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An Imperial Frame: Universities and the West African Roots of Colonial Development

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Nigeria’s University Age

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

Livsey explores the politics of higher education in colonial Nigeria by analysing debates that led to the foundation of University College Ibadan in 1948. The chapter documents the history of Nigerian demands for improved higher education. It focuses particularly on Ibadan’s unpopular predecessor institution Yaba Higher College, founded in 1934, and the British government’s formation of the Elliot Commission, whose 1945 report recommended founding a university at Ibadan. Livsey argues that Ibadan was not purely a colonial development project, but was shaped by deeply rooted West African visions of development. The university was the outcome of a lengthy negotiation shaped by Nigeria’s position within the British empire.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Chinua Achebe, The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays (London, 2009), 21. For the schedule of the Elliot Commission in Nigeria, see Chief Secretary to Provincial Secretaries, 8 February 1944, NAI CSO26 41978 Vol. II.

  2. 2.

    Chinua Achebe, Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays (New York, 1990), 33.

  3. 3.

    For example see Adewoye, ‘The antecedents’, 17–21; Ashby, Universities, 212–22; Nwauwa, Imperialism, Academe, 116, but also see 160.

  4. 4.

    James Duff, ‘Memoir of visit to Africa’, n.d., Papers of Sir James Fitzjames Duff, DULSC DUF 3B/136.

  5. 5.

    Elliot report, 74.

  6. 6.

    van Beusekom, Negotiating Development; Hodge, Triumph of the Expert; Tischler, Light and Power.

  7. 7.

    Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (London, 1993), 12, 15–16.

  8. 8.

    T.C. McCaskie, ‘Cultural encounters: Britain and Africa in the nineteenth century’, in Philip D. Morgan and Sean Hawkins (eds.), Black Experience and the Empire (Oxford, 2004), 168–72; John Illife, Honour in African History (Cambridge, 2005), 246–54; Richard Rathbone, ‘West Africa: modernity and modernisation’, in Jan-Georg Deutsch, Peter Probst and Heike Schmidt (eds.), African Modernities (Oxford, 2002), 20–5.

  9. 9.

    Liora Bigon, A History of Urban Planning in Two West African Colonial Capitals: Residential Segregation in British Lagos and French Dakar (1850–1930) (Lewiston, 2009), 291–2.

  10. 10.

    J.D.Y. Peel, Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (Bloomington, 2000), 8.

  11. 11.

    Zachernuk, Colonial Subjects, 27–33, 42–5; Echeruo, Victorian Lagos, 109–12.

  12. 12.

    Ajayi, ‘Development of secondary grammar school education’, 519–23. Macaulay was a Saro, educated at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone.

  13. 13.

    David B. Abernethy, The Political Dilemma of Popular Education: An African Case (Stanford, 1969), 34; Echeruo, Victorian Lagos, 30, 42.

  14. 14.

    Richard Wilk, Home Cooking in the Global Village: Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists (Oxford, 2006), 70.

  15. 15.

    Agneta Pallinder, ‘Adegboyega Edun: black Englishman and Yoruba cultural patriot’, in de Moraes Farias and Barber (eds.), Self-Assertion and Brokerage, 13.

  16. 16.

    Peel, ‘Olaju’, 140, 147–51.

  17. 17.

    F.D. Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (Edinburgh, 1922), 197–9.

  18. 18.

    Falola and Heaton, History of Nigeria, 110–16.

  19. 19.

    National Congress of British West Africa, ‘Resolutions of the conference of Africans of British West Africa held at Accra, Gold Coast, from 11th to 29th March, 1920’, transcribed in Ashby, Universities, 474–5, quotation at 474.

  20. 20.

    Seth, Subject Lessons, 160–2; Ashby, Universities, 142–3.

  21. 21.

    Hodge, Triumph of the Expert, 129–43.

  22. 22.

    Nigeria, Annual Reports on the Education Departments (Lagos, 1927), part 2, 23.

  23. 23.

    Festus O. Ogunlade, ‘Education and politics in colonial Nigeria: the case of King’s College, Lagos (1906–1911)’, JHSN 7:2 (1974), 340–2.

  24. 24.

    Hakim Adi, West Africans in Britain, 1900–1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism (London, 1998), 32–46.

  25. 25.

    Although this chapter focuses on southern Nigeria, new institutions of higher learning were also established in the north in the 1930s. They included Katsina Higher College and Kano Law School. The latter, more enduring, institution sought to modernise Islamic education. Tibenderana, Education and Cultural Change, 106–111; Fafunwa, History of Education, 209–10.

  26. 26.

    Nigerian government revenue in 1928 was £9.5m. It had declined to £ 7.6m by 1934. See Robert Shenton, The Development of Capitalism in Northern Nigeria (London, 1986), 101–3; A.G. Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), 260–7.

  27. 27.

    E.R.J. Hussey, Tropical Africa 1908–1944: Memoirs of a Period (London, 1959), 91–3.

  28. 28.

    ‘Speech made by the Governor’, 19 January 1934, TNA CO 583/197/4.

  29. 29.

    ‘Note by E.R.J. Hussey, Director of Education, Nigeria’, n.d. [1935], 3–4, NAI CSO26 29724.

  30. 30.

    ‘Speech made by the Governor’, 19 January 1934, TNA CO 583/197/4. Note ‘himself’: all Yaba students were male until the Higher College’s final years. Adetowun Ogunsheye (alumnus of Yaba Higher College and Ibadan, and retired professor), interview with the author, September 2010.

  31. 31.

    Ogunlade, ‘Yaba Higher College’, 83.

  32. 32.

    Ogunlade, ‘Yaba Higher College’, 83.

  33. 33.

    Nigerian Daily Times, 23 January 1934. It was edited by a Nigerian, A.A.C. Titcombe, but owned by a consortium of British commercial interests. See Fred I.A. Omu, Press and Politics in Nigeria, 1880–1939 (London, 1978), 63, 253, 263.

  34. 34.

    Nigerian Observer, 3 February 1934.

  35. 35.

    Nigerian Daily Times, 19 March 1934. The rally became a milestone in nationalist history. It was seen retrospectively as the first meeting of the Lagos Youth Movement, the pioneering nationalist organisation later renamed the Nigerian Youth Movement. See James S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (Berkeley, 1958), 218.

  36. 36.

    Nigeria Gazette, 8 February 1934, 14 June 1934.

  37. 37.

    Legislative Council Minutes, 10 July 1939, NAI CSO26 24121 Vol. III. Four seats for educated Nigerians were introduced on the Legislative Council in 1923, a further example of the inconsistent application of indirect rule principles. See S.J.S. Cookey, ‘Sir Hugh Clifford as governor of Nigeria: an evaluation’, African Affairs 79:317 (1980), 540–4.

  38. 38.

    Nigerian Daily Times, 30 January 1934, 31 January 1934.

  39. 39.

    This is clear, for example, in the debates of the West African Students’ Union. See also the discussion of issues including the Yoruba language in the magazine WASU 6:3 (December 1937); Zachernuk, Colonial Subjects, 119.

  40. 40.

    Nnamdi Azikiwe, Renascent Africa (Accra, n.d. [1937]), 17–18. Also see Elizabeth Tonkin, ‘Zik’s story: autobiography as political exemplar’, in de Moraes Farias and Barber (eds.), Self-Assertion and Brokerage, 35–6, 39.

  41. 41.

    Fafunwa, Nigerian Higher Education, 32–54; Okafor, Development of Universities, 79.

  42. 42.

    Douglas M. Haynes, ‘The persistence of privilege: British medical qualifications and the practice of medicine in the empire’, in Kevin Grant, Philippa Levine and Frank Trentmann (eds.), Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire and Transnationalism, c. 1880–1950 (Basingstoke, 2007), 223.

  43. 43.

    Michael E. Okorodudu, ‘Life at the Higher College’, The Nigerian Teacher 2:6 (1936), 37.

  44. 44.

    For example see Ogunlade, ‘Yaba Higher College’, 234–70.

  45. 45.

    Biobaku, When We Were Young, 76.

  46. 46.

    Alagoa to Okorodudu, 19 June 1935, KDL Yaba Papers HC77 (Vol. 1).

  47. 47.

    The Ex-Student. The Organ of the Higher College (Yaba) Ex-Students’ Union, 1:1 (1936).

  48. 48.

    Board of Advisers Minutes, 29 January 1935, 12 June 1935, 7 January 1936, KDL Yaba Papers 99A.

  49. 49.

    Bourdillon to Secretary of State, 7 October 1937, TNA CO 583/217/5.

  50. 50.

    Thorp’s undated reply to Duckworth’s Memorandum of 14 June 1939, TNA CO 583/257/6.

  51. 51.

    Ejiwunmi, Full Colours, 12.

  52. 52.

    Duckworth to Chief Secretary, 31 March 1941, TNA CO 583/257/6.

  53. 53.

    West African Governors’ Conference minutes, August 1939, NAI CSO26 24121 Vol. IV.

  54. 54.

    Ashton and Stockwell, ‘Introduction’, lxvi, lxxxv; Hopkins, Economic History, 256–8.

  55. 55.

    Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, 199–204; Suke Wolton, Lord Hailey, the Colonial Office and the Politics of Race and Empire in the Second World War (Basingstoke, 2000), 94–112.

  56. 56.

    Lee and Petter, Colonial Office, 16, 148–9.

  57. 57.

    Picture Post, 4 January 1941.

  58. 58.

    For an exception see J.E. Lewis, ‘“Tropical East Ends” and the Second World War: some contradictions in Colonial Office welfare initiatives’, JICH 28:2 (2000), 42–5.

  59. 59.

    ‘ACEC 32/40. Higher Education in West Africa. Report of the sub-committee on the recommendations of the Governors’ Conference’, 4 December 1940, 4, 8, 11–12, NAI CSO26 41978 Vol. I.

  60. 60.

    Adi, West Africans, 96–8.

  61. 61.

    WASU 10:1 (May 1943).

  62. 62.

    WASU 10:1 (May 1943).

  63. 63.

    Fewzi Borsali, ‘British colonial policy towards higher education in West Africa and the foundation of the university institutions 1939–51’, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Aberdeen University (1983), 185.

  64. 64.

    ‘ACEC 7/43. Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies. Report of the sub-committee on higher education’, May 1943, transcribed in Ashby, Universities, 492–524, quotations at 495, 502.

  65. 65.

    Parliamentary Debates, Commons, Vol. 391 (1943), col. 52.

  66. 66.

    Ashton and Stockwell, ‘Introduction’, lxxx. Other accounts that stress the Asquith Commission include Nwauwa, Imperialism, Academe, 134–56; Ashby, Universities, 212–20.

  67. 67.

    For example see ‘Higher Education. Interim Report of the Sub-Committee’, presented to the ACEC 25 March 1943, TNA CO 987/1; ‘Report of the Sub-Committee on Higher Education’, 15 May 1943, TNA CO 885/106.

  68. 68.

    Stanley to West African Governors, 12 May 1943, NAI CSO26 41978 Vol. I.

  69. 69.

    Robert Olby, ‘Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell (1887–1975)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2012 (www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/31271, accessed 19 Jan 2016).

  70. 70.

    Elliot report, ii. Further study of the contribution of Eveline Martin and Margaret Read would be of interest. I have not been able to locate their personal papers relating to the Commission.

  71. 71.

    Stanley to West African Governors, 12 May 1943, NAI CSO26 41978 Vol. I.

  72. 72.

    Officer Administering Government, Accra to Governor of Nigeria, 7 December 1943; Governor of Sierra Leone to Governor of Nigeria, 7 December 1943, NAI CSO26 41978 Vol. II.

  73. 73.

    Borsali, ‘British colonial policy’, 186.

  74. 74.

    Elliot report, vi; Elliot Commission minutes, 10 December 1943, KDL Kuti Papers box 23.

  75. 75.

    Omu, Press and Politics in Nigeria, 264.

  76. 76.

    WAP, 18 February 1944.

  77. 77.

    On government commissions as performance, see Ashforth, Politics of Official Discourse, 7–8.

  78. 78.

    Daily Service, 15 February 1944.

  79. 79.

    Daily Service, 14 February 1944.

  80. 80.

    WAP, 21 February 1944.

  81. 81.

    SND, 3 January 1944.

  82. 82.

    Nigerian Observer, 25 February 1944.

  83. 83.

    WAP, 27 January 1944.

  84. 84.

    The Comet, 19 February 1944.

  85. 85.

    WAP, 21 February 1944.

  86. 86.

    J.E. Flint, ‘“Managing nationalism”: the Colonial Office and Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1932–43’, JICH 27:2 (1999), 155.

  87. 87.

    WAP, 15 February 1944.

  88. 88.

    Daily Service, 14 February 1944.

  89. 89.

    ‘First draft Chapter VI’, n.d. [1944], KDL Kuti Papers box 24.

  90. 90.

    Elliot report, 96.

  91. 91.

    Elliot report, 91.

  92. 92.

    ‘Second draft Chapter VII’, n.d. [1944], KDL Kuti Papers box 24.

  93. 93.

    ‘Amendments to the second draft of Chapters VI and VII (Medical Education and Agriculture, Forestry and Animal Health) put forward by the African members of the Commission’, n.d. [1944], KDL Kuti Papers box 24.

  94. 94.

    Elliot report, 108.

  95. 95.

    Clive Whitehead, ‘The “two-way pull” and the establishment of university education in British West Africa’, History of Education 16:2 (1987), 123–31; Nwauwa, Imperialism, Academe, 163–5.

  96. 96.

    Nwauwa, Imperialism, Academe, 129.

  97. 97.

    Duff to Cox, 9 April 1945, DULSC Durham University Records UND/CCI/C6.

  98. 98.

    Truman to Duff, 8 September 1944, DULSC Durham University Records UND/CCI/C6.

  99. 99.

    Mouat Jones to Duff, 21 June 1945, DULSC Duff Papers DUF 3E/91.

  100. 100.

    Duff to Mouat Jones, 5 July 1944, DULSC Durham University Records UND/CCI/C6.

  101. 101.

    Borsali stressed potential student numbers and the level of training needed for Africans involved in development projects: Borsali, ‘British colonial policy’, 100. Nwauwa at times suggested the split was over how far colonial reform should go, and at others stressed quality and standards: for example, see Nwauwa, Imperialism, Academe, 121. For Ashby, the key issue was standards: Ashby, Universities, 219–20.

  102. 102.

    Elliot report, 60.

  103. 103.

    ‘Minutes of meeting between drafting sub committee of the Asquith Commission and five members of the Elliot Commission’, 13 October 1944, KDL Kuti Papers box 23.

  104. 104.

    ‘Minutes of meeting between drafting sub committee of the Asquith Commission and five members of the Elliot Commission’, 13 October 1944, KDL Kuti Papers box 23.

  105. 105.

    Elliot report, 146.

  106. 106.

    Elliot report, 29.

  107. 107.

    Elliot report, 181.

  108. 108.

    Elliot report, 55–7.

  109. 109.

    Elliot report, 74.

  110. 110.

    Whitehead, ‘Two-way pull’, 124–32.

  111. 111.

    Asquith report, 30–3.

  112. 112.

    ‘Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies. Report of delegation to West Africa’, 21 December 1946 to 15 January 1947 (hereafter Hamilton Fyfe report), 7, NAI CSO26 41978 Vol. IV.

  113. 113.

    Hamilton Fyfe report, 4.

  114. 114.

    Hamilton Fyfe report, 9–10.

  115. 115.

    Elliot report, 18.

  116. 116.

    West Africa, 8 January 1944.

  117. 117.

    Achebe, British-Protected Child, 22.

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    Tim Livsey

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Livsey, T. (2017). An Imperial Frame: Universities and the West African Roots of Colonial Development. In: Nigeria’s University Age. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56505-1_2

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