Islam in the Niger Delta 1890-2017: A Synthesis of the Accounts of Indigenes and Migrants (Studies on Modern Orient, 32)

342 Pages·2018·30.741 MB·English

by  Uchendu, Egodi

Egodi Uchendu
Islam in the Niger Delta
1890—2017
Studien zum Modernen Orient
herausgegeben
von Gerd Winkelhane
Studien zum Modernen Orient 32
Egodi Uchendu
Islam in the Niger Delta
1890—2017
A Synthesis of the Accounts
of Indigenes and Migrants
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Title: Lea ers of the Hausa migrant community in Uyo
(© Uchen u, July 2016)
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ......................................................................................9
Preface .....................................................................................................12
Maps of Eastern Nigeria ...........................................................................17
1. Eastern Nigeria: A Panoramic View ...................................................23
2. Introducing Islam in the Niger Delta .................................................56
3. Expanding Migrant Setlements and Incorporation
of Indigenes into Islam ....................................................................101
4. Women Taking Islam .......................................................................153
5. “Relax, Be Calm, Allah is Enough for You”:
More Journeys into Islam ................................................................202
6. The Soil that is Not Good for Islam .................................................245
7. Concluding Remarks .......................................................................299
8. Appendix .........................................................................................305
Glossary ..........................................................................................305
Survey of Literature on Islam in Eastern Nigeria..............................307
List of interviewees ..........................................................................311
Bibliography ....................................................................................315
Documents ......................................................................................327
Selected Hadiths ..............................................................................331
Index ................................................................................................336
Maps, Tables and Illustrations
Map 1: Eastern Nigeria showing the Niger Delta ....................................................17
Map 2: The study area: The Niger Delta ..................................................................18
Map 3: Bayelsa State ...............................................................................................18
Map 4: Rivers State ..................................................................................................19
Map 5: Akwa Ibom State ..........................................................................................20
Map 6: Cross River State ..........................................................................................21
Table 1: Eastern Nigeria: From one region to nine states ........................................22
Map 7: The major ethnic groups of Eastern Nigeria ................................................24
Map 8: The expanded Niger Delta comprising nine states ......................................26
Map 9: Early colonial Niger Delta ............................................................................29
Fig. 1: Calabar River .................................................................................................47
Map 10: Nigeria’s geo-political zones since 1999 .....................................................50
Map 11: Nigerian states by GDP .............................................................................54
Fig. 2: Catle and tsetse-fly zone ..............................................................................57
Map 12: Major towns of the Niger Delta .................................................................61
Fig. 3: Alhaji Halliru Dikko and family ....................................................................67
Table 2: List of Sole Native Authorities ....................................................................74
Fig. 4: Alhaji Ahmed Bassey ...................................................................................107
Fig. 5: FGD participants, Calabar 2016 ..................................................................120
Table 3: Major schools and branches of Islam .......................................................124
Fig. 6: Uyo Central Mosque, Nasarawa, Mbak Itam ..............................................130
Fig. 7: Leaders of Uyo Hausa muslim community .................................................133
Table 4: Distribution of Hausa migrants in Uyo ....................................................137
Fig. 8: Alhaji Isa Livewell Ogbotobo .......................................................................146
Table 5: Order of conversions; Community’s firsts ................................................152
Fig. 9: Sticker on the door ......................................................................................158
Fig. 10: Free Ese Oruru campaign ..........................................................................162
Fig. 11: FGD female participants, Uyo, 2016 ..........................................................171
Fig. 12: Adama Abdurrahman-Essien with her son ................................................182
Fig. 13: Members of Rivers State Islamic Sisters (RSIS) .........................................190
Fig. 14: FGD male participants, Uyo, 2016 .............................................................216
Fig. 15: Bayelsa muslim converts ...........................................................................219
Fig. 16: Women worshippers, Port Harcourt central mosque, May 2009 ...............231
Fig. 17: Boko Haram insurgents .............................................................................237
Fig. 18: A Fulani herdsman .....................................................................................240
Fig. 19: Soliciting Patronage for 2017 Hajj .............................................................252
Fig. 20: Ofice of Rivers State Pilgrims’ Welfare Board ..........................................260
Fig. 21: Social Media criticism of the 2016 Hajj exercise .......................................263
Fig. 22: Ahmadiyya Muslims during a courtesy visit .............................................276
Fig. 23: Qr’anic School (Madrasa) run by FOMWAN ...........................................285
Fig. 24: Muslims paying last respects during a burial procession ..........................290
Fig. 25: Tombia Muslim converts ...........................................................................302
Dedications
This book is dedicated to
Elizabeth A. Isichei and Gloria Chuku
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Acknowledgements
As always a book of this magnitude depends on the cooperation of many
well-wishers and collaborators. I benefied immensely from a variety of
persons and institutions too numerous to mention over the eight-year
period of this project. However, I will frst of all thank the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation (Germany) for the generous grant under the Return
Fellowship Award that sponsored my feldwork in the four states of the
study area in 2009 as well as a methodology workshop at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. Two further visitation grants from the Foundation were
awarded in 2011 and 2015 and were tenable at Zentrum Moderner Orient,
now Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. Both grants facilitated this
study. A 2018 printing allowance from the Foundation paid the printing
costs. Next, I am grateful for the A. G. Leventis Foundation grant obtainable
at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, between September 2013
to March 2014 that made possible visits to the British Archives and use of
the Cambridge University libraries. Te frst phase of the documentation of
the research fndings was undertaken at the Centre of African Studies, Uni-
versity of Cambridge, during my stay there. Furthermore, the vice chancel-
lors of the University of Nigeria, between 2009 and 2017 also deserve my
appreciation for approving the study leaves and leave-of-absence of 2011,
2013-2014 and 2017, all of which were devoted to this study. Tese various
support are all heartily appreciated.
In choosing to become an academic, I was most inspired by two women
who preceded me at the Department of History (now History and Interna-
tional Studies) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN): Professor Eliza-
beth A. Isichei and Professor Gloria Chuku. Te former was a distinguished
hardworking, but only female, academic that made an inerasable mark in
the exclusively male-dominated Department of History at UNN in the dec-
ade afer the Nigerian civil war. From her, I learned how to stand strong in
the face of masculine opposition as also the only female academic for an en-
tire decade (1999–2009) in a department intent on maintaining its all-male
profle. None the least, Professor Isichei also contributed immensely to Ni-
gerian and Igbo historiography during her lengthy academic career in and
outside Nigeria.
On the other hand, Professor Gloria Chuku will twice be my role model.
First, she preceded me as the frst female to obtain a PhD thirty-fve years
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
afer the establishment of the Department of History at UNN. Commencing
my own doctoral programme in 1996, the year afer her graduation, I was
most encouraged that I could achieve the same dream. I eventually became
the second female academic to get a PhD from the department in 2002.
However, this feat was achieved following an intentional delay of three
semesters devoted to frustrating that dream; but with the excuse that my
male counterparts had not yet goien their own PhDs. Tankfully, today,
other women have joined our ranks and were fortunate to have had it a lot
easier than we did. Second, Professor Chuku is the foremost indigenous
scholar of Igbo women’s history. Whereas, her writings have concentrated
on women in Biafra—the Igbo homeland east of the River Niger, mine have
concentrated on women in Anioma—the Igbo territory west of the River
Niger. To this, I added the study of Islam in Eastern Nigeria. I am tremend-
ously grateful to Professors Isichei and Chuku for the positive impacts their
stories and scholarships have impacted on me and other female scholars
who have come across them.
I also recognize my numerous interviewees who contributed the narrat-
ives used in this book. Immense assistance came from many Muslims—indi-
genes and non-indigenes alike. Some took it as a form of da’awah (an op-
portunity to invite me to Islam) to help me succeed with this task, even
when some other adherents thought diferently. I pay particular tribute to
Hajia Khadija Essen and Alhaji Ahmed R. Tamuno Okiri both of whom
passed away in 2011, Alhaji Isa Ogbotobo (d. 2013), Alhaji Jafaru Lawan (d.
2016) and Alhaji Abubakar Dan Asabi (d. 2017). I count myself lucky to have
had series of interviews with all my informants that are reproduced in this
work. Daud Pennuel, Kassim Ekpenyong and Mujahid Nya were particu-
larly very helpful. Tey coordinated my feldwork in Rivers, Cross River and
Akwa Ibom States respectively. Alhaji Nya remained a useful ally through-
out the eight years of this study. Tere was no time I travelled to Akwa
Ibom State or called him via telephone that he was not available to assist
me. Another useful aid was Muhammad Okoofaiye, the imam of Nko mos-
que, Yakurr, Cross River State, who was always close-at-hand to clarify Is-
lamic theological issues to me.
Special mention also goes to my feldwork assistants, all graduate stu-
dents of the University of Nigeria Nsukka—Mr. Obinna Muoh, Mr. Chris-
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