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.

Offers a radical political interpretation of history that generates fresh insights into the emancipatory potential of ordinary Nigerians and their precolonial cultural institutions

September 11, 2001 is now etched into the collective world consciousness as a water-shed in the modern history of relationship between the world civilizations. These civilizations are essentially rooted in religious faiths that are largely ignorant of each other and consequently mutually hostile. Hopefully, not too late, the world has woken up to this awesome reality. This work started by the author some years ago before September 11, 2001 is appearing at a most auspicious time, when Nigeria indeed, is like the world-stage in microcosm where the contradictions between faith and praxis in the relationship between these world religions are played out. Using Nigeria as a case-study the author painstakingly analyses the commonly shared areas of faith between Islam and the Christian Faith and carefully scrutinizes the background, motives and characteristics of the friction points between the two religions. The result of his research challenges both religions by exposing how much they have in common to co-exist peacefully and assure humanity that peace is inexorably bound up with religion. It also underscores the Catholic Social Teaching with its principles, values and norms for the foundation of a sound social Order and structure of social life. Contents: Background to Christian-Islamic Tension--Islamic Religion and its Socio-economic and Political Aspirations in Nigeria--Christian Incursion in Nigeria: its Social and Political Implications--Christian-Islamic Tension in Nigeria--The Social Teaching of the Church: Areas of Application--Religious Co-existence in a Pluralistic Nigeria.