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World War I and the Rise of African Nationalism: Nigerian Veterans as Catalysts of Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
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The enlistment and conscription of combatants and non-combatants in Nigeria during World War I represented an unprecedented mobilisation of the country's labour force. In September 1914, the Nigeria Regiment supplied shock troops for the Cameroons Expeditionary Force, and in December 1917 the Nigeria Overseas Contingent entered the campaign in Tanganyika. By September 1919, when Nigeria's military recruitment drive ended, 17,000 combatants, 2,000 enlisted carriers, and some 35,000 non-enlisted carriers had participated in the Southern Caméroons and German East Africa campaigns. In addition, the British recruited thousands of Nigerians for military service along Nigeria's northern and eastern borders, and for related duties inside the country.
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page 493 note 1 The author was greatly assisted during his stay in Nigeria by Obaro Ikime and Robert Smith of the History Department of the University of Ibadan, and wishes to dedicate his article to the memory of John Barrett, whose study of ‘The Rank and File of the Colonial Army in Nigeria, 1914–18’ was published in this Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1, March 1976, pp. 105–15.Google Scholar
page 493 note 2 For somewhat conflicting statistics on Nigerian and other British West African World War I combatants and non-combatants, see Public Records Office, Kew Gardens, Colonial Office, ‘Reorganization of the WAFF and KAR’, 5 May 1919, CO 445/48/27111; A. H. W. Haywood to Secretary of State for the Colonies, London, ‘Manpower – Native Races of West Africa’, 3 July 1923, CO 537/954; and Minute by MajorBeattie, , 27 09 1917Google Scholar, CO 445/44/48141. One difficulty, unresolved by the Colonial or War Office, was how to distinguish between ‘enlisted’ and ‘recruited’ carriers, between ‘porters’ and ‘carriers’, and between ‘labourers’ and ‘carriers’ SirClifford, Hugh to Colonial Office, 11 03 1921Google Scholar, CO 445/56/16908.
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page 493 note 3 Similar conclusions have been reached by other scholars of Third-World nations. See Page, Melvin Eugene, ‘Malawians in the Great War and After, 1914–1925’, Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1977Google Scholar, and Ellenwood, DeWitt C., ‘The Indian Soldier, the Indian Army, and Change, 1914–1918’, in Ellenwood, and Pradhan, S. D. (eds.), India and World War I (Columbia, 1978).Google Scholar
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page 494 note 3 Ukpabi, Samson, ‘Military Recruitment and Social Mobility in Nineteenth Century British West Africa’, in Journal of African Studies (Washington, D.C.), 11, 1, 1975, pp. 87–107.Google Scholar
page 494 note 4 Interviews conducted in July 1979 with No. 23411, ex-Sgt. Major Gbadamoshi Adedeji, Iwo; No. 15307, ex-Private Oyeleke, Ibadan; No. 1325, ex-Corporal Afalabi, Ibadan; No. 4463, ex-Private Baba Tunde, Ibadan; and No. 32584, ex-Private Adeyemi, Ibadan.
page 494 note 5 Ukpabi, loc.cit.
page 494 note 6 Interviews, Adedeji, Oyelek, Afalabi, Baba Tunde, and Adeyemi.
page 495 note 1 Page, op.cit. and Ellenwood, loc.cit. have made similar observations.
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page 496 note 2 Interview, Oyeleke.
page 496 note 3 Interview, Baba Tunde.
page 496 note 4 Interview, Oyeleke.
page 496 note 5 J. Beringer, Medical Officer of Health, Lagos, to Andrew Boyle, Acting Governor-General, 30 October 1918, CO 583/74/28850.
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page 497 note 2 Colonial Office to Lugard, 27 March 1919; ibid.
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page 497 note 4 Killingray, David, ‘The Idea of a British Imperial Army’, in The Journal of African History (Cambridge), 20, 3, 1979, pp. 421–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also his Ph.D. dissertation, ‘The Colonial Army in the Gold Coast: official policy and local response, 1890–1947’, University of London, 1982.
page 497 note 5 Haywood and Clarke, op.cit. p. 323.
page 497 note 6 Feneran, E. C. to Cunliffe, , 26 12 1918Google Scholar; Sargent, T. to Cunliffe, , 9 02 1919Google Scholar; and Mann, G. D. to Cunliffe, , 26 12 1918Google Scholar; CO 445/47/23456.
page 497 note 7 T. M. Russell Leonard to Cunliffe, n.d., ibid.
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page 499 note 1 Interviews, Baba Tunde and Adedeji.
page 499 note 2 Nigeria and the Great War (Lagos, n.d.), CSO 19/5 N 1735/17. On p. 20 there is a photograph entitled ‘The Tower of Babel – 12 men from one company, MI all of different tribes. Top row: Dekkakerri, Zeberma/Arriwa, Berri-Berri, Senegalese, Fulani. Bottom: Bauchi, Pagan, Barbarimis, Buzu, Hausa, Shewa Arba, Beddi’.
page 499 note 3 Haywood, to Clifford, , 22 04 1920Google Scholar, CO 445/51/29803.
page 499 note 4 My research disclosed no documentation on the existence of a veterans association, and none of those I interviewed had ever joined or even heard of such a group. In addition, Chief Olyonu of Ibadan, who was instrumental in establishing the Nigeria Legion, which brought together a number of post-World War II ex-servicemen's organisations in 1964, and Colonel Akafar, the Secretary of the Nigeria Legion, Ibadan, told me that they had been unable to find any record of post-World War I veterans associations.
page 500 note 1 See Ward, Steven R. (ed.), The War Generation: veterans of the First World War (New York, 1975)Google Scholar, for studies of British, American, French, Italian, and German veterans associations.
page 500 note 2 Ukpabi, Samson, ‘The Changing Role of the Military in Nigeria, 1900–1970’, in Afrika Spectrum (Hamburg), 76/1, pp. 61–77.Google Scholar
page 500 note 3 Allen, Victor of Lagos, West Africa, 17 01 1920.Google Scholar
page 501 note 1 Interview, Adedeji.
page 501 note 2 See Matthews, James K., ‘Clock Towers for the Colonised: demobilisation of the Nigerian military and the readjustment of its veterans to civilian life, 1918–1925’, in International Journal of African Historical Studies (New York), 14, 2, 1981, pp. 254–71.Google Scholar
page 501 note 3 Interview, Baba Tunde.
page 501 note 4 Allen, Victor, West Africa, 11 10 1919.Google Scholar
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page 502 note 1 Allen, Victor, West Africa, 11 10 1919.Google Scholar
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page 502 note 5 Memorandum from E. M. Falk to Resident, Owerri, 20 May 1919, NNA, Owerri Provincial Papers.
page 502 note 6 Interview, Adedeji. For similar accounts in West Africa, see Thomas, Roger, ‘Military Recruitment in the Gold Coast during the First World War’, in Cohiers d'études afncaines (Paris), xv, 57, 1975. pp. 57–83.Google Scholar
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