Religion and the Making of Nigeria by Olufemi Vaughan (review)

Tensions between faiths have shaped world history in many ways. Olufemi Vaughan has written an outstanding installment in that broad story by examining its expressions in Nigeria. In his book, Vaughan discusses the confluence of Christianity, Islam, traditional African religion, colonialism, ethnicity, the secular state, and colonial and Islamic law from 1804 to the present. Although his task was daunting, Vaughan succeeded in most respects. He argues that British colonial impact on Nigeria's religious character and state formation, combined with the two-century relationship between Christianity and Islam, influenced the formation of modern Nigeria. Religion and the Making of Nigeria is divided into two sections: how colonialism, Islam and Christianity have affected the development of Nigeria's three major regions and the modern state; and how sharia (Islamic law) has influenced contemporary Nigeria.

Chapter one examines the nature and convergence of the Sokoto Caliphate in the north and Christianity in the southwest. While Vaughan discusses the early Muslim leadership of the Sokoto Caliphate, he waits until chapter nine to mention Nana Asma'u, the influential Sufi and daughter of founder Shehu Usman dan Fodiyo who creatively converted women from Bori to Sunni Islam. This is not surprising since the major source for Nana Asma'u is not in the bibliography (Beverly Mack and Jean Boyd, One Woman's Jihad, Nana Asma'u, Scholar and Scribe, 2000), and Asma'u's name has different spellings in Vaughan's text and index. While this is more quibble than substance, given the omission does not seriously undermine his argument, more treatment of women in Islam and Christianity should appear earlier and more substantively in the book. The Yoruba experience with mission Christianity makes up the balance of this chapter.

Chapter two analyzes the impact of British rule in both Muslim and Christian Nigeria while emphasizing the evolving relationship between colonial and Muslim leaders. The British preferred to rule indirectly through Indigenous rulers in Nigeria. Thus, the Christian British often favoured Islamic leadership in northern Nigeria at the expense of Christian missionaries where the religions converged. Vaughan also discusses the difficulties of bringing consistency in indirect rule to Fulani and Hausa societies whose institutions and Indigenous applications of Islam could be quite different. Such complexities eventually led to the regionalization of state power.

Vaughan examines Christianity in Nigeria in chapter three. From the non-Muslim north to the convergence of both in the Middle Belt Region to the concentration of Christianity in the Yoruba south, he discusses the impact Christianity had on the creation of Nigeria. He also explains how some ethnic groups used Christianity as a political device to oppose Hausa-Fulani hegemony in the North.

Chapter four considers decolonization in Nigeria. Vaughan examines the unification policies colonial authorities and Nigerians implemented to shape three distinct regions populated with more than 250 ethnic groups. Eastern and Western regional Christian leaders sought a strong central government to balance the power of the North's larger population. In contrast, the Muslims in the North worked to cede as little control as possible to the federal government.

Chapters five and six discuss the relationship between religion and the new state of Nigeria. The Nigerian civil war against Biafra, contested authority of regions, increased religious violence, and the execution of the Ogoni human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, are components of the book's analysis of the relationship between Christianity and Islam and the emergence of modern Nigeria. Vaughan argues that Pentecostalism's rise during the 1980s was a response to crises of the Nigerian state, and he points out the fascinating irony that Nigerian evangelists are now traveling to the West to promote Christianity—reverse missions.

Chapters seven, eight, and nine focus on the relationship between sharia, the Northern Region, and the federation of Nigeria. Vaughan presents several arguments made by supporters and critics of sharia in the context of the Constitution. The author concentrates on support for the implementation of sharia in the Northern...