Nana Asma’u (1793-1864) was a respected Hausa-Fulani Islamic scholar, poetess, an educator of both men and woman during the period of the Sokoto Caliphate, and a devoted Qadiri Sufi. She was the daughter of Usman Dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, and reflects the importance placed on education—whether for men or women—among the Muslim Hausa-Fulani, and which always had a religious underpinning.
Sources
Beverly B. Mack and Jean Boyd, One Woman’s Jihad: Nana Asma’u, Scholar and Scribe (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).