No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Spoken Reminiscences of Political Agents in Northern Nigeria I1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2014
Extract
British imperial administration in Africa and Asia has originally been characterized as “indirect rule,” but the concept of “indirect rule” has been faulted for several shortcomings, including its inadequacy in explaining relations between the limited number of European officials and the predominance of indigenous personnel in government. Recent research has rather identified political clientage as a suitable model for examining the structures and dynamics of British rule in the non-European world from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Clientage denotes a mutually beneficial relationship and solidarity between individuals or groups of unequal status and influence in society. It is characterized by dependency between a client and a patron, with varying command over resources and values. This system of cultivating relations of personal loyalty developed as a principle of political activity in many social formations.
Clientage operation necessarily involved brokerage. As a medium for political interaction, clientage in indigenous hierarchies embodied agency and linkage between ruling élites and subjects. Accordingly, clientage involved political mediation, which required brokerage or intermediary service. Similarly, clientage in the colonial context essentially involved interaction between hierarchies of imperial rulers and those of the subordinate indigenous government. Mediation and brokerage between governing officials and indigenous rulers also constituted a vital element in imperial governance and administration.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © African Studies Association 2007
Footnotes
1
This collection forms part of oral interviews I conducted in 1993 during my doctoral field research in Nigeria. The study benefited very much from the support of many people. For their assistance with my interviews, I am grateful to Dr. Tijjani Muhammad Naniya and Mallam Abdulkarim Umar Dan-Asabe, both of Bayero University, Kano. Mallam Umar Adamu of Kano State History and Culture Bureau also helped in conducting my interviews; he deserves my gratitude. I must mention Alhaji Muhammadu Garba Saidu, also of Kano State History and Culture Bureau, for his inspiration and invaluable support to the study. Mallam Adamu Abdulkadir of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, as well as Mallam Galadima Idris helped me with my interviews and also transcribed and translated the oral data. I acknowledge their contribution to my work.
References
2 For the conceptual limitations of “indirect rule” see Cell, John W., “Colonial Rule” in Brown, Judith M. and Louis, Wm. Roger, eds., Oxford History of British Empire, vol. 4 (Oxford, 1999), 242Google Scholar; Newbury, Colin, Patrons, Clients, and Empire: Chieftaincy and Over-rule in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific (New York, 2003), 259CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Newbury, Colin, “Patrons, Clients, and Empire: The Subordination of Indigenous Hierarchies in Asia and Africa”, Journal of World History 11(2000), 227–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem., Patrons; Lemarchand, René, “Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa: Competing Solidarities in Nation-Building” in Schmidt, Steffen W.et al., Friends, Followers, and Factions: a Reader in Political Clientelism (Berkeley, 1977), 107Google Scholar.
4 Smith, M.G., Government in Zazzau 1800-1950 (London, 1960), 8Google Scholar; Nadel, S.F., A Black Byzantium: the Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria (London, 1969), 122–23Google Scholar; Lemarchand, , “Political Clientelism,” 100Google Scholar.
5 Ibid., 103, 105.
6 Newbury, , Patrons, 262Google Scholar.
7 Fisher, Michael H., “Indirect Rule in the British Empire: the Foundations of the Residency System in India (1764-1858),” Modern Asian Studies 18(1984), 323CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem., Indirect Rule in India: Residents and the Residency System 1764-1858 (Delhi, 1991), 43.
8 Fisher, , “Indirect Rule,” 411Google Scholar.
9 Fisher, , Indirect Rule, 325Google Scholar; idem., “Indirect Rule,” 403.
10 Fisher, , Indirect Rule, 319Google Scholar; Coen, Terence Creagh, The Indian Political Service: a Study in Indirect Rule (London, 1971), 56Google Scholar.
11 Fisher, , Indirect Rule, 323, 326Google Scholar.
12 Ibid., 323, with emphasis added.
13 Heussler, Robert, The British in Northern Nigeria (London, 1968), 118Google Scholar; see also Cary, Joyce, Mister Johnson (New York, 1989), 70–71Google Scholar.
14 Afeadie, Philip A., “Adamu Jakada's Intelligence Reports,” Sudanic Africa 5(1994), 218Google Scholar; Ubah, C.N., “Etsu Nupe Mohammadu and the British, 1900-1916,” Ikenga 4/1(01 1979), 36–45Google Scholar.
15 For instance, in 1911 the protectorate authorities divided Ma-Yine region in Adamawa province into two separate districts, on the suggestion of Agent Bello. This official then secured the appointment of his clients to the headships of the two new districts. (Tukur, Mahmud Modibbo, “The Imposition of British Colonial Domination on the Sokoto Caliphate, Borno, and Neighbouring States: 1897-1914: a Reinterpretation of Colonial Sources” [PhD, Ahmadu Bello University, 1979), 429–30Google Scholar. Mallam Bawa, who worked with Assistant Resident H.R. Palmer in Katsina, was another such influential agent.
(Smith, M.G., The Affairs of Daura (Berkeley, 1978), 319–24Google Scholar.
16 Flint, John E., Sir George Goldie and The Making of Nigeria (London, 1960), 86–87, 146Google Scholar; Dusgate, Richard H., The Conquest of Northern Nigeria (London, 1985), 33Google Scholar. The Company domain in northern Nigeria was known as the Niger Sudan. There were seven stations on the middle Niger, among them Lokoja (the headquarters of Niger Sudan), Egga, Rabba, Jebba, Bajibo, and Leaba. There were ten stations on the Benue, chief among them Loko, Ibi, Numan, and Yola. These establishments formed the northern section of the Company sphere of operations on the Niger. The southern section, which lay in the lower Niger, was known as the Niger Territories.
17 Mockler-Ferryman, A.F., Up the Niger (London, 1892), 254–55Google Scholar; Freemantle, J.M., ed., Gazetteer of Muri Province (London, 1925), 5Google Scholar.
18 Inadequate staff and financial constraint also informed the Company policy of adopting indigenous hierarchies in administration. Apparently Sir George Goldie, the deputy governor and political administrator, was influenced by the colonial experience in India (Flint, , Goldie, 94Google Scholar; Fisher, , “Indirect Rule,” 426Google Scholar). The Company's administrative policy was manifested in the conquest of Bida and Ilorin in 1897, and Goldie's appointment of Makun Muhammadu as emir of Nupe under British supervision. (Maxse, F.I., Seymour Vandeleur (London, 1906), 113Google Scholar; Perham, Margery, Native Administration in Nigeria (London, 1962), 34Google Scholar.
19 Afeadie, Philip Atsu, “The Hidden Hand of Overrule: Political Agents and the Estab-lishment of British Colonial Rule in Northern Nigeria, 1886-1914” (Ph.D., York University, 1996), chapters 4-6Google Scholar.
20 Flint, , Goldie, 227–30Google Scholar.
21 Specifically, the protectorate administration sought to promote economic development in northern Nigeria for the mutual benefit of the local people and their British rulers, although this objective changed to economic domination by the colonial state: Nicolson, I.F., The Administration of Nigeria 1900-1960 (Oxford, 1969), chapters 1 and 6Google Scholar.
22 Perham, Margery, Lugard. II. The Years of Authority 1898-1945 (London, 1961), 44Google Scholar; Orr, Charles, The Making of Modern Nigeria (New York, 1965), 83Google Scholar; Heussler, , British in Northern Nigeria, 24–25Google Scholar; Fika, Adamu Mohammed, The Kano Civil War and British Overrule 1882-1940 (Ibadan, 1978), 108Google Scholar.
23 By 1900 the population of the region was about nine million. Graham, Sonia F., Government and Mission Education in Northern Nigeria 1900-1919 (Ibadan, 1966), xxiiiGoogle Scholar. Colin Newbury provides a comparative figure of 12 million by 1914: “Accounting for Power in Northern Nigeria,” JAH 45(2004), 258Google Scholar. For the ethnic and linguistic composition of the region see Temple, C.L., ed., Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria (London, 1965)Google Scholar; Adeleye, R.A., Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria 1804-1906 (New York, 1971), 4, 8Google Scholar.
24 Annual Reports, Northern Nigeria, 1900-1912, 213. The territorial divisions involved the three double-provinces of Sokoto (Sokoto/Gwandu) in the northwest, Kano (Kano/Katagum) in the north, and Borno (East/West) in the northeast. The single provinces included Borgu, Kontagora, and Nupe (Bida) in the west; Zaria, Nassarawa, and Bauchi in the center; Ilorin in the southwest; Kabba, and Bassa in the south; Muri, and Yola in the southeast. In 1907 Niger province, a new territorial division was created out of the western portions of Zaria and Nassarawa provinces.
25 Afeadie, “Hidden Hand of Overrule,” chapters 4-6.
26 As Jean Stengers notes, “[an] African aspect which requires to be integrated within colonial history: that of the mentality, psychology, and aptitudes of the men upon whom the colonizer established his power. But all that we have as evidence on this point is that produced by the conqueror himself—evidence, which must, of course, be treated cau-tiously, because of the imprint of assumptions and stereotypes upon it.” (Stengers, , “Belgian Historiography since 1945” in Emmer, P.C. and Wesseling, H.L., eds., Reappraisals in Overseas History (Leiden, 1979), 175Google Scholar.
27 Such as Arewa House Centre for Historical Research and Documentation in Kaduna, Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kano State and Culture Bureau, and Bayero University in Kano.
28 Retired civil servant, 77 years of age, Zaria City, 19 June 1993. Interview by Philip Atsu Afeadie and Mallam Adamu Abdulkadir.
29 In the period 1886-1914 political agents in northern Nigeria were identified as a distinct group in government documents, yet they performed many roles as intermediaries, including the conduct of government diplomacy, intelligence gathering, and supervision of local government. Accordingly, they were described variously as political agents, messengers, and interpreters. In the 1920s the colonial authorities supposedly replaced the post of political agent with that of “messenger”, but the messengers would perform the same functions and wield similar influence as the erstwhile political agents. (Afeadie, “Hidden Hand of Overrule,” chapters 1 and 7; Heussler, , British in Northern Nigeria, 119Google Scholar).
30 The term “Europeans” is used by the interviewees to refer to colonial officials, particularly British political officers.
31 For information on the language requirements for political officers see Afeadie, Philip Atsu, “The Semolika Expedition of 1904: a Participant's Account,” HA 31(2004), 7–8Google Scholar; Kirk-Greene, A.H.M., “Examinees, Examiners and Examinations: the Hausa Language Requirements of the Northern Nigerian Government, 1902-1962” in Furniss, Graham and Jaggar, Philip J., eds., Studies in Hausa Language and Linguistics (London, 1988), 6–8Google Scholar.
32 “Resistance to European education was so strong at first that emirs sent the sons of slaves to school, pretending that these were their own offspring, and the original school for the sons of chief in Kano had to be closed. It was replaced by elementary schools in major towns, these being filled a process of dragooning, with each district head being required to produce so many boys.” (Heussler, , British in Northern Nigeria, 120Google Scholar).
33 65 years old. Kwabai Quarters, Zaria City, 18 June 1993. Interview by Mallam Adamu Abdulkadir (son), on behalf of Afeadie.
34 A titled emirate official. (Smith, , Government in Zazzau, 113–14Google Scholar).
35 Former government messenger, 86 years, Kwarbai, Zaria City, 14 June 1993. Interview by Adamu Abdulkadir, on behalf of Afeadie.
36 Auda dan Gaji was a veteran agent in the colonial service during the 1930s. “In 1936 the D.O. Zaria got wind of what appeared to be a case of extortion by the D.H. [District Head], a high-born Fulani who held the title Magajin Gari [city mayor]. Workers on roads near Paki seemed to have received wages far below those listed on N.A. accounts. Accompanied by his messenger, an astute former Political Agent called Audu dan Gaji, an A.D.O. went to the area to investigate.” (Heussler, , British in Northern Nigeria, 159–60Google Scholar).
37 This emir held office between 1936 and 1959. (Smith, , Government in Zazzau, 234Google Scholar).
38 The informant refers to ajami (Hausa written in Arabic characters), a script which originally began with the spread of Arabic scholarship during the jihad and the formation of the Sokoto caliphate in the early nineteenth century; Hiskett, M., “The Nineteenth-Centuy Jihads in West Afric,” in Flint, John E., ed., Cambridge History of Africa, 5 (Cambridge, 1976), 149–50Google Scholar.
39 The madauci and danmadani were titled emirate officials. (Smith, , Government in Zazzau, 97–98Google Scholar.
40 During the administration of the Royal Niger Company and the protectorate of northern Nigeria (1886-1914) political agents usually conveyed information to their employers orally. This means of communication required a good memory from the informant, and political agents were well-equipped. As Resident C.L. Temple aptly observed, “the mental and bodily vigour shewn by, to take example, the native troops and porters on the march; the clerks whom we employ (although they have learnt to read and write, a process which is supposed to destroy the powers of memorial retention) and very generally by the illiterate political agents, interpreters, and especially by some of the official messengers employed by the Emirs, is a matter of surprise to those who have worked in close contact with the native.” (Temple, C.L., Native Races and their Rulers [London, 1968], 40Google Scholar). By “illiterate political agents” Temple meant agents who were not literate in standard English. They were, however, fluent in local languages and pidgin English, which were working languages of colonial administration.
41 Chief Archivist, Kano State History and Culture Bureau, son of Sa'id b. Hayat, descendant of Usman dan Fodio; 73 years, Tarauni Quarters, Kano, 22-23 June, 6 and 12 July 1993. Interview by Afeadie. For information on Hayat, see Kanya-Forstner, A.S. and Lovejoy, Paul E., Pilgrims, Interpreters, and Agents: French Reconnaisance Reports on the Sokoto Caliphate and Borno, 1891-1895 (Madison, 1997), 10–11, 24Google Scholar; Saeed, Asmau G., “A Biographical Study of Shaykh Sa'id b. Hayat (1887-1978) and the British Policy towards the Mahdiyya in Northern Nigeria, 1900-1960” (Ph.D. Bayero University, 1992)Google Scholar.
42 The informant refers to a variant of pidgin English which was a trade language invented by the people of the west African coast to suit their limited knowledge of English, and facilitate their communication with British traders. (Temple, , Native Races, 82, 246–47Google Scholar; Njeuma, Martin, ed., An Introduction to the History of Cameroon in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries [New York, 1989], 21–22Google Scholar).
43 For the activities of Rabih see Hallam, W.K.R., The Life and Times of Rabih Fadl Allah (Ilfracombe, 1977)Google Scholar; Lavers, J.E., “The Awlad Rabih 22 April 1900—August 1901,” Paideuma 40(1994), 215–42Google Scholar; Adeleye, R.A., “Rabih b. Fadl Allah and the Diplomacy of European Imperial Invasion in the Central Sudan, 1893-1902,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 5/3(12 1970), 399–418Google Scholar; Adeleye, R.A., “Rabih Fadl Allah 1879-1893; Exploits and Impact on Political Relations in Central Sudan,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 5/2(06 1970), 223–42Google Scholar.
44 This corroborates Alhaji Ali Masinja's statement of receiving gifts from his former employers, resident in Britain.
45 Ari's career in the colonial service is discussed in The Nigerian Citizen (24 April 1952).
46 In the financial year, 1901-02, first-class agents received £60 to £72 as annual salary, with an increment of £2 per annum for all categories of agents; second-class agents received £48 to £60 per annum; while third-class agents drew £36 to £48. This salary scale remained unchanged throughout the protectorate administration. (Afeadie, “Hidden Hand of Overrule,” chapter 3; Rhodes House, MSS.Brit.Emp.s.99 (L), 3, Northern Nigeria Estimate, 1901-1902).
47 Indeed, some agents such as J.K. Davies and Kiari were literate in English and Arabic, besides being competent in Hausa and other local languages: National Archives, Kaduna (NAK), SNP 7 1355/1906 Lugard, Lokoja, 16 May 1906, Approved Political Native Staff, Sokoto Province, 1906-7; NAK/O/ARLI/vol.III/204 Abadie to High Commissioner in Jebba, Wushishi, 13 May 1902; Staudinger, Paul, In the Heart of the Hausa States (2 vols.: Athens, Ohio, 1990), 1:32, 39Google Scholar; Afeadie, , “Adamu Jakada's Intelligence Reports,” 187, 194Google Scholar.
48 For information on Maimaina's service, see Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. and Newman, Paul, West African Travels and Adventures. Two Autobiographical Narratives from Northern Nigeria (New York, 1971), 127–75Google Scholar.
49 Maimaina is not known to have taken part in any mission to Sokoto on behalf of the Royal Niger Company or the protectorate administration. However, Maimaina served in the battle of Bormi in 1903, and identified the corpse of Sultan Attahiru I of Sokoto for British officers on the close of battle: Muffett, D.J.M., Concerning Brave Captains (London, 1964), 205Google Scholar.
50 For the role of Sir Hanns Vischer in the early development of western education in Kano and elsewhere in the protectorate see Bull, , “Indirect Rule in Northern Nigeria,” 74Google Scholar; Graham, Government and Mission Education.
51 See also Smith, , Government in Zazzau, 217Google Scholar.
52 Alhaji kept his word; he introduced me to other informants and even took time off his schedule to conduct and interpret my interviews with them. I am very grateful for his encouragement and assistance.
53 He said this with passion.
54 The informant refers to his grandfather, Hayat. Musa Dedari was a relative of Muhammad Dedari, a close associate of Hayat: Kanya-Forstner, /Lovejoy, , Pilgrims, 21, 24Google Scholar.
55 Other sources include Muffett, , Concerning Brave Captains, 214Google Scholar; Kirk-Greene, /Newman, , West African Travels, 145Google Scholar; Sa'id, Abubakar Garba, “Mahdiyya, Its doctrine, Spread in West Africa and Encounter with Imperialists” in Mustapha, Abubakar, ed., Dirasat Islamiyyah (Kano, 1983), 23Google Scholar.
56 See also SNP 15/1 Acc.58 Captain W.B. Dunn, Officer Commanding Gujiba, to J. Cochrane, Military Resident Bornu, Maiduguri, received, 12 June 1906, and Cochrane to Lugard, Maiduguri, 30 June 1902, enclosed in Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1903.
57 In October 1902 Musa was reinstated as political agent without chiefship in eastern Borno; SNP 15 Acc.19 Hewby, Bornu Report no.3 of 28 February 1903; Arewa House Archives, Kaduna (AHAK), Northern Nigeria Gazette (07 1904), 64Google Scholar.
58 Kazalma Ari was not the messenger involved in negotiations between Fadl Allah and British colonial authorities. On that occasion, about August of 1900, he was serving in the West African Frontier Force. The messenger in question bore a similar name, Arri, and he worked with Political Agent Abaji. Nigerian Citizen (24 April 1952); Lavers, , “Awlad Rabih,” 228Google Scholar.
59 Resident Hewby of Borno province, for one, believed that “Musa was more sinned against than sinning while in temporary charge of Burmi.” (SNP 15 Acc.19 Hewby, Report no.3 of February 28, 1903, W.P. Hewby).
60 Mustafa Barma was a Zinder prince who fled the French capture of Damagaram in 1899 and sought refuge in the Sokoto caliphate and Borno. In 1903 Mustafa was domiciled at Kachellari, near Nguru in western Borno. Resident Hewby found in Mustafa an excellent political agent, and the prince was accordingly employed in 1904. Mustafa later returned to Zinder and was installed as emir in 1922; Decalo, Samuel, Historical Dictionary of Niger (Metuchen, NJ, 1979) 81Google Scholar; Fuglestad, Finn, A History of Niger 1850-1960 (Cambridge, 1983), 87Google Scholar.
61 The son of Bello came to greet me.
62 These were unrelated episodes. In July 1899 French forces conquered Zinder and killed emir Ahmadu mai Rumji in retaliation for the death of their compatriot, Gabriel Cazemajou, in an earlier expedition. Many Zinder notables fled the French capture and sought sanctuary southwest, in the Sokoto caliphate and Borno: Afeadie, , “Adamu Jakada's Intelligence Reports,” 210–11Google Scholar.