The Sultan, the Sardauna and the Sufi: Politics and inter-Tariqa Conflict in Northern Nigeria, 1956-1965

This paper discusses the politics of religious affiliation and inter-tariqa conflict in northern Nigeria from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, in the light of the competing agendas of the Sultan of Sokoto Abubakar III (d. 1988); of the Sardauna and Premier of Northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello (d. 1966); and of the Senegalese Sufi leader Ibrahim Niasse (d. 1975). While the political agendas of the first two had immediate ramifications on the religious sphere, the agenda of religious revival of the third, conversely, also had political undertones. The combined effects of the three, played out in the volatile arena of late colonial and early postcolonial Nigeria, created shifting configurations of religious and political alliances. Studies on the history of religious networks, the paper argues, need to take both religion and politics seriously.