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Person:
Lord Frederick Lugard.

Soldier ,Colonial Administrator and Governor General of Nigeria Frederick John Dealtry Lugard (1858 - 1945) , Lagos 1914. served as Governor General from 1914-19. Source: getty images

"Feasters for James Nwachi's send-off to the U.S.

He is the first Afikpo to go there to study at Central College, Kansas.

Nnachi Enwo, my field assistant, James Nwachi, Mr. Ita."

September 1959-December 1960

© Dr. Simon Ottenberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA;
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives

Nigerians sharing a joke at an event in London. 1960s

(L-R)Samuel Ademulegun, Jaja Nwachukwu, Olusegun Obasanjo, Emmanuel Udeaja, TOS Benson, unknown, Emeka Ojukwu, Wole Soyinka.

The Ijebu Country

In the interesting journals of the late Dr. Irving we find the following account of his and Mr. Hinderer’s reception at Iperu and Ofin — the latter the town where the native visitor has been placed —

“ Stretching across the end of an avenue was a wall and thatched gate, with neat door, and on either hand a high square tower of defence, similar to the others, and in good repair.

Entering the town by a second gate, we were soon surrounded by a dense crowd of men, women, and children, who greeted us with most hearty salutations, and with every appearance of satisfaction and pleasure — a confused hum of voices, above which rose the shouts and shrill cries of men, women, and children.

We now rested in a large market space, under the spreading branches of a wild fig-tree. We were much pleased with the neatness of the town.

The walls of the houses were high, smooth, and buttressed : there appeared to be, in some cases, regular streets. The general cleanness of the place — but for those unhappy time-dishonoured pigs it would have been much more so — the neat, well-built houses, and dear open spaces, had a very good effect.

It is here where the Egbas come from Abbeokuta to trade. Near where we were seated were upwards of a hundred or more neat, wicker frame-work sheds for those who attended market, like the place of an encampment, which Mr. Hinderer said reminded him much of the ‘ bodes' in a German fair.

After sending our compliments to the Balogun, who, we were told, was at the farm — a not uncommon excuse — we again mounted and proceeded.

The Church Missionary Gleaner

Published 1856

The Okpoto Country

Recently there was a general meeting in the extreme east of Okpoto Country of these tribes; Okpotis, Munchis, Idomas and Ibos.

The question that was discussed was war.

They decided unanimously to wage war against the Whites, or at least send messengers to the Whites inviting them to come and fight.

One chief even sent a cow to Mr Stevens, telling him to eat it in the hope that it might give him the courage to come and fight.

If there is an expedition it will not be a Sunday stroll.

* Idoma figurine circa 1954 © Trustees of the British Museum

Fr. Shanahan's letter to Fr. Lejeune, 12 September 1904

Bishop Joseph Shanahan, CSSp by Seán P. Farragher
Published 2002

(some) Languages of Northern Nigeria

Kanuri (this word is probably a corruption of Kanem-ri) usually called by us Beri-beri (the Hausa word). A race that has originally come from further north; settlements are still to be met with as far as 21° N. Lat.

It is, no doubt, a very mixed race but, to class all the men as useless for soldiers, as is sometimes done, is a mistake. The first encounter which Rabeh had with them ended in his defeat.

A very large number are to be found in the force, especially in the artillery.

Kotoko, a district directly south of Lake Chad

Mandara, east of the Marghis and in German territory; the females of this tribe have a great reputation for beauty in Bornu.

Baghirmi, the kingdom on the right bank of the Shari; a very black race who have a reputation among their neighbours for being very warlike.

Nyilim, a tribe on the Logone from which Rabeh recruited his forces after the conquest of Baghirmi; the language is akin to Kanuri.

Sarra, on the Shari River and neighbours of the Nyilim; they were also drawn on by Rabeh for recruits.

Banda, south of the Nyilim and less civilized; M. Gentil, in his book “ La chute de Rabeh,” says that they were the best recruits that Rabeh got anywhere.

Yoruba inhabit the districts of Ilorin and Lagos; at present they are considered useless as soldiers, though opinions vary as to whether this is not too sweeping a verdict.

It is not at all an uncommon thing for a Yoruba who wants to enlist to call himself by a Hausa name and pass himself off to the recruiting officer as one of that nation.

Journal of the Royal African Society

Published 1905/06

Direct versus Indirect Rule

To take the punishment by mutilation practised amongst the Muhammadan communities.

Talking to the Emir of Bauchi on one occasion in respect to the great prevalence of theft, he said to me, " It is true that the white man is very merciful, and merciful even to thieves, but why is he not equally merciful to people who do not steal ?

Before the white man came we were very unmerciful to thieves, and we cut off their hands, that is true, but I am an old man, and on three occasions only that I can remember has a thief been so punished.

Theft was a thing which we hardly took into account, it never happened in the towns, although sometimes the pagans over whom we had no control attacked the caravans on the roads.

Now you are daily putting people into prison for theft, and yet the honest townspeople cannot go out of their houses or sleep in peace for fear of thieves, so I think that the Muhammadan is the more merciful of the two, for he is merciful to the honest man as well as to the thief."

It was difficult to find any reply on the spur of the moment !

Native races and their rulers; sketches and studies of official life and administrative problems in Nigeria
by Temple, Charles Lindsay,

Published 1918

The story of King Gezo's gift to Queen Victoria

Two years before [1848?], King Gezo’s army had utterly destroyed the town of Okeodan, in the Yoruba country, and carried away twenty thousand captives.

One of these, a little girl of about nine years of age, whose parents had been beheaded, and who had been reserved for sacrifice, was handed by the King to Commander Forbes as a present to the Queen of England.

It is this little girl whose death has lately occurred, and whose portrait accompanies these lines.

By Her Majesty’s command, the child, having been baptized by the name of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, was sent out to Sierra Leone, where she was placed in the C.M.S. Female Institution, then under the care of Miss Sass.

Afterwards she was some time at a good school at Brighton, and ultimately was married there to an African merchant.
...
The lines on Mrs. Davies’s cheeks, so clearly shown in the portrait, are the tribal marks of the Egbado tribe, a branch of the Yoruba nation.

The Church Missionary Gleaner by Church Missionary Society

Published 1880

Kpanaki

The Bishop [Crowther] having expressed a wish to see the king, in order to obtain permission to establish a school and mission at Imaha, was informed that Kpanaki —that was his name— had undertaken the siege of Amara, situated a little higher up the lenuch, and that he had taken with him all the warriors of the tribe.

Kpanaki is son of Ozineku, King of Imaha, in Igbira-Panda.

Unlike the other negro [heathen] tribes who have opposed the Mussulmans, the people of Imaha have entered into alliance with them. They and their king have therefore been spared.

The king, however, is a vassal of the Filanis, to whom he pays tribute, and under the supreme authority of the Sultan of Sokoto.

The Niger and the Benueh; travels in Central Africa
by Burdo, Adolphe; Sturge, George, Mrs.

Published 1880

Northern Nigeria - the salvation of Lancanshire

Everybody knows that a cotton famine in Lancashire is a terrible calamity.

It is caused, not only by a shortage of cotton, but also by cunning — I was almost going to say speculators, I had better say financiers, on the other side of the Atlantic, who have no consideration for Lancashire operatives, but who take every opportunity of making gain for themselves, to the loss of the people of this country.

When I read, therefore, that Mr. Hutton said authoritatively that "the one place which offers the greatest possibilities and facilities for providing
the millions of bales of cotton needed to supplement the American supply is Northern Nigeria," one must be absolutely convinced that in Northern Nigeria alone lies the possible salvation of Lancashire.
...
It was the work of the Royal Niger Company, under the direction of Sir George Goldie, with the able assistance of Captain, now Sir Frederick, Lugard, which has enabled this country to acquire the territory that may be the salvation of Lancashire.

An address delivered at a dinner of the Society held on November 29th, 1907
by the Earl of Onslow, G.C.M.G., President of the Society

Journal of the African Society (1907-08)

Nigerian Slaves await transportation to the Atlantic
(undated).

Source: Dilber

A servant and a horse

Losing all hope of doing better, I resolved to visit Abbeokuta, and there renew my efforts to reach Bohoo.

My preparations for departure were commenced by employing for a servant, a stout awkward Egba youth, who spoke English.

His wages as fixed by himself, were $1.50 per month ; " poor pay, poor preach." Eight men were required to carry my baggage, and my boy Sam soon engaged them at one dollar apiece for the journey.

My next exploit was to purchase a horse from a mulatto school-master, in one of the missions, for $40. His color was bay, his height eleven hands, and his name was Caesar.

The seller recommended him as " a powerful animal," and " a war-horse," which had "been in battle." On the second day of my journey, Caesar fell lame, and Samuel Charles Jones, Esq., drove him behind me to Abbeokuta.

On arriving there, I had the satisfaction to learn, that if the horse was worthless, the price was unusual ; sound ponies of that size being valued at $20.

Poor Caesar lingered a while, and died of the journey.

* photo credit - An African Warrior and his Relatives – Vintage: Photos of West African Villages and its People (1910-1913)

Central Africa : Adventures and missionary labors in several countries in the interior of Africa, from 1849 to 1856
by Bowen, Thomas Jefferson

Published 1857

A short history of Brass and its People

There were many wars in his days. ... The most important occurrence in the reign of King Koko was the Akassa raid in 1895.

The cause was the trade monopoly in the Niger claimed under Royal Charter granted to the National Company in 1886 by the British Government; and as the best part of the trade was done in the Niger, their sphere of action in regard to trade intercourse became much limited in consequence.

Under these circumstances the Chiefs and the people took the law into their own hands and raided Akassa, the then Headquarters of the Royal Niger Company Chartered and Limited, on the morning of the 29th January, 1895; killing several clerks and krooboys and bringing many as captives to Nembe.

It is difficult to estimate the damage done to the Company on this occasion; trade goods, furniture and fittings of all sorts were looted, as also some arms and ammunition ; none of the booty —with the exception of a few dollars and other articles— has as yet been given up.

The loss of human life has been put down as about twenty-four killed at Akassa, whose heads were carried off as trophies to Nembe.

About fifty prisoners were murdered in cold blood at Nembe and reported to have been eaten, while twenty-five were eventually released.

The late Chief Christopher Warri, Chief Nathaniel Yekorogha and other Christian chiefs were those who released their own prisoners willingly.

It may be well here to remark that Chief James Allen Spiff and his townspeople at Gbobokiri took no part in this raid.

* The writer is largely indebted to Chief James A. Spiff, also Messrs. David A. Kemmer and John T. Ockiya, late pupil teacher of the C.M.S. Day School, Nembe, and sincerely thank the above gentlemen for assistance contributed towards the preparation of the work.

Adebiyi Tepowa, District Clerk, Political Department, Southern Nigeria

Journal of the Royal African Society - Vol VII (1907-08)

Ugi ekwo (pit-palm kernels), Mgbom, Afikpo Village

December 1951 - March 1953

© Simon Ottenberg; Smithsonian Institution,
National Museum of African Art, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives

To turn to another point.

It is true that educated natives may be safely entrusted to fill subordinate government posts and even fairly responsible posts. The experiment has been tried, and has, to a certain extent, been successful. But there are, in my opinion, fundamental objections to the adoption of the principle.

In the first place it is quite possible, nay probable, that in the process of education the native will have lost touch with native ideas and native ideals. It may very well happen that he is just as much an alien to the native communities as is the European. In that case the best to be hoped for is that he will do his work not less well than does the European on the average.

Moreover, a very important point, such an educated native could only be employed in the community which bore him. I can just conceive an educated native of Kano being employed as a police officer, or Assistant District Officer in Kano Emirate, but to so employ an educated native of Lagos in Sokoto would be a blunder of inconceivable magnitude.

The number of posts which could be filled by educated natives must always remain few and must be posts which do not carry high responsibility.

I will not strain the reader's capacity by asking him to imagine a native Governor of a Colony or Protectorate, but let him imagine for a moment a proposal to create an educated native of Kano Colonial Secretary of Nigeria !

The proposal does not come within the bounds of practical politics.

* C. L. Temple spent his early career in Brazil before becoming Resident of Northern Nigeria in 1901. He was appointed Chief Secretary of Northern Nigeria in 1910 and Lieutenant-Governor in 1914. He retired in 1917 due to ill-health. He worked in with close collaboration with Frederick Lugard,

Native Races and their Rulers; sketches and studies of official life and administrative problems in Nigeria by Temple, Charles Lindsay

Published 1918

History

The Jekris have very fragmentary notions as to their origin, but all the notions point to a westward or Yoruba origin.

Some say they are descended from the most easterly of the Yoruba Kings' subjects, made up of runaway slaves, law-breakers, etc., inter-married with adjoining tribes; they sometimes say Jekri means a coward, a man who would not fight, and who was therefore expelled from the tribe.

The Yoruba people are, however, mostly horsemen, while the Jekris are a water people who prefer to paddle many miles to walking a few yards.

Another statement is that when the Portuguese came to Benin city, one of the leader's sons, a half-caste, was sent down to Warri, or, as the people themselves name the town, Jekri, and there a house was built for him.

By means of the juju of the King of Benin (which appears to have always overshadowed Warri), he was declared King of that part of the delta; he brought Yoruba wives with him and was the founder of the Jekri nation.

A third statement would seem to be a mixture of the two first, for it says the half-caste found at the delta the Yoruba runaways of whom he constituted himself the chief, and from these Yorubas the Jekris are descended.

As, however, Warri was apparently well established when the Portuguese first visited the country, the story of the half-caste cannot hold good.

At Big Warri, a Jekri will take a stranger "to see what the monks did."

There is nothing to be seen except a large open common covered with English (?)grass.

Notes On The Jekris, Sobos And Ijos of the Warri District Of The Niger Coast Protectorate.
by Reginald K. Granville (Late Deputy Sub-Commissioner At Warri, Now Assistant Resident at Benin); Felix N. Roth (Late District Medical Officer at Warri).
prepared by H. Ling Roth

The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
(1898-1899)

Igbo people at the market, Amaseri Village

December 1951 - March 1953

© Simon Ottenberg; Smithsonian Institution,
National Museum of African Art, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives

Oba Olateru Olagbegi II, the Olowo of Owo in 1959

© Elisofon, Eliot - Smithsonian Institution

Breaking up the Slave Trade

Two or three days after my arrival, Badagry was visited by Consul Beecroft, and several naval officers, who were bound for Lagos with a part of the British squadron " to make a treaty" with Kosokkoh for the abolition of the slave-trade.

Kosokkoh, on his part, advised and assisted by several Brazilian and Portuguese slavers, had prepared the articles of the treaty in the form of two or three dozen heavy cannons, with plenty of powder and ball.

One of the armed steamers and all the gun boats were to sail up the river to Lagos to conduct the negotiation. The ex-King Akitoye was present to sign the ultimatum, and thenceforward to superintend the affairs of Lagos.

There was to be no fighting, however, unless Kosokkoh should fire on the English " visitors " for they alleged that an unprovoked attack on an African King might give umbrage to the French ; but no one of course could censure the consul and officers for defending themselves, if fired on when they approached the town, as they intended to do with a white flag.

Notwithstanding the diplomatic character of this expedition, I felt considerable desire to accompany it, but was prevented from asking permission to go by two considerations.

In the first place, I was fearful that I might come to be recognized on this coast as an amateur ; and then I was still more fearful that Lagos would not prove to be quite so manageable as the officers expected.

They had evidently not reflected that six or eight thousand sturdy natives, backed by a dozen Europeans, and well provided with large and small arms, might happen to defend their houses and wives and children with something like vigor.

After the ships were gone, I remarked to some of the English in Badagry, " Perhaps it will not be so, and I do not affirm that it will, but I should not be surprised if the English get whipped to-morrow."

Of course this suggestion was hooted.

Central Africa : Adventures and missionary labors in several countries in the interior of Africa, from 1849 to 1856
by Bowen, Thomas Jefferson

Published 1857

The New African Bishop

THE Right Rev. James Johnson, whose portrait we give, was born at Aku, in Sierra Leone.

His parents were freed slaves, who had been landed in that colony, after their rescue from the hands of slave-traders. His father belonged to the Akure tribe and his mother was an Ijebu, both of these being tribes of the Yoruba country. As a boy he was educated at the Freetown Grammar School and at the Fourah Bay College.

In 1858 he became a catechist, and two years later was appointed a tutor at the Grammar school. In 1863 he was ordained deacon, and in 1866 priest by the then Bishop of Sierra Leone. From that period he acted as what we should call “curate” at the Pademba Road Church, Freetown, Sierra Leone, until 1873.

In that year he came to England for the first time, his object being, amongst other things, to urge the raising of the standard of the work in Fourah Bay College, which had the result of its being affiliated to Durham University.
...
Although a Yoruban by extraction, he had never set foot on the land to which his parents belonged, and like many people from Sierra Leone he found that the climate affected him adversely. However, he was put in charge of St. Paul’s Church, Breadfruit, one of the leading churches in Lagos, containing from twelve to fifteen hundred people.

After two years work in this capacity, he went into 'the interior as superintendent of the Interior Yoruba Mission. Difficulties arose here on the subject of the slave trade. Naturally it was impossible to tolerate Christians as slave traders or slave holders, and Mr. Johnson had great difficulty in purging the Church of this terrible evil.

He found that even mission agents were involved in it. Mr. Johnson came down to Lagos from Abeokuta to confer with the missionaries at Lagos on the subject of these difficulties, when the roads were closed through tribal wars, and he was unable to return to Ibadan.
...
There are two provinces of the Ijebus— -Ijebu Remo and Ijebu Ode. In the latter of these the C.M.S. began work in the forties, but its work was suspended some twenty years later. Mr. Johnson began to visit this province as early as 1878.

He was naturally interested in the Ijebus, the tribe to which his mother belonged. In 1882 he negotiated with the King of Ijebu Ode and obtained permission to place an agent there. Civil war ensued and he was unable to use the permission until 1888.

From that time to 1893 he superintended the work amongst the Ijebus, but in the latter year war broke out between the tribes and the British.

The result was that the way was opened to a far greater extent than before.

The Church Missionary Gleaner

Published 1900

Idah circa 1914

© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Hausa circa 1940

© Pitt Rivers Museum

A trek through Bornu

The Shehu was in the centre of a long line of horsemen, the prevailing tints of their robes being carmine and white.

Some of the horses were caparisoned with long quilted cloths that reached to the fetlock, and were so thick as to be proof against arrows, while others were further protected by brass or tin nose-pieces.

Three or four hundred horsemen must have taken part in the ceremony, but there were few footmen. Those there were formed a guard to the Shehu, and looked imposing in their uniforms of white and red, though in one case green instead of white trousers peeped below the riga.

The Shehu's little heir, Kiari, looked very dignified, in the middle of a wing of horsemen, with his immediate bodyguard of eight or nine men clad in coats of chain-armour. He was dressed in a yellow robe, and held a small gun in his hand, its stock resting on the broad shovel-shaped stirrup.

Chiefs and cities of Central Africa, across Lake Chad by way of British, French, and German territories
by Macleod, Olive

Published 1912

* Olive MacLeod undertook a journey through Central Africa between August 1910 and May 1911. In 1912 she married C. L. Temple, then High Commissioner Northern Nigeria

Onitsha circa 1914

© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Maguzawa

The Maguzawa are a tribe of Haussawa, descendants of Maguji, one of eleven pagan chiefs who, each at the head of a large clan, were the original stock of Kano.

Maguji is described as the miner and smelter among them, and lived at the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh century.

Between the years 1343-49 A.D., the Maguzawa left the City of Kano and settled in the country at Fongu (i.e., Santolo to Burku) ; but in 1385-90 Bugaya Sarkin Kano ordered them to leave the Rock of Fongu and scatter themselves throughout the country.

In 1653 A.D., Mohamma Kukuna, Sarkin Kano, called the Maguzawa to Kano to salute him.

" They remained twenty-one days, and played a game in which they beat each other's heads with iron The Sarki said, ' Next year come again and let all your men come with their hauyias (=hoes) on their shoulders.

If you do so Zanku (addressing the chief) God willing, no Sarkin Kano will be driven out again.'

*To this day they perform a hoe dance peculiar to their tribe.

They are now dispersed through the provinces of Kano, Sokoto, Zaria, and Bauchi (where they number 6,510) and there are isolated members of the tribe further south.

* photo from Nigeria, its peoples and its problems by Morel, Edmund Dene (1911)

Notes on the tribes, provinces, emirates and states of the northern provinces of Nigeria;
by Temple, O.; Temple, Charles Lindsay

Published 1919

Kudos to YOU for an awesome information of this magnitude

On the Okpoto and Igara Tribes

The original country of the Okpoto tribe was bounded on the North by the Benue, on the West by the Niger, on the East by the Munshi country, and on the South by tribes in S. Nigeria, though there is no doubt that the Ata had influence North of the Benue.

The principal rivers are the Mabolo, Okurra, and Ofu, which join each other in S. Nigeria and flow into the Niger as the Anambara Creek above Onitsha, and the Namoa and Amara which flow into the Benue.
...
The country is said to have been always occupied by the Okpoto tribe except a strip of land by both the Benue and Niger Rivers, which the Basa Komo and Basa Nge (also called Basa Buno and Ibara) tribes succeeded in wresting from the Okpotos.

The tribe for several centuries has been ruled by one King, called the Ata of Idah. He is the selected chief of three families who take it in turn to be King.

The story about this is that a man called Aiyagba, or Ajagba, came from a far country called Apa. He settled in Idah and married an Okpoto woman. He was successful in war, and became chief of the whole tribes and country.

He had three sons, named Akogu, Aku, and Osuri. He had a prime minister called the Ashadu. At his death each of his sons strove to be Ata, and they fought amongst themselves.

At last the Ashadu was able to bring them all together at Idah, and to arrange that they should go and settle down in the interior far from one another, and that each branch of the family should reign in turn.

The eldest son was selected as chief, and Aku, the next, settled with all his relations at Onupu, while the youngest son settled at Alo, near Etobe.

This family is still there.

* Idah, Nigeria, 1 August 1913 © The Trustees of the British Museum

F. F. W. Byng Hall

Journal of the African Society v.7 (1907-08)

Recent Intelligence

“ On the 25th of August [1861] the Aare of Ijaye (Kurunmi) died.

Report states, that as soon as he was dead, one of his principal slaves ran to the Ibadans to inform them of his death. The Ibadans would not believe it, they said they had been so often deceived.

They said they would cut off the slave’s head, for he deserved it; for if Are was not dead, he was deceiving them, and for that he deserved to pay for it with his life ; and if Are was dead, he (the slave) deserved not to live, for he could not be a worthy man who could, after having been a confidential servant of Are’s, run to them—Are’s enemies — as he had done.

“We have heard that when the Ibadans knew of a truth that Are was no more, they made overtures of peace to the Ijayes, and requested that both might join against the Egbas.

This was not agreed to. I state these only as reports : I cannot say what truth there may be in them.”

The Church Missionary Record.

November 1861

Ijebu Women

Women of all nations by Joyce, Thomas Athol ; Thomas, Northcote Whitridge

Published 1908

The amazon warriors of Dahomey kingdom. These amazon warriors were effectively used by king Ghezo to raid and plunder small towns in Yorubaland and some other regions in west Africa.

The use of female warriors came as a result of depletion in able bodied men in Dahomey as a result of Alaafin's demand that an annual tribute of 40 men, among other things, be paid to him by Dahomey.

The British Cotton Growing Association

The Marlborough ginnery at [Moor Plantation] Ibaden, opened last year, is as perfectly equipped as the best American ginneries. Indeed, its gin compress is superior.

The Alfred Jones ginnery, opened this year, is built upon the same lines, but is twice the size of the Marlborough ginnery. The fact that 10,000 bales of cotton were grown last year and that £150,000 was paid to Nigeria for cotton, speaks for itself.

The product in 1905 was 2,760 bales, and in 1906, 5,687 bales. That the efforts made to improve the quality are also turning out successfully is shown by the prices realized.

In 1905 the bulk of West African cotton sold in Liverpool bought on the basis of price as middling American.

In 1907, the larger portion realized from 30 to 300 points on middling American, showing a great improvement in quality in a few short years.

Dry Goods Review

January 1909

Okrika Church circa 1880

© Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford