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Critical Agents: Colonial Nigerian Intellectuals and their British Counterparts

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Agency and Action in Colonial Africa

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Abstract

As John Flint has pointed up more than once, historians’ models do not always match the facts revealed by carefully researched reconstruction. One of his articles on African decolonization showed convincingly that the nationalist drama presenting decolonization as heroic struggle was more mythical than real, while the dependency theorists’ suggestion of planned neocolonialism was contradicted by the archival record.1 Both these models rest on a premise which has informed much African historiography since the 1950s, namely that modern African history is framed around the opposition of ‘African’ and ‘European’ forces, cast variously as native vsforeign, nationalism vsimperialism, and good vsvs evil. Undeniably compelling at the moment of independence, such premises can still help frame important aspects of Africa’s recent past. But as the scope of African historical enquiries has widened in recent years, moving beyond nationalism and politics to include issues of food production, gender, civil society, and culture, this powerful but simple framework has become increasingly unsatisfactory.2

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Notes

  1. John Flint, ‘Planned Decolonization and its Failure in British Africa’, African Affairs, 82 (1983) 389–411.

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  2. The spirit of recent work can be sampled in, for example, Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, 2 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, 1997); F. Cooper and A. L. Stoler, eds, Tensions of Empire (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997); Gyan Prakash, After Colonialism: imperial histories and postcolonial dismemberments (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).

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  3. Dickson A. Mungazi, The Mind of Black Africa (Westport: Praeger, 1996); Basil Davidson, Modern Africa, 3rd edn (London: Longman, 1994) p. 269; Davidson, The Black Man’s Burden (New York: Times Books, 1992).

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  4. For such an exploration see P. S. Zachernuk, Colonial Subjects: An African Intelligentsia and Atlantic Ideas (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000); also Y. Gershoni, Africans on African-Americans (New York: New York University Press, 1997).

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  5. My enquiry here thus excludes other intellectuals not recorded in print, or less embedded in colonial culture. A fully satisfactory framework must also connect such people. See as a contribution Carolyn Hamilton’s recent argument for a complex interaction of Zulu oral and written historiography with the colonial literature on Shaka: Terrific Majesty (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998). Also Gaurav Desai, ‘Dangerous Supplements: African Self-fashioning and the Colonial Library’ (unpublished PhD, Duke University, 1996); Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990); Andrew Apter, Black Critics and Kings (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). Classic studies of the educated elite include James S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (1958; reprint Benin City: Broburg & Wistrom, 1986); E. A. Ayandele, The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria 1842–1914 (London: Longman, 1966); Robert W. July, The Origins of Modern African Thought (New York: Praeger, 1967).

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  6. The scattered Europeans who do seem to have adopted African ways deserve further study in this context of intellectual and cultural history. James Stuart-Young, a European trader and author in early colonial Onitsha, tutored African students who later emerged as notable nationalists and writers. Mbonu Ojike once called him ‘a European who had lived in Onitsha so long and so humanly that he had been practically Africanized’. My Africa (New York: John Day, 1946), p. 144.

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  7. The diversity of British ideas about colonial Africa has received much attention, from Dorothy Hammond and Alta Jablow, The Myth of Africa, 2nd edn (New York: Library of Social Sciences, 1977) to, more recently, Annie E. Coombes, Reinventing Africa (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994).

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  8. Samuel Crowther, A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language Together with introductory remarks by O. E. Vidal, Bishop of Sierra Leone (London: Seeleys, 1852); Samuel Crowther, Journal of an Expedition up the Niger and Tshadda Rivers in 1854 (1855; reprint London: Cass, 1970); Samuel Crowther and John Christopher Taylor, The Gospel on the Banks of the Niger. Journals and Notices of the Native Missionaries accompanying the Niger Expedition of 1857–1859 (1859; reprint London: Dawsons, 1968).

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  9. Africanus B. Horton, ‘African Products’, African Times, 23 May 1864; Horton, West African Countries and Peoples, British and Native (1868; reprint Nendeln/ Lichtenstein: Kraus, 1970).

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  10. H. M. Bell (ed.), Search for a Place: Black Separatism and Africa, 1860 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1971).

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  11. See for example, Richard F. Burton, Wit and Wisdom from West Africa (1865; reprint New York: New American Library, 1969) p. 214; Burton, Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains, vol 1 (London: Tinsley, 1863) pp. 222–48, also 80n.

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  12. E. W. Blyden Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (London: Whittingham, 1887); Reginald Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and Mohammedanism (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1875); R. Bosworth Smith, ‘Mohammedanism in Africa’, Nineteenth Century 31 (Dec. 1887) 793; Hollis R. Lynch, Edward Wilmot Blyden: Pan Negro Patriot (London: Oxford University Press, 1967) pp. 67–76.

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  13. ‘Bishop Crowther on Islam in Western Africa’, CMS Intelligencer (Apr. 1888) 253–6; ‘K’, ‘Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race’, CMS Intelligencer and Record (Nov. 1887) 650; Isaac Taylor, letter to the editor, The Times, 26 Oct. 1887; Eugene Stock, letter to the editor, The Times, 30 Nov. 1887.

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  14. See for example Lagos Institute, Proceedings of Inaugural Meeting, 16 October 1901 (Lagos: n.p., 1901); A. G. Hopkins, ‘A Report on the Yoruba, 1910’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 5 (1969) 67–100.

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  15. See, for example, the unofficial minutes to a Fabian Colonial Conference on ‘Transition to Self-Government’, at Clacton-on-Sea, April 12–14, 1946, in Margery Perham Papers (Rhodes House, Oxford, hereafter MPP), 698/5, ff. 1–12. Okoi Arikpo’s correspondence with the Bureau in the mid-1950s suggests how the role of expert had been reversed. See Fabian Colonial Papers (Rhodes House, Oxford, hereafter FCP) 82/2 ff. 129–131 and 84/4 ff. 39–50. See also the Bureau attempts to seek input from Arthur Prest in 1953 (FCP 84/4 f. 38) and Mbonu Ojike in 1954 (FCP 84/4 ff. 62–4).

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  16. Ayo Ogunsheye, review of Joan Wheare, Nigerian Legislative Council (1950) African Affairs, 49 (July, 1950) 259–60.

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  17. F. I. Ibiam to M. Nicholson, FCP 5/4 ff. 1–5.

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  18. See for example, E. A. Ogueri, ‘Indirect Rule and the Growth of Representative Government in Nigeria’ (unpublished PhD, Harvard University, 1955); F. Oladipo Onipede, ‘Nigerian Plural Society: Political and Constitutional Development 1870–1954’ (unpublished PhD, Columbia University, 1956); F. Oladipo Onipede, ‘African Nationalism. A Critical Portrait’, Dissent, 3 (1956) 276–85.

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  19. R. E. Dennett, Nigerian Studies (London: Macmillan – now Palgrave, 1910) vii–viii.

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  20. O. Johnson to E. D. Morel, 19 July 1911, Morel Papers (London School of Economics) F9 file J–K, f. 18.

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  21. J. F. A. Ajayi, ‘Samuel Johnson and Yoruba Historiography’, in Paul Jenkins, ed., The Recovery of the African Past (Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1998) p. 67; C. R. Niven, A Short History of Nigeria (London: Longman, 1937) pp. x, 64–8.

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  22. Editorial, Nigeria 14 (June 1938) 93; E. H. Duckworth, ‘Diary’, 24–28 Oct. 1936, MSS Afr. s.1451 2/5 (Rhodes House, Oxford). See also P. S. Zachernuk, ‘African History and Imperial Culture in Colonial Nigerian Schools’, Africa, 68 (1998) 484–505. Nigerians also contributed to such colonial publications as Nigerian Field, for example G. O. Adejeji, ‘The Are Ceremony in Ifola’, Nigerian Field, 4 (1935) 35–9.

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  23. I. Geiss, The Pan-African Movement (London: Methuen, 1974) p. 343. Hakim Adi traces in detail how West Africans in Britain strove to develop connections with interested parties while avoiding Colonial Office and other attempts to control them. West Africans in Britain 1900–1960 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998).

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  24. See International African Institute Papers (London School of Economics), Consignment 2 Box 3/2, ‘File Summary-Rockefeller Fellowships: Mr Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe’; also Oldham to Malinowski, 18 May 1933, Malinowski Papers (London School of Economics), Africa I 13; Minutes of 14th Meeting of the IAI Executive Committee, 15–16 June 1935, Malinowski Papers, Africa I 15 (496); M. Perham to Oldham, 21 October 1934, in J. H. Oldham Papers (Rhodes House, Oxford), Mss. Afr. s. 829, ff. 4–5. On Kenyatta and the Institute, see Desai, ‘Dangerous Supplements’, 212–32.

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  25. R. E. Dennett to E. D. Morel, 23 July 1912, Morel Papers F8/38.

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  26. Desai, ‘Dangerous Supplements’, pp. 235–6.

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  27. John Mensah Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution (1906; reprint London: Cass, 1968) p. vii.

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  28. Ladipo Solanke, United West Africa (or Africa) at the Bar of the Family of Nations (1927; reprint London: Africa Publication Society, 1969) pp. 50–1.

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  29. H. O. Davies, ‘Colonial Peoples and the New Order’, Daily Service, 6 November 1940.

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  30. See for example F. J. Pedler to M. Perham, 8 Feb. 1940, MPP 691/1.

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  31. ‘The Royal African Society: Draft Script for the BBC Eastern Service’ [1945], Swanzy Papers (Mss Brit Emp s.501 Rhodes House, Oxford, hereafter SP) 1/1, ff. 105–8.

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  32. Adeniyi Williams to Perham, 24 Mar. 1934, MPP 24/1, ff. 5–12. A decade later Nigerian students were still keen to exchange ideas with Perham, but from a more critical position. See N. Aknowondike to Perham, 1 Mar. 1946, MPP 396/1 ff. 21–7.

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  33. West African Pilot, 20 Aug. 1938.

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  34. F. W. Whale, ‘Traditions and Superstitions’, Nigerian Teacher, 1 (1934) 34–7.

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  35. ‘Additional Notes by Mr. Swanzy 23.7.45’ (attached to a BBC script), SP 1/1 f. 114; also Swanzy to J. L. Keith, 14 Jan. 1946, SP 1/2 f. 4; Swanzy to Eyo Ita, 11 June 1948, SP 1/4, f. 66; Ita to Swanzy, 16 Sept. 1948, SP 1/4, ff. 102–4.

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  36. See for example W. A. Moore, History of Itsekiri, 2nd edn (London: Cass, 1976).

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  37. This critical agency is the principal theme of my Colonial Subjects, where these adaptations are carefully studied in context. For one careful thematic study in Nigerian intellectual history see Zachernuk, ‘Of Origins and Colonial Order: Southern Nigerian Historians and the “Hamitic Hypothesis” c. 1870–1970’, Journal of African History, 35 (1994) 427–55.

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  38. See my discussion of the debate over slavery in ‘Johnson and the Victorian Image of the Yoruba’, in Toyin Falola, (ed.), The Pioneer, Patriot and Patriarch: Samuel Johnson and the Yoruba People (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993) pp. 33–46.

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  39. See Mary Kingsley, West African Studies, 2nd edn (London: Macmillan – now Palgrave, 1901) pp. xvii, 323; Edward W. Blyden, The African Society and Miss Mary H. Kingsley (London: West Africa, 1901); Blyden, African Life and Customs (1908, reprint London: African Publication Society, 1969). See also Zachernuk, ‘The Lagos Elite and the Idea of Progress’, in Toyin Falola, (ed.), Yoruba Historiography (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991) pp. 147–65.

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  40. John E. Flint, ‘Mary Kingsley: A Reassessment’, Journal of African History, 4 (1963) 99–104.

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  41. See C. F. Strickland, Co-operation for Africa (London: Oxford University Press, 1933); Obafemi Awolowo, ‘Economic Programme submitted to the Nigerian Youth Movement, Ibadan Branch, 18 June 1940’, Obafemi Awolowo Papers (Ikenne, Nigeria).

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  42. Compare, for example, Rita Hinden, Plan for Africa (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1941) with A. A. Nwafor Orizu, Without Bitterness (New York: Creative Age Press, 1944) pp. 213–53.

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  43. As examples of this division, see Rita Hinden, ‘The Enigma of the African’, Tribune, 27 Feb. 1948, reprinted in Wasu, 12 (summer 1948) 14–16; FCB to Akintola, 10 Apr. 1945, FCP 82/2 f. 19. See also Perham to Awolowo, 8 Feb. 1946, Obafemi Awolowo Papers, 1347; Perham, ‘Foreword’ to Awolowo, Path to Nigerian Freedom (London: Faber, 1947). On the historical issue compare W. K. Hancock, Argument of Empire (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1943) p. 117 with Orizu, Without Bitterness, p. 260.

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  44. Peter Thomas to Governor Clifford, 28 Jan. 1921, International Missionary Council Papers (University of London) Box 273, file ‘Memoranda and ordinances’, 1911/26.

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  45. O. A. Alakija, ‘The African must have Western Education’, Elders Review 9 ( July 1930) 94–5; Isaac O. Delano, The Soul of Nigeria (1937; reprint Kraus, Nendeln, 1973); A. Hunt-Cooke, review of Delano, Soul of Nigeria, Nigeria, 11 (1937) 89–90.

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  46. See N. E. Nziem, ‘African Historians and Africanist Historians’, in D. Newbury and B. Jewsiewicki, (eds), African Historiographies (London, Sage: 1986) pp. 20–7.

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Authors
  1. Philip S. Zachernuk
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John’s, Canada

    Chris Youé (Professor of History) (Professor of History)

  2. Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

    Tim Stapleton (Assistant Professor of History) (Assistant Professor of History)

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© 2001 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Zachernuk, P.S. (2001). Critical Agents: Colonial Nigerian Intellectuals and their British Counterparts. In: Youé, C., Stapleton, T. (eds) Agency and Action in Colonial Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288485_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230288485_10

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-41796-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-230-28848-5

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