National_Security

National Security Colonization of Nigeria The British were not the first to infiltrate Nigeria. They weren’t the second either. First of all, people within Africa have been migrating all over the continent, including Nigeria, way before there was even written record. Also, there has been so much mixing of ethnic groups over the course of time. However, it isn’t all that hard to trace back and find the first evidence of outside infiltration. External penetration of Nigeria started as early as the 9th century AD when Muslim merchants from western Sudan, Maghreb, Tripolitania and Egypt started traveling across the Sahara with camel caravans in search of trade. Over the course of the next six centuries, Islam became accepted widely in the north, especially among the Hausa and Fulani, and not only as a religion. It also imposed a central government, segregated the sexes, influenced language and script, and established a hierarchical class system that was not there beforehand. Islam did not spread south because of the dense tropical forest that divides Nigeria into north and south. This also caused the two regions to “develop” at different rates because while the south was still alien to Europeans, the north was expanding culturally and economically british, because, people, south, north, nigeria, missionaries, , slave, over, even, especially, yoruba, slaves, nigerians, islam, first, european, been, about, west, until, trade, slavery, resistance, portuguese, muslim, middle, merchants, europeans, culture, coast, became, after, african, years