Elnathan John, award winning Author has a different view from those who think colonialism was bad for Nigeria. While he doesn't romanticize the era, he provides ample proof that the Europeans' coming rescued many tribes who were being maltreated as slaves in pre-colonial times.

Thread Reader

Profile picture
Elnathan John
@elnathan_john
Profile picture
Jan 9th 2020, 20 tweets, 4 min read

When you do not read you can say foolish things like our oppression began with British colonialism. A hundred years before the British, many of us were being enslaved, oppressed and erased by people who looked like us. And yes many of our people celebrated the British “ending” it
So before you speak like the erasure of languages and culture began with the British, go and read. Find a chair. Get a drink. Pray to whatever god you worship for comprehension. Then fucking read.
#NotOneColonialism #MultipleHegemonies
Before the British colonized us, the Caliphate colonized us. For 100 years. Many of our people were slaves and sub-human for much of that time. At best second class human beings doomed to forever walk behind our masters with the superior language and religion.
Even some purely ethnic Hausa celebrated the coming of the British to end feudal slavery. So no, just because a language or ethnicity is “African” does not mean it cannot be destructive, oppressive, hegemonic or colonial.
This is Baba of Karo, a Hausa/Habe woman talking about the coming of the British...

Of course we know that the British came with their own damage and in fact reinforced those feudal positions as it worked well for control and colonialism. No need to control everyone if you can control the feudal lord. It took many of our ethnicities decades after to be "equal".
Anyway I am not arguing with people, especially these ethnic nationalists, who don't know my history. Go and read a fucking book that is not Wikipedia.
Someone who worked in the palace in Zaria looked at me once and "reminded" me that our people from Kafanchan used to be the one who would feed the kings horses, bringing hay on foot all the way to Zaria. Some constantly remind us of our ethnic inferiority. So yeah FOH
For a lot of us in places under the Caliphate, 60 years of British rule was not enough to erase the feudal class structure, the almost "racial" superiority we had to deal with since 1804 and even before. The British left and it was war for some of our chiefs to become 1st class
100 years after the British left, making formerly second class ethnicities have first class chiefs still caused riots. Because how dare you upset the status quo that places one ethnicity and religion above another?

Do your hustle. But please don't call it progress. We see you.
Hausa as a language I keep saying also needs to be "decolonised". Thoroughly. If you are a non-Muslim non-ethnic Hausa Hausa speaker, there is a lot that can be pretty offensive. Things which have through use become normalized. I'll give just one example.
I had an intense back and forth with the editor of one of the Hausa newspapers in Nigeria. I noticed that in every instance when they reported deaths of non Muslims, they used the word "mutu". And when reporting a Muslim death they used "rasu". I tracked and pointed this out.
Guess what this Muslim editor said? That I was being dramatic and that the two words meant the same thing. Then I asked why do you say when a Plateau chief dies ya mutu and when an emir dies ya rasu. He did this consistently. He accused me of raising issues that didn't exist
Of course anyone, even a child who grew up in Northern Nigeria knows what this difference is. As a child I hear this all the time. My Muslim friends would correct me if I ever said "mutu" in reference to a Muslim dead person. "Musulmi ne, kar ka ce ya mutu, ka ce ya rasu".
This editor of a "secular" Hausa newspaper had transmitted his unconscious bias into his professional work and thought that I shouldn't care. Because it is OK that a non Muslim death is reported using the same word for an animal death. Because animals don't "rasu". They "mutu".
Language is not neutral. Language can damage as it can build. It carries baggage, historical, cultural, political. Because a language is “African” does not give it inherent value. Because a culture is “African” does not make it inherently better for use than others.
Yes, a lot of this decolonization will come through popular use. A lot of our languages still need a lot of work in this regard. It is important not to assume that languages and cultures have value just because they exist. They pack a lot of baggage. Often, a lot of violence.
For me that Muslim editor insisting that the distinction between mutu and rasu was neither deliberate nor consequential was just like a white person in Amsterdam insisting that black face is not racist.
I was like, of course you don’t think it means anything, because no one has looked at your dead loved one and described their death with the words they used to describe the death of an animal while reserving the nice word for their own relatives of a different religion.
After the British *came

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1215123057381126146.html

Hmmm

I concur...

See how far our self-governance has brought us...

Why would you not concur when you lack ability to disprove the rubbish he uttered there.

daddytime:
Hmmm

I concur...

See how far our self-governance has brought us...

I didn't read it but the headline alone is discomforting. Someone preferred to be subjugated for the rest of his/her life in exchange for what?

Very interesting.... It's TRUE that Blacks do not read. Prefer to sing and dance. That's why we Don't develop. Our minds don't develop so how can our lifestyles?

This write-up by a young author is so punchy. The eternal truth is that he who has the shoes on his feet knows exactly where the structure and contours of leather work pinches the feet most.

Unfortunately, the tragedy is that the majority or the strong tend to lord it over the minority or the weak and then the oppressed minority or weak on reaching majority yet lord it over the immediate minority. Sometimes, the primary oppressor encourages the secondary oppressor in order to legitimize its own oppression and strenghten its oppressive grip. And the cycle continues. One of ironies of the human ecosystem.

The fight for equality unsettles the oppressor. If you don't speak up and fight boldly, you would remain pressed down for as long as your silence lasts. Another reality of the human ecosystem.

festacman:
This write-up by a young author is so punchy. The eternal truth is that he who has the shoes on his feet knows exactly where the structure and contours of leather work pinches the feet most.

Unfortunately, the tragedy is that the majority or the strong tend to lord it over the minority or the weak and then the oppressed minority or weak on reaching majority yet lord it over the immediate minority. Sometimes, the primary oppressor encourages the secondary oppressor in order to legitimize its own oppression and strenghten its oppressive grip. And the cycle continues. One of ironies of the human ecosystem.

The fight for equality unsettles the oppressor. If you don't speak up and fight boldly, you would remain pressed down for as long as your silence lasts. Another reality of the human ecosystem.

Vey apt. I sometimes imagine if the British had never colonized Nigeria, may be there'd be only two tribes left in Nigeria by now, one in the north and one in the south. Others would have been killed off or driven beyond it's Borders.
To be factual nothing like Nigeria would even exist if the British hadn't come.

iskoki:



Vey apt. I sometimes imagine if the British had never colonized Nigeria, may be there'd be only two tribes left in Nigeria by now, one in the north and one in the south. Others would have been killed off or driven beyond it's Borders.
To be factual nothing like Nigeria would even exist if the British hadn't come.

No event is completely bad or wholly good. Nothing is static in the world and nothing will ever be because things will always happen. The truth is most major radical events that occur in any human society, whether accidental, planned or reactive, shape that society negatively or positively depending on which side of the divide you belong.

For example, the balkanisation of hitherto large Kano Emirate may be as a result of personality clash rather than a laid-down plan but several years down the line, Kano people would look back and wonder how they manage to survive with only one Emir treating thousands of complaints and cases.

Another illustration is the making of Chris Ngige as Governor Anambra State. Though the intention behind his emergence was unscrupulous and selfish, the subsequent events conspired to liberate Anambra State from bout of bad governance.

BuhariAdvocate:
Why would you not concur when you lack ability to disprove the rubbish he uttered there.

Did the nathan or whatever lied? Were blacks not their own biggest enemy before the arrival of the europeans? They were invading lands of their fellow blacks, killing so call kings of their neighbors and selling their princes and princess of as slaves, same black o.

Before the arrival of England, the ashantis in ghana has almost conquere their black neighbors, turning them to slaves while they rule over them. Ever since british came and force everyone to live together as one country, have you ever heard of their fight ever since then? Look at Nigeria for instance, do you think all the tribes love themselves? If not for european and colonialism, blacks would have prolly finish off themselves off the surface of the earth by now my g.

BuhariAdvocate:
Why would you not concur when you lack ability to disprove the rubbish he uttered there.

Shut it there The worst colonial rule is better than the best Buhari govt

SAMUEL AJAYI CROWTHER HAD A PhD AND BECAME BE A BISHOP UNDER THE SYSTEM. WHAT A LIFE? WHAT AN ETERNITY? HE'S NOW MORE SUNG THAN LORD LUGARD EVEN IN HEAVEN. THE LORD GIVES ETERNITY.

Colonial rule destroyed IGBO LAND.
I dot care about every other place because I don't know.
But for Igbo land... Colonialism destroyed us. While we are rebuilding our lands...
I dare anyone to challenge me and I will take you to the cleaners with evidence that are both classified and declassified.

meavox:

Very interesting.... It's TRUE that Blacks do not read. Prefer to sing and dance. That's why we Don't develop. Our minds don't develop so how can our lifestyles?

One question for you, are you a black person.

IduNaOba:
Colonial rule destroyed IGBO LAND.
I dot care about every other place because I don't know.
But for Igbo land... Colonialism destroyed us. While we are rebuilding our lands...
I dare anyone to challenge me and I will take you to the cleaners with evidence that are both classified and declassified.

Well you may feel that way because you are probably from a large tribe that had armies and arms back then. The smaller tribes near you wouldn't feel the same.

festacman:


No event is completely bad or wholly good. Nothing is static in the world and nothing will ever be because things will always happen. The truth is most major radical events that occur in any human society, whether accidental, planned or reactive, shape that society negatively or positively depending on which side of the divide you belong.

For example, the balkanisation of hitherto large Kano Emirate may be as a result of personality clash rather than a laid-down plan but several years down the line, Kano people would look back and wonder how they manage to survive with only one Emir treating thousands of complaints and cases.

Another illustration is the making of Chris Ngige as Governor Anambra State. Though the intention behind his emergence was unscrupulous and selfish, the subsequent events conspired to liberate Anambra State from bout of bad governance.

Change is constant.

Kapeter:
Did the nathan or whatever lied? Were blacks not their own biggest enemy before the arrival of the europeans? They were invading lands of their fellow blacks, killing so call kings of their neighbors and selling their princes and princess of as slaves, same black o.

Before the arrival of England, the ashantis in ghana has almost conquere their black neighbors, turning them to slaves while they rule over them. Ever since british came and force everyone to live together as one country, have you ever heard of their fight ever since then? Look at Nigeria for instance, do you think all the tribes love themselves? If not for european and colonialism, blacks would have prolly finish off themselves off the surface of the earth by now my g.

Some of the issues mentioned by Elnathan are still on going today.

europeans,asians too were fighting themselves ,

iskoki:


Well you may feel that way because you are probably from a large tribe that had armies and arms back then. The smaller tribes near you wouldn't feel the same.

Who is talking about armies and arms.
I am talking about civilizations and tech.
Science beyond the nonses available today even in the same oyibo man country.

BuhariAdvocate:
Why would you not concur when you lack ability to disprove the rubbish he uttered there.

Ya mutu to you there.. ZOMBIE!

EagleNest:
I didn't read it but the headline alone is discomforting. Someone preferred to be subjugated for the rest of his/her life in exchange for what?

Your input missed the line. You need to read it.

IduNaOba:

Who is talking about armies and arms.
I am talking about civilizations and tech.
Science beyond the nonses available today even in the same oyibo man country.

So what science and tech was in Nigeria prior to colonial rule?

EagleNest:
I didn't read it but the headline alone is discomforting. Someone preferred to be subjugated for the rest of his/her life in exchange for what?

Don't judge a book by its cover.
Don't judge an article by its title.
Gold can be below a thick forest.

iskoki:


So what science and tech was in Nigeria prior to colonial rule?

Did you just ask me that?
Hiw much are you willing to pay for books that will enlighten you?

GamalNasser:


Shut it there The worst colonial rule is better than the best Buhari govt

Buhari has built more infrastructure in 4 years than the colonialists built in their 63 years rule. You need to stop being dumb, and actually study your own nation's colonial history, and the record of neglect and colonial looting that characterised the period of 1897-1960. You need to understand that the very reason or rationale for colonialism was to loot your resources. To thus compare that with an elected indigenous govt with an actual development manifesto, and claim the former is better, is truly the height of tomfoolery. idiocy, and self-hate.

Rosskii:


Buhari has built more infrastructure in 4 years than the colonialists built in their 63 years rule. You need to stop being dumb, and actually study your own nation's colonial history, and the record of neglect and colonial looting that characterised the period of 1897-1960.

Name one infrastructure he has built Rosskii ? Name one

GamalNasser:


Name one infrastructure he has built Rosskii ? Name one

One? That's silly.

It will literally crash the server if I listed them all, so go here and read it direct. It's a long list, and it is all verifiable.

https://thecrestng.com/major-ongoing-and-completed-infrastructure-projects-by-the-buhari-administration/

[s]

Rosskii:


Buhari has built more infrastructure in 4 years than the colonialists built in their 63 years rule. You need to stop being dumb, and actually study your own nation's colonial history, and the record of neglect and colonial looting that characterised the period of 1897-1960. You need to understand that the very reason or rationale for colonialism was to loot your resources. To thus compare that with an elected indigenous govt with an actual development manifesto, and claim the former is better, is truly the height of tomfoolery. idiocy, and self-hate.

[/s]