Embedded Files
First Vice-Governor of the Royal Niger Company (July 1886)
Sir George Dashwood Taubman Goldie (20 May 1846 – 20 August 1925) was a Manx administrator who played a major role in the founding of Nigeria.
He conceived the idea of adding to the British Empire the then little known regions of the lower and middle Niger, and for over twenty years his efforts were devoted to the realization of this conception. The method by which he determined to work was the revival of government by chartered companies within the empire, a method supposed to be buried with the British East India Company. The first step was to combine all British commercial interests in the Niger, and this he accomplished in 1879 when the United African Company was formed by successfully drawning together the three largest British firms operating on the Niger, Holland Jacques and Company, in which Goldie himself owned a controlling interest, Miller Brothers, and James Pinnock – to create the United African Company.
In 1881, Goldie sought a charter from Gladstone's government. Objections of various kinds were raised. To meet them the capital of the company (renamed the National African Company) was increased from £250,000 to £1,000,000 in 1882, amending its constitution to allow it greater leeway in attaining political rights of administration both from the British Government and from the local rulers with whom the company negotiated treaties, and as head of the National African Company, Goldie made the company by far the largest firm on the Niger.
At this time French traders, encouraged by Léon Gambetta, established themselves on the lower river, thus rendering it difficult for the company to obtain territorial rights; but the Frenchmen (three French companies) were bought out in 1884, so that at the Berlin Conference on West Africa in 1885, Goldie, present as an expert on matters relating to the river, was able to announce that on the lower Niger the British flag alone flew. Meantime the Niger coast line had been placed under British protection.
Through Joseph Thomson, David McIntosh, D. W. Sargent, J. Flint, William Wallace, E. Dangerfield and numerous other agents, over 400 political treaties drawn up by Goldie were made with the chiefs of the lower Niger and the Hausa states. The scruples of the British government being overcome, a charter was at length granted in July 1886 and the National African Company became the Royal Niger Company, with Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare as governor and Goldie as vice-governor. In 1895, on Lord Aberdare's death, Goldie became governor of the company, whose destinies he had guided throughout. The Royal Charter gave the Royal Niger Company, the power to control the political administration and trade policies of any local territories with which it could gain legal treaties, provided that the company did not interfere in local religions, laws, or customs, except insofar as was necessary to discourage the practice of slavery. Under Goldie, the Royal Niger Company became a commercial empire of its own, crowding out both foreign and local trade in a bid to end competition on the Niger.
Despite the grant of a Royal Charter in 1886, the Royal Niger Company's mission and its potentialities failed to appeal to the general public; and even when in 1900 the Territory, with its area equal to that of Germany and the British Isles combined, was added to the Dependencies of the Empire, the new Protectorate was regarded with indifference and suspicion as a present burden and a probable source of future trouble.
It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France and Germany, and in consequence, on 1 January 1900, the Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British government for the sum of £865,000. The ceded territory together with the small Niger Coast Protectorate, already under imperial control, was formed into the two protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria.
From the proceeds of the surrender of its (The Royal Niger Company's) charter to the British Government in 1900, the company were able to make a special distribution to its shareholders amounting to 145 per cent.
After several discoveries of Mineral wealth in the Norther Nigeria Protectorate, the dismal view on Nigeria as a colony was quickly overturned, with Lord Crewe declaring that:
"there is no part of the Empire about which higher hopes may properly be entertained than the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria"; and the Colonial Report, in emphatic corroboration of this optimistic opinion, asserted that "very few countries have witnessed such great changes for the better in such a short space of time, as has been the case with this Cinderella of the British Dominions".
This is in contrast to the view held by the British Government and its people within less than a century earlier when:
"The Niger", as Colonel Mockler-Ferryman tells us, "was absolutely tabooed; its name was mentioned only in whispers, and the British public regarded it as an unlucky, pestilential spot, out of which no good could ever come.'' It must be remembered, in explanation of this pessimistic attitude, that all attempts to explore Nigeria and open up commerce on the river had failed more or less completely; a great number of lives had been sacrificed in successive expeditions, and no practical good had been accomplished.
First Governor of the Royal Niger Company (July 1886)
Henry Austin Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare GCB, PC, FRS
Henry Bruce was a British Liberal Party politician who served in government most notably as Home Secretary (1868–1873) and as Lord President of the Council.
Henry Bruce was 16 April 1815 born at Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, the son of John Bruce, a Glamorganshire landowner, by his wife Sarah, daughter of Reverend Hugh Williams Austin. John Bruce's original family name was Knight, but on coming of age in 1805 he assumed the name of Bruce: his mother, through whom he inherited the Duffryn estate, was the daughter of William Bruce, High Sheriff of Glamorganshire.
Henry Bruce married firstly Annabella, daughter of Richard Beadon, in 1846. They had one son and three daughters. After her death in July 1852 he married secondly Norah Creina Blanche, daughter of Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular War, whose biography he edited. They had seven daughters and two sons, of whom the youngest was the mountaineer Charles Granville Bruce. Their daughter, Sarah was married to Montague Muir Mackenzie, barrister.
Lord Aberdare died in London on 25 February 1895, aged 79, Henry Austin Bruce is buried at Aberffrwd Cemetery in Mountain Ash, Wales. He was succeeded in the barony by his only son from his first marriage, Henry. Lady Aberdare, born 1827, died in April 1897 and was a proponent of women's education and active in the establishment of Aberdare Hall in Cardiff.
Henry was educated at the Bishop Gore School, Swansea (Swansea Grammar School), and in 1837 was called to the bar. Shortly after he had begun to practice, the discovery of coal beneath the Duffryn and other Aberdare Valley estates brought his family great wealth.
In 1882 he began a connection with West Africa which lasted the rest of his life, by accepting the chairmanship of the National African Company, formed by Sir George Goldie, which in 1886 received a charter under the title of the Royal Niger Company and in 1899 was taken over by the British government, its territories being constituted the protectorate of Nigeria.
West African affairs, however, by no means exhausted Lord Aberdare's energies, and it was principally through his efforts that a charter was in 1894 obtained for the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire,a constituent institution of the University of Wales now Cardiff University.
First High Commissioner of the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate (1900-1903):
Sir Ralph Moor
Sir Ralph Denham Rayment Moor KCMG, first high commissioner of the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate, born on 31 July 1860 at The Lodge, Furneux Pelham, Buntingford, Hertfordshire. He was the son of William Henry Moor (ca. 1830–ca. 1863) a surgeon and his wife Sarah Pears. Educated privately, and destined for business, he engaged in 1880–1 as a learner in the tea trade. On 26 October 1882 he entered the Royal Irish Constabulary as a cadet, and becoming in due course a district inspector resigned after involvement in a divorce case on 9 February 1891.
In March 1891 Moor took service under Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald, the Consul-General of the Oil Rivers Protectorate, as Commandant of Constabulary in the protectorate. In July 1892 he was appointed by the Foreign Office vice-consul for the Oil Rivers district, and from 6 September 1892 to 15 February 1893 acted as commissioner. During January 1896 he served the office of consul, and on 1 February 1896, when the district was formed into the Niger Coast Protectorate, he was made commissioner and consul-general for the territory, and consul for the Cameroons and Fernando Po.
When in 1900 the protectorate passed from the Foreign Office to the Colonial Office, Moor became High Commissioner of Southern Nigeria and laid the foundations of the new administration, his health failing, he retired on pension on 1 October 1903. He then allied himself with Sir Alfred Lewis Jones; he gave valuable advice on West African affairs, and aided in the development of the British Cotton Growing Association. He also served on certain committees at the nomination of the secretary of state.
Moor became C.M.G. in 1895 and K.C.M.G. in 1897. He married in 1898 Adrienne Burns, née Shapland (born. circa. 1871). He was found dead in bed at his residence, the Homestead, Barnes, on 14 September 1909; having committed suicide by poison. He was buried at the new Barnes cemetery. The coroner's jury determined that "the poison was deliberately taken whilst temporarily insane after suffering acutely from insomnia", they had heard evidence that Moor had suffered for the last four years on his return from Africa with malarial and backwater fever that induced insomnia.
First Governor of the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria (1906-1912) and second High Commissioner of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate (1903-1906): Sir Walter Egerton
Egerton became Governor of Lagos Colony, covering most of the Yoruba lands in the southwest of what is now Nigeria, in 1903. The colonial office wanted to amalgamate the Lagos Colony with the protectorate of Southern Nigeria, and in August 1904 also appointed Egerton as High Commissioner for the Southern Nigeria Protectorate. He held both offices until 28 February 1906. On that date the two territories were formally united and Egerton was appointed Governor of the new Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, holding office until 1912. In the new Southern Nigeria, the old Lagos Colony became the Western Province, and the former Southern Nigerian Protectorate was split into a Central Province with capital at Warri and an Eastern Province with capital at Calabar.
In 1912, Egerton was replaced by Frederick Lugard, who was appointed Governor-General of both Southern and Northern Nigeria with the mandate to unite the two. Egerton was appointed Governor of British Guiana as his next posting, clearly a demotion, which may have been connected to his fights with the Colonial Office officials.
Southern Nigeria was a British protectorate in the coastal areas of modern-day Nigeria, formed in 1900 from union of the Niger Coast Protectorate with territories chartered by the Royal Niger Company below Lokoja on the Niger River.
The Niger Coast Protectorate was a British protectorate in the Oil Rivers area of present-day Nigeria, originally established as the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1884 and confirmed at the Berlin Conference the following year, renamed on 12 May 1893, and merged with the chartered territories of the Royal Niger Company on 1 January 1900 to form the Southern Nigeria Protectorate.
The Lagos colony was added in 1906, and the territory was officially renamed the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.
In 1914, Southern Nigeria was joined with Northern Nigeria Protectorate to form the single colony of Nigeria. The unification was done for economic reasons rather than political - Northern Nigeria Protectorate had a budget deficit; and the colonial administration sought to use the budget surpluses in Southern Nigeria to offset this deficit.
Nigeria’s First Governor General of the combined Protectorates of the Northern and Southern Colonies of Nigeria: Sir Frederick Lugard (1 January 1914 – 8 August 1919)
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard GCMG, CB, DSO, PC (22 January 1858 – 11 April 1945), known as Sir Frederick Lugard between 1901 and 1928, was a British soldier, explorer of Africa and colonial administrator, who was Governor of Hong Kong (1907–1912) and Governor-General of Nigeria (1914–1919).
Lugard was born in Madras (now Chennai) in India, but was raised in Worcester, England. He was the son of the Reverend Frederick Grueber Lugard, a British Army Chaplain at Madras, and his third wife Mary Howard (1819–1865), the youngest daughter of Reverend John Garton Howard (1786–1862), a younger son of Yorkshire landed gentry from Thorne and Melbourne near Pocklington. Lugard was educated at Rossall School and the Royal Military College Sandhurst.
In May 1888, Lugard took command of an expedition organised by the British settlers in Nyasaland against Arab slave traders on Lake Nyasa and was severely wounded.
In August 1897, Lugard organised the West African Frontier Force, and commanded it until the end of December 1899, when the disputes with France were composed.
In 1903, British control over the whole protectorate was made possible by a successful campaign against the emir of Kano and the sultan of Sokoto. By the time Lugard resigned as commissioner, the entire Nigeria was being peacefully administered under the supervision of British residents. There were however uprisings that were brutally put down by Lugard's troops. A Mahdi rebellion in 1906 at the Satiru, a village near Sokoto resulted in the total destruction of the town with huge numbers of casualties.
After he relinquished command of the West African Frontier Force, Lugard was made the first High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria in 1900, a position he held until 1906 and for which he was knighted in 1901. At that time, the portion of Northern Nigeria under effective control was small, and Lugard's task in organising this vast territory was made more difficult by the refusal of the sultan of Sokoto and many other Fula princes to fulfil their treaty obligations.
In 1912, Lugard returned to Nigeria as Governor of the two protectorates. His main mission was to complete the amalgamation into one colony. Although controversial in Lagos, where it was opposed by a large section of the political class and the media, the amalgamation did not arouse passion in the rest of the country. From 1914 to 1919, Lugard was made Governor General of the now combined Colony of Nigeria. Throughout his tenure, Lugard sought strenuously to secure the amelioration of the condition of the native people, among other means by the exclusion, wherever possible, of alcoholic liquors, and by the suppression of slave raiding and slavery.
Lugard, ably assisted by his wife Flora Shaw, concocted a legend which warped understanding of him, Nigeria, and colonialism for decades. The revenue that allowed state development (harbours, railways, hospitals) in Southern Nigeria came largely from taxes on imported alcohol. In Northern Nigeria that tax was absent and development projects far fewer. The Adubi War occurred during his governorship. In Northern Nigeria Lugard permitted slavery within traditional elite families. He loathed the educated and sophisticated Africans of the coastal regions, ran the country with 50% of each year spent in England (where he could promote himself and was distant from realities in Africa where subordinates had to delay decisions on many matters until he returned), and based his rule on a military system - unlike William MacGregor, a doctor turned governor, who mixed with all ranks of people and listened to what was wanted. Lugard, who opposed "native education" later became involved in Hong Kong University, and that Lugard who disliked traders and businessmen, became a director of a bank active in Nigeria are strange aspects of the man and the myth.
Lord Lugard married Flora Louisa, daughter of Major-General George Shaw, in 1902. She was a journalist and writer for The Times. There were no children from the marriage. Flora died in January 1929. Lord Lugard survived her by sixteen years and died on 11 April 1945, aged 87. As he was childless the barony died with him.
Lord Lugard is credited with this quote:
"the typical African ... is a happy, thriftless, excitable person, lacking in self control, discipline and foresight, naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity ...in brief , the virtues and defects of this race-type are those of attractive children."
The first Europeans to begin trade in Nigeria: Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 16th century and in the ports they named Lagos and Calabar.
The first person to name Lagos: Portuguese Explorer, Rui De Segueria in 1472 (Lagos – Laos – Lakes); while the first African slaves taken to Portugal was in 1441. The first public sale of African slaves by Europeans takes place at Lagos, Portugal was in 1444.
In the wake of geographical discoveries and when the European explorers were set on the sea seeking the route to India. The Portuguese reached Benin in about 1477. (Erivwo, 2012). As early as 1472, says Fafunwa (2002), Portuguese merchants reached Lagos and Benin. In 1485, the merchants have engaged the people of Benin in pepper trading and Oba (King) of Benin sent an envoy to the Portuguese royal court.
The missionary activities started in Benin in 1515 by Catholics Missionaries and established a school for converted princes and children of notable chiefs in Oba’s palace (Ibid). In the same year, Gasper, the bishop of the Diocese of Sao Tome sent Augustinian monks to visit Warri. Consequently, a son of Olu of Warri was baptized with given name Sebastian. Afterward, Sebastian succeeded his father and gave Portuguese missionaries enormous support and his son Domingos was sent to Portugal to be trained for the priesthood.
The first recorded empire in present day Nigeria was centered in the north at Kanem-Borno, near Lake Chad. This empire came to power during the eighth century C.E. By the thirteenth century, many Hausa states began to emerge in the region as well.
Trans-Sahara trade with North Africans and Arabs began to transform these northern societies greatly. Increased contact with the Islamic world led to the conversion of the Kanem-Borno Empire to Islam in the eleventh century. This led to a ripple effect of conversions throughout the north. Islam brought with it changes in law, education, and politics.
The trans-Sahara trade also brought with it revolutions in wealth and class structure. As the centuries went on, strict Islamists, many of whom were poor Fulani, began to tire of increasing corruption, excessive taxation, and unfair treatment of the poor. In 1804 the Fulani launched a jihad, or Muslim holy war, against the Hausa states in an attempt to cleanse them of these non-Muslim behaviors and to reintroduce proper Islamic ways. By 1807 the last Hausa state had fallen. The Fulani victors founded the Sokoto Caliphate, which grew to become the largest state in West Africa until its conquest by the British in 1903.
In 1588, Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the first English-African company, and during her reign many voyages were made by Englishmen to the West Coast of Africa, including the voyages of James Welsh who visited Benin on two occasions. The second and third British companies to trade in Africa were granted charters in 1618 and 1631 respectively.
The first British Slave-trading company in Nigeria: The Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading with Africa: 1663 (under the Right of European Slave Trade Ordinance).
The first British Captain to reach the Bight of Benin: Captain Wyndham commanded an expedition which reached the Bight of Benin in 1553.
Wyndham, Thomas (d. 1554), naval officer and navigator, the only son of Sir Thomas Wyndham (d. 1522) of Felbrigg, Norfolk, and his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead and widow of Sir Roger Darcy of Danbury, Essex, gentleman of the chamber to Henry VII.
In 1551 Wyndham became captain and part owner of the Lion of London, a substantial seagoing ship of 150 tons. A syndicate of speculators, which included Wyndham's nephew, the soldier Sir John Lutterell (d. 1551) of Somerset, and Sebastian Cabot's son-in-law, Henry Ostrich, hired him in 1551 to open direct commerce with Morocco. His success on the Lion led in the following year to his second expedition of three ships financed by prominent London merchants. This returned from Safi and Tenerife with a cargo of dates, almonds, sugar, and molasses. These voyages established the steady routine English trade with Barbary.
The next initiative, and the last of Wyndham's career, cost him his life. The captain became an investor and the commander of the first expedition to equatorial west Africa. Financed by several of the promoters of 1552, and assisted by Edward VI's government, the fleet consisted of the Primrose, a vessel of 300 tons leased from the crown, the Lion, and a royal pinnace, the Moon, also leased, with a total complement of approximately 160. Wyndham was assisted by a Portuguese lieutenant, Antonio Anes Pinteado, and a pilot, Francisco Rodriques. The commander began assembling the crews in April 1553. He had already secured permission to use the royal prerogatives of impressment and purveyance.
The death of the king on 6 July almost spelt disaster. At this time the Primrose was at Portsmouth preparing for sea. It, and Wyndham, may have become briefly involved in the efforts of Northumberland's regime to prepare a naval force, for the expedition was stayed in July by order of Queen Mary and on 25 July the new privy council summoned Wyndham and other politically compromised individuals to London. Wyndham's half-brother, Sir Thomas, Lord Darcy of Chiche (d. 1558), had been one of Northumberland's closest supporters; in July 1553 Wyndham lent Darcy £600 for unspecified purposes. However, on 30 July the expedition was given permission to depart; it sailed on 12 August. The route took the fleet by way of Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands to the River Sess on the Malagueta Coast to trade for pepper, then to the Gold Coast, and finally to Benin in the quest for gold and further pepper.
An unidentified fever decimated the party which had travelled upriver on the Moon to trade, and spread to the ships. With the death of Wyndham at the bight of Benin, and others, probably in February or early March of 1554, the expedition hastily departed for home. There were insufficient healthy sailors to bring back to England all three vessels, so the Lion was abandoned on the coast. The Primrose reached Plymouth in early August; the fate of the Moon is unknown. Fewer than forty individuals survived the voyage. The expedition may have made a profit for investors, but the deceased commander was blamed for mismanagement, disregarding the advice of Pinteado, and taking the fateful decision to abandon some merchants on the river.
His heirs were a son, Henry, and two daughters, one of whom, Margaret, later married Sir Andrew Luttrell of East Quantoxhead, Somerset. Wyndham's estate was in financial difficulty, and his residence, Marshwood Park, Somerset, was sold. His wife is not mentioned in his will and she can be presumed deceased; she has never been identified.
The first Portuguese slave labour on their settlement on the tiny Island of Sao Thome was drawn from Benin by 1485.
The first batch of Slaves from West Africa arrived in the Spanish Island of Haiti in 1510, and another arrived in Cuba in 1521.
The first Westerner known to have travelled to the central portion of the Niger River: Mungo Park (11 September 1771 – 1806) was a Scottish explorer of the African continent. Mungo Park was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland, at Foulshiels on the Yarrow Water, near Selkirk, on a tenant farm which his father rented from the Duke of Buccleuch. He was the seventh in a family of thirteen. Although tenant farmers, the Parks were relatively well-off, they were able to pay for Park to have a good education, and Park's father died leaving property valued at £3,000 (UK£210,000 in 2014). The Parks were Dissenters, and Park was brought up in the Calvinist tradition.
He was educated at home before attending Selkirk grammar school, then, at the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed to a surgeon named Thomas Anderson in Selkirk. During his apprenticeship, Park made friends with Anderson's son Alexander and became acquainted with his daughter Allison, who would later become his wife.
In October 1788, Park enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, attending for four sessions studying medicine and botany. Notably, during his time at university, he spent a year in the natural history course of Professor John Walker. After completing his studies, he spent a summer in the Scottish Highlands, engaged in botanical fieldwork with his brother-in-law, James Dickson, a gardener and seed merchant in Covent Garden. In 1788 he and Sir Joseph Banks had founded the London Linnean Society.
In January 1793, Park completed his medical education by passing an oral examination at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. Through a recommendation by Banks, he then obtained the post of assistant surgeon on board the East Indiaman Worcester. In February 1793 the Worcester sailed to Benkulen in Sumatra. Before departing, Park wrote to his friend Alexander Anderson in terms that reflect his Calvinist upbringing
In 1794 Park offered his services to the African Association, then looking for a successor to Major Daniel Houghton, who had been sent in 1790 to discover the course of the Niger River and had died in the Sahara. Supported by Sir Joseph Banks, Park was selected.
On 21 June 1795, he reached the Gambia River and ascended it 200 miles to a British trading station named Pisania. On 2 December, accompanied by two local guides, he started for the unknown interior. He chose the route crossing the upper Senegal basin and through the semi-desert region of Kaarta. The journey was full of difficulties, and at Ludamar he was imprisoned by a Moorish chief for four months. On 1 July 1796, he escaped, alone and with nothing but his horse and a pocket compass, and on 21 July 1796 reached the long-sought Niger River at Ségou, being the first European to do so. He followed the river downstream 80 miles to Silla, where he was obliged to turn back, lacking the resources to go further.
On his return journey, begun on 30 July, he took a route more to the south than that originally followed, keeping close to the Niger as far as Bamako, thus tracing its course for some 300 miles. At Kamalia he fell ill, and owed his life to the kindness of a man in whose house he lived for seven months. Eventually he reached Pisania again on 10 June 1797, returning to Scotland by way of Antigua on 22 December. He had been thought dead, and his return home with news of the discovery of the Niger River evoked great public enthusiasm. An account of his journey was drawn up for the African Association by Bryan Edwards, and his own detailed narrative appeared in 1799.
Amadi Fatouma stated that Park's canoe had descended the river to Yauri, where he (Fatouma) landed. In this long journey of some 1,000 miles Park, who had plenty of provisions, stuck to his resolution of keeping aloof from the natives. Below Djenné, came Timbuktu, and at various other places the natives came out in canoes and attacked his boat. These attacks were all repulsed, Park and his party having plenty of firearms and ammunition and the natives having none. The boat also escaped the many perils attendant on navigating an unknown stream strewn with many rapids; Park had built the Joliba so that it drew only a foot of water.
But at the Bussa rapids, not far below Yauri, the boat struck on a rock and remained fast. On the bank were gathered hostile natives, who attacked the party with bow and arrow and throwing spears. Their position being untenable, Park, Martyn and the two remaining soldiers sprang into the river and were drowned. The sole survivor was one of the slaves, from whom was obtained the story of the final scene.
Isaaco, and later Lander, obtained some of Park's effects, but his journal was never recovered. In 1827 his second son, Thomas, landed on the Guinea coast, intending to make his way to Bussa, where he thought his father might be detained a prisoner; but after penetrating a little distance inland he died of fever. Park's widow Allison died in 1840. Mungo Park's remains are buried along the banks of the River Niger in Jebba Nigeria.
From the death of Mungo Park near Bussa in 1806 to the end of the century, there is continuing interest in Nigeria on the part of British explorers, anti-slavery activists, missionaries and traders.
In 1821 the British government sponsored an expedition south through the Sahara to reach the kingdom of Bornu. Its members became the first Europeans to reach Lake Chad, in 1823. One of the group, Hugh Clapperton, explores further west through Kano and the Hausa territory to reach Sokoto. Clapperton is only back in England for a few months, in 1825, before he sets off again for the Nigerian coast at Lagos.
On this expedition, with his servant Richard Lander, he travels on trade routes north from the coast to Kano and then west again to Sokoto. Here Clapperton dies. But Lander makes his way back to London, where he is commissioned by the government to explore the lower reaches of the Niger.
Accompanied in 1830 by his brother John, Lander makes his way north from the coast near Lagos to reach the great river at Bussa - the furthest point of Mungo Park's journey downstream. With considerable difficulty the brothers make a canoe trip downstream, among hostile Ibo tribesmen, to reach the sea at the Niger delta. This region has long been familiar to European traders, but its link to the interior is now charted. All seems set for serious trade.
The first white man to ascend the Niger to the confluence of the Benue: Macgregor Laird (1808 - 9th January 1861) was a Scottish merchant pioneer of British trade on the River Niger.
Laird was born at Greenock, the younger son of William Laird, founder of the Birkenhead firm of shipbuilders of that name. In 1831, Laird and certain Liverpool merchants formed a company for the commercial development of the Niger regions; the lower course of the Niger having been made known that year by Richard Lemon Lander and John Lander. In 1832, the company sent two small ships to the Niger, the Alburkah, a paddle-wheel steamer of fifty-five tons designed by Laird, the first iron vessel to make an ocean voyage. Laird went with the expedition, which was led by Richard Lander and forty-eight Europeans, all but nine of whom died from fever or, in the case of Lander, from wounds. Laird went up the Niger to the confluence of the Benue (then called the Shary or Tchadda), which he was the first white man to ascend. He did not go far up the river but formed an accurate idea as to its source and course.
The expedition returned to Liverpool in 1834. Laird and Surgeon R. A. K. Oldfield were the only surviving officers besides Captain (then Lieutenant) William Allen, who accompanied the expedition on the orders of the Admiralty to survey the river. In 1837, Laird and Oldfield published the Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger in 1832, 1833, 1834.
The expedition had been unsuccessful commercially, but Laird had gained experience invaluable to his successors. He never returned to Africa but instead devoted himself largely to the development of trade with West Africa and especially to the opening up of the countries then forming the British protectorates of Nigeria. One of his principal reasons for so doing was his belief that this method was the best means of stopping the slave trade and raising the social condition of the Africans.
In 1854, he set up, with the support of the British government, a small steamer, the Pleiad, which under W. B. Baikie made so successful a voyage that Laird induced the government to sign contracts for annual trading trips by steamers specially built for navigation of the Niger and Benue. Various stations were founded on the Niger, and though government support was withdrawn after the death of Laird and Baikie, British traders continued to frequent the river, which Laird had opened up with little or no personal advantage.
Laird's interests were not, however, wholly African. In 1837 he was one of the promoters of a company formed to run steamships between England and New York, and in 1838 the Sirius, sent out by this company, was the first ship to cross the Atlantic from Europe entirely under steam. Laird died in London in 1861.
First attempt to organise a reliable monetary system for Nigeria was made in 1858, when MacGregor Laird issued small copper coin, each of the value of one-eighth of a penny, to be used in Nigeria and in the other British settlements in West Africa. The coins became popular with the indigenous people in those areas along the coast where they were introduced. However, the coins were withdrawn from circulation because the issue was held by the British Government to be an infringement of the Royal Prerogative.
MacGregor Laird accompanied the 1832 commercial expedition from England, which arrived in the Niger Delta and ascended the River Niger beyond Lokoja in the first Iron steamer to make a sea voyage.
The foundation of British Shipping, indeed of modern shipping, in Nigeria was laid by MacGregor Laird, whofounded the African Steamship Company in 1852 with monthly sailings to the West African ports and, with the grudging co-operation of the Government, had contracted to keep a steamer on the Niger. The main focus of the company at first was trading with the Niger River area and other west African ports, bringing west-African palm oil back to Britain.
Laird died in 1857, when his spirited enterprise appeared to be on the point of yielding tangible results, and the country was still under a cloud when, twenty years later, the first organised attempt was made to develop its commercial resources.
In 1854, William Baikie led the first successful expedition to make use of Quinine. The expedition visited part of the Benue, carried on trade with the people of the area and returned to the coast after four months, during which not a single member of the expedition died. Among the expedition was MacGregor Laird.
William Balfour Baikie is an explorer, naturalist and surgeon. William Balfour Baikie was born in Kirkwall in 1825. He is remembered for opening navigation of the River Niger in Africa and establishing a market for trade. After studying medicine in Edinburgh, Baikie joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon. He took part in the Niger Expedition in 1854 and went on to found the Lokoja settlement. He was anti-slavery and known for his welfare for the people, while running the trading post. He died of malignant fever while on leave in Sierra Leone, aged just 39. You can see his stone monument in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall.
First Lagos Census in 1866: Population of 25,083(Kwache.I.Y), 1870(41,236), 1880(62,000), 1895(86,000)
First Ibadan Census in 1851: Population - 60,000; 1890 (Population - 200,000)
British influence in Nigeria started in 1851 when the British Attacked Lagos in an attempt to force Kosoko (the King of Lagos) to abolish slave trade.
After more than 350 years of slave trading, the British decided that the slave trade was immoral and, in 1807, ordered it stopped. Many local leaders, however, continued to sell captives to illegal slave traders. This led to confrontations with the British Navy, which took on the responsibility of enforcing the slave embargo.
Oba Akintoye (reigned: 1841-1845 and 1851–1853) had been expelled by Madam Efunloye Tinubu and given the throne to Akintoye's nephew, Oba Kosoko in 1846. Akintoye sought help from Britain, petitioning J.Beecroft to regain his Kingdom on 6 January 1851; he defined his struggles against Oba Kosoko as one over the anti-slave trade and pro-English activities.
The refusal of the King of Lagos to stop the slave trade in his area forced Britain to attack Lagos, to try to stem the flow of slaves from the area and ultimately led to them taking over the administration of Lagos in 1861, exiling the reigning King, King Dosumu (making it Britain's first official colony in present day Nigeria). It was decided that Sierra Leone should become the seat of Government for all of the West African Dependencies of Great Britain, Lagos was administered with the rest of the British West African territories from 1866 to 1874, and with the Gold Coast from 1874 to 1886.
In 1886 a number of British Companies around the Niger amalgamated into the Royal Niger Company, and the charter of the new company gave it power ‘to administer, make treaties, levy customs duties and trade in all territories in the basin of the Niger and its affluents’, thus bringing the northern territories of the country under the influence of British traders.
In the same year (1886), the British Government proclaimed the Oil Rivers protectorate over the Niger Delta and established the Colony of Lagos. It was not until the Niger Coast protectorate came into existence in 1893 that there was any well organised government machinery. By 1897 the whole of Yoruba land had been annexed to the Colony of Lagos as its protectorate.
Imperialism began with designing anti-slave trade treaty which was to be signed by the African rulers. Whoever denied signing it will be dealt with. The Oba of Lagos, Kosoko was first approached to sign the treaty. Oba Kosoko viewed the treaty as an incursion on his land’s affairs and thus denied to sign it. The British started to plot against him and his supporters. In November 1851, John Beecroft tried to persuade Kosoko to sign but he failed in his mission. Afterwards, he ordered his accompanied four warships to fire Lagos. Kosoko and his men showed courage and fired back which claimed two officers‟ live and injured other sixteen people. (Ikime, 1977). This resistance and retaliation was seen as a disgrace to the British who retreated only to come back with full force to bombard Lagos on 26th December, 1851. Eventually, Kosoko was banished from Lagos. His rival to the throne, Akintoye was crowned and signed the treaty. Few months later, Lagos became a British colony. However, Kosoko who happened to be a Muslim and his followers re-established their religion and institution in Epe.
Oba Akitoye who ceded Lagos to the British was oba Kosoko's uncle. Oba Akitoye was the first Oba not to be buried in a Bini. Prior to this, all the Kings of lagos were buried in Bini. They passed on taxes to the Oba of Bini until the British came and explained that there was no need to send taxes to Bini anymore especially as the Binis themselves were paying taxes to Britain. It was during his reign that the direct influence of the Binis on Lagos ended.
Akitoye was the 11th Oba of Lagos. He was a grandson of former Oba Ologun Kutere. He ruled from 1841 to 1845, when he was deposed by his nephew Kosoko, and was reinstated with the help of British troops to rule from 1851 to his death in 1853.
First Governor of Lagos Colony: Henry Stanhope Freeman (22 January 1862 - April 1865) before him was acting Governor, William McCoskry (6 August 1861 - 22 January 1862)
In August 1861 a British naval force entered Lagos Bay and seized the town in the name of Queen Victoria. King Dosumu (reigned from 1853-1885) was exiled and the consul William McCoskry became acting governor. As a colony, Lagos was now protected and governed directly from Britain. Africans born in the colony were British subjects, with full rights including access to the courts. By contrast, Africans in the later protectorates of southern and northern Nigeria were protected people but remained under the jurisdiction of their traditional rulers.
First introduction of Licence for boats and canoes in the settlement of Lagos: 1866 as a result of colonial fiscal policies due to increasing use of canoes.
First wholesale and retail licence on the sale of spirits in Lagos: 1875
First ordinance passed by Lagos Government to provide for the construction of roads and public works and for the performance of labour required for the better defense of the colony and protectorate: 1885
Authorization for the first Nigerian railway construction between Lagos and Otta (20 miles): 1895. It started from Lagos in 1896 and reached Abeokuta in 1900. A year later (1897), it reached Ibadan and by 1909 it linked the border of the northern Nigeria. (Olubomehin, 2001). Beside railway, roads were also constructed. The first road was built in 1906 from Oyo to Ibadan so as to link with the railway line. In 1907 another 30 miles was constructed linking Oyo to Ogbomoso and 27 mile road from Oyo to Iseyin. By 1910 and upwards, Ikirun to Ila, Osogbo to Ilesa and so on were constructed (Ibid). It also ushered in other social amenities such as hospital, electricity and so on.
Nigeria’s first General Post Office: Lagos (1886). Prior to this, overseas mails during British administration in Nigeria arrived at the Lagos government house where British officers stationed in and around Lagos collected their mails. The mails of British officers serving in other parts of the country were dispatched by special canoes where and when available, or carried by special messengers on the footpath.
As the railway extended slowly into the interior, post offices were established along the route, but only in important centres.
Nigeria’s first introduction of paid for postal services: The Penny Postage (1899)
Nigeria’s first formal establishment of a commercial bank: 1894. Prior to this, the post office was the only institution which provided modern savings facilities.
Nigeria’s first power driven machinery for cracking palm nuts was introduced by C.A. Moore of Liverpool in 1877.
The first organised Nigeria Police began with a 30-member consular guard formed in Lagos Colony in 1861. In 1879, a 1,200-member armed paramilitary constabulary was formed. In 1896, the Lagos Police was established. The force known as NPF (Nigeria Police Force) was formed in 1930 when northern and southern Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914.
The first police force was established in 1861 by the British colonial administration in the territories known today as Nigeria. This 100-man contingent was essentially a consular protection force based in Lagos, which later became known as the “Hausa Force,” so-named after the ethnicity of the men recruited into the unit.
The northern and southern regional police forces were later merged, in 1930, to form the colony’s first national police—the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
The military government that emerged after two military coups in 1966 disbanded the local police forces amidst allegations that the local police had been used for partisan purposes by the regional governments against political opponents.
By 1972, the local police forces were fully integrated into the NPF. Since then, the NPF, a national force under the control of the federal government, has been the sole entity responsible for policing in Nigeria.
First Missionary to stop the killing of twins in Nigeria: Mary Slessor, she started in Calabar.
Mary Mitchell Slessor was a Scottish missionary to Nigeria. Her work and strong personality allowed her to be trusted and accepted by the locals while spreading Christianity and promoting women's rights.
She was born on December 2, 1848 in Gilcomston, close to Aberdeen, Scotland. She was the second of seven children of Robert and Mary Slessor. Her father, originally from Buchan, was a shoemaker by trade. In 1859 the family moved to Dundee in search of work. Robert Slessor was an alcoholic, and unable to keep up shoemaking, took a job as a labourer in a mill. Her mother, a skilled weaver, also went to work in the mills. At the age of eleven, Mary began work as a "half timer" in the Baxter Brothers' Mill. She spent half of her day at a school provided by the mill owners, and the other half working for the company. The Slessors lived in the slums of Dundee. Before long, Mary's father died of pneumonia, and both her brothers died, leaving behind only Mary, her mother, and two sisters. By age fourteen, Mary had become a skilled jute worker, working from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with just an hour for breakfast and lunch.
Mary's mother was a devout Presbyterian who read each issue of the Missionary Record, a monthly magazine published by The United Presbyterian Church (later United Free Church of Scotland) to inform members of missionary activities and needs. Mary developed an interest in religion and, when a mission was instituted in Quarry Pend (close by the Wishart Church), Mary volunteered to become a teacher. Mary was 27 when she heard news that David Livingstone, the famous missionary and explorer, had died. She wanted to follow in his footsteps.
Mary applied to the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church. After training in Edinburgh, Mary set sail in the S.S. Ethiopia on 5 August 1876, and arrived at her destination in West Africa just over a month later. She was 28 years of age, red haired with bright blue eyes. Mary was sent to the Calabar region, warned that witchcraft and superstition were prevalent. The ritual sacrifice of children, and twins in particular, was customary among the people she would be ministering to, but Mary was undaunted. She worked first in the missions in Old Town and Creek Town. She lived in the missionary compound for 3 years. She wanted to go deeper into Calabar, malaria forced her to go home to Scotland and recover. Mary left Calabar for Dundee in 1879. She was in Scotland for 16 months before heading back to Africa.
On her return, she did not go back to the compound, but 3 miles further into Calabar, to Old Town. As she had to leave a large portion of her salary at home for the support of her mother and sisters, she had to economise and took to subsisting on the native food.
Unlike other missionaries, Mary lived as part of the tribe, learned to speak Efik, the native language, and made close personal friendships wherever she went. She adopted abandoned twins and worked tirelessly to protect children and raise the status of women. Mary was known for her pragmatism and humour; this earned her the respect and trust of the people she wanted to serve.
Mary Slessor went to live among the Efik and the Okoyong which lived near the Efiks who live in Calabar, in present day Nigeria. There she successfully fought against the killing of twins at infancy. Mary Slessor was a driving force behind the establishment of the Hope Waddell Training Institute in Calabar, which provided practical vocational training to Africans.
Mary contracted malaria and had to suffer the fever again and again for 40 years, but she downplayed the personal cost of this, and never gave up returning to Scotland. The fevers eventually weakened her to the point where she could no longer walk all day or night in the rainforest, but had to be pushed along in a hand-cart. She eventually died after a particularly severe fever, on 13th January 1915.
Mary Slessor died at her remote station near Use Ikot Oku. Her body was transported down the Cross River to Duke Town for the colonial equivalent of a state funeral. Attendees at her funeral included the Provincial Commissioner along with other senior British Officials in full uniform. Her Coffin was wrapped in the Union Jack. Flags at government buildings were flown at half mast and the Governor-General of Nigeria, Sir Frederick Lugard telegraphed his 'deepest regret' from Lagos and published a warm tribute in the Government Gazette.
The first man to launch a Jihad against then Northern Nigeria in 1802: Usman Dan Fodio.
The first in Hausaland to own eunuchs and kola nuts: Queen Amina of Zaria.
Amina Mohamud (also called Aminatu) was a Hausa Muslim Warrior Queen of Zazzau (now Zaria), in what is now north central Nigeria. She is the subject of many legends, but is widely believed by historians to have been a real ruler, though contemporary evidence about her is limited. There is controversy among scholars as to the date of her reign, one school placing her in the mid-15th century, and a second placing her reign in the mid to late 16th century.
The earliest source to mention Amina is Muhammed Bello's history Ifaq al-Maysur, composed around 1836. He claims that she was "the first to establish government among them," and she forced Katsina, Kano and other regions to pay tribute to her. Bello unfortunately, provided no chronological details about her. She is also mentioned in the Kano Chronicle, a well-regarded and detailed history of the city of Kano, composed in the late 19th century, but incorporating earlier documentary material. According to this chronicle, she was a contemporary of Muhammad Dauda, who ruled from 1421–38, and Amina conquered as far as Nupe and Kwarafa, collected tribute from far and wide and ruled for 34 years. A number of scholars accept this information and date her reign to the early to mid-15th century.
There is also a local chronicle of Zaria itself, written in the 19th century (it goes up to 1902) and published in 1910 that gives a list of the rulers and the duration of their reigns. Amina is not mentioned in this chronicle, but oral tradition in the early 20th century held her to be the daughter of Bakwa Turunku, whose reign is dated by the chronicle from 1492–1522, and on this basis some scholars date her reign to the early 16th century. Abdullahi Smith, using similar discrepancies places her reign after 1576. It is on the basis of her absence in this source as well, that claims that she never ruled but was only a princess.
The seven original states of Hausaland: Katsina, Daura, Kano, Zazzau, Gobir, Rano, and Garun Gabas cover an area of approximately 500 square miles and comprise the heart of Hausaland. In the sixteenth century, Queen Bakwa Turunku built the capital of Zazzau at Zaria, named after her younger daughter. Eventually, the entire state of Zazzau was renamed Zaria, which is now a province in present-day Nigeria.
However it was her elder daughter, the legendary Amina (or Aminatu), who inherited her mother's warlike nature. Amina was 16 years old when her mother became queen and she was given the traditional title of magajiya. She honed her military skills and became famous for her bravery and military exploits, as she is celebrated in song as "Amina daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man."
Amina is credited as the architect who created the strong earthen walls around the city, which was the prototype for the fortifications used in all Hausa states. She built many of these fortifications, which became known as ganuwar Amina or Amina's walls, around various conquered cities.
The objectives of her conquests were twofold: extension of Zazzau beyond its primary borders and reducing the conquered cities to vassal status. Sultan Muhammad Bello of Sokoto stated that, "She made war upon these countries and overcame them entirely so that the people of Katsina paid tribute to her and the men of Kano [and]... also made war on cities of Bauchi till her kingdom reached to the sea in the south and the west." Likewise, she led her armies as far as Nupe and, according to the Kano Chronicle, "The Sarkin Nupe sent her (the princess) 40 eunuchs and 10,000 kola nuts making her the first in Hausaland to own eunuchs and kola nuts".
Amina was a preeminent gimbiya (princess) but various theories exist as to the time of her reign or if she ever was a queen. One explanation states that she reigned from approximately 1536 to 1573, while another posits that she became queen after her brother Karama's death, in 1576. Yet, another claims that although she was a leading princess, she was never a queen.
Despite the discrepancies, over a 34-year period, her many conquests and subsequent annexation of the territories extended the borders of Zaria, which also grew in importance and became the center of the North-South Saharan trade and the East-West Sudan trade.
The first step towards a uniform currency system (of a sort) was taken in 1880 when an ordinance was passed providing for the demonitization of certain coins. It enacted that only certain coins were to be deemed and taken as legal tender:
- All gold and silver British sterlings
- Gold coins (foreign) as follows:
o Spanish and South American doubloon at £3.4s
o American ‘double eagle’ at £4.2s (sub-divisions in proportion)
o French twenty franc at 15s. 10d
o Gold dust and nuggets at £3.12s.10d per dozen
The first known diplomat of Nigerian origin to Europe: Ohen Okun - The Olokun Priest of the Port town of Ughoton, Benin during the reign of Oba Esigie (1504-1549). He was sent to Portugal as the Ambassador of Benin, while Affonso D’Aveiro remained in Benin as Portuguese envoy. While in Portugal, he was treated with the utmost respect and learnt to speak Portuguese. He later returned to Benin and can be described as the first known diplomat of Nigerian origin to Europe.
The first person of Nigerian Origin to obtain a European University degree: Olu Atuwatse (Dom Domingo) - He was sent by his father to Portugal in 1601. He graduated from the University of Coimbra in 1611 to become the first person of Nigerian Origin to obtain a European University degree. He married the daughter of a Portuguese noble Dona Feira - their son, Omonigheren (Antonio Domingo- the golden skinned King) succeeded him to the throne upon his death in 1643. Antonio Domingo wrote a letter to the Pope in 1652, asking For missionary assistance - the oldest letter written in Nigeria.
The missionary activities started in Benin in 1515 by Catholics Missionaries and established a school for converted princes and children of notable chiefs in Oba’s palace (Ibid). In the same year, Gasper, the bishop of the Diocese of Sao Tome sent Augustinian monks to visit Warri. Consequently, a son of Olu of Warri was baptized with given name Sebastian. Afterward, Sebastian succeeded his father and gave Portuguese missionaries enormous support and his son Domingos was sent to Portugal to be trained for the priesthood.
The first known Nigerian female poetess: Nana Asmau (1793-1834), was the daughter of Usman Dan Fodio. She is the first known Nigerian female poetess. “Wakar Gewaye” (The Journey) was her greatest work, the first of 60 surviving works (written in Arabic) still studied today. She was also a respected adviser to the Caliph, Muhammad Bello (her brother).
The first indigenous Organist in Nigeria: Professor R.A. Coker a classical Pianist born in Abeokuta. He studied music at the Abeokuta Institution between 1861 and 1864, under Professor Buhle and further in London in 1880. He taught at the Lagos Female Institution, between 1881 and 1894, specialising in the Pianoforte. He was described by the Observer in 1915, as the first indigenous Organist in Nigeria and conducted the Lagos Handel Festival of 1882.
The first publisher of an English language newspaper in Nigeria: Robert Campbell. Born in Jamaica and an abolitionist; he had been a Science Lecturer at the Institute for Coloured Youth, Philadelphia, before settling In Nigeria in 1859. He published the first English language newspaper in Nigerian history The Anglo-African in 1863. He established himself as part of Lagosian society and upon his death, he was buried in Lagos, where his descendants still live. Campbell Street in Lagos, was named after him.
The first African to be admitted to the Royal Photographic Society in 1897: Neils Walwin Holm: He was born in Ghana in 1865 and started his career as a photographer in 1882 and travelled around West Africa on commission from the British authorities. He settled permanently in Nigeria in 1896, setting up his Photo studio in Lagos and was the first African to be admitted to the Royal Photographic Society in 1897. He studied Law, whilst on medical leave in the UK and was called to the Bar in 1910. He returned to Nigeria in 1917 and set up, this time as a Barrister, running one of the most successful Chambers in Lagos.
Nwanyereuwa - Nwanyereuwa was a widow in the village of Oloko, on the Outskirts of Aba. She was approached by an agent of the Warrant Chief Okugo, ostensibly on a tax assessment, upon which a scuffle ensued, She rallied women to her aid in the traditional method, by sending Palm fronds to her fellow women, who came out in their 1000’s. This set in motion the most violent protest of the early Colonial era, in which several persons were killed. This became a rallying call of protest, for women not just in Nigeria but all over the world.
Chari Maigumeri - The most decorated soldier in the Nigerian Army, RSM Maigumer I. He first fought for the Germans in WW1, earning an Iron Cross Medal for gallantry. He switched sides and fought on the side of the British from 1917. In WW2, he fought in Somaliland, earning a Military Medal, He also fought in Burma, earning a British Empire Medal and Mention In dispatches. On retirement in 1953, he was awarded the rank Honorary Captain for his service to the Army. He was honored by the Nigerian Army, with a barracks named after him. The respected book ‘The History of The Royal West African Frontier Force’, has a whole page dedicated to him.
Professor Augustine Njoku-Obi - He was born in Owerri in 1930 and studied Microbiology obtaining a PhD from the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama USA. He returned to Nigeria lecturing at the University of Lagos in 1965, and later at the University of Nigeria Nsukka after the Civil War, where he became a Professor of Virology. He produced a Cholera Vaccine, which was approved by the World Health Organisation as efficacious in 1971 and employed successfully in the Kano Cholera epidemic of 1972. He died in the USA in 2003.
Europeans first arrived in the Enugu area in 1903 when the British/Australian geologist Albert Ernest Kitson led an exploration of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate to search for especially valued mineral resources under the supervision of the Imperial Institute, London.
Sir Albert Ernest Kitson KBE, CMG (21 March 1868 – 8 March 1937) was a naturalist and winner of the Lyell Medal in 1927.
Kitson was born in North Street, Audenshaw, Cheshire, England, the son of John Kitson from Manchester and Margaret, née Neil, from Edinburgh, Scotland. On his father's side the family had been stonemasons whilst his maternal grandfather was a Scottish Presbyterian minister. Albert's early childhood was spent in Nagpur in the Central Provinces of India where his family moved when he was a year old. Around 1876 they emigrated to Victoria (Australia). Here John and Margaret taught at a State School in the gold-mining settlement of Enoch's Point in the Victorian Alps before John was appointed as head teacher of the, recently created, North Winton State School near Benalla. John died of angina in 1879 and so until her death in 1898 Margaret took over the running of the school which was attended by both her surviving children - Albert and his younger brother (John) Sidney.
After his initial work in Victoria, Kitson spent much of his subsequent professional life in Africa. Recognising his geological talents Professor J. W. Gregory recommended him for a post as Principal mineral surveyor in Southern Nigeria where he went on to discover coal and lignite. In 1909 he discovered black bituminous coal along the Enugu-Udi escarpment in Nigeria and high hopes were placed in such a potentially important coal deposit. The town of Port Harcourt was built in 1912 as an outlet for this Nigerian coal and was linked with Enugu via a railway line that extended northwards to Kaduna. The Enugu coal fields went into production in 1915 and caused an important immigration of population to Enugu earning the town the nickname of the 'Coal City'. The Nigerian coal turned out to be of poor quality and was used mainly for domestic consumption within the colonies, providing an important power resource for the railways and electricity.
Although Kitson's mission was to discover mineral deposits which might be exploited by the British Colonial authority he always combined this with a paternalistic concern to improve the material situation of the local populations. In 1912, after hearing a lecture by J.P. Unstead about the climatic conditions for wheat cultivation in North America, Kitson's response was to ask whether Unstead's findings might be applied to Nigeria. Kitson argued: "Could a wheat-growing industry be established it would be a great boon to the people of West Africa". In paternalistic tones he went on: "It might in Northern Nigeria replace to a large extent the less valuable millet now grown there, while in Southern Nigeria it could materially supplement the staple foods- cassava, yams and maize".
After Nigeria, Kitson continued his explorations in Africa, along with Edmund Thiele, working particularly in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) between 1913–30 where he was first Principal of the Mineral Survey and afterwards Director of the Geological Survey.
In 1910 he married Margaret Legge, née Walker (1870–1920). After her death he married Elinore Almond Ramage (1892–1963) in 1927. Like his mother she was the daughter of a Scottish Presbyterian Minister, although she herself was born in Victoria, Australia. Despite their advancing years (the couple had a combined age of around 100) they had two children: (Ernest) Neil (1928–2009) and David (1935–2011). Albert Kitson died in Beaconsfield on 8 March 1937 of broncho-pneumonia and influenza.
The first king to use eunuchs and slaves in his royal administration: Muhammad Rumfa. Rumfa is considered one of the greatest Hausa kings of Kano. He ruled from 1463 to 1499. During his tenure, he extended the city walls for protection and established the Kurmi Market and Jurma’at Mosque. He instituted Islam as the official religion of Kano and improved Kano’s political structure. He was inspired by the Arab scholar al-Maghili, who wrote a treatise recommending an effective form of government, which included an ombudsman.
The first European to record his travel around Nigeria and his encounter with Nigerian royalties: Hugh Clapperton (1822-1826)
Bain Hugh Clapperton (18 May 1788 – 13 April 1827) was a Scottish naval officer and explorer of West and Central Africa.
Clapperton was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, where his father was a surgeon. He gained some knowledge of practical mathematics and navigation, and at thirteen was apprenticed on board a vessel which traded between Liverpool and North America. After having made several voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, he was impressed for the navy, in which he soon rose to the rank of midshipman. During the Napoleonic Wars he saw a good deal of active service, and at the storming of Port Louis, Mauritius, in November 1810, he was first in the breach and hauled down the French flag.
In 1814 Clapperton went to Canada, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and to the command of a schooner on the Canadian lakes. In 1817, when the flotilla on the lakes was dismantled, he returned home on half-pay. In 1820 Clapperton removed to Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Walter Oudney, who aroused his interest in African travel.
Lieutenant G. F. Lyon having returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach Bornu from Tripoli, the British government determined on a second expedition to that country. Walter Oudney was appointed by Lord Bathurst, then colonial secretary, to proceed to Bornu as consul, accompanied by Hugh Clapperton . From Tripoli, early in 1822, they set out southward to Murzuk, where they were later joined by Dixon Denham, who found both men in a wretched condition. Eventually proceeding south from Murzuk on 29 November 1822, a great antipathy soon developed between Clapperton and Denham; Denham at one stage openly accusing Clapperton of having homosexual relations with one of the Arab servant boys. The accusation was almost certainly unfounded, leading the historian E. W. Bovill to write that "it remains difficult to recall in all the checkered (sic) history of geographic discovery.... a more odious man than Dixon Denham".
The party eventually reached Kuka (now Kukawa in Nigeria) on 17 February 1823, having earlier become the first white men to see Lake Chad. Whilst at Kuka, Clapperton and Oudney parted company with Denham to visit the Hausa states. Denham remained behind to explore and survey the western, south and south-eastern shores of Lake Chad, and the lower courses of the rivers Waube, Logone and Shari. Clapperton and Oudney reached Bornu where they were well received by the sultan, and after remaining in the region until 14 December, they again set out for the purpose of exploring the course of the Niger River.
However, only a few weeks later, Oudney died at Murmur on the road to Kano. Undeterred, Clapperton continued his journey alone through Kano to Sokoto, the capital of the Fulani Empire, where by order of Sultan Muhammed Bello he was obliged to stop, though the Niger was only a five-day journey to the west. Exhausted by his travels, he returned by way of Zaria and Katsina to Kuka, where Denham found him barely recognizable after his privations. Clapperton and Denham departed Kuka for Tripoli in August 1824, reaching Tripoli on 26 January 1825. Their mutual antipathy unabated, they exchanged not a word during the 133-day journey. The pair continued their journey to England, arriving home to a heroes' welcome on 1 June 1825. An account of their travels was published in 1826 under the title Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the years 1822 - 1823 and 1824.
Immediately after his return to England, Clapperton was raised to the rank of commander, and sent out with another expedition to Africa, the sultan Bello of Sokoto having professed his eagerness to open up trade with the west coast. Clapperton came out on HMS Brazen, which was joining the West Africa Squadron for the suppression of the slave trade. He landed at Badagry in the Bight of Benin, and started overland for the Niger on 7 December 1825, having with him his servant Richard Lemon Lander, Captain Pearce, and Dr. Morrison, navy surgeon and naturalist. Before the month was out Pearce and Morrison were dead of fever. Clapperton continued his journey, and, passing through the Yoruba country, in January 1826 he crossed the Niger at Bussa, the spot where Mungo Park had died twenty years before. In July he arrived at Kano. From there he went to Sokoto, intending afterwards to go to Bornu. The sultan, however, detained him, and being seized with dysentery he died near Sokoto.
Clapperton was the first European to make known from personal observation the Hausa states, which he visited soon after the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate by the Fula. In 1829 the Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, &c., by Clapperton appeared posthumously, with a biographical sketch of the explorer by his uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel S. Clapperton, as a preface.
The first written documentation about the Eegun Alare was recorded by Hugh Clapperton, the famous British explorer, who had seen the performance of a residential itinerant Alare troupe as a guest of the Alaafin of Oyo on Wednesday the 22nd of February 1826 (see 1981: 221). Clapperton’s account of the performance was reported thus:
The third act consisted of the white devil. The actors having retired to some distance in the background, one of them was left in the centre, whose sack falling gradually down, exposed a white head, at which the crowd gave a shout that rent the air; they appeared indeed to enjoy this sight and the perfection of the actor’s act. The whole body was at last cleared of the encumbrance of the sack, when it exhibited the appearance of a human figure cast in white wax, of the middle size, miserably thin, and starved with cold. It frequently went through the motion of taking snuff and rubbing its hands; when it walked, it was with the most awkward gait, treading as the most tender-footed white man would do in walking barefooted for the first time over frozen ground. The spectators often appealed to us, as to the excellence of the performance, and entreated I would look and be attentive to what was going on. I pretended to be fully as much pleased with this caricature of a white man as they would be, and certainly the actor burlesqued the part to admiration (1966: 55; cited in Jeyifo, 1984: 34).
According to oral tradition, the Hausa Kingdoms developed from a marriage between Prince Bayajidda of Baghdad and a Princess from Daura around the 10th century. One version of the story says their son, Bawo, and his sons established the first several Hausa Kingdoms, which include Daura, Kano, and Katsina.
Abdullahi Maje Karofi (- 1882?) – Fourth emir of Kano (1855-1882). The royal slaves increased their influence in government and gained new rights; they also began marrying free Fulani women during his reign.
Abiodun (?-1789): He was the alaafin of the Yoruba Oyo Empire between 1770 and 1789. He is the first alaafin to rule after defeating Dahomey (in present day Benin).
Abiodun (reigned c. 1770–1789) was an 18th-century alaafin, or ruler, of the Oyo people in what is now Nigeria. Coming to the throne shortly after the Oyo subjugation of neighboring Dahomey, Abiodun soon found himself embroiled in a civil war over the goals of the newly wealthy state.
Bashorun Gaha, the empire's prime minister and lord marshal, had used his power to pervert the constitutional terms of abdication in a bid to limit the powers of the Alaafin and gain more political power for himself. During Gaha's power play, he had succeeded in removing three kings before Abiodun curtailed his excesses and had him burned alive.
In terms of trade, while Abiodun favored economic expansion for his own sake, his opponents favored using the wealth from Dahomey's tribute to finance further military expansion. Abiodun soon proved victorious and pursued a policy of peaceful trade with the European merchants of the coast. This course significantly weakened the army, leaving his successor, Awole, facing a number of local revolts.
Abiodun's reign is generally remembered as a time of peace and prosperity for the Oyo, though Nigerian playwright Femi Òsófisan portrays him as a despot in his play The Chattering and the Song (1973).
His grandson Cândido da Fonseca Galvão, under the title of Dom Oba II, was an important South American abolitionist during Pedro II of Brazil's rule.
Ozolua (? – 1520): Third son of Ewuare and a ruler of the Benin Kingdom. He ascended to the throne in 1480; five years later (1485), Joao Alfonso d’Aveiro, a Portuguese explorer visited Benin. Ozolua agreed to open diplomatic relations with d’Aveiro and the Portuguese by allowing Christian missionaries to set up a station and educate his people. Ozolua travelled with d’Aveiro to Portugal and returned to Benin with luxury items. He is also remembered for substantially extending the boundaries of the Kingdom, almost reaching Lagos. His son, Esigie, replaced him as ruler around 1514.
The first alaafin of Oyo to be succeeded by his son: Alaafin Atiba
Ruler of the Oyo Empire from 1836 until his death, Atiba was the son of Abiodun and is remembered for abolishing the practice of the eldest son dying with his father in 1858. He was the first alaafin (king) of Oyo to be succeeded by his son, Adelu. This change in tradition caused conflict within Yoruba territory. The Ijaye, for example, refused to recognize Adelu as the new alaafin. Ibadan, on the other hand, recognized him.
The first Kanta (ruler) of Kebbi: Muhammadu. Kebbi is one of the Hausa kingdoms established between 10th and 18th century.
The first Caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate: Usman Dan fodio (1812). After 1903, the title of caliph was changed by the British to sultan. Other titles related to the Sokoto Caliphate are emir and sardauna. A caliph is an Islamic leader and political head of state. This is an Arabic word meaning “successor to the messenger of God.”
In 1921 the Emir of Katsina took a ride in a Bristol aircraft while in Britain on the way to Mecca. He enjoyed the experience, saying "We have finished the sights of the earth and have grasped them. Today we are seeing the sights of the heavens."
The first Western visitor to Ibadan, Oyo State: David Hinderer (1851)
David (1820 to 1890) and Anna Hinderer (1827 to 1870).
David and Anna Hinderer were missionaries in Yorubaland (now in Nigeria). David came from rural Württemberg, near Schorndorf, Germany, and trained at the Basel Mission seminary. Accepted by the Church Missionary Society, he entered their training college in London in 1846 and received Anglican ordination (deacon 1847, priest 1848). He joined the Yoruba mission in 1849, with a view to expanding the work up the Niger to Hausaland. Since Henry Townsend was absent in England, Hinderer was first stationed at Abeokuta, where, like Townsend, he concluded that Ibadan City, rather than Hausaland, was the proper target of expansion. In 1851 he was the first Western visitor to Ibadan. On sick leave in England next year, he married Anna Martin. Born in Hempnall, Norfolk, and early left motherless, Anna was living in the family of Francis Cunningham, vicar of Lowestoft, a connection by marriage of T. F. Buxton.
The Hinderers went to Yorubaland in 1856, opening work in Ibadan. Though their reception was cordial, the Christian response was not spectacular. The small church that emerged, however, was later to blossom under Daniel Olubi, who himself grew up in the Hinderer household. The striking characteristic of the Hinderers was human warmth; the made friends readily-among them Olubi, J. C. Akielle, Henry and Samuel Johnson, and others who became leading lights in the West African churches. Long-standing mutual affection bound Anna and the many children who lived in or visited their compound. David became an effective translator and as the mission's Hebraist, its chief Old Testament reviser.
The Ijaye War long clouded their work. Abeokuta and Ibadan were on opposing sides, and Hinderer lamented the missionary tendency, illustrated in Townsend, to take Abeokuta's part. The war circumscribed missionary activity, and the Hinderers were cut off for several years from colleagues, mission headquarters, money, and supplies, with David at times in real danger. They finally left Ibadan in 1869, the city having resisted pressure from Abeokuta to expel them in the Ifole-the movement for expulsion of all whites. Both were broken in health, and they retired in England to take pastoral charge of the village of Martham, Norfolk. Here Anna died. David returned to Yorubaland in 1874, laying the foundation of the church in Ondo and other areas east of Lagos. He finally retired in 1877, while continuing to work on Yoruba translation. A memoir based on Anna's journal and letters became a popular and much-quoted classic of women's missionary work.
Pupuupu of Ondo, was recorded to have established the first monarchy of Ondo, where she reigned in the 15th century30; her dynasty is reported to be still active today. According to Akinjogbin, ‘whenever an ‘Osemawe’ died, it was ‘Pupuupu’ who took over during the period of interregnum’.
World Wars I and Ii. At the end of 1913, the British created the Nigeria Regiment, consisting primarily of Hausa and Yoruba soldiers armed with guns. During World War I, the British mobilized Nigerian labor and capital. The (Royal) West African Frontier Force (WAFF) fought during World Wars I and II on the side of Great Britain. During the first war, the WAFF engaged in battle with Germans in present-day Cameroon and Tanzania. During the second, the WAFF fought in Burma, Italian Somaliland, and Ethiopia. An estimated 16,000 Nigerians were in the army. Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians also contributed to the large-scale production of raw materials and building of infrastructure, which included military camps and roads. Market women argued that they bore the brunt of wartime hardships because they were responsible for feeding and clothing their unemployed family members as well as paying their taxes. The market women relied on their trade, which was strictly controlled during wartime.
During WWI In Nigeria, there was a general rallying round among urban educated Nigerians. Speeches were made and money collected.
"Our kith and kin have gone to fight in our stead, and it is only right that we should give them all the support necessary... Ingratitude is the greatest reproach that could be flung at a native, and I therefore urge upon all to contribute their quota to this national fund so that it might not be said we are ungrateful to the British Government for many benefits conferred." - Dr. Obasa, described in West Africa magazine as the "well-known Lagos public man," speaking at a meeting of chiefs at Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos.
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