Islam and Colonialism: Intellectual Responses of Muslims of Northern Nigeria to British Colonial Rule

This volume analyzes discourses on British colonialism constructed by Muslims of northern Nigeria c. 1903-1945. It departs from the conventional wisdom on British colonial policy of indirect rule and its benign consequences. Conceptualizing colonialism not simply as a unilateral imposition but as a dynamic encounter between colonizer and colonized, the book shifts the focus away from the overwhelming impact of the former and devastating consequences on the later, thereby revealing indeterminate outcomes and unintended consequences of both the actions of the colonizer and the reactions of the colonized. The volume analyzes legal treatises, poems, and novels, connecting authors to their intellectual backgrounds, relations to colonial regime and intended audiences, leading to better understanding of the ideas that informed Muslims’ intellectual and practical responses to colonialism.