Conversion to Christianity: A Bajju Case Study

Abstract

Within a 55-year period, most Bajju (Kaje) of southern Kaduna State in northern Nigeria converted to Christianity. This research identifies factors that contributed to this widespread adoption of Christianity, including political, religious, sociological, and personal factors. Lack of political representation throughout the British colonial era and the imposition of Native Authority administration formed the context within which conversion occurred. While this structure of the administrative context tended to be oppressive to the non-Muslim ethnic groups, including the Bajju, from a Bajju perspective their widespread conversion to Christianity was a profoundly religious movement.