Colonial rule brought about significant changes in the regional economies of West Africa, which had already been influenced by Europeans through the slave trade and the succeeding period of legitimate trade. Colonial administration extended the cultivation of export crops, introduced new systems of taxation and currencies, reorientated trading networks, and introduced policies aimed at ending domestic slavery. Levels of population mobility also increased, especially in the agricultural sector, as the seasonal redistribution of labour became an integral part of the production of export crops. This paper looks at the origins and development of dry season labour migration from Sokoto in north-western Nigeria, a migratory system which is generally accepted as being a product of colonialism. The argument takes the opening years of colonial rule in Sokoto and tries to uncover the nature and type of migration which obtained at this time. It is suggested that early migration was influenced by the economy of the central Sudan of the late nineteenth century, and there was an overlap, rather than a sharp break, between pre-colonial and colonial economies. The likely influence of pre-colonial structures is especially pertinent in an area which was the centre of the Sokoto caliphate, the largest and most populous state in nineteenth-century West Africa. But, in the early 1930s, dry season migration changed as the volume of migrants increased and their destination altered; it is the identification of this point of change which distinguishes the early period of migration and the changing impact of colonial policies.