A History of Christianity in the Jos Plateau Area During the Period of British Colonial Rule in Nigeria (1900-1960)
[Thesis]
Abdullahi, Samuel Sani
Erlank, Natasha
University of Johannesburg (South Africa)
2019
280
D.Phil.
University of Johannesburg (South Africa)
2019
In this study of the history of Christianity in the Jos Plateau area, during the period of British rule in Nigeria (1900-1960), I argue that indigenous Christians deployed their Christian identity to negotiate the cultural, social and political aspects of life within the colonial space. The study examines the dynamics that surrounded the introduction of Christian beliefs to indigenous people in the Jos Plateau area and how indigenous people responded to it. The work acknowledges that the major dynamics that shaped the extension of Christian beliefs to the area were hinged on British colonial policies in Northern Nigeria. The main policies were the prohibition of Christian evangelisation in Islamic communities, during the early period of British rule and the appointment of Muslims from the former Emirates of the Sokoto caliphate as subcolonials by British officials in colonial Northern Nigeria. My study examines dynamics that surrounded the Christian encounter in the Jos Plateau area from the perspective of the role of participants in the encounter. This perspective demonstrates the important role played by different categories of participants in the encounter. These participants include European Christian missionaries who introduced the religion to the area, British colonial officials who moderated Christian proselytisation in Northern Nigeria, Emirate and Emirate-like sub-colonials who opposed Christian evangelisation in areas under their jurisdiction and indigenous people who accepted and appropriated the Christian religion for their own purposes. The research also demonstrates how cultural markers that differentiated indigenous Christian converts from adherents of indigenous tradition, in communities of the Jos Plateau and from Muslims in Northern Nigeria, evolved. It also examines how a sense of community developed among Christians in the Jos Plateau area and the entirety of Northern Nigeria. Finally, the study explains not only how indigenous people in the Jos Plateau area increasingly identified with Christianity, but also demonstrates ways and avenues that Christian converts deployed their religious identity to negotiate the colonial space during the period of British rule in Nigeria.