Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T10:31:31.930Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - English-speaking West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Get access

Summary

Can the English-speaking countries of West Africa – Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia – be considered as a separate group? Apart from Sierra Leone and Liberia they are not contiguous and might seem to have little in common other than their imported official language; even this has very different status among different groups in each country. For the Creoles of Sierra Leone and Liberians of American descent it is their native language; for the Hausa-speaking peoples of Northern Nigeria it takes second place to their own language, reduced to writing long before the advent of the British.

The impact of colonial rule by Britain on its West African colonies was uneven. For some groups, in particular the coastal communities under British rule for over a century, it deeply affected their culture and gave them strong links with others similarly affected elsewhere in West Africa. Even for Americo- Liberians that British connexion was important because of their religious and educational links with Freetown. The real founder of Nigerian political journalism in the 1890s, for instance, was John Payne Jackson, an Americo-Liberian. The number affected by such links, however, was tiny. And in all five countries there have been ‘two nations’: small coastal communities with long connexions with Britain or, in the case of Liberia, America, and much larger communities which came under British rule only at the turn of the century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ademoyega, A. Why we struck. Ibadan, 1981.
Adu, A. L. The civil service in new African states. London, 1965.
Afrifa, A. A. The Ghana coup. London, 1966.
Agbodeka, F. Achimota in the national setting. Accra, 1977.
Ajao, A. On the tiger's back, London, 1962.
Akpan, N. U. The struggle for secession. London, 1971.
Aluko, O. Ghana and Nigeria, 1957–70. London, 1974.
Ananaba, W. The trade union movement in Nigeria. London, 1969.
Anderson, R. E. Liberia: America's African friend. Chapel Hill, 1962.
Anti-Taylor, W. Moscow diary. London, 1967.
Armah, K. Africa's golden road. London, 1965.
Asihcne, E. V., Introduction to the traditional art of western Africa (London, 1972).
Assimeng, M. Social structure of Ghana. Accra, 1981.
Austin, D. Politics in Ghana 1946–1960. Oxford, 1964.
Awolowo, Obafemi. Awo. Cambridge, 1960.
Awolowo, Obafemi. Path to Nigerian freedom. London, 1947.
Awolowo, Obafemi. Path to Nigerian freedom. London, 1946.
Azikiwe, N. My odyssey: an autobiography. London, 1970.
Azikiwe, N. Zik. Cambridge, 1961.
Azikiwe, Nnamdi, Renascent Africa (Accra, 1937, repr. London, 1968).
Bauer, P. T. West African trade. London, 1954, 2nd ed. 1963.
Bauer, P. T., Equality, the Third World and economic delusion (London, 1981).
Beckman, B. Organising the farmers. Uppsala, 1974.
Birmingham, W., Neustadt, I. and Omaboe, E. N. eds. A study of contemporary Ghana. London, 1960. 2 vols.
Bourret, F. M. Ghana: the road to independence. London, 1960.
Bridges, R. C. ed. Senegambia. Aberdeen, 1974.
Busia, K. A. The position of the chief in the modern political system of Ashanti. London, 1951.
Byng, G. Reap the whirlwind. London, 1968.
Cartwright, J. R. Politics in Sierra Leone, 1947–6. Toronto, 1970.
Clapham, C. Liberia and Sierra Leone – an essay in comparative politics. Cambridge, 1976.
Clower, R. W., Dalton, G., Harwitz, M. and Walters, A. A. Growth without development: an economic survey of Liberia. Evanston, 1966.
Cohen, R. Labour and politics in Nigeria, 1945–1971. London, 1974.
Coleman, J. S. Nigeria: background to nationalism. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1958.
Cox, T. S. Civil-military relations in Sierra Leone. Cambridge, Mass., 1970.
Cox-George, N. A. Finance and development in West Africa: the Sierra Leone experience. London, 1961.
Crowder, M. The story of Nigeria. 3rd ed. London, 1973.
Damachi, U. G. The role of trade unions in the development process. London, 1974.
Davidson, B. Black star. A view of the life and times of Kwame Nkrumah. London, 1973.
de St Jorre, J. The Nigerian civil war. London, 1972.
Dei-Annang, M. The administration of Ghana's foreign policy 1957–65. London, 1975.
Dudley, B. J. Parties and politics in Northern Nigeria. London, 1968.
Ekanem, I. I. Nigerian census, 1963. Benin, 1972.
Eyo, Ekpo, Two thousand years of Nigeria art (Lagos, 1977);
Feinstein, A. African revolutionary. New York, 1973.
Flint, J. E. Nigeria and Ghana. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1966.
Foot, Hugh, A start in freedom (London, 1964) –6.
Foray, C. P. Historical dictionary of Sierra Leone. Metuchen, NJ, 1977.
Foster, P. and Zolberg, A. eds. Ghana and the Ivory Coast: perspectives on modernization. Chicago, 1971.
Fraenkel, M. Tribe and class in Monrovia. Oxford, 1964.
Fyle, C. N. and Jones, E. D. A Krio-English dictionary. Oxford, 1980.
Gailey, H. A. A history of The Gambia. London, 1964.
Gailey, H. A. Historial dictionary of The Gambia. Metuchen, NJ, 1975.
Gbulie, B. Nigeria's five majors. Onitsha, 1981.
Genoud, R. Nationalism and economic development in Ghana. McGill, 1969.
Hailey, Lord. Native administration and political development in British tropical Africa. Leichtenstein (reprint), 1979.
Hailey, Lord. Native administration in the British African territories. Part III, West Africa. London, 1951.
Hart, D. The Volta River Project. Edinburgh, 1980.
Haswell, M. The nature of poverty. London, 1975.
Heussler, R. The British in Northern Nigeria. London, 1968.
Hill, Polly. Studies in rural capitalism in West Africa. Cambridge, 1970.
Hodgkin, T. L. Nationalism in colonial Africa. London, 1957.
Jeffries, R. Class, power and ideology in Ghana. Cambridge, 1978.
Kilby, P. Industrialisation in an open economy: Nigeria 1945–1966. Cambridge, 1969.
Killick, Tony. Development economics in action. London, 1978.
Kilson, M. Political change in a West African state: a study of the modernisation process in Sierra Leone. Cambridge, Mass., 1966.
Le Vine, V. T. Political corruption: the Ghana case. Stanford, 1975.
Lee, J. M. African armies and civil order. London, 1969.
Levgold, R. Soviet policy in West Africa. Harvard, 1970.
Lewis, W. A. Reflections on Nigeria's economic growth. OECD, 1967.
Liebenow, J. G. Liberia: the evolution of privilege. Ithaca, 1969.
Luckham, R. The Nigerian military, 1960–1967. Cambridge, 1971.
Mackintosh, J. P. et al. Nigerian government and politics. London, 1966.
Madiebo, A. A. The Nigerian revolution and the Biafran war. Enugu, 1980.
Miners, N. J. The Nigerian army, 1956–1966. London, 1971.
Nicolson, I. F. The administration of Nigeria 1900 to 1960. London, 1970.
Nimley, A. J. The Liberian bureaucracy. Washington, DC, 1977.
Nketia, J. W. Kwabena, Folk songs of Ghana (Oxford, 1963);
Nkrumah, Kwame. Africa must unite. London, 1963.
Nkrumah, Kwame. Consciencism. London, 1964.
Nkrumah, Kwame. The autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. London, 1957.
Obasanjo, O. My command. Ibadan, 1980.
Ocran, A. K. Politics of the sword. London, 1977.
Offodile, C. Dr M. I. Okpara. Enugu, 1980.
Ogunsanwo, A. China's policy in Africa. Cambridge, 1974.
Okara, Gabriel, The fisherman's invocation (London, 1978).
Okpu, U. Ethnic minority problems in Nigerian politics 1960–1965. Uppsala, 1977.
Olatunbosun, D. Nigeria's neglected rural majority. Ibadan, 1975.
Olusanya, G. O. The Second World War and politics in Nigeria 1939–1953. Lagos and London, 1973.
Olusanya, V. O. Soldiers and Power. Stanford, 1977.
Omari, P. Kwame Nkrumah: the anatomy of an African dictatorship. London, 1970.
Owusu, M. Uses and abuses of political power. Chicago, 1971.
Ozigi, and Ocho, . Education in Northern Nigeria. London, 1981.
Paden, J. N. Religion and political culture in Kano. Berkeley, 1973.
Panter-Brick, S. K. ed. Soldiers and oil. London, 1978.
Peace, A. Choice, class and conflict. Brighton, 1979.
Pearce, R. D. The turning point in Africa: British colonial policy 1938–1948. London, 1982.
Post, K. W. J. and Jenkins, G. D. The price of liberty. Cambridge, 1973.
Price, R. M. Society and bureaucracy in contemporary Ghana. Berkeley, 1975.
Quaison-Sackey, A. Africa unbound. New York, 1963.
Saylor, R. G. The economic system of Sierra Leone. Durham, NC, 1967.
Schwarz, W. Nigeria. London, 1968.
Sharwood-Smith, B. But always as friends. London, 1968.
Sklar, R. L. Nigerian political parties. Princeton, 1963.
Smock, D. R. and Smock, A. C. The politics of pluralism. New York, 1975.
Sokoto, Sardauna of. My life. Cambridge, 1962.
Spitzer, L. The Creoles of Sierra Leone. Wisconsin, 1974.
Stolper, W. G. Planning without facts. Cambridge, Mass., 1966.
Stremlau, J. J. The international politics of the Nigerian civil war. Princeton, 1977.
Thompson, W. S. Ghana's foreign policy, 1957–1966. Princeton, 1969.
Thornton, A. P. The imperial idea and its enemies. London, 1968.
Tubman, W. V. S. The official papers of William V. S. Tubman. Monrovia, 1968.
Tubman, W. V. S. Tubman of Liberia speaks. London, 1959.
Tutuola, Amos, Feather woman of the jungle (London, 1962)
Van de Laan, H. L. The Sierra Leone diamonds. London, 1965.
Welch, G. The jet lighthouse. London, 1960.
Whitaker, C. S. The politics of tradition. Princeton, 1970.
White, J. Central administration in Nigeria, 1914–1948. Dublin and London, 1968.
Williams, D. M. President and power in Nigeria. London, 1982.
Wreh, Tuan. The love of liberty brought us here. London, 1971.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×