This chapter explores the religious influences on Nigeria, the spread and development of these religions, and their incorporation or imposition in various precolonial and colonial institutions. The topics explored throughout the chapter will lay the foundation for modern-day Nigeria’s religious make-up and sectarian conflict. There are two primary phenomena detailed in the chapter. The first is the efforts of colonial forces to implement a system of indirect rule, an essential component of which was the incorporation of pre-existing religious institutions into the colonial fold. The second was the desire of colonial and missionary forces to spread Christianity and Western culture to the various peoples of Nigeria. Both processes would promote Islam and Christianity at the expense of African traditional religions. However, Indigenous practices would vigorously resist, often infusing their beliefs into colonial institutions and various sects of Christianity.

“Ethnicity and Political Identities” investigates the overlapping connection and interference of ethnicity with political ideologies. In many political environments, kinship bonds are often wielded as tools of sociopolitical negotiation alongside ties anchored on spatial or non-physical notions of boundary and permissibility. The logic behind this kind of transference, carrying features of ethnic grouping from the cultural front to the political, is built on the notion that the characteristics of an ethnic unit should be used to define a political unit, its permissions, and the reach of its ideology. In Africa, Nigeria especially, the political structure is undergirded by ideas of sociocultural units. Ethnicity is founded on shared ideologies, defined binding ties, modes of rationality, systems of communication, and performative procedures. Shared ancestry, ideology, defined systems of executing tasks, and even language are some of the transferred features. These features define ethnic groups and political groups in varying degrees. In a country like Nigeria, the political parties that first sprang up in the wake of increased nationalism were ethnically oriented. However, an understanding of ethnic influences in relation to political identity requires an intersectional approach, which leads to a vibrant and dynamic political reality.