Endorsements

Decolonising the Hajj explores the transformation of the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) from Nigeria over the course of the twentieth century. What for centuries had been a long, perilous overland journey from which many never returned, by the early 1960s, Hajj had become a short, highly regulated airlift to and from Saudi Arabia. This book argues that British colonial efforts to control the pilgrimage were minimalist in nature, largely centred on funnelling pilgrims toward agricultural labour in Sudan and repatriating destitute pilgrims from the Hijaz in ways that generally preserved the traditional overland pilgrimage. More significant transformations occurred in the context of decolonisation, when Nigerian nationalist politicians took over the internal mechanisms of the state at the same time that the European imperial order was unravelling globally. The outcome was a more proactive approach to pilgrimage management that slowly but surely directed the pilgrim traffic away from the overland routes and toward air travel as the most politically, economically, and diplomatically expedient way to conduct the Hajj in a post-colonial world of independent nation-states. In charting this trajectory in the specific context of Nigeria, the book demonstrates the importance of decolonisation as a transformational force in the history of the Hajj while simultaneously situating Hajj as a valuable case study for examining transnational implications of global decolonisation.