28 Muslim Resistance to Missionary Penetration of Northern Nigeria
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28 Muslim Resistance to Missionary Penetration of Northern Nigeria, 1857-1960: A Missiological Interpretation EMEFIE IKENGA-METUH The presence and size of Christian communities in Northern Nigeria may have been underestimated, but the numbers and strength of Islam there have not been exagger- ated. The little, but heavily documented book Christianity In Northern Nigeria, by Crampton E.P.T., has convincingly proved that Northern Nigeria is not a monolithic Muslim block as many people in and outside Nigeria erroneously thought (1). The great achievements made by the- missionaries who have been working in Northern Nigeria, since Crowther, later bishop, opened the first Anglican mission station at Igbebe in 1857, have not been generally recognised. The statistic he gives at the end of the book tells the whole story. According to the 1963 census figures, Christians constituted about 9.6 per cent of the entire population of Northern Nigeria, showing an increase of some 8.3 per cent over the 1921 figures. If the same rate of increase is maintained, Christians may now probably number as much as 15 per cent or more (2). However, this is only one side of the story. The increase recorded by Christianity was not made at the expense of Islam. Muslims recorded comparable increases within the same period. According to Trimingham, fifty per cent of the Hausa were 'pagans' at the time British occupied the emirates in 1900, but by 1962, probably eighty per cent were Muslims. Not more than one third of the Nupe were nominal Muslims in 1880, but by 1962, two thirds at least would claim Islam as their religion (3). Even Crampton's census figures show that, in 1963, Islam constituted 71.8 per cent of the population of Northern Nigeria, showing an increase of some 4.7 per cent over the 1921 figures. Crampton summarises the distribution of the gains of both religions as follows: In Kano, Katsina, Niger and Sokoto provinces, and the northern parts of Bornu and Bauchi provinces, there was no increase in the percentage of Christians between 1931 and 1963. There were staggering increases in the percentage of Christians in Benue, Plateau, Zaria and Adamawa pro- vinces, and Igala and Kabba divisions of Kabba province. It would not ap- pear as if many Muslims were converted to Christianity or vice versa. (4) In other words, during the period under review, Islam not only successfully resisted any Christian penetration of its ranks, but also competed with remarkable success . with Christiantiy in the conversion of adherents of Traditional Religion. Several analyses of the missionary penetration of Northern Nigeria have been made (5). In this essay, I would want to focus specifically on factors which contributed to the relatively successful Muslim resistance to Christian penetration of Northern Nigeria, before and during the period of British rule. 29 Different authors have given different explanations of the resistance and phenomenal increase of Islam during the colonial period. The usual explanation given is historico- political - Islam was introduced into Northern Nigeria several centuries before Christianity: The British colonial policy of 'Indirect Rule' recognised the theocratic rule of Muslim chiefs (Emirs), over a large part of Northern Nigeria which included millions of adherents of Traditional Religion, while restricting Christian missionary activities in these areas. This resulted in huge gains for Islam (6). There is no doubt that the British colonial policy in Northern Nigeria favoured the spread of Islam. However, Islam had comparable increases outside Northern Nigeria. In fact, it is among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria that Islam recorded the most spectacular increases. When the first C.M.S. missionary, Hinderer, arrived in Ibadan in 1852, he found no significant Muslim penetration. By 1908, there were said to be in Ibadan three times as many mosques as there were Christian churches. The 1953 . census returns for Ibadan were sixty per cent Muslim; 32 per cent for Christianity, . and 8 per cent for Traditional Religion (7). So that it would appear that undue import- ance have been given to the historico-political factors, sometimes to the neglect of the religious and missiological factors. After all, no matter how much other factors have a what he or does not is a ' may disposed prospective convert, accepts accept par- ticular religion as presented by its propagators. Hence, the problem of the resistance of Islam to Christian penetration of Northern Nigeria will be examined here from the religio-missiological perspective. What qualities of West African Islam made its members resistant to Christian missionary proselytization, and made it attractive to prospective converts? How does one explain the success of its missionary methods? Is missionary Christianity less acceptable to Africans than Islam? If so, is this due to the missionary methods or factors inherent to both religions? . Advent of Islam in Northern Nigeria . Islam came to Northern Nigeria about five or six hundred years before Christianity during which time it not only adapted itself to African life, but worked out viable missionary methods which Christian missionaries could' have done well to study and emulate. Geographically, Northern Nigeria is a vast area covering about 281,782 square miles (8). Under the British, it was the largest of the four federated Regions of Nigeria. It is now split into ten states. About two thirds of the entire population of Nigeria and no less than two hundred of its 25o ethnic groups live in Northern Nigeria. The dominant group, the Hausa/Fulani most of whom are Muslims, were the major agents of the spread of Islam in Nigeria (9). Islam was first introduced into Bornu in Northeastern Nigeria in the eleventh century, and in the Hausa states between the 14th and 15th centuries (10). However, until the Jihad of Uthman Dan Fodio, at the beginning of the 19th century, Islam was mainly the religion of the city dwellers, notably the upper classes. The mass of the people in the rural areas retained their traditional religion (11). The chiefs themselves for the most part were. nominal Muslims. One of the aims of the Jihad was to reform the syn- cretist Islam of the Hausa states of the period (12). The momentum of the movement not only engulfed the whole of the Hausa states, but new emirates (chiefdoms) were . founded in the Nupe, Yoruba, and among some tribal groups to the north and south of the Hausa states. These states, old and new - Kano, Katsina, Zaria; Sokoto, Bida, Yauri, Kotangora, Bauchi, Gwandu, Gombe, Keffi, Lafia, Ilorin, and so forth -, were to . be bases from which Islam spread to non-Muslim areas (12). .