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On Aro Colonial Primary Source Material: A Critique of the Historiography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

A. O. Nwauwa
A. O. Nwauwa*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
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Extract

The successful implementation of the Lugardian system of indirect rule among the Igbo eluded British colonial officials. In Northern Nigeria the British had effectively used the Fulani aristocrats in implementing the system. The Fulani were believed to represent a superior caste of nomads who possessed superior ideas of centralization, organization, and administration. Since the Aro were able to organize their spectacular slave- trading network in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the British assumed that, like the Fulani, they represented equally superior elements, and so could be used to implement the indirect rule policy in Igboland. Or, if they did not possess a centralized administration as the Fulani, which could be effectively utilized, one could be invented for the occasion.

As a result the Aro began to agitate British colonial officers and anthropologists, designing to show their “foreignness” to the Igbo. British officials quickly rejected that the Aro were Igbo. Because the Igbo were acephalous the British had regarded them as very “primitive,” thus incapable of any remarkable organization or innovation. Since colonialism justified itself by the contention that, left alone, Africans were incapable of any meaningful advance, it was only logical for the British to look outside Igboland and Africa for the origin of the Aro. Consequently, Aro colonial historiography became suspect.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 19 , 1992 , pp. 377 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1992

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References

Notes

1. H.R. Palmer, “Memorandum and Questionnaire” LGNP, dated 11/5/21 and attached to M.p. no. P1 195/1921 of 13/7/21 from Secretary Southern Provinces to A.D.O. Arochukwu, Arodiv. 20/1/1, 1921. Refer also to Afigbo, A.E., “Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria: The Era of Warrant Chiefs, 18911929”, Tarikh, 4/4 (1974): 13.Google Scholar Afigbo observed that thus disappointed, the British disparaged the Igbo because they “did not have the type of ruler who made it possible to implement indirect rule of a certain type.”

2. H.R. Palmer, “Memorandum and Questionnaire”, ibid.; “The Aro People”, Memorandum, dated 1/5/21, Enugu National Archives, Arodiv. 1/7/33, 1921 and “Tribes of Nigeria InterRelation (Arochukwu Jukun, etc.), dated 10/8/26, LGNP, Kaduna Archives, File No., 15911, vol. 1,1926.

3. See Afigbo, A.E., “Herbert Richmond Palmer and Indirect Rule in Eastern Nigeria, 1915-1928,” Journal ofthe Historical Society of Nigeria, 3/2 (1965,):295–312.Google Scholar

4. Afigbo, A.E., The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria, (London, 1972)Google Scholar; idem., “The Eastern Province Under Colonial Rule” in Obaro Ikime, ed., Groundwork of Nigerian History, (Ibadan, 1980), 413.

5. H. Webber, District Officer, “Report on the Aro” National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/1.

6. E.J. Price, Assistant District Officer, DcotEkpene Province “Comment on Aro Origin”, Letter No. T.4/1922 of 16/11/22, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/1, 1922.

7. Oti Nwa Anicho, “Account of Aro Origin” dated, Arochukwu, 4/8/22, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/1, 1922.

8. Major I. Sealey-King, A.D.O.; Aro District, “Aro Genealogical History of__”, Memo to Resident, Calabar thro: D.O., IkotEkpene, dated 1/5/23, No. 277/22/1923, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/1,1923.

9. D.A.F. Shute, A.D.O., Arochukwu to D.O., IkotEkpene, “‘Ntinya’ Organization among Ehums, SemiBantu peoples, and its possible relation to the Religion of the Uguakuma Aro”, no. 77/1703/s/1926, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/1, 1926.

10. Ibid., 4.

11. H.F. Mathews, “Discusion of Aro Origin and the Basis of the Widespread ‘Aro Influence,’” Intelligence Report, National Archives, Enugu, M.P. No. 24/1927/25, Arodiv. 20/1/15, 1927.

12. Ibid., 2-9.

13. Ibid., 27-28.

14. E. Falk, Resident, Calabar Province, Memo on “Aro Origin and the Basis of the Widespread Aro Influence” to H.F. Mathews, T. 31/1927, National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/25, 1927.

15. Ibid., 2. Falk's own research was conducted between about 1911 and 1917.

16. See Afigbo, Warrant Chiefs.

17. T.M. Shankland, “Intelligence Report on the Aro Clan, Arochukwu District, Calabar Province,” National Archives, Enugu, Arodiv. 20/1/15, 1933.

18. Ibid., 8.

19. Dike, K. Onwuka and Ekejiuba, Felicia I., “The Aro State: A Case Study of State-Formation in Southeastern Nigeria”, Journal of African Studies 5 (1978):281.Google Scholar

20. Umo, R. Kanu, History of Aro Settlements, (Yaba, n.d.).Google Scholar Umo was an Engineer.