For historians (who, for once, are in the minority in this gathering of Nigerianists) archives represent both the bedrock of research and the essence of the historical record. When, in the context of this symposium, we talk about the archives of modern Nigeria up to 1960, we are really limiting ourself to the colonial period: anything before 1900 is neither ‘modern’ nor, strictly speaking, ‘Nigeria’, and anything after independence relates to artefacts which probably ought to be ia Nigerian rather than British repositories. Naturally, the descriptive term “Nigerian” as used in this archival context refers to anyone who worked in Nigeria or to material relating to Nigeria, and not narrowly to nationals from that country.