History of Christianity in Borno, Nigeria

Click on the title for this article last revised in 2008 . It is from Anglican authors. I have written to them as follows.

I was interested to read your article on the history of the faith in Borno. However I think you have omitted proper reference to the biggest hindrance to the gospel in Borno, the colonial government. Lugard's indirect rule prohibited missions except to places like Biu which were demed pagan. Missionaries were only allowed to Muslim Borno when the British realised their help was needed with leprosy treatment. No-one else would do it. You rightly say that Biu people hated the British for putting them under the rule of the Muslim slavers they had always resisted. Pax Britanica was a godsend to Islam enabling it to spread peacefully where it had failed by jihad before 1900 and British rule.

It was the Muslim Sarkin Gwoza who invited Chandler to start a hospital in Gwoza after the doctor had treated the chief in Bama. The SUM had to get special permission from the British as the area was at he time deemed unsafe for expatriates due to tribal conflicts among hill pagans.