how about South Africa the europeans didnt leave them until 1994, but look at where they are on the world map,  so i totally disagree with your opinion.     South Africa is way berra than Nigeria. belle that or be deceived.

You can't compare South Africa to Nigeria - the European built South Africa the way it is today because they thought they would claim as theirs, just as they did in Australia and New Zealand

If you would like to compare - compare the places where black people in South Africa live to Lagos - you'll find out that there's no basis for comparisons, period

5P1naz said

how about South Africa the europeans didnt leave them until 1994, but look at where they are on the world map,  so i totally disagree with your opinion.     South Africa is way berra than Nigeria. belle that or be deceived.

Unlike in Nigeria, the white colonialists reinvested some of the profits from national exports to develop South Africa. They did this because there was a large white settler population there. You should see a picture of Johannesburg as far back as 1950:


Johannesburg 1952

Did Lagos look like that in 1952, or anywhere close to that?

So you see, they left Nigeria totally underdeveloped such that at independence, we had to start everything from scratch, from roads to electricity to schools etc.  That's why we're playing catch-up today.

Sorry, but those pictures of 1950s, 1960s Lagos are NOTHING - IN FACT CONSTITUTE DILAPIDATED RUBBISH - when compared to the Lagos of today BOTH in terms of beauty, and aesthetics, as well as development.

Rossik,

Aesthetics is the substance, whereas form is the physicality. Together they give balance and promote well being.  I want you to go through again and read the responses that you condemn as nonsense. . . . people were not just appreciating the buildings for what they meant but they also took in the tranquility, the serenity, the openess and touch with the nature of things.  No one is pressed for time or squeezed into limited space.  The outer complemented the inner being. . . . to give balance and well being!

The pictures you posted have a lot of form factor and appeal but the people that live in that space and that time are desolate and depressed and don't feel a sense of attunement with the beauty that sorround them.  

What you have done is like posting the picture of a muscular guy on steroid supplement and saying look, he is handsome and athletic he represents good health!

Negro disagrees!

@One_Naira

You're a clown, and a self-hating one at that STFU

The last time I checked Abuja was built from the scratch by NIGERIA - more than a decade after white people left

Don't compare Southern Africa with West Africa - if the British really wanted to develop and live in Nigeria, they would've move a lot of their population to Nigeria when they were in Control - like they Did in Southern African Countries

The population of British people in Nigeria was never up to 1% - from the first day they set their foot on the Nigerian shores, till the day they left

The never had an interest in Nigeria - that's why only built administrative buildings, churches, schools and houses they need for the few British folks living in Nigeria at that time

Most of the infrastructures you claimed they built in Lagos and Port Harcourt were built by the Creoles and the returnee slaves

Unlike in Nigeria, the white colonialists reinvested some of the profits from national exports to develop South Africa. They did this because there was a large white settler population there. You should see a picture of Johannesburg as far back as 1950:

Say no more, fam, This statement NULLIFIES all the stupid critique by the self-hating uncle tom coons on this thread

More pictures of new Lagos coming, pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Negro Nts said:

Rossik,

Aesthetics is the substance, whereas form is the physicality. Together they give balance and promote well being.  I want you to go through again and read the responses that you condemn as nonsense. . . . people were not just appreciating the buildings for what they meant but they also took in the tranquility, the serenity, the openess and touch with the nature of things.  No one is pressed for time or squeezed into limited space.  The outer complemented the inner being. . . . to give balance and well being!

The pictures you posted have a lot of form factor and appeal but the people that live in that space and that time are desolate and depressed and don't feel a sense of attunement with the beauty that surround them.  

What you have done is like posting the picture of a muscular guy on steroid supplement and saying look, he is handsome and athletic he represents good health!

Negro disagrees!

 

STORY STORY.

People in 1950s Nigeria were not stressed because they had nothing.

For instance, you cannot be stressed by power outage when you've never set eyes on a light bulb, and lanterns are all you know.

You cannot be stressed by traffic and go-slow when you've never boarded a vehicle, let alone owned one.

You cannot be stressed by 'bad roads' when you don't travel except by foot or bicycle through bush paths to the next village.

You cannot be stressed by city overcrowding when the vast majority live in mud huts in villages.

You cannot be stressed by lecturers' strikes when there's no university in the country.

You cannot be stressed by  doctors strike when there are no hospitals, and your local babalawo does not go on strike.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get my drift.

shymmex:

@One_Naira

You're a clown, and a self-hating one at that STFU

The last time I checked [b]Abuja was built from the scratch by NIGERIA [/b]- more than a decade after white people left

Don't compare Southern Africa with West Africa - if the British really wanted to develop and live in Nigeria, they would've move a lot of their population to Nigeria when they were in Control - like they Did in Southern African Countries

The population of British people in Nigeria was never up to 1% - from the first day they set their foot on the Nigerian shores, till the day they left

The never had an interest in Nigeria - that's why only built administrative buildings, churches, schools and houses they need for the few British folks living in Nigeria at that time

Most of the infrastructures[b] you claimed[/b] they built in Lagos and Port Harcourt were built by the Creoles and the returnee slaves

Surprise Surprise the typical NL behavior, if you disagree and or debunk what they say, they'll result to name-calling

Do you even know the definition of exclude or did you feel the need to mouth of just because I decided to give credit when its due thus mentioning two cities I excluded.

One minute is it Europeans did not provide any infrastructure in Nigeria, now it is changed to they did but rather limited

Mscheww, I'm not into the taking credit for others achievement thus I leave una with the Nigeria was sh1t when Europeans left, we did it all comment.

One minute is it Europeans did not provide any infrastructure in Nigeria, now it is changed to they did but rather limited

Your scree name one_naira shows how cheap your brain is,

Europeans did not provide any infrastructure in Nigeria for NIGERIANS - yet they raped the Country blind

They LIMITED ones they built were for themselves

If you can read that, and comprehend it with your one_naira brain - I can't help you, mate

shymmex:

Your scree name one_naira shows how cheap your brain is,

Europeans did not provide any infrastructure in Nigeria for NIGERIANS - yet they violated the Country blind

They LIMITED ones they built were for themselves

If you can read that, and comprehend it with your one_naira brain - I can't help you, mate

Typical behavior of NLanders.

If you cannot rebunk something, you result to insult.

Whatever floats your boat.

Pele for proving my point earlier, now I recant it just to save some people need to stroke their own ego.

You did it all, the Europeans did nothing. Happy now

Typical behavior of NLanders.

If you cannot rebunk something, you result to insult.

Whatever floats your boat.

Pele for proving my point earlier, now I recant it just to save some people need to stroke their own ego.

You did it all, the Europeans did nothing. Happy now

Go buy a brain, and replace the fart ridden one - you have at the moment

Why must every good be European and everything bad be African, coon??

Make sure you buy or upgrade your self-esteem while you're at it, clown

Typical behavior of NLanders.

If you cannot rebunk something, you result to insult.

Whatever floats your boat.

Pele for proving my point earlier, now I recant it just to save some people need to stroke their own ego.

You did it all, the Europeans did nothing. Happy now

Go buy a brain, and replace the fart ridden one you have at the moment

Why must everything good be European and everything bad be African, coon??

Make sure you buy or upgrade your self-esteem while you're at it, clown

People in 1950s Nigeria were not stressed because they had nothing.

 I thought you were talking about 1950 Lagos.  People in 1950 Lagos had ownership and jobs or trade or craft. . . .they had safety and nourishment. They received quality education.

For instance, you cannot be stressed by power outage when you've never set eyes on a light bulb, and lanterns are all you know.

I don't know where you lived before moving to Lagos. . . but the old ECN power plant in Ijora did not fail the Lagos population.  

Here's a quote - "The history of electricity in Nigeria dates back to 1896 when electricity was first produced in Lagos, fifteen years after its introduction in England."

Here's the source -  http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/newsletterdl.aspx?id=56

You cannot be stressed by traffic and go-slow when you've never boarded a vehicle, let alone owned one.

Almost every picture you saw of old Lagos had cars parked on the streets and some on the road.  There was not one picture that did not have a paved road. . . even if there was no car in picture, the road itself attest to the network of transportation.  There is a picture of Herbert Macauley rd in Yaba where they showed cabriolet cars that the aristocrats rode around in.  Beside cars. . . there were as well bicyclists.  There were sidewalks for pedestrians.  So the government did not abandon the people as they do nowadays.

You cannot be stressed by lecturers' strikes when there's no university in the country.

Lagos had Yaba College of Tech, founded 1947. It had University of Lagos 1962/

You cannot be stressed by  doctors strike when there are no hospitals, and your local babalawo does not go on strike

.
Onikan health center; Island General hos[yl; Island Maternity hosptl; Massey strts health center.  

Rossik, you must be one of those people that came to Lagos and was enamored by the new awareness of landscape architecture and beauty and the appeal of urban  hippyness.

Give me a break~  The new structures and their beauty is okay and the pictures you have are adoring. . . . but to criticize the Old scenery as backward and a failure is outright insensitive of you.


. . . . and if you think what you see here in terms of aesthetic and well being is outstanding. . . wait to hear about Ibadan.   Were the whites all over Ibadan as well?  

stop acting like someone that has never seen opulence before. . . dont let the skyscrapers all get in your head.

shymmex:

Go buy a brain, and replace the fart ridden one you have at the moment

Why must everything good be European and everything bad be African, coon??

Make sure you buy or upgrade your self-esteem while you're at it, clown

ROFLMFAO.

Damn I really did struck a nerve hard.

The pain must be immense damn.

Everything european look good and african bad, all these derived for giving credit when it is due.

ROFLMFAO.

Upon reading your replies, I can tell you right now my self esteem is higher than yours.

Keep the insult coming, it is nothing but comedy for me anyways.

What is next? Bring it on

ROFLMFAO

I hit a huge nerve. Chei

Everyday I weep for this country. I have said severally that our worst tragedy was ''independence.'' IMO it is now that we are enslaved, not pre-1960. ''Independence'' was the copycat agenda of a tiny few who were doing it for their own gain. And boy, did they gain!

Sadly, today people still recite that they were our ''heroes.''

Let me tell you how strongly I feel about the prospects for this country: I left a well-paying job and all my property in a half-chance to go live abroad permanently, and my gamble failed. I had to come back and I have nothing in life now and I live with my parents at 39. I do not regret it one bit though I am seen as a cursed fool today.There is no place in Nigeria for a person of my intellectual disposition and I'm not the only one; many have succeeded in leaving and no longer identify themselves with Nigeria and that is still what I'll do given any future opportunity. Nigeria is a failed state inhabiting majorly savages.

OIbhagui:

Nigeria is a failed state inhabiting majorly savages.

+100

Negro Ntns said:

Quote
People in 1950s Nigeria were not stressed because they had nothing.

   I thought you were talking about 1950 Lagos.  People in 1950 Lagos had ownership and jobs or trade or craft. . . .they had safety and nourishment. They received quality education.

Dude, what was the population of Lagos in 1950? 200,000? Today it is 10 million. There is far more of EVERYTHING in today's Lagos than in 1950s Lagos.  And Lagos had no university during colonial rule, the nation's literacy rate was 7% (probably 15% in Lagos. 20% max) so I'm not sure what 'quality education' you're talking about. And no, Yabatech does not qualify as a uni.

Quote
For instance, you cannot be stressed by power outage when you've never set eyes on a light bulb, and lanterns are all you know.

I don't know where you lived before moving to Lagos. . . but the old ECN power plant in Ijora did not fail the Lagos population.

Considering the Lagos population was under 200,000 that's hardly a thundering achievement. What about the rest of the country? The rural areas where 90% of the population lived? You do realise there was no national grid, and most people were far too poor and illiterate to afford generators?

Here's a quote - "The history of electricity in Nigeria dates back to 1896 when electricity was first produced in Lagos, fifteen years after its introduction in England."

Here's the source -  http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/newsletterdl.aspx?id=56

Electricity was only available to a select few. In the rural areas, it was unheard of. The colonialists generated a grand sum of 270 mw per year after nearly 100 years of rule. Is that not a shameful record, or is your brain in need of rewiring?

Quote
You cannot be stressed by traffic and go-slow when you've never boarded a vehicle, let alone owned one.

Almost every picture you saw of old Lagos had cars parked on the streets and some on the road.

Just because you saw a few cars on the street doesn't mean that cars were cheap and widely available. Only a very tiny elite drove cars in 1950s Nigeria.

There was not one picture that did not have a paved road. . . even if there was no car in picture, the road itself attest to the network of transportation.

 

Where? In Ikoyi? Dude please. Outside those colonial cocoons, there was NOTHING. In fact, it was said that blacks were not allowed in Ikoyi which was the colonial quarters, except the servants or drivers of the whites.

There is a picture of Herbert Macauley rd in Yaba where they showed cabriolet cars that the aristocrats rode around in.

The aristocrats? You mean like 0.01% of the population?   Big deal. Today, even students drive around in 4 wheelers and saloons. THANKS TO INDIGENOUS RULE.

Beside cars. . . there were as well bicyclists.  There were sidewalks for pedestrians.  So the government did not abandon the people as they do nowadays.

Keep deceiving yourself. How many roads in Lagos had sidewalks  in the 50s? Less than 1% of all roads. You need to get your head out of Ikoyi. As I said, people who look like you were not allowed there, so what are you praising?

You cannot be stressed by lecturers' strikes when there's no university in the country.
Lagos had Yaba College of Tech, founded 1947. It had University of Lagos 1962

Yabatech is not a university. UNILAG was established by Nigerian leaders AFTER the colonialists had been driven out. It started with about 130 students in 1962.

Quote
You cannot be stressed by  doctors strike when there are no hospitals, and your local babalawo does not go on strike

Onikan health center; Island General hos[yl; Island Maternity hosptl; Massey strts health center.

 

Ludicrous. Naming two or three medical centres in a sea of mass deprivation is the height of madness.

Rossik, you must be one of those people that came to Lagos and was enamored by the new awareness of landscape architecture and beauty and the appeal of urban  hippyness.

Give me a break~  The new structures and their beauty is okay and the pictures you have are adoring. . . . but to criticize the Old scenery as backward and a failure is outright insensitive of you.

Dude wake up. THE BRITISH SHAFTED NIGERIA. THEY EMBEZZLED UNTOLD AMOUNTS AND LEFT US WITH PITIFULLY INADEQUATE INFRASTRUCTURE. Salivating over their PUNY leftovers is the height of colonial mentality.

. . . . and if you think what you see here in terms of aesthetic and well being is outstanding. . . wait to hear about Ibadan.   Were the whites all over Ibadan as well?

 

There was absolutely nothing special about Ibadan under colonial rule. Children walked around barefoot and the majority of people were dirt poor. That's the truth. Our founding fathers did not just wake up and decide to chase out the British. They did so because of the Brits' APPALLING record of misgovernance, maladministration and looting of the country with nothing to show for it!

Rossik,

Do not use this post to vent your resentment against Nigerian govt or British colonialists. . . . neither of them is focus of post. You barged in posting skyscrapers as indicators of greatness. . . .and now you are grabbing at straws for population density. Besides, who told you quality education is only attainable in univeristy? Oh my God, can Nigeria please break up quick so we can send some paupers out of Lagos and back into their dark age hamlets? We dont need people that come to worship skyscrapers and sea crafts and landscape glamor.

I am suspecting you migrated to Lagos from some hamlet that just got added on the electric national grid in 1995. You are easily impressed by the vanity of Lagos. Those born and raised in it deplore what they live in today compared to what it was before your jjc legs waka enter Lagos.

Contribute pictures. . . this is about appreciating old Lagos. If you want view of new Lagos. . . open a new topic for yourself and demonize or praise govt on that.

What happened to other parts of Old Lagos, what infrastructures were there? Surulere, Mushin, Apapa, Gbagada, Ebute metta, Ijora. All we have seen of old Lagos is Majorly a narrow strip of land where the Government people live and work.

What they did in Lagos is not up to scratch compared to what they were reaping. Why did they not touch other parts of the country? The Colonial masters set up Lagos for a fall. There was no way people from other parts of Nigeria would not besiege Lagos when the only place anything was happening is Lagos.

Old Lagos is nostalgic but that is what old things are suppose to be: Nostalgic.

Its easy to be nostalgic for the past when the present is unbearable. But Pictures don't really tell a story better than words. That's a myth. Look through any of your or your friends old albums, any of them. What do you see - everyone smiling, all happy. Has anybody ever seen a picture, in any family album, with a person sobbing, or wailing. Obviously not. does that mean people didn't cry in the past, that they were always happy, always bubbly. Not in the least, all it means is - when a camera comes into the room people on instinct want to look their best, so we all beam ,  for the camera.

It is the same with pictures of cities, most people will rather take a picture of something picturesque, something winsome, like a sundrenched beach than a slum. it does not mean slums don't exist, just as it did not mean in the analogy above that everybody smiling in the pictures past were always happy.

Regarding colonialism, people wishing its return are like a woman wanting to go back to a former boyfriend who was generous because her  current one is miserly, Forgetting in the anger of the moment that she always knew he was generous but left him because she was not the only woman benefiting from his generosity!. Or a man tired of his wife's poor cooking fondly remembering a former girlfreind's exceptional culinary skills and wanting a rturn, conveneintly forgeting that they broke up because there were other men enjoying her talents behind his back. Times lapse, memories fade

As for the British they spent 100 years in Nigeria and left only 1 University when they departed - University of Ibadan where the department of Latin was better funded than the department of Civil Engineering in a country with virtually no trunk roads! Now after 50 years of independence as bad as it has been. there are hundreds of thousands of Nigerian graduates from a a vairety of disciplines. Yes they broguht some nice developemnts, but of what use where these when they bore the signs 'Europeans Only' - Be careful what you wish for.

IMO, the major difference in the 2 timeline-pictures is the huge gap in population.

And I believe we could have done much better over time, especially when you look at some other parts of the city.

I have three more rare and amazing pictures of Lagos from the earliest time:

1. This is an aerial view of Lagos in 1929, note the open field, that is the modern site of TBS (or former race course) and again note the truncated land mass at the bottom of the picture, that should be undeveloped Victoria Island of 1929

2. Another view of Lagos around the same time

3. This is the Marina, Lagos-Island (I can't place the year since there are no cars in the background)

Many thanks to Op and y'all giving me teary eyes

I'm really feeling very nolstagic right about now, These were the days of Goody Goody, Ovaltine, "blue band for bread" and Bongo Coffee-----etc Even the Gala sold then was special. God bless my parents, Ah, I dey miss the 70s abeg. I recall broad street and Western House where my Dad worked back then, chei , Lagos don turn to anything goes

I have truely enjoyed myself with these pictures. I realy appreciate you guys. Negro, Rhino, Tony Spike and Musiwa - please keep up the good work. Can I ask for personal copies please!!!!!! I mean soft copy?

Tony Spike:

I have three more rare and amazing pictures of Lagos from the earliest time:

1. This is an aerial view of Lagos in 1929, note the open field, that is the modern site of TBS (or former race course) and again note the truncated land mass at the bottom of the picture, that should be undeveloped Victoria Island of 1929

2. Another view of Lagos around the same time

3. This is the Marina, Lagos-Island (I can't place the year since there are no cars in the background)

The 3rd pic, Onikan-Marina end, where my granny and her friends take strolls on week ends in the late 20s.
The place gave way to The motherless babies home Onikan. Nig Army Officers Mess took over, next door, is The Lagos Yacht Club.

I love this!!! you need to feel what i felt while waching this pictures,

I still credit the Whites, no matter what!

I can see some are still blaming the British for the state of affairs in Nigeria 50+ years after they left it to you. As I inferred earlier, we are a quarrelsome and ignorant people; and obstinately so. Please could you find out what the mission of the British were when they colonized 25% of the world? Please do a little research on the state of Hong-Kong which the British returned to China in 1997. Find out all the revenue that accrued to the colonial administration through the entire colonial period and find out how much has accrued to ''independent'' Nigeria since 1960.

Black man is still, in his innermost being, still rejecting human development at the pace the civilized world has set. We still want to be savages in the bush, farming subsistently and hunting animals.

For those of you in Lagos please do a facebook search for ''The Intellectual Society.'' Please join this very important self-help group and lets do something to improve our lot (sorry for the important digression)

Dkingscare:

I still credit the Whites, no matter what!

Apparantly the whites have proven to be better leaders of our African world than we. FACT

mens dept said:

Apparantly the whites have proven to be better leaders of our African world than we. FACT

It is a ''FACT'' only in your dull, colonised brain.

Infant mortality rate in Nigeria in 1959 was 259 per 1000.

Today that figure is 91 per 1000 and still falling. (Go check UNICEF statistics)

How that translates to whites being ''better leaders of our African world'', only your deluded self can tell us.


As for the rest of Africa under colonialism, here's Walter Rodney:


'Walter Rodney’s views on colonisation shed light into the horrific injustices that was done to the African people.  Rodney argues that social services were offered to Europeans while the Black Africans were left with nothing in their own land (Rodney, 1982: 206).  Rodney emphasises that after the colonial rule, Guinea-Bissau was neglected more than Mozambique and Angola. In Mozambique there was not a single black doctor at independence, and the life expectancy in Angola was around 30 years (Rodney, 1982: 206). 

Rodney points out that in the first 40 years of colonisation there was no education provided for Africans besides missionary schools for their own Christianizing agenda (Rodney, 1982: 241).  When mainstream education was finally offered, it was inferior in nature. 

The rich natural resources offered by the continent were exploited and transported back to Europe.  Roads and railways were built from the mines, agricultural fields, etc. and they all were directed towards harbours.  Significant geographical locations were provided with infrastructure and the rest that served no economic import-export value were left untouched (Rodney, 1982: 209).  Internal African trade was discouraged, preventing the integration of African domestic economies.  Africans were robbed of land ownership to propel them economically because colonisers initiated the seizure of ‘empty land’ but contrary to the name, these were some of the best fertile land (Raschke & Cheema, 2007: 664).  With Africans left to roam unfertile land, the circumstances they encountered forced some of their livestock to die and many people to suffer from malnutrition, people suffered from kwashiorkor, scurvy, beriberi, rickets etc.  This greatly affected the accumulation of human capital in Africa.

When the colonial rulers packed up and left Africa, they left a continent that was heavily underdeveloped and in need of serious capital injections.  African nations were forced to the International Financial Institutions (International Monetary Fund & World Bank) for loans, loans that were conditioned with structural adjustment programmes.  Ironically enough these institutions are a symbol of Western economic power, economic power that is partly based on exploiting Africa’s natural resources.'



http://www.sa-polsci.com/blogs/did-european-colonial-rule-lead-to-the-underdevelopment-of-africa-




In Guinea Bissau: At the time of independence from Portugal, only 1 in 20 could read, life expectancy was 35 years, and 45% of children died before the age of 5.

Source:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1HapewBo3c0C&pg=PA434&lpg=PA434&dq=west+africa+life+expectancy+colonial+rule&source=bl&ots=pHo2535tPk&sig=OgNSTZNU12w-68aLpCVBX5Iwy2U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xvY1T-nnNOi-0QWQt7WuAg&ved=0CF0Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=west%20africa%20life%20expectancy%20colonial%20rule&f=false

Old lagos vs New lagos, Colonial rule vs Indigenous rule, how are we going to build a functioning Nigeria for the 21st century?

PS I do appreciate all the views in this forum and think everybody contributed some very valid points.

More from Walter Rodney:

''In predominantly black countries, it was also true that the bulk of the social services went to whites. The southern part of Nigeria was one of the colonial areas that was supposed to have received the most from a benevolent ‘mother country’. Ibadan, one of the most heavily populated cities in Africa, had only about 50 Europeans before the last war [WW2]. For those chosen few, the British colonial government maintained a segregated hospital service of 11 beds in well-furnished surroundings. There were 34 beds for the half-a-million blacks. The situation was repeated in other areas [of Nigeria], so that altogether the 4,000 Europeans in the country in the 1930s had 12 modern hospitals, while the African population of at least 40 million had 52 hospitals.''

http://www.marxistsfr.org/subject/africa/rodney-walter/how-europe/ch06.htm