This book is about the administration of land, labour and taxation in Kumbotso district of colonial Kano. Previous studies on colonial Kano have tended to lay much emphasis on the relationship between British colonial authorities and the emirate level administrative structures and officials. While there can be no doubt as to the importance of this level of relationship in the wider structure of colonial rule, the reality is that the effectiveness of that rule depended on the capacity of the system to control a society made up of widely dispersed small scale producers. It was in order to achieve this that the British established a system which decentralised important administrative functions to the district and village levels and required the physical re-location of District and Village heads in their respective Districts and Villages. Looking at colonial administration especially at the district level, this study shows that the administration of Land, Labour and Taxation at that level was the critical mechanism through which the goals of colonial administration were achieved in Kano emirate.

African Sacred Spaces: Culture, History, and Change is a collection of carefully and analytically written essays on different aspects of African sacred spaces. The interaction between the past and present points to Africans' continuing recognition of certain natural phenomena and places as sacred. Western influence, the introduction of Christianity and Islam, as well as modernity, have not succeeded in completely obliterating African spirituality and sacred observances, especially as these relate to space in its various iterations. Indeed, Africans, on the continent and in the Diasporas, have responded to the challenges of history, environmentalism, and sustainability with sober and versatile responses in their reverence for sacred space as expressed through a variety of religious, historical, and spiritual practices, as this volume attempts to show.

African Sacred Spaces: Culture, History, and Change is a collection of carefully and analytically written essays on different aspects of African sacred spaces. The interaction between the past and present points to Africans' continuing recognition of certain natural phenomena and places as sacred. Western influence, the introduction of Christianity and Islam, as well as modernity, have not succeeded in completely obliterating African spirituality and sacred observances, especially as these relate to space in its various iterations. Indeed, Africans, on the continent and in the Diasporas, have responded to the challenges of history, environmentalism, and sustainability with sober and versatile responses in their reverence for sacred space as expressed through a variety of religious, historical, and spiritual practices, as this volume attempts to show.