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Before the British colonization (1884), there were no inter-religious conflicts, Nigeria in its present borders did not exist as a single nation and the Muslim populations of northern Nigeria lived peacefully in mutual tolerance with the local animist and even Christian minorities.
The history of the territories which since ca. 1900 have been known under the name of Nigeria during the pre-colonial period (16th to 18th centuries) was dominated by several powerful West African kingdoms or empires, such as the Benin Kingdom, Oyo Empire and the Islamic Kanem-Bornu Empire in the northeast.
The pre-colonial era was characterized by a high degree of religious diversity and tolerance among the different ethnic groups. [10] There was no concept of a state religion or a secular state in pre-colonial Nigeria. [3] Religion was mainly a personal matter, and each group had its own religious institutions and authorities. [3]
Native African religions are centered on ancestor worship, the belief in a spirit world, supernatural beings and free will (unlike the later developed concept of faith). Deceased humans (and animals or important objects) still exist in the spirit world and can influence or interact with the physical world.
Nigerian American professor of indigenous African religions at Harvard University, Jacob Olupona summarized the many traditional African religions as complex animistic religious traditions and beliefs of the African people before the Christian and Islamic "colonization" of Africa.
Between 16,000 BP and 12,000 BP, Late Stone Age West Africans began dwelling in the eastern and central forested regions (e.g., Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria; [10] between 18,000 BP and 13,000 BP at Temet West and Asokrochona in the southern region of Ghana, 13,050 ± 230 BP at Bingerville in the southern region of Ivory Coast, 11,200 ± 200 BP ...
The city of Kano, the state’s capital, was a key center of Islamic scholarship and trade long before the establishment of modern Nigeria. The spread of Islam in Kano is closely linked to the Trans-Saharan trade routes and the activities of scholars and traders who brought the religion to the region in the 11th century. By the 14th century ...
Hinduism is a minority faith in Nigeria. Hinduism spread to Nigeria primarily through the arrival of Hindus from India and by way of ISKCON. Sindhis were the first to arrive in Nigeria in the early part of the nineteenth century. [1] [2] Most of the ethnic Nigerian Hindus were converted to Hinduism by the works of ISKCON. [3]