Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies (review)

Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies. By Toyin Falola (Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 1998) 386 pp. $71.00.

This is an important book, examining in depth a neglected dimension of Nigeria's institutional and political existence--religious conflict, played out against a political backdrop--which has become critical with the escalation of interreligious tension, intolerance, and violence since the mid-1980s (previously the violence was intrareligious, principally among Muslims). As Falola makes clear, such feelings, once aroused and increasingly embedded in politics, are far less easily calmed than inflamed; Nigeria, like many other countries these days, will have to deal with them for years to come.

Historians of Africa, both Africans and outsiders, realized years ago (and earlier than many others) that only an interdisciplinary approach could illuminate their subject. To the then-narrow Western historical methodology, they added others from such disciplines as anthropology, linguistics, geology, and geography; doing so became well established in the 1960s. Falola's study continues and expands this tradition. He sets forth his aims concisely in his preface: "to pull together divergent but mutually reinforcing approaches and paradigms drawn from history, sociology, religious studies, political science, literature, and economics, and also to draw on examples not only from modern Nigeria, but also from other times and places" (xvii). He achieves his methodological goals, integrating diverse material obtained through this range of techniques. He also presents the results of his research clearly, with ample documentation, and, admirably, with a minimum of jargon from any discipline.

Falola begins with two chapters of Nigerian context. One deals historically with Islam, Christianity, and relations between the two; the second, with the development of the Nigerian state, from 1860 to 1997. He introduces several themes, among them that in Nigeria, "[r]eligion reinforces ethnicity and shapes identities by creating sturdy group differences" (45); and that, whereas during "most of the twentieth century, many Muslims have accepted the presence of the Christian population and recognized the need to coexist with them," "[t]he post-1975 Islamic tendency toward radicalism and fundamentalism have [sic] been evident among Christians as well, partly because of the Nigerian state's failure to meet the expectations of its citizens, and partly because of the increased challenge posed by Islam" (47). Even if the tensions between the religions did not become widespread until the mid 1980s, the points are vital to understanding the complexities and challenges that Nigeria faces.

Falola then examines in detail these and other issues from several perspectives. In "Religion and the State: A Theocracy in a Muslim World?" he explores "how the [Muslim] desire to shape and define Nigeria as a religious state has created overwhelming pressure and crisis" (69). When, in 1986, Ibrahim Babangida, the military ruler, took Nigeria into full membership in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (oic), tension escalated (223). Nigeria's relationship with the oic had been delicately, and successfully, handled by previous governments; ironically, its membership came about less to fulfill a religious agenda than to gain an advantage in an intricate game of political chess. Falola links it with several other controversies to create "an atmosphere conducive to violence" (102).

A detailed and illuminating discussion follows of the role of religious leaders and the deep ties to politics that the most prominent among them have developed. "The problems of Nigerian politics buttress the cynicism of religious leaders and radicalize their religious practices" (136). Falola presents a detailed, disturbing account of Islamic violence directed against the state, erupting in northern cities from 1980 to 1985, as well as of Muslim-Christian relations in the 1980s, which introduced new violence between them (especially after 1986). Later chapters, "'The Age of Warfare': Violence and Conflicts in the 1990s" and "Islam against Islam" (which, focusing primarily on an earlier period, might better have been placed earlier), show extensive research, often carried out in difficult...