‘Apartheid’ in British Colonial Nigeria: Dynamics of Recurrent Ethno-religious Conflicts in Nigeria
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Date
2022-09
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Published by the Faculty of Arts, Business and Science University College of the North Manitoba, Canada
Abstract
This paper expounds its thesis, bordering on Nigeria’s balkanisation along regional-cum-ethno-religious divides, using the historical-narrative-cum-analytical approach. Having perceived the sombre religious threat to inter-group relations in northern Nigeria, the British colonialists, beginning with Kano, designated segregated districts: ‘township’ (occupied by the British), Birni (exclusively for Hausa-Fulani Kanawa Muslims) and Tundun-Wada, Gwargwarma and Sabon-Gari (for southern Christian immigrants). The British initiated an ordinance, which birthed the Sabon-Gari settlement system in Northern Nigeria, to prevent contact. This ‘Sabon-Gari’ culture began in Kano in 1911 and gradually filtered throughout Northern Nigeria. Similarly, in southern Nigeria, the Igbo established the ‘Garki’ quarters where the Hausawa were settled. Elsewhere, they were resettled in separate ‘Sabo’ quarters, in tandem with the British ethno-religious segregationist policies analogous to Southern Africa’s apartheid. Health-wisely, certain sanatoria were designated specifically as European or African. This ‘apartheid’ “European Quarters” designation has survived till date as a post-independence legacy, dubbed Government Reservation Areas (GRAs). Conclusively, the divide and rule tactics Britain administered the country with, provoked and strengthened in-group self-consciousness and bonding, and out-group bickering and balkanisation. We recommend, inter alia, a revert of the colonialist divisive ideology, which stirs perpetual division, competition and bigotry between the Muslim-dominated north and Christian-dominant south.
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Keywords
Apartheid, Ethno-religious conflicts, Balkanisation, in-group/out-group consciousness, Nigeria
Citation
Aboyeji, A. J., Adimula, R. A., Aboyeji, O. S. and Ibrahim, B. O. (2022): ‘Apartheid’ in British Colonial Nigeria: Dynamics of Recurrent Ethno-religious Conflicts in Nigeria. The Quint: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly from the North Manitoba, Canada, 14(4) (September); 103-132, Published by the Faculty of Arts, Business and Science University College of the North Manitoba, Canada. Available online at https://ucn.ca/the-quint-2/