Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:35:41.995Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Portrait of a Colonizer: H. M. Douglas in Colonial Nigeria, 1897-1920

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2016

Felix K. Ekechi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Despite the increasing effort of Africanist scholars, and particularly historians, to decolonize African history by focusing greater attention on the role of Africans than Europeans in the unfolding of African history, historical interest in the influence of Europeans in Africa remains. This is perhaps reflected in the continuing appearance of studies devoted to European activities in Africa. However, there are those who, perhaps justifiably, question the need or value for such studies, given the trend in African studies today to de-emphasize imperial history and to accent “real” African history (Ranger, 1979; Bennett, 1981). Yet there are others who argue, rather persuasively, that studies of European activities in Africa should still be encouraged either because we do not as yet know all that we need to know about Europeans in Africa (Ranger and Weller, 1975), or because we now have ample data with which to reconsider aspects of European presence in Africa (Hopkins, 1976). Indeed, seen from this perspective of revisionist historiography, some of the recent studies of Europeans in Africa not only enhance our knowledge of the dynamics of African and European interaction but also enable us to either reject or modify many of the familiar assumptions and theories about Europeans in Africa (Hopkins, 1976; Ranger, 1979; Igbafe, 1979; Newbury, 1978).

It is indeed against this background of revisionist historiography that this present essay is attempted. It seeks, on the one hand, to reconsider the popular image of European colonial administrators as men who were characteristically genial, kindhearted, and unselfishly dedicated to the welfare of their African wards (Burns, 1949; Heussler, 1963; Bradley, 1966; Gann and Duignan, 1978).

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 25 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1983

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

REFERENCES

Afigbo, A. E. (1971) “The Consolidation of British imperial administration in Nigeria: 1900-1918.” Civilizations 21, 4: 436–58.Google Scholar
Anene, J. C. (1966) Southern Nigeria in Transition: 1885-1906. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Basden, G. T. (1966a) Among the Ibos of Nigeria. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Basden, G. T. (1966b) Niger Ibos. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Bennett, Norman R. (1981) “Europeans in Africa: A Mixed Bag” (book review), The International Journal of African Historical Studies 14, 1: 165–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boer, J. H. (1979) Missionary Messengers of Liberation in a Colonial Context: A Case Study of the Sudan United Mission. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Boyle, A. (1962) Trenchard. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Bradley, Kenneth. (1966) Once a District Officer. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
SirBurns, Alan. (1949) Colonial Civil Servant. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
SirBurns, Alan. (1957) In Defence of Colonies. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Cary, Joyce, (n.d.) Britain and West Africa. London: Longman, Green & Co.Google Scholar
Cohen, Robin. (1979) forced Labor in Colonial Africa. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, William B. (1980) The French Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530-1880. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Cookey, S. J. S. (1968) Britain and the Congo Question: 1885-1913. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Crowder, Michael. (1968) West Africa under Colonial Rule. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Curtin, Phillip D. (1964) The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780-1850. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Ekechi, F. K. (1972) Missionary Enterprise and Rivalry in Igboland, 1857-1914. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Ekechi, F. K. (1974) “Igbo Response to British Imperialism: The Episode of Dr. Stewart and the Ahiara Expedition, 1905-1916,” Journal of African Studies 1, 2: 145–57.Google Scholar
Ekechi, F. K. (forthcoming) “Owerri in Transition: A Political History of Owerri, 1902-1947.” Owerri: Imo Newspapers.Google Scholar
Gann, L. H., and Duignan, Peter. (1978) the Rulers of British Africa, 1870-1914. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gann, L. H., (1979) African Proconsuls: European Governors in Africa. Stanford: Hoover Institution.Google Scholar
Green, M. M. (1947) Igbo Village Affairs. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Hammond, Dorothy, and Jablow, Alta. (1977) The Myth of Africa. New York: The Library of Social Science.Google Scholar
Haywood, A., and Clarke, F. A. S.. (1964) The History of the Royal West African Frontier Force. Aldershot: Yale and Polden.Google Scholar
Hensley, F. M. (1948) Niger Dawn. North Devon: Arthur H. Stockwell.Google Scholar
Hetherington, Penelope. (1978) British Paternalism and Africa, 1920-1940. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Heussler, Robert. (1963) Yesterday's Rulers: The Making of the British Colonial Service. New York: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, A. G. (1976) “Imperial Business in Africa–Part 1: Sources,” Journal of African History 21, 1: 29–48.Google Scholar
Igbaafe, Phillip. (1979) Benin under British Administration. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Ikime, Oboro. (1977) The Fall of Nigeria: The British Conquest. New York: Africana Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. B. (1949) Bishop Shanahan of Southern Nigeria. Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds.Google Scholar
Jordan, Winthrop D. (1968) White over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Kirk-Greene, A. H. M. (1981) A Bibliographical Dictionary of British Colonial Governors. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.Google Scholar
Lugard, Lord Frederick. (1922) The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. London: Blackwood.Google Scholar
Luwel, Marcel. (1978) H. H. Johnston et H. M. Stanley sur le Congo. Bruxelles: Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer.Google Scholar
Mair, Lucy. (1977) African Kingdoms. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
McPhee, Allan. (1926) The Economic Revolution in British West Africa. London: George Routledge & Sons.Google Scholar
Meek, C. K. (1937) Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe: A Study in Indirect Rule. New York: Barnes & Noble.Google Scholar
Murray-Brown, . (1978) Faith and the Flag: The Opening of Africa. Winchester, Mass.: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Newbury, Colin. (1978) “Trade and Technology in West Africa: The Case of the Niger Company, 1900-1920.” Journal of African History 14, 4: 551–75.Google Scholar
Nwabara, S. N. (1977) Igboland: A Century of Contact with Britain, 1860-1960. New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Nwala, T. U. (1978) Mbaise in Contemporary Nigeria. New York: Gold and Maestro.Google Scholar
Oliver, Roland and Matthew, Gervase. (1963) History of East Africa, Vol. 1. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Perham, Margery, and Huxley, Elspeth J.. (1944) Race and Politics in Kenya. London: Faber & Faber.Google Scholar
Perham, Margery. (1960) The Observer, London, July 24, p. 26.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. O. (1979) “White Presence and Power in Africa.” Journal of African History 20, 4: 463–69.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. O., and Weiler, John (eds.). (1975) Themes in the Christian History of Central Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodney, Walter. (1972) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Dar es Salaam: Tanzania Publishing House.Google Scholar
Santi, Paul, and Hill, Richard (eds.). (1980) The Europeans in the Sudan, 1834-1878. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smith, R. S. (1976) War and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Sundström, Lars. (1965) The Trade of Guinea. Lund: Studia Ethnographica.Google Scholar
Tamuno, T. N. (1972) The Evolution of the Nigerian State: The Southern Phase, 1898-1914. New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Ukpabi, S. C. (1977) “Igbo Warfare.” Unpublished paper. Nsukka: University of Nigeria.Google Scholar
Uzoechi, Innocent. (1981) “The British Conquest and Administration of Udi Division, 1908-1930.” Kent State University: M.A. Thesis.Google Scholar
Virey, Julien Joseph. (1824) Histoire naturelle du genre humain, 2. Paris: Crochard.Google Scholar
Whitford, John. (1877; 2nd ed. 1967) Trading Life in Western and Central Africa. New York: Barnes & Noble.Google Scholar
Wright, Richard. (1964) White Man Listen. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Public Record Office. London: CO520/series: 14, 25, 31, 32, 35, 46, 73, 81, 92, 103. C0583/series: 30, 87. Colonial Annual Reports, 1906, 1925. The Colonial Office List, 1921. The Southern Nigeria Civil List, 1910.Google Scholar
Church Missionary Society. London: G3/A3/0 series (Niger Mission). ACC/89/F1 (Archdeacon Dennis Papers).Google Scholar
London School of Economics. London: E. D. Morel Papers (Box F8).Google Scholar
Rhodes House Library. Oxford: MSS. Afr. s. 783 (H. F. Matthews Papers). MSS. Afr. s. 375 (Col. Gerald Adams Papers). MSS. Afr. s. 1375 (Wordsworth Papers).Google Scholar
Nigeria National Archives. Ibadan (NNAI) and Enugu (NNAE): OWDIST 10/1/3; 7/5/6; 9/6/3; 24/1/2; 7/1/8 No. OW 7732. CSE 5/14/1; 5/14/2.Google Scholar
Newspapers: London Times, Oct. 12, 1908; Nigerian Daily Times, November 15, 1929; Eastern Nigeria Guardian, April 19 and May 8, 1950; West Africa, July 26, 1924.Google Scholar
Oral Interviews, Owerri: 1975 and 1979. Except for Osigwe Mere (c. 100 years, 1975), Paul Egejuru (c. 100 years, 1975), and Nze Okereke (c. 102, 1975), most of my informants were in their 80s and 90s and so could vividly recount colonial experiences and events.Google Scholar