DOC Creating the Creole Island: Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius by Megan Vaughan in History

Description

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.