Who owns Lagos and how does one become a Lagosian? Is it through nativity or residency? The rate of migration into Lagos has earned the city the appellation of a no-man’s land. The Awori (a sub-group of the Yoruba) who founded Lagos now constitute about one third of the population. This study examines the protest of influential Awori of Lagos against the political domination of metropolitan Lagos and Lagos State by outsiders, using the platform of indigeneship associations such as the Awori Welfare Association, Association of Lagos State Indigenes and the Committee of Indigenes Association of Lagos State. The study is based on extensive fieldwork in all the administrative divisions of Lagos State, and examines the personalities behind the associations, the class structure and the nature of their political demands. The research findings indicate that the xenophobic attitude in Lagos could degenerate into open violence if not handled with care.
{"title":"Lagos is our land: indigeneship associations and the protection of the rights of Lagosians since 1950","authors":"R. Akinyele","doi":"10.4314/LHR.V15I1.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LHR.V15I1.6","url":null,"abstract":"Who owns Lagos and how does one become a Lagosian? Is it through nativity or residency? The rate of migration into Lagos has earned the city the appellation of a no-man’s land. The Awori (a sub-group of the Yoruba) who founded Lagos now constitute about one third of the population. This study examines the protest of influential Awori of Lagos against the political domination of metropolitan Lagos and Lagos State by outsiders, using the platform of indigeneship associations such as the Awori Welfare Association, Association of Lagos State Indigenes and the Committee of Indigenes Association of Lagos State. The study is based on extensive fieldwork in all the administrative divisions of Lagos State, and examines the personalities behind the associations, the class structure and the nature of their political demands. The research findings indicate that the xenophobic attitude in Lagos could degenerate into open violence if not handled with care.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130781649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since independence, many African states have experienced large-scale instability as a result of numerous African leaders’ inability to forge national cohesion out of a multiplicity of ethnic groups within individual states. A fundamental issue has been the way and manner in which many of the states were administered during the colonial era. It is against this background that this article examines France’s colonial policy in Chad and its impact on nation building process before the outbreak of the country’s civil war in the period shortly after independence. The essay argues that France’s policies of “useful” and “useless Chad” was greatly responsible for the challenges of nation building in post-colonial Chad. The policies classified Chad into two neat compartments for the administrative convenience of the French. The south, which was called “useful Chad”, was suitable for agriculture. The colonisers therefore concentrated all forms of French civilization, development and education in the south, while the parched north branded “useless Chad”, hardly witnessed any form of development. In addition, the policy of ethnic chauvinism orchestrated by those who came to power after independence was substantially responsible for why division along ethnic lines has persisted. It maintains that political elites in Chad must rule in the interest of all and promote good governance as the best way to overcome the problem of nation building in the country.
{"title":"The legacy of French colonial policy on the nation building process in Chad, 1900 1975","authors":"F. Aworawo","doi":"10.4314/LHR.V15I1.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LHR.V15I1.7","url":null,"abstract":"Since independence, many African states have experienced large-scale instability as a result of numerous African leaders’ inability to forge national cohesion out of a multiplicity of ethnic groups within individual states. A fundamental issue has been the way and manner in which many of the states were administered during the colonial era. It is against this background that this article examines France’s colonial policy in Chad and its impact on nation building process before the outbreak of the country’s civil war in the period shortly after independence. The essay argues that France’s policies of “useful” and “useless Chad” was greatly responsible for the challenges of nation building in post-colonial Chad. The policies classified Chad into two neat compartments for the administrative convenience of the French. The south, which was called “useful Chad”, was suitable for agriculture. The colonisers therefore concentrated all forms of French civilization, development and education in the south, while the parched north branded “useless Chad”, hardly witnessed any form of development. In addition, the policy of ethnic chauvinism orchestrated by those who came to power after independence was substantially responsible for why division along ethnic lines has persisted. It maintains that political elites in Chad must rule in the interest of all and promote good governance as the best way to overcome the problem of nation building in the country.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122772795","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Transportation system in Nigeria is predominantly uni-modal. It is estimated that over ninety per cent of goods and passengers are transported by road. The over-reliance on road transport for the conveyance of goods and people has contributed greatly to the deterioration of Nigeria’s roads and the attendant increase in road maintenance costs. Scholars have revealed that a single means of transport cannot adequately serve the transportation needs of the majority of people living in urban centres. The cities of Asaba and Onitsha located on the west and east banks of the river Niger have outlets for water-based transport and rail services, but are yet to be fully developed and integrated with the dominant road transport system. It is against this background that this paper examines the current transport challenges in the transport systems in the area and the wider Nigerian context and advocates for inter-modal transport system, that is, the blending of road, water and rail to facilitate easy movement of people and goods. The paper submits that the development of an efficient inter-modal transport system would minimize the frequent chaotic traffic congestion experienced by motorists and commuters on the Niger Bridge that links the two cities, and eastern and western states with other parts of the country.
{"title":"The importance of inter-modal transport system in Nigeria with reference to the Asaba-Onitsha transport corridor since the pre-colonial period","authors":"D. Iweze","doi":"10.4314/LHR.V15I0.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LHR.V15I0.3","url":null,"abstract":"Transportation system in Nigeria is predominantly uni-modal. It is estimated that over ninety per cent of goods and passengers are transported by road. The over-reliance on road transport for the conveyance of goods and people has contributed greatly to the deterioration of Nigeria’s roads and the attendant increase in road maintenance costs. Scholars have revealed that a single means of transport cannot adequately serve the transportation needs of the majority of people living in urban centres. The cities of Asaba and Onitsha located on the west and east banks of the river Niger have outlets for water-based transport and rail services, but are yet to be fully developed and integrated with the dominant road transport system. It is against this background that this paper examines the current transport challenges in the transport systems in the area and the wider Nigerian context and advocates for inter-modal transport system, that is, the blending of road, water and rail to facilitate easy movement of people and goods. The paper submits that the development of an efficient inter-modal transport system would minimize the frequent chaotic traffic congestion experienced by motorists and commuters on the Niger Bridge that links the two cities, and eastern and western states with other parts of the country.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122665215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The paper discusses the proliferation of native courts in Wum District from 1921 to 1939. Using mostly archival materials from the Buea National Archives and the thematic and chronological approaches in analysing data, it argues that ethnic differences, communication difficulties and the feeling of superiority by some chiefs over their counterparts brought disunity and inefficiency and the management of the affairs of the courts became derisory. This therefore necessitated the creation of more institutions in order to minimise these problems. In spite of this move, arrogance, pride and attempts at dominating some court members especially those hosting the institutions as well as injustices perpetuated by some judges on litigants, led to requests for the creation of new courts by clans as the only means through which these vices would be avoided. It was because of these factors and requests from the people of Wum District that the Weh native court that served the entire District was dissolved and those of Wum, Fungom and Bum created in 1928. The creation of these courts never satisfactorily took care of the problems hitherto experienced in the Weh court as the Wum court was subsequently split into two, Mukuru and Aghem. The Fungom court also witnessed structural changes as its headquarters was moved from Fungom village to Zhoa. This Court in Zhoa became a court of Appeal for the Fungom area and four minor courts were further created to serve this administrative unit.
{"title":"Proliferation of native courts in Wum District, Southern Cameroons, 1921 – 1939","authors":"P. Tem","doi":"10.4314/lhr.v15i1.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/lhr.v15i1.4","url":null,"abstract":"The paper discusses the proliferation of native courts in Wum District from 1921 to 1939. Using mostly archival materials from the Buea National Archives and the thematic and chronological approaches in analysing data, it argues that ethnic differences, communication difficulties and the feeling of superiority by some chiefs over their counterparts brought disunity and inefficiency and the management of the affairs of the courts became derisory. This therefore necessitated the creation of more institutions in order to minimise these problems. In spite of this move, arrogance, pride and attempts at dominating some court members especially those hosting the institutions as well as injustices perpetuated by some judges on litigants, led to requests for the creation of new courts by clans as the only means through which these vices would be avoided. It was because of these factors and requests from the people of Wum District that the Weh native court that served the entire District was dissolved and those of Wum, Fungom and Bum created in 1928. The creation of these courts never satisfactorily took care of the problems hitherto experienced in the Weh court as the Wum court was subsequently split into two, Mukuru and Aghem. The Fungom court also witnessed structural changes as its headquarters was moved from Fungom village to Zhoa. This Court in Zhoa became a court of Appeal for the Fungom area and four minor courts were further created to serve this administrative unit.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133564636","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Britain took over one fifth of German Cameroon following the First World War. Like her predecessor, Germany, one of the first challenges she faced was how to improve and speed up the transportation of private and public goods in a territory where modern forms of transport was nil. She did this according to her whims and caprices. Carriers were enlisted to bear the burden. This ‘professional corps’ during the period of British colonial administration had long existed on the continent before the colonial encounter but coming under the employment of a European country now made them different in the society. This article looks at the crucial role of the carriers in the development of modern road communication networks in the territory by exploring the archival records in the Buea National Archives of Cameroon. It also explores how the carriers symbolised the beginnings of a middle class in the eyes of their kith and kin. Colonial reports of the carriers showed their extra-ordinary physical strength and also the difficulties and challenges which they faced and negotiated such as distances, peaks to ascend and descend, flooded streams and their astounding commitments to carry imperial goods from place to place. Clouded in these colonial reports, lay a history of regulations and governmentality of the carriers, a story of the making of modern road communication network and a middle class. This entails an effort to rationalise the system, which involved ensuring the regularity of the supply of carriers and the enforcement of contracts. This essay aims at understanding the logic of these changes and the implications of these regulations in modern day Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.
{"title":"Human lorries: carriers in the British Southern Cameroon’s economy and re-ordering of road communications, 1916 – c.1955","authors":"H. K. Kah, W. Nkwi","doi":"10.4314/LHR.V15I1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LHR.V15I1.2","url":null,"abstract":"Britain took over one fifth of German Cameroon following the First World War. Like her predecessor, Germany, one of the first challenges she faced was how to improve and speed up the transportation of private and public goods in a territory where modern forms of transport was nil. She did this according to her whims and caprices. Carriers were enlisted to bear the burden. This ‘professional corps’ during the period of British colonial administration had long existed on the continent before the colonial encounter but coming under the employment of a European country now made them different in the society. This article looks at the crucial role of the carriers in the development of modern road communication networks in the territory by exploring the archival records in the Buea National Archives of Cameroon. It also explores how the carriers symbolised the beginnings of a middle class in the eyes of their kith and kin. Colonial reports of the carriers showed their extra-ordinary physical strength and also the difficulties and challenges which they faced and negotiated such as distances, peaks to ascend and descend, flooded streams and their astounding commitments to carry imperial goods from place to place. Clouded in these colonial reports, lay a history of regulations and governmentality of the carriers, a story of the making of modern road communication network and a middle class. This entails an effort to rationalise the system, which involved ensuring the regularity of the supply of carriers and the enforcement of contracts. This essay aims at understanding the logic of these changes and the implications of these regulations in modern day Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"331 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116455650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Book Title: Turning Points in African Democracy Book Authors: Abdul Raufu Mustapha and Lindsay Whitfield (Eds.) James Currey, New York, 2011, xix +227 pp
{"title":"Book Review: Turning Points in African Democracy","authors":"Henry Ogunjewo","doi":"10.4314/LHR.V15I1.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LHR.V15I1.10","url":null,"abstract":"Book Title: Turning Points in African Democracy Book Authors: Abdul Raufu Mustapha and Lindsay Whitfield (Eds.) James Currey, New York, 2011, xix +227 pp","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129418199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The term “trunk road” as used in this paper refers loosely to interstate or federal trunk ‘A’ roads. This definition covers (but is not limited) to roads that are dual carriage which connect major towns or regions of Nigeria. It includes roads which are not dual carriage but which are major highways and which play the role of linking regions of Nigeria together. Examples of some of the trunk roads are Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Benin Expressway, Lagos-Sokoto Highway, Lagos-Badagry Expressway and Kano-Kaduna Expressway, to mention just a few. Apart from playing a significant role in the movement of goods and services across the regions, these roads have continued to exert considerable socio-economic impact on the country. This paper examines the motives behind the development of these roads, accounts for their development, discusses the problems associated with their construction, the issue of road financing and maintenance as well as the impact of these roads on the socio-economic life of the people.
{"title":"The development of national trunk roads in Nigeria, 1960 2013","authors":"O. Olubomehin","doi":"10.4314/lhr.v15i1.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/lhr.v15i1.1","url":null,"abstract":"The term “trunk road” as used in this paper refers loosely to interstate or federal trunk ‘A’ roads. This definition covers (but is not limited) to roads that are dual carriage which connect major towns or regions of Nigeria. It includes roads which are not dual carriage but which are major highways and which play the role of linking regions of Nigeria together. Examples of some of the trunk roads are Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Sagamu-Benin Expressway, Lagos-Sokoto Highway, Lagos-Badagry Expressway and Kano-Kaduna Expressway, to mention just a few. Apart from playing a significant role in the movement of goods and services across the regions, these roads have continued to exert considerable socio-economic impact on the country. This paper examines the motives behind the development of these roads, accounts for their development, discusses the problems associated with their construction, the issue of road financing and maintenance as well as the impact of these roads on the socio-economic life of the people.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122715775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Book Title: Feminism, Empowerment and Development: Changing Women’s Lives Book Authors: Andrea Cornwall and Jenny Edwards (Eds.) Zed Books, London, 2014, vii + 295
Book Title: Immigrant Exclusion and Insecurity in Africa: Coethnic Strangers Book Author: Claire L. Adida Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014, xv+175 pp
F. Ayokhai, Mary Ekpe Ukuru, Peter Naankiel Wilfred
This study examines the transformation of political institutions among the Igede of Central Nigeria between 1900 and 1976. It finds that the political institutions of the Igede exhibited dynamism in every epoch of the people's history. It therefore argues that although the Igede political institution began as a decentralized political system, it had already evolved into a semi-centralized political system at the eve of the colonial contact. It further argues that although the colonial government restructured the political institutions in line with the indirect rule policy, it nonetheless obstructed the course of the pre-colonial efforts at the emergence of semi-centralized political institutions and destroyed the social basis of power among the Igede. It was in the post-independence era that the Igede political institution attained full centralization with the people, once again returning to play an active role in the process under democratic dispensation. It therefore concludes that political institutions among the Igede witnessed fundamental changes across all historical epochs and therefore disagrees with the Eurocentric conception of the pre-colonial past of African societies in terms of static and unchanging processes. It also concludes that the Igede have shown that giving a democratic environment they are capable of reinventing their traditional political institutions to meet the demand of socio-economic development and contributing to the evolution of a Nigerian legacy. This study is based on content analysis of oral and written source materials, which were subjected to the rigour of historical criticism.
{"title":"Inventing tradition in central Nigeria: a study of changing political institutions among the Igede, 1900 – 1976","authors":"F. Ayokhai, Mary Ekpe Ukuru, Peter Naankiel Wilfred","doi":"10.4314/LHR.V15I1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/LHR.V15I1.5","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the transformation of political institutions among the Igede of Central Nigeria between 1900 and 1976. It finds that the political institutions of the Igede exhibited dynamism in every epoch of the people's history. It therefore argues that although the Igede political institution began as a decentralized political system, it had already evolved into a semi-centralized political system at the eve of the colonial contact. It further argues that although the colonial government restructured the political institutions in line with the indirect rule policy, it nonetheless obstructed the course of the pre-colonial efforts at the emergence of semi-centralized political institutions and destroyed the social basis of power among the Igede. It was in the post-independence era that the Igede political institution attained full centralization with the people, once again returning to play an active role in the process under democratic dispensation. It therefore concludes that political institutions among the Igede witnessed fundamental changes across all historical epochs and therefore disagrees with the Eurocentric conception of the pre-colonial past of African societies in terms of static and unchanging processes. It also concludes that the Igede have shown that giving a democratic environment they are capable of reinventing their traditional political institutions to meet the demand of socio-economic development and contributing to the evolution of a Nigerian legacy. This study is based on content analysis of oral and written source materials, which were subjected to the rigour of historical criticism.","PeriodicalId":339050,"journal":{"name":"Lagos Historical Review","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114678675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}