{"title":"Muslim Women in Mombasa, 1890-1975","authors":"J. Berg, M. Strobel","doi":"10.2307/3601422","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3601422","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2012-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3601422","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69220348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Sokoto Caliphate, established following the 1804 jihad led by Shehu dan Fodio, was the largest single polity in nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa.2 Considerable economic benefits derived from its very size, and some of these benefits were passed on to producers and consumers throughout the Caliphate and even far beyond, although those who launched the jihad, probably did not have any of these concerns in mind at the time. As the textile industry was one of the most important industries in the Sokoto Caliphate, the size of the Caliphate had enormous economic advantages for the producers of indigo-dyed textiles and for those involved in the textile trade. It brought various cloth producers from very different traditions within the Caliphate together, while also bringing different textile traditions from outside into a new intimacy with these groups. Thus, the quality of cloth improved and the variety increased for textiles produced within the Caliphate as the nineteenth century progressed. The producers of textiles were very quick to realize some of the advantages of the new mega state for their own livelihood. In this paper, I argue that the actual quality of the textiles produced within the Caliphate definitely improved as the nineteenth century progressed, and that this improved quality was accompanied by an increase in a greater variety of different kinds and qualities of cloth which were made available. Furthermore, this expansion in textile production had the added advantage of making textiles which were increasingly cheap and therefore somewhat easier for more individuals to obtain.
在1804年由Shehu dan Fodio领导的圣战之后建立的索科托哈里发国是19世纪撒哈拉以南非洲最大的单一国家，其规模带来了可观的经济利益，其中一些利益传递给了整个哈里发国甚至更远的地方的生产者和消费者，尽管那些发起圣战的人当时可能没有考虑到任何这些问题。由于纺织业是索科托哈里发国最重要的产业之一，哈里发国的规模对靛蓝纺织品生产商和从事纺织品贸易的人来说具有巨大的经济优势。它将来自哈里发境内不同传统的各种布料生产商聚集在一起，同时也将来自外部的不同纺织传统与这些群体建立了新的亲密关系。因此，随着19世纪的发展，在哈里发国内生产的纺织品的质量提高了，品种也增加了。纺织品生产商很快意识到这个新大国对他们自己生计的一些好处。在本文中，我认为，随着19世纪的发展，哈里发国内生产的纺织品的实际质量肯定有所提高，而这种质量的提高伴随着可获得的各种不同种类和质量的布的增加。此外，纺织品生产的扩大还有一个额外的好处，那就是使纺织品越来越便宜，因此对更多的个人来说更容易获得。
{"title":"Big is Sometimes Best: The Sokoto Caliphate and Economic Advantages of Size in the Textile Industry","authors":"P. Shea","doi":"10.2307/25427024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/25427024","url":null,"abstract":"The Sokoto Caliphate, established following the 1804 jihad led by Shehu dan Fodio, was the largest single polity in nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa.2 Considerable economic benefits derived from its very size, and some of these benefits were passed on to producers and consumers throughout the Caliphate and even far beyond, although those who launched the jihad, probably did not have any of these concerns in mind at the time. As the textile industry was one of the most important industries in the Sokoto Caliphate, the size of the Caliphate had enormous economic advantages for the producers of indigo-dyed textiles and for those involved in the textile trade. It brought various cloth producers from very different traditions within the Caliphate together, while also bringing different textile traditions from outside into a new intimacy with these groups. Thus, the quality of cloth improved and the variety increased for textiles produced within the Caliphate as the nineteenth century progressed. The producers of textiles were very quick to realize some of the advantages of the new mega state for their own livelihood. In this paper, I argue that the actual quality of the textiles produced within the Caliphate definitely improved as the nineteenth century progressed, and that this improved quality was accompanied by an increase in a greater variety of different kinds and qualities of cloth which were made available. Furthermore, this expansion in textile production had the added advantage of making textiles which were increasingly cheap and therefore somewhat easier for more individuals to obtain.","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/25427024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69150968","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
During the final phase of the British conquest of the south-eastern region of Nigeria, which ended in 1914, the colonial administrative personnel accompanying the military columns was given specific instructions by Lord Lugard.' Among others, it was to assure the conquered people that "Nothing which is theirs will be taken from them; no demands of any kind will be made, save that they must be prepared to sell rations to troops and officials, and to furnish carriers in exchange for payment."2 Yet fifteen years later, the region was to explode in a women-led social upheaval linked in crucial respects to the introduction of direct taxation in 1928. The Women's War of 1929 was perhaps the greatest political challenge the British administration in Nigeria had to face since "pacification."3 In subsequent years, the administration was to spend a significant part of its time and resources suppressing anti-tax resistance in different parts of south-eastern Nigeria. The successful imposition of direct taxation marked the final phase of the consolidation of British rule in the region.Like any other government, ancient or modern, taxes or tributes were central to the economic and fiscal strategies of the colonial administration in Nigeria. Not only did taxes constitute crucial sources of revenue to the state, but their payment marked the acceptance of state authority, willingly or unwillingly, by the affected people. No less important, as popularly argued in the literature on European rule in Africa, taxation was one of the major mechanisms for expanding and strengthening the integration of local populations into market networks mainly for the purpose of stimulating exchange production, especially for export.4 Such export activity promoted Nigerian links with the world economy. When the colonial administration sought to drive into extinction the indigenous currencies in order to ensure economic and financial unification of the country through the instrumentality of British West African currency, taxation was perceived as a key weapon for the project.5With the exception of a few studies, the process of taxation and its wider ramifications for the political economy of African colonial states remain potentially rich fields of fiscal history in which little has been achieved. In the case of Nigeria, Newbury has helped shed light on the evolution of public finance in the northern part of the country.7 Studies of taxation in southern Nigeria have tended to focus on the Women's War of 1929,* regarded as a fundamental outcome of the advent of direct taxation. Direct taxation was a revolutionary innovation in south-eastern Nigeria and therefore requires a more detailed analysis and reinterpretation of events than existing works have achieved. Based mainly on archival sources, some of which have hardly been examined hitherto, the present paper explores the process of the introduction of direct taxation into our area of study, the political and social consequences of t
{"title":"\"You Are Demanding Tax from the Dead:\" the Introduction of Direct Taxation and Its Aftermath in South-Eastern Nigeria, 1928-39","authors":"Ben Naanen","doi":"10.2307/25427027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/25427027","url":null,"abstract":"During the final phase of the British conquest of the south-eastern region of Nigeria, which ended in 1914, the colonial administrative personnel accompanying the military columns was given specific instructions by Lord Lugard.' Among others, it was to assure the conquered people that \"Nothing which is theirs will be taken from them; no demands of any kind will be made, save that they must be prepared to sell rations to troops and officials, and to furnish carriers in exchange for payment.\"2 Yet fifteen years later, the region was to explode in a women-led social upheaval linked in crucial respects to the introduction of direct taxation in 1928. The Women's War of 1929 was perhaps the greatest political challenge the British administration in Nigeria had to face since \"pacification.\"3 In subsequent years, the administration was to spend a significant part of its time and resources suppressing anti-tax resistance in different parts of south-eastern Nigeria. The successful imposition of direct taxation marked the final phase of the consolidation of British rule in the region.Like any other government, ancient or modern, taxes or tributes were central to the economic and fiscal strategies of the colonial administration in Nigeria. Not only did taxes constitute crucial sources of revenue to the state, but their payment marked the acceptance of state authority, willingly or unwillingly, by the affected people. No less important, as popularly argued in the literature on European rule in Africa, taxation was one of the major mechanisms for expanding and strengthening the integration of local populations into market networks mainly for the purpose of stimulating exchange production, especially for export.4 Such export activity promoted Nigerian links with the world economy. When the colonial administration sought to drive into extinction the indigenous currencies in order to ensure economic and financial unification of the country through the instrumentality of British West African currency, taxation was perceived as a key weapon for the project.5With the exception of a few studies, the process of taxation and its wider ramifications for the political economy of African colonial states remain potentially rich fields of fiscal history in which little has been achieved. In the case of Nigeria, Newbury has helped shed light on the evolution of public finance in the northern part of the country.7 Studies of taxation in southern Nigeria have tended to focus on the Women's War of 1929,* regarded as a fundamental outcome of the advent of direct taxation. Direct taxation was a revolutionary innovation in south-eastern Nigeria and therefore requires a more detailed analysis and reinterpretation of events than existing works have achieved. Based mainly on archival sources, some of which have hardly been examined hitherto, the present paper explores the process of the introduction of direct taxation into our area of study, the political and social consequences of t","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/25427027","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69151801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
During the First World War, the British colonial government in the Gold Coast vigorously sought to maximize both human and natural resources in support of the imperial war effort. Consequently, the people of the Gold Coast, like most colonized Africans, suffered from, the wartime policies as well as the direct effects of the war.' The Gold Coast had experienced relative economic prosperity before the outbreak of the war. Exports included cocoa, palm oil, rubber, kola, timber, and minerals.1 Ports, railways, and roads -were developed to exploit these and other commodities. In sum, the Gold Coast, despite the uncertainty of the colonial situation, was following a pathway towards prosperity, exemplified by economic boom and rapid urbanization. Also educational developments had paved the way for social change and social mobility.3 Unfortunately, the harsh wartime economic effects halted the wheels of prosperity: overall, the inhabitants of the Gold Coast experienced "untold difficulties" adjusting to wartime hardships and dislocation.4Two indigenous newspapers, The Gold Coast Leader and The Gold Coast Nation, which were published in the provincial capital of the Central Province, Cape Coast, became a hub of African intellectual activism and anticolonial protest politics. Patronized by the African intelligentsia, the indigenous press provided vigorous anticolonial commentaries on the prevailing conditions in the Gold Coast.5 Three areas of anticolonial criticism emerged in the press: opposition to Governor Hugh Clifford's vigorous implementation of indirect rule during wartime, colonial labor and military recruitment exercises, and the economic effects of the war. Several studies have examined indirect rule in the wartime, but they deal more with the political economy of indirect rule than the effects of indirect rule on the African population.6 A recent study has filled this gap by using African sources, specifically newspapers, to give voice to African perspectives on indirect rule.7 The subject of wartime colonial labor and military recruitment has attracted extensive study, though the sources used are mainly official reports, and consequently, the extant literature deals more with colonial policies than African agency and responses in wartime. Even in cases where the economic impact of the war is examined, there is still a reliance on official sources that emphasize government expenditures and income.9Through the prism of the indigenous press, the present study shifts the focus from government expenditure and income to the impact of the war on the population of the Gold Coast and African perspectives on the effects of the war on economy and society. Both indigenous newspapers took keen interest in the effects of the wartime economy on the people of the Gold Coast. Economic issues addressed by both newspapers in the course of the war were slackening cocoa prices; lack of shipping facilities and space; fall in revenue; stagnation of wages and salari
{"title":"\"UNTOLD DIFFICULTIES:\" THE INDIGENOUS PRESS AND THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR ON AFRICANS IN THE GOLD COAST, 1914-1918","authors":"K. Akurang-Parry","doi":"10.2307/25427026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/25427026","url":null,"abstract":"During the First World War, the British colonial government in the Gold Coast vigorously sought to maximize both human and natural resources in support of the imperial war effort. Consequently, the people of the Gold Coast, like most colonized Africans, suffered from, the wartime policies as well as the direct effects of the war.' The Gold Coast had experienced relative economic prosperity before the outbreak of the war. Exports included cocoa, palm oil, rubber, kola, timber, and minerals.1 Ports, railways, and roads -were developed to exploit these and other commodities. In sum, the Gold Coast, despite the uncertainty of the colonial situation, was following a pathway towards prosperity, exemplified by economic boom and rapid urbanization. Also educational developments had paved the way for social change and social mobility.3 Unfortunately, the harsh wartime economic effects halted the wheels of prosperity: overall, the inhabitants of the Gold Coast experienced \"untold difficulties\" adjusting to wartime hardships and dislocation.4Two indigenous newspapers, The Gold Coast Leader and The Gold Coast Nation, which were published in the provincial capital of the Central Province, Cape Coast, became a hub of African intellectual activism and anticolonial protest politics. Patronized by the African intelligentsia, the indigenous press provided vigorous anticolonial commentaries on the prevailing conditions in the Gold Coast.5 Three areas of anticolonial criticism emerged in the press: opposition to Governor Hugh Clifford's vigorous implementation of indirect rule during wartime, colonial labor and military recruitment exercises, and the economic effects of the war. Several studies have examined indirect rule in the wartime, but they deal more with the political economy of indirect rule than the effects of indirect rule on the African population.6 A recent study has filled this gap by using African sources, specifically newspapers, to give voice to African perspectives on indirect rule.7 The subject of wartime colonial labor and military recruitment has attracted extensive study, though the sources used are mainly official reports, and consequently, the extant literature deals more with colonial policies than African agency and responses in wartime. Even in cases where the economic impact of the war is examined, there is still a reliance on official sources that emphasize government expenditures and income.9Through the prism of the indigenous press, the present study shifts the focus from government expenditure and income to the impact of the war on the population of the Gold Coast and African perspectives on the effects of the war on economy and society. Both indigenous newspapers took keen interest in the effects of the wartime economy on the people of the Gold Coast. Economic issues addressed by both newspapers in the course of the war were slackening cocoa prices; lack of shipping facilities and space; fall in revenue; stagnation of wages and salari","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/25427026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69151736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ribat, in the context of the Sokoto Caliphate, was a walled military settlement established for defending and protecting the frontiers and settled agricultural hinterland of any major population center. This type of institution was well known in the history of other Islamic societies.1 Indeed, the ninth century has been identified as the "golden age" of classic ribat construction in the early Muslim world, and at this period several of these structures were established in North Africa and central Asia. After this early "golden age," ribats continued to be built in Muslim lands, but it was only during the nineteenth century that they became widespread in hasar Hausa or what became known as the Sokoto Caliphate. Evidently, the leaders of this Muslim state, the largest state in nineteenth century West Africa, drew for inspiration on this history to foster the expansion of the new state.1Most writers who have studied the Sokoto Caliphate have recognized the significance of ribats to the state. However, much of the scholarship devotes no more than a paragraph or two to this crucially important aspect of the caliphate's defensive strategy, with passing remarks on how the system worked in the emirates.3 In his major work on the Sokoto Caliphate, Murray Last has traced the development of ribats in metropolitan Sokoto, arguing that some at least were populated with slaves:The establishment of ribats was part of the policy of establishing frontiers and providing strongholds round which settlement could flourish.... Likewise Bello encouraged the building within frontiers of walled towns where mosques and schools could be opened and trade and workshop started: with scholars appointed to these towns as Imams, judges, muhtasibs (legal inspectors) and teachers, Bello hoped to maintain both the practice of Islam and the military control of the area. Since much of Bello's support had come from cattle owing Fulani, the Fulani clans were persuaded to join the community of the Shaikh-They were taught agriculture and encouraged to breed horses, camels and flocks of sheep and goats and to reduce their herds of cattle. By this means BeUo balanced the economy of Sokoto...he thus also reduced the military risk....4Similarly, although Joseph P. Smaldone has acknowledged that "many of these new frontier outposts were populated by slaves," he was more concerned with the military dimensions of ribats than with the role of the institution in the establishment of plantations.5By contrast, Paul E. Lovejoy, whose writings have been largely on the entire Sokoto Caliphate, has perceived the ribat as a major factor in the growth of the plantation sector.6 Indeed, he seems to be the most influential exponent of this view. Lovejoy asserts that ribats influenced the location of plantations and that "throughout the caliphate plantations were associated with economic and political consolidation and with the maintenance of an active front line for defence and annual campaigns."7 Accordin
里巴特，在索科托哈里发的背景下，是一个有围墙的军事定居点，用于防御和保护任何主要人口中心的边境和定居农业腹地。这种类型的制度在其他伊斯兰社会的历史上是众所周知的事实上，九世纪被认为是早期穆斯林世界经典利巴特建筑的“黄金时代”，在这个时期，北非和中亚建立了一些这样的建筑。在这个早期的“黄金时代”之后，仪式继续在穆斯林土地上建造，但直到19世纪，它们才在哈萨尔豪萨(hasar Hausa)或后来被称为索科托哈里发(Sokoto Caliphate)的地方广泛传播。显然，这个穆斯林国家的领导人，这个19世纪西非最大的国家，从这段历史中汲取灵感，以促进这个新国家的扩张。大多数研究索科托哈里发的作家都认识到礼对国家的重要性。然而，对于哈里发防御战略的这一至关重要的方面，大部分学者只花了一两段话，对该体系在酋长国中如何运作进行了简单的评论在他关于索科托哈里发的主要著作中，默里·拉斯特追溯了索科托大都市里利特的发展，认为至少有一些是奴隶居住的:利特的建立是建立边界和提供据点的政策的一部分，定居点可以在其周围蓬勃发展....同样，贝洛也鼓励在有围墙的城镇边界内修建清真寺和学校，在那里可以开办学校，开展贸易和作坊。贝洛任命学者到这些城镇担任伊玛目、法官、穆塔西布(法律检查员)和教师，希望既保持伊斯兰教的实践，又保持对该地区的军事控制。由于贝罗的大部分支持来自欠富拉尼的牛，富拉尼部落被说服加入酋长的社区，他们被教导农业，并被鼓励饲养马、骆驼、羊群和山羊，减少牛群。通过这种方式，BeUo平衡了索科托的经济…因此，他也降低了军事风险....同样，尽管约瑟夫·p·斯莫尔多恩承认“许多新的边境前哨都居住着奴隶”，但他更关心的是礼的军事层面，而不是这种制度在建立种植园方面的作用。相比之下，保罗·e·洛夫乔伊(Paul E. Lovejoy)的著作主要是关于整个索科托哈里发的，他认为权利是种植园部门发展的一个主要因素事实上，他似乎是这一观点最有影响力的倡导者。洛夫乔伊断言，宗教仪式影响了种植园的位置，“整个哈里发帝国的种植园都与经济和政治巩固有关，并与维护积极的前线防御和年度战役有关。”根据洛夫乔伊的说法，“源源不断的奴隶以贡品的形式流入索科托和关杜，直接流向官员、富拉尼领导人和学者，用于农业。ribats的军事精英一直处于戒备状态，不直接从事农业生产。相反，种植园迅速主导了农业生产。“虽然他在研究扎里亚酋长国的政府制度时避免使用‘种植园’这个词，但史密斯首先建立了这种关系:定居模式强调防御价值，并基于人口在有城墙的城镇内的紧凑分布，沿着主要的商队路线排列。”每个城镇附近都有一些较小的定居点，这些定居点效忠于他们所在地区的村长。许多但不是全部的小村庄都是奴隶村(rumada);其他大到足以形成自己的城镇的rumada，会有典型的城镇(gari)的墙壁和其他防御工事。…
{"title":"RIBATS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLANTATIONS IN THE SOKOTO CALIPHATE: A CASE STUDY OF FANISAU","authors":"Mohammed Bashir Salau","doi":"10.2307/25427025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/25427025","url":null,"abstract":"Ribat, in the context of the Sokoto Caliphate, was a walled military settlement established for defending and protecting the frontiers and settled agricultural hinterland of any major population center. This type of institution was well known in the history of other Islamic societies.1 Indeed, the ninth century has been identified as the \"golden age\" of classic ribat construction in the early Muslim world, and at this period several of these structures were established in North Africa and central Asia. After this early \"golden age,\" ribats continued to be built in Muslim lands, but it was only during the nineteenth century that they became widespread in hasar Hausa or what became known as the Sokoto Caliphate. Evidently, the leaders of this Muslim state, the largest state in nineteenth century West Africa, drew for inspiration on this history to foster the expansion of the new state.1Most writers who have studied the Sokoto Caliphate have recognized the significance of ribats to the state. However, much of the scholarship devotes no more than a paragraph or two to this crucially important aspect of the caliphate's defensive strategy, with passing remarks on how the system worked in the emirates.3 In his major work on the Sokoto Caliphate, Murray Last has traced the development of ribats in metropolitan Sokoto, arguing that some at least were populated with slaves:The establishment of ribats was part of the policy of establishing frontiers and providing strongholds round which settlement could flourish.... Likewise Bello encouraged the building within frontiers of walled towns where mosques and schools could be opened and trade and workshop started: with scholars appointed to these towns as Imams, judges, muhtasibs (legal inspectors) and teachers, Bello hoped to maintain both the practice of Islam and the military control of the area. Since much of Bello's support had come from cattle owing Fulani, the Fulani clans were persuaded to join the community of the Shaikh-They were taught agriculture and encouraged to breed horses, camels and flocks of sheep and goats and to reduce their herds of cattle. By this means BeUo balanced the economy of Sokoto...he thus also reduced the military risk....4Similarly, although Joseph P. Smaldone has acknowledged that \"many of these new frontier outposts were populated by slaves,\" he was more concerned with the military dimensions of ribats than with the role of the institution in the establishment of plantations.5By contrast, Paul E. Lovejoy, whose writings have been largely on the entire Sokoto Caliphate, has perceived the ribat as a major factor in the growth of the plantation sector.6 Indeed, he seems to be the most influential exponent of this view. Lovejoy asserts that ribats influenced the location of plantations and that \"throughout the caliphate plantations were associated with economic and political consolidation and with the maintenance of an active front line for defence and annual campaigns.\"7 Accordin","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/25427025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69151662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939, has been largely treated as a period of stagnancy in African history. It was a period in which nothing happened due to the bankruptcy that befell colonial powers and their subsequent preoccupation with economic recovery to the detriment of public works and social projects.1 Many scholars argue that the depression's only remarkable feature is that it was a period of unprecedented exploitation of African resources and peasants as colonial powers sought to transfer the burdens and sacrifices of recovery to Africans. The period is therefore largely portrayed as one that is better forgotten than explained or understood.This interpretive paradigm has largely colored the scholarly commentaries on the depression in Nigeria, Britain's most populous colony in Africa. Consequently, the impact of that economic crisis on Nigerians and on British colonialism in Nigeria has been underappreciated. Similarly, in deference to the notion that the depression represented a lull rather than a watershed, scholars have neither adequately integrated the crisis and its impact into discussions about the legacy of colonialism nor situated the crisis in the literature on decolonization.This paper is an attempt to document and explain the depression experience in Nigeria. It pays particular attention to the impact of the crisis on Nigeria as well as on the economic recovery measures instituted by the British and their consequences. The paper is premised on the hypothesis that an understanding of the depression and its impact on Nigeria is crucial to understanding the economic impact of British colonialism on Nigeria. Such an understanding is also germane to unraveling the crisis of late British colonialism, which culminated in the post-World War II movement towards decolonization.R.O. Ekundare has observed that the Nigerian colonial government reduced some direct and indirect taxes to help stimulate production and export during the depression and suggests that this was also designed to bring some economic relief to the people of Nigeria.1 While this altruistic motive of British economic recovery strategies may be in dispute, Ekundare at least steers clear of teleological explanations in order to unpack the actual economic policies and measures that the British used to combat the depression in Nigeria. His is however a rare, nuanced position, which does not impute British depression-era economic policies with a predatory desire to exploit Africans. Other scholars are not as nuanced, and tend to suggest a more deliberate, sinister economic motive for the responses of the British to the depression's manifestations in Nigeria.' Impoverishment, which was rife during the economic crisis, is presented in much of the literature as both a product and goal of direct British economic agency during the crisis. The spread of poverty is situated in the collapse of prices and in what these scholars regard as harsh tax rates. Bill Freund
{"title":"Conjoined to Empire: The Great Depression and Nigeria","authors":"Moses Ochonu","doi":"10.2307/25427028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/25427028","url":null,"abstract":"The Great Depression, which lasted from 1929 to 1939, has been largely treated as a period of stagnancy in African history. It was a period in which nothing happened due to the bankruptcy that befell colonial powers and their subsequent preoccupation with economic recovery to the detriment of public works and social projects.1 Many scholars argue that the depression's only remarkable feature is that it was a period of unprecedented exploitation of African resources and peasants as colonial powers sought to transfer the burdens and sacrifices of recovery to Africans. The period is therefore largely portrayed as one that is better forgotten than explained or understood.This interpretive paradigm has largely colored the scholarly commentaries on the depression in Nigeria, Britain's most populous colony in Africa. Consequently, the impact of that economic crisis on Nigerians and on British colonialism in Nigeria has been underappreciated. Similarly, in deference to the notion that the depression represented a lull rather than a watershed, scholars have neither adequately integrated the crisis and its impact into discussions about the legacy of colonialism nor situated the crisis in the literature on decolonization.This paper is an attempt to document and explain the depression experience in Nigeria. It pays particular attention to the impact of the crisis on Nigeria as well as on the economic recovery measures instituted by the British and their consequences. The paper is premised on the hypothesis that an understanding of the depression and its impact on Nigeria is crucial to understanding the economic impact of British colonialism on Nigeria. Such an understanding is also germane to unraveling the crisis of late British colonialism, which culminated in the post-World War II movement towards decolonization.R.O. Ekundare has observed that the Nigerian colonial government reduced some direct and indirect taxes to help stimulate production and export during the depression and suggests that this was also designed to bring some economic relief to the people of Nigeria.1 While this altruistic motive of British economic recovery strategies may be in dispute, Ekundare at least steers clear of teleological explanations in order to unpack the actual economic policies and measures that the British used to combat the depression in Nigeria. His is however a rare, nuanced position, which does not impute British depression-era economic policies with a predatory desire to exploit Africans. Other scholars are not as nuanced, and tend to suggest a more deliberate, sinister economic motive for the responses of the British to the depression's manifestations in Nigeria.' Impoverishment, which was rife during the economic crisis, is presented in much of the literature as both a product and goal of direct British economic agency during the crisis. The spread of poverty is situated in the collapse of prices and in what these scholars regard as harsh tax rates. Bill Freund ","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/25427028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69151350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1936 an Accra newspaper hit the streets with the alarmist headline "Tribesmen Mobilise for War in British Togoland." According to the newspaper the people of Buem and Akposso, rivals for a parcel of land occupied by prosperous cocoa farms severed by the international boundary, were going to combat. Several attempts had been made to resolve the matter before British courts, but appeal after appeal swung the decision in different directions. The claims were further complicated because British courts had no jurisdiction over land under French control, which meant that a parallel case remained unresolved. Ultimately an appeal reached the Privy Council in London, but not before many other groups embroiled themselves in the conflict.British and French native policies of the nineteen-twenties and thirties significantly reorganized chiefly authority in their respective territories, prompting chiefs to attempt new strategies to aggrandize their economic and political power bases. The chiefs of Akposso and Buem, the fertile borderland between the two Togolands, were witness to a large emigration movement during this period caused by domestic and international economic change. The emigrants themselves followed well-worn paths to the Buem region marked by Ewe and others. In emigrating, they not only overcame European attempts to control their movement, but they pushed the Ewe "frontier" northward into a true borderland region. On a macro-level this article details how Ewe pushed the "frontier of Eweness" north with cocoa farming, emigration and settlement. On a micro-level this is a narrative of social conflict caused by local chiefly power networks, land ownership and tenure, and ethnic alliances. The story of the Buem-Akposso conflict, two non-Ewe communities, conceals a complicated narrative about Ewe emigration around a new border zone between the British and French mandates. It is thus a fascinating story for the colonial legal historian, offering new insight into the manipulation of Ewe identities for political and economic gain and the political instability ushered in by the "cocoa rush" in British Togoland.Although the plaintiffs in this conflict were the chiefs of Buem and Akposso, Ewe emigrants were the de facto protagonists of a much larger socio-economic transformation of the region. Although wildly exaggerated, the newspaper story captures the relative isolation of the densely forested region north of Hohoe, in British Togoland. Largely unsettled and unfarmed in the mid-nineteen-twenties, Buem by I936 was a site of intense demographic growth because of the expansion of cocoa farming. Thousands of settlers moved from French Togo, from both Ewe territory and elsewhere, and worked as day laborers, or bought land and hired their own farmhands. The French were unable to halt the exit, while the British openly encouraged the development and exploitation of the mountainous region, considering a logical development of the "peasant capitalist" mentali
{"title":"\"en proie à la fièvre du cacao\": Land and resource conflict on an ewe frontier, 1922-1939","authors":"Benjamin N. Lawrance","doi":"10.2307/3601950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3601950","url":null,"abstract":"In 1936 an Accra newspaper hit the streets with the alarmist headline \"Tribesmen Mobilise for War in British Togoland.\" According to the newspaper the people of Buem and Akposso, rivals for a parcel of land occupied by prosperous cocoa farms severed by the international boundary, were going to combat. Several attempts had been made to resolve the matter before British courts, but appeal after appeal swung the decision in different directions. The claims were further complicated because British courts had no jurisdiction over land under French control, which meant that a parallel case remained unresolved. Ultimately an appeal reached the Privy Council in London, but not before many other groups embroiled themselves in the conflict.British and French native policies of the nineteen-twenties and thirties significantly reorganized chiefly authority in their respective territories, prompting chiefs to attempt new strategies to aggrandize their economic and political power bases. The chiefs of Akposso and Buem, the fertile borderland between the two Togolands, were witness to a large emigration movement during this period caused by domestic and international economic change. The emigrants themselves followed well-worn paths to the Buem region marked by Ewe and others. In emigrating, they not only overcame European attempts to control their movement, but they pushed the Ewe \"frontier\" northward into a true borderland region. On a macro-level this article details how Ewe pushed the \"frontier of Eweness\" north with cocoa farming, emigration and settlement. On a micro-level this is a narrative of social conflict caused by local chiefly power networks, land ownership and tenure, and ethnic alliances. The story of the Buem-Akposso conflict, two non-Ewe communities, conceals a complicated narrative about Ewe emigration around a new border zone between the British and French mandates. It is thus a fascinating story for the colonial legal historian, offering new insight into the manipulation of Ewe identities for political and economic gain and the political instability ushered in by the \"cocoa rush\" in British Togoland.Although the plaintiffs in this conflict were the chiefs of Buem and Akposso, Ewe emigrants were the de facto protagonists of a much larger socio-economic transformation of the region. Although wildly exaggerated, the newspaper story captures the relative isolation of the densely forested region north of Hohoe, in British Togoland. Largely unsettled and unfarmed in the mid-nineteen-twenties, Buem by I936 was a site of intense demographic growth because of the expansion of cocoa farming. Thousands of settlers moved from French Togo, from both Ewe territory and elsewhere, and worked as day laborers, or bought land and hired their own farmhands. The French were unable to halt the exit, while the British openly encouraged the development and exploitation of the mountainous region, considering a logical development of the \"peasant capitalist\" mentali","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2003-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3601950","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69235542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
defining the frontiers of commerce, law, culture, identity, and consciousness in colonial Africa.' Significant attention has also been drawn to the role of alcohol as a tool of imperial control and a source of revenue for the empire, but the analysis has yet to fully illuminate alcohol as a site of rural struggle during the colonial period.! This article uses a case study of Eastern Nigeria to examine the prohibition of "illicit" gin, known as ogogoro or hai hai by the British during the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties. The region is an excellent site for examining the important link between the prohibition of what colonial official called "illicit distillation" and colonial revenue. Thus, the article offers an understanding of prohibition, rooted not just in the moral and health imperatives upon which officials based the prohibition policy, but more importantly on its perceived impact on colonial revenue, which derived largely from custom duties and taxes on imported alcohol. By focusing on the prohibition of local gin production in Eastern Nigeria, the significance of alcohol as a contested terrain and site for local resistance is revealed.
{"title":"Alcohol and Empire: \"Illicit\" Gin Prohibition and Control in Colonial Eastern Nigeria","authors":"C. J. Korieh","doi":"10.2307/3601949","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3601949","url":null,"abstract":"defining the frontiers of commerce, law, culture, identity, and consciousness in colonial Africa.' Significant attention has also been drawn to the role of alcohol as a tool of imperial control and a source of revenue for the empire, but the analysis has yet to fully illuminate alcohol as a site of rural struggle during the colonial period.! This article uses a case study of Eastern Nigeria to examine the prohibition of \"illicit\" gin, known as ogogoro or hai hai by the British during the nineteen-thirties and nineteen-forties. The region is an excellent site for examining the important link between the prohibition of what colonial official called \"illicit distillation\" and colonial revenue. Thus, the article offers an understanding of prohibition, rooted not just in the moral and health imperatives upon which officials based the prohibition policy, but more importantly on its perceived impact on colonial revenue, which derived largely from custom duties and taxes on imported alcohol. By focusing on the prohibition of local gin production in Eastern Nigeria, the significance of alcohol as a contested terrain and site for local resistance is revealed.","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2003-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3601949","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69234902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Informal credit and politics in Sierra Leone","authors":"A. Jalloh","doi":"10.2307/3601948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3601948","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2003-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3601948","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69234897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustaining a West African Cocoa Economy: Agricultural Science and the Swollen Shoot Contagion in Ghana, 1936-1965","authors":"Francis K. Danquah","doi":"10.2307/3601946","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/3601946","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43935,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2003-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.2307/3601946","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69235120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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