Personality Profile:Flora Shaw, Lady Lugard (the woman that coined the name Nigeria)

Flora Louise Shaw, DBE (born 19 December 1852 – 25 January 1929) was a British journalist and writer. She is credited with having coined the name "Nigeria"...


Shaw was close to the three men who most epitomised empire in Africa: Cecil Rhodes, George Goldie and Frederick Lugard.

She married, on 10 June 1902, the colonial administrator, Sir Frederick Lugard, who in 1928 was created Baron Lugard. She accompanied him when he served as Governor of Hong Kong (1907–1912) and Governor-General of Nigeria (1914–1919). They had no children.

In 1905 Shaw wrote what remains the definitive history of Western Sudan and the modern settlement of Northern Nigeria, A Tropical Dependency: An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Soudan, With an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria (London: Nisbet, 1905).

While they lived in Hong Kong she helped her husband to establish the University of Hong Kong. During the First World War, she was prominent in the founding of the War Refugees Committee, which dealt with the problem of the Belgian refugees, and founded the Lady Lugard Hospitality Committee. In the 1918 New Year Honours, she was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
She died of pneumonia on 25 January 1929, aged 76, in Surrey.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Shaw,_Lady_Lugard

I remember when I was asking her out back then..




Great memories tho.!

This is the woman who named you 'Nigerians' after a common River!

Tufiakwa! If I ever answer to this colonial name! Im a Biafran!

See how she b like cartoon.
Akwuna oku.

See how she b like cartoon.
Akwuna oku.

grayht:
I remember when I was asking her out back then..




Great memories tho.!

Yea i just time travel to confirm that, she actually slapped you.

kingzizzy:
This woman who named you 'Nigerians' after a common River!

Tufiakwa! if I ever anwer to this colonial name! Im a Biafran!

pity

In that article published on 8 January 1897, Shaw wrote:

“In the first place, as the title “Royal Niger Company’s Territories” is not only inconvenient to use but to some extent is also misleading, it may be permissible to coin a shorter title for the agglomeration of pagan and Mohammedan states which have been brought, by the exertions of the Royal Niger Company, within the confines of the British Protectorates, and thus need for the first time in their history to be described as an entity by some general name….The name “Nigeria”, applying to no other portion of Africa, may, without offence to any neighbours, be accepted as coextensive with the territories over which the Royal Niger Company has extended British influence….”

Naming Nigeria - Flora Shaw and Sexism

It is an unfortunate consequence of our innate sexism as a people that when we hear the name Flora Shaw as the lady who named Nigeria, we see not a person - with a life, with achievements and with faults - rather we see the mistress/ wife to be of Lord Frederick Lugard. Ask any Nigerian and this is probably the only fact they know about Miss Shaw.

Our culture is one where a woman’s legacy is not a factor of her character or her achievements but simply by who her husband is. So when we think of the woman who named our country we cannot think beyond an ordinary mistress whispering ideas to her man in bed because that is her domain of control and of course it the man who carries out the act of the naming because only men can do important things. This could not be further from the truth.

Nigeria was named by Flora Shaw but not as a consequence her relationship with Lord Lugard as most people believe. She wrote an article in the London Times of January 8, 1897 suggesting that the territory around the Niger, which was then controlled by the Royal Niger Company, should be called Nigeria.

At the time she was the colonial editor of the London times in the 1890s. She had a column titled the colony, it appeared weekly. She wrote many articles about the acquisition of territories in Africa in the 1900’s and was considered as an expert on the issue. Her achievement in becoming the colonial editor of the London times was quite extraordinary. The paper was the leading voice at the time and widely regarded as one of the best.


Flora Shaw was unique in the way she wrote particularly about economic matters affecting the African Colonies. To be a serious female journalist in those times in a field dominated by male journalists meant she had to be really good at what she did. It was for these reasons that when proposed the name Nigeria people considered it seriously.

The Royal Niger Company was instrumental in bringing the British Protectorate to the area we now know as Nigeria. Flora by virtue of her job knew on a personal basis all the major players involved in the extending of the British Empire to this region and she came to think of herself as a critical player. Her credibility as writer and economic/political commentator was without question. There have been some suggestions that by virtue of her feminine charms she was able to develop relationships with empire builders like Lord Lugard and Dr Joseph Chamberlain that afforded her in-depth knowledge which she used to write her articles. Her letters would suggest that she was no leech though as she also advised them on a range of issues given her knowledge of the area.

Now this is not to say that Miss Shaw was perfect. Many of her ideologies as represented in her articles were imperialist, she was a firm crusader for the British Empire. She saw Africans as inferior, uncivilised beings compared to the British. She believed colonialism was a benevolent construct of the empire, spreading good wherever it went and incapable of evil. She also put forward as a trial name Goldiesia, named after the head of the Royal Niger Company, Goldie. In the manner which Rhodesia was named after Dr Cecil Rhodes.

The main reason I even decided to find out this much about Flora Shaw and rid myself of complicity in the accusations of the first paragraph is because I wondered, if she was just an irrelevant mistress then why didn’t our founding fathers attempt to change the name at our independence? The answer is they did. The name Nigeria Songhai was considered, a tribute to the famous ancient Songhai Empire in Western Sudan. The name Nigeria was practical for a myriad of reasons but in the end most agreed that the argument put forward by Flora Shaw was good enough to retain the name. The river Niger, the great river of Africa, with its over 20 tributaries and channels touched the lives of Nigerians one way or another thus we all feel connected by it.

cc: lalasticlala, mynd44
http://www.romancemeetslife.com/2013/04/naming-nigeria-flora-shaw-and-sexism.html

This woman that gave our country demonic name.Rest in pieces.

@robosky02, Bro I really liked your way of telling the story.
It's interesting.

she was born like me but not my breed

Ok

Nigeria was a plaything to these folks..smh

She and her husband (Fruadrick Luggard) put us in this mess.

Flora, anywhere you are, Thunder continue pouring on you for lumping us in this zoo with animals in human skins.

Flora, may you never be happy until the day this Nigger area crumbles.

God punish you Flora.

A white man gave them a country and named her after a river....... Hmmmm.

Hati13:
@robosky02, Bro I really liked your way of telling the story.
It's interesting.

thanks my habisha brother

So pathetic the bald headed man and his wife got us here.

Lugard's hoe!

she try...kudos

Everything Sexism
Give it a break

robosky02:
Naming Nigeria - Flora Shaw and Sexism

It is an unfortunate consequence of our innate sexism as a people that when we hear the name Flora Shaw as the lady who named Nigeria, we see not a person - with a life, with achievements and with faults - rather we see the mistress/ wife to be of Lord Frederick Lugard. Ask any Nigerian and this is probably the only fact they know about Miss Shaw.

Our culture is one where a woman’s legacy is not a factor of her character or her achievements but simply by who her husband is. So when we think of the woman who named our country we cannot think beyond an ordinary mistress whispering ideas to her man in bed because that is her domain of control and of course it the man who carries out the act of the naming because only men can do important things. This could not be further from the truth.

Nigeria was named by Flora Shaw but not as a consequence her relationship with Lord Lugard as most people believe. She wrote an article in the London Times of January 8, 1897 suggesting that the territory around the Niger, which was then controlled by the Royal Niger Company, should be called Nigeria.

At the time she was the colonial editor of the London times in the 1890s. She had a column titled the colony, it appeared weekly. She wrote many articles about the acquisition of territories in Africa in the 1900’s and was considered as an expert on the issue. Her achievement in becoming the colonial editor of the London times was quite extraordinary. The paper was the leading voice at the time and widely regarded as one of the best.


Flora Shaw was unique in the way she wrote particularly about economic matters affecting the African Colonies. To be a serious female journalist in those times in a field dominated by male journalists meant she had to be really good at what she did. It was for these reasons that when proposed the name Nigeria people considered it seriously.

The Royal Niger Company was instrumental in bringing the British Protectorate to the area we now know as Nigeria. Flora by virtue of her job knew on a personal basis all the major players involved in the extending of the British Empire to this region and she came to think of herself as a critical player. Her credibility as writer and economic/political commentator was without question. There have been some suggestions that by virtue of her feminine charms she was able to develop relationships with empire builders like Lord Lugard and Dr Joseph Chamberlain that afforded her in-depth knowledge which she used to write her articles. Her letters would suggest that she was no leech though as she also advised them on a range of issues given her knowledge of the area.

Now this is not to say that Miss Shaw was perfect. Many of her ideologies as represented in her articles were imperialist, she was a firm crusader for the British Empire. She saw Africans as inferior, uncivilised beings compared to the British. She believed colonialism was a benevolent construct of the empire, spreading good wherever it went and incapable of evil. She also put forward as a trial name Goldiesia, named after the head of the Royal Niger Company, Goldie. In the manner which Rhodesia was named after Dr Cecil Rhodes.

The main reason I even decided to find out this much about Flora Shaw and rid myself of complicity in the accusations of the first paragraph is because I wondered, if she was just an irrelevant mistress then why didn’t our founding fathers attempt to change the name at our independence? The answer is they did. The name Nigeria Songhai was considered, a tribute to the famous ancient Songhai Empire in Western Sudan. The name Nigeria was practical for a myriad of reasons but in the end most agreed that the argument put forward by Flora Shaw was good enough to retain the name. The river Niger, the great river of Africa, with its over 20 tributaries and channels touched the lives of Nigerians one way or another thus we all feel connected by it.

cc: lalasticlala, mynd44
http://www.romancemeetslife.com/2013/04/naming-nigeria-flora-shaw-and-sexism.html

Nigeria.. ... beautiful name , cursed intent, corrupt people, corrupt government.

hi

So this was the person that created This contraption?

poo

Good

oyinbo pipu no try

Her only qualification for naming Nigeria, is because she was shinning Lugard's play-head.

She created this hopeless zoo many wild animals are fighting for today. Just negodu, imagine where me as an Igbo man goes to Europe and Lump Britain, France and Germany together without even asking for their consent.


And then their children grow up to start fighting to maintain the failure of a country I created even though it's not working. They even call me Lord and study me as history while they don't even read their own history in school.

Na who do this juju for Nigerians?