Zusammenfassung
Über das »Prinzip« oder das »System« britischer Kolonialpolitik in Westafrika ist viel geschrieben und diskutiert worden. Großbritannien war stolz auf seine Politik und überzeugt, eine Konzeption und Methode gefunden zu haben, die sowohl seinen eigenen staatlichen Traditionen entsprach als auch der proklamierten Treuhänderschaft und dem neuen Mandatsprinzip gerecht wurde und somit den Übergang von der »Ausbeutung« zur Schutzverpflichtung und zivilisatorischer Förderung der Eingeborenen dokumentierte. Die Indirect Rule ist dabei untrennbar verbunden mit der Person Sir Frederick (später Lord) Lugards, der zu den britischen Repräsentanten imperialer Ausdehnungspolitik und prokonsularischer Herrschaft gehört. Da Lugard und seine Indirect Rule in der Zwischenkriegszeit als Inbegriff britischer Kolonialherrschaft erschienen und da das »System« über Westafrika hinaus auch in anderen Bereichen des Dependent Empire Anwendung fand oder finden sollte, mußte ihnen in unserem Zusammenhang besondere Bedeutung zukommen.
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Literatur
Allan Bullock, The life and times of Ernest Bevin, vol. I, 1960, p. 435.
Bevin in seiner Presidential Address von 1937: “News is coming through that all is not well regarding Labour matters in our colonies...” mit einem Hinweis auf die Unruhen in Westindien. Report des TUC 1937, p. 74. Eine entsprechende Resolution im Report des TUC 1938, p. 433.
Bullock, p. 632.
Vgl. oben S. 103. Von Margery Perham, wichtig zudem: Native Administration in Nigeria, 1937. Gute Zusammenfassungen bei Lucy Mair, Native Policy in Africa.
Neuerdings z. B. bei D. A. Low und R. C. Pratt, Buganda and British Overrule 1900–1955, 1960, p. 163 f., p. 118 f.
Zit. Perham, Lugard, vol. II, p. 469.
Vgl. die bekannte »Definition« Donald Camerons. “The system of native administration generally adopted in the Protectorate of Nigeria is known as ‘Indirect Administration’, and, based on several principles, is designed to adapt for the purpose of local government the tribal institutions which the native peoples have evolved for themselves, so that the latter may develop in a constitutional manner from their own past, guided and restrained by the traditions and sanctions which they have inherited, moulded or modified as they may be on the advice of British Officers and by general control of those officers. It is an essential feature of the system that, within the limitations and in the manner which will be discussed below, the British Government rules through these native institutions which are regarded as an integral part of the machinery of government.” Principles of Native Administration and their Application, 1934, p. 1.
A.a.O., p. 4. “We endeavour to purge the native system of its abuses, to graft our higher civilisation upon the soundly rooted native stock.” P. 5.
Das Wichtigste sei “The allegiance of a people to a tribal head freely given and without external cause, a.a.O., Vorwort, p. 3, p. 9.
A.a.O., p. 17.
A.a.O., p. 28. Betont wird, daß “there are not two sets of rulers — British and native -working either separately or in co-operation, but a single government ...” Dual Mandate, p. 203.
The white man’s task in tropical Africa, in: Foreign Affairs, Okt. 1926, p. 64.
perham, Native Administration, p. 120.
Dual Mandate, p. 196, 226.
Darüber Bourret, a.a.O., p. 36–81.
“The formation of the Provincial Councils provides the people with the machinery for the preservation and development of their national institutions.” Die Regierung “whose policy it has always been to maintain native institutions” werde die Chiefs gegen die Opposition von seiten der Educated stützen. Sir F. Gordon Guggisberg, The Gold Coast. A review of the events of 1920–1926 and the prospects of 1927–1928, 1927, p. 4, 18.
Dazu: David E. Apter, The Gold Coast in transition, 1955, p. 133.
Neben Bourret und Apter auch J.D. Fage, Ghana, a historical interpretation, 1959, p. 80,
und David Kimble, A political history of Ghana. The rise of Gold Coast nationalism 1850 to 1928, 1963, p. 440 f., 493 f.
Sir Donald Cameron, My Tanganyika service and some Nigeria, 1939. Mair, Native policies, p. 138 f. Hailey, African Survey 1938, p. 435 f.
Lord Altrincham, Kenya’s opportunity, 1955, p. 224.
Dazu: Mary Bull, Indirect Rule in Northern Nigeria 1906–1911, in: Essays in Imperial Government, presented to Margery Perham, 1963.
P. 50.
P. 67.
“The policy which I have outlined certainly does not admit of the institution of schools where young natives are to be taught to read and write English, and as a natural corollary European habits and customs. Nothing could be more subservient of the policy than this ... I hotly oppose the extension of the system of European education to the great majority of natives who are still untouched.” P. 219–221.
P 54.
Auch Perham, Lugard, vol. II, p. 464 f. gibt dies zu. 500 Native Authorities mit 13 verschiedenen Typen seien konstituiert worden, wobei das “find the Chief” nur allzu oft zu einem “to make the Chief” geworden sei. Zudem seien die kleinen Einheiten des Südostens für ihre neuen Funktionen ungeeignet gewesen.
Zit. Perham, Native Administrations, p. 331–332.
Principles, p. 8.
Tanganyika Service, p. 99.
“I doubt sometimes whether we have done a great deal to impress on the minds of the Native Authorities concerned that the amelioration of the social and economic conditions of a people is one of the primary duties of an Administration.” A.a.O., p. 332.
Principles, p. 16.
Eine glänzende Auseinandersetzung mit der Kritik gibt Margery Perham, A re-statement of Indirect Rule, in: Africa VII/1934. Dieselbe: Some problems of Indirect Rule in Africa, in: Anhang zu Journal of the African Society, vol. 34/1935. Native Administration, p. 350 f.
Nigeria, a critique of British Colonial Administration, 1936.
“Indirect Rule became a formula as hieratic and as dead of reactive development as an outworn theology.” P. 215. Bereits 1926 heißt es in einem Memorandum, das die kleine Nigerianische Demokratische Partei dem Unterstaatssekretär Ormsby-Gore unterbreitet: Indirect Rule “has practically been elevated to the sacrosanct heights of an administrative fetish, the criticism of which implied official excommunication”, in: West Africa, 10. 4. 1926, p. 417.
Vgl. die lebendigen Tagebuchnotizen Crockers, z. B. 16. 3. 1934: “The so-called financial autonomy is pure pretence.”
A. Victor Murray, The School in the bush, 1929; dergl.: Education under Indirect Rule, in: Journal of the African Society, April 1935.
Sir James Currie, The educational experiment in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1900–1933, in: Journal of the African Society, Jan. 1935.
R. S. Rattray, Present tendencies of African Colonial Government, in: Journal of the African Society, Jan. 1934. Dagegen Richmond Palmer, Some observations on Capt. R. S. Rattray’s paper, ebenda. Nordnigeria entwickle sich gut... Eine Kritik dieser Art brachte bereits 1924 Lord Raglan vor: Die Emire Nordnigerias seien Autokraten geworden und korrupt; sie erpreßten von ihren Untertanen Gelder, ohne daß die Verwaltung eingreifen könne oder eingreifen wolle. H. of L., 17. 12. 1924, vol. 60. Lord Olivier übernahm die Verteidigung mit einem Hinweis auf die Erfolge Lugards und Cliffords.
Murray, School in the bush, p. 278.
Z. B. Tracy Philipps, The New Africa, in: Nineteenth Century 122/1937, p. 575 f.
Der ghanesische Soziologe K. A. Busia bestätigt dies im kritischen Rückblick. Ein ehemaliger Beamter der Nigeria-Verwaltung, H. Cooper, verweist gleichzeitig auf die Tendenz, die Chiefs eben doch in erster Linie als Exekutivorgane zu behandeln und “to measure a chief’s usefulness by his devotion to British rule and his belief in British infallibility. The true yardstick — his willingness to speak out frankly in the interests of his people, even if this meant opposing official policy — tended to get lost in an eager exchange of courtesies”. The Gold Coast and Nigeria on the road to Self-government, in: Africa to-day, ed. Haines, 1955, p. 293, 307 f. Die Gefahr der Automatisierung auch bei Perham, Re-statement, p. 327.
Z. B. Colonel Wedgwood im Unterhaus am 7. 6. 1939: “There is another matter which everyone interested in colonial politics has always before his mind, and that is the question of direct or indirect rule. I wonder what the goal, or the pole star as it has been called, of the Colonial Office is about direct or indirect rule in our colonial Empire. I and all my friends on these benches wish for direct rule as a natural step towards responsible Government. Indirect rule is the bolstering up of landlord and aristocrat domination in these countries. Their own chiefs have become landlords. Expropriation takes place as it took place long ago in this country. The chief is becoming the owner of the land, just as the land of the highlands became the property of the clan chiefs.” H. of C., vol. 348, S. 527.
Murray, Education under Indirect Rule, p. 229.
Perham, Lugard, vol. II, p. 420. “The Europeanised African is indeed separated from the rest of the people by a gulf which no radical affinity can bridge. He must treated as though he were of a different race.” Dual Mandate, p. 81. “Native lawyers are not representative of the people by a gulf which no radical affinity can bridge. He must be treated as though
Dual Mandate, p. 86 f. “There is abundant opportunity for the educated African.”
1939 glaubt Cameron, die Gebildeten in die Native Authorities einbeziehen zu können. “Room must be left for the gradual introduction of educated Africans as members of the Chiefs customary Council of Advisers, although they may not occupy any office which by native custom entitles them to a seat.” Tanganyika Service, p. 99.
Busia, in: Africa to-day, a.a.O., p. 293.
Empire in these days, 1935, p. 170.
P. 147. Ähnlich auch der vom RIIA hrsg. Band The Colonial Problem, 1937, p. 259.
Re-statement, p. 324.
P. 361.
African Survey 1938, p. 1648.
Indirect Rule from a Native’s Point of View (Aug. 1936) in: Negro Year Book, 1937, p. 376; Afrikaner in der Diskussion mit Perham, Some Problems, p. 19 f.; ganz radikal natürlich George Padmore, How Britain rules Africa, 1936, p. 322 f.
Bourret, a.a.O., p. 38, 49, 76.
lit. J. S. Coleman, Nigeria, Background to Nationalism, 1960, p. 165.
The growth of Empire, Ansprache vor dem Royal Colonial Council, in : United Empire, 1922, p. 743.
Perham, Lugard, vol. II, p. 416.
A.a.O.
Lugard, The growth of Empire, in: United Empire 1922, p. 743.
Dual Mandate, p. 205.
“The danger of going too fast with native races is even more likely to lead to disappointment, if not to disaster, than the danger of not going fast enough.” P. 198.
“Election by secret ballot, government by debate and decisions by majority votes, is not a form of government which, so far as we know has ever been evolved by coloured races, nor has it proved very successful in Europe... With the spread of education they will learn the system adopted by Europe and America and, if suitable, they can adopt them. But let us not forget how many centuries were needed to evolve this system in Europe.” Lugard 1933, zit. in: Robert Schneebeli, Die zweifache Treuhänderschaft, 1958, p. 217, Anm. 95.
Vgl. oben S. 109.
Native races, p. 78.
P. 23.
P. 78.
Längere Auszüge bei Coleman, p. 192–194
Principles, p. 4. Noch Lugard hatte Norden und Süden bewußt getrennt und sogar eine Reihe von Departments der Administration doppelt bestellt. Perham, Lugard, vol. II, p. 416.
Kalu Ezera, Constitutional development in Nigeria, 1960, p. 27 f.
“Nationhood, which the opponents of the Provincial Councils have taken as their slogan and which they accuse us of deliberately retarding, will surely be the more rapidly achieved by uniting the chiefs, and through them their people... Provincial Councils.” seien “breakwaters defending our native constitutions and customs against the desintegrating waves of western civilisation. They are the chief means by which the nationality of the Africans of the Gold Coast will be built up out of the many scattered tribes”. Sir Guggisberg, A review of events, p. 21–24.
Tanganyika Service, p. 107.
P. 86.
Ganz ähnlich wie Cameron äußert sich auch Philip Mitchel, sein Secretary for Native Affairs 1924–1934. In einem Brief an einen Kritiker der Indirect Rule will er diese als eine Form des Local Government verstehen, das modernisiert und »zivilisiert« werden müsse; vor allem die Söhne der Chiefs sollen eine sorgfältige Erziehung erhalten. Die Councils of Chiefs könne man dann zu Provincial Councils zusammenfassen. “Ultimately we may have a dual legislature for a generation or so; and then some arrangement which will allow the people of all races who live in Tanganyika to govern themselves through common institutions. But all this is a very long way off.” Zit. in: African Afterthoughts, 1954, p. 131. Ob man Repräsentativinstitutionen einführen solle, wollte Cameron den Afrikanern selbst überlassen: “As far as I am concerned I would leave that to their genius. I would not force it upon them... Whether the native... will turn to western system of government with the vote and the ballot I do not know. Again I saw that that must be left to his own genius.” Vor dem Joint Select Committee on Closer Union in East Africa, 1931, zit. Low-Pratt, p. 168.
Re-statement, p. 334.
Native Administration, p. 363.
“Among many doubts and uncertainties, however, one thing is certain, that it is both our duty and our interest to assist the Africans of Nigeria to build a sound united state.” Native Administration, p. 363.
“There is, however, one branch into which I believe Africans should not enter, that is the Administrative Service. This should aim at being increasingly advisory in its functions.” P. 361.
P. 360.
“This depreciation of the Legislative Council is directed towards its unsuitability as the future focus of political development, and not to its conduct of affairs hitherto.” P. 360. Margery Perham wendet sich auch gegen den Vorwurf »sentimental«; auf lange Sicht seien die Afrikaner Nordnigerias und Tanganyikas besser vorbereitet als die zur Zeit vielleicht besser geschulten Massen Südafrikas. Sie richtet dies gegen Philip Kerr, der der Indirect Rule kritisch gegenübersteht und als ungeeignet erachtet für eine Eingliederung der Afrikaner in die moderne Welt. Vgl. Butler, Lord Lothian, p. 140 f.
Some problems dealt with in the African Survey, in: International Affairs, März 1939, p. 210 f.
The Government of Crown Colonies, The development of Self-Government, in: Political Quarterly, 1938, p. 521 f. 406 Z. B. D. Westermann, Der Afrikaner heute und morgen, 1937, p. 193 f.
Perham, Re-statement, p. 331.
Sir Andrew Cohen, British policy in changing Africa, 1959, p. 25.
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von Albertini, R. (1966). Indirect Rule in Westafrika. In: Dekolonisation. Beiträge zur Kolonial- und Überseegeschichte, vol 1. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-98922-2_8
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