Introduction: understanding "native alien" subcolonialism and its legacies -- The Hausa-caliphate imaginary and ideological foundations of proxy colonialism -- Zazzau and southern Kaduna in precolonial and colonial times -- Emirate maneuvers and "pagan" resistance in the Plateau-Nasarawa basin -- Hausa colonial agency in the Benue Valley -- Fulani expansion and subcolonial rule in early colonial Adamawa Province -- Non-Muslim revolt against Fulani rule in Adamawa -- Middle Belt self-determination and caliphate political resurgence in the transition to national independence -- Conclusion: subcolonialism, ethnicity, and memory
Summary
Moses E. Ochonu explores a rare system of colonialism in Middle Belt Nigeria, where the British outsourced the business of the empire to Hausa-Fulani subcolonials because they considered the area too uncivilized for Indirect Rule. Ochonu reveals that the outsiders ruled with an iron fist and imagined themselves as bearers of Muslim civilization rather than carriers of the white man's burden. Stressing that this type of Indirect Rule violated its primary rationale, Colonialism by Proxy traces contemporary violent struggles to the legacy of the dynamics of power and the charged atmosphere of religious difference
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-262) and index
