Post on 12-Jan-2016
description
Understanding Nigeria
http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/africa.html
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