Understanding Nigeria

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AFRICA

CONTINENT with regions (North, South, East, West)

1776-1870: Colonized by Europe and US during last phase of colonialism

1807: Britain abolished slave trade

1834: Britain abolished slavery & established “legitimate trade” in cash crops, turning subsistence economies into “mono crop” economies

AFRICA

1884: “Scramble for Africa” at the Berlin Conference on West Africa

1884-1912: 5 EU nations—Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Britain ( + Spain, Belgium) sliced Africa up like a pie

Most African nations fought for and won independence from their colonizers in the mid-1900s

1960: Nigeria became independent from Britain

NIGERIA

Leading up to British Colonialism

1804: Muslim “jihad” led by Usman Dan Fodio

halted in the “middle belt” of Nigeria 

Muslims established emirs (Muslim leaders) and emirates (walled kingdoms)

1870s: Christian missions settled in Southern Nigeria

Portuguese Catholic, British Anglican, US Baptist

Nigeria’s 3 Ethnic Majorities

Northern Nigeria - Dominated by Hausa & Fulani, practiced Islam

Southeastern Nigeria - Dominated by

Yoruba, practiced Christianity

Pre-colonial = centralized “state” societies

Southwestern Nigeria - Dominated by

Igbo, practiced Christianity

Pre-colonial = decentralized “stateless” societies

Nigeria’s Demographics Today: Flash Forward

Population: 141 million (2005 UN estimate)

389 Ethnic groups

Hausa & Fulani: 29%Yoruba: 20%Igbo: 20%Ijaw: 6.5%Kanuri: 4%Ibibio: 3.5%Annang: 2.5%Tiv: 2.5%Efik: 2%

Muslim: 50% (mostly Sunni)Christian: 40%Indigenous: 10%

British Colonialism

Colonialism: Not only system of administration but whole way of living & thinking (Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth; Black Skin, White Masks)

1900: Lord Lugard led successful military campaign establishing “Indirect Rule” in the North

1914: Lugard’s “Amalgamation” of N and S Nigeria into a unified nation-state

“Backwards North” v. “Educated South”

“Faced with the lack of sufficient resources and personnel, governing through ‘native’ institutions was inevitable, consequently, these institutions were modified British ideas of government to suit British purposes. This was the genesis of Indirect Rule” (Said Abubakar).

Indirect Rule: “A type of cheap government which was a façade of old institutions controlled and directed by the British”

3 pillars: Native Courts, Native Administration, Native Treasury, & “rules” (Mamdani 1996:53)

How did colonialism workIn Southeastern Nigeria?

1. WOMEN: British did not consider women important in politics or administration, but Igbo people did! Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta British gender values = women took care of home &

children Igbo women’s organizations: Association of Village

Wives & Women’s Title Societies

2. WARRANT CHIEF SYSTEM: replaced title societies and age grades British appointed arbitrary men to represent villages

and carry out orders of the District Officer (D.O.): young, ambitious, “literate” men

(not traditional leaders)

3. ECONOMY: Subsistence-based to Cash-based Taxation: property taxes, personal income

taxes; fixed, compulsory way of counting people

Women’s objections Already fed and educated the children Controlled domestic sector Counting children threatened their fertility Cash Crops: cocoa, palm produce, kola nuts,

groundnuts, rubber used up land for subsistence crops: cassava,

yams, maize colonies economically dependent on global

economic system (i.e. stock market crash of 1928)

4. LABOR MIGRATION people migrate to urban centers (Lagos,

Ibadan) to earn wages to pay taxes

5. ETHNIC NATIONALISMS: different ethnic groups clustered together in new urban places formed “unions” based on cultural,

historical, political alliances British encouraged separation to suppress

resistance

6. RELIGION & EDUCATION British used mission schools to “educate”

Southern Nigerians: gender values, English language, Christian values, etc.

Organized ResistanceNigerians learned the “master’s tools” so that they could eventually fight the British on their own terms!

Igbo Women's War of 1929 (resistance ex.)

1000’s of Igbo women traveled to Oloko to protest warrant chiefs’ restrictions of women’s roles in government.

Attacked 16 native courts, forced w.c. resign

“Sitting” as protest tactic: sang & danced around w.c. homes & offices & invaded their space until they would listen.

I Saw the Sky Catch Fire by T. Obinkaram Echewa