Religion and the Making of Nigeria.

• Author: Mcleod, Nicholas C.
• Position: AFRICA - Book review

Vaughan, Olufemi. Religion and the Making of Nigeria. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016.

Olufemi Vaughans Religion and the Making of Nigeria examines the entangled histories of Islam and Christianity in Nigeria and how these world religions shaped power relations during British colonial rule, decolonization, and the emergence of the postcolonial Nigerian nation-state. Vaughan argues that Islamic and Christian religious structures were integral to the formation of modern Nigeria. To support his claims, Vaughn uses a variety of archival sources, including the writings and speeches of religious scholars and Muslim jurists, the letters of Christian missionaries, mission reports, and newspapers. Religion and the Making of Nigeria demonstrates how the enduring structures of the Sokoto caliphate, indirect rule, and mission Christianity combined to shape the development of ethno-national identities, the formation of political alliances, and governance in postcolonial Nigeria.

Religion and the Making of Nigeria explores the role of religion in Nigeria from the nineteenth-century Sokoto jihad to the emergence of Boko Haram in the twenty-first century. The book breaks down this turbulent period of transitions into two sections. The first analyzes the impact of Islam and Christianity on the three major Nigerian regions (the Hausa-Fulani Muslim North, the traditionally non-Muslim Middle Belt, and the Yoruba Muslim-Christian southwest). The second section reflects structural imbalances along ethno-religious and ethno-regional lines by detailing the recurring contestation between northern Muslims and Christian elites from other regions over the Nigerian Constitution and the expansion of Shari'a law.

The initial chapter offers an examination of the Sokoto jihads in northern Nigeria in the early nineteenth century and the conditions that gave rise to Christian missionaries among the Yoruba in the southwestern region. Chapters 2 and 3 discuss the complex structures and contrasting experiences of indirect rule in the Hausa-Fulani Muslim north and the Christian missionary communities throughout Nigeria. In chapter 4, Vaughan underscores the rise of micronationalism during decolonization, as northern Muslims and united Christian communities endorsed opposing political structures for independence, including customary law versus Shari'a law, a strong federal government versus a loose federation with a weak federal center, and immediate independence versus...