British Colonisation of Northern Nigeria, 1897-1914

A Reinterpretation of Colonial Sources

Mahmud Modibbo Tukur

• Publisher: Amalion
• Year: 2016
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9782359260489
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

"In this densely detailed and interpretatively nuanced study, Mahmud Modibbo Tukur lays bare the very foundations of the colonial state in what is now northern Nigeria. This is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the foundations of contemporary Nigeria and how we came to be what we are." – Prof. Abdul Raufu Mustapha, University of Oxford, UK.
Mahmud Modibbo Tukur's work challenges fundamental assumptions and conclusions about European colonialism in Africa, especially British colonialism in northern Nigeria. Whereas others have presented the thesis of a welcome reception of the imposition of British colonialism by the people, the study has found physical resistance and tremendous hostility towards that imposition; and, contrary to the "pacification" and minimal violence argued by some scholars, the study has exposed the violent and bloody nature of that occupation. Rather than the single story of "Indirect rule", or "abolishing slavery" and lifting the burden of precolonial taxation which others have argued, this book has shown that British officials were very much in evidence, imposed numerous and heavier taxes collected with great efficiency and ruthlessness, and ignored the health and welfare of the people in famines and health epidemics which ravaged parts of northern Nigeria during the period. British economic and social policies, such as blocking access to western education for the masses in most parts of northern Nigeria, did not bring about development but its antithesis of retrogression and stagnation during the period under study. Tukur's analysis of official colonial records and sources constitutes a significant contribution to the literature on colonialism in Africa and to understanding the complexity of the Nigerian situation today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Tables
• Maps
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• Abbreviations
• A Glossary of Non-English Words
• Introduction: Laying the Foundations of the Colonial State in Northern Nigeria – Mahmud Modibbo Tukur’s Contribution to Nigerian Historiography
• 1. Resistance and Surrender to British Invasion, 1897–1903
• 2. The Nature of the British Occupation and Its Immediate Impact
• 3. Relations Between the New Emirs and the British
• 4. The Extension of British Administrative Control to the Small Towns and Villages of the Emirates
• 5. The Impact of District Reorganization
• 6. The Establishment of the Native and Provincial Court System
• 7. The Imposition of British Taxes
• 8. The Attitudes of the Various Classes Towards British Taxation
• 9. Disbursement of Revenues
• 10. Changes in the Economy of the Emirates and the Influx of European Firms
• 11. The Nature, Extent and Essence of British Social Policy in the Emirates
• General Conclusion
• A Note on Sources
• Notes
• Bibliography