Moses E. Ochonu explores a rare system of colonialism in Middle Belt Nigeria, where the British outsourced the business of the empire to Hausa-Fulani subcolonials because they considered the area too uncivilized for Indirect Rule. Ochonu reveals that the outsiders ruled with an iron fist and imagined themselves as bearers of Muslim civilization rather than carriers of the white man's burden. Stressing that this type of Indirect Rule violated its primary rationale, Colonialism by Proxy traces contemporary violent struggles to the legacy of the dynamics of power and the charged atmosphere of religious difference.

Ochonu's well-researched study makes good use of a variety of archival and oral sources. It is concisely written and case studies from across the Middle Belt effectively demonstrate how converging local experiences made for a broader regional consciousness.

Ochonu's work is grounded and searching in its sensitivity to both political power and histories used to support it. His pioneering and invaluable contribution should inspire scholars to no longer ignore non-Muslim Northern Nigerians as political actors.

Colonialism by Proxy represents a well-researched and significant intervention in the political history of Nigeria, and more broadly in analyses of the functioning and legacy of colonial rule in sub-Saharan Africa. By placing Hausa proxies at the center of his analysis and highlighting the inherent volatility and incompleteness of the British colonial project in Nigeria, Ochonu offers an important corrective to analyses that overdetermine the ability of colonial administrators to affect change.

The standard narrative of European colonial governance in Africa posits that indirect rule became the de facto model of colonial administration and that northern Nigeria was the quintessential example of indirect rule in action. Historian Ochonu . . . challenges this truism by examining 'subcolonialism' in the Middle Belt of northern Nigeria. . . . Recommended.

Colonialism by Proxy is a truly impressive volume. Analytically sophisticated in its conceptualization and profound in its engagement of Nigeria's complicated power configurations, Ochonu has written an authoritative book on a subject of great importance in Nigerian history.

Moses E. Ochonu is Associate Professor of African History at Vanderbilt University and author of Colonial Meltdown: Northern Nigeria in the Great Depression.