Strangers, indigenes and child kidnapping in late colonial Lagos

Abstract

This article, focusing on child kidnapping, examines the involvement of strangers and indigenes in the commission of the offence in late colonial Lagos. Although it was good to think that strangers were the perpetrators of this heinous crime against defenceless children, I argue on the basis of written evidence in colonial newspapers and records that both strangers and indigenes perpetrated the crime. But unlike the offender-indigenes that operated within a protective societal structure that concealed their identity, the strangers who often acted alone and were not fully integrated into the Lagos society had no hiding place as they were easily identified, reported and prosecuted by the colonial administration.