On 12 November 1946, the camera of E. H. Duckworth recorded a significant moment in the history of Yola. The photograph shows the man identified as Yerima, or Yarima, Ahmadu at the beginning of his rule over Adamawa. Preserved in the E. H. Duckworth Photograph Collection at Northwestern University Libraries, it has become an enduring visual record of Yarima Ahmadu’s 1946 coronation and of the Adamawa Emirate during the final decades of British colonial government.
A second photograph taken by Duckworth on the same date depicts Galadima Aminu during the ceremonies connected with Ahmadu’s accession. Together, the images preserve a royal occasion that linked an early nineteenth-century dynasty with the political order of colonial Northern Nigeria.
Ahmadu came to the throne after Muhammadu Mustafa, who had ruled from 1928 to 1946. His own reign lasted until 1953. Although comparatively brief, those seven years placed him at an important point in the history of an institution founded in a very different political age.
The records also preserve two different ways of numbering Ahmadu among the Lamidos of Adamawa. A. H. M. Kirk-Greene’s 1958 history places him as the 10th Lamido, while the modern description associated with the digitised Duckworth photograph calls him the 11th. That difference has become part of the story surrounding one of Adamawa’s most recognisable colonial-era royal images.
Yarima Ahmadu’s 1946 Coronation in Yola
The Duckworth photograph bears the title Lamido Yarima on the Day of His Coronation and is dated 12 November 1946. The word “coronation” therefore remains appropriate when referring to the photograph by its archival title.
The accession traditions of Northern Nigerian emirates, however, developed from local political, dynastic and Islamic institutions rather than from European crown-based monarchy. Words such as installation, accession and investiture can consequently be useful when describing the wider process through which a new ruler assumed office.
The importance of the photograph lies in the moment it captures. Ahmadu was entering an office that had existed for more than a century, but the powers attached to that office had been transformed by colonial conquest.
By 1946, the Lamido remained an influential ruler in Yola and an important figure in administration, religious life and the traditional hierarchy of Adamawa. Yet the emirate was now governed within the structures established by British colonial rule.
Duckworth’s camera therefore recorded a ceremony in which dynastic continuity existed alongside profound political change.
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What Lamido and Yarima Meant
The two words associated with Ahmadu’s identification did not carry the same meaning.
Lamido was the title of the ruler of Adamawa. Kirk-Greene described the term as the Fulani word for “ruler”, and the title had deep roots in the political system established under Modibbo Adama.
Yarima, also written Yerima, belonged to a different aspect of royal life. In Kirk-Greene’s account of nineteenth-century Yola, the Yerima is described as the heir-apparent. It was therefore connected with royal rank and succession rather than functioning as another word for Lamido.
The expression “Lamido Yarima” should consequently not be taken to mean that every ruler of Adamawa held a single combined title by that name.
In Ahmadu’s case, Yarima or Yerima became closely associated with his identification in surviving records. Once he became ruler, however, the office he occupied was that of Lamido of Adamawa.
Modibbo Adama and the Origins of the Adamawa Polity
The dynasty represented in the 1946 photograph had its beginnings in the political and religious upheavals of the early nineteenth century.
Adamawa emerged during the period of the Sokoto jihad. Modibbo Adama received a flag and commission from Usman dan Fodio and became the central figure in the creation of the political system that developed across the region later known as Adamawa.
Martin Zachary Njeuma’s study of Fulani rule in Adamawa traces the growth of Adama’s authority and the gradual establishment of a central administration. Over time, Yola became the leading political centre of the polity.
Kirk-Greene records the title Lamido Fumbina in connection with the authority exercised by Adama. The dynasty descended from him remained at the heart of political life in Yola even as the geographical reach of the emirate changed.
At its height, historical Adamawa stretched across territories that would later be divided by European colonial boundaries. Areas once connected politically with the emirate fell under British and German control and, subsequently, under British and French administration.
The result was a lasting division of the wider historical Adamawa region between what are now Nigeria and Cameroon.
The British Capture of Yola
The nineteenth-century political order did not survive European expansion unchanged.
In 1901, British forces captured Yola after Lamido Zubeiru resisted British authority. Zubeiru left the capital, and the colonial administration reorganised government in the territory.
The Lamido institution itself was not abolished.
Instead, the British incorporated traditional rulership into the administrative system that came to characterise much of Northern Nigeria. Through indirect rule and Native Administration, rulers continued to exercise important local functions, although ultimate political authority rested with the colonial state.
The consequences were substantial. The Lamido remained prominent in Yola, but the political sovereignty associated with the rulers of nineteenth-century Adamawa had been greatly reduced.
When Ahmadu took the throne in 1946, approximately forty-five years had passed since the British occupation of Yola.
His accession therefore belonged to two historical worlds at once. It continued the dynasty founded during the era of Modibbo Adama, while taking place within the framework of colonial Northern Nigeria.
Ahmadu’s Family and Royal Background
Yarima Ahmadu was a member of the ruling family descended from Modibbo Adama.
His father, Muhammadu Bello, was widely known among the Yola Fulani as Maigari. Before becoming Lamido, Bello had served as District Head of Nassarawo. He occupied the Adamawa throne from 1924 until his death in 1928.
Ahmadu did not immediately succeed him.
After Bello’s death, Muhammadu Mustafa became Lamido. Mustafa remained in office from 1928 until 1946, a period of eighteen years. Ahmadu then succeeded him.
The sequence illustrates an important feature of Adamawa royal succession. Occupation of the throne did not follow a simple automatic progression from father to eldest son. Descent from the ruling house mattered, but selection and the political relationships within the dynasty also shaped succession.
Ahmadu’s rise to the throne was therefore part of the continuing Adama dynasty, but it was not a direct father-to-son transfer of power.
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Yarima Ahmadu in the Royal Succession
Kirk-Greene’s Adamawa Past and Present, published in 1958, provides a numbered genealogy of the Lamidos.
According to that sequence, Modibbo Adama was the first Lamido, Muhammadu Lawal the second, Sanda the third, Zubeiru the fourth, Bobo Ahmadu the fifth, Iya the sixth, Abba the seventh, Muhammadu Bello the eighth, Muhammadu Mustafa the ninth, Ahmadu the tenth and Aliyu the eleventh.
Ahmadu’s reign is given as 1946 to 1953.
The sequence continued into the modern period. After Ahmadu’s departure from office, Aliyu Mustafa became Lamido in 1953 and remained on the throne for nearly fifty-seven years.
Following Aliyu’s death in March 2010, his son Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha succeeded him. Contemporary Nigerian reporting at the time described Barkindo as the 12th Lamido of Adamawa.
That description follows the same succession used by Kirk-Greene: Ahmadu as tenth, Aliyu as eleventh and Barkindo as twelfth.
The digitised Duckworth photograph uses a different ordinal for Ahmadu, describing him as the 11th Lamido of Adamawa.
Variations of this kind can arise in royal succession lists when regencies, disputed intervals or other periods of authority are counted differently. The records connected with Ahmadu consequently preserve both numbers.
In Kirk-Greene’s 1958 sequence, and in the numbering that later describes Barkindo as the 12th Lamido, Ahmadu occupies the place of 10th Lamido of Adamawa.
Life and Politics During Ahmadu’s Reign
Ahmadu’s years on the throne coincided with major changes in the wider colonial world.
The Second World War had ended only a year before his accession. Across Africa, political discussion was increasingly turning towards constitutional reform, representation and the future of colonial government.
Adamawa was also drawn into international political developments because part of the historical region had become connected with the former German territory of Cameroon and the subsequent international trusteeship arrangements.
A United Nations Trusteeship Council mission visited Adamawa in 1949. Kirk-Greene describes a carefully organised reception in Yola involving mounted chiefs, ceremonial attendants, music and formal greetings before the Lamido.
The occasion showed the continuing public importance of the office Ahmadu occupied. Traditional authority was being presented through ceremony even as the broader constitutional environment around it was changing.
In 1951, Ahmadu travelled to Europe with the Emir of Gombe. His journey included visits to Oxford, Ascot and Paris.
Yet his reign was not defined only by ceremony and travel.
Political difficulties developed within the administration of the emirate. Kirk-Greene records increasing tension between Ahmadu and members of the Emirate administration. Attempts were made in 1952 to address the situation, but the conflict continued.
In June 1953, events culminated in a demonstration against the Council.
Ahmadu subsequently abdicated, bringing his seven-year reign to an end.
Aliyu Mustafa Begins a New Era
After Ahmadu’s abdication, Aliyu Mustafa succeeded him and was formally recognised as Lamido on 26 July 1953.
The difference in the lengths of their reigns could hardly have been greater.
Ahmadu had occupied the throne for roughly seven years. Aliyu Mustafa remained Lamido for almost fifty-seven.
During that extraordinary period, Nigeria passed through the final years of British colonial government, gained independence in 1960, experienced military governments and successive republics, and eventually returned to civilian rule.
Aliyu Mustafa died in March 2010.
His son, Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha, succeeded him that same month after the traditional selection process. Contemporary accounts described Barkindo as the 12th Lamido of Adamawa.
As of 2026, Barkindo remains Lamido of Adamawa and chairman of the Adamawa State Council of Chiefs and Emirs.
His position provides a remarkable connection between the institution photographed by Duckworth in 1946 and the Adamawa Emirate of the present day.
The Lasting Importance of Duckworth’s Photograph
Written histories tell us when rulers succeeded one another, how long they reigned and how political institutions changed. Photography preserves another dimension of the past.
In Duckworth’s image, royal authority becomes visible through the appearance of the ruler, ceremonial setting, clothing and physical presentation of the occasion.
That gives Yarima Ahmadu’s 1946 coronation a significance extending beyond Ahmadu himself.
The photograph captures a dynasty that had survived the fall of the nineteenth-century political order, the British conquest of Yola and the establishment of colonial administration. It also records a moment only fourteen years before Nigeria became independent in 1960.
Ahmadu stood within a royal tradition created during the era of the Sokoto jihad, but he ruled in a Nigeria moving steadily towards the end of colonial government.
The image therefore brings together several layers of Adamawa history: the legacy of Modibbo Adama, the survival of the Lamido institution, colonial political change and the continuing importance of traditional leadership in Yola.
Conclusion
Yarima Ahmadu’s 1946 coronation marked the beginning of a short but significant chapter in the history of the Adamawa throne.
Photographed by E. H. Duckworth on 12 November 1946, Ahmadu was the son of Muhammadu Bello, known as Maigari, and the successor of Muhammadu Mustafa. He ruled until his abdication in June 1953.
Kirk-Greene’s 1958 genealogy places Ahmadu as the 10th Lamido of Adamawa and Aliyu Mustafa as the 11th. The sequence continues with Muhammadu Barkindo, who was described on his accession in 2010 as the 12th Lamido.
The modern description accompanying the digitised Duckworth photograph uses the number 11 for Ahmadu instead. Both forms therefore remain associated with his place in the succession, although Kirk-Greene’s sequence places him tenth.
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Beyond the question of numbering, the photograph captures a much broader historical transition. Ahmadu belonged to a dynasty whose origins reached back to Modibbo Adama and the early nineteenth century, yet his reign unfolded under British colonial rule.
The throne passed to Aliyu Mustafa in 1953 and eventually to Muhammadu Barkindo in 2010. Nearly eighty years after Duckworth photographed Ahmadu, the Lamido institution remains part of the political, cultural and religious landscape of Adamawa.
Author’s Note
The history surrounding Yarima Ahmadu’s accession offers a vivid example of how Nigerian traditional institutions survived periods of dramatic political transformation. From the rise of Modibbo Adama to the British capture of Yola, from colonial Native Administration to independence and modern Nigeria, the Adamawa throne has repeatedly adapted to new political realities. Ahmadu’s reign was brief compared with that of his successor, Aliyu Mustafa, but the photograph made on 12 November 1946 ensures that his place in that long dynastic story remains visible. It is a portrait not only of one Lamido, but of an institution moving through one of the most important transitions in the history of Northern Nigeria.
References
E. H. Duckworth Photograph Collection, Northwestern University Libraries. Lamido Yarima on the Day of His Coronation, 12 November 1946.
Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. Adamawa Past and Present: An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province. London: International African Institute, Oxford University Press, 1958.
Njeuma, Martin Zachary. The Rise and Fall of Fulani Rule in Adamawa, 1809–1901. PhD thesis, SOAS University of London, 1969.
Abubakar, Abdullahi Tasiu. “Barkindo Turbaned New Lamido of Adamawa.” Daily Trust, 19 March 2010.
Adamawa State Government. “Gov Fintiri Hosts VP Shettima as Tinubu Reaffirms Support for Traditional Institutions,” 24 March 2026.
