Meanwhile, the ruler of Ngaoundéré, worried of German retaliation, expelled Waday and his rebels from his domain. Waday and his followers decided tried to head north toward Garoua with the intention of capturing it. Crossing the Benue River to the southeast of Garoua, the Fulani force closed in. The Schutztruppe sent a force under Lt. Nitschmann to Guébaké, where on July 18, 1907, they ambushed the Fulanis marching on Garoua. Waday was raked with machinegun fire and killed, and only the rearmost Mahdists escaped the ambush. By August 1907, the rebels across north Adamawa had been suppressed, ending the uprising. To prevent similar uprisings, the Germans rounded up all of the Fulani leaders who had supported Waday and hanged them in Garoua. Because both Alhadji and Waday had recently returned from the Hajj, restrictions were put in place and pilgrimages to Mecca had to receive prior authorization.
Despite the suppression of the Madhist Uprising, German control of Kamerun would be brought to a decisive end seven years later by the French Troupes coloniales British West African Frontier Force in the Kamerun campaign of World War I.
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