Stealing the Road: Colonial Rule and the Hajj from Nigeria in the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the attempt of the Nigerian colonial administration to regulate and control the movement of Nigerian Muslim pilgrims during the interwar period of the early twentieth century. The article will seek to show how the efforts of the Nigerian colonial government to control the Hajj in the 1920s and 1930s highlight not only the issue of Islam in Nigeria, but also the interaction among British colonialism, Islam, and the agency of colonial subjects on a broader scale. The article draws heavily upon Nigerian colonial primary sources as well as the broader scholarship on the Hajj in Africa. In so doing, the article highlights the complexity of colonial agendas as well as the success of colonial subjects in asserting their own personal, economic, and spiritual sovereignty in the face of colonialism.