Who Shall Enter Paradise?: Christian Origins in Muslim Northern Nigeria, ca 1890–1975 by Shobana Shankar (review)

Northern Nigeria has been a hotbed of religious tension since the beginning of the nineteenth century. First, it was between Muslims and pagans in what historians commonly describe as the Fulani or Sokoto Jihad in 1804; and later, it was between Muslims and Christians. It is not surprising, therefore, that religious fundamentalism and violent conflicts in Northern Nigeria have attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. Shankar’s book explores the history of Christianity in predominantly Muslim Northern Nigeria from 1890 to 1975. This account portrays the Muslim-Christian struggle for a religious space in a Muslim-dominated society as an intimate relationship. The first set of Christian converts, including freed slaves, refugees, and other minority groups saw religious revivalism as a stimulus for their mobility within the “political, economic, and social transformations occurring after the colonial takeover of the caliphate and the abolition of slavery” (5). Different groups including the elite, common people, Muslims and Christians visibly demonstrated agency in shaping the religious politics of Northern Nigeria. While the freed slaves and war veterans may have joined Christianity out of desperation, Muslim dissenters saw mission stations as sanctuaries. This book argues that Christianity created a new identity and opportunity for the freed slaves and other marginalized groups who were liberated after the British raids. Nonetheless, Christianity faced a very stiff competition and lacked strong followership until Northern Nigeria fully came under British rule. The conquest of the Muslim North created access for missionaries from Europe and North America to penetrate the region with schools, hospitals, and churches.

The introduction of Christianity in Northern Nigeria created new competitive religious politics between the Muslim majority and the Christian minority. Shankar carefully demonstrates the harmonious relationship between Christian and Muslim Northern Nigerians and how Christian evangelism influenced Muslim society beyond religious conversion. Medical evangelism was a vital instrument in evangelical crusades and to an extent, a unifier in social relations. In leprosy treatment centres, for instance, Christians and Muslims freely coexisted without segregation, and Muslims and pagans easily converted to Christianity. With time, medical evangelism became popular among the lower class and the afflicted. Efforts of the Islamic authorities “to police the youth was an effort to police the influence of Christian religious and medical proselytism” (91). Thus, the spread of Christian medical work, schools, and orphanages through foreign missionaries, and the rapid conversion of Northern youths to Christianity created a tension between the missions and the Muslim authorities. At some point, the emirs had to complain that the Sudan Interior Mission was using medicine to “proselytise and convert sick and vulnerable people to Christianity” (90). What I find quite interesting is the role of Ethel Miller, a feminist Christian and religious activist who engaged in anti-Muslim propaganda campaigns in the Muslim North and was firmly protected and accommodated by the Emir of Kano. Miller’s radical feminist propaganda would have been considered offensive and could have attracted reprisals among the present-day Northern Nigerian Muslims, especially after the declaration of sharia.

Colonial rule in Northern Nigeria imposed restrictive policies that inhibited free Christian proselytization in Northern Nigeria. Northern emirs expressed strong apprehensions about the penetration of Christian missionaries in Northern Nigeria, believing it would radicalize their people who were “accustomed to law and to obey orders of their rulers as their fathers and grandfathers before them” (26). This apprehension sometimes led to the victimization of Christians who were considered agents of change. In the face of opposition to Christian proselytism, Northern Christians drew strength from their sense of indigeneity and were never stopped. Shankar, however, blames “the stagnation of the North” and “Nigeria’s failure as a modern nation” on the British restrictive policy and “the Muslim rejection” of Christianity and Western influence (xiv).

Shankar’s book shows that Christian Northern Nigerians successfully established religious authority and authenticity independent of...