Variations in the colonial representation of Islam and Muslims in Northern Ghana, Ca. 1900–1930

Abstract

The aim of this article is to investigate British perceptions of Islam and Muslims in the Northern Territories in Ghana up to the early 1930s. Although the study of the relationship between Muslims and the colonial state is rather well established, some aspects have thus far been less focused on by historians. My key objective is to study the various positions towards Muslims taken by the colonial officials in the North and how these perceptions changed during the period of observation. In the Northern Territories, it will be argued that British attitudes shifted from a ‘pro-Muslim’ perspective to an indifferent, if not prerogative one. On the other hand, there existed no clear-cut or systematic British ‘Islamic’ or Muslim policy during most of the colonial period, and such a situation is well reflected in the period under investigation in this essay. British colonial administrators did not take Islam into consideration as an independent category when they formulated their colonial policies in their four West African colonies. They only appropriated Muslim personnel and institutions—if and when they existed and were found suitable for the administration of the colonial dependencies.