Muslim's intellectual responses to British colonialism in northern Nigeria, 1903-1945

The research problematic of this dissertation is Muslims' everyday life under the non-Islamic political dispensation of British colonialism in Northern Nigeria from the imposition of colonialism in 1903 to the beginning of decolonization circa 1945. The fundamental research question is: what Islamic ideas did Muslims invoke to comprehend and respond to British colonialism?;Confrontation, alliance, avoidance, submission, internalization, rejection, and acquiescence are the responses of various groups of Muslims towards colonialism. These responses emerge from the primary sources for this study: Islamic legal treatises, Hausa poems and songs, and colonial records. The divergent responses are scrutinized by focusing on different groups and particular themes: emirs and responses to the political challenges 'ulama' and the normative and legal challenges; and western educated Muslims and responses to the ideological challenges of colonialism. The common threads in these responses are identified and critically examined.;Through examination of the stratagems in Muslims' legal discourses on colonialism, the thesis sheds new light on the nature of Islamic legal thought, and in particular demonstrates the flexibility of Islamic law. Critical analysis of Hausa poems and songs reveals allegorical discourses on colonialism, thereby contributing to recent scholarship on 'subaltern studies' and how 'natives think' about the colonizer. Constraints on the colonizer's initiative are uncovered by analyzing colonialism in terms of challenges and responses, and through the same dynamic, the agency and voice of the colonized are brought out in bold relief. These conclusions lead to a richer appreciation of the interface between Islam and colonialism, and have important implications for comprehending the colonial encounter globally.;The study argues that Muslims' responses to colonialism are better understood by first examining British colonial policies towards Islam. Rather than the previous conceptions of British colonialism in Northern Nigeria as being supportive or subversive of Islam, British colonial policies towards Islam are analyzed in terms of appropriation, containment and surveillance. The partial changes gradually but firmly introduced by the British are emphasized as the challenges of colonialism relevant to understanding Muslims' responses.