Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation

by Fola Fagbule, Feyi Fawehinmi

Overview

What do you get when dare-devil jihadists, mad English missionaries and proud, stubborn, warring natives meet in a clash?

Nigeria.

Formation: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation tracks the unlikely series of events and characters that turned a collection of disparate nations into a British colony in 1914. But the story of Nigeria's formation begins much earlier, in 1804 when the jihadists launched their attack on countries along the Niger river. What unfolds is a story of conquests and slavery, betrayals and bravery, rivers and riots, victors and vanquished, all of which are central to understanding modern Black struggles.

Formation runs, like the rivers Niger and Benue, through the rise and fall of empires. It explores Dan Fodio's revolutionary jihad and the spread of Islam, the fall of the Oyo Empire, the influence of the returnee freed slaves, the growing infl uence of Christianity, and the palm oil politics in the Niger Delta in the territory that would come to be known as Nigeria. Inextricably linked to this is the story of the ascendency of the British Empire and the Industrial Revolution.

Influential figures of Nigeria's historic past, like the founder of the Sokoto caliphate, Usman Dan Fodio; Yoruba linguist Samuel Ajayi Crowther; powerful slave trader, Madam Tinubu; British colonial administrator, Frederick Lugard; and suffragette and mother to Fela Kuti, Funmilayo Ransom-Kuti are re-examined, moving them from myth to reality. Fagbule and Fawehinmi challenge the orthodox understanding of Nigeria's past as merely a product of colonial interference, revealing an incredibly complicated portrait of a nation with a tangled history and self-determination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913175108
Publisher:	Cassava Republic
Publication date:	11/13/2020
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	18 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Fola Fagbule was born in Lagos, Nigeria. A banker and investment professional for the best part of the last two decades, Fola currently leads the Financial Advisory department of a leading African multilateral bank. He has previously made a living as a writer, working as a securities analyst developing and publishing research on companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Fola has obtained a Master of Business Administration degree from the Lagos Business School, and prior to that a degree in Physics from the University of Lagos.
Feyi Fawehinmi was born in Lagos, Nigeria and grew up living in northern and southern Nigeria. He has spent the last 15 years working in the financial services industry across banking, private equity, asset management and insurance. Feyi has been writing publicly for over a decade on his popular personal blog and in traditional media outlets in Nigeria, Britain and the US. He also wrote a regular column in a Nigerian newspaper for more than two years. He is also a keen photographer and lives with his wife and two boys in Hertfordshire.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

A River Runs Through It 1

Son of the Jurist 13

The Caliphate in Session 38

Sunrise within the Tropics 71

Mad Men and Missionaries 103

Exit the Bible, Enter the Gun 141

The Glorious Incompetents 172

Game of Thrones in the Niger Heartland 200

Frederick Lugard, The King in the North 238

Conquest and Discontent 279

Bibliography 326

Acknowledgments 332

Index 336

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“I read this gripping account of Nigeria’s ‘Formation’ straight through in one day— so powerfully evocative it is as both a work of scholarship and of storytelling. Reading it at one level is quite simply an act of citizenship, a necessity for anyone seeking understanding of this vast, unruly country still in the process of becoming.” – Dele Olojede, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"I often argue that Nigeria’s foundational problem is not corruption or poor leadership, but rather that the country does not have an aligned national narrative, a founding story to build the Imagined Community of Nigerians that all Nigerians can feel part of and be proud of. This is what creates a nation and a national identity. FORMATION is the book that lays the foundation on which that Nigerian Imagined community can be formed."

Dr. Wiebe Boer, CEO, All On and author of A Story of Heroes and Epics: The History of Football in Nigeria.

"In FORMATION: The Making of Nigeria from Jihad to Amalgamation, Fola Fagbule and Feyi Fawehinmi take the readers – in exhilarating jaunts into Nigeria’s pre-colonial and early-colonial pasts – through milestone events leading up to the 1914 Amalgamation and breathing new life into familiar historical circumstances with uncommon perspectives of the indigenous populations. Formation is not only a must-have for all Nigerians but also for everyone with a genuine interest in the West African country."
Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, Columnist and Managing Director of Arise News Channel