Writings on space and colonialism in Africa and particularly Nigeria have focused on how colonial administrators attempted to segregate from Africans on health and security grounds and the division of Africans as administrative policy to exploit them (Peil, 1981; Olukoju, 2003;
Fourchard, 2009). As important as these studies are they tend to neglect the fact that space is a material product of the political economy. Henri Lefebvre has argued that ―space is permeated with social relations; it is not only supported by social relations but it is also producing and produced by social relations‖ (Cited in Hayden, 1999:142). Hayden has observed that in a conflict situation the production of space often proceeds at an extremely rapid pace. This is because violent conflicts requires that societies organise themselves for offence or defence. Thus existing territorial constraints may deepen, intensifying residential segregation. To this fact DeLancey (2005) focused on how traditional African social organisation, environmental concerns and the input of Islam played fundamental roles in the spatial organisation of economic, social, and religious spaces in the cities of the Sokoto Caliphate. For him, Islam enhanced the importance of a central religious space and the mosque replaced the palace as the centre of urban space. This however did not usurp the forms of social organisation rather Islam was instrumental in unifying different cultures and lessened the differences in the perception of built spaces. Thus DeLancey (2005) was interested in how religion influenced settlement dynamics in pre-colonial Nigeria. His study however, consigned to insignificance the inter-group relations in such cities. That is, how
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did Islamic adherents interact with Traditional religions adherents? What was the perception of these two religions on built space?
Furthermore, extant studies on space and colonialism in Africa indicate that there is not a single, unified and complete structure but a collection of distinct neighbourhoods separated by class, race, ethnicity and religion. Thus, segregated urban spaces became commonplace in African cities during the colonial era. Existing literature suggest that rural-urban divide grew very early in the colonial era when Europeans sought to control the development of urban space by instituting strict policies of segregation and encouraging the development of separate spheres based on racial stereotypes of traditional and modern (Otiso, 2005; Muranga, 2005; Visser, 2005; Sandwith, 2005). While the Europeans promoted urban spaces as modern constructs, they suggested that Africans belong in the ‗traditional‘. This led to a feeling of alienation for the Africans. Post-colonial Africa however has replaced that European urban stratification with divers categorisation following increasing cultural differences and elite desire to keep perpetual hold to power. In the same manner of ―traditional‖ and ―modern‖ Mahmood Mamdani‘s (2009) book provides an account of Dafur‘s troubled history and place the origins of the present conflict in Sudan in British colonial administrative policies that served to activate and harden ethnic identities and cleavages. He argued that the literature on colonialism often downplayed the role of modern empires in the re-identification of peoples and the exalting of narrower identities as legitimate.
According to him, British colonial governance was about identity formation. Thus, Mamdani claimed that the British Empire took the old Roman strategy of ―divide and rule‖ a step further:
―re-identify and rule‖. The point to underscore is that colonialism categorised Africans and sorted them out; once people are categorised and sorted out it must be done spatially. However, Mamdani (2009) restricted his argument to the categorisation neglecting how such categorisation influenced and affected built space and influenced inter-group relations.
According to Salm and Falola (2005) global influences have long had an effect on the development of African cities. Urban spaces (cities) are home to different people who came to the city at different times and for different reasons. Thus the hybrid nature of the urban environment was determined by immigration, religious factors and continuing conflict between ‗traditional‘
and ‗modern‘ space. Thus existing literature on space and colonialism have also identified African agency on shifting space and transformation of identities. They have shown that identity formation is closely linked to the processes of change in residential space. Jeremy Rich (2005)
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examined the connections that tied Libreville, Gabon, to the Atlantic and imperial worlds and attracted different Africans, Asians and Europeans and particularly Vietnamese who were used for labour by the French during the early colonial era. This helped to shape the physical and social space of Libreville. However, the different groups faced difficulties in adapting to their new environment but were instrumental in determining the spatial development of the city. Rich (2005) drew attention to the need for researchers to be preoccupied with the level of global influences in early colonial era and acknowledge their importance in the economic, social and cultural development of African cities. This call necessitates the urgency in examining global influences in post-colonial Nigeria on settlement dynamics and transformation of identities.
On the other hand, Amutabi (2005) was not limited to interrogating the problematic legacy of colonialism in Kenya, but he also suggested the need to move away from migrationist histories toward an analysis of what happened to immigrant groups once they settled in their new cities.
Amutabi contend that researchers must consider the combination of pre-colonial and colonial legacies and rural-urban migration in relation to the present and the future. His study of Kenya shows that the concerned group (Isiolo) has a long history of contact with global influences. In Amutabi‘s work, Isiolo portrays the importance of the pastoralist economy. It also reveals a colonial legacy of religious conflict between Christians and Muslims and the military importance of northern Kenya in the colonial attempt to control the borders with imperial Ethiopia. Today, Islamic institutions conflict with western ideologies of non-profit aid and development organisation and has led to conflicts relating to construction, food preparation, women‘s roles, spatial organisation and night life. Amutabi‘s study is of great relevance to this study as it draws attention to Christian-Muslim conflict especially in the area of settlement dynamics. Amutabi (2005) however has a limited insight on how conflicts alter human settlements (spatial organisation).
Also important here is Eric Ross‘ (2005) study of Touba, Senegal, which reveals how area‘s urban space is determined by African, Islamic and global religious forces. Ross affirmed that rather than colonial and post-colonial administrations, it is the Islamic brotherhoods that have controlled the planning and development of Touba. The author contended that occasional conflicts between members of different brotherhoods led to divisions of urban social and physical space and, in some cases, entirely new neighbourhoods. It is important to point out that Touba, is not only independent of the control of the national government, the city is also aligned to a larger
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network of Muslim towns throughout Senegal and the international circles. This form of interaction could have grave effects on Senegal‘s national security. Particularly, the question needs to be asked, what is the implication of this kind of neighbourhood for the unity and cohesion of Senegal?
Stephen Legg (2007) examined the residential, policed and infrastructural landscapes of New and Old Delhi under British rule. He drew on the governmentality theories and methodologies presented in Michel Foucault‘s lecture course (Security, Territory, Population). Through this, Legg interrogated deeply the problems of social and racial segregation, the policing of the cities, and biopolitical needs in urban settings. Legg‘s study undertook a critique of colonial governmentality on the basis of lived spaces of everyday life. The strength of his work is its conceptual rigour. He brings a geographer‘s emphasis to the importance of different spatial formations and points to the excessiveness of place that is lacking in the governmentality literature. However, Legg (2007) offers only a restricted insight into how Delhi‘s governmentalities created multiple landscapes and how these landscapes interacted. This is because the author emphasised on the relational character of disciplinary, biopolitical and sovereign power which are different landscapes.
Glasco (2010) examined the spatial, material and cultural dimensions of life in eighteenth-century Mexico City, through programmes that colonial administrators created to renovate and reshape urban environments. The study revealed various points of conflict and discord over how various social groups defined and shared the public spaces in the city, and understood their place in a wider colonial system. Drawing from the archives, the study is empirical and sheds new light on the critical roles that urban planning played in the social and cultural dynamics of the city.
Glasco‘s study is important to this research given the fact that it contested and questioned modern urban milieu where she claimed that the very rich sealed themselves off from the population in their walled residences and carriages while the poor are left vulnerable in slums. Residential spaces therefore serve as forms of security.