Moses E. Ochonu. Colonialism by Proxy

Contrary to the famed British colonial system of indirect rule in which British administrators utilized traditional political authority to rule their local communities in the vast Northern Nigerian protectorate, Colonialism by Proxy: Hausa Imperial Agents and Middle Belt Consciousness in Nigeria contends that British authorities used Hausa-Fulani Muslim rulers to control the non-Muslim peoples of the Middle Belt region of the protectorate. To legitimate this system of colonial rule, Moses E. Ochonu argues that British authorities constructed a political imaginary of precolonial Hausa-Fulani Muslim aristocracy as natural rulers of “backward” autochthonous peoples of the Middle Belt. Although British administrators insisted that this arrangement derived its legitimacy from the indirect rule system, this strategy of “subcolonialism” was structured on a dialogue between British officials and their Hausa-Fulani junior partners, who traced their authority over the non-Muslim “pagans” of the Middle Belt to the Fulani jihad of 1804–1808. Through this process, Hausa-Fulani Muslim rulers gained considerable power over their non-Muslim neighbors under British colonial rule.

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