Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T00:46:00.231Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic aspects of political movements in nigeria and in the coast 1918–1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

A. G. Hopkins
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This article attempts to contribute towards an understanding of the rise of nationalism in Nigeria and in the Gold Coast by exploring a neglected theme, namely the economic policy of political organizations in the period between the two World Wars. Before about 1918 political organizations did not have a coherent economic policy. After World War I economic problems became more important, and political parties began to take account of them by formulating a programme of economic development. An attempt was made by a man named Tete-Ansa to implement this programme, but he proved unsuccessful. The persistence of economic discontent, together with the failure of moderate leadership, led to the rise of new leaders and to the development of a more radical policy at the close of the 1930's. It was this policy which won mass support, and which played a vital part in the achievement of independence after World War II.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1966 , pp. 133 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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

1 l should like to thank Mr K. W. J. Post for reading and criticizing the draft of this article.Google Scholar

2 For example Kimble, D., A Political History of Ghana (1963) and J. S. Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (1958).Google Scholar

3 Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of Lagos, 1880–1914, Universityof London Ph.D. thesis 1964,Google Scholar and Szereszewski, R., ‘The Process of Growth in Ghana’, J. Develop. Stud. 1, no. 2 (01, 1965).Google Scholar

4 The author is at present engaged on a book dealing with African merchants in Lagos, 1850–1930.Google Scholar

5 The expulsion of the German firms from Nigeria and the Gold Coast as a result of the outbreak of World War l also presented African merchants with an opportunity that they were quick to grasp.Google Scholar

6 Coleman, Nigeria, 198.Google Scholar

7 Kimble, A Political History of Ghana, 384.Google Scholar

8 The third session of the Congress held in 1925–26 (West Africa, 6. iii 1926).Google Scholar

9 The biographical sketch which follows is based on The Whitehall Gazette (September, 1926), 16; and The Lagos Daily News, 16. viii. 1932. I should also like to thank Nene Azzu Mate Kole, the Paramount Chief of Manya Krobo, for supplying information about Tete-Ansa's career. (Interview at Kumasi, 26. iii. 1965.)Google Scholar

10 The Lagos Daily News, 19. iii. 1932.Google Scholar

11 See Field, M. J., ‘The Agricultural system of the Manya-Krobo of the Gold Coast’, Africa, XIV, no. 2 (04 1943),Google Scholar and Wolfson, F., ‘A price agreement on the Gold Coast—the Krobo oil boycott, 1858–66’, Econ. Hist. Rev. VI, no. 1 (1953).Google Scholar

12 He had a private income amounting to about £85 per annum. The greater part of this sum was his share in the income from family farms on the Gold Coast. These farms produced a small amount of cocoa (Tete-Ansa v. Administrator of the Colony, 1933. File no. III, Supreme Court Records, Lagos).Google Scholar

13 Tete-Ansa's views are to be found in his four main publications: (i) ‘What does West Africa want?’, Emp. Rev. XLIV, no. 308 (September 1926); (ii) ‘Imperial co-operation: British West African development’, Whitehall Gay. (September 1926); (iii) Africa at Work (New York, 1930); (iv) ‘The Ottawa Conference and British West Africa’, The Lagos Daily News, 13, ix. 1932.Google Scholar

14 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 63.Google Scholar

15 Tete-Ansa, ‘What does West Africa want?”, 259.Google Scholar

16 Prospectus of the West African Co-operative Producers Ltd., Macaulay Papers, University of Ibadan.Google Scholar

17 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 80–1.Google Scholar

18 R.C. 288/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

19 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 90–1. Among the leading associations were the Gold Coast Farmers' Association, the Gold Coast Plantations and Growers' Association Ltd., the Ibadan Planters' Association, the He Farmers' Association, the Ilesha Farmers' Association, and the Agege Planters' Union.Google Scholar

20 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 82. The only previous account of the Industrial and Commercial Bank is the brief history given in Newlyn, W. T. and Rowan, D. C., Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa (1954), 97–9. This account does not mention Tete-Ansa.Google Scholar

21 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 82.Google Scholar

22 R.C. 293/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos. The Lagos syndicate consisted of C. da Rocha, T. A. Doherty, A. A. Oshodi and D. A. Taylor.Google Scholar

23 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 83, 92.Google Scholar

24 He calculated that if 300,000 of the 12,000,000 American negroes each subscribed $50 the company would have sufficient capital ($15,000, 000) to enable it to control practically all the trade of Nigeria and the Gold Coast (Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 84).Google Scholar

25 See The Lagos Daily News, 18. ii. 1933.Google Scholar

26 This was fostered by two of the expatriate banks, which cast doubts on Tete-Ansa's honesty during his Visit to New York in 1930. Their statements were later found to be defamatory and Tete-Ansa was awarded damages of $16,500 in 1931 (The Lagos Daily News, 23. X. 1931Google Scholar).

27 R.C. 293/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

28 Daily Times (Lagos), 27. x. 1930; West Africa, 18. iv. 1931, 449.Google Scholar

29 R.C. 288/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos; The Lagos Daily News, 7. iv. 1931, II. iv. 1931.Google Scholar

30 R.C. 293/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

31 Nigerian Pioneer, 17. X. 1930, 5. xii. 1930.Google Scholar

32 Daily Times, 27. i. 1931.Google Scholar

33 Daily Times, 27. i. 1931.Google Scholar

34 Daily Times, 3. xii. 1930; West Africa, 3 i. 1931, 1892.Google Scholar

35 Daily Times, 27. i. 1938.Google Scholar

36 Daily Times, II. xii. 1930.Google Scholar

37 Daily Times, 16. xii. 1930.Google Scholar

38 Daily Times, 31. xii. 1930; West Africa, 24. i. 1938, 37.Google Scholar

39 West Africa, 21. ii. 1931, 198.Google Scholar

40 West Africa, 10. i. 1931, 1915; West Africa, 21. ii. 1931, 198.Google Scholar

41 West Africa, 21. ii. 1931, 198.Google Scholar

42 West Africa, 21. ii. 1931, 198.Google Scholar

43 West Africa, 27. ii. 1932, 185; West Africa, 15. vii. 1933, 693; The Lagos Daily News, 24. v. 1933, 8. xi. 1933, 10. i. 1934.Google Scholar

44 Daily Times, 28. viii. 1935; West Africa, 12. x. 1935, 1178.Google Scholar

45 Liquidators' Report, 12. 1932, R.C. 293/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

46 The Lagos Daily News, 21. viii. 1931. Macaulay's political opponents expressed a less flattering opinion. See the Nigerian Pioneer, 12. xii. 1930.Google Scholar

47 The Lagos Daily News, 27. v. 1931.Google Scholar

48 Tete-Ansa to Craft, 7. xii. 1929, File no. 249/1931, Supreme Court Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

49 The Lagos Daily News, 10. i. 1930.Google Scholar

50 R.C. 293/1928, Register of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

51 Daily Times, 11. xii. 1930.Google Scholar

52 Liquidators' Report, 12. iii. 1932, R.C. 293/1928, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

53 The Lagos Daily News, 13. iv. 1931, 14. iv. 1931; Daily Times, 29. x. 1930.Google Scholar

54 Herbert Macaulay, ‘The Commercial Vicissitudes of Nigeria’, 61. (Unpublished article in the Macaulay Papers, University of Ibadan.)Google Scholar

55 Police v. Bruce and Tedeschi, 1931. The Lagos Daily News, 11. iv. 1930, 13. iv. 1931, 14. iv. 1931, 15. iv. 1935, 16. iv. 1931, 27. iv. 1931;Google ScholarWest Africa, 30. v. 1931, 635, 27. vi. 1931, 769.Google Scholar

56 West Africa, 16. v. 1931, 591.Google Scholar

57 The Lagos Daily News, 27. v. 1931.Google Scholar

58 R.C. 355/1932, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

59 R.C. 355/1932, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

60 The Lagos Daily News, 29. v. 1931.Google Scholar

61 West Africa, 28. xi. 1931, 1476.Google Scholar

62 Newlyn and Rowan, Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa, 99.Google Scholar

63 R.C. 355/1932, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

64 West Africa, 28. xi. 1931, 1476.Google Scholar

65 West Africa, 3. xii. 1932, 1254.Google Scholar

66 For the development of the National Bank see Newlyn and Rowan, Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa, 99–104. I should like to thank Chief T. A. Doherty for many valuable discussions on this subject.Google Scholar

67 The Lagos Daily News, 18. ii. 1933, 20. ii. 1933.Google Scholar

68 The Lagos Daily News, 5. v. 1933, 6. v. 1932;Google ScholarWest Africa, 53. viii. 1932.Google Scholar

69 The Lagos Daily News, 25. 1933.Google Scholar

70 The Lagos Daily News, 29. iii 1933.Google Scholar

71 The Lagos Daily News, 21. vi. 1933.Google Scholar

72 The Lagos Daily News, 21. xi. 1933.Google Scholar

73 The Comet, 28. vii. 1934; Newlyn and Rowan, Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa, 100.Google Scholar

74 R.C. 355/1932, Registrar of Companies' Records, Lagos.Google Scholar

75 The Gold Coast Independent, 14. xi. 1925.Google Scholar

76 The Gold Coast Independent, 14. xi. 1925.Google Scholar

77 The Gold Coast Independent, I. viii. 1925, 19. xi. 1925. The estimate was later raised to £350,000. See The Vox Populi, 24. iv. 1937.Google Scholar

78 Tete-Ansa, Africa at Work, 90.Google Scholar

79 The Gold Coast Times, 22. xi. 1930, 29. xi. 1930; West Africa, 31. i. 1931, 69. Ocansey was a prominent merchant and a director of two of Tete-Ansa's companies. See above, pp. 538–9.Google Scholar

80 The Lagos Daily News, 5. vi. 1931.Google Scholar

81 West Africa, 28. ii. 1931; The Lagos Daily News, 5. vi. 1931.Google Scholar

82 West Africa, 8. viii. 1931, 975.Google Scholar

83 The title was conferred by Herbert Macaulay, the self-styled ‘Ghandi’ of West African politics (The Lagos Daily News, 10. iv. 1931).Google Scholar

84 The Vox Populi, 4. viii. 1934.Google Scholar

85 The Vox Populi, 22. ix. 1934.Google Scholar

86 The Vox Populi, 14. xi. 1934, 2. ii. 1935.Google Scholar

87 The Vox Populi, 14. xi. 1934.Google Scholar

88 The Vox Populi, 14. xi. 1934, 17. xi. 1934.Google Scholar

89 The Vax Populi, 14. vi. 1935.Google Scholar

90 The Vox Populi, 22. vi. 1935.Google Scholar

91 The Vox Populi, 16. x. 1937, 9. xi. 1937, 30. xi. 1937, 7. xii. 1937, 20. xii. 1937, 12. iv. 1938.Google Scholar

92 The Nigerian Daily Times, 31. i. 1949. Tete-Ansa died in obscurity, and few West African newspapers even noticed his death. I should like to express my gratitude to Mr A. Hughes and Dr T. N. Tamuno for assisting in the search for obituary notices.Google Scholar

93 Zik: a Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe (1961), 209.Google Scholar

94 See, for example, Azikiwe's analysis of West African politics in The African Morning Post, 11. ix. 1936.Google Scholar

95 Ikeotuonye, V. C., Zik of New Africa (1961), 133;Google ScholarDanquah, J. B., Liberty of the Subject, Kibi (n.d.), 57.Google Scholar

96 Danquah, J. B., Self Help and Expansion (Accra, 1943), 15.Google Scholar

97 Danquah, Self Help, 19–20.Google Scholar

98 Ikeotuonye, Zik of New Africa, Also Azikiwe's illuminating comment made in about 1943: ‘Then it dawned on me that political freedom was not enough; economic freedom must be won also’. (Zik: a Selection from the Speeches of Nnamdi Azikiwe, 212–13).Google Scholar

99 In Nigeria, one element in the defeat of the N.N.D.P. in 1938 was the insistence of its opponents that Nigerian nationalism should be led by Nigerians, and should not include men who, like Tete-Ansa, thought themselves primarily as Vest Africans (see Coleman, Nigeria, 225). In the Gold Coast, Danquah explained quite clearly what he meant when he called for a national effort to industrialize ‘our’ country: ‘When I say “we” I mean the Gold Coast. I do not mean black men; I do not mean negroes. This is not a question of race at all’ (Danquah, Self Help, 18).Google Scholar

100 Thus the Gold Coast farmers' associations, still led by John Ayew, gave their support to the C.P.P. in the period after World War II. See Austin, D., Politics in Ghana, 1946–60 (1964), 116.Google Scholar