Religion and the Making of Nigeria
Olufemi Vaughan
Duke University Press
In Religion and the Making of Nigeria, Olufemi Vaughan examines how Christian, Muslim, and indigenous religious structures have provided the essential social and ideological frameworks for the construction of contemporary Nigeria. Using a wealth of archival sources and extensive Africanist scholarship, Vaughan traces Nigeria’s social, religious, and political history from the early nineteenth century to the present. During the nineteenth century, the historic Sokoto Jihad in today’s northern Nigeria and the Christian missionary movement in what is now southwestern Nigeria provided the frameworks for ethno-religious divisions in colonial society. Following Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960, Christian-Muslim tensions became manifest in regional and religious conflicts over the expansion of sharia, in fierce competition among political elites for state power, and in the rise of Boko Haram. These tensions are not simply conflicts over religious beliefs, ethnicity, and regionalism; they represent structural imbalances founded on the religious divisions forged under colonial rule.

Olufemi Vaughan is Geoffrey Canada Professor of Africana Studies and History at Bowdoin College and the author and editor of many books, including Nigerian Chiefs: Traditional Power in Modern Politics, 1890s-1990s.

Endorsements:

“Olufemi Vaughan cuts through the noise of postcolonial discourses to get to the root of contemporary Nigeria's problems: the colonially aborted Islamic religious march toward domination of Nigeria's middle belt and northern regions. This book stands out among other efforts; it clearly articulates the role of religion in state-making in sub-Saharan Africa—especially in Nigeria. It will be welcomed by historians, religious scholars, sociologists, and literary critics who desire to understand the intersection among the different narratives and visions of colonialists in Nigeria.” — Kelechi Amihe Kalu, author of, Economic Development and Nigerian Foreign Policy

"Religion and the Making of Nigeria is a well-wrought and eloquently crafted analysis of the intriguing linkage between religion and modern state formation in Nigeria. Drawing on archival and contemporary sources, Olufemi Vaughan adroitly situates his material within the vortex of historical and anthropological contention over the religious antecedents of colonial and postcolonial Nigeria. Elegantly written, Religion and the Making of Nigeria is a truly outstanding work of interdisciplinary analysis that is likely to become the standard bearer for scholarship on religion and the evolution of the modern Nigerian state in the foreseeable future." — Ebenezer Obadare, Professor of Sociology, University of Kansas