DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AL NEELAIN UNIVERSITY KHARTOUM, SUDAN
IMPACT OF BRITISH COLONIAL AGRICULTURAL POLICIES ON MURI EMIRATE, 1903-1960
BY HARUNA MUHAMMAD SULEIMURI
A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College, Al Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in History
SUPERVISOR PROFESSOR MAYMOUNA MIRGHANI HAMZA
JANUARY, 2018
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ………………………………………………………………………… i-vi
Declaration ………………………………………………………………………………… vii
Certification ………………………………………………………………………………. viii
Dedication ………………………………………………………………………………….. ix
Acknowledgments ………………………………………………………………………. x-xii
Abstract (English) ...……………………………………………………………………… xiii
Abstract (Arabic) ...………………………………………………………………………. xiv
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Preface ………………………………………………………………………………… 1-3
2.0 Background to the Study …………………………………………………………….. 3-5
3.0 Statement of the Research Problem ………………………………………………… 5-7
4.0 Scope of the Study ……………………………………………………………………. 7-8
5.0 Aim and Objectives of the Study …………………………………………………..... 8-9
6.0 Justification and Significance of the Study ………………………………………. 9-10
7.0 Theoretical Framework …………………………………………………………… 10-14
8.0 Methodology ……………………………………………………………………….. 15-17
9.0 Literature Review …………………………………………………………………. 17-24
10.0 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………... 24-25
CHAPTER ONE
LOCATION AND GEOGRAPHY OF MURI EMIRATE
1.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………... 26-27
1.2 Historical Background of Muri Emirate Area …………………………………... 27-29
1.3 Location of Muri Emirate ………………………………………………………… 30-32
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1.4 Geographical Features, Climate and Vegetation of Muri Emirate …………….. 32-40
1.5 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………. 40-41
CHAPTER TWO
THE PEOPLE, MIGRATION, POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS AND ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES IN MURI EMIRATE
2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………... 42-43
2.2 Migration and Settlement Pattern of Muri Emirate …………………………….. 43-46
2.3 Political Organisation and Peoples of Muri Emirate Area ……………………... 46-48
2.3.1 The Fulani and their Dominance in the Muri Emirate Area …………………. 48-53
2.3.2 The Mumuye People …………………………………………………………….. 53-56
2.3.3 The Kona People ………………………………………………………………… 56-57
2.3.4 The Jibu and the Chamba ………………………………………………………. 58-60
2.3.5 The Jenjo …………………………………………………………………………. 60-61
2.3.6 The Wurkun and Related Peoples ……………………………………………… 61-67
2.3.7 The Bandawa People ………………………………………………………………... 67
2.3.8 The Karimjo …………………………………………………………………………. 68
2.4 An Overview of Economic Activities in the Muri Emirate Area, 1903-1960 ….., 69-78
2.5 Agricultural Production in the Muri Emirate, 1903-1960 …………………….... 78-84
2.6 Pastoralism as an Important Economic feature of Muri Emirate ……………… 84-87
2.7 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………... 87
CHAPTER THREE
BRITISH COLONIAL ACTIVITIES IN MURI EMIRATE
3.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 88
3.2 British Colonial Conquest of Muri Emirate, 1903 ………………………………. 89-93
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3.3 Colonial Territorial Claims and Administrative Organization of Muri Emirate, 1903
………………………………………………………………………………………….. 93-101
3.4 Structure of Muri Emirate and Colonial Administrative Re-organization, c. 1903
………………………………………………………………………………………… 101-105
3.5 Evolution of British Colonial Agricultural Policies in the Muri Emirate, c. 1903-1960
………………………………………………………………………………………… 105-110
3.6 Colonial Practice and Policies: A Comparative Study of Sudan and Muri …. 110-113
3.7 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 114-115
CHAPTER FOUR
OVERVIEW OF BRITISH COLONIAL POLICIES ON AGRICULTURE
4.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………... 116-117
4.2 An Assessment of the British Colonial Economic Policies in Nigeria, 1903-1939
………………………………………………………………………………………… 117-123
4.3 British Colonial Policy on Land, 1900-1960 …………………………………... 124-132
4.4 Colonial Labour Policy and Agricultural Development, 1903-1960 ………… 132-139
4.5 Colonial Transport Policy and Agricultural Development, 1903-1960 ……… 139-145
4.5.1 Waterways …………………………………………………………………….. 145-147
4.5.2 Roads …………………………………………………………………………... 147-150
4.5.3 Rail Network …………………………………………………………………... 150-154
4.6 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 154-156
CHAPTER FIVE
BRITISH COLONIAL ORDINANCES IN MURI EMIRATE
5.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….. 157
III
5.2 British Colonialism and Agricultural Production, 1903-1960 ……………….. 157-161
5.3 Overview of the Crops Cultivated in the Muri Emirate, 1903-1960 ………… 161-165
5.4 Post World War I British Economic Policies, 1919-1960 …………………….. 165-169
5.5 Colonial Taxation in Muri Emirate, 1903-1960 ………………………………. 169-175
5.6 Foreign Companies and Agricultural Production in Nigeria ………………... 175-178
5.7 Introduction of Colonial Mixed-Farming Scheme in Muri Emirate ………… 178-180
5.8 Expansion of Export Cash Crop Production and Marketing in Muri Emirate
………………………………………………………………………………………… 180-188
5.9 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 188-189
CHAPTER SIX
EFFECTS OF BRITISH COLONIAL AGRICULTURAL POLICIES ON MURI
EMIRATE
6.1 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….. 190
6.2 General Economic Effects of Colonialism on Muri Emirate ………………… 190-196
6.3 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Land tenure system in Muri Emirate
………………………………………………………………………………………… 196-199
6.4 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Farmers and People of Muri ….. 199-203
6.5 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Food Production in Muri Emirate
………………………………………………………………………………………… 203-205
6.6 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Local Industries in Muri Emirate
………………………………………………………………………………………… 206-209
6.7 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………. 210-214
Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………. 215-226
Maps
Map 1: Map of Sokoto Caliphate showing Muri Emirate …………………………… 215 IV
Map 2: Map of Southern Adamawa Province showing parts of Muri Emirate and its peoples ……………………………………………………………………………………. 215
Map 3: Map of Muri Emirate showing rivers in the area …………………………….. 216
Map 4: Map of Jalingo the Muri Emirate capital showing neighbouring villages ….. 216
Map 5: Map of Northern Nigeria ……………………………………………………….. 217
Map 6: Map of parts of Nigeria and Cameroun Republics showing parts Muri, Gombe and Bauchi Emirates …………………………………………………………………….. 218
Map 7: Map showing some ethnic groups within Muri Emirate ……………………... 219
Tables
Table 1: The population figure of Muri by the year 1933-1934 ………………………. 219
Table 2: SCHEDULE OF ROADS. (A) ………………………………………………… 220
Table 3: Schedule of Roads Constructed (B) …………………………………………... 221
Table 4: Tax Assessment Statistics ……………………………………………………... 221
Table 5: Jangali (Cattle) Tax Collection ……………………………………………….. 221
Table 6: Jangali (Cattle) Tax Collection ……………………………………………….. 221
Table 7: Appendix. 1. Yundam (Yandang?) Tribe ……………………………………. 222
Table 8: Appendix. 2. Waka Tribe ……………………………………………………... 223
Table 9: Appendix. 1. To Report on Zinna Pagan Assessment. Dec. 1910. ……... 224-225
Table 10: Muri Province Return of Customs Duties in the year 1912: Name of Customs
Stations:- Takum & Mutum Biu ………………………………………………………... 225
Table 11: Return of exported by Firms established in Muri Province ………………. 226
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Unpublished Archival Materials …………………………………………... 227-230
2. PhD Theses ………………………………………………………………….. 230-231
3. M.A Theses ………………………………………………………………………. 231 V
4. Journal Articles ……………………………………………………………... 231-240
5. Books ………………………………………………………………………… 240-244
6. Conference Papers ……………………………………………………………….. 245
7. Oral Interviews ……………………………………………………………… 245-246
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Declaration
I declare that this dissertation has been written by me and is from the result of my own research. The dissertation has not been presented to any University for a higher degree. All sources have been fully and duly acknowledged by footnotes and references.
______
Haruna Muhammad Suleimuri Date
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Certification
This thesis has been read and approved as meeting the requirements of the Graduate College,
Al-Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan, for the award of the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy (PhD) in History and hereby approved.
______
Professor Maymouna Mirghani Hamza Date Supervisor
______
Dr. Mohammed Sa’ad Salim Date External Examiner
______
Professor Faisal Mohammed Musa Date Internal Examiner
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Dedication
This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Hamman Suleimuri and Rabi Muhammad, including my Children, Muhammad Haruna Suleimuri II (Al-Amin) and Abdulazeez Haruna Suleimuri,
Rabi Haruna Suleimuri (Nahlat).
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Acknowledgments
I wish to first of all thank the Almighty Allah for the strength to undertake this study.
Though the following dissertation is an individual work, I could never have reached the heights or explored the depths without the help, support, guidance and efforts of a lot of people. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Professor Maymouna Mirghani Hamza, of
Department of History, Al Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan, whose stimulating motivation and valuable ideas helped me to complete this work. I would like to express my deep gratitude to her, for her patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. I wish to also appreciate my External Examiner Dr.
Mohammed Sa’ad Salim and my Internal Examiner in person of Prof. Faisal Mohammed
Musa.
Special thanks to my love, Hindu, for her moral support and precious love, who was always standing by me in my hard times during this work, especially since I had to be out of the country for my studies and all those times I had to stay awake all night to read or write.
I would like to extend my gratitude to a lot of people and organizations who, in one way or another, helped make this thesis happen. To my parents, Hamman Suleimuri and Rabi
Muhammad, and siblings; Usman, Yusuf, Bilyaminu, Fatima and Shuaibu including Zainab. I can never say thank you enough because you deserve more.
I wish to thank the entire Management of the Taraba State University, Jalingo. My heartfelt gratitude also go to Prof. Muhammed Sani Yahaya, Vice Chancellor, Taraba State
University, Jalingo, for his approval of my study fellowship and passion in education in
Taraba State.
I will also like to appreciate my fellow students in Sudan, alongside my colleagues in the Department of History, Taraba State University, Jalingo, Mal. Lawan Garba (Auwal
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Karanga), Bello Adamu Kafi, Aminu Sani, Dr. Aboki Muhammad Sani, Muhammad Sajo
Muhammad, Dr. Surajo Ladan, Muhammad I. S/Kudu.
I wish to equally appreciate my friend, Rabiu Isah Hassan, who helped me a lot during my stay at Kaduna, visiting the archives. I want to also thank the entire staff of the
National Archives Kaduna.
I can never forget my good friend and classmate during my undergraduate and masters programmes, Catherine Gakkuk, who now is with the Aero Contractors. Also worthy of my deepest heartfelt appreciation are people like Dr. Talla Ngarka S., Taraba State
University, Jalingo, Dr. Fred Ayokhai of the Department of History, Federal University,
Lafia and Dr. Elijah Akombo of the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, Taraba
State University, Jalingo. My thanks also goes to Mal. Isa Adamu of the Department of
Languages and Linguistics, Taraba State University, Jalingo.
In Khartoum I wish to appreciate Mal. Hassane Rossy who was a wonderful host and
Dr. Mustapha and Dr. Isam of the Department of History, Al Neelain, University, Khartoum.
I wish to also thank my friend who was an undergraduate student of History at Al Neelain
University.
This PhD study is funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), therefore, I want to express my appreciation to the Organization for its vision in the advancement of knowledge in Nigeria. Without this funding, this research would not have been possible.
It is not possible to mention by name all those that contributed to the realization of this project and my dream, but I will like them to know that they are deeply appreciated; every one of them. I would like also to state here that all the sources cited in this study, are hereby acknowledged under the cover term references.
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I wish to acknowledge the various authors that I consulted in the course of this research though I have done that in the footnotes and the bibliography. And those who gave me the opportunity to interview them whose was valuable to the study.
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Abstract
At present, there is no reasonably full account of the economic history of Muri Emirate, Nigeria. Existing historical studies in the area, though valuable, are politically biased as early scholars in the past concentrated on documenting political developments. This has inevitably left a yawning gap in our knowledge of economic developments, especially in the agricultural economy sub-sector during the colonial period. No doubt, this present study has helped to narrow the gap and consequently reverse the trend whereby political history gained importance, which for quite a long time, remained the focus of historical studies and scholarship in Nigeria. It is against this backdrop that the present study examines the impact of colonial rule on the Muri Emirate agricultural economy and argues that alien influences did not do much to transform the traditional economy, but rather concentrated on improving cash crops that aided the metropolitan economy and wellbeing. The people of Muri Emirate practiced agriculture on an extensive scale and they produced both for consumption and for commercial purposes in long distance trade. But unlike the British colonialists, no one sector (cash or food crops) of agriculture was given priority as they produced based on their needs. The establishment of British colonial administration brought the introduction of cash crops economy to Nigeria- as elsewhere in Africa. This was to have serious impact on the economic development of Muri Emirate. The British colonialist took over effective control of the area from 1903 and embarked on the enactment of policies that were to shape agricultural production in their interest. They imposed taxes on the people thereby exacting economic control of Muri Emirate. They introduced these laws through the control of the political apparatus of the Muri Emirate. Land as the most important factor of production was also taken over by the British colonialist. This fact becomes clear through a look at the policies as well as the general activities of the colonialists in this area. The aim of this study is therefore, to bring this issues out by focusing on the introduction and implementation of the colonial agricultural policies. Agriculture has always been and still is the major employer of labour in Nigeria despite the fact that it is being run by the peasants under peasant conditions. In line with the British colonial policy of providing raw materials for the industries of the metropolitan power, Muri witnessed the neglect of the indigenous economic system which made each family self-sufficient in food and other socio-economic needs. The study investigates the activities of the British colonialists as they affected agricultural practices and production of the people of the Muri Emirate, as well as the land and the economy of the Emirate. In this investigation, one employed the historical method of inquiry through the use of interviews, consultation of archival materials and the review of related literature. The overall findings indicated that the coming of colonialism and the introduction of policies to direct agriculture had damaging impact on the economic development of Muri Emirate.
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INTRODUCTION
1.0 Preface
This thesis came about as a result of the need to bring to public knowledge the activities of the British colonialists in the agricultural sector of the economy of Muri Emirate,
Nigeria. This was also one of the reasons for the collapse of indigenous industries in the Muri
Emirate area arising from the policies adopted by the British. The study looks at the lack of encouragement that local industries faced during the period of colonialism. The need to understand the responsibility of the British colonialists in the underdevelopment of the Muri
Emirate area is one of the reasons that obliged me to undertake this study. My choice of the agricultural sector is borne out of the fact that agriculture was the mainstay of the people of the Muri Emirate, most of the revenue derived from the Muri Emirate was obtained through the agricultural sector or related sectors.
Again, most of the write-ups on the Muri Emirate had focused on political issues with little focus on the economy, especially the agricultural sector which was the source of revenue for the colonial state. Therefore, there is the need to remedy this gap by investigating the role of agriculture in the colonial economy, and how the people of the Muri Emirate were able to deal with the British colonialists.
Muri Emirate came effectively under the British rule from 1903 as a result of the conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate. The major sources used in this study are oral interviews and files in the
Nigerian National Archives in Kaduna (NAK) containing reports from British colonial officers. The archival documents have primary source status since they were written about the period under review and they described the situation from a firsthand or eyewitness accounts.
These sources contributed a lot in giving this study its shape.
1
It is important to note that the objective of this thesis is to bring out the fact that the interest of the British colonialists was different from the interests of the people being colonized. It is therefore in the light of this disparity in the interest of the two parties that led to the result obtained from the activities of the British colonialist. It was beneficial to the British, while disadvantageous to the Nigerian people.
This thesis is divided into six main chapters starting with an introductory chapter which gives the background of the thesis. This section gives an overview of the thesis and introduces the subject of the thesis. It goes further to review existing literature in the field. It also describes the research methodology and set out the theoretical framework underpinning the thesis.
Chapter one discusses the land and people of Muri Emirate. It also discusses the geography of the Muri Emirate.
Chapter two looks at the population of the Muri Emirate and discusses some of the people inhabiting the area. The chapter also lookes at the history and migration pattern of the people.
It also analyses the socio-economic activities of the people and the composition of the inhabitants of the Emirate.
Chapter three examines the activities of the British colonialists in the Muri Emirate. It starts by looking at the activities of the Europeans leading to the conquest of Nigeria and consequently Muri Emirate. It also discusses the establishment of colonial rule in Muri
Emirate and the enactment of ordinances and laws to regulate the economy of the Emirate as well as its political organization. It especially looks at the laws that had to do with agriculture and other related policies such as the land ordinances and so on.
Chapter four examines the various acts and ordinances enacted by the British colonialists to control the economy of Nigeria to serve their industries at home. These policies and ordinances were imposed on the people of Muri through various agencies of the British colonial government. 2
Chapter five examines the monetary policies instituted by the British colonialists not only to get revenue but to make the people engage in agricultural production of cash crops in order to get money to pay tax.
Chapter six examines the effects of the British colonial agricultural policies on the economy of the Muri Emirate and its peoples. It also lookes at the impact, especially on agricultural and manufacturing sectors of the economy.
The purpose of this thesis is to inform students of history about the activities of the British colonialists especially their policies on agriculture and the impact the policies brought in the
Muri Emirate area. By going through this thesis, one will learn of the various means through which the British took over the control of the Muri Emirate, the political reorganization of the
Emirate to suit the colonial goal and the eventual incorporation of the economy of the
Emirate into the world capitalist system.
In order to accomplish this feat I have had the opportunity to come across several source materials. At first, the work appeared to be demanding, but through inquiries into primary and secondary sources, one was able to overcome many of the challenges. The feeling of accomplishment, when this thesis was formed, cannot be described. The researcher was also able to experience and relive some of the experiences of the people that had direct contact with the British colonialists.
It is imperative to state that the British colonialists met a robust and functioning economy in the Muri Emirate. The economy was able to serve the expectations of the people of the
Emirate and its neighbours. The economy of the Emirate was made to serve the so-called mother-country as a periphery in the colonial years.
2.0 Background to the Study
The British colonial agricultural policies in Nigeria had implications for the country’s economic advancement. The policies, for instance, discouraged indigenous industrialization, 3
but promoted export crop and mineral production to sustain the British industrial growth. The colonial territory of Nigeria served, not only as ready source of cheap raw materials to feed the growing industries in Britain and European states, but also as a trading post for the British and European traders and merchants, and at the same time supported the importation of end- products because the British wanted an outlet for their manufactured products in order to stave off declining domestic consumption, and falling rate of profit at home.
This thesis examines the British colonial agricultural policies in Nigeria in general, and in
Muri Emirate in particular. The Muri Emirate area was one of the main trading post of the
British Colonialist because of the presence of navigable river systems. Therefore, an examination of British colonial rule in Nigeria and Muri Emirate in particular shows that it was not a benevolent political system. A look at the balance sheet of colonial rule in Nigeria shows that it left more negative heritages than positive ones. It left behind a functional bureaucracy, a rudimentary educational system, albeit externally oriented.
The colonial economy in most of Africa was structured to improve the economies of the colonizing or metropolitan powers. In the scheme of things, what mattered was how the colonial economy could benefit the colonizers or the so-called mother country.
Unfortunately, ending of colonial rule in most countries in Africa has not resulted in a complete control of their economic or political affairs. They were sovereign states only in principle. In reality, many of them remain under the economic and political tutelage of their former rulers. As can be seen from the history of many African countries, the achievement of political or flag independence does not automatically lead to economic independence.1
Economic exploitation presupposes and requires a consistent production of surpluses and profits that can be appropriated without harming the production capacity on which the regime
1 Yunusa, K.S. The Political Economy of Nigeria and the Continuing Agenda of Recolonizaton: A Challenge for Critical Knowledge Production. The Journal of Pan African Studies. Vol. 3, No. 3, 131, September, 2009. 4
of exploitation itself depends.2 Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri argued that: “imperial conquerors, as producers and exploiters of surplus value, were not interested in eroding the productive capacity or disrupting the social organization of their subjects, since these elements were crucial to colonial capitalist accumulation. It is true that this commitment to the preservation of the existing forces of production and the social cohesion of subject communities was rarely tested during years of economic boom. But, as has been demonstrated with regard to various colonial contexts, colonial intentions and calculations rarely survived the unforeseen turbulence of colonial and world markets and the survival strategies of the colonized.”3
Agriculture formed the mainstay of Africans in the pre-colonial past. In this enterprise, food production featured prominently for most of Nigeria, hence, like most traditional African societies, there were self-sufficiency in food supply. However, given the fact that one of the major reasons why Britain colonized Nigeria was to ensure a cheap and steady supply of raw materials needed for the British industries, the colonial administration completely discouraged the cultivation of food crops while encouraging cash crops production.4
3.0 Statement of the Research Problem
Agriculture is the main driver of economic development in all the leading industrial nations today. In Nigeria, this important sector has, however, been experiencing daunting challenges as a result of the colonial history and activities in the country. Before the advent of colonialism, majority of the Nigerian peoples practiced agriculture as a means of livelihood, albeit under peasant conditions. Contrary to the anticipation that there should have been improvement in the system of agricultural production, the colonialists rather maintained the
2 Adeyeri, Olusegun and Adejuwon, Kehinde David. The Implications of British Colonial Economic Policies on Nigeria’s Development. International Journal of Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences. IJARMSS, Vol. 1, No. 2, August 2012. www.garph.co.uk 3 Mapuva, J and Chari, F. Colonialism no longer an excuse for Africa’s Failure. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, Vol. 12, No. 5, 2010. 4 Usoro, E. J. The Nigerian Oil Palm Industry. Ibadan: University Press, 1974. 5
peasant state of Nigerian agricultural sector. This was because of the particular interest on agriculture was informed out of the need of the British, not in the best interest of the Nigerian people. The same scenario played out in the Muri Emirate where farming was the dominant occupation. Like in other parts of Nigeria, the colonial took over the practice was altered to cater for the British industrial needs. They did this through the introduction of various policies to control production and sale of the agricultural products in the colonies. Generally, the coming of the British and the importance which they placed on the agricultural sector did nothing to change the fact that the sector has been, and is still, the major employer of labour in Nigeria. It is in a bid to investigate this development and explain why it is so that prompted this thesis.
It is pertinent to state that the colonial system served specific capitalist interest in the relationship between the centre and the periphery. Colonialism, as we know, has to do with the exploitation of not only the people but also the land and what is being produced on it as the most important factor of production. This fact becomes clear through a look at the policies as well as the general activities of the colonialists in the Muri Emirate. Throughout the colonial period, agriculture had played an important role in sustaining the colonial state.
In the Muri Emirate, agricultural produce also played a significant role in the colonial scheme of things. It is therefore the aim of this thesis to bring this issue out by focusing on the introduction and implementation of the colonial agricultural policies in the Emirate.
It is relevant to state that even though some things have been written pertaining Muri Emirate over the years no one has tried to dwell on the economic aspect, particularly during the colonial era. This thesis therefore is also set out to correct this defect in relation to what we know and ought to know about the area of study. All that have been written on this area are all politically based, and have completely ignored economic activities and by extension
6
agriculture, which constituted the backbone of the colonial state in the area. The concentration of attention on the political history in the study of the phenomena of colonialism tend to usually forget the fact that the colonialists emphasized on agricultural production in their colonies for export.6
4.0 Scope of the Study
Muri Emirate area lies between Latitude 80” 9½ON and Longitude 9” 12OE.7 Geographically, the whole of the Emirate lies in the Middle Benue zone in the Guinea Savannah region.8 To the North-east, the emirate was bordered by Adamawa and Numan Divisions, to the north by
Bauchi and Gombe, to the west by the Plateau and to the south by Ganye and Mambila
Divisions.
The most distinct topographic features of the Emirate included the Benue Valley (over 100 miles in Muri Division) which traverses the Division in an east-westerly direction, the
Mummuye-Kona Massif to the east-central the undulating plains which extended towards the border and the Wurkun hills to the north. About a third of the Division lies to the north of the
Benue River.9 The Benue is joined by other smaller rivers, the most notable being the
Lamurde, Taraba, Kunini and Kam.10 This favoured agricultural activities thereby making all the people in the area to practice agriculture.
The importance of trade or commerce to the British and to the development of industrialization was well known and it also determined the strategic importance of the Muri
Emirate to the British in their colonial scheme of things, particularly in agriculture. The prominence of agriculture in this area had to do with the presence of river Benue and its
6 Akin Mabogunje. The land and peoples of West Africa. in J. F. Ade Ajayi & Michael Crowder, History of West Africa Vol. 1. London: Longman Group Ltd., p. 29, 1971. 7 Isa Shatima Jalingo. The Development of Western Education in Muri Division of Gongola State of Nigeria. BA Ed. Dissertation. Department of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, p. 9, 1977. 8 Ibid. p. 9. 9 See Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. Adamawa Past and Present, An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province. London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1958. 10 Isa Shatima Jalingo. The Development…, op cit., p. 10. 7
tributaries which served as a source of irrigation for farming by the people in addition to the abundant rain.
The period of study, 1903-1960, is so chosen to coincide with the effective colonial occupation of the Muri Emirate. The official pronouncement of the takeover of the Muri
Emirate was made by the British in 1900 in Lokoja, but they took over effectively in 1903.
The year 1903 was also when the Emirate got one of its most vibrant Emirs, in the person of
Muhammadu Mafindi who ruled for 50 years. On the other hand, the year 1960 was when
Nigeria got her independence from the British colonialists, thereby terminating colonial rule in the Emirate, and Nigeria at large.
The choice of Muri Emirate by the British had to do with the fact that it was situated on a trade route between Borno, Kano and Southern Nigeria which made it an important place for the British and other people that carried out their trade through the route. Muri therefore served as a resting place or station for the British on their way to Borno and Kano following the waterways and over land roads.
As the British came in contact with the Muri Emirate area, they discovered the economic viability of the area in terms of agricultural produce; a major interest of the British colonialists at the time. The importance of trade or commerce to the British and to the development of industrialization was well known and it also determined the strategic importance of this area to the British in their colonial scheme of things particularly in agriculture.
5.0 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to explore the role of the British colonialist in the underdevelopment of the economy of the Muri Emirate through some of the colonial agricultural policies introduced in the area. The following shall constitute the objectives of the study: 8
1. To examine the reason behind the conquest of Muri Emirate by the British
colonialists.
2. To explain the process of the conquest of the Muri Emirate by the British colonialists.
3. To discuss the British colonial agricultural policies in the Muri Emirate.
4. To interrogate the response of the people of Muri Emirate to the British colonial
agricultural policies.
5. To scrutinize the impact of the British colonial agricultural policies on other sectors of
the Muri Emirate economy.
6. To analyze the reaction of the people of Muri Emirate towards the British colonial
scheme.
7. To review the effects of the colonial agricultural policies on the people of Muri.
6.0 Justification and Significance of the Study
The thesis examines the British Colonial Agricultural Policies in Northern Nigeria with particular reference to the Muri Emirate. Little has been written about the area and available literature concentrate on the political aspect, neglecting the economic aspect, particurlally agriculture, which occupied a special place in the colonial scheme of things in the Northern
Province.
This work, therefore, examines in details, the economic aspect of the history of colonialism in the Muri Emirate so as to bring out the significance of the area in relation to colonial agricultural economy in the Northern Province and to cast proper light upon the importance of the agricultural sector in sustaining the colonial system in the Emirate. The work is an attempt to explain the policies aimed at the development of export orientated agricultural
9
production of raw materials in a society that was producing to meet its own internal requirements. This was done by imposing colonial policies on land, labour, production, transport and taxation. These colonial policies had the effect of forcing the peasants to engage in export cash crop production.
The introduction of colonial agricultural policies and the development of export cash crop production transformed the nature of the economy which had ever-lasting effects on the economy and society of Muri Emirate. However, it is discovered that this aspect has not been treated by any researcher before, and this work intends to do just that.
Agriculture was the main economic activity of the people of the Emirate. The principal crops grown were millet, beans, groundnuts, cassava, cotton, and so on. Apart from the purely agricultural industry, the principal occupations by which the people supplemented their incomes with were those connected with cotton-spinning, weaving and dyeing as well as blacksmithing. Weaving was, however, the most wide-spread industry and there was production in surplus as a result of European demand for the cloths, which is to say that the people were meeting not only the demand of the local markets but also the demand of international market.
7.0 Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework for our analysis in this thesis is the Underdevelopment and
Dependency Theory (UDT). This, we believe, since the study is a colonial phenomena will go a long way in bringing out the dialectical relationship which colonialism established as a result of contact between the centre and the periphery.
Within the social sciences, two of the primary theories which attempt to explain development (or the lack of development) are modernization theory and dependency theory.
Modernization theory regards development as an issue intrinsic to the third world countries
10
themselves and states that underdevelopment will occur if third world countries are unable or unwilling to move from traditional socio-economic structures to modern, western, structures of democracy, capitalism, and the rule of law. In contrast, dependency theory argues that third world underdevelopment is a result of the economic world order, is a direct result of first-world prosperity, and cannot be corrected without radical changes to the world order itself.
While contemporary dependency theory is largely Marxist in origin,12 the groundwork for the concept of dependency extends at least as far back to Adam Smith who acknowledged that the imperialist economic practices of the European powers had denied colonized peoples the benefits of economic growth. Modern dependency theory has been constructed as a continuation of the above line of argument and as a critique of modernization theory.13
Dependency theory has been advanced and largely argued by scholars within the third world itself rather than, on the case within modernization theory, by academics in the first world.
Dependency theory focuses on international economic order rather than on the social structure of the third world. This may not completely be adequate, but it serves the purpose and the aim of this thesis.
In dependency theory, no society can be viewed in isolation, and third world underdevelopment must be viewed in the context of economic integration with the first world.14 In the eyes of dependency theorists, the main weakness of modernization theory is that it ignores the world order and external influences on the third world in favour of blaming third world underdevelopment on third world countries themselves. Indeed, dependency
12 John Ibister. Promises Not Kept. 6th Ed. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press, p. 42, 2003. 13 Jeffrey Sachs. International Economics: Unlocking the Mysteries of Globalization. Foreign Policy. No. 110, 100, 1998. 14 John Ibister. Promises Not Kept. … p. 42. 11
theory argues that it is the very integration of third world countries into the global economic order that is responsible for third world underdevelopment.15
In dependency theory, underdevelopment is not merely a failure of third world countries to develop-as modernization theorists would argue-but rather the result of "an active process of impoverishment.”16 Dependency theory rejects the modernizations argument that underdeveloped third world countries are mired in a traditional swamp of unproductive economic practices and argues that the third world has been severely disadvantaged by contact with the first world, from the colonial period onwards.
Dependency theorists argue that economic contact-that is to say, trade-between the third and the first worlds constitutes an “unequal exchange”.17 An example of this inequality can be found in the resource-based economy of many third world countries. The basis of most underdeveloped third world economies is the extraction of raw materials for export to the first world.18 This constitutes an unfair trade where the underdeveloped third world receives little benefit as the prices of raw material commodities have been falling over the long term while the prices of finished goods (imported by the third world from the first) have been rising.
The debate among the liberal reformers (Prebisch), the Marxists (Andre Gunder Frank), and the world systems theorists (Wallerstein) was vigorous and intellectually quite challenging.
There are still points of serious disagreements among the various strains of dependency theorists, and it is a mistake to think that there is only one unified theory of dependency.
Nonetheless, there are some core propositions which seem to underlie the analyses of most dependency theorists.19
15 Vicky Randall & Robin Theobald. Political Change and Underdevelopment. 2nd Ed. London: Macmillan Press, p. 120, 1998. 16 John Ibister. Promises Not Kept. … p. 42. 17 Ibid. p. 43. 18 Ibid. p. 43. 19 See Vincent Ferraro. Dependency Theory: An Introduction. South Hadley: Mount Holyoke College Press, July 1996. 12
Dependency can be defined as an explanation of the economic development of a state in terms of the external influences--political, economic, and cultural--on national development policies.20 Theotonio Dos Santos emphasizes the historical dimension of the dependency relationships in his definition thus:
[Dependency is]...an historical condition which shapes a certain structure of the world economy such that it favors some countries to the detriment of others and limits the development possibilities of the subordinate economics...a situation in which the economy of a certain group of countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy, to which their own is subjected.21
There are three common features to these definitions which most dependency theorists share.
First, dependency characterizes the international system as comprised of two sets of states, variously described as dominant/dependent, centre/periphery or metropolitan/satellite. The dominant states are the advanced industrial nations in the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD). The dependent states are those states of Latin
America, Asia, and Africa which have low per capita GNPs and which rely heavily on the export of a single commodity for foreign exchange earnings of which Nigeria is a good example.
Second, both definitions have in common the assumption that external forces are of singular importance to the economic activities within the dependent states. These external forces include multinational corporations, international commodity markets, foreign assistance, communications, and any other means by which the advanced industrialized countries can represent their economic interests abroad.
20 Osvaldo Sunkel. National Development Policy and External Dependence in Latin America. in The Journal of Development Studies. Vol. 6, No. 1, p. 23, October 1969. 21 Theotonio Dos Santos. The Structure of Dependence. in K. T. Fann & Donald C. Hodges. (eds.). Readings in U.S. Imperialism. Boston: Porter Sargent Press, p. 226, 1971. 13
Third, the definitions of dependency all indicate that the relations between dominant and dependent states are dynamic because the interactions between the two sets of states tend to not only reinforce but also intensify the unequal patterns. Moreover, dependency is a very deep-seated historical process, rooted in the internationalization of capitalism. Most dependency theorists regard international capitalism as the motive force behind dependency relationships. Andre Gunder Frank, one of the earliest dependency theorists, is quite clear on this point:
...historical research demonstrates that contemporary underdevelopment is in large part the historical product of past and continuing economic and other relations between the satellite underdeveloped and the now developed metropolitan countries. Furthermore, these relations are an essential part of the capitalist system on a world scale as a whole.22
According to this view, the capitalist system has enforced a rigid international division of labor which is responsible for the underdevelopment of many areas of the world. The dependent states supply cheap minerals, agricultural commodities, and cheap labor, and also serve as the repositories of surplus capital, obsolescent technologies, and manufactured goods. These functions orient the economies of the dependent states toward the outside: money, goods, and services do flow into dependent states, but the allocations of these resources are determined by the economic interests of the dominant states, and not by the economic interests of the dependent state. This division of labor is ultimately the explanation for poverty and there is little question but that capitalism regards the division of labor as a necessary condition for the efficient allocation of resources. The most explicit manifestation of this characteristic is in the doctrine of comparative advantage.23
22 Andre Gunder Frank. The Development of Underdevelopment. in James D. Cockcroft, Andre Gunder Frank & Dale Johnson. (eds.). Dependence and Underdevelopment. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, p. 3, 1972. 23 See Vincent Ferraro. Dependency Theory…op cit. 14
8.0 Methodology
This thesis adopted the historical method for data collection. A wide variety of sources were used. These included formal and informal interviews in Nigeria, various archives in Nigeria, published official documents, and published secondary literature. The assessment of the sources recovered involved corroboration, collaboration and correlation. These are important techniques on historical studies. Intensive investigation of available sources among the peoples in the Muri Emirate was taken.
Specifically, the following techniques were used:
1. Archival Research: The Researcher visited and worked at the archives listed below:
a. The National Archives Kaduna (NAK)
The National Archives in Kaduna is located at No. 14 Yakubu Gowon Way. Documents exist from the Colonial period right to 1990 on general government administration including chieftaincy reforms. The staff are generally cooperative but poorly motivated. Therefore, a tip will facilitate things better and documents not yet declassified can be made accessible.
Most of the documents are in a poor state because very sensitive documents, more especially the chieftaincy, creation of administrative units and population figures, were misplaced or some pages were cut out neatly. The archival materials proved to be extremely valuable as they provided the researcher with outstanding information on the activities of the British colonialists in Muri Emirate. The sources helped in shaping the thesis and in the result obtained. The sources were detailed in their discussions and recording of the policies propounded by the British colonialists precisely on the economic sector of the colony.
Colonial annual reports which were valuable in this study were also used.
b. Arewa House Kaduna, Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU),
Zaria, Kaduna.
15
The archive at Arewa House located on the Kaduna-Zaria Express Way at No. 1 Rabbah
Road, in Kaduna. It is in the same building as the library. Photocopying facilities exist.
Access to both facilities is on payment of a registration fee. The archives have materials on general administration of Northern Nigeria during the First Republic up to 1966. The library and bookstore of the Centre are invaluable sources of information on major publications.
c. Northern History Research Scheme, History Department, Ahmadu Bello
University (ABU), Zaria.
Northern History Research Scheme, History Department, ABU, Zaria, is located at the
Department of History, ABU, Zaria and it contains valuable source materials on the Northern part of Nigeria and was established by Prof. Abdullahi Smith. The place also serve as the
Postgraduate Library for the Department of History. The Postgraduate theses are kept here as well as some Arabic Manuscript written by the jihadist recovered from private collections.
d. Muri Emirate Council Library, Jalingo.
e. Taraba State Government Library, Jalingo
f. Adamawa State History Bureau, Yola
g. Personal Records and documents of District Heads and former Colonial Officials.
h. Arabic Manuscript at various locations in Nigeria.
2. Library Research: The Researcher consulted rare books and other documents in the
following libraries:
a. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kashim Ibrahim Library (KIL), Africana Section
b. University of Maiduguri Library, Maiduguri.
3. Collection of oral information: Custodians of oral, written and material data on the
history of the peoples of Muri Emirate within and outside the Emirate were
interviewed. This also included visits to museums, archeological sites and festivals.
16
Data analysis and scripting of chapters: Data was transcribed and analysed. Scripting, editing and publishing concluded the study.
9.0 Literature Review
There are little or no works that deal specifically with the British colonial agriculture in Muri
Emirate, therefore, one had to rely on works that treated the same issue but with different area of study. The literature provided the researcher with the conceptual as well as the theoretical framework with which to approach the study. In view of the dearth of works that deal directly with the Muri Emirate, the researcher was compelled to review works on agriculture or the colonial economy in general about neighbouring areas to the Emirate. With the absence of works on Muri Emirate pertaining British colonial agricultural policies, we can also see the justification of this study.
The work considered in the first instance is the work by Abdullkadir Adamu. This work: British Colonial Agricultural Policies in Northern Nigeria: A Study of Soba District c.
1902-1945, is very much similar to the current work and has even provided one the foregrounding needed to start his work. The work deals with British colonial agricultural policies as they affected Northern Nigeria in the colonial era. The work is a treatment of Soba
District in Kaduna, and it is very informative and has provided the basis and guide for this work.
Abdulkadir Adamu’s work focuses strictly on the British agricultural policies in Northern
Nigeria with particular reference to Soba District and the role they had played in changing the nature of indigenous economy and to some extent community of Soba District. For example, the work describes how indigenous land tenure, social relations of labour, indeed, the whole gamut of indigenous production and its social relations were influenced and changed under the impact of the colonial policies referred to above. The work has it the role of gandu
17
(Hausa), Rumde (Fulfulde) as basic unit of social production and reproduction in the pre- colonial society of Northern Nigeria was undermined by the British colonial economic policies. This led to the dependency of the indigenous economy of this area to the world capitalist economic system then as now.24
Another work that is of significant importance to this study is Abdulkadir Adamu’s
PhD thesis, The Food Economy in Colonial Nigeria: A Study of Food Production and
Distribution in Zaria Metropolis c. 1902-1960. This work also covers the colonial period and its scope is Zaria metropolis. The work is significant in many respects, as it covers the colonial period, and that it deals with Zaria which has the same agricultural practices with
Muri Emirate, also located in the Sokoto Caliphate.
The work focuses on food production and distribution which suffered some set-back during colonial period and adversely affected the economy of the area of study. The colonialist did not give food production much needed attention, which, in the end, resulted in drought and famine in the Northern Provinces and many other parts of Nigeria. The fact was that the soil was over used by the colonialist in the wrong way, making Nigerian peoples to produce mainly for commercial purposes, and for the payment of taxes imposed by the colonialists.
This vicious circle of economic conundrum played a significant role in the underdevelopment not only of the economy of Zaria, but of the various communities in Nigeria, Muri Emirate inclusive.
Another work is that by Bappa Umar, Impact of British Colonial Rule on Agriculture in
Gombe Division 1900-1945: A Study in Agricultural Underdevelopment, is relevant to this research. It is also very decisive in its treatment of the colonial period in relation to its activities, particularly in Gombe as a Division. It is important to note that Gombe Division
24 See Abubakar Adamu. British Colonial Agricultural Policies in Northern Nigeria, c. 1902-1945: A Case Study of Soba District. M.A. Thesis. Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. 18
shared common geographical zone with my area of study and was instrumental in the development in the area of study. The main idea behind this work and the findings therein correspond with the theoretical framework adopted in this work. It shows the underdevelopment in this area as a consequence of the British agricultural polocies. There was a concerted effort on the part of the colonialists to subvert- which they eventually did- the independent economic development of this area.
Another work is by S. M. Aminu entitled, The Colonial State and Colonial Economy in Northern Nigeria: A Case Study of the Zaria Native Authority c. 1902-1945. The work examines the role of the Native Authority as a collaborator of the colonial state in the establishment of colonial economy in Zaria Province as the author himself explained:
“the object is to bring out the role and impact of this institution on the economy and societies of the area with particular reference to Zaria Native Authority System”
The focus of the study by Aminu is on Zaria city and its Metropolitan Districts. Although the above constitutes the general outline of the work, its substance lies in its examination of the colonial policies on land usage, taxation, agriculture, infrastructure, that is the railway, road and the local rulers mediation in their provision. This work relates to our work in terms of its subject matter. The fundamental difference between this work and the current study however is that of scope.
The next group of work will be reviewed for the purpose of our study not so much for their limitations or the gaps that exist in them, but for our study to fill up, and as for wealth of the relevant information, they make available inputs from which our work can tap extensively.
The first, is work by Sule Bello entitled; State and Economy in Kano, 1894-1960: A Case
Study of Colonial Domination. The central focus of his study is the relationship between the colonial state and colonial economy within the larger framework of the history of establishment and consolidation of colonial domination in Kano, which Bello divides broadly 19
into three phases: the decades just after the colonial conquest, when colonial state devoted most of its time to destroying the indigenous economy in Kano, the period devoted to the development and consolidation of the colonial economy, and, thirdly, the final entrenchment of dependency through the total control over the indigenous production and commerce of the
Kano society.25
The work by Mansur Mukthar entitled; British Colonial Labour Policies and the Changing
Roles of Labour in Kano Emirate, c. 1903-1960, Ph.D. thesis Department of History,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria 1994, is relevant for the purpose of this study on account of its large store of information on the British Colonial labour policies, which is its focus.
Otherwise, it lacks any definite theoretical/ideological perspective, therefore, it is unreliable as a source of inspiration to a new radical study such as the present one.26
Another significant work on agriculture in Northern Nigeria within the period is Michael
Watts’s, 1983, Silent Violence: Food, Famine & Peasantry in Northern Nigeria, Berkeley:
University of California Press. This work is significant in that it discusses issues such as food crisis and famine which were direct consequences of colonial economic practices. The agricultural practice in Northern Nigeria at the period of introduction of colonialism was peasant based and the colonialists did nothing to change the status.
The study is rich as it discusses not only the political system of Hausaland, but also the social relations of production which has to do with the social organization of the society.
Mode of production is another significant variable in the economic practices of any society.
The study is an important guide for anyone interested in understanding the colonial agricultural policies in Hausaland, the Sokoto Caliphate in general, as well as the
25 Sule Bello. State and Economy in Kano, c. 1860-1960: A Study of Colonial Domination. Ph.D. Thesis. Department of History. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University, 1982. 26 Mansur Ibrahim Mukhtar. British Colonial Labour Policies and the changing Roles of Labour in Kano Emirate, c. 1903- 1960. Ph.D. Thesis. Department of History. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University, 1994. 20
consequences of these policies on the economy and the entire people of Hausaland, including the current area of study.
The book also touches on Fulani pastoral economy. The Fulani are the major ethnic group who occupied Muri Emirate. Being settled Fulani, they had to adopt farming. However, animal husbandry was another important economic activity in the Emirate. The cattle kept were source of revenue (jangali) for the Emirate and later for the colonialists. The cows were also sold for ceremonial expenses.
Unrelenting poverty is the salient human condition of post-colonial tropical Africa.
Attainment of basic needs on a sustainable level remains an elusive goal – an unrewarding, frustrating quest for most of the subcontinent’s burgeoning population.Watts, in Silent
Violence, equally examines the roots and expansion of persistent poverty in northern Nigeria and concludes that the process is necessary but predictable. Although the case study focuses on the traditionally centralized, complex agro-pastoral societies in the Sokoto Caliphate of
Hausaland and the Sahelian fringe, many findings apply generally to Africa.27
Watts’s major concern is to document and interpret what happens to the peasants of drought- and famine-prone Hausaland under capitalism, with particular reference to the political economy of their changing food production and distribution systems, consumption patterns, food security, and responses to scarcity and famine. His theoretical position is that underdevelopment can be traced to capitalism’s penetration of pre-capitalist peasant socio- economic systems.
Watts chronicles the Hausaland experience from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
He argues that the failure of food systems and the development of recurrent famine represent
27 Michael Watts. Silent Violence: Food, Famine & Peasantry in Northern Nigeria. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 206, 1983. 21
“pre-eminently social” crises. These crises must not be attributed simplistically to technical failures, neo-Malthusian determinism, misguided state policies, outmoded structural features
(e.g. tenurial arrangements), or a harsh and unpredictable climate. Instead, Watts argues that
“famines were and are organically linked to the rupture of the balance between peasant subsistence and consumption precipitated by the development and intensification of commodity production.”28
Watts informs us that the production of Silent Violence was greatly influenced not only by
Marx’s primary writings, but also by the theoretical and political works of several British social historians. His approach joins historical and ecological analyses within a Marxist theoretical “modes of production” framework.
For Watts, the book’s important insights emerged from three broad themes. First is the varied and unique forms of production and capital accumulation that evolved in rural colonial
Nigeria. Second, he is concerned with the impacts of commodity production on subsistence security. Third, he highlights the urgent need for an agricultural transformation in Nigeria in the 1980s and notes some of the policy implications that emerged from the data on the peasant experience of coping with food scarcity.
Daryll Forde & Richenda Scott, The Native Economies of Nigeria, is another important work that has a bearing on this research. These scholars have it that although the Colonial Empire offered an immense field for economic development, little attention has been given to the study of Colonial economies, and perhaps least of all to that of the native economies.
Professor Hancock’s Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs containes a masterly economic summary, but the time has come for more specialized studies, even if these, in the absence of adequate statistical data, must still be the nature of preliminary investigations.
28 Ibid. p. xxii. 22
Professor Forde divides the native Nigerian economies into three classes: (1) the subsistence or home-consumption economy, (2) the internal exchange economy, and (3) the external exchange economy, that is to say the exchange of goods and services between Nigeria and other territories. The subsistence economy still predominates and constitutes therefore the basis on which future plans of development must be built upon.
Another book under review is titled: The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-
1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri, which was part of a doctoral work by Mahmoud Hamman, is chiefly centred on the establishment and evolution of the
Muri (Hammaruwa) against all odds – in the area of study during the Islamic revolution epoch, and its impact on the pre-existing societies of the Middle Benue region.
The author reveals that the Middle Benue region is located between latitude 7.0o and 9.30o
North and longitude 9.0o and 11.30o East of meridian and covers an area of about 75000sq kms. The area is characterised by rivers and plains, with defined territories of pre-existing communities inhabiting the area, covered by the Muri Emirate subsequently, having decentralised systems of political organisation with small territorial units.29 Before the jihad, the Emirate covered a region composed of diverse communities speaking different languages and dialects of the same languages, including Mumuye and Wurkun, who trace their origin within the region, unlike Jukun, Fulani, Chamba, Jenjo and so on who point to areas outside the region.30
The economy of the area before the jihad was basically trade – both local, regional and long distance; trading in items such as salt, antimony, cloth and other agricultural and sylvan products.31 The Jukun Kingdoms of Kona and Wukari and the Chamba Chiefdoms were
29 Mahmoud Hamman, The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna. Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 5, 2007. 30 Ibid. 5. 31 Ibid. p. 21. 23
centralised political systems, while the others were at the clan level. The larger clans, for example, the Mumuye, had very loose political organization, and it is said that their primary political significance was as a factor of social and territorial integration.32 The processes of the establishment of the Jukun Kingdom of Kona over other surrounding communities was obviously through both their cultural influences and military might. The system was internally weakened, which made the infiltration by the jihadists easier in the 19th century.
10.0 Conclusion
This chapter sets out the background of the study. The chapter started with a preface which lays out the reason why the study was initiated and the chapter breakdown. The British colonialists choose Muri Emirate as a base to colonise the Middle Benue Region as a significant agricultural region. The Emirate was chosen because of the well organized political system. The Middle Benue Region was made up of several ethnic groups who were not under any single political authority. The Emirate unified quite a number of these ethnic groups under her. The British in their bid to rule the area through indirect rule system established the Muri Province in 1903 and placed a greater part of the Middle Benue Region under the Emirate.
This study is about the significance of agriculture to the British colonialists who took over the control of the Muri Emirate. The British colonialists thereafter, introduced policies to exploit the agricultural sector of the economy of the Emirate. They did this while taking control of the political apparatus of the Emirate. The theoretical framework adopted in this study was the Dependency Theory which best suits our kind of study. This theory is about the underdevelopment of Africa as a result of contact with Europe. The methodology used in this study was the historical method and since it is a PhD, primary source were used in the form of interviews and archival materials.
32 Ibid. p. 31. 24
CHAPTER ONE
LOCATION AND GEOGRAPHY OF MURI EMIRATE
1.2 Introduction
Muri Emirate was one of the Emirates that were established as a result of the Sokoto Jihad movement of 1804. The Emirate was established in the year 1817 following struggles with some of the peoples and polities in the area such as the Kona, etc. The activities of the Fulbe
(Fulani) in the area were all-encompassing in the sense that they were able to exercise control over a vast area that brought together heterogeneous peoples and polities under a single 25
umbrella. Generally, the area was politically unorganized, acephalous, and with diverse groups and most of them speaking different languages and having different socio-cultural practices.
The emergence of diverse groups in the Muri area and the eventual development of polities in the area conformed to the laws of social formation. There was availability of important resources in the Muri Emirate area: fertile land as well as vast hydraulic system which supported farming, transportation and other trade crafts such as blacksmithing and fishing.
The establishment of the Muri Emirate was one of the most significant developments to have taken place in the area following the Kwarrarafa1 (Jukun) influence.
The foregoing suggest that historical developments have been shaping inter-group relations for centuries in this area. This resulted from the large expanse of land in the area which brought together several ethnic groups, chiefdoms and principalities. The area also possessed different levels of social developments, civilizations and specializations. These elements favoured social interaction and cross-fertilization of ideas and skills. In summary, the area contained centralized and non-centralized political systems in close proximity. Most of these societies were at the level of indigenous religio-political organizations (theocracies).
1.2 Historical Background of Muri Emirate Area
Buba Yero, the first Emir of Gombe, started to conquer the groups in the vicinity of the Muri
Mountains, for example, the Yungur, even before Uthman dan Fodio proclaimed his jihad in
1804. On his return from defeating the Fali at Bulmi, he marched through the country of the
Wurkun.2 After receiving his flag, he went to Gombe (i.e. old Gombe or Gombe Aba) and waged war in the region, assisted by his younger brother, Hamma Ruwa, who focused his
1 The Jukun Kingdom was also known as Kwarrarafa or Kororofa in the literature. The Jukun were the first to have establish control within the areas that later became the Muri Emirate. This was a Kingdom founded by the Jukun ethnic group which was prominent and strong from the 15th century. It carried out raids on Hausaland and from the 16th century captured the Gongola and Benue river valleys. It subjected the communities in these areas through the religious practice and was only defeated and dislodged by the Fulani jihadist in late 18th and early 19th centuries. 2 Hogben, S.J. & Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. The Emirates of Northern Nigeria: A Preliminary Survey of their Historical Traditions. London: Oxford University Press, p. 447, 1966. 26
actions on the western edge of Wurkun territory. By 1817, Hamma Ruwa had overran most of the area of Muri and was appointed governor of the region. However, he was murdered by
Buba Yero in 1833.
In 1817, Muri was founded as a Fulbe (Fulani) jihad state. In 1892-1893, it was a de facto
French protectorate, under Governor Louis Mizon (b. 1853 - d. 1899). In 1901, it became a
25,800 m² Province of the British protectorate of Northern Nigeria, bordered to the south by
Southern Nigeria, to the South East by German Cameroon, to the East by the Province of
Yola, to the North by Bauchi, and to the West by Nasarawa and Bassa with an estimated population figure of about 828,000. The District of Katsena-Allah which extended south of the Benue considerably to the west of 9° E., the approximate limit of the remainder of the province.
Muri Province included the ancient Jukun Empire together with various small Fulbe states and a number of pagan tribes, among whom the Munshi (Tiv)3, who extended into the provinces of Nassarawa and Bassa, were among the most turbulent. The Munshi (Tiv) occupied about 4000 m² in the Katsena-Allah District. The pagan tribes in the north of the province were lawless cannibals who by constant outrages and murders of traders long rendered the mail trade route to Bauchi unsafe, and cut off the markets of the Benue Valley and the Cameroon from the Hausa states.4 Only two routes, one via Wase and the other via
Gatari, passed through this belt. In the south of the Province, a similar belt of hostile pagans closed the access to the Cameroon except by two routes, Takum and Bali. For Hausa traders to cross the Muri Province was a work of such danger and expense that before the advent of
British administration the attempt was seldom made. The province was rich in forest
3 These are an ethnic group also called the Tiv found mainly in Benue state Nigeria and some parts of Taraba state today. 4 Chisholm, Hugh, ed. The People, History and Development of Muri Province Saturday, October 16, 2010, Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press, 1911. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muri,_Nigeria on Sunday October, 2015. 27
products, and the Niger Company maintained trading stations along the river bank. Cotton was grown, and spinning thread, weaving and dyeing offered occupation to many thousands.
In the early months of 1893, the French adventurer, Mizon, having militarily supported by the
Emir of Muri, Muhammadu Nya, in conquering the Jukun town of Kona, again helped the
Emir in an expedition against the inhabitants of Dulti near Jen.5 Muri came nominally under
British control in 1900, full control of the Emirate was achieved in 1903. The principal effort of the administration was to control and open the trade routes. In 1904, an expedition against the northern cannibals resulted in the capture of their principal fortresses and the settlement and opening to trade of a large district, the various routes to the Benue being rendered safe. In
1905, an expedition against the Munshi (Tiv), rendered necessary by an unprovoked attack on the Niger Company's station at Abinsi, had a good effect in reducing the riverain portion of this tribe to submission.
The absence of any central native administration delayed the process of bringing the Province under administrative control. Its government was organized on the same system as the rest of
Northern Nigeria, and under a British Resident. It was divided into three administrative divisions -east, central and west- with their respective headquarters at Lau, Amar and Ibi.
Provincial and native courts of justice were established. The telegraph was carried to the town of Muri.
Muri was one of the Provinces in which the slave trade was most active, and its position between German territory and the Hausa states rendered it in the early days of the British administration a favorite route for the smuggling of slaves.6 In the 19th century, Muri had exhibited some significant degree of social stratification among Fulbe Muslims, non-Muslim
Fulbe, local Muslims, and non-Muslim Habe in ascending social ranks. The Administration
5 Adelberger, Jörg; Anne Storch. The Jukun of Kona, the Emir of Muri and the French adventurer: an oral tradition recounting Louis Mizon’s attack on Kona in 1892. 2008. E-publication in: Afrikanistik online: http://www.afrikanistik- online.de/archiv/2008/1573/ 6 Op Cit Chisholm, Hugh, ed. 1911. 28
of the Emirate was in the hands of the Muslim Fulbe and Fulbe authority was based on their control both of Islam and non-Muslim labour.
Over the course of years, up to independence, the Emirate was ruled by the following Emirs:
1. Hammarua, Founder and 1st Emir 1817—1833
2. Second Emir, Ibrahim (1833-1848)
3. Third Emir, Hamman 1848—1861
4. Fourth Emir, Hammadu (1861—1869)
5. Fifth Emir, Burba (1869—1873)
6. Sixth Emir, Abubakar — (1873)
7. Seventh Emir, Mohammad Nya (1874-1896)
8. Eighth Emir, Hassan (1897-1903)
9. Ninth Emir, Mohammad (Hamman) Mafindi (1903-1953)
10. Tenth Emir, Tukur (1953-1963).7
1.3 Location of Muri Emirate
The Muri Emirate covered an area of over 12,000 square miles and a population of 163,500, and incorporated the independent Pagan District of Zinna, sharing a common Native
Treasury. The average density of population is 13.6 per square mile, however, the distribution was very uneven. The density in the three predominantly pagan Districts of Zinna, Mumuye and Wurkun greatly exceeding that in the rest of the Emirate.8
It was bounded on the North by the Jarawa areas of Bauchi Province, on the South by the
Wase Emirate, on the West by the Districts of Wurkun (Balassa) and Jalingo Habe.9 It lied
7 J. M. Freemantle, Gazetteer of Muri Province (up to December, 1919). Los Angeles: University of California. pp. 17-18. 8 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, 1936. p. 94. 9 NAK, 473P, 1913, Muri Province Muri District (Lau Division) Assessment Report by Mr. H. Q. Glenny. 29
within the north-east of Nigeria and consists of undulating landscape. It was situated largely within the tropical zone with a grassland vegetation. It lied approximately between 9 and 11
40 E. and 7 10 and 9 40 N. The area was watered by the Benue River, and the portion on the southern bank of the river was watered by streams flowing from the Cameroon region to the
Benue. The Benue valley had a climate generally unhealthy to Europeans, however, some places in the northern part of the Province, such as the Fula settlement of Wase on a southern spur of the Murchison hills, with higher altitude provided an excellent climate.10
The area making up the territory of the emirate of Muri and its vassal states had a combination of physical and human diversities, which were reflected in the pattern of economic activities and cultural development of its inhabitants.11 The economy of the
Emirate was already sufficiently advanced and integrated that it was generating sufficient surpluses to sustain the ruling aristocracies in the centralised states and the priestly orders among communities where centralised political organization had not yet emerged. The capacity of the various economies here to generate these surpluses and the specific mode of their disposal provided the rulers of the emirate of Muri not only with an existing economic foundation which helped in sustaining the new political entity that they established, but also created conflicts that favoured the victory of the jihad.12
Muri Emirate extended mainly downstream along the Benue River, including Wukari, Donga,
Ibi and Bantaji. Muhammadu Nya, a grandson of Hamman Ruwa, invaded Tiv country as far as Katsina-Ala and also fought against the Kona Jukun. The attack on the latter succeeded in his subjugation of the Kona with the help of the cannons of the French adventurer, Mizon.13
10 Op. Cit. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 11 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 22, 2007. 12 Ibid. p. 22. 13 Adelberger, Jörg and Anne Storch. The Jukun of Kona, the Emir of Muri and the French adventurer: an oral tradition recounting Louis Mizon’s attack on Kona in 1892, 2008. E-publication in: Afrikanistik online: http://www.afrikanistik- online.de/archiv/2008/1573/ 30
Before his death in 1896, Muhammadu Nya made Jalingo, which he used as a war camp, to launch raids against the Mumuye, the new headquarters of Muri Emirate.14
The choice of Muri Emirate has to do with the fact that it is situated on a trade route between
Borno, Kano and Southern Nigeria which made it an important region for the British and other merchants who carried out their trade through the route. Muri therefore served as a resting place or station for the British on their way to Borno and Kano. As the British came in contact with this area they discovered its economic viability in terms of agricultural produce; a major interest of the British colonialists at the time. The importance of trade or commerce to the British and to the development of industrialization was well known and it also determined the strategic importance of this area to the British in their colonial scheme of things particularly in agriculture. The prominence of agriculture was facilitated by the existence of some big rivers which served as sources of irrigation for farming.
Muri Emirate was one of the areas that provided the British colonialists the base to be able to conquer and control the Jukun and Munshi (Tiv) areas within the Middle Benue region of the
Nigerian area. The middle Benue region is one of the most fertile regions of the Nigerian area and where many agricultural products were gotten and exported to Britain. The support that the British colonialist got from the Muri Emirate and their rulers gave them the impetus to get some of the most important raw materials like; groundnut, cotton, sesame seeds, palm oil and kernel sorghum, corn, millet, gum Arabic, rubber, fibre in the form of ramma and related products, iron ore, galena (tozali) and so on. All these, and more, were extracted from the area controlled by the Muri Emirate. The transportation of these products was done using surface roads and the elaborate and navigable river systems within the Emirate.
Muri Emirate was also one of the theatres of rivalry between the European nations seeking colonies in West Africa. This was evident in the activities of Mizon from the French side and
14 Ibid. 31
the Germans in Garbabi near Bali also within the Emirate. Therefore, the control of the
Middle Benue region was very crucial to the British colonialists who sought and got the support of the Muri Emirate to be able to lay claim to the fertile region.
1.4 Geographical Features, Climate and Vegetation of Muri Emirate
The most distinctive characteristic feature of the Muri Emirate are as follows: it contains dissected plains made up of old hard rocks, it has extensive areas of continental and marine sedimentary rocks of late Secondary and Tertiary age, some horizontal, some slightly dipping and some sharply folded into anticlines and synclines, with resultant steep scarps; and it contains both alluvial terraces, beside the main rivers.15
Two ranges of hills intersect the Muri Emirate:
a. The Ligri range; which forms part of the Northern boundary; running almost due
East and West and rising in the Ligri Peak to an estimated altitude of 1500 above
sea level.
b. The longer but lower and more disjointed Janowe Range, which runs from North
East to South West through the central zone.
Both these ranges are spurs of the Wurkun systems, and end East of the only sizeable streams that the district boasts- the River Pai. Their formation is granitic. The River Pai or R. Kudu, rising somewhere near Duguri, runs roughly North and South. Narrow, tortuous, rocky and fly-smitten; it carries at its lowest a fair head of water. Its chief tributary, whose bed is never actually dry, is the River Jebjeb which drains the entire valley between the Ligri and Janowe
Ranges.16
Two other water-courses alone are worthy of mention; the River Dinya, a Northern tributary of the River Pai and that known as ‘Zorop’ or ‘River Tozali’; which rises near the Bashar
15 K.M. Barbour. North-Eastern Nigeria: A Case Study of State Formation. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 49-71. Cambridge University Press, May, 1971. http://www.jstor.org/stable/159251 Accessed: 21-06-2015. 16 NAK, 473P, Muri Province Muri District (Lau Division) Assessment Report by Mr. H. Q. Glenny, 1913. 32
galena (Tozali) deposits and drains the level sparsely-inhabited plains lying between the
River Pai on the East and Kambari on the West.17
Apart from a few villages situated upon the Banks of the Benue and the River Pai, the whole
District depends for six months of the year upon muddy water holes and muddier swamps for its water supply.18
The River Benue traverse the Division, in a south-westerly direction for over 100 miles leaving two thirds of the area to its south and one third to its north. A major tributary, the river Taraba, rising in the Gashaka highlands, flows through the Division from south to north near its western border, and joins the Benue about 15 miles above the point of departure from the Division; at high water it is navigable to steamers for some 50 miles. Lesser tributaries, are from the south, the Mayo Ranewo the Fan, the Lamurde (Jalingo), the Kunini and the
Mayo Lope, and, from the north, the Wase, the Pai and the Jebjeb rivers. Of these only the
Pai is navigable to launch and barge (for some 30 miles). There are numerous minor streams in the districts to the south of the Benue, and most of them contain water throughout the dry season.19
In shape, Muri Emirate was roughly square, having sides of approximate 100 miles; it comprised three types of country:-
a. The swampy zone, much of which was flooded during the rains, bordering both banks
of the Benue to a depth of ten miles, and extending for considerably greater distances
inland along the major tributaries. This zone was frequented only by hunters and
fishermen, whose villages were placed on the relatively firm banks dividing the river
from the swamp along most of its length. There were also a few stations accessible
from inland, and consequently of sufficient commercial importance to maintain small
17 Ibid. para. 5. 18 Ibid. para. 5. 19 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, p. 94, 1936. 33
trading communities, and some of these were utilised by firms as transhipping
stations. This zone of almost impassable and uninhabited swamp, lying athwart the
Division, hampered communications and administration as it left only a few places at
which the Benue could be crossed during the rainy season.20
b. Rolling country, of low ridges of well drained laterite soil covered with orchard bush;
this provided excellent grazing and arable land, and was regarded as an apron to the
granite hill systems. A wide zone of such country stretches for sixty miles parallel
with and south of the Benue, from the foot of the eastern massifs to the edge of the
Taraba swamps in the west districts dividing the Benue swamps from the foot-hills of
the Bauchi Highlands.21
c. Hills and plateau: these are all granite formations in various stages of decay. The
principal massif is at the eastern end of the Division – the Mumuye Zinna plateau, the
general level of which is from 1000 to 1500 feet, above the average of the southern
zone of orchard bush. From this plateau rise isolated massifs, the summits of which
attain an altitude of over 4000 inches. At the south-eastern end of this system, a
higher plateau level begins, of some 3000 inches – 3500 onches, consisting of open
grass lands; these merge into the uplands of the Toungo District in the Adamawa
Emirate. The lower plateau consists of much eroded laterite and granite detritus,
watered by numerous clear perennial streams, and is closely cultivated, yams and
ground-nuts being the principal crops. The Mumuye-Zinna mountain system is to be
regarded as the northern-most extension of the Gashaka Highlands, which in turn are
continuous with the mountains of the Southern Cameroons.22
20 Ibid. p. 95. 21 Ibid. p. 95. 22 Ibid. p. 96. 34
At its northern edge this extension is some 40 miles wide from east to west and reaching to within ten miles of the south bank of the Benue; its detritus is probably responsible for the absence of swamp from the eastern half of Lau District, which lies between the Benue and the Zinna-Mumuye hills. To the west and south-west of this system there are isolated but considerable ranges in the Jalingo, Dakka and Bakundi Districts; these also may be regarded as outliers of the Cameroons Mountains; their western limit is the Taraba valley.
In the three northern Districts of Wurkun, Muri and Wase, the foot-hills of the Bauchi
Highlands rise almost directly from the Benue swamps, and extend the full length of the
Division from east to west, approaching the river most closely towards the east. The notable
Wase Rock, a granite monolith 800 inches from foot to summit, rising sheer from level pastures, is part of this formation. At Kamberi on the left bank of the Benue between Amar and Mutumbiyu is found the only known limestone outcrop.23
The Muri Emirate was located within the high plains of the Benue Trough. The term high plains is applied to those parts of the Benue Lowlands lying above flood level, but below the
1,000 foot contour line. Unlike the flood plains which are alluvial, the high plains are erosional and are cut in sedimentary formations.24 The most extensive of these plains is the
Great Plain of Muri which covered most of Muri Emirate. In the west that is the region of the
Shemankar River, the Muri Plain is dull and consists of extensive swamps along the fadamas
(reverine and valley-bottom), but away from river channels savanna woodland predominates.25
Settlement here was concentrated near the large rivers and the salt springs; while vast areas which lack water in the dry season were sparsely settled were rarely cultivated, being given over to tsetse flies. Further east, the Muri Plain consists of undulating sandy lowlands whose
23 Ibid. p. 97. 24 Reuben K. Udo. Geographical Regions of Nigeria. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970, p. 54. 25 Ibid. 35
monotony was broken here and there by hills developed on tough sandstones. The Dalli Hills, situated very close to the Taraba River, are examples of hills developed on Sedimentary rocks. The Southern part of the Muri Plain between Wukari and Jalingo presented a similar aspect and similar problems to human settlement as the northern part. This part was peopled largely by the Jukun and the Fulani, but as in the north, a combination of villages along-side the main river valleys were developed.26
East of the Donga river valley, the south Muri Plain developed on sedimentary as well as on crystalline rocks. There was, however, no topographical change marking the geological boundary. The only distinguishing feature between areas developed on different geological formations appear to be in the hill forms found in the various areas. Hills found in the sedimentary areas are flat-topped as a result of lateritic capping.27
Below Lau River, the Benue was fed by three of its largest tributaries – the Taraba, Donga and Katsina-Ala. The river changed considerably between Lau and Amar, and with deeper channel. The Benue Plain, which was rather narrow at Lau, opened out as the Great Plain of
Muri in the heart of which stood Ibi and Amar. The tree density increased so much that near
Amar the trees provided an effective screen between the river and its flood plains. The northern part was given over to extensive flooding during the rainy season.28
As a result of the geographical location of Muri Emirate along the Benue River, where the soil was not only fertile, but also suitable for irrigation, many communities came to settle in the area. Some of these communities settled prior to the jihad while others began to migrate in to the area during and after the jihad. Those who inhabited the area before the jihad included, the Jukun, the Mummuye, the Abakwariga, the Chamba and the Fulbe.29 There
26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. 29 Haruna Hussaini Shumo, Muri Emirate in the Twentieth Century, B.A Project, Department of History, Maiduguri: University of Maiduguri. p. 12, 2010. 36
were the Wurbo who lived in the riverine areas. Others were the Jibu, the Chomo, the
Wursan, the Bandawa and the Jenjo. The distribution of these groups did not strictly follow territorial lines except in the case of the Mummuye and the Wurkun.30
The control of land and its resources was in the hands of the communities occupying it. This control was excercised by the community leaders like the clan heads and the elders, who regulated the exploitation of these resources by individuals and family units. Because of the low density of population of the area, access to land was not difficult.31
Land tenure was by local groups, not individuals, but in all the southern kingdoms the authority of the groups became concentrated in the local chiefs, who were responsible for the allotment of farmland to adult males.32
The seasons in Nigeria depend rather on the rainfall than on temperature. They are as a rule well defined. The “dry season” with its attendant “Harmattan” commences in the north of the country in October, and ends in April.33 It is of shorter duration in the south, and at Lagos generally lasts from November to March with only intermittent “Harmattan.” The
“Harmattan” is a dry north-easterly wind which brings with it a thick haze composed of minute particles of dust and shell. During the “Harmattan” the nights and early mornings are cold, but the days are very hot, and it is during this period that the maximum diurnal variations occur.34 Generally speaking, the lowest mean temperature is in the months of July and August, and the lowest minimum recorded temperature at the beginning and end of the year. The highest mean and maximum temperatures are, as a rule, recorded in March and
30 Ibid. p. 13. 31 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. pp. 18-19, 2007. 32 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, p. 125, 1936. 33 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1197. London: Printed & Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 22, 1923. 34 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1114. Nigeria. Report for 1921. London: Printed and Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 17, 1922. 37
April. In most cases the difference in range between the maximum and minimum temperature is greater in proportion to the distance of a station from the coast.35
At the end of the “dry season” numerous tornados herald the approach of the “rainy season.”
Before a tornado the air is oppressively close and heavy; the tornado itself, which is scarcely more than a heavy squall, lasts but a short time and is accompanied and followed by a thunderstorm and rain. The “rainy season” lasts until October, with a slight break in August, and is followed by another short tornado season. In the south the prevailing wind during this season is from the south-west, and with it comes the rain, which is remarkably heavy along the coast and decreases rapidly as it travels inland.36
Although Nigeria lies entirely within the tropics, the climate of northern Nigeria would be more accurately described as sub-tropical than tropical; for there is a long dry season and considerable diurnal and seasonal variations in temperature.37
The mean annual rainfall is approximately 1,200mm, with a dry season extending from
November to April. The major crops grown are millet, sorghum and beans, groundnut and cotton production. Cultivation of rice, tomatoes and chilli peppers takes place along moister drainage lines. The region experienced a seven month wet season from April to October with
July, August and September being the wettest months.
Diurnal temperature ranges were much greater than the annual range of mean monthly temperatures, with the latter ranging from 26°C in September to 30° C in March. Mean monthly maximum temperatures ranged from 30° C to 38° C, with a peak occurring in late
February to early March, before the onset of the rains. Mean monthly minimum temperatures ranged from 18° C to 25° C, with lowest temperatures occurring in January and February.38
35 Ibid. p. 17. 36 Ibid. p. 17. 37 Colonial Reports – Annual. No. 1569. Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 20,1931. 38 David Bourn. Tsetse Control, Agricultural Expansion and Environmental Change in Nigeria. PhD Thesis. Oxford: Christ Church College, 92, 1983. 38
The diurnal range in relative humidity was greater than the mean monthly range. In January hourly relative humidity values ranged from 20% at 1600 hours to 80% at 0700 hours; while in July the range was from 70% to 95%. Irregularly through the dry season, but with increasing frequency towards its end, brief periods of greater aridity, with relative humidity of less than 10%, occurred during “harmattan” conditions, when dry north-easterly, dust- laden Sahara winds prevailed.39 The climate is essentially continental in nature, with rainfall totals varying from more than 60 inches in the south to less than 15 inches in the north, and with a rainy season varying in length from eight months.
The vegetation varies from dense Guinea savannah (with high gallery forest beside the permanent streams) in the south, through a broad belt of tsetse-infested Sudan savannah to a zone of thin Sahel savannah with thorny acacias and low annual grasses in the far north. The soils are equally varied. In certain areas they are well suited to irrigation, and respond very favourably to applications of artificial fertilisers; elsewhere short periods of cultivation must be interspersed with longish periods of fallow. Many of the soils are extremely difficult to plough or cultivate by tractor economically, which means that a rapid increase in the area farmed per head will not be easy to achieve. The one important and under-employed resource in the Emirate is land, the alluvial terraces flanking the Gongola and Benue Rivers.
1.5 Conclusion
The Muri Emirate present an interesting study as can be seen in the passages above. The land has a unique feature that is unmatched in any other part of Nigeria. The peoples are diverse that it also reflected on the political systems within the area. Trade activities in the area has been playing an important role in its development over the centuries. The area was part of the famous Trans-Saharan trade where merchants from all over the world come to trade. The land is so fertile that it attract farmers and traders alike.
39 Ibid. p. 92. 39
It is important to note that Muri Emirate is strategically located in terms of geography and trade. The strategic nature of the area is evident in the struggle for the control of the area by various peoples. The number of peoples that migrated into this area from various places also attested to this fact.
Historically the area has undergone several developments and transformations. These ranges from migration and settlement within the area by the various peoples. The history of the area did not start with the Fulbe (Fulani) but the area witnessed great transformation with the coming of the Fulani in the area. The Fulani undertook a jihad movement to bring the area under their rule.
The Muri Emirate area presents unique geographical feature within the Nigerian area. Not only is the area dotted with hills it also boast of plains and massifs to complete the unique nature of the area. There are also many rivers that traverse the area. This provide means of communication within the area and with other parts of Nigeria.
The climate of Muri Emirate area corresponds with the other parts of Nigeria. We have two major seasons in the area; dry and wet season. The dry season is known as Harmattan and the wet season is known as rainy season. The vegetation of the area is of savannah grassland. The nature of the vegetation has played an important role in the peopling and the type of economic activity practiced by the people of Muri Emirate.
40
CHAPTER TWO
THE PEOPLE, MIGRATION, POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS AND ECONOMIC
ACTIVITIES IN MURI EMIRATE
2.1 Introduction
The Muri Emirate area was peopled by a web of ethnic communities with different ethno- linguistic characteristics. These groups were incporated in the Sokoto Caliphate in the 19th century as a result of Jihadists activities in the area. The kinship ties in this area consisted of ethnic communities such as the Mumuye, Fulbe (Fulani), Kona, Jenjo, Wurkun, Chamba,
Jukun, Bandawa, Karimjo, Lo, Zo, Jibu, and so on. Out of these groups emerged both 41
centralised and decentralized political systems. However, the Fulani possessed the most advanced political culture over a diversity of cultures of the most primitive pagans.
More than 70% of the population of the Emirate was pagan, of which one District alone
(Mumuye) comprised 22.5% of the total population of the Emirate.1 The levels of organizational sophistications of the groups were greatly determined by their cultural and religious practices. In this respect, the Jukun were ahead as they exercised strong religious control through their divine Kingship headed by the Aku-Uka. It was within this context that they could determine their life guiding principles and also direct mutual consciousness and solidarity to a common whole.2 The Muri Emirate was located outside the traditional Hausa city states area. It accommodates peoples and societies that have different socio-cultural and political backgrounds which were different from that of Hausaland.3
In this chaper we are also going to look at the various economic activities for which the people of Muri Emirate were famous for. These economic activities were numerous ranging from agriculture to hunting to animal husbandry. It was on the basis of these economic activities that the British colonialists found the Muri Emirate area attractive and it became a target for conquest. Colonialism was a political practice of domination that was made possible as a result of the resources availbale in an area so as the colonizing power would have the chance for the exploitation of the resources of the area being colonized.
2.2 Migration and Settlement Pattern of Muri Emirate
The subject matter of migration is important in the history of a people. This perhaps explains the reason why in an attempt to understand the history of a people, their source of origin, how they left their original homes and the reasons for leaving are unavoidable questions to which
1 National Archives Kaduna (NAK) 2356, Muri Division Quarterly Annual Reports 1934, para. 24, 71. 2 See Abubakar, Sa’ad. The Lamibe of Fombina: A Political History of Adamawa, 1809–1901. Oxford, Zaria: Oxford University Press/Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1977. 3 The Sokoto Caliphate comprised of all Hausaland and parts of central Nigeria area made up of several ethnic groups as well as parts of western Nigeria area where the Yoruba ethnic group are located. The societies within the Muri Emirate area were also mostly non-centralized states. 42
answers must be provided. Migration means the movement of people from one place to another.4 Such movement is often underpinned by the inter-play of socio-economic and political variables operating in the source and the destination of the movement. In essence, inter-group migrations are responses to the process of development, making it really difficult to arrive at empirically meaningful generalizations regarding the process.
Stern concurred with the above assertions when he noted that:
Human migrations, like all social phenomena, are social processes, which are historically conditioned. Thus, we can expect variations in migration flows across time and space, not only in so far as their characteristics are concerned, but also in their closest determinants and the meaning attributable to them. We also forget at times that migrations are parts of larger social processes. It is essentially their adequate location within the context of the latter which allows us to understand them, predict them up to a certain point and also connect them to other processes including ‘public policy’.5
According to Okpeh, there are two main typologies of migration. These are: (i) internal and
(ii) external or international migrations.6 The first involves the movement of people from one community or settlement area to another, provided this is within the territorial limits of a polity such as a country. Osoba identified at least three patterns thus: the movements of people from rural areas of less economic activity to those of greater economic activity within the regions that formerly constituted the units of the federation of Nigeria; the movement of migrant peasant farmers across regional frontiers, whether on a seasonal or permanent basis; and the drift of population from the rural areas and the lesser towns to the new urban centres of commerce and administration under colonial rule.7
The second broad type of migration identified by Okpeh involves the movement of people inter-territorially, for instance, when migrants move between two or more countries, for example, Nigeria and Cameroon or Benin Republic and Togo. Another vital trend in this type
4 Okpeh, O.O. Inter group migrations, conflicts and displacements in Central Nigeria in Falola, T and Okpeh, O.O. (eds.) Population movements, conflicts and displacements in Nigeria. Eritrea: Africa World Press, Inc., p. 22, 2008. 5 Stern, C. Some methodological notes on the study of human migration. Stahl, C. (ed.) Internal migrations today: emerging issues, Vol. 2, Paris: UNESCO, p. 29, 1988. 6 Okpeh. O.O. 2008. p. 23. 7 Osoba, S.O. The phenomenon of labour migration in the era of British colonialism: A neglected aspect of Nigeria’s social history. Journal of the historical society Nigeria, Vol. IV No. 4, 1974. 43
of migration is the temporary movement of young ambitious Africans to Europe, North and
South America and other parts of the world in search of ‘greener pastures’.8 Majority of those involved in this movement are highly skilled and have emigrated from the continent on the account of the search for personal advancement away from the continent.
Analysts have pointed out challenges arising from the dynamic nature of the phenomenon of modern migrations.9 One of these relates to the need to draw a distinction between the old and modern patterns of population movements. This would require an understanding of their causes and contrasting characteristics and their implications on the demography of the societies involved. For instance, while pre-colonial migrations were, by and large, the migrations of ethnic groups, modern migrations appear to be largely the migrations of labour.
Secondly, pre-colonial migrations were much more ‘permanent’ than modern migrations which are essentially ‘temporary’.
In sum, there is the need to understand the relationship between internal and external or international migrations. If we accept, as we have already pointed out, that migration is a historically conditioned social process, then it is possible to argue that there is a relationship between the intensity of internal and external migrations.10 All these are necessary for the understanding of migration as a fact of human life.
The local aborigines of the Muri Emirate were Wurbo and Jen on the River bank and
Wurkum on the Hills. The Jukun, during their period of power, seemed to have confined their settlements to the salt areas. The Kiri-Fulani trace their origin from the traditional Arab-negro union. Their wonderings were as follows:
Pre-jihad: from Melle to Dilara (in Borno), to Kiri (on the Gongola River).
8 M. Toure and T.O. Fadayomi. (ed.). Migrations, Development and Urbanization Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dakar: CODESRIA, 1992; Aderanti Adepoju. (ed.). Family, Population and Development in Africa. London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 1997. 9 Amir, S. (ed.). Modern migrations in West Africa in Morrison, S.P.A. (ed.). Population movements: Their forms and functions in Urbanisation and development. Liege: International union for the scientific study of population, 1983. 10 Morrison, S.P.A. (ed.). Population movements: Their forms and functions in Urbanisation and development. Liege: International union for the scientific study of population, 1983. 44
Post-jihad: to Goawe (near Jalingo) and thence 96 years ago (in 1817) under Modibbo
Hamarua, first Emir to Muri.
In 1901, on the formation of the Muri Province by Mr. Hewby, the Northern boundary east of the River Pai took its present shape, being actually demarcated and approved in 1912.11 Its
Headquarters remained at Muri town until 1893 when the Emir Nya built his ‘war-camp’ at
Jalingo in order to bring Kwona (Kona) under subjection, which feat he accomplished with the aid of the guns of a French interloper, Lieutenant Mizon, in 1904.12
Muri Emirate villages are compact in terms of their settlement pattern.
Population movement within the Muri Emirate comprised of two streams of seasonal immigration, one during the growing season which provided labour for farm work and the other during the dry season providing labour for fetching water, work on buildings, etc. The main reasons for movement were:
a. To get money with which to pay tax
b. To get money for clothing and for other social needs, e.g., marriage.13
Cities and towns like Kororofa and Wukari were fortified with walls built of mud. The circumference of the wall surrounding Kororofa city was estimated to have been about 6.4 kms.14 Villages situated on hilltops, like those of the Mumuye and Wurkun, were fortified with hedges of cactus. The approaches to them might also be blocked with walls of stone.
Dwellings were built of clay mixed with coarse clay, especially if the dwelling was of temporary nature. An important aspect of the material culture of the peoples of the area in
11 NAK, 473P, Muri Province Muri District (Lau Div.) Assessment Report by Mr. H. Q. Glenny, 1913. 12 Ibid. 13 NAK/YOLAPROF, NOT-12 Vol I General, Agricultural Note Book for Wukari and Takum Districts, 16/9/59, by R. N. Illoanya. p. 6. 14 Charles Kingsley Meek. A Sudanese Kingdom: An ethnographical study of the Jukun-speaking peoples of Nigeria. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd; 1st Edition. p. 44, 1931. 45
this period was the development of currencies and measures which facilitated exchanges on an extensive scale.15
2.3 Political Organisation and People of Muri Emirate Area
During the colonial period, Muri Emirate, was divided into eleven districts, and the
Independent district of Zinna (Zing). This area is 12,545 square miles and 298 square miles respectively, making a total area of 12,843 square miles for the Division.16 Muri Emirate and the independent District of Zinna (Zing) shared a common Treasury, Native Administration
Office, Prison and Works Departments.17 The benefits were mutually shared as additional administrative and other overhead expenses were thus eliminated.18
Muri Emirate was organized and comparatively well developed. This enabled it to stand the test of some thirty years since the commencement of colonial rule in 1900, although alterations and additions were made from time to time. Zinna (Zing) District, on the other hand, only dated to 1926, and without appreciable degree of tranquility.19
The Mumuye District had two types of Chiefs. This cleavage separated the offices of priest- chief and war-chief; the former had no executive power, and was concerned principally with the rain cult. The latter was the executive authority, but retained certain religious functions, principally associated with the men’s secret societies and initiation rites, the maintenance of which was essential to the discharge of his primary duties as secular and war-chief.20
The war-chiefs (in Mumuye) and the tribal chiefs elsewhere were selected to be a council of elders from amongst the suitable male members of the royal family, succession being patrilineal. The succession of rain-makers and purely religious heads depended more on the wishes of the previous incumbent, who alone was capable of initiating a future successor into
15 Mahmoud Hamman. p. 18. 16 NAK, SNP, 2356, Muri Division Quarterly Annual Reports, 1934, para. 16. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. para. 15. 69. 19 Ibid. para. 15. 69. 20 NAK, SNP, 2356, Muri Division Quarterly Annual Reports, 1934, para. 16. 46
his mysteries. The succession to Yorro priestship, the chief of the Mumuye rain making cults, had descended from father to son for many generations. Nevertheless, the formal approval of the assembled minor priest chiefs of the villages was necessary before a new Rain-maker could assume office, approval which was secured only on his passing severe tests as to his knowledge of the ritual.21
Among the Chamba, the war-chief was not so clearly separated from the priest, and if separated, remained the deputy of the latter. In the Jukun organization, the single chief maintained full authority in both secular and religious aspects of his office. The principal agency for the suppression of offences was the male secret society, of which the war-chief was the head. The majority of offences were regarded as personal to the parties and their supporters, the recognised remedies being either payment or blood-feud. In the event of an offender having incurred general reprobation, the secret society secured redress. In case of adultery, the injured husband had a right to kill the adulterer or to exact compensation, whichever he preferred. In general, indiscriminate blood-feud was checked by the authority of the war-chief and the secret society.22
Under the Fulani, the tribal organisation of the southern kingdoms (Kororofa having been broken up before the arrival of the Fulani, and Kona having become the sole representative of the old Jukun empire), persisted, subject to the payment of tribute from the tribes which had come to terms, and raiding of those which had held out.23
In our sense of the word, the Fulani did not aim at ‘administration’ of these tribes, the coherence of tribal organisation and the spread of Islam are incompatible. In the areas in
21 NAK SNP17 Mumuye Tribe Anthropological Notes on by E.A Brackenbury, September, 1921. 22 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, 1936. p. 124. 23 Interview with Malam Jauro Muazu Mafindi, 90 years, Behind Customary Court, Unguwan Gadi, Retired Civil servant, 3 December, 2016. 47
which the Fulani power was firmly established – viz. Muri, Wase, Jalingo, Mutum Biu,
Bakundi, Gassol and Wurio, there were Alkali courts administering the Maliki code.24
2.3.1 The Fulani and their Dominance in the Muri Emirate Area
According to Fulbe tradition of origin, they claim descent from the famous Arab, Uqba b.
Amr. b Nafi.25 Briefly, the tradition maintains that Uqba left Arabia at the time of the Prophet because it was predicted that he was going to have a non-Arab son. Coming to the Western
Sudan, he married a black wife Bajumango.26 Their children were the ancestors of all Fulbe, apart from the Mbororo’en. Dieta; ancestor of the Songhai Fulbe Woya of Fulbe Woya;
Roroba of the Wolaba’en and Nasi of Baowina and the Wodabe.27 According to tradition, the
Mbororo’en were descendants of the son delivered by Bajumango after she was ravished by a water spirit or by Uqba’s slave.28
The Fulani migrated from the Senegal valley following the political and social development in the region ranging from the Al-Moravid invasion of the region and the rise and fall of states like Tekrur, Ghana, Mali and Songhai. These developments threatened the peace and security of the Fulbe which forced them to migrate east ward to Hausaland as early as the fourteenth century AD and to Borno Empire in the sixteenth century.29 The Same fate befall the Fulani when, by the seventeenth century, conflict developed between the Fulbe and their
Kanuri host. This development forced them to immigrate eastward to the Benue valley, where they scattered all over establishing a number of settlements or staying amongst the inhabitants of the area. Their range of expansion in the Benue valley was limited by the
24 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, 1936. p. 126. 25 Sa’ad, A. The Lamibe of Fombina: A political history of Adamawa, 1809-1901, A.B.U. Press, 1977. p. 27. 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid 29 St. Croix, The Fulani of Northern Nigeria. Lagos: Government Printer, 1944. 48
Gongola valley and the Mumuye Plateau to the west and to the south by the Verre hills and eastward by the Bata principalities.30
There were about (4) four branches of the Fulbe that were said to have migrated into the
Benue valley. These were the Ba’en, Wodaabe’en, Yillaga’en and the Kiri’en’. The Fulbe again were divided into two distinct groups; the Bororo’en who were nomadic cattle owners and the Fulbe shi’e who were the settled Fulani that usually resided in towns and villages in the midst of other people.
It is believed that most of the Fulani that migrated into the Benue valley were the
Mbororo’en, but with time many of them lost their cattle as a result of conflict and constant raids on their cattle by the non-Fulbe. Still later many of them lost their cattle during the jihad. Consequently many of the Fulbe had to look for alternative means of survival. While a lot of them settled in towns and villages as farmers and some of them acted as herdsmen to pagan chiefs, some took to Qur’anic reading and preaching. The latter practice transformed the Mbororo’en into Fulbe shi‘e (sedentary Fulani).31
The Fulani indisputably represent a significant component of the Nigerian economy. They constitute the major breeders of cattle, the main source of meat, the most available and cheap source of animal proteins consumed by Nigerians. The Fulani own over 90% of the nation’s livestock population which accounts for one-third of agricultural GDP and 3.2% of the nation’s GDP.32 Furthermore, the contribution of the Fulani to the local food chain and national food security cannot be overstressed. The Fulani, with their dominance in the sahel region, are the best known and most numerous of all the pastoral groups in Nigeria. The
30 Interview with Alh. Mohammed Dinga (Bobbo Dinga), 86 years, Muri Emirate Council, Lamurde Street Jalingo, Bobbo Dinga Residence, December 2 2016. 31 Ibid. 32 Alhassan Usman Bello. Herdsmen and Farmers Conflicts in North-Eastern Nigeria: Causes, Repercussions and Resolutions. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. Published by MCSER-CEMAS-Sapienza University of Rome. Vol 2 No 5, July 2013. 49
traditional and unique Fulani encampment (ruga) consists of temporary structures made of stalks. Closely knit family members and livestock are the natural habitants of the orthodox
Fulbe settlement.
The sequence of expansion of Fulbe pastoralist into Nigeria is unknown. However, it is suggested that the Fulbe began to settle on the plains of Bauchi Emirate transcending onto the grassland of the Jos Plateau.33 Conflicts between pastoralists and farmers had existed since the beginnings of agriculture and increased or decreased in intensity and frequency depending on economic, environmental and other factors. For example, increases in the herd sizes, due to improved conditions of the cattle, compelled the pastoralists to seek for more pastures beyond their limited range. Climate change has constituted a great threat by putting great pressures on the land and thus provoking conflicts between them. However, improvement in human health and population have enhanced a much greater pressure on land. There has been a marked expansion of cultivation of the fadama (riverine and valley-bottom) areas.34 This means that both the farmers and pastoralists have continually engaged in fierce struggles for access to such valuable lands which, more often than not, result in increased conflicts and violence.
Approximately, eleven and a half of the nation’s fourteen million cattle are managed by pastoralists,35 and with an estimated value of 60 billion naira,36 pastoralist-managed cattle represent a significant proportion of Nigeria’s renewable natural resource. British colonial policy led to rapid expansion and monetisation of cattle and grain markets,37 and today there is a complex marketing network which, in simplified terms, moves cattle southwards to the
33 Ibid. 34 Interview with Alh. Rabiu Saleh, 65 years, Lamangoro Jalingo, September, 2016. 35 FDLPCS. Federal Department of Livestock and Pest Control Services. National Livestock Vol 1. National Synthesis. Resource Inventory and Management Ltd. Jersey, JE4 8UD, UK., 1992. 36 Ibid. 37 Kerven, C.K. Customary Commerce: A Historal Reassessment of Pastoral Livestock Marketing in Africa. Occasional Paper No.15. Overseas Development Institute, London, 1992. 50
large urban centres and grains northwards from the main cultivation areas.38 Although this network, with its numerous agents, brokers and traders, has been criticised for lowering the producer price of cattle and pushing up grain prices relative to cattle prices,39 it provides a low capital, extensive system linking remote rural areas with urban markets,40 a situation quite different from that of the Borana and most East African pastoralists.
Cultivation among the Fulbe had increased during times of drought, grain shortages and animal disease41 and as a response to the loss of grazing land due to expansion of settled cultivators42 and irrigation projects.43 Cultivation is also a means of securing land and taking advantage of cultivator-biased government policies.44 However, interaction with the market and cultivation by the Fulbe is generally described in negative terms. Mohamed Salih states that the Fulbe used to be unwilling to part with cattle, but this is changing as they become more dependent on the market for food, manufactured goods and services.45 Cattle are no longer reserve capital, and milk products have been commercialised. He argues that market dependence has forced some nomads out of the pastoral economy because the price of grain and services has risen relative to the price of livestock and milk.
The Fulɓe (Fulani) are one of the largest ethno-linguistic groups in Africa, numbering approximately 40 million people. They are one of the most widely dispersed and culturally diverse of the peoples of Africa.46 The Fulani are bound together by the common language of
Fulfulde, as well as by some basic elements of Fulbe culture, such as the pulaaku, a code of conduct common to all Fulani groups. A significant proportion of their number (an estimated
38 FDLPCS. Federal Department of Livestock and Pest … 39 Alhassan Usman Bello. Herdsmen … 40 FDLPCS. Federal Department of Livestock and Pest … 41 Alhassan Usman Bello. Herdsmen … 42 FDLPCS. Federal Department of Livestock and Pest … 43 Alhassan Usman Bello. Herdsmen … 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 46 Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) Adamawa Fulfulde. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. Dallas: SIL International, 2005. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_people 51
13 million) are nomadic, making them the largest pastoral nomadic group in the world.47
Spread over many countries, they are found mainly in West Africa and northern parts of
Central Africa, but also in Sudan and Egypt.48
The Fulani are an important population group found mainly in the Northern part of the country, Nigeria, as well as the central region. They are also, with or without justification, identified with rearing of cattle in these areas. More so, the variety of names given to them in different countries indicates the extent of their living areas. For instance, they call themselves
Fulbe, in the Chad region, and to the east of it, they are known as Fellata; among the Mande in the far west, they are known as Fula.49
In the course of a widespread migration, the Fulani spread in the Sudan zone from west to east, from Senegal to the Upper Nile region. According to Tauxier in Fricke, only the area of their origin in the Fouta Djalon is historically proven, and they have continued to spread from this area since the eight century.50 They however penetrated into the Hausa States in a peaceful manner in the 13th century.51 According to Fricke the Fulani were recorded as been in Baguirmi in the central Sudan in the 15th century.52 He stated further that, large numbers of them were forced out of Baguirmi into Cameroon highlands. In the 16th and 17th centuries, fresh immigrants from the west consolidated the Fulani population there resulting in the establishment of Fulani dominance at the beginning of the 19th century.53
47 Ndukwe, Pat I. Fulani. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 1996. 48 David J. Phillips. Peoples on the Move: Introducing the Nomads of the World. Carlisle & Pasadena: Piquant & William Carey Library, 2001. 49 Fricke, W. Cattle husbandry in Nigeria: a case study of its ecological conditions and social-geographical differentiations. Ikot-Ekpene: Ebie Akwa Ventures Ltd. 1993. 50 Ibid. 51 H.R. Palmer. The Bornu, Sahara and Sudan. London: Murray, 1936; S. J. Hogben. The Muhammadan Emirates of Nigeria. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 59, 1930. 52 Fricke, W. Cattle husbandry in Nigeria: … 53 Duhring, p. 125, 1926; H. R. Palmer. The Bornu, Sahara and Sudan. …p. 258, 1936. and Kirk-Green,p. 22, 1958; East, R.M. Stories of old Adamawa: a collection of historical texts in the Adamawa dialect of Fulani. Lagos: Longman Nigeria Plc, p. 21, 1994. 52
Today the Fulani are extensively scattered throughout the Northern States of Nigeria, and a growing number reside at least seasonally in other states as well.54 In the North Eastern region, Fulani communities have adapted to diverse environmental, economic, political and religious conditions by developing a variety of settlements and subsistence patterns. These range from full-time pastoralism to permanent settlement. The degree of dependence on cattle varies from extremely high to almost nil, a variation which cannot be easily correlated with the degree of residential stability.55
2.3.2 The Mumuye People
The Mumuye constituted the largest group in Muri and they are found in the mountainous area of the North-Eastern borders of Muri. They call themselves Shoyozin. The name
Mumuye was an anthroponym given to them by the Fulbe. Their economy is based on agriculture and raising of herds such as goats, etc.56
According to the tradition of origin of the Mumuye, they believe that they came to Nigeria from the east through the Central African Republic and Cameroon to Yorro.57 There is also a theory that the Mumuye originated from the Cross River area, and they are probably one of the original ethnic groups of Adamawa and Taraba States.58 The Mumuye are the largest ethnic group in Taraba state. The 1963 population census returns a figure of 292.865 for them. They live in Jalingo, Ardo-Kola, Yorro, Lau, Bali and Zing Local Government Areas.
According to Meek C.K., the term Mumuye means “the people” made up of seven units:
Pugu, Yorro, Rang, Zing ya and Gola (or Gongla): the seventh unit comprises Jega Mounde,
54 Frantz, C. Ecology and social organization among Nigerian Fulbe (Fulani). In Wolhgang Weissler. (ed.) The Nomadic Alternative: Modes and Models of Interaction in the African-Asian Deserts and Steppe. The Hague: Mouton and Company, pp. 97-118, 1978. 55 Ibid. pp. 97-118. 56 Interview with Alh. Hammadu Ardo Kola, 97 years, retired politician, At his residence in Kano, 30th December, 2015. 57 Capro Research Office. The Cross and the gods: A look at Adamawa and Taraba States, Nigeria. Kaduna Nigeria: Baraka Press. p. 303, 1992. 58 Dall, A.L. “The middle-belt communities of northern Nigeria” in Elaigwu, I.I. and Erim, O.E. (ed.) Foundation of Nigerian Federalism: Pre-colonial Antecedent, N.C.1.R, Garki Abuja, p. 189.,1996. 53
Sori, Jole, Apawa, Jimlari and Usa.59 They are matrilineal and speak different dialects with close linguistic connection. In the pre-colonial period, the Mumuye had no centralised administration, but they recognised a single spiritual head, the priest at Yorro as the chief rain maker. The Mumuye are still migrating in search of more fertile farmland. However, Yorro remains the cultural centre because of the presence of the Chief Rain Maker (Panti Giriri).60
One important office among the Mumuye that seems to have come into being initially for economic reasons, but which ultimately developed political influence, was that of the Panti
Zai, Chief of Corn.61 The most successful farmer in the village occupied this office. Its object was to facilitate the provision of adequate supply of beer to provide for a strategic reserve of corn to safeguard against future shortages. These considerations were based on the belief that the seeds of an outstandingly successful farmer must have peculiar dynamic qualities, which could ensure bumper harvest.62
By virtue of his economic position as a well-endowed farmer and distributor of corn, the
Panti Zai exercised considerable influence and authority to the exclusion of the other office holders. In some of the small villages, the institution of the Panti Zai was, in fact, the only form of secular authority, and it was associated with the custody of the guinea corn cult.63
At present, the Mumuye are divided between two contiguous Districts, Mumuye in the
Emirate over whom at present Yorro, the senior rain maker of the tribe, is District Head, and
Zinna, to the east, under its independent chief.64 There are half a dozen distinct clans of this tribe, differentiated by minor variations of language and physique. Most of the clans have branches in either district and there is free intercourse. In addition to the Mumuye of the two hill districts, there are numerous recent settlements of the tribe in the plains of Jalingo and
59 Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. Adamawa Past and present. 1969, p. 20. 60 Interview with Alh. Hammadu Ardo Kola, 97 years, retired politician, at his residence in Kano, 30th December, 2015. 61 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 36, 2007. 62 Ibid. p. 36. 63 Ibid. p. 36. 64 NAK Yola Prof K.5/S.II Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, p. 98, 1936. 54
Mutum Biu Districts.65 This is to say that traditionally, Jalingo and Mutum Biu are not parts of Mumuyeland since they began to settle in these areas from the 1930s.
The Yandang and the Waka are closely related to the Mumuye. All these people are agriculturalists, and considering the nature of the land they have to farm on, they are evidently hard working. The staple crop is Yams, and every small valley is devoted to the growing of this crop, in spite of the soil being everywhere poor and sandy, and very rocky.66
Millet and Guinea corn are looked upon as of secondary importance. The two crops are grown all over the hill sides, amongst the boulders, wherever there is a foot or two of space or an inch or two depth of soil; naturally such crops are of a scanty kind. Every village also grows a few ground nuts and often a little Risga. Tobacco was grown in each village, for local consumption, for both sexes are inveterate smokers.67
The country inhabited by these two tribes is characteriesd by series of stony valleys and slopes, entirely surrounded by hills, with numbers of isolated peaks rising on all sides. The farms are cleared along the hill sides and in the small valleys, wherever it is possible to find a few inches depth of soil, or a few square yards of land from which it is possible to clear the surface rocks. The more level ground along the outer slopes of the hills is all under yam farms, chiefly, this being the staple diet.68
The villages are dotted about in an extraordinarily open and strangling manner, around the valley and up and down the hill sides, the compounds being as a rule only squalid enclosures consisting of two to five tiny grass huts, and it is often no easy matter to ascertain just where one village ends and the next one begins. Within the study period there appeared to be no trade at all, a few smiths dug iron found locally in the hills and worked it into hoes and bracelets, and a small amount of rough cloth was made, though clothes were not as a rule
65 Ibid. 66 NAK SNP10. 2575. Yola Province Yundam & Waka Pagans Assessment Report on 7.1.1913. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 55
worn. The men wore a strip of cloth fastened between their legs, with heavy spiral bands of iron from wrist to elbow; whilst the women were nude except for a bunch of grass tied over their “seats” and at times also a few leaves in front. Both sexes wore necklets of blue and white beads.69
2.3.3 The Kona People
The circumstances that led to the emergence of the centralised states of Jukun-speaking people of Muri area was associated with the advent of Jukun immigrants in the Middle Benue
Region in c. 1500.70 The oral traditions of the Jukun are generally agreed that the Jukun- speaking states of Pindiga, Kona and Kororofa were established in that order in the course of
Jukun migration from the vicinity of Bima Hill in the Gombe area southward to the Middle
Benue Region.71 The Kona are centred on the Kona Hills which form the western extremity of the Zinna-Mumuye system: isolated settlements are found between the hills and the River in Lau District, in western Gassol around the ruins of their old capital Kwororofa.72
Kona settlement was about 140 kilometres north-east of Kororofa city. According to their tradition, two Jukun brothers who came from the east via the Gongola basin founded Kona and Kororofa. The elder brother first settled at Akuro near Lau and subsequently established the Kona state, while the younger one went and established Kororofa.73
The core of the Kona state was the Jukun speaking group, a section of whom constituted a ruling aristocracy that essentially extracted its sustenance and comfort from surpluses appropriated from the subjected communities. The traditions are consistent, according to
69 Ibid. 70 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 43, 2007. 71 Interview with Alh. Habu Hamman Sani Kona, Retired Permanent Secretary, 67 years 17th November, 2016. 72 NAK Yola Prof K.5/S.II Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, 1936. 73 Mahmoud Hamman. 2007. p. 44. 56
Mahmoud Hamman that the ruling aristocracy in Kona and other retainers hardly engaged in productive pursuits, except perhaps through their slaves.74
The state was established in an area with great physical diversity, which was favourably reflected in the diversity of its natural and human resources. The hills contained iron ore and crops like grains, yams, tobacco, etc., while the plains were the sources of salt and fish. There was in the Kona area one of the largest concentrations of salt pans and salt springs along the
Benue valley on the northern bank of Bamanda, Jebjeb, Je-Muryan (Je-Muri) and other places nearby worked by the Jukun. This salt was an important resource for the Kona state because it served as a medium of exchange.75
The Kona state was also established in proximity to the Benue River on which was based the important fishing industry that occupied most of the riverine communities that were subjected by states such as the Chomo, Jiru, Kunini, Bandawa, etc. All these were taken over by the
Muri Emirate after it defeated the Kona state. The emirate also expanded to other areas where there was no Jukun influence.
2.3.4 The Jibu and the Chamba
The people who call themselves Jibu are also known generally as Jibawa or Jubawa are a sub- tribe of the Jukun. The Jibu according to Meek did not number more than 5,000 by 1931. In
1931, they numbered up to 3,300 in the northern area of the Gashaka District (at the villages of Garbabi, Jamtari, Gayam, Bashishir, Abakuru, Karamti and Bariwa). In the Bakundi
District the Jibu were found at Bali, Gazabu and Bungra.76
74 Ibid. p. 46. 75 Interview with Alh. Habu Hamman Sani Kona, Retired Permanent Secretary, 67 years, Kona Garu, 17th November, 2016. 76 C.K. Meek. Tribal Studies in Northern Nigeria. Vol. Two. London: Kegan Paul. p. 500, 1931. 57
According to a tradition recorded by Meek at Bali, the Jibu and Jukun formed part of a great migration from the East, in which the Chamba were included. Eastwards of Borno, the migration divided, the main body of the Jukun entering Borno, while the Jibu and Chamba worked their way in a south-westerly direction. Meek was however quick to add the statement that the Chamba formed part of the original Jukun migration from the east. This claim is however hardly accepted, and must be interpreted in the light of recent history. It is denied by a number of Jibu, and by all Jukun.77
The Chamba settled in the vicinity of the town of Chamba, (Ganye in Adamawa), while the
Jubu pursued their way down the south bank of the Benue until they came to Kwunbai, a word which (in Jukun language) means “the Hill of Small Stones”. From there, they established numerous settlements which extended as far east as Banyo in Cameroon.78
During the first half of the 19th century, they were attacked by the Chamba, who had driven in a south-westerly direction by the Bata, and were finally displaced from Adamawa by the
Fulani under Modibbo Adama, the first Emir of Adamawa. The Jibu were overran by the
Chamba, whose leader was known as Gangkwool, or Damashi. This personage left his mark on all the tribes between Yola and Katsina-Ala, and finally disrupted the Jukun confederacy which had been known for centuries as “Kororofa”. A few Jibu groups, for instance those at
Gayam, saved themselves by hiding in caves; but the majority preferred to throw in their hand and became the servants and followers of Gangkwool.79
Meek went on to narrate that Gangkwol pursued his way southward and westward, and eventually established a walled town at Mirimwai, near Katsina-Ala. This town became peopled largely with Jibu, most of whom subsequently severed their connection with
Gangkwol and proceeded to a site between Ibi and Bantaji, where they founded the town of
77 Ibid pp. 500-501. 78 Ibid p. 500. 79 Ibid. 501. 58
Jibu.80 By this time the Fulani of Muri had established a general supremacy over the pagan tribes between Yola and the Jukun capital of Wukari; and in 1848 the Jibu were driven out of the town of Jibu by Kuso, who was a slave-lieutenant of Hamman, the third Emir of Muri.
They fled back to the neighbourhood of their former settlements, first to Kundi then to Kun
Yirumai, then to Kun Kalau, and finally to Bali. Their leader at that time was Tantiu, but he bore the Chamba title of Garbak.
Gang is the Chamba word for chief, and all towns which names begins with ‘Ga’, ‘Gar’, or
‘Gan’, were under Chamba domination. Thus Gankwe near Wukari was a Chamba town, and
Barth remarks that though the Jukun King of Wukari was known as “The Lord of the river
(Benue), the chief of ‘Gangkwe’, was known as “the Lord of the corn”. Garbabi is a Jibu town, but it is admitted that the name of the town is a Chamba name. Gashaka owes its name to the Chamba-Jibu chief Gashikara. The better spelling is, therefore, Gashika.81
During the latter part of the nineteenth century, Bali was the principal centre of the Jibu, who had by this time received a large Chamba admixture. The Jibu leader, Garbak, built a wall round Bali, and Bali was able to maintain, for some time, its independence of the Fulani, who had established themselves at Kundi in 1860, under the leadership of Burba, son of Hamman,
Emir of Muri. Gradually, however, the Jibu of Bali were forced to recognize the suzerainty of the Fulani; and at the present time many of the inhabitants of Bali have become Muslims and adopted father-right conditions. East of Bali, certain Jibu groups in the region of Gashaka became subservient, first to the Fulani of Yakubu (Bauchi) and subsequently to those of
Gashaka, who were an offshoot of the Kwoncha group of Fulani, which established itself at
Banyo.82 At the present time, the groups of Bali, Bunga and Gazabu are administered by the
80 Ibid. p. 501. 81 Ibid. p. 501. 82 Ibid. p. 502. 59
Emir of Muri through the district head of Kundi, while the remaining groups are administered by the Emir of Adamawa through the district head of Gashaka.
Some details of the character of the social organization of the Jibu are presented here.
However, as regards marriage, there is among the Jibu no system of exogamous matrilineal clans such as we find among their neighbours, the Dirrim and Taram Daka. Marriage between all first cousins, except the mother’s sister’s child, is permissible; and cross cousin marriages are particularly favoured, as these marriages tend to keep the family group together, that is a, man does not have to leave his family group when he marries (as he is required to do under the matrilocal system).83
2.3.5 The Jenjo
The Jen are a small group of people who live on the north bank of the Benue River (at about longitude 11o and latitude 9o).84 They are distinguished by speaking a language which has a phonology distinct from that of any of the surrounding tribes, and by displaying physical features which are normally associated with the Nilotic tribes. In terms of religion, they are
Jukun, and this may be due to a comparatively recent association with the Jukun of Kona. But there are reasons for believing that the Jen may be modern representatives of the ancient stratum on which the Jukun Empire was founded. The Jenjo claim to have come from the
East, from a region called Za. On the other hand, it is apparent that they have received a recent infusion of Fulani blood. They took part in the wars waged by Modibbo Adama, the
Fulani Emir of Adamawa, and came down the Benue River from Numan their former home, as part of a Fulani expedition, but some assert that they were driven out of the Numan region by the Bachama.85
83 Ibid. p. 502-3. 84 Ibid. p. 519. 85 Ibid. p. 519. 60
The chief priest was in the early times the real ruler of the Jenjo community. The present line of secular chiefs among the Jenjo was an innovation designed to meet the needs of the Fulani and British administrations. The chief-priest was regarded as the custodian of the welfare of the people, and his position was therefore analogous to that of the divine King in the organized states. He was the repository of the ownership of the land and of the local fishing rites in the Benue River.86
Jen community is divided into three wards or local groups viz. Sarelonde, Jaka and Saredau.87
Each local group contains a number of kindreds in which descent is reckoned patrilineally. A number of the kindreds may consider themselves related to each other and thus constitute a small clan, sections of which may be found in any of the three wards. In the Saredau ward, there are two kindred groups or clans which form a dual organization; one of the clans containing the kindred of the chief-priest and the other the kindreds which has the right of appointing the chief-priest. The constituent kindred of each kindred-group act together for social and religious purposes.88 Close to the Jen there is a small group of people known as the
Munga who claim to be an offshoot of the Jen.
2.3.6 The Wurkun and Related Peoples
The Wurkun, who are mostly farmers, are found in the north of the Benue on the lowlands of
Tangale-Waja and are also fishermen. The term Wurkun is of Jukun origin meaning ‘people of the hill’.89 The Wurkun are located on the North bank of the River Benue opposite to Lau, in former Muri Division.90 The term Wurkun means the people of the hills, wunu or wur being a common Sudanic word for people and kun for hill.
86 Ibid. p. 526. 87 Ibid. p. 527. 88 Ibid. p. 528. 89 NAK/Wurkun District, Adamawa province – Ethnographical Notes on 1934, C.K. Meek. p. 13. 90 Ibid. p. 2. 61
The Wurkun are a collection of people of totally different origin, some speaking a Bantu language and some a Sudanic language.91 It will be seen, therefore, that the people known as the Wurkun, so far from being homogeneous, are about as heterogeneous a collection of tribal groups as it is possible to find in any district of similar area of Nigeria. This diversity is due partly to economic reasons, hill groups joining riverine groups in order to obtain fish, and partly also to the disintegrating effects of war carried on first by the Jukun and in later times by the Fulani.92
This report shows very clearly the intensely divided nature of the population of this area.
There were few Districts in Nigeria with less natural cohesion and it is abundantly clear that the District owed its creation solely to British arms and its continued existence to the tact and wise administration of the then Emir of Muri (Tukur) who, as District Head, held it together for more than 40 years.93
Wurkun District lied on the north bank of the Benue opposite Lau and was bounded on its south by the river, on its west by the sparsely inhabited and arid Muri District, on its north by former Bauchi and Gombe Divisions, and on its east by former Numan Division. It measured approximately 40 miles from east to west and by 30 miles from south to north.94
The former Wurkun District was divided into four main parallel geographical belts from south to north as follows:-
a. The Benue Flood Plain. This was about 8-10 miles wide and was largely swamp.
The villages of Jen, Bandawa, and Gidan Usumanu lied in this belt. The latter was
on a creek and was a United Africa Company groundnut evacuation port, as also
was Jen.
91 Ibid. p. 2. 92 Ibid. 93 NAK/YOLAPROF (State), SPN5640, Wurkun District: Report on by Mr. T.G. Brierly, A.D.O. 1954. Tukur was the tenth Emir of Muri. 94 Ibid. 62
b. The Savannah Plain. This lied immediately north of the Benue Flood plain and
consisted of park-like country, fairly well wooded and quite fertile. This was also
about 8-10 miles wide. The main settlements were at Sabon Gari, Munga, Karim
Madaki, Karim Lamido (District Headquarters), Bambur and Daro Foi. The
former hill villages of Kwanci, Kode, Zo, Fanya, Gwomu and Bambuka were also
mainly settled in this plain and at the foot of their respective hills.95
c. The Hills. These were about 8 to 12 miles wide from south to north and were
rocky and rugged in nature reaching about 3,000 feet at their highest. They
consisted of a southern and a northern range which were joined together in the
centre. The hill villages were as follows:-
i. North-West Spur: This inhabited Kirim, Angulle, and part of Bashama. The
Range was crossed by the Senge Pass (1,000 feet).96
ii. South-West Spur: this accommodated Balassa. The Range was breached at
Mutum Daya by river of that name.
iii. Centre Massif. All four Pitikos: Pitiko Hakuri, Pitiko Musa, Pitiko Buro and
Pitiko Lima were domiciled here. Now largely living in the valley between
N.W. spur and S.W. spur above. Part of Kode.97
iv. North-East Spur. In Gombe Division.
v. South-East Spur: This hosted the Zo, Fanya, Gwomu, Bambuka, Bolleri. All
these villages have now largely moved off the hills into the savannah
plain.98
d. The Northern Plain. This is a wide valley at the northern foot of the hills bordering
former Bauchi and Gombe Divisions. The former hill villages of Bashama were
95 NAK/YOLAPROF (State), SPN5640, Wurkun District: Report on by Mr. T.G. Brierly, A.D.O. 1954. 96 Ibid. 97 Ibid. 98 NAK/YOLAPROF (State), SPN5640, Wurkun District: Report on by Mr. T.G. Brierly, A.D.O. 1954. 63
settled mainly in this area from Senge to Kakalla and over the border towards
Pero.99
The Wurkun proper were formerly concentrated in the hills to the north west of the District but later spilled out into the plains between the hills and the Benue and many have crossed south of the river into former Mutum Biyu and Jalingo Districts. The original inhabitants of this area were the Kulu (Kulung?) speaking and traced their origin to a hole in Balassa Hill, whence most of them later migrated to Kirim.100
Two waves of Jukun immigrants settled at Daro Foi and Bambur and intermarried with the
Kulu. However, the language of both places was Kulung, not Jukun. (The Jukun came from
Kona in search of salt). At about the same time, c. 1750, a series of migrations appeared to have taken place from the Gbandu-Pero-Filiya area of what became Gombe Division, probably to escape slave raiders and the fierce Tangale tribe.101 These immigrants were, and are, Piya speaking. They settled in the hills of Bashama, Angulle, Pitiko, and Kwanci, and mixed at Balassa, Kirim, and (later) Daro Foi with the Kulu inhabitants with whom they appeared to have maintained friendly relations and observed the customs throughout the period of study. Kode (Piya) and Bambur however were both independent and intractable villages and frequent fighting took place between them and their neighbours.102
The North East mixed pagan hill tribes were found from Zo in the west to Bolleri in the east.
With the exception of Bolleri, who are a distinct unit of Dadiya origin, all these tribes had much in common in areas of customs and languages. Despite this, there was no common tribal name and each village was independent and considered itself as a separate tribe.
Linguistically they fall into the following sub groups:-
a. Zo and Fanya: These were close allies.
99 Ibid. 100 Ibid. 101 Ibid. 102 Ibid. 64
b. Lo: Formerly used to ally with Gwomu against Zo, Fanya, and Bambuka.
c. Gwomu, Bambuka, and Munga: The latter used to combine with Bambuka in fighting
Gwomu.103
These tribes were more primitive than the Wurkun, Kulu and Piya people. Their origin appears to have been from the east near Lamurde in Numan Division.
The riverine tribes: These appeared to be comparatively later arrivals who comprised the
Jenjo and Bandawa. The Jen and Bandawa, though with completely different languages from each other, both trace their origin to Kiri in former Numan Division. Both have a tradition of following the Fulani whom they assisted in their raids on the hill tribes. The two Karim villages on the other hand traced their origin to Wukari, though their language bear no relation to Jukun. While the Jenjo number 5,266, the Bandawa 711 as well as the Karim who numbered 1,555. All were kin fishermen as is to be expected living near the river.104
Economically, the people relied on groundnuts as a cash crop and guinea corn for food. Due to tsetse fly there were few cattle, except in dry season when the Bororo from the north grazed in the Benue flood plain. Cotton was introduced in 1953 and cotton markets were established at Karim Lamido and Jen. Mixed farming was also introduced.105 There were extremely flourishing markets at Karim Lamido, Mutum Daya (Kwanci village area) and
Zailani (Daro Foi village area). Traders to these came from as far as Gombe and Lau and all had grown Hausa communities. Other important, though less well attended markets, were at
Jen and Kirim. Gwomu had the most successful of the smaller pagan village markets. There were U.A.C canteens at Jen and Gidan Usumanu.106
The village was normally the largest natural basic unit and any groupings on a higher level were bound to be a little artificial – even some of the villages were so in name only, and had
103 Ibid. p. 5. 104 Ibid. p. 6. 105 NAK/YOLAPROF (State), SPN5640, Wurkun District: Report on by Mr. T.G. Brierly, A.D.O. 1954. pp. 7-8. 106 Ibid. p. 8. 65
no ethnic cohesion, for instance Karim Lamido. Every village area had one or more fetish cults or tsafis. Immigrants from other villages usually continued to follow the cults of their origin. The tsafi or fetish holder’s power normally did not interfere with those of the Village
Head. The tsafi holder was a pagan priest and the office normally ran in certain families. The tsafi holder’s powers were confined to their respective cults which might be divided broadly into Corn, Rain, Medical, Hunting and Fishing, Ancestor worship, and Initiation. One or other of these cults was recognized as the chief cult for the village and the tsafi holder thereof was superior to all other tsafi holders; often one man might be the priest for several cults.
Corn cults were common to the whole District. They usually took the form of 3 days festivities at the time of the new corn and again after the harvest.107 A sowing cult called
Banzing was common to Munga, Gwomu and Fanya.108
The various festivities held at fixed seasons in the different villages were usually occasions of mutual camaraderie. Neighbouring villages would attend each other’s celebrations for the sake of the beer and dancing even if their own cults might not be exactly the same.109
Although there were no formally constituted Village Councils, every village had its group of influential elders, which included the Tsafi holder or his representative, and the Village Head would not normally take action without consulting them.110
Bride price for a virgin girl varied from £4, a chicken, and beer in Wurkun areas to £20 in Jen and Bandawa. In many areas, the potential husband might pay by working several years on his prospective father-in-law fields or by thatching his house for him (e.g. Karim). If a man wished to divorce his wife, he paid a shilling fee to the District Court. Similarly, if a woman wished to divorce her husband, her new husband will have to repay the old husband what the
107 Ibid. p. 9. 108 Ibid. p. 9. 109 Ibid. p. 9-10. 110 Ibid. p. 10. 66
latter formerly paid for her to her parents. Unlike among the Mumuye, bride-price was not reclaimed if one’s wife died.
2.3.7 The Bandawa People
The Bandawa111 are linguistically related with those of Lau as well as of Kwinini, Minda and
Jesi, all on the south side of the Benue River. The people of Bandawa claim that they are of
Jukun origin, but their language does not bear this out. They possibly contain a Jukun stratum. Their word for chief is ku, the same root as it is used by the Jukun (and some other tribes), and like the Jukun they have two principal deities, one (Lu Lakwa) a sky deity identified mainly with the sun, and the other Nyimwa, the earth deity and creator of man and all living things.
Nyimwa therefore corresponds to the Jukun Ma or Ama; but whereas among the Jukun Ma is slightly superior to Lu. If, for example, there is a drought, the people ask Nyimwa to give rain to Lu that he may send it down on the earth.112 The people of Bandawa call themselves
“Yishu”, those of Lau, “Wunlau”, and those of Kwinini, “Nye”.113
2.3.8 The Karimjo
The Karim people call themselves Kari or Kiyu. They claim a close association with the
Jukun. While some claim that they came with the Jukun from the East, others maintain that they came from Wukari (hence the name Kari) under a leader called Tanwi Tuwo. Their language shows no relationships with the Jukun. However, they had some close association at
111 NAK/Wurkun District, Adamawa province – Ethnographical Notes on 1934, C.K. Meek. p. 24. 112 Ibid. p. 24. 113 Ibid. p. 27. 67
one time with the Jukun, and perhaps contain a Jukun sub-stratum. The vocabulary shows that they and the riverine groups known as Chomo or Shomo are one and the same people.114
The homeland of the Kiyu also known as Karimjo and Shomo are Karim Maundi, Karim
Lawa, Wudanpi, Garo, Gaita and Nguruwa. Other palces are Tau, Lamurde and Lathai; there is also Bakin Tudu in Gassol, Bantaje and Mgbai.115 The history of the origin of Kiyu and
Shomo is closely linked to that of the Jukun of the Middle Benue valley. The Kiyu and
Shomo are blood relations who speak the same language with slight dialectical differences in pronunciation.116
The Kiyu and Shomo were fishermen and hunters. They also engaged in carving and mending of canoes as well as small-scale farming for local consumption.
Kiyu and Shomo political organizations emerged with their elaborate structures of government with the gods or cults (universal and family cults) at the apex, while the elders and the general public are below.117 The important officials that contributed to the unification of various Kiyu and Shomo clans were elders of clans. Takeya (head of family) and Takhibiu ya (the general public), apart from Lefeshi. The state played only religious role. Thus, the
Kiyu and Shomo political organization was such that the priests and cult holders were regarded as the representatives of the gods and the people.118
2.4 An Overview of Economic Activities in the Muri Emirate Area, 1903-1960
The major occupation of the people of Muri Emirate was agriculture. Cash crops produced in the Emirate included, groundnuts and cotton and so on. Crops such as maize, rice, sorghum, millet, cassava, and yam were also produced in commercial quantity. In addition, cattle,
114 Ibid. p. 27. 115 Saidu Ajiya Karim, The History of Kiyu and Shomo. Jos: Ehindero Nigeria Limited. p. 1, 2004. 116 Ibid. p. 3. 117 Ibid. p. 22. 118 Ibid. p. 22. 68
sheep and goats were reared in large numbers along the Benue and Taraba valleys. Similarly, the people undertook other livestock production activities like poultry production, rabbit breeding and pig farming in fairly large scale. Communities living on the banks of River
Benue, River Taraba, River Donga and Ibi were engaged in fishing all year round. Other occupational activities such as pottery, cloth-weaving, hunting, dyeing, mat-making, carving, embroidery and blacksmithing were also carried out in various parts of the Emirate.119
The principal occupations of the inhabitants of Muri Emirate, North-Eastern Nigeria, were animal rearing and agriculture. These activities were slightly modified at the beginning of the colonial era, as surplus livestock and crops were sold for cash, and new cash crops were introduced. However, there were no revolutions in the practice of animal husbandry, in land tenure, in agricultural methods, nor in the general belief amongst farmers that they must provide their own food supply first before devoting time or effort to other crops. Iron smelting and smithing were some aspects of their crafts.120
The cultivation of groundnuts and of cotton was encouraged by relatively stability in prices and the establishment of a Marketing Board that allowed the producers a higher share of their crops’ value than in the Western Region. Mixed farming with ox-drawn ploughs helped to expand groundnut cultivation on light soils in the same way as the cultivation of cotton increased as the use of irrigation spread in the Benue and Gongola valleys.
Cattle rearing was supported by the protective activities of the veterinary services, including the tsetse fly eradication work extended to vast grazing areas.121 The export of animals on the hoof, by road and rail -and, after slaughter continued to increase, the rate being largely dependent on the ability of the Fulani to rear the animal.
119 Interview with Alh. Hammadu Ardo Kola, 97 years, retired politician, at his residence in Kano, 30th December, 2015. 120 Ibid. 121 P. E. Glover and P. J. Aitchison. Tsetse Control and Land Use in North-Eastern Nigeria. Lagos: Government Printer, passim, 1965. 69
Moderately fertile soils, good rainfall and a long growing season allowed a wide variety of crops to be grown. Intercropping, either through relay crops or undersowing was common.
Double cropping of short duration crops, and dry season cultivation of moister soils along drainage lines, following deforestation, were also practised. The major food crops were: yams, sorghum and millet, with the first two also being major cash crops.122
Cultivation was mainly by hand. Draught animals were rarely used and the extent of mechanised cultivation was very limited. Land was usually cropped for six to seven years, followed by five to ten years of bush fallow although the ratio almost certainly declined.
Some field manuring took place during crop residue consumption by cattle, but the use of artificial fertilizers increased.123
Most cattle were owned by Fulani, many of whom were either settled, permanently or semi- permanently, in the area. Smaller numbers of other livestock, including sheep, goats and pigs were also kept, most of which were owned by arable farmers. The distribution of cattle was closely associated with riverine forest vegetation associated with Fulani habitation due to arable habitation and grass cover.124
Some of the Minerals that were found and mined in the Muri Emirate included: salt pans and salt springs which occured in six places in the central area. Galena (Tozali) was mined near
W. Julde. With respect to iron deposits in the Mumuye territory, there appeared to have been no hard and fast rules governing their mining, or, collection if they occurred on riverbeds; that is, so long as one operated within the territory of one’s own community.125
Under forestry, there were shea-butter trees in fair numbers in the Amar and Kambari areas, and Kiriya in abundance between Muri and Wuzu, within - that is – a few miles of Benue.
122 David Bourn. Tsetse Control, Agricultural Expansion and Environmental Change in Nigeria. PhD Thesis. Oxford: Christ Church College, p. 98,1983. 123 Ibid. p. 134. 124 Ibid. p. 151. 125 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 19, 2007. 70
Gum-Arabic acacia abound in the Benue swamps. Large groves of ‘Kubba’ or ‘Kabba’ palm, the mat-making raw material surrounded Bomanda. They were also shipped and sold in the
Mutum Biu market. Also available, especially in the Jebjeb valley, were wild Rama, another source of fibre for the production of mats and ropes.126
The Muri Emirate was a fine country for game or hunting. Giraffe, buffalo and the larger antelope were all to be found in fair numbers. Elephant were found on the Amar-Dampar border.127 Owing to the ‘rotten’ nature of the earth’s crust, all the antelope travelled along regular Game trails to an extent which could not be paralleled elsewhere. It was therefore somewhat of a Trapper’s paradise, and the number of traps to be met in a morning’s walk from Amar testified to the fact.128 The most common type of trap was the ordinary pernicious
‘pitfall’ – the tambourine-like wooden circlet set inwards with bamboo spikes and connected by rope to a log.129 The Wurkunawa, regarded locally as poachers were the most assiduous hunters, ranging further and further from their native hills. Their methods were the pitfall and drive.130
In terms of agriculture, the staple cereal ware sorghum (Gauri, Fulani) (Dawa, Hausa) and was of the reddish (jan-farafara) variety. The bitter early ‘jigare’ was grown of stress in and around Fulani towns.131 Millet (Muuri Fulani) (Gero, Hausa) and less commonly, Maiwa were usually inter-planted with sorghum. There was also Maize (Buutali, Fulani) (Masara,
Hausa). Groundnuts were the chief subsidiary crops. Very little tobacco and cotton were grown.132
126 National Archives Kaduna (NAK), 473P, 1913, Muri Province Muri District (Lau Div.) Assessment Report by Mr. H. Q. Glenny. para. 56. 127 Ibid. para. 56. 128 Ibid. 129 Ibid. 130 Ibid. para. 60. 131 Ibid. 132 Ibid. para. 60. 71
In terms of trade, the Muri Emirate was well served as regards trade routes. The Lau-Bauchi and Mutum Biu-Bauchi routes from the South converged at Muri and diverged again into alternative routes northwards, the more favoured passing via Keffin Bolawa to Jebjeb, the less via Gora and Ligri.133 In the West was the Benue and, in the case of Lau and its environment, the Bakundi-Bauchi route.134
On none of the land routes did the volume of trade – mostly kolas and salt in transit – appeared very large. There was no petty local retail trade; there being but two markets in the whole District viz:-
A small weekly one at Keffin Bolawa near Muri.
A small daily one at Amar.
Crafts and Industries available within Muri Emirate were as follows:
Crafts
1. Blacksmiths
2. Weavers
3. Brokers
Industries
1. Salt-Winning
2. Fishing
3. Hunting
There was also some ‘supplementary’ mat-making and weaving.135
The salt industry: The method of winning was by straining the surface scrapings in earthen pots and boiling down the liquor so obtained. The scraping, carrying and straining were
133 Ibid. para. 73. 134 Ibid. para. 74. 135 Ibid. para. 83. 72
performed exclusively by women while the supply of firewood and marketing by the men.
The most productive seasons were as the rains set in, and again as the floods subsided.136
In the case of Bomanda, the largest salt Pan, there had dating from the Fulani occupation been levied at these seasons a tax of one calabash of salt (worth about 9d) per householder using the Pan. Pre-Fulani workers (all Jukunawa) had always been exempted. Other Pans were located at Jebjeb, Japbirn and Awe.
The salt produced, which varied in quality from the different Pans, appeared from its taste to contain a very large percentage of potash. It was bartered for grain with Wurkum, Tangale, and Pagans.137 Salt was worked in the Benue valley for a long time and was an important item of inter-tribal trade in pre-colonial and early colonial days.
In the western district, the main surviving producing centres were Awe, Keana, and Akiri, while those of the less-important eastern districts were Bomanda and Jenoe. Both districts were believed to be detached from synclinal areas formed by localized folding, and the brine springs of Awe, Azara and Bomanda were associated with anticlinal axes along which the salt bearing beds within the synclines approached the surface. In both districts, the salt occured as weak brine within the upper layers of the Muri sandstones and the method of extraction remained unchanged over the years.138
The Benue Salt industry was run by the womenfolk who were responsible not only for extracting but also for marketing the salt. It was a seasonal industry which was largely confined to the three months of the year when the ground was dry enough to permit large- scale production. At this time of the year (the dry season), many women whose salt plots were far from their villages migrated to settle in camps located near the salt pits.
136 Ibid. para. 83. 137 Ibid. para. 94. 138 Reuben K. Udo. Geographical Regions of Nigeria. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970. 73
The method of extraction of salt was simple, the first step consisting of sprinkling salt water from local springs on bare soil. A thin deposit of salt was left behind when the water dried up and this was scraped off and placed in filters which consisted of clay water pots with holes in the spring which was poured over the heap in the filter and salt was obtained in crystalline form after the solution has been boiled over a wood fire.139 The salt pits were flooded during the rains when the plains were inundated. Production then ceased and the women returned to their villages. The only contribution of the men was draining the pits of rain water before the next production season began. The pits were drained by using pots and calabashes to scoop out the water, but today small hand-pumps are used.140
Like many other indigenous industries in the country, the Benue salt industry suffered a serious setback with the establishment of British rule in Nigeria. The displacement of the locally produced salt by better-quality European salt was almost complete, and today the demand for Benue salt is restricted to the few who still prefer the flavour of local salt to the imported stuff. There was a short-lived boom during the war years when salt had to be rationed. Since the reserves were very limited and the brine from these districts was considered to be too weak to permit exploitation on modern lines the industry did not develop appreciably.141
Small quantities of tinstone were found in the western slopes of the Shebsi Hills in Muri
Emirate and on the eastern slopes of the Vere Hills in Yola Emirate. Other minerals included galena (tozali), which was mined and used as a cosmetic by the local people who also traded it to other neighbouring ethnic groups for the same use. Small pockets of silver also occured within the vein stuff of this mineral.142
139 Interview with Hajia Zainab (Abu) Suleimuri, Aged 103 years, Suleimuri Residence, Jalingo, 12/02/2015. 140 Ibid. 141 Reuben K. Udo. Geographical Regions of Nigeria. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970. 142 Ibid. p. 147. 74
Galena deposits in the Benue Valley were closely associated with salt deposits in that both minerals occured in close proximity or even within the same locality. The problems of mining were also similar to the extent that during the rains, and for some time after, the pits were full of water and were therefore unworkable. As in the case of the salt works, operations were restricted to only three months of the year, but in this case the pits filled up even during the dry season as a result of percolation from the sides and bottom. Miners were known to spend a good part of the day emptying the water accumulated during the night before actual mining started. The danger of the sides falling in limits the size of the pits were very short since the people had no idea of the use of props. The result was a wasteful extraction of deposits.143
Mumuye Division of the Benue valley was one of the few areas where iron was smelted in the country until the industry was forced to close down by the importation of cheap iron from
Europe. The centre of this indigenous iron works was in the hills north of Mumuye, where numerous kilns for smelting local iron ore were still to be found in 1935. Iron from Mumuye was used for making farm implements and other articles, including weapons.144
The Benue made a great impression on its early explorers, who saw it as a great waterway which could open much of the eastern part of the Central Sudan to European influence and trade. Partly as a result of the primitive state of their vessels, and partly because there was very limited contact and trade between the various tribal groups, the people of the Benue valley made very little use of this water before the beginning of twentieth century. But it was through the Benue waterway that the early European traders penetrated the eastern part of this country, and today the produce of the Benue valley reaches the Benin ports by way of the
Benue waterway.145 The point was made earlier that the Benue is navigable throughout its
143 Ibid. 144 Ibid. 145 Ibid. 75
course in Nigeria, provided there is sufficient depth of water. Fishing was practiced by the riverine settlements of Jen, Lau, Bandawa, etc. on the Benue River.
Most of the vessels operating on the Benue were owned by foreign trading companies: the
United Africa Company (UAC), John Holts and the French trading firm of Compagnie
Francaise de L’Afrique Occidentale (C.F.A.O) being the main ones. Total river transport fluctuated with good or bad river seasons as well as with good and bad harvests. The main river ports along the Benue were Makurdi, Ibi, Numan, Yola and Garua.146
Trade was an important segment of the economy of the Muri area before the Jihad. Three important levels of exchange were noticeable in this period, namely local, regional and long- distance. While some of the products of the area like salt, antimony and cloth found profitable markets at the different levels of exchange, some, especially agricultural and sylvan products, were marketable only at the local and to a small extent regional levels; both because of their bulkiness and their relatively lower exchange value. The trading networks that evolved in the Middle Benue Region and beyond as a result of these exchanges formed the basis of an interaction between peoples occupying different territorial and ecological areas within and outside the region in the period before the jihad.147
In the nineteenth century, important changes also took place in the pattern of trading activity.
With the establishment of the emirate, there was definite increase in the tempo of trading activity between the Middle Benue Region and Hausaland to the north, which had become the heartland of the Sokoto Caliphate, and also with Borno to the north-east.148 Trading relations with the Bamenda Highlands also seemed to increase as a result of the development of the trade in the kola nuts of the ganji variety. These were produced on the highlands and
146 Ibid. 147 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 21, 2007. 148 Ibid. p. 21. 76
were in demand in some parts of the caliphate, especially in the eastern emirates. The kola trade route also ran across the territory of the emirate of Muri.149
The farming system was purely arable. Stock was used for farming by the Fulani and for manure, work or haulage. Preparation of new farms consisted in cutting down thick bush. The trash from clearings was allowed to dry before burning. Most of the crops were planted on ridges except beni-seed which was broadcast on the flat land.
Land was cultivated for three years among some people in the Emirate, four to five years among some others. Fallow period was upwards of six years. Swamp areas were only cultivated during the rains but a limited amount of local vegetables were grown along stream banks and marshy areas in the Emirate.150
Implements used included: hard plough, weeding hoe, cutlass and axe.
The people of Muri Emirate had no definite system of rotation of cropping on the land. The system varied from mono cropping of millet to guinea corn to mixed cropping of groundnuts, guinea corn, beniseed, yams and cassava.
Fertility of the soil was maintained by shifting system of farming. The value of manure was understood but it was rarely used for any crops except on vegetables in the compounds. It was not used because the people practiced shifting cultivation and land was available.
Trade was perhaps the most important factor which linked many groups together. No community was self-sufficient in the production of agricultural and manufactured goods which it required either for it necessities or luxuries. Differences in physical environment and geographical factors tended to promote trade contact and hence, intergroup relation. For instance, a particular community might have an abundant product or might be specialised in
149 Ibid. p. 22. 150 NAK/YOLAPROF, NOT-12 Vol I General, Agricultural Note Book for Wukari and Takum Districts, 16/9/59, by R. N. Illoanya. p. 7. 77
something which other groups did not have. At the same, time it might lack something, which the other group had, which meant they had to maintain symbiotic relation between them.
2.5 Agricultural Production in the Muri Emirate, 1903-1960
The natural endowment of a particular region may set broad limits under a given technological, social and political regime to the kinds of activities which are carried out at any point in time, but there is still room within these limits for experiment and change. Thus, in comparing the natural resources and climates of different parts of the world, there is the likely temptation by some people to draw conclusions about whether they stimulate or retard economic progress of particular societies. For example, some people may be quick to jump to the conclusion that mountainous regions are characterized by poor soils due to erosion and consequently limited resources to support large populations. Such view is rather like trying to decide that life is more difficult for the Penguins in the Antarctic region or Camels in the
Sahara.
Agriculture has remained the mainstay of economic activity in the Muri Emirate. It was the
“matrix in which all other indigenous economic activity is set”.151 For example, one did not have to abandon farming to undertake other occupations like craft manufacture since agricultural surplus could finance other forms of productive enterprise. The main staples grown in the Emirate were guinea corn, groundnuts, tiger-nuts, beniseed, bambara nuts,
(gongonji) (gujjiya), beans, millet and vegetables. Other crops grown were cotton, tobacco and indigo. Animals like goats, sheep, pig, cattle, horses (often by the rich) and poultry were also kept.
There were two types of agriculture practiced in this region-terrace farming in the mountains and in the plains where the topography was gentle, conventional agriculture which involved bush clearing and furrowing prior to planting was the standard practice. In fact, intensive
151 Hopkins, A.G. An Economic History of West Africa. London, p. 34, 1973. 78
agriculture which was regarded as an important mode of production of larger states like the
Hausa states of the central Sudan was also practiced on the Mumuye and Wurkun hills by way of terrace agriculture. The people in those areas developed a system of intensive agriculture which included soil conservation, crop rotation, use of fertilizer, planting and protection of trees and animal husbandry.
The interesting thing about this area was that permanent agriculture was not merely a result of favourable soils or climate in the micro-environment, but also the outcome of population pressure for the dense settlement on the mountains. This invalidated the notion of equating permanent agriculture with market activity and shifting cultivation with subsistence farming.
This, as Hopkins rightly observed, is because the methods might have varied, but the economic goals of both systems were often the same.152
Methods of cultivation practiced on the hills in this region, like in other mountainous regions in other parts of the world were terracing, contour farming, strip cropping, crop rotation, planting of cover crops and subsurface tillage. These procedures were made to reduce erosion which was the characteristics of mountainous regions. Terracing was done by construction of terrace ridges built to slow down movement of runoff water. Two types were used in sloppy areas, bench terrace was used by rock walls while in humid areas, terrace ridges with a channel gradient that permited runoff water to move slowly across the slopes so that it did not wash away sand and silt particles was used.153
Contour farming on the other hand was used to prevent excessive soil loss in areas of gently sloping land. It was a method of farming in which tillage, planting, cultivation and harvesting operations followed a level or nearly level line across a sloping field. Terrace ridges were constructed to maintain permanent contour lines on gentle or moderate slopes.
152 Ibid. p. 36. 153 New Age Encyclopedia, Lexicon Publications, No. 17, p. 6, 1977. 79
On steep slopes, stripes of small grain and narrow crops were located on a contour for effective absorption of rainwater than when crops were planted parallel to the slope. Strip cropping was the planting of alternate strips of crops used to control wind and water erosion.
Animal manure and household refuse were also used as fertilizer, while crop mixtures, rotations and successions were other means employed to conserve the soil to provide for sustained and maximum economic use of land. It is also maintained that in humid tropical regions, soils were deeper and richer in organic matter and these characteristics partly accounted for the higher density of population in mountainous regions.
In the plain lands where conventional agriculture was practiced, the method of cultivation was mainly rotational bush fallow. Rotations made certain that demands on soil were varied from year to year. Usually, a number of crops were planted on the same plot of land and in the same season (i.e. mixed cropping). This practice did not only ensure high density of plants and economy of weeding, but also reduced cost of fertilizers, spread of labour requirements and provided more even flow of food stuffs by staggering the harvests.
The household was the most important economic unit of labour for any type of production.
Households of all sizes were usually in a position to mobilize additional labour (like Gayya) at times at peak of demand. The extended family which in the eyes of the European colonialists was a drag on economic development had often provided labour and funds which enabled enterprising individuals to launch new undertakings and offered them refuge if such ventures failed.
Iron implements, chiefly hoes, cutlasses, matchets, axes and other simple tools were used in agriculture. Pig Iron were produced by digging lumps of iron stones out of river beds and streams. Agriculture is the practice of cultivating the soil and raising livestock to produce plant and animals useful to humans, and in some instances, animals and agricultural inputs related to those vital elements to be used to make agriculture both possible and profitable. 80
These inputs were resources required to cultivate the land, produce crops, including forestry and livestock.154
The Groundnut (or peanut or monkey nut) constituted the great export crop of the Muri
Emirate. It was a valuable and attractive crop on sandy soil; for, unlike most crops, it yielded well on such land with little or no manure; other advantages were that it smothered weeds comparatively well, added rather than removeed fertility from the soil, and in times of scarcity, could be used as food instead of being sold for export. The dried leaves and stems were extremely valuable as fodder and were carefully conserved for this purpose.
On heavy soils, the work of harvesting groundnuts was sufficiently arduous to constitute a serious objection to the crop, especially as there was little interval between the ripening of the nuts and the time when the soil became too hard for efficient harvesting to be possible at all.
Another serious difficulty with this crop was that the value per ton in Europe was low while the main producing area was about 700 miles from the coast: at times when produce prices was low the cost of sea and railway freight, in spite of specially reduced rates for the latter, left little for the producer.
The practice of adulterating groundnuts became prevalent, but a produce inspection system was instituted which yielded good results. The exports in the 1936-37 season amounted to
350,000 tons at an average price at Kano of £7 17s. 6d. a ton. This was the highest figure so far recorded: previously the average was about 195,000 tons.155 The marketing of the crop in the 1937-38 crop period was considerably less than in the 1936-37 period.
Groundnuts were consumed locally in Nigeria as well as exported and there were no means, direct or indirect, of estimating the local consumption: the volume of the gross annual production was, therefore, unknown. The Agricultural Department, after many abortive trials
154 S. N. Asoegwu and A. O. Asoegwu. An Overview of Agricultural Mechanization and Its Environmental Management in Nigeria. Agricultural Engineering International: the CIGR E-journal. Invited Overview No. 6. Vol. IX, May, 2007. 155 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1886. Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, p. 38, 1937. 81
of varieties imported from other countries, was endeavouring, with some prospects to produce heavier yielding varieties of groundnuts by selection locally, it seemed possible that the average yield per acre could have been eventually increased by as much as fifteen per cent, especially if the farmers were induced to adopt a much closer spacing of the plants in the field.156
Cotton was exported from the northern part of Nigeria, especially in the Muri, Zaria, Katsina and Sokoto Provinces. It was also grown on a smaller scale, mainly for local consumption, in several other provinces. In northern Nigeria, cotton was the crop of the heavy soils. The original native cotton of this District was quite unsuitable for export, but it was successfully replaced about the year 1916 with an American variety introduced from Uganda. The annual yield per acre was liable to considerable fluctuation according to the distribution and quantity of rainfall. The farmers also varied the amount of cotton which they planted each year, partly in accordance with the fluctuation of the price paid for it, but chiefly according to their previous crop of grains for food. If the grain crops of the previous season was a poor one, lie naturally plants a larger area of grain and less cotton.157
The Agricultural Department of the Colonial State worked to increase both the area of crops grown and the yield per acre of all crops in the Northern Provinces, including foodstuffs, cotton and groundnuts, through the introduction of ploughing powered by cattle and the making of farm-yard manure. This system was known as “mixed farming.” A family with a pair of cattle and a plough could cultivate four or five times the area of crops that they could cultivate by hand.
At the same time, owing to the fact that a very little manure greatly increased the yield of crops in that part of the country, the man who used farm-yard manure got very much heavier yields per acre than the man who dug his soil by hand and, keeping no cattle, had no manure.
156 Ibid. p. 38. 157 Ibid. p. 38. 82
The mixed farmer usually increased his three acre farm to about six acres in his second year, then to about nine, and twelve in the next two years respectively, so that it took him three or four years to increase his farm to its new maximum, and still longer to acquire or rear all the stock the farm could carry. Eventually, however, his returns were many times greater than those of the ordinary farmer—the stock alone, which he could feed almost entirely on the bye-products of his farm, give more than the gross annual return from the hand-worked farm.
Extension work started in 1928, with three farmers near the Agricultural Station at Samaru,
Zaria; there were in 1937 1,435 farmers who took part in the movement. Practically, all these farmers were empowered to start mixed farming by receiving advances of from £5 to £10 per head from their Native Administration to cover the cost of bullocks and implements. The bullocks were all bought and trained, and the farmers were trained by the Agricultural
Department.158
Cash crop and food crop production in the Benue Valley of Muri Emirate was an important economic activity. In the Middle and Lower Benue valley of the Emirate, ecological conditions permited the inhabitants to take part in both the grained-based economy of the north and the root-based economy of the south. Thus, there were three important staple crops, yams (July and August), guinea corn (December) and bulrush millet (May and June).159 In addition to the three staple crops, the inhabitants grew maize, rice, sweet potatoes, beans, cocoyams, cassava, groundnuts and cotton.160
In the Upper Benue valley, where the northern grain economy predominated, millet and guinea corn were the main crops, groundnuts, sweet potatoes and maize were also widely cultivated. Both the cotton plant and indigo for dyeing cotton had been grown for many centuries, and in the middle of the nineteenth century, locally made strips of cotton cloth
158 Ibid. p. 38. 159 Ibid. p. 38. 160 Ibid. 83
were a standard medium of exchange in most of Adamawa and Borno. This part of the Benue valley was rather remote and lacked a substantial money crop. It was an area where cotton and groundnuts could be expanded as cash crops.161
As a food surplus area the Middle and Lower Benue Valley of the Muri Emirate was an important agricultural region in Nigeria. Yams produced here were railed to Kano, Onitsha and other urban centres in Northern and Eastern States for distribution.162
2.6 Pastoralism as an Important Economic feature of Muri Emirate
The cattle population of the Benue drainage basin during the rains was put at one and half million head, but the number of cattle found in the Benue valley even during the dry season was much less than this figure. The large number of cattle in the basin was concentrated on the fly-free highlands of the eastern borderlands. The Benue valley itself was infested with tsetse flies all through the year, to the extent that about a third of all sleeping-sickness cases reported in Nigeria were from Benue Province.163
During the dry season, cattle from the uplands were driven to the plains of the Benue valley, where greener pasture was available. At this time, the tsetse flies were closely confined to the vicinity of streams, but since water was hard to get in parts of the plains, the cattle had to go to the streams where the flies were concentrated. As in other parts of the country, this pest proved to be a serious setback to animal husbandry in the Benue valley and various methods had to be employed to exterminate it. One of such methods was the clearing of riverine thickets and other woodlands, but the main point against this method was the sparse population of vast areas, since the cleared bush easily reverted to dense bush after a few years
161 Ibid. 162 Ibid. 163 Reuben K. Udo. Geographical Regions of Nigeria. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970. 84
unless the cleared area was effectively occupied. An alternative method was to use insecticides, but this was too expensive.164
Other factors which combined to restrict the area to be suitable for dry-season grazing included poverty of grazing in many areas, lack of water over considerable stretches and diseases other than trypanosomiasis. The increasing demand for farmland by settled cultivators also placed some restrictions on areas available for dry-season grazing. There was therefore a great need to control not only the spread of hill pagans to the plains, as it was done in the Shendam Scheme.165
The reported increase in the number of cattle kept in the Benue valley166 confirmed that the ravages of the tsetse-fly could be brought under effective control by extending the area under effective occupation by the local population. Formerly, cattle-rearing in the Benue valley was restricted to the Fulani-dominated areas around Yola and Numan, but since the early 1950s, an increasing number of cattle were kept, even during the rainy season, in the Benue valley administrative divisions of Lafia, Wukari and Lowland. This change was made possible by the tsetse-fly belt consequent on the clearing of woodland and the elimination of game, following the expansion of the area under cultivation. As people descended from the hills to settle and cultivate the plains, the area under forests was reduced, while the area for safe grazing increased.167
The general characteristics of nomadic pastoralists are that they are people who are principally dependent for their subsistence on livestock, and for whom spatial mobility is regularly employed as a survival strategy. Moving livestock to seasonal pastures is a strategy regularly used in many parts of the world to convert crop residues, and grasses and herbs
164 Ibid. 165 Ibid. 166 Grove, A.T. The Benue Valley. Kaduna: Government Printer. Ministry of Natural Resources, Northern Nigeria, 1957. 167 Ibid. 85
from areas where crops are not grown, into human food. Livestock husbandry and mobility are frequently associated because the livestock must be fed regularly throughout the year, but in areas of marked seasonality, plant growth is discontinuous, occurring only when temperature and rainfall permit. In those regions of the world with marked seasonality, where the production, harvest, and storage of fodder are not available options because of shortages of capital or of labour, migration to exploit seasonal pastures represents the best strategy for maintaining a regular supply of food for livestock.
However, exploitation of seasonal pastures are not the only reasons that livestock herders move. The use of livestock as a major resource gives the human population dependent on herds the option of moving to avoid a wide range of hazards in the physical and social environment, an option not generally available to agricultural people who are tied to their agricultural lands and their stored agricultural products. Pastoralists may move with their herds to avoid insects and disease; to reduce competition with other groups; and to avoid would-be authorities. The movements of pastoralists may be affected by political factors such as international boundaries, local governmental restrictions, and a desire to avoid taxation and conscription; by economic factors such as the presence of markets and the willingness of sedentary agriculturalists to lease potential pasture land to nomadic populations.
The herdsmen often search for a near-ideal condition for raising their herds. While continually moving toward pasturage, water sources, salt licks, livestock market, the nature of the terrain that allows for an impeded movement, protective mechanisms for their livestock against the vagaries of nature, they sometimes avoid the tsetse flies, harsh weather, ethnic conflicts, livestock bandits, tax assessor, and hostile social environments. Apparently, the
Benue Basin has a number of advantages that attract the movement of transhumance population.
2.7 Conclusion 86
The migrations of peoples into the Muri area were mostly from the east. The settlement patterns conformed to the area one finds himself; hill or plain. Most of the villages and towns in this area were compact in nature. This was as a result of security measures.
The Muri Emirate area is one of the most diverse within Nigeria. In view of this, it was impossible to discuss all the peoples in the area. What we did was to pick some of the strategic peoples in the area. However, we had to pick these peoples in a form of sampling, there were picked from all the corners of the Emirate. It is important to note that because of the diverse nature of the groups in Muri area, the people engaged in inter-group relations as form of social interaction.
The most significant economic activities within the emirate were farming, fishing, pastoralism and some handicraft etc. This was what attracted the various peoples into the area. It also attracted the Fulani and the British colonialists after them. Animal husbandry was another important economic feature of the Muri emirate area where several types of animals were reared such as cattle, sheep, goats etc.
CHAPTER THREE
BRITISH COLONIAL ACTIVITIES IN MURI EMIRATE
3.1 Introduction 87
The conquest of Muri Emirate by the British colonialist went hand in hand with the conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate. This is because the Muri Emirate was part of the Sokoto Caliphate.1
The weakening of the Caliphate as a result of the flight of the Caliph from the capital and the eventual takeover of the Caliphate by the British symbolised the fall of its component
Emirates. What more was that the Caliph of the Caliphate, Attahiru2 had as his last stand, the city of Burmi which was in Gombe Emirate; an Emirate that shared border with the Muri
Emirate which was one time a sub-emirate of Gombe Emirate.
Jihad spread from the Central Sudan westward to the upper Niger valley and eastward to the
Nile valley: hence the Sokoto Caliphate was a focal point of a much wider phenomenon.
These related political upheavals ushered in a period of economic adjustment within the savanna which largely paralleled the revolutionary shift to ‘legitimate’ trade nearer the coast.
Thus, two belts of economic development could be discerned, one which included coastal states and societies from the Igbo hinterland through the Yoruba states, Dahomey, Asante, and westward, and the second centred on the Sokoto Caliphate and extended to Masina and other savanna areas. It is argued here that the economic history of West Africa must explore this basic dichotomy, since internal economic developments within the savanna and externally-induced change along the coast were closely intertwined.3
3.2 British Colonial Conquest of Muri Emirate, 1903
1 The Sokoto Caliphate was the largest and most populous state in nineteenth-century West Africa. Its foundation (I804-8) coincided with the beginnings of major changes elsewhere in the subcontinent, where the production of ‘legitimate’ goods, particularly groundnuts, palm products, and kola nuts, started to replace slave exports to the Americas as the dynamic part of the economy. 2 Paul E. Lovejoy. Plantations in the Economy of the Sokoto Caliphate. Journal of African History, XIX, 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 341, 1978. Accessed: 21-06-2015. 3 P. E. Lovejoy and S. Baier. ‘The Desert-Side Economy of the Central Sudan’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, xiii, 55I-81, 1975; P. E. Lovejoy. Interregional Monetary Flows in the Precolonial Trade of Nigeria. Journal of African History, xv, 563-85, I974. 88
The origin of colonialism4 could be traced to the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 which stipulated the principle of effective occupation as the necessary condition for exercising
European authority over African territories. This resulted in the treaty called ‘The Berlin
Act’. Under this Act, it was stipulated that “any European country which could produce evidence of her interest in any part of Africa would be accepted by others as the administering power in that region”.5 The establishment of colonial authority was borne out of the need for cheap source of raw materials and the search for lucrative markets for
European manufactured goods.6
A critical look at the nature of the relationship that existed between the European colonialists and the colonised territories brings to fore some fundamental assumptions which seem to have acted as guideline for both the framers and the implementers of colonial economic policies. The colonies were expected to provide raw materials to feed the machines of the imperial power. Secondly, the colonies had to import manufactured goods from the metropolis. These two assumptions divided the British Empire into two distinct economic camps, - the colonies and the metropolis.7 The foundation of this lopsided relationship had been laid during the long period of the Atlantic slave trade which spanned over a period of almost four centuries.
The history of what eventually emerged as Nigeria started with the Niger Expedition of 1841 and the formation of the Royal Niger Company (RNC), a trading company that monopolized trade in both the interior and the coastal regions.8 The British monarchy had granted the
4 Colonialism was not merely a system of exploitation but one whose essential purpose was to repatriate the profits to the so called mother country. See Walter Rodney. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Abuja, Panaf Publishing, Inc. 5 W.E.F., Ward, Colonial rule in West Africa in Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries. In Anene J.C & Broen G.N (eds.) A Hand book for Teachers and students, Ibadan, Ibadan University Press. p. 313. 6 Ade Alade, The economic basis of imperialism in An Economic History of West Africa since 1750, p. 131. 7 M.H.Y Kaniki, The colonial Economy: The former British Zones. UNESCO. Vol. 7 p. 282. 8 R.A. Adeleye. Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria 1804–1906: The Sokoto Caliphate and its Enemies. London: Longman, Ibadan History Series, 1971; Richard H. Dusgate. Conquest of Northern Nigeria. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1985; Ikime Obaro. The Fall of Nigeria: The British Conquest, London: Heinemann, 1977; Marjomaa, Risto. War on the savannah: The military collapse of the Sokoto Caliphate under the invasion of the British Empire, 1897-1903. Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1998.; Orr, C.W.J. The Making of Northern Nigeria. London: MacMillan, 1911. 89
Company a charter to occupy the territory of present-day Nigeria. The RNC therefore served as a medium through which British colonial and mercantile interests were protected until the revocation of the Company’s charter in 1900, and the subsequent creation of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.9
After 1900, the British began to explore avenues through which the resources of the indigenous peoples could be exploited and maximized. To achieve this, they needed to create a structure for indirect rule—controlling Africans through their traditional authorities. The
British reasoned that approaching the people through their local leaders would minimize opposition to British rule.10 In Northern Nigeria, they used the existing emirs and their traditional institutions.
The British converted traditional subsistence farming in many areas to promote the production of cash crops for export, and commissioned a number of railway projects to facilitate this traffic. The Lagos-Ibadan railway construction work started in 1896 and completed in 1900. Between 1907 and 1909, extensions to the Ilorin, Kaduna, Zaria, and
Kano lines were completed. Others followed—the line to Kano in 1913, and the Port-
Harcourt, Enugu, and Maiduguri links in 1926.11
The main interest of the Royal Niger Company lay in securing the conduct of trade. Although granted a royal charter in 1886, its administration of the areas was rudimentary.12 Its military operations in the region under discussion were mainly restricted to the riverine areas and were intended to punish rebellious local groups obstructing trade.13 In 1885, the National
African Company (later Royal Niger Company) had 11 main trading posts along the Benue,
9 Falola, Toyin, and Matthew M. Heaton, (eds.) A History of Nigeria. London: Cambridge University Press. p. xiv, 2008. 10 Falola, Toyin. The History of Nigeria. New Haven, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 70, 1999. 11 Wright, Stephen. Nigeria: Struggle for Stability and Status. Boulder, CO: West View Press. p. 18, 1998. 12 Jörg Adelberger. Maxims and Mountaineers – The colonial subjugation of the peoples of the Muri Mountains and the adjacent regions in Northern Nigeria, 2009. https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archive/2009/1910, Accessed: 21-11-2015. 13 A.H.M. Kirk-Greene. Adamawa Past and Present: An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 50–53, 1958. 90
for instance, at Mainarawa, Lau, Kunini and Numan.14 The first three areas being part of the
Muri Emirate.
In 1902, the Bauchi-Borno expedition, a systematic attempt to bring the country under control, began. It was to cover a distance of about 1,000 miles. The expeditionary force was of considerable strength and its task was to subdue a major portion of North-Eastern Nigeria.
The force under the command of Colonel Morland included three captains, one officer of the
Royal Artillery, one British non-commissioned officer (NCO) and 30 regular soldiers with two 75mm guns, 1st Battalion with two officers and two British NCO’s and 125 regular soldiers with one Maxim gun, 2nd Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Beddoes and six officers and two British NCO’s and 360 regular soldiers with three Maxim guns, further three
Medical officers and 800 carriers.15 In the aftermath of this Bauchi-Bornu expedition, the first campaign to subjugate parts of the Muri Mountains took place.
The patrol reached Lau on 4th May, 1901. From here Cubitt started towards Wurkun hills on
6th May. On 7th May, 1901 their camp at Pitiko was attacked, but the Wurkun warriors were repulsed and several of them killed. Further fighting occurred the next day, until the Wurkun chiefs sued for peace. The district was considered pacified. The force was back at Ibi on 16th
April 1902.16
The conquest of Northern Nigeria by the British was accomplished by both military and diplomatic means. The creation of provinces and their regular adjustment to suit British political and economic purposes depended largely on the various methods adopted by the
British and the type of response to the communities. Communities that peacefully submitted
14 Baker, Geoffrey L. Trade Winds on the Niger: The Saga of the Royal Niger Company 1830–1971, London, New York: Radcliffe, p. 51, 1996; see also J. E. Flint. Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria, London: Oxford University Press, pp. 145–6, 1960. 15 NAK SNP 15 Acc. No. 30, Report on Field Operations 1902. See also Richard H. Dusgate. Conquest of Northern Nigeria. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., pp. 145–155, 1985. 16 Jörg Adelberger. Maxims and Mountaineers – The colonial subjugation of the peoples of the Muri Mountains and the adjacent regions in Northern Nigeria, 2009. https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archive/2009/1910, Accessed: 21-11-2015. 91
to the colonialists were rewarded with territorially large areas and their rulers up-graded to higher status. But in communities where the British witnessed stiff resistance, their rulers were either deposed or relegated to a lower status. In certain cases, the British also took some care and left intact areas with cultural homogeneity, so as to avoid crisis that they could have hardly contained.17
When the Government took over on the 1st of January, 1900, Muri Emirate was included partly in the Province of Upper Benue and partly in that of Borno, neither of which were more than names, as no attempt at administration could be made until late in 1901, when after the fall of Yola in the autumn of that year, Dr. Cargill and Captain Ruxton visited the Emir at
Jalingo, and obtained from him an undertaking to obey the orders of the Government, keep the roads open to trade, cease slave raiding, and even prohibit the passage of slaves through his territories. The Yerima, Muhammadu Mafindi, accompanied the party and made his peace with the Emir.18
Muri Emirate being one of the Emirates of Northern Nigeria to have peacefully submitted to the British colonialists in 1901 with the arrival of Captain F. H. Ruxton and Dr. F. Cargill in the company of Mafindi enjoyed the same, if not more, privilege as Nasarawa after the
British occupation. The installation of Muhammadu Mafindi as the Emir of Muri in 1903 was not the only reward he received from the British. He was also made a second class Chief and
Principal Chief of the Province after its creation.19
The Province was created in 1903 and consisted of three Administrative Divisions namely;
Lau, Ibi and Shendam. Lau Division was changed to Muri Division in 1910, but the station
17 Ibid. p. 54. 18 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, 1936. p. 126. 19 Ibid. pp. 54-55; Chaskda M., A Wedlock of Political Ambitions: Emir Muhammadu Mafindi. 1973, 92
remained in Lau until 1915 when it was moved to Mutumbiyu and to Jalingo in 1916.20 Muri
Province was merged with Yola Province and it became part of Adamawa Province in 1926.
The colonial administration relied on the rulers of Muri because first, it was Mafindi as a
Prince who introduced the two colonial officers into Muri where his brother, Hassan, was the
Emir. Hassan did not only submit but also pledged to abide by the directives issued to him.21
The creation of Muri Province was attributable to the reliance of the British colonialists on the Emir’s influence in administering a large geographical area with considerable number of communities some of whom proved difficult to administer, like the Mumuye, the Munshi
(Tiv) and the Wurkun. Muri Province had the largest number of non-Muslim groups, about eighty percent of the population were non-Muslim and three quarters of that population had no central political organization during the colonial period.22 The Emirate was, therefore, the strongest political unit in the area after its establishment by Modibbo Hammarua up to the time of the British conquest. The creation of a Province that encircled the Emirate strengthened the confidence of the British colonialists. They now had absolute control of the
Province. Muri Emirate, as a centralised political structure, served as a ready-made political institution for the imposition of the British administrative system of indirect rule.23
3.3 Colonial Territorial Claims and Administrative Organization of Muri Emirate, 1903
Colonialism involves the establishment and maintenance of foreign rule over a set of people for the purpose of getting maximum economic benefit by the colonizing power.24 To
Aderibigbe, colonialism is the extension of political control by one powerful nation over a weaker nation.25 These foreign immigrants usually dominate the countries where they settle
20 Ibid. p. 55; Temple. Notes on the tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Province of Nigeria, p. 81, 1965. 21 Ibid. p. 56; Geary W.N.M. Nigeria under British Rule. p. 28, 1965. 22 Ibid. p. 56. 23 Ibid. Haruna Hussaini Shumo, Muri Emirate in the Twentieth Century, B.A Project, Department of History, Maiduguri: University of Maiduguri. p. 57, 2010; Geary W.N.M. Nigeria under British Rule. p. 228, 1965. 24 Fadeiye, J.O. A Social Studies Textbook for Colleges and Universities, Vol 2. Ibadan: Akin- Johnson Press and Publishers, p. 161, 2005. 25 Aderibigbe, S. Basic Approach to Government. Lagos: Joja Educational Research and Publishers Ltd., p. 164, 2006. 93
not only politically, but also socially and economically. In order to sustain their domination, they normally seize the lands of the people, settled there and impose various forms of taxes.
In another way, colonialism can be referred to as the rule of a group of people by a foreign power. The people and their land make up a colony. The foreign power sends people to live in the colony to govern it and to use the colony as a source of wealth. Generally, colonialism means the control or domination of the political, social, economic and cultural aspects of one group of the people or nation by another. This is manifested in colonial rule which is guided by the colonial policy of colonizing nation.26 It is of great importance to identify the point that colonialism implies “formal political control” involving territorial annexation and loss of sovereignty.
Colonialism had its roots in the greed which European countries exhibited towards Africa’s untapped natural resources.27 Colonial expansionism by European powers was economic in aim, monopolistic in orientation, political in justification and military in method. The relationship between the colonizing country and the colonized was asymmetrical. It was that of dependency that favoured the occupying nation to the detriment of the occupied territory.
European colonization was the process of acquisition and maintenance of territory.
In 1901, the Muri Province was formed by the British under Mr. Hewby,28 this came as a result of the resolve by the British to establish effective occupation of the territory as required by the Berlin Conference. The partition of Africa and the delimitation of its borders were generally arbitrary acts, imposed by the European powers without reference to local conditions. Many European writers, until recently, used to view the Africans as simple
26 Akpan, N.E. Colonial Administration in Nigeria. in Osuntokun, A. et al (eds.). Issues in Nigeria Government and Politics. Ibadan: Rex Charles Publications, p. 40, 2003. 27 Mapuva, J. and Chari, F. Colonialism no longer an excuse for Africa’s Failure. Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa Vol. 12, No.5, 2010. 28 NAK 473P 3167/387/12 Muri Province, Muri District (Lau Division) Assessment Report by Mr. H. Q. Glenny, 1913, para 11. 94
savages and passive objects of the scramble.29 The treaties were part of the process of
European colonial expansion, treaties concluded between representatives of European powers and African rulers at the time of the scramble. Such treaties provided a connecting thread between the African societies and the European decisions concerning the partition.30
Up to the time of the British occupation, the organisation of the Fulani was military owing to the wars waged by successive Emirs against the pagans and against their own recalcitrant relatives. The inhabitants of the principal towns lived on the proceeds of their raids, leaving agriculture to their slaves; cattle was their main peaceful interest. Their settlements were widely scattered and there was plenty of farm-land available. In general, the type of their organisation approximated to that of the feudal system in England in the period immediately following the Norman Conquest.31
There were different kinds of treaties-economic and political; some were made by representatives of European governments, and others on behalf of private bodies. The treaties as a whole, and many of their provisions, can be called into question on legal grounds: the sovereign international personality of the signatories can be disputed; it is unclear whether the making of the treaties conformed to the constitutional processes of the societies concerned; the powers of the signatories were often questionable; and the territorial limits to which the treaty was supposed to apply were doubtful.32
European motives for making treaties with African rulers were manifold. Foremost among them was the expectation that such treaties could be used to support claims for international recognition of territorial pretensions. No doubt, a large number of the treaties can be considered fraudulent. Some were forgeries concocted by agents sent to conclude treaties
29 Saadia Touval. Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa. Journal of African History, VII, 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 279, 1966. 30 See J.D. Hargreaves. Prelude to the Partition of West Africa. London: Macmillan, 1963; K.O. Dike. Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830-1885. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956; C. Newbury. The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961. 31 NAK/YOLA Prof/K.5S.II/ Gazetteer of Adamawa Province, p. 126, 1936. 32 Saadia Touval. p. 280, 1966. 95
who failed to accomplish their mission. But there is good reason to consider as genuine, at least, some of the treaties concluded at the time of the scramble. Since one of the objects of the treaties, from the European point of view, was that they should be used in support of territorial claims in negotiations with rival European powers, the governments concerned were interested in presenting as convincing an image of the genuineness of their treaties as possible. Treaties invoked in support of a territorial claim were not always closely scrutinized by the competing European government, but, when a treaty was subjected to scrutiny and found wanting, the negotiating position of the government presenting the treaty was seriously weakened.33
Conscientious treaty makers therefore used to take elaborate precautions in order to ensure that their treaties were undisputable. The proper procedure required both translating the treaty and explaining it to the African signatories through interpreters, and the certification by witnesses that this had been done. Further precautions, sometimes resorted to, included attempts to ascertain that the signatory was the real chief or ruler, and not a ‘straw chief’ put up for the occasion, and also attention to the constitutional and ceremonial details of the act.
Formal certification that a treaty was translated and explained to the local ruler did not ensure, of course, that the treaty was really genuine. Interpreters did not always faithfully explain the treaty to the Africans. Referring to Major Claude Macdonald's investigation of the treaties concluded by the Royal Niger Company, Dr Flint explained that the position of the interpreters ‘was a difficult one, for they had to steer a course between a demanding
European employer and an arbitrary African despot’. One African interpreter explained to
Macdonald the dilemma he faced in obtaining the signature of an African ruler to a treaty: ‘I was not aware that “ceding” meant giving over the rights of government, and I dare not have
33 Ibid. Saadia Touval. Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa. … p. 280, 1966. 96
made this suggestion to him...’34 It happened, moreover, that an African ruler would denounce a treaty, on the grounds that its contents were misrepresented to him.
More balanced doubts were expressed by Lugard when he noted in his diary the reasons why he refrained from using the treaty forms he was given when he made a treaty with Eiyeki
(Waiyaki), a Kikuyu chief:
I now presented him with a flag, and explained its use. I also made a treaty, but as I do not believe in the printed treaty forms of the Company by which a man gives all his land and rights of rule to the Company in exchange of their 'Govt. and protection', I made out my own treaty form. This Company's treaty is an utter fraud. No man if he understood would sign it, and to say that a savage chief has been told that he cedes all rights to the Company in exchange for nothing is an obvious untruth. If he has been told that the Company will protect him against his enemies, and share in his wars as an Ally, he has been told a lie, for the Comp. have no idea of doing any such thing and no force to do it with if they wished.35
Implicit in Lugard’s criticism of the standard treaty forms, and in the special treaty he formulated, was the feeling that the treaty was a mutual obligation. In any event, whether for reasons of self-interest or otherwise, at least some of the treaties were made in such a manner as to ensure that they be regarded as genuine.
What did the treaties mean to the Africans? Considering that the treaties often stipulated the cession of rights and acceptance of European ‘protection’, and that they were often translated and explained to the Africans, one is bound to ask why African rulers entered into such compacts. One possible explanation is that they were coerced. The coercive measures may have been the explicit threat of superior force. In other cases, even when no superior force was in evidence, an implied threat of force may have played a role in the adherence of
African rulers to treaties. Yet, it would seem that the actual use of force, or a threat of force, played a role relatively rarely. The Europeans' agents normally travelled with only a light escort, and the actual power relationship at the time and place the treaty was signed was often in the African ruler’s favour. Nevertheless, it can still be assumed that a measure of coercion
34 J. E. Flint. Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 224-6, 1960. 35 M. Perham and M. Bull. (ed.). The Diaries of Lord Lugard. London: Faber and Faber, I, 315-19; II, pp. 334-5, 1959. 97
might have played a role, as the Europeans’ mere reputation for power might have sufficed to overawe the African ruler.36
One of the more comprehensive advantages derived by an African ruler from a European alliance was demonstrated by the treaty concluded between the emir of Muri, on the Benue, and the French emissary, Lt. Mizon. The emir was presented with a gift of arms. Mizon’s men fought on the emir's side in a war against the Kona, a neighbouring people who had been his traditional enemies. The treaty with France also helped the emir to resist pressure from the
Royal Niger Company, which was apparently trying to undermine his authority among some of his vassals.37
When a European government referred to treaties concluded with African rulers in support of its territorial claims, its argument was usually twofold: that it had acquired rights through the treaty, and that it had entered into obligations toward an African people which it could not honourably relinquish. Both arguments can, of course, be questioned. The native ruler often did not fully comprehend the nature of the rights which by the treaty he conferred. And the
European power often did not intend to fulfil the obligations which it undertook. The reference to the treaties by European governments can therefore be regarded as hypocritical.
But the important point here is that treaties were often resorted to in justification of territorial claims.
In the territorial negotiations between European powers, treaties were useful in conferring bargaining advantages. One kind of a bargaining advantage was that treaties endowed territories with exchange value. A territory in which a power had obtained a treaty could be
‘ceded’ to another power in return for a counter-concession. Claims to territories in which no
36 Saadia Touval. Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa. Journal of African History, VII, 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 283, 1966. 37 J.E. Flint. Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 175-177, 1960; A.H.M. Kirk-Greene. Adamawa Past and Present: An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 38, 45-6, 158, 1958. 98
treaties were concluded, or where such treaties were contested as faulty, were considered weak. The value of the concession of abandoning such weak claims was much smaller, and the counter-concession which could be elicited from the rival power was such as the rival considered commensurate.38
It was in the wake of all these shenanigans that the British settled to rule the conquered territories within the Nigerian area, Muri Emirate inclusive. With this arose the questions of administration and border re-organization. This was done in order to provide ease in the administration of the colony.
The inauguration in 1900 of three geo-political administrations for the Nigerian area marked the formal commencement of British colonial rule in the region. The geo-political entities were the Colony and Protectorate of Lagos, the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, and the
Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.39 Their respective administrations found themselves confronted with broadly similar problems concerning the governance of the populations under their jurisdiction. And instinctively, all three administrations adopted identical methods in resolving the issue, distinguished only by the territorial peculiarities of the respective areas. Problems with which they had to contend related to climatic, communication, personnel, and financial factors. While the first two, for example, created logistic difficulties, the other two compounded such difficulties by their insufficient amounts.
In the face of the foregoing circumstances, all the three administrations sought to establish a cheap and manageable means of government by utilising indigenous socio-political structures and systems as basis of local government. Indirect rule, as this concept of government was understood, involved the relatively few Europeans available in supervisory capacities over the various indigenous authorities applying indigenous administrative concepts to the extent
38 Saadia Touval. Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa. Journal of African History, VII, 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 288,1966. 39 Tunde Oduwobi. From Conquest to Independence: The Nigerian Colonial Experience. Historia Actual Online, Núm. 25, Primavera, pp. 21-22, 2011. 99
to which these were permissible to the British. It needs be stated at this juncture, however, that the variant of indirect rule conceived by Sir Frederick (later Lord) Lugard in Northern
Nigeria subsequently formed the basis of British official policy40 in Nigeria, in particular, and in their other non-settler dependencies in Africa in general.41
The head of the administration of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria was styled High
Commissioner to which Lord Lugard was appointed in 1900. At his exit in 1906, the post was re-designated as Governor. The Protectorate was divided into Provinces and Divisions respectively, under Residents and District Officers, with Assistant District Officers attached to the latter.
The Divisions comprised the various local government units with the head of each unit styled the Native Authority. Under this dispensation, Borno, the Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate and such like political entities became transformed into Local Government Areas as the
Shehu and the Emirs (including the Caliph of Sokoto) were appointed as Native Authorities.42
However, since the Protectorate officials were convinced that the best and most convenient means of local government administration was through the appointment of a paramount authority, non-centralised communities were either aggregated under one of their kind as
Native Authority or were simply brought under a neighbouring Native Authority. Again, following the typical political structure of Borno and the emirates, each Local Government
Area was divided into Districts under District Heads, and placed over the heads of the constituent villages or towns.43
40 J.J. White. Central Administration in Nigeria, 1914-1948. Dublin: Irish Academy Press, p. 48, 1981. 41 Tunde Oduwobi. From Conquest to Independence: The Nigerian Colonial Experience, Historia Actual Online, Núm. 25, Primavera, pp. 21-22, 2011. 42 J.S. Coleman. Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. California: University of California Press, 123-24, 1958. 43 Tunde Oduwobi. pp. 21-22. 100
Between 1901 and 1903, Lugard embarked on a systematic conquest of the Emirates which was concluded with the conquest of Sokoto on March 15, 1903.44 The capitulation of Sokoto
Caliphate led Lugard to create 13 Provinces in 1903. The Provinces counted 16 in 1904. The additional Provinces were Kabba, Ilorin, Bassa, Muri, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Nupe, Borgu,
Kontagora, Zaria, Gwandu, Sokoto, Kano, Katagun, Bornu and Bauchi. In both the emirate and non-emirate areas of Northern Nigeria, people reacted against the creation of the provincial system. Three areas of serious opposition to the provincial system could be identified. Firstly, the creation of the provincial administration was seen by the people as an imposition of British rule.45 This was the case with the people in the Fulani Emirates. It was no wonder that the Caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate was among the first traditional rulers to condemn the British administrative measures. Another area of opposition was that the provincial system was alien to the people, which inevitably led to an extensive administrative reorganization of Northern Nigeria.46
3.4 Structure of Muri Emirate and Colonial Administrative Re-organization, c. 1903
The administrative structure of the Muri Emirate was not substantially different from that in other Emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate. Modibbo Hammarwa, leader of the jihad in Muri, established the Emirate in his capacity as a representative of the Caliph in Sokoto.47 The political institution of Muri Emirate was centralized and hierarchical in the following order.
At the top was the Emir, then the Sarakunan Karaga, Madawaki and Kaigama. The Emir was the ultimate judicial authority in the Emirate. He confirmed the appointment, promotion, discipline and dismissal of officers whenever the need arose.48 The Sarakunan Karaga were
44 Muffet, D.J.M. Concerning Brave Captains: Being a History of the British Occupation of Kano and Sokoto and of the Last Stand of the Fulani Forces. London: A. Deutsch, 1964. 45 Apata. Z.O. Lugard and the Creation of Provincial Administration in Northern Nigeria 1900-1918. African Study Monographs, 11(3), pp. 143-152, December 1990. 46 Apata. Z.O. Administrative Change and Reorganizations in the Old Kabba Province of Northern Nigeria, 1897-1939. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ife, 1986. 47 Ibid p. 25. 48 Ibid p. 26. 101
responsible for electing new Emir whenever his office became vacant as a result of his death or deposition. The Emir’s council meetings were always presided over by the Emir who took decisions on both military and civil cases. There were also officers responsible for executive, military and judicial functions.49
Before the advent of colonialism, law was based on the sharia, the justice of the judiciary observed through the Emirs, Chiefs and the Alkali courts with the advice of learned qadis.
The introduction of colonial administration changed and diversified the judicial system to suit its whims. The Emirs’ judicial council was a grade ‘B’ court as well as the central Alkali court based in Bakundi, Gassol, and Wurkun Native courts were grade ‘D’ courts. Jalingo,
Mutumbiyu, Lau and Muri had grade ‘C’ Alkali courts, while the Emir’s judicial council dealt with cases involving District Heads, Alkalis and others in high position whose cases were outside the jurisdiction of the lesser courts.50
Although it was by no means an appeal court, cases were referred to it for trial or retrial by the orders of either the Resident or a superior officer. Due to the problem of the court, which arose from the imposition of alien law, colonial officers often intervened where aspects of the sharia were administered.51
In 1933, the colonial administration established the Native Courts Ordinance which came into force on April, 1934. Under this arrangement, the Emirs’ court was made the final Native
Court of appeal with limited powers.52 In their bid to undermine the judicial set-up of the colony to suit the imposed administrative system, enough funds were not made available to the sector and consequently rendering the whole judicial set-up corrupt and highly inefficient.
49 Ibid, p. 26. 50 Haruna Shumo p. 77. 51 Ibid. pp. 77-78. 52 Ibid. p. 78. 102
Apart from being presided over by inexperienced and incapable staff, the courts were short of workers who carried out certain vital duties.53
Before the conquest and imposition of colonial rule in Nigeria, the various Emirates of the
Sokoto Caliphate consisted of districts and villages whose heads, the Hakimai (District
Heads) and Dagatai (Village Heads), respectively, assisted the Emirs in daily administration of the Emirates. In Muri Emirate, like in almost all the Emirates, the Hakimai were based in the Emirate capital instead of their respective Districts. They went to their respective District only for consultation purposes.54 The major responsibilities of the Hakimai were the collection of Zakat and Jizya and the maintenance of law and order.55 This, they did with the assistance of the village heads and it continued up to the time of the British conquest. With the conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate and the introduction and imposition of British colonial rule, more emphasis was placed on the position and functions of the Districts Heads.56
To maintain the colonial state, the government had to raise money through the impostion of various forms of taxes. Therefore, the colonial administration found out that the District and
Village Heads were more suitable personnel for that responsibility. In Muri Emirate, the
British established eleven Districts.57
The British colonialists developed the Emirate into units of local government was based on
Emirs and Chiefs. As a unit of government, the Native Authority was supported by a bureaucratic set-up known as the Native Administration. By virtue of his status, therefore, the
Emir became recognised as the Authority responsible for local government.58
The Native Authority was made up of various traditional classes in the society, some of whom gave direct support to the Emir in executing his functions. Some of these organs were
53 Ibid. p. 79. 54 Ibid. p. 68. 55 Ibid. p. 69. 56 Ibid. p. 69. 57 Ibid. p. 69. 58 Ibid. p. 58. 103
the Hakimai, Dagatai and the Sarakunan Karaga (Title Holders) who had hitherto been powerful in the pre-colonial era. There were also the Maaikata (workers) with their superiors such as the Sarkin Ayyuka and Wakilin Asibiti. The Native Administration took charge of the daily administration, the provision of social services as well as the provision of employment.59
The Muri Emirate central administration was organized thus:-
1. The Emir of Muri
2. The Waziri
3. The Emir’s Council
The Emir’s Council had the following as members:-
Fulani Members
a. Dan Buram
b. Yerima of Muri and District Head of Mutum Biyu
c. Galadima, District Head of Lau
d. N.A. Representative
Non-Fulani Members
a. Sarkin Zinna
b. Village Head of Wurkun District
c. District Head of Dakka
d. District Head of Mumuye/Kwajji
4. The Central Office
5. District Administration with the following:-
a. Jalingo
b. Lau District
59 Haruna Shumo. p. 59. 104
c. Wurkun District
d. Muri District
e. Mutum Biyu
f. Gassol District
g. Bakundi District
h. Dakka District
i. Mumuye District
j. Zinna (Zing) District
k. Kwajji Federation
Other Departments included the following:
a. Judiciary
b. Treasury
c. Police
d. Prisons, etc.60
The colonialists did not leave the structure of the political organization of the Muri Emirate as they met it. After taking over the running of the Emirate, they changed the political organization of the area to suit their interests so as to serve them.
3.5 Evolution of British Colonial Agricultural Policies in the Muri Emirate, c. 1903-1960
Nigeria’s long standing agrarian policy was to transform the entire peasantry of smallholders in the country into modern farmers producing for export (palm oil, cocoa and groundnuts) and national food security (the ‘subsistence’ sector). This was a common thread linking a succession of interventions in the agricultural sector under both colonial and post-colonial governments.61
60 NAK/YOLAPROF.ACC No. 2/Muri Individual Dossier, 1955. 61 Mustapha, AR. and Meagher, K. Agrarian production, public policy and the state in Kano region, 1900-2000. Working Paper 35. Kano-Maradi Study of Long-Term Change. Crewkerne, Somerset: Drylands Research, 2000. 105
By the end of 1901, much of Muri Emirate was under British administration and as a means of raising revenue, the government felt a need to increase the volume and improve the quality of produce for export. Under the Colonial government, which controlled policy until 1951, the plantation system had no place in the agricultural development of the country, and any improvements made were brought about by encouraging and modernizing peasant-type production. In 1952, however, the first cabinet of indigenous politicians completely reversed the plantation policy of the colonial regime. This change in policy ushered in the “plantations decade”.62
The efforts of the early British colonial administrations were directed toward expanding the production of export crops to increase government revenue. This was to be achieved not through the plantation system, but by introducing improved seed varieties to local farmers and persuading them to adopt better cultivation practices. Sir Hugh Clifford, who, as
Governor of Nigeria (1919-1925), did not dispute the fact that the peasant farmer was an inefficient producer with low yields, but argued that the peasant did not have to contend with the heavy, fixed overheads of management that plagued commercial plantations. It was believed that the peasant farmer could adjust more easily to price fluctuations, and in times of economic depressions he would “remain on his land . . . when broken planters were fleeing to their homes in Europe and leaving their plantations derelict.”63
Hopkins has characterized the decline in the European slave trade and the growth of agricultural exports as the most significant development in the West African economy in the last several centuries, for it marked a radical change in the organization of productive factors.64 Slaves were redirected into internal activities, some of which catered for new,
62 R.K. Udo. Sixty Years of Plantation Agriculture in Southern Nigeria, 1902-1962. Economic Geography, Vol. 41, No. 4, Clark University Press, pp. 356-368, 1965. http://www.jstor.org/stable/141946, Accessed: 21-06-2015. 63 W.K. Hancock. Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, Vol. 2, Part 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 193, 1942. 64 A.G. Hopkins. An Economic History of West Africa. London: p. 124, 1973; Also see A.G. Hopkins. The Lagos Strike of I897: An Exploration in Nigerian Labour History. Past and Present, xxxv, I33-55, 1966; and A.G. Hopkins. Economic Imperialism in West Africa: Lagos, 1880-92. Economic History Review, xxi, pp. 584-92, 1968. 106
foreign markets. This involved a further expansion of the market economy, a development which continued as the nineteenth century progressed and accelerated with the imposition of colonial rule.
The purpose of agricultural policy was the development of favourable and sustainable guidelines for the promotion of efficient agricultural practices that would guarantee food security, provide employment for the citizens, raw material for all agro – based industries as well as to earn foreign exchange.65 It was the synthesis of the framework and action plans of government designed to achieve overall agricultural growth and development. This usually entailed the upgrading of infrastructures and infusion of technology to advance production from the primitive farming stage to fully mechanized systems through an appropriate policy framework so as to discharge constitutional duties to the populace.
There was no consistent plan or blueprint by colonial administrators for Nigerian agriculture, but there was nonetheless a clear-cut policy of what role agriculture was expected to play in the economy. First, agriculture was to serve as the major arm for the satisfaction of the economic needs of the mother country, providing raw materials and offering a training ground for British experts experimenting on tropical agriculture. Second, there was a division of functions between the participants, namely, British administrators and commercial interests, on the one hand, and African peasants on the other. In words and by examples, these objectives were prosecuted with great fervor and no stone was left unturned to lend the weight of government to their realization. As a result, certain export crops became dominant in the Nigerian economy, earning foreign exchange, absorbing labor and serving as the nuclei of the rising middle class of entrepreneur
The country for the first time witnessed stimulated technological progress in peasant export production through research and experimentation with new high-yielding crops; the
65 R.O. Akinbamowo. A review of government policy on agricultural mechanization in Nigeria, Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Vol.5 No. 8, pp. 146-153, 2013. 107
demonstration of new techniques, the propagation of improved methods, the popularization of new ideas, the education of farmers, and the introduction of a system of produce inspection. It was to further consolidate the above promotional activities that the colonial administration built railways joining the important and export crop-producing zones, and introduced cooperatives and development corporations which, on the eve of national independence, carried out ambitious programs of farm settlement. Colonial agricultural policy neglected the food crops sector. But to its credit, it saw to it that its area of interest, the export sector, was promoted by every conceivable measure.
In Nigeria proper, as opposed to the small portion of the Cameroons which was administered by the Nigerian Government under mandate, agriculture was entirely a peasant industry. It was quite impossible even to guess at the gross annual production of most of the crops, but for the few which were exported, figures could be arrived at, taking rough ratios between annual known export and estimated annual local consumption.
During the colonial period, peasant farmers emerged as the predominant class of rural producers. They massively expanded agricultural exports of cocoa, groundnuts, palm produce and cotton. Government established a state monopoly over the main produce exports during the Second World War. The marketing boards taxed export crops heavily. Nevertheless, in the mid-1960s, Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter of groundnuts and palm produce, and its second largest exporter of cocoa. In Muri Emirate, these policies applied the same way they did in other parts of Nigeria.
Moreover, the ecological zones in the country helped to polarize the different types of crops being cultivated in Nigeria. For instance, the climate in the south favoured cultivation of tree crops such as cocoa, palm-produce, rubber, and kola-nut within the forest belt, while grain
108
crops such as maize, guinea-corn, ground-nut and millet were cultivated in the drier northern parts of the country.66
Colonial extraction in Africa could be seen most decisively in the appropriation of land for
European settlers or plantations, a strategy used not only to provide European investors and settlers with cheap and secure control of land, but also to oblige Africans to sell their labour to European farmers, planters or mine-owners.67 Even in the “peasant” colonies, that is where the land remained overwhelmingly in African ownership, the major parts of the services sector were effectively monopolised by Europeans. Then there was coercive recruitment of labour by colonial administrations, whether to work for the State or for European private enterprise.68 Of potentially great long-term importance was the unwillingness of colonial governments to accept, still less promote, the emergence of markets in land rights on land occupied by Africans, whether in “settler” or “peasant” colonies.69 From the perspectives of both dependency theory and “rational choice” institutionalism, the original sin of colonialism in Africa was that it did not introduce a full-blooded capitalist system, based upon private property and thereby generating the pressures towards competition and accumulation necessary to drive self-sustained economic growth.
Colonial rule in Africa was intended to be cheap, viz. for taxpayers in Europe. The British doctrine was that each colony should be fiscally self-supporting. Thus, any growth in government expenditure was supposed to be financed from higher revenues,
After retrenchment during the 1930s Depression, and especially during the Second World
War, colonial administrations found themselves (for a variety of reasons) entering the post-
66 J.O. Adefila. Pattern of Agricultural Development in Southern Parts of Katsina State, Nigeria: Notion for Rational Planning IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS) Volume 7, Issue 1 Ver. III (Jan. 2014), pp. 14- 20, 2014. www.iosrjournals.org p. 14. 67 Palmer, Robin, and Neil Parsons, eds. 1977. The roots of rural poverty in Central and Southern Africa. London: Heinemann. 68 Fall, Babacar. Le travail forcé en Afrique occidentale française, 1900-1945. Paris: Karthala, 1993; Northrup, David. Beyond the bend in the river: African labor in eastern Zaire, 1865-1940. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1988. 69 Phillips, Anne. The enigma of colonialism: British policy in West Africa. London: James Currey, 1989. 109
war era with a new public commitment to be seen to promote actively the development of the economies over which they presided. “Developmental” language was partly redeemed by greater spending. In British West Africa, the new statutory export marketing boards accrued substantial surpluses by keeping a large margin between the price paid to producers and the price that the boards received for the crops on the world market. The surpluses were kept in
London, in British government bonds, as forced savings from African farmers,70 which assisted the British metropolitan economy to recover from the post-war dollar shortage.
The “extraversion” and “monoculture” of African economies was widely lamented and condemned as a victory of colonial interests over African interests. The risks entailed in extreme specialisation, however, needed to be set against the long-run income gain to be expected from the exploitation of comparative advantage. But again, although the location of a colonial economy’s comparative advantage could be identified, sooner or later the task of capitalising on it raised the question of what investments might profitably deepen that advantage and, above all, of how the costs and benefits would be distributed. Conflicts of ideology, and especially the balance of power between different interest groups, worked out variously across the range of African colonies. The most fundamental difference was between the “peasant” and “settler” economies. Let us consider the contrasting cases of export agriculture in the former, notably in West Africa, and mining in the latter, most obviously in
South Africa.71
3.6 Colonial Practice and Policies: A Comparative Study of Sudan and Muri
Just like Muri Emirate, Nigeria, Sudan too was a producer of primary products that were exported to Europe for processing into finished goods. Several products were produced by the
Sudanese targeting export to Europe and other African countries which showed evidence of
70 Rimmer, Douglas. Staying poor: Ghana’s political economy, 1950-1990. Oxford: Pergamon Press and the World Bank. pp. 41-2, 1992. 71 Ibid. 110
long distance trading within the continent of Africa and other parts of the world. These primary products were dura (sorghum) or gauri in Fulfulde, sesame and cotton and they were in high demand and used for various purposes like human and animal consumption, brewery and textiles industrial raw materials. The quantities that were exported varied from year to year, depending on rainfall or climatic condition.72
Just like in Nigeria, in Sudan, too, the colonial government tended to give priority to one cash crop over the other and neglected food crop production. Though, in the case of Sudan, the important crop happened to be a food crop; that is dura, colonial policies were not the cause of famine as experienced in the Muri Emirate due to neglect of food crops.
In relation to colonial taxation, the situation in Sudan was not different from that of Nigeria.
As contained in Maymuna’s thesis, the British colonialists in Sudan deviced a means by way of enacting ordinances or laws to ensure that the people of Sudan paid taxes to the colonial state. Just like in the Nigerian area, and Muri to be precise, cultivation of cash crops was one of the means through which the people of Sudan could get cash to pay colonial taxes.73 The
British colonialists also levied taxation on land and many other items and laid down tough regulations on how people could use their own land in Sudan. Some of these laws saw the people losing their land to the colonial government.
The British colonialists believed so much in indirect rule and running a colony on little cost wherever they found themselves. Therefore, wherever they found some semblance of authority they endeavoured to make use of it. It was because of this reason that the British colonialists endorsed the collection of the daggaga tax and khumus tax by landlords and to
72 Maymuna Mirghani Hamza. British Land Policy in Northern and Central Sudan, 1900-1939. PhD Thesis. Khartoum University. Sudan. pp. 276-291, 1982. 73 Ibid. p. 306. 111
make them administrators in their area of control.74 It was the same practice that was done in
Nigeria where local rulers were used to carry out the wishes of the British colonialists of ruling the people through their rulers.75
As for land tenure, it was obvious that the system was not that different in Sudan from what was obtainable in Nigeria, and particularly in Muri Emirate. The Muri Emirate was a Jihad state and therefore Islamic land tenure was what was obtainable in the area just like the Sudan area where Islam was, and still is the main religion. Therefore, some of the taxes that were imposed in Sudan were also levied in the Muri Emirate such as the ushur land tax. But whereas land was controlled by the community under the ruler in Muri Emirate with some private ownership here and there, no one individual had control over large track of land in
Sudan.76
Even when the collection of the khumus tax was discontinued due to its unpopular nature among the people, the colonialists found other responsibilities or means of making the landlords relevant in the colonial scheme of things so as to be of help to the colonial state.77
This was done through levying the khumus tax on outsiders despite its unpopular nature as expressed by the Governor of the Blue Nile Province.78 The abolition of the khumus tax was done in order to increase the tax accruable to the colonial government, since the khumus tax was paid to the landlords.79
The backbone of the operation of every colonial state was finance. These finances could not be gotten except through the taxation of the colonised peoples. Colony, especially the British
74 Ibid. pp. 322-329. 75 See Frederick D. Lugard. The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London, 1926. 76 Maymuna Mirghani Hamza. British Land Policy in Northern and Central Sudan, 1900-1939. PhD Thesis. Khartoum University. Sudan. p. 323, 1982. 77 Ibid. p. 332. 78 Ibid. p. 332. 79 Ibid. p. 333. 112
colonies, were supposed to be ran without incurring any cost for the British tax payer.
Therefore, the colonised was compelled to pay tax to the colonial state in order for it to succeed. The colonialists would always like to give the impression that they were helping the colonised, while in reality they were just helping themselves to establish firm control over the colony.
The tax policies on land in Sudan were very severe such that one might lose his land in the event of failure to pay the land tax.80 Due to the climatic and geographical nature of the
Sudan, land was classified by the British colonialists into categories based on the fertility of the land and proximity to river and yield. The system where owners of land handed it to the colonial government in the event that they could not cultivate it and therefore could not pay tax on it was one way the British could show that they were in control.81
One of the means through which the British colonialists ensured the control of their colonies was through the establishment of marketing boards or channels. The Sudan system was not different from that of Nigeria as the British ensured that they determined the prices of the commodities produced by the Sudanese.82 In order to export some of the products to Europe and other parts of the world, railway was also constructed terminating at the Nile river and the Red Sea just like what happened in Nigeria where the railway was constructed to lead to the coast so as to easily export the products to Europe through the sea or ocean. In the Sudan also, this was true of the sesame seeds and other products that were in high demand in Europe and Egypt, especially with the construction of the Khartoum railway which facilitated their
80 Ibid. p. 296. 81 Ibid. p. 298. 82 Ibid. p. 277. 113
transport.83 The government also took some measures to increase revenue accruing from sesame by reducing the transport fare of the crop by 40%.84
The importance of cotton could not be overemphasized especially to the British since it was one of the most important products used in the textiles industry, one of the precursors of the
Industrial Revolution and a reason for colonialism. Sudan produced this product too for the
British factories, and in some instances exclusively.85
3.7 Conclusion
The British colonialists in Nigeria came with the intention to exploit the country. They were able to achieve this objective. Before the colonial conquest of Muri, the area had long been under the control of the Royal Niger Company under the Charter of Great Britain through treaties signed by the rulers of the area. With the revocation of this Charter, Great Britain took over from the Company the administration of the area on 1st January, 1900. This was when colonial rule started in most parts of Nigeria. The British colonialists took it upon themselves to bring all parts of Nigeria under their effective rule using various means. Many parts of Nigeria were taken by force of arms, while others surrendered or capitulated peacefully to the superior might of the British colonialists.
Some of the societies within the Nigerian area welcomed the colonialists reluctantly after seeing the devastations they caused to their neighboughs. In the case of the Muri Emirate area, Hamman Mafindi was instrumental to the peaceful surrender of the area having come in contact with them during his sojourn at the border between Adamawa and Muri Emirates.
The societies surrendered to the colonialists to escape being massacred.
Colonial territorial claims, according to the Berlin Congress, had to be effective. It was in light of this that treaties were signed by the Royal Niger Company agents on behalf of Great
83 Ibid. p. 283 84 Ibid. p. 284. 85 Ibid. p. 288. 114
Britain. These treaties were dubious, at least because, first and foremost, they were written in
English, a language that the people did not understand or speak. After the colonial take-over, the colonialists had to re-organise the Muri Emirate to their own ways.
The Muri Emirate was an emirate that was established as a result of a jihad by the Fulani following in the footsteps of the Sokoto jihad in Hausaland. The rulers of Muri obtained a flag from the leader of the Sokoto Caliphate to prosecute the jihad in the area. The Emirate therefore used Islamic sharia law to govern the area it conquered. When the colonialists came, they used the apparatus of the Emirate to rule the area. This they called indirect rule as was practiced by Fredrick Lugard in India. The entire political structure of the Muri Emirate was directed towards serving the interest of the British colonialists.
The British also took-over the economy of the Muri Emirate since it served their interest. The production as well as the marketing of the products was directed by the British. The British turned Nigeria into a colony so that they would maximally exploit the economy of the area.
The Muri Emirate and its peoples had agriculture as the mainstay of the economy. Because of this, the British enacted many ordinances that were related to agricultural production and the marketing of the products. Looking at those ordinances and agricultural policies, one will conclude that the British thought over their entire activities in Nigeria and in Muri Emirate.
The case of Muri was not different from that of Sudan since they were all colonized by the
British. Therefore, most of the policies that were introduced in Muri were also replicated in
Sudan, being majorly Islamic territories. However, some of the colonial practices and policies differed based on the fact that they shared different climatic setting. The comparative study carried out by the researcher shows some marked similarities as well as differences in the colonial experiences of Muri Emirate and Northern and Central Sudan.
115
CHAPTER FOUR
OVERVIEW OF BRITISH COLONIAL POLICIES ON AGRICULTURE
4.1 Introduction
In 1900, when the British colonial rule was formally declared in Northern Nigeria, various steps were taken by the colonial government to encourage export production. Agricultural expansion during this period was achieved by a combination of political and economic regulations and could be distinguished by different phases in policy and the responses of the peasant farmers in each period.
By the period 1900-1921, there was the establishment of the Department of Agriculture in the
Northern and Southern Provinces. During this period, the colonial government began to encourage agricultural production. It was due to this encouragement that farmers were able to sell large quantities of agricultural products to the British trading companies. In 1914, when the protectorates of both Southern and Northern Nigeria were amalgamated, the ‘Modern’ agriculture was also entrenched. In 1921, the Department of Agriculture in the Northern and
Southern Provinces were merged to form a single department of Agriculture. By 1929, the value and volume of export witnessed a tremendous increase over what was obtainable in
1921.
116
The establishment of colonial authority was borne out of the need for cheap source of raw materials and the search for lucrative markets for European manufactured goods.1 A critical look at the nature of the relationship that existed between the European colonialists and the colonised territories brings to fore some fundamental assumptions which seemed to have acted as guideline for both the framers and the implementers of colonial economic policies.
The colonies were expected to provide raw materials to feed the machines of the imperial power. Secondly, the colonies had to import manufactured goods from the metropolis. These two assumptions divided the Empire into two distinct economic camps, - the colonies and the metropolis. The foundation of this lopsided relationship had been laid during the long period of the Atlantic slave trade which spanned over a period of almost four Centuries.
4.2 An Assessment of the British Colonial Economic Policies in Nigeria, 1903-1939
The beginning of the 20th century marked a turning point in the determination of Britain, along with other imperial European nations, to effectively occupy the African continent. For
Britain, it meant a redefinition, and consolidation of her imperial strategies.2 That the
Nigerian economy is in a very deep crisis is undebatable. There is also no question about the fact that the economic crisis has historical antecedents. A comprehensive study of Nigeria’s economic crisis will reveal that the periods of slavery, colonialism, and neo colonialism have left the Nigerian economy distorted and robbed of its immense potentialities for development.
Indeed, economic backwardness indicates that the analysis of the Nigerian economy always begins with the dismal history of the colonial economic policies in the country.3
The incorporation of African peasant producers into the world market has typically been seen as one of the most successful colonial policies, removing millions of Africans from the
1 Ade Alade. The economic basis of imperialism. In An Economic History of West Africa since 1750, p. 131. 2 Ikime, O. The Isoko People. Ibadan: University Press, 1972; See also Aghalino, S. Isoko under Colonial Rule, 1896-1949. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University Ilorin, 1993. 3 Aghahowa, J.O. and Ukpebor E.E.M. The British Colonial Economic Policies and Nigeria Underdevelopment. The Nigerian Journal of Politics and Public Policy, Vol 3, No 1&2, December, 149, 1999. 117
comfort and stability of subsistent and semi-subsistent production and placing them in the web of an uncertain, volatile, and exploitative world market. This perception has been sustained largely by the discourse of dependency, underdevelopment, and allied concepts, which denote the systematic subjugation of raw-material producers to the forces and vagaries of the world market. As seen within this paradigm, the depression experience in Africa represents a deepening of the incorporation of African producers into the world market. As noted by Tamuno that;
To secure central direction of policy and pool economic resources, the British government from 1898 adopted the policy of gradually amalgamating its various administrative units in Nigeria…the government at the time did not seek the views of Nigerians…to ascertain whether or not they favoured such an amalgamation…The British officials involved in formulating and executing the policy of amalgamation were convinced that through it they would obtain a convenient and practical means of securing firm administration.4
In the colonial period, Britain maintained a firm control over and dominated the Nigerian market principally due to the effect of the favourable policies of the colonial government in
Nigeria. It has been demonstrated that the policy of Britain and the colonial government in
Nigeria hardened in favour of protectionism. The process started in earnest on the eve of the
World War I and reached its climax during World War II. In 1917, for instance, the colonial government imposed a total ban on the export of palm oil from Nigeria, except to the United
Kingdom. Between 1919 and 1922, she also imposed highly discriminative duties on palm kernel from Nigeria, with the intention of emphasizing the 1917 ban. According to Falola, among the so-called advantages was the promotion of inter-group social, economic and political relations through measures like road, rail and port development.5
It is also argued that the introduction of a new portable currency facilitated trade among
Nigerians. It is said that colonial economic measures led to the expansion of urban centres and of commerce in the country. Finally, attention is drawn to the fact that colonial rule
4 Tamuno T.N. British Colonial Administration in Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. in Ikime Obaro (ed.). Groundwork of Nigerian History. Ibadan: Heinemann, p. 395, 1980. 5 Falola, T. History of Nigeria 3: Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. Lagos: Longman, 2007. 118
widened Nigeria’s economic relations with the rest of the world. It has been argued that in some sense, these claims are true but they must be seen in a proper context. That is, we must understand them as unavoidable results of British economic policy which was clearly designed to promote the economic interests and ambitions of Britain. This is why despite these so-called economic advantages, it is more accurate to assert that British economic policy had one major result, this is, the underdevelopment of Nigeria.6
Nnoli alerts us to a number of facts about the genesis of Nigeria’s economic backwardness.7
It is in the economic sector that colonialism has made its deepest impression. This is not surprising because the economic motive was the chief cause of colonialism which in turn was predicated in capitalism. The capitalist mode of production and capitalist economic system was invented in Europe, which during the advent of the industrial revolution provided herself as the workshop of the world.8
Babawale is of the opinion that the history of economic crisis in Nigeria can be traced to the period of British colonialism which led to the disruptions and dislocation of the country’s pre-colonial mode and relations of production.9 According to him, colonialism brought about distortions into the economy and deepened the country’s dependence on the metropole.
Nnoli juxtaposes a picture of how colonial economic policies and their intensification in post- independence Nigeria helped to further underdevelopment in the country thus: the policy of the integration of pre-colonial Nigeria into the global capitalist economic system, as a peripheral member by the colonialists, caused the destruction of the society’s rich and varied political systems, and social structure, and the creation of new productive economic activities based on the need of foreign capitalist countries. It diverted attention away from local creative potential and resources by focusing on the production of primary resources needed by Europeans.10
6 Ibid. Falola, T. History of Nigeria… 7 Nnoli, O. A Short History of Nigeria Underdevelopment. In Nnoli, O. (ed.). Path to Nigeria Development. Dakar: CODESRIA, p. 85, 1981. 8 Chikendu, P.N. Imperialism and Nationalism, Enugu: Academic Publishing Company, p. 42, 2004. 9 Babawale, T. Nigeria in the Crisis of Governance and Development: A Retrospective and Prospective Analyses of Selected Issues and Events, Vol.2, Lagos: Political and Administrative Resource Center (PARC), p. 1. 2007. 10 Nnoli, O. A Short History of Nigeria Underdevelopment. in Nnoli, O. (ed.). Path to Nigeria Development. Dakar: CODESRIA, 1981 119
The British colonial policy in Nigeria was shaped to a large extent by economic considerations. In order to service British needs, the existing African political institutions, laws and systems of administration were modified. This policy also entailed the control of the economy of Nigeria. This desire, according to Akpan, was propelled by the industrial revolution which increased the need for raw materials in British industries.11 As observed by
Aderibigbe, there was an urgent need to get the resources of other lands for the survival of the
British economy.12 Britain therefore took the control of the export of raw materials of the
West African countries by shipping all the West African produce to Britain. Ake supported the above when he wrote that;
The contradictions of capitalism not only transform it, they also transplant it. The transplanting of capitalism arises from those contradictions which reduce the rate of profit and arrest the capitalization of surplus value. Confronted with these effects, it was inevitable that the capitalist, forever bent on profit maximization, would look for a new environment in which the process of accumulation could proceed apace. Capitalist turned to foreign hands attacked and subjugated them and integrated their economies to those of Western Europe. To date, the experience of Western imperialism, particularly colonization, remains the most decisive event in the history of Africa.13
The Nigerian colonial economy depended on three major export crops - cocoa, palm produce and groundnuts. Among them, they accounted for about 70% of Nigeria’s total export in colonial times.14 The colonial government believed in achieving the development of cash crops not by radically destroying and/or altering the people’s existing indigenous production techniques, but “through the gradual modification of such”.15 The modifications were to be effected through various ways. First, the colonial government tried to make available to the
11 Akpan, N.E. Colonial Administration in Nigeria. in Osuntokun, A.. et al. (eds.). Issues in Nigeria Government and Politics. Ibadan: Rex Charles Publications, p. 45, 2003. 12 Aderibigbe, S. Basic Approach to Government. Lagos: Joja Educational Research and Publishers Ltd., p. 166, 2006. 13 Ake, C. A Political Economy of Africa. Lagos: Longman Nigeria Plc. 2008. 14 Ahazuem J.O. and Falola, T. “Production for the Metropolis: Agriculture and Forest Products”, in Falola, T., (ed.). Britain and Nigeria: Exploitation or Development? London: Zed Books, 1987. 15 Usoro, E.J. The Nigerian Oil Palm Industry. Ibadan: University Press, p. 35, 1974. 120
local farmers the kinds of seedlings known to increase the yield. Secondly, the colonial government sought to also improve the quality of the cash crops produced by the people.16
Basically, the colonialists aimed at the exploitation of the mineral and agricultural resources of the African territories, directed the pattern of West African trade to suit their own interest, dominated the export trade of the colonies, neglected the industrial developments of these colonies and allowed them to finance whatever efforts they made towards development. It is therefore not unexpected that British colonial policies and practices in the agricultural sector were geared towards organizing and galvanizing all human and material resources in Nigeria towards the utmost production and export of these cash crops needed to feed her (British) industries. This had very serious implications for the Nigerian economy. Poor Nigerian peasants were forced by circumstances imposed on them by colonial economic policies to ditch the production of food crops to focus on cash crops.
From the onset, British agricultural policies did not have much appreciable revolutionary impact on the economy of the northern region of Nigeria. With regard to the plantation scheme, its impact on the society was minimal. Nonetheless, its negative impact was that the acquisition of the few acres of land for the establishment of plantation reduced a portion of arable land for food crops. The people claimed that the land leased out by the local people for the plantations were the most fertile areas.17 The railways and other means of communication made possible the transportation of Nigerian products to Britain and other European countries on trade terms decided by the colonial authorities and, of course, to the detriment of Nigerian owners of the commodities.
16 Aghalino, S.O. British Colonial Policies and the Oil Palm Industry in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, 1900-1960. African Study Monographs, Vol. 21, No 1, January, p. 10, 2000. 17 Ibid. p. 13. 121
The value of such so-called exports, as observed by Falola, was usually very high which shows that the fiscal or monetary loss which Nigeria suffered was enormous.18 According to
Falola, the palm produce evacuated from Nigeria was about 66,000 tons in 1901; rose to
272,000 tons in 1921 and 497,000 tons in 1951. Palm oil alone fetched £981,330 for 110,243 tons in 1938. In the same year, 180,136 tons of groundnuts valued at £1,305,828 and 97,100 tons of cocoa valued at £1,305,828 were evaluated. The greater percentage of this revenue was either sent to the Imperial Treasury or overseas banks as reserves or used in serving the colonial administration in terms of salaries, provisions of infrastructures and so on.
To sustain the philosophy of cheap raw materials production and exports, the British colonial economic policy emphasized agricultural development.19 The colonial territories of Nigeria served, not only as ready sources of cheap raw materials to feed the growing industries in
Britain and Europe, but also as trading posts for the British and other European traders and merchants, forced to find external market for their manufactured goods. In this way, the problem of under consumption in Europe was effectively solved.20
The implication of British colonial agricultural programmes, which emphasized production of cash crops for export and nothing to promote food stuff production can be seen in the economy of post–independence Nigeria. While Nigeria became poorer and thus, more dependent on the British merchants or firms, the commercial firms of Europe continued to grow richer. This marketing relationship resulted in the emergence of Nigerian commercial elite that became mere instruments for the supply of Nigerian products to Europe and for distributing products from British and Europeans manufacturing industries to Nigeria. This
18 Falola, T. History of Nigeria 3: Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. Lagos: Longman, p. 38, 2007. 19 Aghahowa, J.O. and Ukpebor E.E.M. The British Colonial Economic Policies and Nigeria Underdevelopment. The Nigerian Journal of Politics and Public Policy, Vol 3, No 1&2, p. 150, 1999. 20 Ibid. p. 150. 122
was an aspect of economic dependence which was built up by the colonial authorities to under develop Nigeria and her people.21
The British colonial industrial policy in Nigeria was largely that of production and exportation of mineral products such as tin, columbite, gold, etc. to the British and European factories; and the importation of manufactured goods22 by colonial merchants companies such as the United African Company (UAC), the United Trading Company (UTC), African
Timber and Plywood Company (ATP), etc. Through these foreign companies, the colonial export – import policy was implemented. Consequently, the British colonial regime promoted agriculture and industrial system, intended to exploit the colonised people of Nigeria and their mineral resources.
Aderibigbe summarized the British colonial economic ideas thus:
I. The colonialist aimed at exploiting the mineral and agricultural resources of the African countries. II. They directed West African pattern of trade to suit their own interest. III. There was no intention of developing the colonies industrially. IV. Whatever development that was to take place on the colonies had to be financed by the people of the colony concerned. V. There was also a complete domination of the export trade of the colonies.23
From the forgoing analysis of British economic policies in Nigeria, it becomes clear that the
British colonial agricultural and industrial policies in Nigeria completely distorted the pre- colonial economic system of production. The colonial economic structure made it possible for Nigerians to be the final source of initiative on Nigeria’s economic problem. Instead, they became absorbed into an economic system in which they became mere agents of European economic institutions. We now have an externally oriented export–import trade, whose
21 Ibid. Aghahowa, J.O. and Ukpebor E.E.M. p. 150, 1999; Op. cit. Falola, T. History of Nigeria 3: Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. Lagos: Longman, p. 39, 2007. 22 Nnoli, O. A Short History of Nigeria Underdevelopment. in Nnoli, O. (ed.). Path to Nigeria Development. Dakar: CODESRIA, p. 98, 1981. 23 Aderibigbe, S. Basic Approach to Government. Lagos: Joja Educational Research and Publishers Ltd., p. 166, 2006. 123
characteristics are; foreign domination of the local economy, and the appreciation of surplus value by foreign firms.24
In the light of the foregoing development, on independence, Nigeria had an economy that was not only distorted, but also responded to the vagaries of the international capitalist system into which it had been incorporated. It was characterized by a low productive base, little or no technology, dependence on a narrow range of cash crops and later crude oil.25 Ever since independence, the economy has been dependent on foreign markets, foreign aid and foreign technology.
4.3 British Colonial Policy on Land, 1900-1960
In 1900, Northern Nigeria was proclaimed as a British colony. Land was classified as crown land held in trust by the colonial governor for the Queen of England. In 1900, the Land
Proclamation Ordinance was enacted by Lord Lugard .The legislation disregarded the principles of native law and custom and provided that title to land could only be acquired through the High Commissioner. The Land Proclamation Ordinance was enacted to kill the institution of family and communal land ownership by facilitating the acquisition of title to land through the High Commissioner.26
In 1908, the British promulgated the Land and Native Rights Proclamation which vested ownership of land in the government. However, on public lands, there was little disturbance of indigenous land tenure practices. By 1916, the Land and Native Rights Ordinance imposed
24 Falola, T. History of Nigeria 3: Nigeria in the Twentieth Century. Lagos: Longman, p. 39, 2007; Aghahowa, J.O. and Ukpebor E.E.M. The British Colonial Economic Policies and Nigeria Underdevelopment. The Nigerian Journal of Politics and Public Policy, Vol 3, No 1&2. p. 152, 1999. 25 Babawale, T. Nigeria in the Crisis of Governance and Development: A Retrospective and Prospective Analyses of Selected Issues and Events, Vol. 2. Lagos: Political and Administrative Resource Center (PARC), p. 1, 2007. 26 For an excellent discussion of colonial land policies in early colonial Northern Nigeria and the problems of land use, see Jan S. Hogendorn and Paul E. Lovejoy, Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. 124
stricter government control over crown land such that certificates of land occupation required the consent of the relevant state governor.27
A unique array of customary land tenure practices had evolved in Nigeria which to some extent can be defined according to region and historical influences. The experience of
Nigerians living in the arid savannah terrain of the north was different from that of the south.
The spread of Islam in the Sahel reinforced individual land rights, altering more communal patterns of land tenure in the northern region. Colonialism’s stronghold in the north and evolution of the market economy further contributed to more individualized customary tenure regimes.28 Community-based tenure regimes in Nigeria traditionally discouraged land alienation and land sales were not practiced. European colonialism, however, made land sales and leasehold more familiar transactions.
Ninety percent of Nigeria’s agricultural output was produced by smallholders. However, factors such as fragile tenure security, low producer prices, and declining soil fertility threatened agricultural production. With agricultural policy focused on cash-crop production, food-crop production lagged far behind, often experiencing negative growth rates. Thus,
Nigeria had to import a growing share of its domestic food supply. As well, the expansion of the market economy into rural areas and cash rents for land forced farmers to sell an increasing share of their crops to the market to meet cash demands. Having to contend with a decline in subsistence production, a growing number of cash demands, and inflation, farmers’ food security was jeopardized.29
The potential of agriculture for propelling Nigeria’s economic development was recognized by the colonial government when policies were put in place to encourage output growth and
27 John W. Bruce. Country Profiles of Land Tenure: Africa, 1996. LTC Research Paper No. 130, Land Tenure Center, Madison: University of Wisconsin, p. 110, 1998. 28 Ibid. p. 111. 29 Ibid. p. 114. 125
to extract the surpluses there from.30 The predominant theme of development in this period was the surplus extraction philosophy or policy whereby immense products were generated from the rural areas to satisfy the demand for raw materials in the metropolitan Britain.31 This early interest of the extraction policy was on forest resources and agricultural exports like cocoa, coffee, rubber, groundnut, oil palm, etc.
Nigerian agricultural policy was part of the so called Nigerian Land Policy of the nineteenth century in which the British wanted agriculture carried on in the traditional forms of African land tenure without mechanization or plantations.32 Sir Hugh Clifford, the British consul in
Southern Nigeria at the time, asserted that the reason for this was the economic and social upheavals connected with plantation agriculture that had occurred in East Africa.33
In Clifford’s view, African peasant agriculture was incomparably cheaper than European in terms of suitability to natural conditions and the system of labour input.34 His stand on land acquisition was buttressed by the experience of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast where land alienation was opposed.35 The governor clarified the colonial policy in 1926:
Great Britain is a manufacturing country which depends very largely for its raw products upon other countries and largely upon tropical countries. It is important that the tropical countries within the British Empire should produce these production ever-increasing quantities of the highest quality. It is important that Nigeria should be able to produce, and not Nigeria (only) but other colonies, the maximum of raw materials.36
British policy was therefore the creation of a money economy in which commercial agricultural export was the key factor. Its prosecution and expansion would rest on the shoulders of the native peasantry. To achieve this, the people would be educated in scientific
30 Iwuchukwu J.C. and Igbokwe E.M. Lessons from Agricultural Policies and Programmes in Nigeria, Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization, Vol. 5, 11, 2012. www.iiste.org, accessed 21-11-2015. 31 Ayoola, G.B. Essays on the Agricultural Economy: A Book of Readings on Agricultural Development Policy and Administration in Nigeria. Ibadan: TMA Publishers, 2001. 32 K. M. Buchanan and J. C. Pugh. Land and People in Nigeria. London: University of London Press, p. 98, (1958). 33 W. K. Hancock. Argument for Empire. New York: Penguin Special. 193, cited in T. R. Battern. (1959). Problems of African Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 146, 1943. 34 Sir Hugh Clifford. Address to the Nigerian Council. Lagos: Government Printer, (l921). 18-87. 29 December 1920. 35 J.C. de Graft-Johnson. African Experiment: Co-operative Agriculture and Banking in British West Africa. London: Watts, chap. 1, 1958. 36 Nigerian Legislative Council. Debates, 4 sess. Lagos: Government Printer, p. 44, 1926. 126
and economic methods of agriculture, and in the importation and distribution of agricultural implements of a superior type to those locally manufactured.37
The British administration evolved a clean division of functions from the start. While African peasants grew agricultural products, European trading companies processed and marketed them, and the administration would “prepare and maintain the conditions-political, moral and material-upon which the success or failure of such enterprises in a very large measure depends.”38
Although the colonial administration in Nigeria had reserved the country’s trade and commerce, British private companies, the latter were not allowed to enjoy their monopoly uncontested. Germany proved to be a stiff competitor. The effect of this competition was seen in fluctuations in agricultural exports. For example, Britain's share of palm products in the international trade fell from 65 percent in 1922 to 31 percent in 1937. Cocoa rose from 5 percent in 1921 to 19 percent in 1937, and groundnuts from 4 percent in 1923 to 24 percent in
1933. Great Britain's share in Nigerian exports amounted to 67 percent in 1921-1923, but declined in 1923-1938. It was 55 percent in 1926, and 44.2 percent in 1929; 37 percent in l931 and 51 percent in 1938. On the other hand, German trade showed a rising trend: 7.6 percent in 192l; 8.5 percent in l922; 12 percent in 1923; 19.4 percent in 1929, and 17.4 percent in 1938.39
Land is essential for every human activity on earth as it is the source of all material wealth. In order to regulate the ownership, use and development of land and land resources, nations the world over have instituted land ownership systems aimed at consistent balancing of the
37 Sir Hugh Clifford. Address to the Nigerian Council, Lagos. Lagos: Government Printer, p. 187, 29 December 1920. 38 Ibid. pp. 57-58. 39 W.K. Hancock. Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, 1918-39. London: Oxford University Press, 2: pt. 2, p. 116, 1942. 127
interests of the government, the land owning class and the landless class.40 The land system of a given society is the manner in which land is owned and possessed. It is an institutional framework within which decisions are taken about the use of land, embodying that legal or customary arrangement whereby individuals or groups or organizations gain access to economic and social opportunities through land.41 The land system is also constituted by the rules and procedures which govern the right and responsibilities of both individuals and groups in the acquisition, use and control of land.42
The predominant land tenure system in Nigeria during the pre-colonial period was the customary land tenancy where land holdings were owned by villages, towns, communities and families. Land was deemed not owned by individuals but by communities and families in trust for all the family members.43 The legal estate under customary land tenancy was vested in the family or community as a unit. During this period, land belonged to the community or a vast family of which many were dead, few were living and countless members yet unborn.
Thus, individuals had no such interest as the fee simple absolute in possession as the actual ownership of land or absolute interest was vested in the community itself. Interests or rights of individuals in community land were derivative interests.
The land ownership structure in Nigeria under colonial rule was designed to suit the motives of the British imperialists. As a major factor of production, land was inevitably required by the colonial authorities to achieve their economic, social, and political objectives. The British merchants who came to the country purely on economic motive required land to establish their merchandise. The National African Company and its successor, the Royal Niger
Company, required land to expand its business in Nigeria. The colonial governors also
40 Namnso Bassey Udoekanem; David Odegwu Adoga and Victor Onyema Onwumere. Land Ownership in Nigeria: Historical Development, Current Issues and Future Expectations. Journal of Environment and Earth Science, Vol.4, No.21. p. 182. 2014. www.iiste.org 41 Udo, G.O. Model Building in Property Valuation. Enugu: Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, 2003. 42 Namnso Bassey Udoekanem; David Odegwu Adoga and Victor Onyema Onwumere. Land… p. 182, 2014. 43 Omuojine, E.O. The Land Use Act and the English Doctrine of Estate. Journal of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers. 22(3), pp. 54-56, 1999. 128
required land for public purposes. Because land ownership in pre-colonial Nigeria was communal, the colonial authorities initiated laws and regulations governing land ownership, land use and development, among others, to enable them acquire and convey titles to land for the purposes of commerce and governance. Principal among these legislations were the
Treaty of Cession (1861), Land Proclamation Ordinance (1900), Land and Native Rights Act
(1916), Niger Lands Transfer Act (1916), Public lands Acquisition Act (1917), Native lands
Acquisition Act (1917), State Lands Act (1918) and Town and Country planning Act (1947).
The Treaty of Cession of 1861 became the principal of all the treaties signed by the colonialists with traditional chiefs in Nigeria. The legal effect of the cession of 1861 was that the root title of the land comprised in the Treaty was passed to the British crown.
The Land and Native Rights Act was enacted in 1916 to vest in the colonial Governor all rights over all native lands in Northern Nigeria. Sections 3 and 4 of the Act provided as follows:-
“(3) All native lands and right over the same are hereby declared to be under the control and subject to the disposition of the Governor, and shall be held and administered for the use and common benefit of the natives of Northern Nigeria and no title to the occupation and use of any such lands shall be valid without the consent of the Governor. (4) The Governor, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by his Proclamation with respect to any land ,shall have regard to the native laws and customs existing in the district’ in which such land is situated”.
Also in 1916, the Niger Lands Transfer Act was enacted. This law transferred the rights of the then Royal Niger Company in lands acquired by it and vested such rights in the British crown. The major legal effect of the Act was that lands held by the company based on treaties and agreements made with the people of Nigeria were transferred to the colonial government, thereby creating some landownership problems for the people.
In 1917, the Public Lands Acquisition Act was enacted to empower the colonial Governor to acquire lands when required for public purposes. This law covered the then colony and protectorate of Nigeria. It empowered the colonial government to compulsorily acquire land 129
whether occupied or unoccupied and provided for non-payment of compensation if unoccupied lands were acquired.
Also in 1917, the Native Lands Acquisition Act was enacted to regulate the acquisition of land by aliens from the people of the Southern Provinces of Nigeria. It provided in section 3 as follows:-
“3(a) No alien shall acquire any interest or right in or over any lands within the Protectorate from a native, except under an instrument which has received the approval in writing of the Governor, (b) Any instrument which has not received the approval of the Governor as required by this section shall be null and void.” Also, section 3A provided as follows:- “3A Where any interest or right in or over any land has been acquired by an alien from a native with the approval in writing of the Governor as provided for in Section 3,such interest or right shall not:- (a) Be transferred to any other alien without the approval in writing of the Governor. Section 4 of the Act provided that it shall be unlawful for any alien or for any person claiming to be an alien to occupy any land belonging to a “native” unless the right of the alien to occupy or authorize the occupation of the land is evidenced by an instrument which has received the approval of the Governor (or his delegate) in writing. Any default is punishable by fine or imprisonment or both. An alien was defined in section 2 of the Act as “any person who is not a native of Nigeria”. The Native Land Acquisition Act 1917 had, since the advent of the federal system of government in Nigeria, been replaced by the Native Land Acquisition Law of 1952 in the Western and Mid- Western states and by the Acquisition of Land by Aliens Law of 1956 in the Eastern states.44
In addition, the State Lands Act was promulgated in 1918 to regulate the use, occupation and development of crown (state) lands in which the whole public has an interest. Under section 2 of the Act, “State land’ means all public lands in the Federation which are for the time being vested in the Governor – General (at that time) on behalf or for the benefit of the state as the case may be, and all lands heretofore held or hereafter acquired by any authority of the federation for any public purpose or otherwise for such benefit, as well as land so acquired under any Act of parliament, but does not include lands which although acquired and so held are subject to the Lands and Native Rights Act. The Act restricted the sub-lease of occupiers of state lands in the country.
44 As quoted in Namnso Bassey Udoekanem, et al, Land Ownership in Nigeria: Historical Development, Current Issues and Future Expectations, Journal of Environment and Earth Science www.iiste.org, Vol.4, No.21, 2014. 130
In 1946, the Town and Country Planning Act was enacted as a law of general application.
The law came into force on 28th March, 1946. It was a law enacted to make provision for the re-planning, improvement and development of the different parts of Nigeria. The law provided for the establishment of planning Authorities to regulate land use, planning schemes and development control. However, while these laws were enacted to make lands available for use by the colonial government, they were implemented to eliminate the pre-colonial land tenural system in the country and facilitate private ownership of land, particularly in Southern
Nigeria. Thus, with the advent of colonial rule, commerce and commercialization, it had become possible for individuals to own private land and deal with such land liberally45 and subsequently, land began to be sold, leased or mortgaged to individuals or groups.46 Elias summarized the land ownership system in Nigeria during the colonial rule and reported that:-
“in the result, therefore, the Government (the colonial government )has pursued a policy of restricting alienation of land in the former Southern provinces only to dealings among the people themselves, while frowning upon any out- and- out transfer to aliens. No claim to absolute ownership has been made, nor has any rigid distinction been drawn between crown and other lands except, perhaps that whereas in the case of certain lands taken over from the Royal Niger Company no compensation to any occupier will be paid for their appropriation to public purposes, compensation is as a rule paid in the case of all other lands within the former Southern provinces. This contrasts markedly with the Northern policy of paying only for unexhausted improvement by native occupiers and not for the acquisition of the land itself. A corollary of this has been that while in the North the Government has formally laid down the policy that no freehold title can exist in land but only a right of occupancy, there has been a benevolent neutrality on the part of the Government with respect to the form which titles to land in the former southern provinces should take”.47
As an agrarian society, the primary occupation of the people of Northern Nigeria was farming in which land played a vital role, hence the need to examine the tenure system as it was being practised in the pre-colonial period. Land tenure system regulated the duration of ownership
45 Omuojine, E.O. The Land Use Act and the English Doctrine of Estate. Journal of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers. 22(3), pp. 54-56, 1999. 46 Bardi, M.C. Geographic Information System as a Tool for Successful Implementation of the Land Use Decree. The Quantity Surveyor. 29 (1), pp. 17-22, 1998. 47 Elias, T.O. Nigerian Land Law. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1971. 131
and utilisation of land.48 It was also the customary system by which people could own, use, and dispose of land in any given society. Perhaps, the most important feature of agriculture in the region during the pre- colonial period was the land tenure system. This law embodied those legal and contractual or customary arrangements whereby people engaged in farming and gained access to productive opportunities on land.49 It constituted the rules and procedures governing the rights, duties, liberties and exposure of individuals and groups in the use and control over the basic resources of land and water.50
While the laws varied from one state to the other, they however had some common features.
Firstly, land was jointly owned though it was being administered by the community leaders or rulers. Secondly, all descent groups in a community had right to land and such right remained inviolate except in cases of external conquest. Therefore, an individual possessed right to land for any legitimate economic activity only through membership of a descent group.
4.4 Colonial Labour Policy and Agricultural Development, 1903-1960
There were essentially four forms of labour in the area before the jihad and these continued to be the dominant forms even thereafter. These were the labour provided by the individual producer and his primary family; free community or cooperative labour; the servile labour provided by slaves; and the semi-hired type of labour found in the antimony and salt mines.
In terms of regular daily production, the labour of the individual producer and that of the primary family were the dominant forms of labour. Next to them was the free communal or cooperative labour.51
48 John M. Cohen, “Land Tenure and Rural Development” in R.H. Bates, M.F, Lofchie (eds.) Agricultural Development in Africa. Prager: New York, pp. 349-399, 1980. 49 Jonathan Olu Familugba. Agricultural Policies and Rural Development, The Case Of South Western Nigeria, 1945-1960. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research Vol:-4 No-2, p. 39, 2016. www.ijier.net 50 Dorner, P.P., Land Reform and Economic Development. Tennessee: Kinsport Press, Inc. p. 17, 1972. 51 Mahmoud Hamman. The Middle Benue Region and the Sokoto Jihad, 1812-1869: The Impact of the Establishment of the Emirate of Muri. Kaduna: Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University. p. 20, 2007. 132
The expansion of larger scale commercial agriculture was marked in some areas by the advent of, or an increase in, wage labour. In addition to the minority who engaged in wage labour, large farm owners depended mainly on the labour of slaves and pawns. The use of pawn and slave labour was widespread in most polities where class differentiation had occurred. Some fulltime traders, without time to engage in farming, purchased slaves to work on their farms. However, it was predominantly political office holders, members of titled associations, or military warlords, who were able to exploit their offices to acquire slaves as both tribute and booty, who held large numbers of agricultural slaves.52 These political office holders had the additional advantage of having access to the unpaid labour of their subjects and clients to work on their farms in the form of rumde (Fulfulde), gayya (Hausa), and so on.
This enabled them to acquire wealth that could be used to acquire the land and labour necessary to further increase production.53
Because no European plantation agriculture developed in Nigeria, wage policy evolved very differently. The existence of a surplus of unskilled labour acted as a deterrent to labour turnover among those who held unskilled jobs; so the official concern with ‘labour stability’ was largely absent. From the outset, wage policy restricted itself to enforcing wage restraint.
Throughout both colonial rule and self-government, the Government played almost exclusively a passive role; except for a few inoperative wage councils, no minimum wage legislation was ever extended to the private sector.54
The Hunt Committee report of 1934 marked the first systematic formulation of official wage policy for government labourers. The Committee’s terms of reference stated that wages should be sufficient ‘to maintain a reasonable standard of living for a labourer’.
52 Hill, Polly, “From Farm Slavery to Freedom: The Case of Farm Slavery in Nigerian Hausaland”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 18, 395-426, 1976. 53 Uyilawa Usuanlele. Poverty and Welfare in Colonial Nigeria, 1900-1954. A PhD thesis Department of History. Queen’s University. Kingston, Ontario, Canada. p. 17, 2010. 54 John F. Weeks. Wage Policy and the Colonial Legacy: A Comparative Study. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3. Cambridge University Press, p. 375, Oct., 1971. http://www.jstor.org/stable/159670, Accessed: 21-06-2015. 133
In the first place, Nigeria was divided into zones, wages in each being based on local costs of living. Secondly, the Committee declared unambiguously, ‘no account is taken of the cost of maintaining a labourer’s wife and children’.55 A wage award for unskilled government workers in 1937 reiterated this policy, basing wage rises on increases in local living costs.56
With subtle changes, this policy of regionally based wage rates, adjusted according to changes in the cost of living, has endured to the present.
Wartime prices led to the commissioning of the Bridges Committee to make a special review of wages, and to base its recommendations on ‘any increase in the cost of living which may have occurred since the outbreak of war’.57 Meanwhile, two interim wage increases were granted to government workers, in I941 and I942, which together raised by 50 per cent the starting rates of pay for unskilled workers in Lagos. These officially resulted in no increase in real wages, but merely made up for a rise in living costs.58
The Report of the Cost of Living Committee in I942 is particularly interesting because it made an abortive attempt to change the basis of wage policy. While the Hunt Committee report had set the precedent of measuring how much workers actually paid for food, Bridges posited a ‘model’ diet and sought to estimate its costs. The colonial Government accepted the
Bridges wage of 2s per day for unskilled labour in Lagos, but simply on the grounds of rises in the cost of living at the former standard. The proposed basis of calculation was not accepted.59 The Government also maintained its passive role vis-a-vis the private sector by endorsing, but providing no enforcement machinery for the recommendation that the new wage rate be made the statutory minimum.
55 Memorandum on Rates of Pay of Labourers and Employees in the Southern Provinces. Acting Chief Secretary’s Office, Lagos. 3 September I935. 56 Rates of Pay for Employees and Labour in Lagos and District. Circular 24 of 5 July, I937. 57 A.F.B. Bridges. Report of the Cost of Living Committee, Lagos, Nigeria. London: Crown Agent for the Colonies, p. 5, I942. 58 Ministry of Labour. Cost of Living Bonus for Government Labour in Lagos. Circular 27 of 8 December 194I and Interim Cost of Living Bonus. Circular 26 of 28 May 1942. 59 Colonial Office. Payment of Cost of Living in Lagos Township. Circular 35 of 25 July 1942. 134
Immediately after the war, the Tudor-Davies Commission of Inquiry into the Cost of Living in Nigeria once more used increases in the existing cost of living as the basis for its wage recommendations.60 In its criticism of the ‘model’ diet, the I946 Tudor-Davies report warned that undue emphasis on social considerations in wage policy might generate gross inequities in the rural-urban wage structure.
They summed up well the difficulties of achieving an equitable balance of policy:
It is...incumbent upon the commission to strike the mean, i.e. to close the gap between the too progressive and the too primitive, and in so doing, to effect as little harm, but as much good, as possible to either section, and at the same time to contribute to the well-being of the whole.61
This view, repeated in many subsequent Nigerian wage awards, is diametrically opposed to the policy of the I950s and early I96os. The I947 Miller Report on Unestablished and Daily
Rated Government Servants carried this policy of narrowing rural-urban differentials further by changing the regional basis of Nigeria’s wage structure. Instead of using local living costs, geographical differentials were interpreted in terms of the local markets for labour. The report sought to set local wage rates for government unskilled labourers at the approximate level of non-wage incomes.62 As one might suspect, this policy resulted in little increase in wages
(and wage cuts in two urban areas).
The colonial regime adhered to this local-income/cost-of-living policy in the wage adjustments for government workers in I950-1 and I952. During these years, Nigeria briefly experimented with joint employer worker wage committees, known as Whitley Councils. The
Government's dual role as mediator and employer created a conflict of interest that rendered the experiment a failure.63
60 Colonial Office. Inquiry into the Cost of Living and the Control of the Cost of Living in the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. London, p. 6, 1946. 61 Ibid. p. 6. 62 Colonial Office. Nigeria, Report on Unestablished and Daily Rated Government Servants. Lagos, p. 3, 1947. 63 B. C. Roberts and L. Greyfie de Bellecombe. Collective Bargaining in African Countries. New York: 38-9 and 60-61, 1967. 135
Regionalisation and the approach to African rule under the federal constitution of 1954 complicated the development of wage policy, since labour matters became ‘concurrent’ subjects- meaning that they fell under the authority of the new Regional Governments as well as the Federal Government in Lagos.
While the Western and Eastern Regional Governments in I954 adopted uniform regional rates for their employees, the Federal Government continued its previous policy. The Hanbury arbitration award of I955 rejected government workers’ arguments that wages should be based on ‘minimum living standards’ and reiterated that the basis of regional rates remained local income levels. It reminded them that the Miller Committee of 1947 had not based its regional rates on any cost of living measure, and explicitly rejected the policy of ‘high wages’, warning the Government against policies which might lead to the creation of ‘a privileged class of federal wage earners’.64
The I959 Mbanefo Review of Salaries and Wages again applied the local-income/cost-of- living principles.65 The Western Region of Nigeria disassociated itself from the report, commissioning its own review body, which recommended wage rates for regional employees considerably above the Mbanefo levels. Nevertheless, it maintained the basic federal policy arguments:
The Government, dependent as it is on such sources of finance [agricultural taxation], cannot afford to pay its public servants salaries and wages unrelated to the standard of living of the public at large who are the real producers of its revenue.66
To sum up, the Nigerian situation was one of labour surplus, which made labour turnover a minor problem; and, in the absence of a white settler population to press for coercive labour controls, wage policy restricted itself to the public sector. The Government played primarily a
64 Government Notice No. 2552. Arbitration Award, Professor H. G. Hanbury, arbitrator, in the Trades Disputes between the Official and Staff sides of the Federal Industrial Whitley Council. in Official Gazette. Lagos, 8 December 1955. 65 Federation of Nigeria. Review of Salaries and Wages, Report by the Commission Appointed by the Government of the Federation the Northern Region, the Eastern Region, and the Southern Cameroons, Lagos, 1959. 66 Western Region of Nigeria. Report of the Commission for the Review of Wages and Salaries in the Public Service of the Western Region, Ibadan, p. 6, 1960. 136
passive role vis-a-vis the private sector, and sought to enforce wage restraint on its own employees. From I934 onwards, wage policy was based on actual regional costs of living, and from I945, an additional policy objective was to avoid widening rural-urban income differentials.
When two wage commissions - Bridges in 1942, and Morgan in 1964- sought to inject
‘minimum living standard’ considerations into wage policy, these were unambiguously rejected by the Government. Even these suggestions were based on different arguments from those put forward in East Africa: the aim was not to aid in developing a stable labour force, but to achieve social equity.
The bulk of the population did not work for wages, being cultivators farming their own ground, traders or craftsmen working for themselves and their own profit. Even the craftsmen, except in the larger cities, had their own farms which provided them with their main foodstuffs, the sums which they earned from their occupations being largely devoted to the purchase of utensils, clothes, a few additional foodstuffs which they could not, as a rule, grow themselves, and to the payment of their taxes. In the North, the chief articles were millets, guinea-corn, cassava, beans, groundnut oil, and pepper; the quantity of meat consumed was greater while that of fish was less.67
Unskilled labour was divided roughly into three classes: —
(a) Agricultural labour employed by local farmers in the villages.
(6) Casual labour hired by the day for porterage, etc.
(c) Regular labour paid at daily or monthly rates for work on roads, plantations, trading beaches, etc.
Class (a) is distinguished by the fact that the wage was usually paid partly in kind, food for the midday meal being supplied by the employer. With the continued improvement in trade,
67 Colonial Reports—Annual No. 1886, Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, 1937, London: Published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office, para. 166, 1939. 137
and the resulting increase in the cost of living, a general increase in the wages of this class of labour was introduced in all districts. The wage varied from 2d. a day with a midday meal in the Cameroons to 6d. a day in the Abeokuta Province. This class did not, of course, consist of professional labourers except in so far as the people of Nigeria were by nature professional farmers. All such labourers were assumed to have homes and farms of their own and only offered themselves for employment in their neighbours farms only in their spare time. The same applied to labourers employed locally for building and thatching houses and for harvesting palm produce. The general level of wages for labour for this class of labourers remained static over time.
Class (b) was found both in the towns and in outlying villages and the wages varied between
5d. and 1s. for ordinary casual labour. Carriers were engaged at rates varying from 1d to less than ld. a mile.
The daily wages paid to Class (a) varied considerably according to the nature of the work.
The labour wage rate for Government employees varied between 5 (1. and Is. 3d., whilst plantation labour varied between 3d. plus rations and Is. 3d. In the Northern Provinces, wages paid to unskilled labour varied as a rule from four pence to nine pence a day. In some places, labour was readily obtainable at three pence a day or even less. Mines labour on the goldfields was usually paid on the tribute system, and, owing to competition among the various mines, the rates were generally on the increase.
In colonial Northern Nigeria, as in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, the Public Works
Department (PWD) was responsible for the construction and maintenance of roads and railroads. Since its inception, this Department was also charged with “the maintenance of public buildings and roads and the extension of electric lighting, telegraphs, piers, public
138
transport, among other things”.68 To carry out its diverse responsibilities, the PWD relied partly on wage labour. Because of labour shortages and the desire to lower the cost of work, the Department was also compelled to resort to the forced labour of slaves and convicts.69
Colonial administrators recorded an example of the use of convict labourers by the PWD in
Yola Province in 1906.70 In that year, a foreman in charge of related government projects could not find local labour to hire. Moreover, he was unable to check the flight of non- convicts who were conscripted into forced labour. To address these challenges, the foreman suggested they import fresh batches of labour. It was, in part, this foreman’s request for more labourers and, in part, the recognition that convicts were a cost-effective labour pool, while imported labour “would add greatly to the cost of work”, that caused convict labourers to be employed in the execution of the PWD project in Yola Province.71 It is equally important to stress that, according to one telegraph, once convict labourers were placed at the disposal of the PWD, the “necessity to import labour” no longer existed.72
Britain’s main interest in Northern Nigeria during the colonial era was to make the region an economic appendage of Britain and Europe. To secure this interest, the British initiated infrastructure projects and encouraged agricultural production using cheap convict labour.
The availability of such low-cost labour, and the resulting decrease of the cost of infrastructure and agricultural projects, made it possible for the colonial administration to increase the scale of such undertakings. Consequently, the availability of convict labour strengthened European hegemony.73
68 Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton. A History of Nigeria. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 116, 2008; and Matthew M. Heaton. Black Skin, White Coats: Nigerian Psychiatrists, Decolonization, and the Globalization of Psychiatry. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. p. 32, 2013. 69 For details on land policies and other factors that compelled slaves to take part in infrastructural works in early colonial Northern Nigeria, see Hogendorn and Lovejoy, Slow Death for Slavery, pp. 136-58. 70 EAP535/2/2/4/20: Difficulty of obtaining labourers at Yola. 71 Ibid. 72 Ibid. 73 Mohammed Bashir Salau. Convict labour in early colonial Northern Nigeria: a preliminary study, in Maja Kominko (ed.), From Dust to Digital: Ten Years of the Endangered Archives Programme. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0052 http://www.openbookpublishers.com 139
4.5 Colonial Transport Policy and Agricultural Development, 1903-1960
The colonial administrators saw an effective transport system as an indispensable accessory to the task of subordinating the economy of Northern Nigeria and making it serve the needs of Europe. Soon after gaining control, the British began the construction of roads and railroads not only to connect various parts of Northern Nigeria to each other, but also to connect Northern Nigeria in general to Southern Nigeria and its Atlantic ports.74 This infrastructure made it possible to move cash crops easily and relatively inexpensively to the various ports located along the Nigerian Atlantic coast. It also enabled the colonial government to move troops and other resources easily to various parts of Northern Nigeria in order to reinforce its control over the peoples of this region. Finally, a good transport system meant that imports from Europe, such as European fruits, vegetables and manufactured goods, could be distributed within Northern Nigeria at a relatively fast pace and at relatively low prices.75
Transport infrastructure is a critical factor at every sector and stage of development. An efficient transport system provides economic and social opportunities and benefits, results in positive multiplier effects such as better accessibility to markets, employment and additional investments. It also reduces costs in many aspects of the economy of a country. This is especially so in the agricultural sector, which relies mostly on transport for its survival and growth. Efficient agricultural production requires an equally efficient mode of transport. It was in the light of this that the British colonial authorities in Nigeria established and nurtured a network of modern transport systems. Notable among these new forms of transport infrastructure was a road and rail networks, which had a considerable impact on the development, movement and export of agricultural products.
74 Michael Mason, “Working on the Railway: Forced Labor in Northern Nigeria, 1907-1912”, in African Labor History, ed. by Peter C. W. Gutkind, Robin Cohen and Jean Copans. London: Sage, 1978, p. 57. 75 See, for instance, Ibid; Hogendorn, Jan S. Nigerian Groundnut Exports: Origins and Early Development. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 16-35, 1979; and Northern Nigeria Annual Report, p. 58, 1902. 140
The basic transport infrastructure investment by the colonial state opened up the regions and interiors of Nigeria for the growth of commercial agriculture. It also ensured effective exploitation and efficient movement of the products. It resulted in relative development in the various rural regions, although this was only a by-product of the main motive of the investment by the colonial state – its own interest.
With the formal establishment of British rule, the colonial authority in Northern Nigeria— under Frederick Lugard, the High Commissioner (1900–1906)—focused on improving the existing transport system with the aim of expanding the economy. The subsistence society over which Lugard superintended had a problem with overland transport.76
At the time of the British conquest of Northern Nigeria, transport and communication were traditionally based, and pre-colonial Northern Nigeria had not developed wheeled transport.
The existing transport was based on human and animal transport over narrow footpaths. This traditional transportation was considered inadequate owing to its low speed and low carrying capacity. It may have satisfied the traditional function of transport in pre-colonial days, but under the new dispensation, such transport was considered primitive and inadequate to satisfy the main objective of colonialism. Besides their numerous limitations, including low speed and capacity, which Lugard noted, he disliked the carriers’ transport services for their tendency to steal and to charge high rates.77
Although the region had two main rivers, the Niger and Benue rivers, which could be used to further its development, these were not navigable for large vessels all year round, owing to natural impediments such as sand bars. In view of the existing inadequacies, the opening of
76 F. Shelfdord. Ten Year’s Progress in West Africa. The Royal African Society. 6/24, 341-49, 348, 1907. 77 Colonial Report-Annual, Northern Nigeria, Report for 1902, 56-7; Colonial Report-Annual, Northern Nigeria, Report for 1904, 103, 1902. 141
the territory to British goods, capital, and trade—to which Lugard’s administration was committed—might be jeopardized.78
Between 1900 and 1924, the British colonial administration embarked upon a massive road- building programme throughout the colony. The rapid expansion of road development was accompanied by the introduction of motor vehicles. Motor transport industry was dominated by expatriates in the 1920s. From the early 1930s, however, a number of indigenous transporters became involved in the road transport enterprise.
To ensure the successful execution of the road project, Sir Ralph Moor issued the Roads and
Creeks Proclamation of 1903. The Proclamation provided the legal framework which empowered the District and Provincial Commissioners to direct warrant chiefs in their areas of jurisdiction to recruit able-bodied men and women between the ages of 15 and 50 to build, repair and maintain roads, bridges, paths and public thoroughfares as well as clear rivers and creeks of snags without pay.79 Roads were essential to the opening up of the interior for quick and profitable British commercial operations in the hinterland communities. Specifically, the colonial government active policy of road development was not designed to serve the material interests or development needs of the people, but to facilitate the movement of
British troops and administrative officers in the various Districts and Divisions. Roads were also necessary to open up and link many hinterland communities, stimulate internal and export trade and complement the railway in the grand economic exploitation of the colony.
The importance the colonial government attached to roads resulted in the construction of
2,596 miles of motorable roads between 1924 and 1925. The government roads jumped to
3,595 miles in 1934/35 fiscal year, 24,920 in 1945, 33,696 in 1955 and 46,173 in 1960.80
78 Yusuf, Shehu Tijjani. The socio-economic impact of the railway in Northern Nigeria: A study in transformation of the rural communities along the rail line between Kano and Zaria, 1908–1970s, Leiden University, 2015. 79 Ofonagoro, W.I. Trade and imperialism in southern Nigeria, 1881-1929. New York: Nok Publishers International, 1979. 80 Njoku, D.N. Economic history of Nigeria. Enugu: Magnet Business Enterprises, 2001; Olanrewaju, S.O. The infrastructure of exploitation: Transport, monetary changes, banking etc. In T. Falola. (ed.). Britain and Nigeria: Exploitation or development. London: Zed Books Ltd, 1987. 142
At the outset, the motor transport enterprise held out little and daunting prospects of success for a number of reasons. First, motor vehicles were a new invention and the problems of securing spare parts, experienced drivers and skilled technicians to operate and maintain the vehicles became critical factors. Second, the roads were all seasonal, impassable during the rains and had sharp bends and steep gradients. Third, the bridges were built with wood and were often washed away by floods or destroyed by termites. These problems combined together to make road transport an enterprise that would appear to be expensive to run, unprofitable and without any bright future in a colonized and underdeveloped territory. As a matter of fact, Mr. Hulton, the Chairman of the British Cotton Growing Association (BCGA) painted a gloomy picture of roads and motor transport industry when he stated that ―metal roads and motor transport are, as far one can judge, a mistake.81
The expatriate firms which dominated the motor transport industry in its early years confined their services to government establishments and failed to meet the transport needs of the Igbo who were, and still remain, a predominantly commercial and highly peripatetic society. The indigenous transport entrepreneurs emerged to fill the gap. In the words of Esse:
The expatriate transport companies played an insignificant role in the development of the industry in southeast Nigeria in terms of the services rendered to the general public and in terms of their spatial spread. They failed to satisfy the needs of Igbo traders and producers of agricultural produce, especially those cut off from the railways. They acted mainly as government contractors, providing services to the Nigerian railway and the military… It was left to indigenous transporters to fill this gap.82
The agricultural sector largely relies on transport for its survival and growth. Ensuring efficient agricultural production requires an equally efficient mode of transport. Recognizing this, and to suit its interest of maximum exploitation, the British colonial government in
Nigeria made the development of transport infrastructure an area of priority. The British thus
81 Hopkins, A.G. An economic history of West Africa. London: Longman Group Ltd. 1973. 82 Esse, U. Road transport in Nigeria as a private enterprise among the Igbo, 1920-1999. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, Department of History, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, p. 38, 2005. 143
established and nurtured a network of transport infrastructure, of course with the intent to facilitate the massive development, movement and export of agricultural products.
Since the main motive of the colonial state was the maximum exploitation of agricultural raw materials, investing in, and developing the transport infrastructure it opened up the regions and the interiors of Nigeria for the growth of commercial agriculture. This ensured the intended effective exploitation as well as efficient movement and export of agricultural products. The investment in transport infrastructure resulted in a relative development of the agricultural sector and provided growth opportunities for a number of rural communities. The resultant development recorded however was only a byproduct of the main objective of the colonial state, which was to ensure maximum exploitation.83
It was clear that the colonial state properly appreciated the significance of transport infrastructure in the achievement of the objective of colonization, especially in the context of maximum exploitation of agricultural raw materials. This has been expressed by scholars in their theoretical and empirical analysis of the issue. Mallon, for instance, has argued that transport plays an important role in the productive sectors such as agriculture.84
Other scholars such as Rostow,85 Savage86 and Stabler87 have also emphasized that transport occupies a central position at every stage of development. Most relevant is Oganwu’s assertion that transport facilities also enable a region to exploit its resources, as well as develop and serve both import and export sectors.88
83 Ibrahim Khaleel Abdussalam. Colonial Legacy and Development: Rationalizing Colonial Transport System for Present and Future Development of Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector, Department of History, Bayero University, Kano-Nigeria, 2015. 84 R.D. Mallon. Transport and Economic Development. in Economic Digest, Summer, 1960. http://www.pide.org.pk/pdf/digest/1960/issue2/8-13/pdf. Retrieved 4.1.2015. 85 W.W. Rostow. The Stages of Economic Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960. 86 C.I. Savage. An Economic History of Transport. London: Huctchinson, 1959. 87 J.C. Stabler. Export and Evolution: The process of Regional Change. in Land Economics, Vol. 44, 11-23, 1968. 88 J.K. Oganwu. The Impact of Transportation on Development: A Case Study of Nigeria. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Cornell University, pp. 14-15, 1977. 144
Camemark has, indeed, in the same vein identified the provision of a high quality transport system as a pre-condition for the full participation of remote communities in the benefit of national development.89 This significance was aptly understood by one of the main architects of British colonial enterprise in Nigeria, Lord Lugard, when he said that the material development of Africa could be summed up in one word – transportation.90 Material development in the context of British colonial domination, and at that material time, of course, referred to developing the infrastructure and the resources for maximum exploitation.
This was the premise on which the British colonial state built its transport infrastructure policy. It was a policy of relative investment in the sector to the extent that it would effectively serve the British interest of efficiently lifting, moving and exporting materials, especially agricultural raw materials. To achieve the singular objective of maximizing the exploitation of resources, especially the abundant agricultural resources, the colonial state developed the transport systems, notably waterways, roads and railways.
4.5.1 Waterways The Niger and Benue rivers, navigable throughout the year for various classes of craft, form a great system of natural communication traversing the Protectorate from north to south for 500 miles, and from west to east from Lokoja to Yola.91
As the already existing highways and the cheapest before British colonization, the waterways were the first to be improved upon by the British before venturing into the railways and roads. The main waterways of Nigeria are the Niger and Benue rivers. Canoes in the coastal and riverine areas had plied other water routes tributary to these two.
89 C. Camemark. Some Economic, Social and Technical Aspects of Rural Roads. Dhaka: ESCAP Workshop on Rural Roads. Role-of-Transport-in-Economic-Development. 1979. www.scribd.com/doc/2423416/ Retrieved 4.1.2015. 90 F.D. Lugard. The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. Edinburgh: Blackwood & Sons, p. 5, 1922. 91 Colonial Reports — Annual. No, 694. Northern Nigeria. Report for 1907-8. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by the Command of His Majesty. February, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd. p. 16, 1909. 145
British interest and effort in improving the water transport system culminated into the growth of markets as well as the concentration of British firms along the river banks. Goods from producing areas further in the interior were brought to these firms operating on the Niger.92
These goods included palm produce, ground nuts, cotton, maize and millet.93 Through water transport systems, the British firms penetrated further inland to get raw materials. This followed the further development in water transportation, which allowed them to bring in ships of various sizes and capacities for their purpose.94
The development of water transportation by the British involved dredging, surveys and clearing of snags and rocks to ensure a clear passage, especially on the river Niger, from the coast to Idah. It also included regular maintenance on the routes.95 A number of other tributary waterways were also cleared for the same purpose. Some of the important distributaries included Brass, Sombriero, Bonny, Orashi, Andoni, Benin, Imo, Escravo, Nun and Forcados rivers.96
The policy of the colonial state of supporting British companies to improve water transport helped further in achieving its objective. These companies included the Niger River
Transport Company (NRT), a subsidiary of the United African Company (U.A.C) based at
Burutu, the Warri Transport (later Holts Transport [HT]), a subsidiary of the John Holt, and the Niger Benue Transport Company (NBTC), both based in Warri. These companies
92 AHAK. (Arewa House Archives, Kaduna). SNP/3/2/15 “Transport in Nigeria” A Report by Frederick Smith on Colonial Transport submitted to the Governor of Nigeria. 24 July, 1939; See also M.Y. Addullahi. River Transportation in the Niger- Benue Confluence. Unpublished M.A Thesis. Bayero University, Kano, p. 81, 2004. 93 M.S. Abdulkadir. An Eeconomic History of Igalaland c. 1896-1939. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Bayero University, Kano, p. 191, 1990. 94 M.Y. Addullahi. River Transportation in the Niger-Benue Confluence. Unpublished M.A Thesis. Bayero University, Kano, p. 148, 2004. 95 F Jaekel. The History of the Nigerian Railway Vol.1: Opening the Nation to Sea, Air and Road transportation. Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 61, 1997; See also R.O. Ekundare. Economic History of Nigeria 1860-1960. London: Methuen Co. Ltd., p. 129, 1973. 96 Ibid. p. 70. 146
provided infrastructures like cargo handling equipments, goods sheds, warehouses, dockyards and quays, and also built basic port facilities at major ports located in Idah and Lokoja.97
From 1900 onward, the improvement of water transportation allowed local middlemen to improve on their river transport skills and to collect more goods from the interior along tributary rivers to sell to the British. This development allowed river transportation to take a major share in transporting agricultural raw materials from central Nigeria to the seaports.
This also helped in the relative improvement in the production of agricultural materials.
The following steamers reached Ibi from Lokoja during the period 1st July, to 30th September,
1913 as follows:-
Valiant ……………………………………. once
Sultan or Kampala ………………………… four times
Tugs ………………………………………… twice
Steel barges ………………………………… five times
Total 7 steamers and 5 barges.
These steamers brought up fortnightly or three weekly mails. In addition to the above, the
Corona went up to Katsena-Alla with military reliefs and the Raven came up as far as Abinsi with the Director of Railways. On the return journey, the steamers was loaded with Tin and
B.C.G.A. cargo.98
4.5.2 Roads
In the regions of Nigeria that had no waterways, footpaths and narrow roads had been used for economic activities through the use of men carriers and animal driven carts. Some of the roads had also served as trade routes as well as feeder routes for the waterways. For the
97 Y.B. Usman. Transport and Communications. M.O. Kayode & Y.B. Usman. (eds.). Nigeria Since Independence: The First 25 Years. Vol. II: The Economy. Ibadan: Heinemann Books, p. 136, 1989. 98 NAK/717P/13/ Muri Province Report – September Quarter, 1913. 147
obvious objective for which the waterways were improved upon, the colonial state embarked on the upgrading of the old paths and the construction of new ones.
The road system began in the early 1900s essentially as a feeder network for the new railroads. This was why the emphasis on roads construction was on accessing major export materials producing areas. The effects of World War I, 1914 to 1918, in Nigeria, which culminated into the slowing down of water transportation as well as the production and supply of raw materials, further underscored the attention on the construction of roads. The need for raw materials by the colonial state however translated into increasing demand for the materials while putting pressure on the producers to boost their production in order to meet their tax obligations.
It was in order to meet the demand that both the colonial authorities and the companies shifted attention to the development of road and rail transport systems.99 To this end, the colonial government, in the 1920s, established a basic grid of two north-south trunk roads from Lagos and Port Harcourt to Kano as well as several east-west roads. In later decades, it expanded the system to provide access to most major headquarters and large towns through paved road.100
The colonial government embarked on this aggressive programme of road development in the mid1920s having realized that road transportation held the key to the exploitation of the material resources of the interior of Nigeria.101 The roads, also referred to as railway motor service, served to transport goods to the railway stations at different points. For instance, such roads in the Kano region transported hides and skins, cotton and groundnuts from the
99 Op. cit. F. Jaekel, Vol. 1, p. 76. 100 http://www.mongabay.com/history/nigeria/nigeria-roads.html#EZKyJViHXd1pg8bj.99 101 O.O. Olubomehin. The Nigerian Motor Transporters Since the 1920s. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 12, Special Issue - June 2012, 230-237, 2012. 148
Districts lying to the north and west of the Zaria-Kano rail line to the railway stations.102
These roads augmented the role played by the waterways to provide the lifeline for the colonial economic policy of effective exploitation of agricultural materials.
The roads constructed on the existing footpaths and trade routes were those that have today metamorphosed into trunk roads of Nigeria.103 The same roads have continued to serve many purposes and have especially provided the infrastructural backbone of the Nigerian economy today. In order to further facilitate export of raw materials, the colonial state collaborated with European companies, especially the Royal Niger Company (RNC), to improve on the existing roads and to build new ones.104 Many of such roads were constructed for the purpose in the northern and southern parts of the country.105
The total length of roads maintained by the Public Works Department was 3,829 miles of which some 210 were bituminous surfaced, 2,500 were gravelled and the remainder were of earth only. Improvements to soil grading and drainage continued with relative reduction in maintenance costs. Heavy increase in traffic, notably in the south-west of Nigeria, showed the desirability of bituminous surfacing, and an extensive programme covering some 235 miles of road were completed before the end of 1939. In addition, the Department maintained 187 miles of township roads, of which forty-two were bituminous surfaced.
Several major construction works were undertaken or continued up to 1937, including the building of seven big bridges and a great number of small ones and a road to connect
Bamenda in the Cameroons Province with Mamfe.
102 Ibid. 231. 103 L.H. Gann & P. Duignan. The Rulers of British Africa 1870-1914. London: Hoover Institute Publications, p. 272, 1978; See also A.G. Hopkins. An Economic History of West Africa. Essex: Longman Group, p. 72, 1973. 104 Annual Report of Northern Nigeria No. 504 (1907-080). 588. 105 See example of such roads in F. Jaekel. Vol. I, 79, 80, 81 & 84. 149
There were two classes of roads in the Northern Provinces: the “all season” roads which except for a few short lengths had gravel surface and permanent bridges; and the “dry season” roads which was for the most parts cross country tracks with earth surface and temporary drifts or causeways at river and stream crossings which could only be used between December and May. The Native Administrations maintained 10,375 miles of road, of which some 4,000 were all season with varying limits for the weight of motor vehicles, and the remainder dry season.
The road network not only changed the economic landscape of Nigeria, it opened up new areas for economic activities and ensured increased agricultural production for the benefit of the colonial state. The network would not on its own have had any meaning or served the intended purpose if it did not compliment the overall plan of the movement of raw materials for export. Therefore, the major role of the network was to serve as feeder to the rail network, the main means of mass movement of goods to the ports for export.106
Dry season roads radiated from Karim Lamido to:-
a. Lau, over the swamps 10 miles. Ferry at Lau, whence all season roads to Jalingo and
Yola.
b. Zailani (Daro Foi), c. 20 miles. Road continued to Muri.
c. Bashama. c. 30 miles (25 miles by foot). Over Senge Pass. Road continued to Gombe
and Jos. It was improved from N.R.P.D.B. funds as a cotton evacuation route.
d. Jen via Bambuka c. 30 miles (20 miles by foot).107
There was also a dry season road maintained by the Sudan United Mission from Bambur to
Gidan Usumanu.108
With reference to roads, improvements by the Native Administration, Mr. Haughton writes:
106 NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual, 1912. 107 NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual, 1912. 108 NAK/YOLAPROF (State), SPN5640, Wurkun District: Report on by Mr. T.G. Brierly, A.D.O. 1954. 150
“During July (1913), attention was given to the improvement of the Mutum Biu to Shaaba road by erecting bridges and a causeway, the latter in accordance with instructions contained in your letter No. 2145/7/11 of 24.2.13. The work was performed by Mtum Biu people and a contingent from Muri under the direction of the Serikin Taferki. The causeway has withstood the rains excellently and this proved a great boon, especially to the officials who have visited this Division during the last month. The District Engineer expressed surprise at its low cost of £13. Additional bridges have been erected over the Yerima Lahinde River near Mutum Biu and along the Ibi-Bakundi road. The four bridges which have been erected along the latter road have been valued at £9.”109
4.5.3 Rail Network The realization of the central role rail could play in the accomplishment of the objective of the colonial state informed the effort to develop rail network on a massive scale. Even before the conquest of the whole of Nigeria was accomplished, the British had started the construction of a rail network that would effectively serve to move raw materials. The construction of the first rail line started in 1896 from Iddo in Lagos, southern Nigeria. The line was extended to Abeokuta and Ibadan in 1901, to Osogbo and Ilorin in 1907 and to Jebba on the Niger River in 1909. This line was known as the Lagos Railway. Another network for
Northern Nigeria started in 1907 from Baro, a town on the lower point of the Niger. This second line passed through Bida, Zungeru, Kaduna and Zaria and reached Kano in 1911. The
Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria were finally amalgamated in 1914 to form a single colonial administration. With this amalgamation, the Lagos Railway and the Baro-
Kano line were merged in 1915 to become the Nigerian Railway stretching from Lagos to
Kano.110 This network was tagged Western Railway (WR), as another network was soon to be constructed on the eastern flank.
The Nigerian Railway had a total single-track route mileage of 1,900. Including sidings, the total mileage amounted to 2,184 miles. The main line gauge was 3’ 6”. The Railway was
109 NAK/717P/13/ Muri Province Report – September Quarter, 1913. 110 T. Tamuno. Genesis of the Nigerian Railway. in Nigeria Magazine. No. 84, March 1965; A.H.M. Kirk-Greene. Gazetteers of Northern Nigeria. Vol. 3. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. p. 32, 1972; D.A. Amba and J.D. Danladi. An Appraisal of the Nigerian Transport Sector: Evidence From the Railway and Aviation Sub-Sectors. in Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, Vol.4, No. 10, p. 162, 2013. 151
divided for administrative purposes into three Districts, the Western, the Northern and the
Eastern. The Western District extended from the Port of Lagos northwards to Jebba, a distance of 305 miles, and contained a branch from Ifo to Idogo (26 miles). The Northern
District extended from Jebba to Nguru, a distance of 540J miles, and included branch lines from Zaria to Kaura Namoda and to Jos via a 2’ 6” gauge light railway: there was also a branch from Minna Junction to the Niger River port of Baro. The Eastern District ran from
Kaduna Junction down to the port of Port Harcourt, a distance of 569 miles, and included a branch line from Kafanchan to Jos. During the year, 191 stations and twenty-five halts were opened to traffic.111
In the spirit of furthering the interest of the colonial state to maximally exploit raw materials, therefore, it embarked on the construction of another rail line on the eastern flank of the vast territory of Nigeria. This was because of the realization that Nigeria was too large for one rail line and a single major port if the colonial state must achieve its objective.112 Thus was the construction of the Port-Harcourt to Kaduna/Jos/Kano railway line (or the Eastern Railway
(ER) started in 1913, as the other most important link between Southern and Northern
Nigeria. Starting off from Port-Harcourt, the line passed through Aba and Umuahia and reached the Udi hills (Enugu) coal fields by 1916, before World War I forced the work to a halt.113 The plan was to construct the line to Kaduna, which would reach Kano by extension, since Kaduna was a major junction of the Western Railway from Lagos to Kano. The plan also included a route branching off at a point, precisely at Jama’a (Kafanchan) Junction, to another direction to reach Bukuru and Jos.114 After the war, construction on the line resumed
111 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1886 Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, 1937. London: Published by His Majesty’s Stationery Office, para. 200, 1939. 112 F. Jaekel. The History of the Nigerian Railway Vol.2: Network and Infrastructures. Ibadan: Spectrum Books Ltd. p. 178, 1997. 113 Ibid. p. 181-182. 114 Ibid. F. Jaekel. Vol. 2, 185; AHAK: 19/1/A.1. Annual General Report for 1926. Lagos: Government Printer, 1927. 152
in 1921from Udi, the Enugu end of the route and reached Makurdi on the Benue River in
1923. About the same time, work also began at Kakuri, the Kaduna end of the route.115
At completion of the Eastern Railway, which reached Jos in 1927, the two networks, the WR and the ER, connected Kano and Jos in the north to the major towns and stations on the south eastern as well as south western halves of Nigeria, and to the two main ports of Apapa
(Lagos) and Port-Harcourt.116 The connection of Kano and Jos through other important stations and collection centres to the two ports facilitated the transport of goods on both routes for export. For instance, there were cargo coaches for the haulage of goods on a large scale between both cities and the seaport towns of Lagos and Port-Harcourt.117
Beyond Kano and Jos, while the WR was later extended to reach Kauran Namoda through
Gusau on the north-western corner as well as Nguru on the north-eastern corner, the ER was extended to reach Maiduguri through Bauchi on the north-eastern corner. The picture of the extensions at completion was: The first line branched off from Zaria to Kaura Namoda through Funtua and Gusau, an important agricultural area in the northwest, completed in
1929. The second was the extension from Kano to Nguru, a cattle-raising region in the northeast, completed in 1930. And the third was the extension to Maiduguri through Bauchi and Gombe.118 This effectively linked the north-east and north-west extremes of Nigeria to coastal ports of Port-Harcourt and Lagos in the south-east and south-west extremes of Nigeria respectively.
More than just linking the extremes of Nigeria, the colonial authorities determined the routes of the rail networks taking cognizance of the main areas producing major raw materials
115 F. Jaekel. Vol. 2 185. 116 AHAK: PP/B15 Trade and Industry: A Comprehensive Review of Trade and Industrial Potential in the Six Northern States of the Federation of Nigeria (n.d). Kaduna: New Nigeria Newspapers Ltd.; K.M. Buchanan & J.C. Pugh. Land and People in Nigeria: The Human Geography of Nigeria and Its Environmental Background. London: University of London Press Ltd. p. 74, 1955. 117 Ibid. 118 http://www.mongabay.com/history/nigeria/nigeria-railroads.html#EZKyJViHXd1pg8bj.99 153
needed by the British as well as areas that served as major collection and commercial centres.119 The transport systems and networks ultimately served to sustain a booming agricultural sector and guarantee an effective as well as maximum evacuation of materials from most remote areas of the country by the colonial state.
The perspective given above underscores the extent to which the colonial state’s transport policy had impacted on the expansion of the agricultural sector. The access provided by the different transport networks put in place during the colonial era, especially between 1900 and
1950, helped the growth of commercial agriculture in Nigeria. For instance, from 1900 to
1950, the volume of produced and exported raw materials such as palm produce, cocoa, cotton, and groundnuts grew considerably.120 Indeed, Hogendorn noted that in the early 1900, the railway system had daily ready haulage of groundnut of up to 100 tons from Kano Station alone.121 On the whole, the expansion of the railway and other transport networks was instrumental to the surge and growth of agricultural production.
4.6 Conclusion
The potential of agriculture for propelling Nigeria’s economic development was recognized by the colonial government when policies were put in place to encourage output growth and to extract the surpluses there from. The predominant theme of development in this period was the surplus extraction philosophy or policy whereby immense products were generated from the rural areas to satisfy the demands for raw materials in metropolitan Britain. This early interest of the extraction policy was on forest resources and agricultural exports like rubber, groundnut, oil palm, etc.
119 I.K. Abdussalam. The Fortune of Two Cities: Effects of Intermodality on Urban Expansion and Socio-economic Integration in Kano and Jos. in Kano Journal of History, Vol.1 No.1. January-June 2014. 120 R.N. Onyewuenyi. The Effect of Railway Construction on the Growth of Export Agriculture. Modonna International of Research Vol.4 No. 1 May 2011, 2&3, 2011. 121 J.S. Hogendorn. The Origins of Groundnut Trade in Northern Nigeria. in C.K. Eicher and C. Liedholm. (eds.). Growth and Development of Nigerian Economy. East Lansing Michigan State University Press, 1970. 154
As can be seen, more than half of the policies in the era focused on forest matters, while less emphasis was placed on food and animal production. Most of these policies were made without proper institutional arrangement, programmes, specific projects, strategies, goals or targets and specific objectives geared towards realization of the dreams of the policies. This can be proved by the fact that there was only one documented agricultural scheme that evolved towards the end of the era (early 1960s) termed Farm Settlement Scheme.132
The mainstay of the economy of the peoples of Muri was agriculture. Due to the fertility of the land and its abundance many crops were cultivated in the area. The land supported various crops as a result of the climatic condition of the area. Crops such as sorghum/guinea corn, millet, groundnut, rice, cotton etc. were cultivated in the area. The people also engaged in commercial agriculture for export to other parts of the world. The British colonialists enacted ordinances or policies to control land use and what was produced on it. The land tenure was changed from communal ownership to the property of the colonialist in most parts of Nigeria.
Labour policies were also enacted to control agricultural production in Muri Emirate. These labour policies also ensured that the people had no choice but to engage in it. They tied the labour to tax to the extent that one would have to engage in one form of labour or the other to get money to pay tax. Even production of cash crops was forced on the people through imposition of tax. As a result, food crops production suffered a setback. This resulted to famine in many parts of Nigeria, Muri emirate inclusive. The famine was so bad in the Muri
Emirate that people resorted to selling their children into slavery in order to buy food to eat.
In terms of transportation, the colonialists paid close attention to it. In the Muri area, the availability of massive river systems proved to be of advantage to them. Rivers such as the
Benue, the Taraba, the Donga, the Suntai, and so on, played a significant role in providing
132 Iwuchukwu J .C. and Igbokwe E.M. Lessons from Agricultural Policies and Programmes in Nigeria. Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization, Vol 5, 2012. www.iiste.org 155
means of communication before, during and after colonialism. Roads were also constructed in line with the trans-Saharan trade routes. New ones were also constructed by the British colonialists. Railways were also constructed to help the colonialists in the repatriation of the resources of this area to the coast for onward ferrying to Europe.
With the coming of the British, they had to introduce their own currency. The introduction of new currency was done to facilitate tax collection from the people. Before this period, the people traded through barter system. In the Muri area, however, there was the presence of iron money and cowries as the means of exchange in the area. The monetary policies of the
British also were enacted to make the people engage in some trade that would fetch cash with which to pay tax to the British colonialists.
The people of Muri were expert farmers who had been practicing mixed farming a long time ago. The Fulani were pastoralists but due to political stability in the Muri area and with the establishment of the Emirate, some of the Fulani combined animal husbandry with farming.
While the Fulani reared cattle, other ethnic groups within the Emirate reared goats, sheep and other domestic animals. They were also farmers and cultivate many crops for local consumption and for export.
After production of agricultural products came marketing. The marketing of these products was not always left in the hands of the people. The British determined the prices of these products and the people were compelled to comply. The people were not allowed the freedom to even sometimes deal with the companies. Middlemen were introduced to get the products from the people of Muri, and they travelled to the various trading stations or markets to sell to the Europeans. With the establishment of colonialism, the British colonialists were always after the people to produce in surplus what they required for their factories back home. The
British were always pushing for more production of cash crops. This affected food crops production in the Muri Emirate. 156
CHAPTER FIVE
BRITISH COLONIAL ORDINANCES IN MURI EMIRATE
5.1 Introduction
The colonial monetary system had a number of advantages. From the imperial point of view, it assisted the development of trade between West Africa and the United Kingdom, while at the same time relieving the mother country of all responsibilities toward the currency of the colonies. From the West African point of view, the Currency Board system gave stability to, and confidence, in the colonial currency by linking it with sterling; it practically eliminated the risk of inflation by providing strict control over the currency issue;1 it corrected any tendency toward the accumulation of deficits in the balance of payments by ensuring that the local currency and sterling were automatically convertible; and it provided some additional revenue which had not been available to the colonies before 1912.
However, the system also had its limitations. The major drawback was that it tended to impede structural economic change since additional domestic trade could only be financed when the balance of payments were favorable. In theory, extra funds could have been supplied by the commercial banks, but in practice they adopted a passive role. Even when the balance of payments was favorable, colonial policy, as African nationalists pointed out, was not directed toward diversifying the economy. At other times, monetary tightness alone was sufficient to frustrate attempts to expand internal exchange.
5.2 British Colonialism and Agricultural Production, 1903-1960
The colonial government saw to it that agriculture emerged as the most important economic activity. This was due to several factors, of which the most prominent were: the growing
1 W. T. Newlyn and D. C. Rowan. Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954. 157
demand for raw materials like cotton, rubber, groundnuts, palm oil and palm kernel by British industries; the need to make Britain independent of America for its raw cotton; and the need to generate revenue for the administration of the protectorate/colony.2 Given that colonial economic activities were mainly directed towards satisfying these needs, it was not surprising that the focus of agricultural production was on cash crop cultivation.3 The state and
European firms provided seeds and employed other strategies to encourage owners of small farms to produce mainly groundnuts and cotton.4 Slave labour on plantations was instrumental to the expansion of groundnut production in Muri Emirate.
However, there were three main interests involved in the production and supply of cash crops. These were the Metropolitan interest which served as the main consumer of the export crops; the large trading companies which organised the collection and purchase and the export of the cash crops through their accredited agents; and the colonial State whose interest was to increase its revenue from taxation in order to meet the cost of administration and contribute to imperial investment fund. The colonial authority was motivated by the need to generate revenue from within to meet British industrial raw material needs and expand the market for British manufacturers.5
Throughout the colonial period therefore, the industrial interests, the trading companies, and the colonial State combined to regulate the quality and quantity of the agricultural cash crops through the establishment of pricing and marketing arrangements.6 Most of the encouragements given to farmers were however centred on the development of cash crops at
2 Northern Nigeria Annual Report, Report No. 476. London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd. p. 61, 1904. 3 For references to the predominance of cash crops in Nigerian agriculture of the time see, for instance, Jan S. Hogendorn, Nigerian Groundnut Exports: Origins and Early Development (London: Oxford University Press, 1979; F.A. Okediji. An Economic History of Hausa-Fulani Empire of Northern Nigeria, 1900-1939 (Ph.D. thesis, Indiana University Bloomington, 1972; and Bade Onimode. Imperialism and Underdevelopment in Nigeria: The Dialectics of Mass Poverty. Lagos: Macmillan, 1983. 4 For further details on such incentives see, for instance, Hogendorn, Jan S. Nigerian Groundnut Exports: Origins and Early Development London: Oxford University Press. pp. 16-35 and 58-76, 1979. 5 Usoro, E. J. The Nigerian Oil Palm Industry. Ibadan University Press, Ibadan, p. 122, 1974. 6 Chima, J, Korieh The State and the Peasantry: Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Crisis, p.120. 158
the expense of food crops. O.T Faulkner, the Director of the Department of Agriculture admitted this fact when he said:
“……in reviewing the appearance of work on which the Department has embarked, it may appear that it deals too largely with products which are or might be exported… but it must be remembered that it is much easier for us to help the farmer to take advantage of the changed conditions resulting from opening to him of the world’s market, than to teach him how to improve his method of growing his food”.7
Although the immediate production of export crops remained in the hands of the peasant farmers, it was highly influenced by state policy. There were series of by-laws and agricultural regulations and ordinances, credit and extension schemes which tied the producers more closely to particular kinds of production.8 The colonial authority created conditions that made it inevitable for the peasant farmers to produce for the market, especially when prices were high. The colonial government also implemented structural reforms and gave material assistance such as improved seedlings, extension services and loan facilities to farmers. The structural reform was more noticeable in their promotion of the cultivation of a number of exportable crops to meet the raw material needs of the British government.
With the intervention of the colonial government, the agricultural sector in Northern Nigeria occurred in response to changing political, social and economic conditions. A common interpretation of the change was that state intervention became the strongest factor in inducing agricultural development.9 Although the colonial state did not adopt a radical transformation of the prevailing conditions of production, it began to employ a series of political and economic instruments to induce producers to expand their output of agricultural commodities. Those strategies employed by the colonial state included forced cultivation, imposition of taxation and expanded operations by European Merchant firms. Also,
7 Ibid. p. 120. 8 See Bernstein’s article “Africa Peasantries” 1979, see also, Kay, The Political Economy, p. 427 9 Olutayo Charles Adesina, “A Historical Evaluation of the Western Nigerian Government Agricultural Policy, 1951-1966” M.A Thesis, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, p. 68, 1989. 159
Marketing Boards with their controlled commodity marketing orientation later became the major tools for harmonising agrarian economic pattern.10
The colonial government in the bid to improve upon the efficiency of the farmer’s production and its capacity to meet market demands adopted various interventionist programs that would enhance increased production. These, among others, included: Nursery and seedling distribution; Agricultural Education; Cooperative farming society; Establishment of
Provincial farm centres; and the provision of credit facilities. The colonial government, having realised the potentialities of agriculture to generating income earning, made frantic effort at inducing agricultural production. This was not only due to the importance of agriculture towards economic development of the colonial state, but the fact that the industrial sustainability of the Metropolis depended largely on the cash crops exported from the colony which made it imperative on their part to embark on massive production drive.
British colonial administration Ordinance of 1910 prohibited foreign investment in agriculture and mining and this made Nigeria and other parts of West Africa to escape much of the agony of Tanzania, and other parts of Southern, Eastern and Central Africa whose cash agriculture was almost monopolized by the White settlers.11 According to Olaniyan, although in West Africa “efforts were made to commercialize agriculture”,12 however, “no wide- spread encouragement was given to plantation agriculture and thus, no mechanization.”13
The point must however be emphasized, that the colonialists’ policy self-restraint in terms of going into direct mechanized farming did not mean that they completely shied away from it.
They did not. The Colonial Development Acts of 1929 and 1940 provided for the stimulation
10 Ayoola, G.B, Market Intervention Policy in Nigeria Agriculture, an ex-post evaluation of the technical committee on Produce prices, Development Policy Review, p. 9, p. 285-299, 1991; see also Onitiri, HMA and Dupe Olatubosun (eds) The Marketing Board System, Ibadan 1974. 11 Atei Mark Okorobia, The Impact of Agricultural Mechanization on the African Peasantry from Colonial to the Early Post- Colonial Era. RIJSER VOL. 4 NO. Reiko International Journal of Social and Economic Research. 5 December 2012. reikojournals.org 12 Olaniyan, B. Economic History of West Africa. Ibadan: p. 103, 1971. 13 Olaniyan, B. Economic History of West Africa. Ibadan: p. 94, 1971; Curtin, P. et al. African History. London: pp. 501-506, 1978. 160
of agricultural activities in the colonies. This led to the establishment of regional research centers by the British governments in their colonies. These centers established plantations for the purpose of demonstrating modern system of agriculture to the colonized peasantry, similar to the ones talked about by the theorists of the “enclave model”. Most of these demonstration farms were mechanized, such as the Shendam, Jemaa, Borno and Kontagora schemes of Northern Nigeria, as well as the Upper Ogun Project in the South West of
Nigeria. There were also cases where in spite of the 1910 Ordinance, the colonialists went into full-scale mechanized agriculture. Perhaps, the most outstanding instance was the Niger
Agricultural Project. The dream of the designers was that “by introducing mechanical ploughing, the farmers would increase productivity and export would expand”.14 However, this scheme failed just like the Tanzanian groundnut scheme.15
5.3 Overview of the Crops Cultivated in the Muri Emirate, 1903-1960
The colonial state was found to be fattening cattle as early as 1911 which were shipped to
Lagos and other parts of Southern Nigeria. This was, however, on experimental purposes as most of the cattle sold in the Southern part of Nigeria were from the Fulani nomads. The experiment, however, was later expanded. The colonialists also embarked of the planting of fodder grass to feed the cattle within the Muri Emirate which was dotted with many marshland (fadama). The colonialists recognized the importance of cattle in this area saying that “cattle are our one undoubtedly promising asset and many marshland grazing grounds are reported to be available”.16 Fattening of slaughter cattle for the Lokoja and other down- river markets proved profitable on a scale limited only by the facilities of River transport.17
14 Olaniyan, B. Economic History of West Africa. Ibadan: p. 103, 1971; Hodder, B.W. Economic Development in the Tropics. London: pp. 135-139, 1968. 15 Atei Mark Okorobia, The Impact of Agricultural Mechanization on the African Peasantry from Colonial to the Early Post- Colonial Era. RIJSER VOL. 4 NO. Reiko International Journal of Social and Economic Research. 5 December 2012. reikojournals.org 16 NAK/YOLAPROF, 2088, Agriculture and native administrations, 113/1926, 180, 4-9-1911. 17 Ibid. 161
Tobacco farming was also practiced in the Muri Emirate. Tobacco was grown for both local consumption and commercial purpose. Tobacco was limited to the alluvial deposits on the
River banks, refuse heaps, and the sites of former cattle pans. The average natural soil was fertile enough to sustain it.18
Fibre in form of Rama or jute was one of the important plants in the Muri Emirate area.
Reports by the colonial state on the local cultivation and preparation of Rama had it that the local light sandy soil was suited for the plant.19
The output of sheanuts was very considerable, and the trade brisk; according to a colonial report on Muri Emirate. At the same time the report given by the colonial state on the production of gum reads thus: “Gum hardly repays collection at present prices. Increased taxation may stimulate the output. The supply is not as yet limited”.20
Writing on rice production, the colonialist had this to say:
Rice has some future within West Africa. The cultivation is increasing. Large areas remain for exploitation. The husking process is of the crudest, and has been improved upon in such countries as Egypt and India. The grain of the dark variety is very bulky.21
According to a colonial report:
The cultivation and improvement of indigenous products for export such as: rubber, shea nuts, gum, rice, onions, maize, yams, peppers, kolas, fibres, tobacco, timber, etc.22 Tons of gum, shea nuts are growing wild and are being exploited by the people of Muri Emirate to a small extent. The reason for a larger collection not being made is the low price offered by the only trading firm represented. Rice, onions, yams, pepper, tobacco are grown for the local markets in insufficient quantities: any improvement on the local varieties would be very greatly received.23
The Mumuye people have wide variety of occupations and crafts. These occupations and crafts were greatly determined by the vegetation and climate of their environments.24 Under
18 Ibid. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid. 24 Peter Marubitoba Dong, Kefas Mavula, Alfred K. Dime, Major Yazala. The Mumuye Contemporary History and Culture. Jalingo: Makad Association. p. 36, 2008. 162
farming, the Mumuye farm the following crops: yams, guinea corn (gauri), maize, sweet potatoes, millet, beans, pumpkin, groundnuts, Bambara nuts, animal rearing and poultry, rice, okro and roselle and tobacco. They also involve in hunting.
Under crafts, the Mumuye practice pottery, weaving of cloths, baskets and rope blacksmith:
Hoes, Axes, knives, sickles, spears, arrows, bar money and spinning.25 Farming is an important occupation of the people of Muri Emirate especially the Mumuye, who cultivate yam and other crops like guinea corn, millet, and groundnut. Yam is one of the major crops grown by the Mumuye. It stands as the symbol of Mumuye in agriculture. It is mainly grown by men. The crop is planted in November through February. It can also be planted in April or
May and heaps of earth must be raised in form of ridges about three to four feet high. The harvest time starts in July through December.26
Guinea corn (sorghum) is a highly valued cereal crop for its multi-purpose use and is grown by both men and women. The cultivation and planting which starts in April through July, depends on the nature of soil fertility. The grains are planted on the cultivated land and are mixed with millet before planting takes place. All the work done on the guinea corn farm is through communal labour.
Maize is planted in the month of May. The crop is planted on flat land as well as ridges. It is ready for harvest after seventy to ninety days from the time of planting. The crop is grown throughout the Muri Emirate.
Groundnut is grown for local consumption and for commercial purposes. The suitable time for planting the crop is May through June. It produces more if planted on ridges rather than on the flat ground. It is ready for harvest after four or five months. The people of Muri
25 Ibid. p. 37. 26 Ibid. p. 39. 163
organized themselves in communities, so that the farm activities can be done through communal labour.27
Beans is also a leguminous crop cultivated in the Muri Emirate. The crop has no farm of its own and is always planted on guinea corn, groundnuts and yam farms. Only women plant them, though men have taken interest in growing the crop recently.28 Beans are usually planted in July through August, but some farmers plant the crop as early as May, and the leaves of those planted in May are used for family meals. Harvest commences in November through December to avoid insect damage.29
Sweet potatoes is widely grown in the Muri Emirate. Sweet potatoes are produced by men only. The cuttings are transplanted in July and August on ridges and do not take long to mature. Harvest starts in September. Raising of the ridges is done through communal labour.
Bambara nuts H. (gujjiya) F. (gongonji) is grown by women only. In the past, the crop was grown in small quantity, but from the nineteen seventies the crop had gained tremendous market. Men have taken to the production of the crop. It is easy to grow, the nuts are planted on ridges, and takes two to three months to mature. Planting is done late June through July and the farm is weeded only once. Harvest time starts late September through November.30
Rice is another important crop grown within the Muri Emirate area. Men have taken the lead in growing rice in large quantity for commercial purpose. The crop can only be planted in swampy areas, which are many in the Muri Emirate. Growing rice is where modern technique is practiced. People use tractors to plough the land and also harrow the land before planting the seeds. Modern fertilizer is also used on the rice farm. The period of planting depends on the variety of the rice. Some are planted in June; some varieties mature in three months while some mature in four or five months. The improved, imported varieties mature in three months
27 Ibid. p. 40. 28 Peter Marubitoba Dong, et al. The Mumuye Contemporary History and Culture. Jalingo: Makad Association. p. 41, 2008. 29 Ibid. p. 41. 30 Ibid. p. 42. 164
from the time of planting and give high yield.31 The labour is tedious and the farm needs constant weeding. Harvest starts in September with women doing most of the work on the rice farm during the harvesting time.
Blacksmith is an industry where things like hoes, axes, knives, spears, arrows, bar money are manufactured. In the olden days, the iron ore was washed down from the hills and the sand is collected and smelted in a long clay pipe into which charcoal was thrown alternately. When the metal is collected from the furnace, it is again heated and then taken to the furnace.32
Weaving and spinning had been in practice for a long time among the people of Muri
Emirate. Even today, you find people in some communities in Muri Emirate spinning and weaving clothes.33 Among the Mumuye, the weaving (laka or laki) is used for burial, marriage and clothes. Cotton grown locally is used to spin threads for weaving materials. The weaved materials are dyed locally in different colours: yellow, black and brown.34 To spin cotton into thread, people use a long stick of about 2ft. with mud attached to the stick at the lower end of it.35
5.4 Post World War I British Economic Policies, 1919-1960
From this point of view, a plan is not simply a statement of goals or of general policy, but a detailed programme of action for both projects and specific economic policies. According to
Jan Drewnowski:
Economic planning is a policy which sets its objectives in the form of quantitative targets to be reached at a determined time. An economic plan is a set of targets to be reached in a given period of time. An economic plan is national when its targets cover all the national economy. It is a partial economic plan when its targets cover some parts of the economy only. Targets set in the plan must be of course feasible. To make sure that they are so, they must be derived by confronting policy objectives with the available resources of the economy and their possible uses.36
31 Ibid. p. 43. 32 Peter Marubitoba Dong, et al. The Mumuye Contemporary History and Culture. Jalingo: Makad Association. p. 45, 2008. 33 Ibid. p. 47. 34 Ibid. p. 47. 35 Ibid. p. 46. 36 J. Drewnowski. Planning Economic Growth. in University Textbook for African Students. Paris: U.N.E.S.C.O. 165
To take an alternative formulation by a senior Nigerian planning officer, Adebayo Adedeji contends that: the Plan, a compromise document that it is, is honoured more in the breach than in the observance. Partly because of political pressures and inter-departmental rivalries and partly because resource projections tend ... to diverge widely from actual revenue, there is little discernible relation between what is contained in a Plan and what in fact gets done. Thus, it would be a great mistake to regard a Plan as a blueprint for action. Rather ... a Plan ... [is] a document assessing a country's problems, stating broad conclusions about the scale and direction of development efforts and indicating some of the main projects, programmes, and policies to be executed…37
During the nineteenth century Britain followed a relatively free-market, “laissez-faire” approach to economic development with an open economy, minimal tariff barriers and reliance on the private sector wherever possible (e.g. for the railways). In the course of the
Second World War, the British Government took direct control of many sectors of the economy and subsequently perceived that this had been successful and essential in meeting basic needs, while maximising munitions production. There evolved a spirit of confidence in the practical capacity of government organisations to implement and operate major commercial undertakings. The overwhelming victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 British general election added a political dimension of mistrust of the private sector and its perceived
“exploitation” of the working class. These two major changes had a direct impact on the approach to economic development in the colonies, with the creation of the Colonial
Development Corporation in 1948.38
As is usually the case, initiatives do not just stem from a single motivation, but a number of influences come together to create the necessary consensus and momentum for action. The immediate aftermath of the Second World War Britain was short of food and raw materials and was short of US Dollars to pay for imports. The Ministry of Food was therefore keen to promote increased production from within the Sterling currency zone, i.e. mainly the
37 A. Adedeji. Economic Planning in Theory and Practice. Nigerian Journal of Economics and Social Studies. Ibadan, 1962. 38 Michael McWilliam. The Development Business: A History of the Commonwealth Development Corporation. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001. 166
remaining colonies. Within the Colonial Office there was a view that the pace of economic development in the colonies was too slow and that in part this was down to the inertia of local administrations. There was a view that a central body was needed to conceive and carry out major projects independent of existing colonial authorities.
In the end, two separate statutory bodies were created in 1947/8. The Overseas Food
Corporation came under the Ministry of Food. Its first and last major initiative was the East
African Groundnuts scheme in Tanganyika. This was an almost complete agronomic and commercial failure. Unrealistic targets were set and large areas of land were cleared, at a high cost, without having established appropriate technology for land development and subsequent cultivation. The scheme was abandoned once it was realised that the groundnut yields achievable were unable to cover even the running costs of the scheme, let alone contribute to the repayment of the heavy debts incurred for its establishment. The term “Groundnut
Scheme” became a byword in Britain for grandiose, ill-conceived, and poorly implemented government projects. The Colonial Development Corporation came under the Colonial Office and had a more broadly based purpose. Its mandate was to improve “the standard of living of the Colonial peoples by increasing their productivity and wealth”.39
Sir Stafford Cripps, the Minister for Economic Affairs, addressing a conference of sceptical colonial governors in 1947, stressed the urgency of the situation and the central importance of
Africa:
“it is essential that we should increase out of all recognition the tempo of African economic development. We must be prepared to change our outlook and our habits of colonial development and force the pace… An occasional failure is the necessary price of adventurous development and we must not allow safety first to be the key note of our work….the whole future of the Sterling Group and its ability to survive depends in my view on a quick and extensive development of our African resources.”40
39 Geoff Tyler. All-Africa Review of Experiences with Commercial Agriculture: The Fall and Rise of the Colonial Development Corporation. Background paper for the Competitive Commercial Agriculture in Sub–Saharan Africa (CCAA) Study. World Bank, 2008. Available at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/257994- 1215457178567/CCAA_Colonial.pdf accessed: 21-11-2015. 40 Ibid. 167
CDC was not envisaged as an “aid” agency. As a statutory corporation it had no equity capital, and relied entirely on long term loans from the UK Treasury, advanced at commercial rates of interest, to fund its activities. A borrowing facility of £100m was made available – equivalent to around £2b today. CDC’s statutory financial obligation was to break-even taking one year with another, i.e. it was not required to make a profit beyond that needed to service its borrowings.41
CDC had no intention of simply being a banker, on-lending to public or private ventures at a higher rate of interest and with good security. It saw itself directly tackling the kinds of countries and projects that the private sector would be wary of. The first annual report in
1948 noted:
‘it is already clear that it is in the least developed, rather than the most highly developed territories that the Corporation’s main work will be done…The tasks of development are too large, and the financial return too distant or the risks too great, to attract sufficient private capital.”42
The Corporation would therefore “prefer venture to caution” and decided that the bulk of its investments would be made in the form of equity. Indeed CDC sometimes undertook projects
“directly”, that is without incorporating a separate legal entity for the project, so that all of the liabilities and risks fell directly onto CDC’s own balance sheet. CDC organised itself administratively into production divisions: agriculture, fisheries, forestry, transport, power, hotels etc. each with an intended capability to plan, implement and manage commercial projects in the colonies.
From the beginning Africa and agriculture were expected to play a major part in CDC’s activities:
Africa, the Board believes, is the most promising field for large-scale development …. In the sphere of agriculture much worth-while work can be done immediately by larger production of crops for the local market and by using such schemes to popularise more
41 Ibid. 42 Ibid. 168
productive methods of peasant farming… the Agricultural Division is regarded as potentially the largest sphere of the Corporation’s activities.43
In fact during its first three years of existence, over 50% of CDC’s investment and financial commitments were for agribusiness ventures.44
5.5 Colonial Taxation in Muri Emirate, 1903-1960
Taxation was the most common understanding feature of “effective occupation” in colonialism. Various types of taxes, including forced labour and taxes in kind were imposed.
Tax collection systems often engaged local elites. Taxation was used as a way to drive
Africans into labour market or into cash-crop agriculture.
Taxation is one of the most important and easy sources of revenue to any government, as the government possesses inherent power to impose taxes and levies. In the colonial era, revenue were raised through the imposition of taxes which were channeled through village and town heads and their respective district heads. The Native Authorities retained a share of the taxes collected in their respective areas of jurisdiction, while the remaining portion went to the protectorate government. However, from 1911, the portion allocated to the Native Authorities were converted into a treasury (called the Native Treasury) which became the basis for the establishment and maintenance of a local government bureaucracy characterized by budgetary allocations.45 Hence, one or more local government units supported by a Native
Treasury were referred to as a Native Administration. In effect, the Native Authority and all other local government functionaries became salaried or stipendiary staff of the Native
Administration.
43 Ibid. 44 Ibid. 45 Mary Bull. Indirect Rule in Northern Nigeria, 1906–1911. in Kenneth Robinson and Frederick Madden. (ed.). Essays in Imperial Government. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 47–87, 1963. 169
The colonial monetary system in British West Africa was formally inaugurated in 1912 when the West African Currency Board (W.A.C.B.) was established.46 The Board presided over a monetary system which was effectively an extension of that of the imperial power: the currency of the colonies was visually distinct and was backed by its own reserves, but it was held at parity with and was readily convertible into the currency of the ruling power.
The main function of the banking system, which was also based on the metropolis, was to improve the efficiency of the money supply rather than to increase the volume of money.
Bank lending policy was cautious, and advances were confined for the most part to the large expatriate firms. The functions of the Currency Board were mainly of a passive kind, being limited to large-scale money changing activities, to investing the reserves of the colonial currency, and to distributing the profits derived from these investments and from the seignorage on coins issued for British West Africa.
There were three major issues leading to the foundation of the Currency Board: first, the question of the supply of currency, a question which became entangled with the history of banking in West Africa; second, the difficulties which arose when the government began to consider a note issue for Southern Nigeria; and, finally, the problems which appeared as a result of the rapid expansion in the volume of sterling coins circulating in West Africa, notably problems of seignorage and of monetary stability.47
Money was needed by West Africans primarily for the purchase of imported consumer goods such as textiles and hardwares. The volume of these imports were determined principally by the value of exports, which consisted mainly of palm oil, palm kernels, cocoa, and groundnuts. The export economy consisted (on the supply side) of numerous unspecialized
46 J. Mars. The Monetary and Banking System and Loan Market of Nigeria. in Margery Perham, (ed.). (1948). Mining, Commerce, and Finance in Nigeria. London: Faber & Faber, 177-224, 1948; Ida Greaves. Colonial Monetary Conditions. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1953; and W.T. Newlyn and D.C. Rowan. Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954. 47 A.G. Hopkins. The Creation of a Colonial Monetary System: The Origins of the West African Currency Board, African Historical Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 103, Boston University African Studies Center, 1970, http://www.jstor.org/stable/216483, Accessed: 04-07-2015. 170
producers, who were still largely self-sufficient as far as their everyday needs were concerned. There was a high marginal propensity to buy imported manufactured goods, so a significant part of any increase in export earnings was exchanged for consumer goods and was thus leaked out of West Africa.
Furthermore, the demand for money had a pronounced seasonal character, and at the end of the main trading period, a considerable amount of coin became redundant as far as local needs were concerned. However, this was not a complete picture. An analysis of specie movements shows that a small but rising proportion of export earnings were being retained in
West Africa. Part was held as savings, and part was used for purchases within the domestic economy. It is clear that even at this early date, a number of farmers were becoming specialized export crop producers and needed cash to buy goods and services which they could no longer provide from their own resources. The growth of the localized currency was a significant indication of the development of the internal exchange economy. Thus, the demand for money at the beginning of the colonial period had two main features: first, an expanding turnover of sterling on the west coast as exports were converted into imports; and second, an increase in the amount of sterling being absorbed by the domestic economy.
The system of direct taxation was that of a “graduated income tax” which took the place of the various forms of taxation found operating in the country on its first occupation by the
British. The assessment of this tax was undertaken by the Administrative staff and was one of their most important duties. The area of the land ordinarily cultivated by a village was first ascertained and the average market value of the produce from it together with the amount and value of special irrigation crops was calculated. The village livestock was then counted and in consultation with the District and Village Headmen, the assessing officer endeavoured to arrive at an equitable assessment of the nonagricultural portion of the community, i.e., the craftsmen and traders. When the total amount due from the agricultural and industrial groups 171
of the village was decided, it was apportioned by the Village Head assisted by the Elders among the tax-paying adults, so that each man paid according to his income.48
The tax was collected by the Village Headman, usually after harvest, and remitted to the
District Headman who paid in the total to the central Native Treasury of the Emirate or other units. Receipts were issued to the individual and the Village Headman was paid as salary a proportion of the tax collected by him. The incidence of the taxation varied very considerably with the conditions of different localities being in some areas less than 2s. and in others exceeding 12s. per adult tax-paying male.49
The manner in which the funds necessary for the maintenance of the administration were secured was briefly as follows: The principal source of revenue in Northern Nigeria was termed the general or tribute tax. This was raised by collecting a contribution in proportion to individual’s wealth from each person annually, that is to say, by direct taxation.
The mode of collection differed slightly in each Emirate, for it was based in every case on the system which was formerly in force. Certain general principles governing the mode of collection were, however, observed throughout the Protectorate. The amount to be paid was based on the extent of the resources of the individual. An owner paid 1s per annum for each head of horned cattle as Jangali, 10 per cent, of grain crops were collected and paid as
Zakka.50
There was a very strong relationship between taxation of the people of Muri Emirate and farming or agriculture as could be seen, in the case of Dakka, to make them produce more cash crops:
48 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1886 Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, 1937. London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, para. 131. 1939. 49 Ibid. para. 314. 50 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 821. Northern Nigeria. Report for 1913. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty. Barclay and Fry, Limited, The Grove, Southward, S.E. London: Printed Under the Authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office, 26, 1914. 172
“The Tax in Dakka should be raised if only to make them farm a little more.”51
District Council Funds were increased from six pence to one shilling per Taxpayer during the last Financial Year (1955). A further increase to one shilling and six pence per Taxpayer was considered by the N.A. Finance Committee and Outer Council prepared the Draft Proposals for 1956/57.52 In the year 1956, a cotton market was established at the end of the feeder road in Dakka.53 This was to facilitate the evacuation of the crop to areas where they could be taken to Europe.
Mutum Biyu was one of the cotton producing area and markets within the Muri Emirate. In
1953, forty-nine tons of cotton were purchased at Mutum Biyu. The Mutum Biyu feeder road was extended to the Port of Gassol. The U.A.C. evacuated the 1953 groundnuts from Beli and
Mutum Biyu Buying Stations, along this route to Gassol.54 The U.A.C. opened a groundnut
Buying Station at the Bridge Site on the North side of the River Taraba at Bakundi.55
It is relevant to state that tax stimulated trade, and the people exported corn to other provinces to obtain cash for payment.56 Lugard states:
The circulation of coinage, which I regard as one of the most important signs of progress in a new country, continues to make steady progress, and has been very greatly accelerated by the new system of taxation, since both lolls and land revenue are largely paid in cash, and every inducement is given to increase the proportion so paid.57
Some of the taxes that the people of Muri Emirate were made to pay were Kudin Kasa (Land
Tax), Kudin Rua (Ruwa) (Water or River Tax), Jangali (Cattle Tax), Fines, etc. Kudin Kasa was therefore a kind of “Ushur” which was collected by the Village Heads who assemble the householders and apportioned out to each the amount he had to pay. When a village was assessed by an European Officer, he counted compounds, men, women, and children. He also
51 NAK/YOLAPROF.ACC No. 2/Muri Individual Dossier, 1955. 52 Ibid. 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 56 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 616. Northern Nigeria. Report for 1906-6, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd., p. 9, January, 1907. 57 Ibid. p. 62. 173
counted their horses, and stock: He observed the fertility of their soil: He looked at the bush surrounding them, and noted whether it contained anything which should be gathered and realised. All these he reckoned up in his mind. It was only after he had made this reckoning that he arrived at the total tax payable by the village.58
The Kudin Kasa Tax or land tax was different from the Jangali tax or cattle tax. The people were made to pay according to the number of horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, gowns and every other form of wealth upon which a Special Tax was not levied. Special Tax here meant
Jangali (cattle tax). The September, 1913 Quarter collection of Jangali, amounted to
£550.4.0 or an increase of £75.4.6 on 1912.59
At the appendix section one will find tables showing the type of taxes that were collected from some of the communities within the Muri Emirate.
Some of the tables also represent the kinds of items that the British colonialists taxed in the course of their colonization of the Muri Emirate area and how the people responded to the demands of the colonialists. It is obvious that the colonialists taxed every available wealth of the people within the emirate. These tables are a representation of the rest of the emirate as all components of the emirate were so assessed and taxed. These also included land tax known as kurdin kasa, cattle tax known as jangali, and so on.
The British did not overlook the concept of “cost-efficiency” in making decisions of any kind in their administration of Northern Nigeria. They administered a system of indirect rule which allowed them to control the vast region with very few European officials, very little reliance on funds generated in Britain and minimal out-of-pocket costs.60 The British also made the prisons pay for themselves by using of convicts as labourers and by manufacturing
58 NAK/717P/13/ Muri Province Report – September Quarter, 1913. 59 Ibid. 60 See Heussler, Robert, The British in Northern Nigeria, London: Oxford University Press, 1968, especially pp. 31 and 53. 174
and farming food within the prisons.61 The evidence also indicates that colonial administrators sometimes hired out convicts to Europeans and Africans, at a nominal charge, to do various tasks, including farming and carrying water. The 1913 report on Muri Province reveals that hiring out convicts enabled the state to cut the cost of feeding prisoners since “the employer provided their food and paid 1d. per man per day wages”.62 The same report indicates that this payment was considered small, and that this matter of inadequate pay
“should be brought up for discussion with the Emir and council”, so that raising payments to
2d in the next farming season might be considered.63
5.6 Foreign Companies and Agricultural Production in Nigeria
The history of what eventually emerged as Nigeria started with the Niger Expedition of 1841 and the formation of the Royal Niger Company (RNC), a trading company that monopolized trade in both the interior and the coastal regions. The British monarchy had granted the
Company a Charter to occupy territory of present-day Nigeria. The RNC therefore served as a medium through which British colonial and mercantile interests were protected until the revocation of the Company’s Charter in 1900, and the subsequent creation of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria.64
After 1900, the British began to explore avenues through which the resources of the indigenous peoples could be exploited and maximized. To achieve this, they needed to create a structure for indirect rule—controlling Africans through their traditional authorities. The
British reasoned that approaching the people through their local leaders would minimize
61 This idea is expressed in, for instance, EAP535/3/6/5/4. 62 EAP535/2/5/1/39: Quarterly report no. 80, December 1912, by Mr. F. H. Buxton Resident Muri Province. On the hiring out of convicts, see also EAP535/2/2/11/13: Yola Province quarterly report, December 1911; EAP535/2/5/1/46: Muri Province annual report, 1912; and EAP535/3/7/2/7. Sokoto Province monthly report no. 25, May and June 1905. 63 EAP535/2/5/1/39. Quarterly report no. 80, by Mr. F. H. Buxton Resident Muri Province. On the hiring out of convicts, December 1912. 64 Falola, Toyin, and Matthew M. Heaton, eds. A History of Nigeria. London: Cambridge University Press. p. xiv, 2008. 175
opposition to British rule.65 In Northern Nigeria, they used the existing emirs and their traditional institutions.
The British converted traditional subsistence farming in many areas to promote the production of cash crops for export, and commissioned a number of railway projects to facilitate this traffic. The Lagos-Ibadan railway started in 1896 and finished in 1900. Between
1907 and 1909, extensions to the Ilorin, Kaduana, Zaria, and Kano lines were completed.
Others followed—the line to Kano in 1913, and the Port-Harcourt, Enugu, and Maiduguri links in 1926.66
From the 1850s, the Niger River became the medium for the spread of British influence to the country’s northern reaches—thanks to the Scottish industrialist, MacGregor Laird, whose pioneering efforts were accompanied by a flood of British trading concerns in the Niger-
Benue basin. A crucial stage was attained in 1879 when these firms coalesced into one, to form the United African Company. By 1882, when the Company changed its name to the
National African Company, it had begun to nurse political ambitions over the areas of its operation.67
The eventual colonial acquisitions were preceded by a treaty-making phase during which the powers signed agreements with the local authorities to formalize their interests. But in contemporary European diplomacy, these documents were conceived to establish political claims. In 1900, the geographical configuration of Nigeria was defined under three political and administrative units, namely, the Colony and Protectorate of Lagos; the Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria; and the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. What follows is an attempt to discuss the process by which these units were achieved.
65 Falola, Toyin. The History of Nigeria. New Haven, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 70, 1999. 66 Wright, Stephen. Nigeria: Struggle for Stability and Status. Boulder, CO: West View Press. p. 18, 1998. 67 Tunde Oduwobi. From Conquest to Independence: The Nigerian Colonial Experience. Historia Actual Online, Núm. 25, Primavera, 23. 2011. 176
North of the Niger-Benue basin, the activities of the National African Company prepared the grounds for the eventual imposition of colonial rule. As already mentioned, the company had by 1882 begun to nurse political ambitions of its own to protect its commercial interests in its area of operation. For this purpose, it applied for a charter from the British government, but which was turned down. Not daunted, however, the Company embarked on indiscriminate treaty-making exercises by which it claimed to obtain political and commercial concessions from local authorities on the Niger-Benue basin. These documents secured the area for the
British at the Berlin Conference, and in 1886, the British granted the company the charter by which it was to protect British interests in the area on behalf of the government. Following the grant of the Charter, the Company changed its name to the Royal Niger Company
(RNC).68
From the Niger-Benue basin, the Company launched northwards as it approached the Sokoto
Caliph for commercial concessions in the Caliphate. The situation, however, became serious when the French and the Germans joined in the fray as they sought to challenge and undermine the manoeuvres of the RNC at the Caliph’s court. It all soon blew up into an international and diplomatic issue. In the event, between 1894 and 1899, the various governments involved concluded a number of agreements by which the Sokoto Caliphate area was assigned to the British. By the same token, the state of Borno was partitioned into three with its western portions going to the British. It was on this basis that the Protectorate of
Northern Nigeria was proclaimed on 1st January, 1900. The Charter of the RNC was revoked, as its territories formed the southern limits of the new Protectorate.69
By 1930, the Nigerian economy had come to be completely dominated by European firms to the exclusion of Nigerian entrepreneurs. The export and import trade was controlled by such
68 Ibid. Tunde Oduwobi. From Conquest to Independence: … 24. 69 A.H.M. Kirk-Greene. Adamawa Past and Present: An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 70-71, 1958. 177
European firms as the UAC, CFAO, SCOA, PZ, and John Holt, with the consequence that they were the principal determinants of the prices of export goods (agro-based items produced by Nigerians) and import goods (manufactured items consumed by Nigerians).70
The unassailable position enjoyed by these firms was ensured by the fact that Nigerian businessmen had little access to the capital market. The banks, and these were controlled by
Europeans, were reluctant to grant them credit facilities for the ostensible reason of lack of guarantees, but mainly because of distrust for the African. The whole position was agonizing to Nigerians; worse still as the greater part of the profits made by the firms were transferred to their home countries, and not re-invested in Nigeria for industrial growth. It was against this background that Nigerian entrepreneurs established an indigenous bank in 1933 called the National Bank.71
5.7 Introduction of Colonial Mixed-Farming Scheme in Muri Emirate
In Northern Nigeria, abnormally poor rainfall caused poor harvest perhaps once in every seven or eight years. The occurrence of two such seasons in succession led to real shortage of food or a partial famine. However, the harvest of 1937 was, however, generally excellent and corn was therefore plentiful.
The Agricultural Department worked to increase both the area of crops grown and the yield per acre of all crops in the Northern Provinces, including foodstuffs, cotton and groundnuts, through the introduction of ploughing with cattle and the making of farm-yard manure. This system was known as “mixed farming”. A family with a pair of cattle and a plough could cultivate four or five times the area of crops that they could cultivate by hand. At the same time, owing to the fact that a very little manure greatly increased the yield of crops in the
70 Tunde Oduwobi. From Conquest to Independence: The Nigerian Colonial Experience. Historia Actual Online, Núm. 25, Primavera, p. 25. 2011. 71 Ibid. p. 23. 178
Northern Protectorate, the man who used farm-yard manure got very much heavier yields per acre than the man who dug his soil by hand and, keeping no cattle, had no manure.
The new mixed farmer usually increased his three acre farm to about six acres in his second year, then to about nine, and twelve in the next two years respectively, so that it took him three or four years to increase his farm to its new maximum, and still longer to acquire or rear all the stock the farm could carry. Eventually, however, his returns were many times greater than those of the ordinary farmer—the stock alone, which he could feed almost entirely on the bye-products of his farm, gave more than the gross annual return from the hand-worked farm. Extension work was started in 1928, with three farmers near the Agricultural Station at
Samaru, Zaria; there were, in 1937, 1,435 farmers taking part in the movement. Practically, all these farmers were able to start mixed farming by receiving advances of from £5 to £10 per head from their Native Administration to cover the cost of bullocks and implements. The bullocks were all bought and trained, and the farmers trained by the Agricultural
Department.72
Nigeria agricultural sector was primarily made up of African subsistence and cash-crop farming. There was no significant non-African mixed farming. Inversely related to the importance of white settlers in agriculture during the colonial period was the expansion of cash-crop farming by Africans in Nigeria.73
The area consisted of alluvial soils which supported a number of crops, namely cereals such as millets, sorghums, and maize, with groundnuts as a source of oil. Livestock keeping was also a predominant feature in this area. In general, the inhabitants of the area practised mixed farming.74
72 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1886, Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, 1937, London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, para. 137, 1939. 73 John F. Weeks. Wage Policy and the Colonial Legacy - A Comparative Study. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 362, Cambridge University Press, Oct., 1971. http://www.jstor.org/stable/159670, Accessed: 21-06-2015. 74 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1886. Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, 1937, London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1939. 179
As a corollary to this attempt to introduce a system of mixed farming, since 1928, the
Government maintained a stock farm at Shika for the purpose of improving the local Zebu cattle by selective breeding. Improvement of milk yield was the main object of this work, and considerable progress was made. Experimental work on animal nutrition was also actively carried out at all the main Experimental Farms of the Agricultural Department. A new stock farm was established at Ilorin with funds provided by the Colonial Development Fund. This farm provided facilities for investigating the possibility of introducing a form of mixed farming in areas where the incidence of trypanosomiasis was too high to enable Zebu cattle to be used, by utilising the small humpless West African Shorthorn cattle which have a considerable natural resistance to this disease.75 For the purpose of this investigation, cattle were imported from the Gold Coast, the Gambia and French Guinea. The Agricultural
Department worked in close co-operation with the Veterinary Department, and although early results were not anticipated, however, the prospect that a considerable measure of success will ultimately be obtained was possible.76
Mixed farming within the Muri Emirate was one of the most important agricultural practice in the area. All the people in the Emirate practiced mixed farming where crop production was done side by with animal husbandry.77
5.8 Expansion of Export Cash Crop Production and Marketing in Muri Emirate
By about the time of World War I, the structure of the colonial economy had been established in Nigeria.78 As far as the farmers were concerned, the development of an export economy meant that by about I914, the number of producers who were dependent on the state of the world market for a significant share of their incomes were very much larger than it had been
75 Ibid. para. 138. 76 Ibid. para. 138. 77 Interview with Alh. Mohammed Dinga (Bobbo Dinga), 86 years, Muri Emirate Council, Lamurde Street Jalingo, Bobbo Dinga Residence, December 2 2016. 78 A.G. Hopkins. An Economic History of Lagos, 1880-1914. University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1964; and R. Szereszewski. The Process of Growth in Ghana. Journal of Development Studies, Vol. I, No. 2, January, I965. 180
at the close of the nineteenth century. This was because increased output was achieved by a more intensive application of labour resources to the land, rather than by any radical change in technique, such as the adoption of mechanization. Expansion was brought about by the decision of farmers who were already growing crops for the overseas market to devote more of their time and land to export production, and also by incorporating into the exchange economy; farmers who previously had not produced for export. Increased specialization held out the promise of a larger income, but it also implied greater reliance on the fortunes of overseas trade.79
The position of African business men in Nigeria had also changed as a result of the development of the colonial economy. As early as the I890’s, a few far-sighted African commentators realized that indigenous entrepreneurs were in danger of falling behind in the commercial race, but it was not until the close of World War I that this view became widespread and began to receive serious attention in political circles. By then, the expatriate firms had formed themselves into limited liability companies, had mobilized additional funds, and had established branches in the interior. With their greater capital resources and superior commercial skills, they were able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the wider market of the new tropical estate. The full implications of this trend were obscured during the first two decades of the 20th century by the period of prosperity, in which African business men shared. But the depression which began in I920, and the movement among the expatriate firms towards amalgamation, left little doubt that in the higher levels of business Africans were going to play only a secondary role. The cosmopolitan society of the nineteenth century, in which African merchants conducted businesses that compared with at least some of the
79 A.G. Hopkins. Economic Aspects of Political Movements in Nigeria and in the Gold Coast 1918-1939, The Journal of African History, Vol. 7, No. 1, 133-152, Cambridge University Press, 1966. http://www.jstor.org/stable/179465, Accessed: 21-06-2015. 181
expatriate firms, had finally dissolved. It was clear that it would need an immense effort to restore the position, if it could be restored at all.
The Groundnut (or peanut or monkey nut) constituted the great export crop of the extreme north of Nigeria, especially of the heavily populated Province of Kano. It was a valuable and attractive crop on sandy soil; for unlike cash crops it yielded well on such land with little or no manure. Other advantages were that, it smothered weeds comparatively well, added rather than removed fertility from the soil, and in times of scarcity could be used as food instead of being sold for export. The dried leaves and stems were extremely valuable as fodder and were carefully conserved for this purpose. On heavy soils, the work of harvesting groundnuts is sufficiently arduous to constitute a serious objection to the crop, especially as there was little interval between the ripening of the nuts and the time when the soil become too hard for efficient harvesting to be possible at all.
Another serious difficulty with groundnut was that the value per ton in Europe was low while the main producing area was about 700 miles from the coast. At times when produce prices were low, the cost of sea and railway freight, in spite of specially reduced rates for the latter, left little for the producer. The practice of adulterating groundnuts became prevalent, but a produce inspection system was instituted which yielded good results. The exports in the
1936-37 season amounted to 350,000 tons at an average price at Kano of £7 17s. 6d. a ton.
This was the highest figure so far recorded: previously, the average remained about 195,000 tons. In the marketing of the 1937-38 season, owing to the fall in the price, the quantity exported was considerably less than in 1936-37.80
Groundnuts were consumed locally in Nigeria as well as exported and there were no means, direct or indirect, of estimating the local consumption: the volume of the gross annual production was, therefore, unknown. The Agricultural Department, after many abortive trials
80 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 1886, Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, 1937, London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office, para. 126, 1939. 182
of varieties imported from other countries, endeavoured to make local selection of groundnut species in order to identify and cultivate only heavier yielding varieties of groundnut. In addition, with some prospect of success, the farmers were induced to adopt a much closer spacing of the plants in the field.81
Cotton was exported from the north of Nigeria, especially the Zaria, Katsina and Sokoto
Provinces, and from the Oyo Province in the south. It was also grown on a smaller scale, mainly for local consumption, in several other Provinces. The conditions in the two main producing areas were so different that it is necessary to discuss them separately. In northern
Nigeria, cotton was the crop of the heavy soils. The original native cotton of this district was quite unsuitable for export, but it was successfully replaced about the year 1916 by an
American variety introduced from Uganda. The annual yield per acre was liable to considerable fluctuation according to the distribution and volume of rainfall.82
The farmer also varied the amount of cotton which he planted each year, partly in accordance with the fluctuation of the price paid for cotton, but chiefly according to his previous crop of grain for food. If the grain crop of the previous season was a poor one, he naturally planted a larger area of grains and less cotton. Thus, although locusts did no harm to cotton, the damage that they had done to food crops in 1929 caused a great reduction in the area of cotton planted in 1930, while the heavy food harvest of 1931 led to more cotton being planted again in 1932.
The exports of cotton in 1936-37 amounted to 39,189 bales of 400 lb. net weight, at a price varying from .8d. to l5d. per lb. of seed cotton; in 1931-32 the exports were only 5,000 bales, but in 1934-36 50,000. In addition to these amounts, an unknown quantity was consumed locally in hand spinning and weaving and there was also a considerable export by land northward across the Anglo-French boundary. It is impossible to form any estimate of these
81 Ibid. para. 127. 82 Ibid. para. 128. 183
amounts, though it is clear that they were liable to great fluctuation. It is expected that in the
1937-38 season, the crop droped to less than that of 1936-37: How low price will cause a greater quantity than usual to be absorbed by the local industry.
To the end of August, 1913, the B.C.G.A. had purchased 40,236 lbs of cotton within the emirate of Muri as against 55,053 purchased in the year 1912 and 52,377 in 1911.83 The total amount of seed cotton purchased in the Muri Province for the period 1st January to 30th
September, 1913 was approximately 103,500 lbs as against 114,500 purchased during the 12 months of 1912. This disappointing result was due to the lack of rain in the year and to the attacks of a fungus.84
Mr. Easwood, the local Agent of the B.C.G.A writes:
Had the rains (i.e. in 1912) been satisfactory the returns for 1913 should have a decided increase on those of 1912, whereas it seem probable that even with further purchases in the Munshi Division, the total for the year will only just equal that of 1912, whereas 1912 purchases were three times those of 1912.85
In 1912 16 tons of seed were distributed and 20 tons in 1913. The B.C.G.A. have 2 gins running at Ibi, each of 70 saws. The ginnery consisted of three stores 100’x25’ and an engine house.86 Mud stores with iron roofs were put up at Mutum Biu, Shaaba and Dampar. At the same time everything was done by the colonial government to induce not only the Munshi, but farmers all over the Muri Province to cultivate cotton. They were not, however, convinced that cotton paid them better than beni-seed or groundnuts.87
The British Cotton Growing Assocaition commenced ginning in Ibi on November 4th 1911.88
The total amount of cotton purchased to December 31st 1912 was 131,408 lbs of which
83 NAK/717P/13/ Muri Province Report – September Quarter, 1913. 84 Ibid. 85 Ibid. 86 Ibid. 87 Ibid. 88 NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual, 1912. 184
amount 122,027 lbs was ginned by the same date. The price given the natives was -/1d per lb cash.89
Groundnut production, marketing and trade served as major sources of employment, income and foreign exchange before Nigeria became independent. The groundnut sector provided the basis for the agro-industrial development and contributed significantly to the commercialization, monetization and integration of the natural rural sector at that time.
To focus attention on peasant agriculture, the colonial government restricted manufactures.
Of the 102 foreign non-mining firms in 1921 in Nigeria only 7 were allowed to engage actively in manufacturing. The figure rose to 11 in 1936. This was in conformity with the
British policy which declared that “the Foreign Office and the Colonial Office are chiefly engaged in finding new markets and in defending old ones.”90
Secondly, there was to be no manufacture of cotton textiles in Nigeria. The United African
Company, for example, was discouraged from starting a spinning and weaving mill near the cotton area in Nigeria.91 This Company refrained from engaging in industry as it did not
“wish to harm home manufactures and home processors with whom they had contractual relations or in whose property they were financially interested”.92 In 1934, the government enacted an Imported Textiles Ordinance which diverted the sources of supplies for manufactured commodities. Finally, a high export duty was imposed on palm product extraction, £2 per ton for palm oil, and 10s. 6d. for palm kernel. The government was determined to do everything in its power to promote peasant agriculture for the export sector only.
89 Ibid. 90 L.S. Woolf. Empire and Commerce in Africa. London: George Allen & Unwin, p. 7, 1920. 91 J.R. Mars. Extra-territorial Enterprises, in M. Perham, (ed.). Mining Commerce and Finance in Nigeria vol. 2 of The Economics of a Tropical Dependency. London: Faber and Faber, p. 74, 1946-1948. 92 Ibid. p. 68. 185
Cotton production was encouraged by the supply of healthy seeds. Free cotton seeds were made available and buying stations. A fixed price of established one penny per pound was adopted. Low rates were fixed for the shipment of ginned cotton by railways and local authorities allotted grants to encourage the planting of cotton in the Kano districts.93 The
Empire Cotton Growing Association was established to popularize the growing of cotton in
Northern Nigeria. Despite this, cotton was not grown enthusiastically in the Kano region, as farmers found it profitable more to plant groundnuts instead. The British Resident in Kano, remarking on this behaviour of the “economic man” said, “In my experience the farmers of this Province are keen businessmen. They grow what it pays them to grow”.94
In Nigeria, European enterprise was restricted to the export-import trade - most wholesaling and some retailing - mining, and some relatively small-scale timber and rubber extraction;
Europeans were almost totally excluded from agricultural production.95
In Nigeria, the growth of production for export was amazing. Palm oil represented a major
Nigerian export for 50 years before the British brought the territory under colonial domination. In the early twentieth century, cocoa farming spread through Western Nigeria, and the building of the north-south rail link led to a rapid expansion of groundnut production.96 These crops were grown exclusively on small, African owned farms.
The northern farmer was primarily a subsistence farmer, but during the last 50 years, improved communications and an expanding urban market, combined with the necessity of earning the wherewithal to pay his taxes, drew him increasingly into cash-crop production.
The spread of a cash economy was uneven, and in the remoter areas such as southern Zaria,
93 J.S. Hogendorn. The Origins of the Groundnut Trade in Northern Nigeria. PhD diss., University of London, 1966; Carl K. Eicher and Carl Liedholm. (eds.). Growth and Development of the Nigerian Economy. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, p. 33, 1970. 94 Kano Province Report, 1911, 93, quoted by Hogendorn. Origins of Groundnut Trade. 34. 95 John F. Weeks. Wage Policy and the Colonial Legacy - A Comparative Study. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3, 362, Cambridge University Press, Oct., 1971. http://www.jstor.org/stable/159670, Accessed: 21-06-2015. 96 G.K. Helleiner. Peasant Agriculture, Government and Economic Growth in Nigeria. Homewood, Ill. Richard D. Irwin, Inc., pp. 506-7, 1966. 186
western Ilorin, and Adamawa, the economy was still dominantly subsistence. The cash-crop economy, too, showed variation; broadly speaking, the areas of the Middle Belt that had adequate communications (notably parts of Ilorin, Niger, and Plateau Provinces) tended to concentrate on the production of foodstuffs for the internal market, while the more accessible parts of the Sudan zone developed a highly specialized export economy based on cotton and groundnuts.97
The major export-crop region occupied the heart of the Sudan zone, athwart the Kano-
Katsina population axis, reflecting the combined influence of favorable soils, high population density, and well-developed communications. Two major crop belts were distinguishable: “a northern groundnut belt, on the light-textured drift soils; and, to the south, a cotton belt, on the heavier Zaria-type soils. Outside this major regions, the only export production of any significance was the cotton production at Kabba, the benniseed and soybean production of
Benue Province, and the small-scale production of ginger in Zaria Province. The amounts were relatively small. In 1948-1949, less than one-tenth of the Region’s exports were derived from the Middle Belt, which contained almost one-half of the Region's area. Economic development, in short, appeared to have reinforced rather than weakened the lines of cultural cleavage within the Region.98
It cannot be said that the expansion of groundnut and cotton production in the Sudan provinces of Bauchi, Borno, and Sokoto was associated with the extension of the railway eastward from Nguru to the “pioneer fringe” area of Bornu. Similarly, the relatively thinly peopled Middle Belt region was introduced to mechanized production of crops such as groundnuts, sorghum, and, possibly, rice which were lacking in the more closely settled
Sudan zone. This was the outcome of the experiments in mechanized cultivation at Mokwa,
97 Jonathan Olu Familugba. Agricultural Policies and Rural Development, The Case Of South Western Nigeria, 1945-1960. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research Vol:-4 No-2, p. 39, 2016. www.ijier.net 98 Ibid. p. 39. 187
in Niger Province, and Shemankar, on the southern fringe of Plateau Province, and a more thorough investigation of soils and climate in the Belt.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the imperial and the colonial government introduced new policies and intensified efforts at mobilising the Nigerian farmers for greater productivity of both food and export crops. New regulations and laws were introduced to ensure effective control of peasant farmers to meet up with the growing demand for export crops. The era therefore marked the beginning of a more direct intervention in the colonial economy.99 Each cash crop had a Marketing Board that supervised the preparation of the crops for export trade.100
5.9 Conclusion
The purpose of the British colonialists in making Muri Emirate into their colony was so they could exploit the resources of the Emirate. On this object, the British colonialists were successful. In so doing, they incorporated the economy of Muri into the world capitalist system. The British enacted ordinances and laws that made sure they were the only people among the Europeans who must benefit from the economy of Muri Emirate. The British employed a protectionist policy even towards the indigenous peoples of Muri.
The British colonialists introduced taxation to generate revenue for the running of the colony.
They imposed taxation on economic activities and on properties. Taxation was a means of consolidating colonial rule on Muri. Taxation was used to make the people of Muri produce cash crops to meet up the payment.
Foreign companies were instrumental to the establishment of colonialism in the Nigerian area, including Muri. Companies such as the Royal Niger Company, John Holt, etc. were
99 Ibid. p. 39. 100 J. O. Adefila. Pattern of Agricultural Development in Southern Parts of Katsina State, Nigeria: Notion for Rational Planning IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS) Volume 7, Issue 1 Ver. III, pp. 14-20, (Jan. 2014), www.iosrjournals.org 188
involved in the buying of the agricultural products of the Muri area. Because of the presence of many rivers in the Muri area, irrigation was practiced, especially on the river banks during the dry season. Dry season farming was one of the specialty of the people of Muri.
Foreign companies or multi-national corporations were at the forefront of colonialism because of economic exploitation. The British Crown granted Charter to these companies and mandated them to rule the colonial territories on their behalf. The companies came together as a combine in what was known as the United Africa Company.
Taking the favourable nature of the climate of the Muri area into account, the colonialists introduced mixed farming scheme into the area. This had always been the practice in the
Emirate. But this was intensified by the British because of their aim at maximising profit. The
Muri area is an area that supports the cultivation of many crops, both food crop and cash crops, and also an area where animal husbandry is also practiced.
Before the advent of colonialism, the attention of the farmers in Muri was on food crops production with little cash crop production for export. This system was reversed with the introduction of colonialism. They paid dearly in the form of famine and draught in the 1920s and 1930s within the Emirate, which led to some parents selling their children into slavery just to obtain grains.
Since the aim of the colonialists was to produce cash crops from the colonies as cheap sources of raw materials for their industries, the question of marketing had to come into play.
Being a people who were out to control the colony, even the prices of the products were determined by the British through various means, one of which was the Marketing Boards.
The multi-national companies had agents who went into the hinterland to purchase these products and transported them to the various stations established by the British colonialists.
189
In the case of Muri Emirate, these stations were Lau, Ibi, Amar, etc. The cash crops that were produced in this area were groundnut, cotton, beniseed (sesame seed) and so on.
CHAPTER SIX
EFFECTS OF BRITISH COLONIAL AGRICULTURAL POLICIES ON MURI
EMIRATE
6.1 Introduction
Colonial rule and the exploitation of the economic resources of the colonised peoples are one and the same. It is against this backdrop that this study discusses the nature of colonial agriculture and the Nigerian economy from 1903 to 1960. The imperial and colonial government introduced policies and intensified efforts at mobilising the Nigerian farmers for greater productivity of both export and food crops. Regulations and laws were introduced to ensure effective control of peasant farmers to meet up with the growing demand for export crops at the expense of food crops.
This study examines the trends in the development of agriculture in the Muri Emirate of
Nigeria most especially as it affected the production of such exportable crops as groundnuts, beniseed, cotton, etc. This is because any analysis of agricultural development in Nigeria must essentially take into consideration the colonial system in order to understand how policies and practices during that period impacted upon subsequent agricultural policies and practices in the Muri Emirate of Nigeria.
6.2 General Economic Effects of Colonialism on Muri Emirate
For us to understand the effects of British colonial agricultural policies on Muri Emirate, what is most important to us is the extent to which pre-colonial agriculture in the Nigerian area met the societal requirements of the people, mainly in four areas; provision of food for
190
the population, provision of raw materials for the industries, provision of employment and its contribution to commerce or trade generally.1
In the area of provision of food, according to Abdulkadir, it would be far-fetched to claim that the Nigerian societies were completely self-sufficient in their food requirements individually. However, it is well established by some studies that none of the states, individually or collectively, depended on another continent outside Africa for its food requirements throughout the pre-colonial period.2 There is abundant evidence to prove that various communities of the Nigerian area had developed extensive trading networks throughout the length and breadth of the area, directly and indirectly.3
It was through this trades that food items not available in one area was obtained from the other and vice versa. These various trades involved food items from different ecological zones of the Nigerian area and their neighbours. As such, as far as food was concerned, the
Nigerian area was fully sufficient in food production.
When we also look at the provision of raw materials for local industries, it is also well established that the various industries of the Nigerian area were locally sourced. In addition to providing the raw material requirements for its industries, the Nigerian area even exported raw materials to other places like the famous “Moroccan leather” which found its way to
Europe.4
In the area of contribution to commerce and provision of employment to the population, agriculture in pre-colonial Nigerian area discharged its role most efficiently. All the various trades highlighted above could not have been possible without the enormous outputs from the
Nigerian sector. It is widely known and accepted, according to Abdulkadir, that prior to the
1 Abdulkadir Adamu. The Major Trends in Nigerian Agriculture: Towards the 21st Century. Paper presented at the 38th Annual Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria. Held at National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS) Conference Room. Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Held on the 27th to 29th June, 1994. p. 4. 2 Ibid. p. 5. 3 Ibid. p. 5. 4 Ibid. 191
colonial period, unemployment was unheard of in Africa.5 By and large, agriculture in pre- colonial Nigeria area could be said to have fully served the needs of the most important sources for the acquisition of wealth, power and prestige.
The closing decades of the 19th century saw the violent military conquest of the Nigerian area and its incorporation into the world capitalist system of Britain. This was the period of the great competition and rivalry among European governments and multinational companies for a share of the world market for their manufactured goods and raw materials for their industries. As such, the British conquered Nigeria in order to serve its imperial purpose.
The British realised from the start that the economy of the Nigerian area could not be made subordinate to and serve the British economy unless some policy measures were introduced.
This was because in the beginning, British products, especially textiles, faced stiff competition from the local textile products and the local traders or buyers of raw materials, especially cotton offered better prices than those offered by British firms.
The policies introduced therefore were aimed at subverting and subjugating all the sectors of the Nigerian economy from serving internal requirements to serve the British imperial designs. Hence, policies on land, labour, agricultural production and taxation were imposed.
The British realised that agriculture was the bedrock of the economy, once agriculture was subjugated to serve British needs, other local industries competing with British ones would simply crumble in one way or the other.6
The most effective of the British colonial policies was colonial taxation, which forced the peasantry all over the country to embark on cultivation of export cash crops in order to pay the colonial taxes. In addition, all other occupations were taxed accordingly. The brutality and violence that characterised colonial tax collection has been amply documented by
Michael Watts. Peasants were also forced to pay their taxes in cash; that is, the new British
5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 192
currency. The colonial government also introduced products marketing regulations. This involved the establishment of buying centres for the various cash crops and later the establishment of the Marketing Boards.7
A transport policy of opening up the interior and linking it to the coast was vigorously presented. This led to the construction of railway so that cash crops produced in the interior could easily be transported to the ports for onward shipment to Britain. In the same line, numerous roads and waterways were opened for the movement of raw materials to the sea ports.8
The implication of the British colonial policies was the unprecedented expansion in the production of export cash crops at the expense of food crop production and the internal requirements of the Nigerian economy. Nigeria came to occupying leading position in the production of cotton, groundnut, rubber, palm oil and cocoa in the world. This led to the complete reorientation of Nigerian agriculture away from serving its internal requirements. It became highly commercialised. The linkage that hitherto existed between the various sectors of the Nigerian economy was severed. This had direct influence on the collapse of our traditional textiles industries and other manufacturing activities. While export production of cash crops rose, food production rapidly declined, the results were the numerous famines that frequented Nigeria throughout the colonial period. All the traditional roles assigned to agriculture were not allowed to function, hence acreage under cash crops increased while those under food crops dropped.9
The Muri Emirate economy before colonization was primitive and based on barter system.
This did not change even with the coming of the British colonialists as buying and selling was still done by barter. For instance, according to a colonial report:
7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 193
“The system on which trade is conducted by the four export Firms is still the barter one, except for rubber. This system necessitates the presence of a middleman who receives the barter goods and pays cash to the producer.”10
Since one of the objectives of colonialism was to find market for the European manufactured goods and raw materials for the industries, there was need for an organic linkage between the
Nigerian economy and market with that of the international system controlled and directed by the colonizers. Through direct control of Nigerian economy and political administration made possible colonialism.
Muri Emirate was compelled or forced to accept the international division of labour which assigned her the compulsory role of production of agricultural raw materials required by the industries in Europe.11 This explains why up till today, the role of Muri economy in the world market or international trade is the production of primary goods and agricultural products.
The advanced countries of Europe controlled the production of manufactured goods. As we know, one of the reasons for the colonization of Nigeria was the need for a suitable market where the numerous European manufactured goods could be easily disposed of at a reasonable profit.
Since the Muri economy was essentially based on barter system, there was the need to monetize the economy to be in line with the European market and the international trade standard. Money was introduced as the only official acceptable medium of exchange, and to enforce this, there was need for the colonialists to take direct control of the administration of the Muri Emirate.12
Furthermore, there was also the need for the colonialists to take full control of the Nigerian economy and administration to ensure that Nigeria was made a consumer nation for European manufactured goods. This measure guaranteed development and progress of the new
10 NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual by F.H. Ruxton, Resident Muri Province, 1912. 11 Stephen Ocheni, Basil C. Nwankwo. Analysis of Colonialism and Its Impact in Africa. Cross-Cultural Communication, 8 (3), 46-54. 2012. Available from URL: http://www.cscanada.net/ p. 48. 12 Ake, C. Revolutionary Pressures in Africa. London: Zed, 1980. 194
industrialization in Europe, because without the policy, most of the industries would have been compelled to close down if there were not ready market and consumers for their products. Also, direct control of the Nigerian economy and political administration enabled the colonialists to ensure that Nigeria did not take to manufacturing. It helped to restrict
Nigerians and their technology to the confines or role of producing only primary goods or agricultural raw materials needed by the industries in Europe. This is the main reason why, today, Nigeria finds it very difficult to industrialize and to go into full manufacturing. This also explains why Nigeria is a consumer nation for foreign manufactured goods. The situation equally accounts for the present underdevelopment of the Nigeria and her technology.13
Another effect of colonialism in Nigeria is the disarticulation of her economy. Colonialism distorted African pattern of economic development in many different ways. There was disarticulation in production of goods, markets, traders, transport, provision of social amenities and pattern of urbanization, etc. The colonialists introduced a pattern of international division of labour which was to the disadvantage of Nigerians. They assigned to
Nigeria the role of production of raw materials and primary products for use by their industries at home. Nigerians were not allowed nor encouraged to go into manufacturing. The only industries Nigerians were encouraged to build were those that would facilitate in the processing of the raw materials for export. The Nigerian raw materials were bought at very low prices while manufactured goods from abroad were sold at expensive prices. This situation accounted for the impoverishment of most Nigerians.14
There was also disarticulation in the type of goods produced by Nigerians. The colonialists compelled Nigerians to concentrate in the production of goods meant for export. Nigerians were not encouraged to produce those goods required by the local population. This made
13 Ejimofor, C.O. British Colonial Objectives and Policies in Nigeria, The Roots of Conflict. Onitsha, Nigeria: African FEP Publisher Ltd. 1987. 14 Rodney, W. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Enugu, Nigeria: Ikenga Publishers, 1982. 195
many Nigerians to abandon the production of food items required to feed the teeming and growing population. The effect of this was food shortage and escalation in food prices. The present day situation where Africans now import their food is a carry-over from colonialism.
The point being stressed here is that colonialism distorted the satisfaction of local needs in terms of food production and other requirements in preference to production and satisfaction of foreign needs, especially the industries.15
Colonialism also disarticulated Nigerian markets and trades. The traditional or original
Nigerian marketing centres were distorted by colonialism. Most of the traditional Nigerian marketing centres or routes were formed based on local needs. When colonialism came and introduced a different need, this changed the original or traditional marketing centers to new marketing centres because it rendered them irrelevant. Consequently, the colonialists created new marketing centres and routes where their required raw materials could be easily bought and evacuated back home. This led to the gradual decay or death of most of the original or traditional marketing centres thereby distorting Nigerian pattern of development and urbanization. As we know, most of these traditional Nigerian market centres constituted the traditional or original Nigerian centres. Colonialism also made African trade to be mainly export-import oriented.16
6.3 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Land Tenure System in Muri Emirate
The coming of the British and eventual colonialization of the people altered the traditional land tenure system in Muri.17 Land was very important to the social, political and economic wellbeing of Muri Emirate, just like other societies the world over. It was regarded as collective property which everyone could utilize for agriculture and building of houses.
Although land was regarded as collective property, individuals owned the plots which they
15 Ibid. 16 Nnoli, O. (ed.). Pain to Nigerian Development. Senegal: CODERRIA Book State, 1981. 17 Group interview at the Emirs’ Palace 09/10/2016. 196
either inherited or acquired. The laid down methods of acquisition and utilization eliminated land disputes throughout the pre-colonial period of Muri Emirate history.18
The British colonial authorities introduced the production of groundnuts and other cash crops into Muri agricultural system in line with their policies of encouraging the production of raw materials for the industries in Europe. Muri Emirate people, just like many other people all over the world, depended largely on land for their social, political and economic sustenance.
This was because, all human activities were carried out on land and were dependent on resources obtained from land. In Muri Emirate, land was regarded as a collective property— owned and utilized by all members of the community. As a collective property, it was held in trust for the people by the political authority; in this case, the Emir.19
As land was available in abundance in Muri, every able bodied man and woman had access to it either for building or other economic endeavours such as farming without impediments.20
However, nobody had the right to alienate land either as a gift or otherwise without the permission of those at the helm of affairs in the community.21 The British authorities, in order to realize their economic objectives in Nigeria, introduced the cultivation of cash crops such as groundnuts and so on.
With the successful conquest and establishment of colonial rule, the stage was set for the massive exploitation of the human and natural resources which abound in Muri. The territory was rich in agricultural and forest products. The soil was fertile and this had enhanced agricultural activities in the area before the coming of the British. The forest was replete with abundant natural resources such as groundnuts and cotton were in high demand in Europe.
The demands for these products were necessitated by the Industrial Revolution of the
18 Interview with Hajia Zainab (Abu) Suleimuri, Suleimuri Residence, Jalingo, 12/02/2015. 19 Ibid. 20 Ibid. 21 Interview with Alh. Hammadu Ardo Kola, 97 years, retired politician, at his residence in Kano, 30th December, 2015. 197
nineteenth century. Groundnut was needed for the lubrication of machines while cotton was used in the textile industry.
The cultivation and production of these crops, especially natural rubber and the emergence of salaried middle class such as soldiers, policemen, clerks, interpreters, cooks, among others, contributed to the alteration of land tenure not only in Muri, but in the whole of what is known today as Nigeria. According to Dike,
The British occupation of Nigeria introduced new forms of land holding in Nigeria which, although they did not completely supersede the traditional or indigenous forms, have greatly influenced and supplemented them. Westernization, demographic factors, and the introduction of money economy are the major contributors to changes in the traditional land tenure system….22
Countries live in the shadow of their past: responses to current circumstances are conditioned by what has gone before. In developing countries, plans for economic growth are conditioned by previous policy - or the lack of it - and by what was done or what was not done in previous decades. In Africa south of the Sahara, with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, it is the past history of colonial domination which conditions the present.
Large areas of northern Nigeria were vulnerable to periodic droughts. The most severe, such as the great famine of 1913-14, affected the whole region. In 1913-14, farmers responded to the arrival of the railway in Kano by increasing production of groundnuts for the newly expanded market, thereby worsening the shortage of food.23
Extension and intensification of cultivation, and migration of people into new areas, made possible the expansion of agricultural production for both export and domestic markets, as well as placed pressure on natural resources. Scrub bush and forests were made way for arable and tree crop cultivation. Rising population from migration and natural increase reduced the range of trees which could provide food as well as fuel. Large game and most
22 Dike, A. Land Tenure System in Igboland. International Review of Ethnology and Linguistics. Anthropos, 78: 853-871, 1983. 23 Gavin Williams, What Disequilibria? People, Land and Food in Nigeria. Les spectres de Malthus. The World Bank. 198
small game disappeared from heavily populated areas of the country. Outmigration and intensification of production did not fully relieve the pressures of increasing population on the available land and fertility of the soil in arid and densely -populated areas. The symbiosis of pastoralists and cultivators began to give way to competition for scarce land resources.
Farmers and pastoralists did not only change their environment, but also had to adapt to climatic and demographic, as well as to economic changes, and to infection of plants, stock and humans by diseases.
However, the combination of expanded production, rising population and extensive migration has not exhausted Nigeria’s soils. In most rural areas, access to markets and labour resources are more critical to expanding production than the availability of land. The rural areas faced with the greatest pressure of population on land are in many cases still the same as they were fifty years ago.24
6.4 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Farmers and People of Muri
Poverty in the colonial period was shown to have been caused by changes in power relations and accompanying administrative and economic reorganization of the society which facilitated the diversion of labour, resources and surplus produce from family and household use to the colonial state, firms and their agents. This new form of poverty was manifested in the loss of family and household self-sufficiency and the inability to meet personal survival needs and obligations, making the majority unable to participate fully in the affairs of their communities.
In the Ten Year Development Plan by the colonial administration (1946–1956), the colonialists emphasized commodity crop production, mainly, oil palm, cocoa, rubber, cotton and groundnuts. The document contained very little or no proposal for increased food
24 Forde, D., Scott R., The native economies of Nigeria, vol. 2 of Perham M. (ed.), Mining, commerce and finance in Nigeria, London, Faber and Faber, 1948. 199
production. This was to affect food security in Nigeria in the years leading to the end of colonial rule.
In the very early days of colonial rule in Nigeria, there seemed to be an acute shortage of labour, particularly in Lagos.25 However, by World War I, the shortage had changed to surplus, and the ‘targetworker’ hypothesis was largely absent in subsequent official documents. Except for a few brief periods after 1939, an abundance of unskilled labour was characteristic of Nigeria. Lugard, writing in I918, commented: we find that not only is Government able to count on a fairly adequate labour supply, both for current needs and for great construction works... but there is a large surplus, working on the minefields and elsewhere... The cause, I think, is to be found in the quick appreciation by the African of the amenities of life which he can procure for cash, and his natural aptitude for work... The aptitude of the Native for work... is well illustrated by the fact that there has never been any shortage of free voluntary labour for the arduous work of quarrying coal underground... in spite of the fact that the colliery was opened in a district... where no previous demand for labour existed.26
Lugard’s judgement was supported by the building of hundreds of miles of railways in
Nigeria before and after World War I almost exclusively with local labour (for the most part voluntary).
It must be noted that the colonial government did not make appreciable effort to modernize the traditional system of agriculture in Muri because their view was that the peasant farmers were backward, unchanging, conservative, and were fearful of abandoning the methods of their forefathers.27 Recent studies in agricultural history have shown that African farmers are not unchangeable, stagnant and unthinking traditionalists. They were usually willing to change, and even anxious to change in so far as the incentives and appropriate methods and techniques were made available by the colonial masters, who had hitherto claimed to have modernized Africa. The most convincing evidence as to the superficiality of the much talked
25 A.G. Hopkins. The Lagos Strike of 1897: an exploration in Nigerian labour history, in Past and Present, Oxford, xxxv, 1966. 26 F.D. Lugard. Revision of Instructions to Political Officers 1913-18, London. pp. 224 and 226, 1919. 27 Philip C. et al. African History. London: Longman Group Press. p. 503, 1981. 200
about colonialism being responsible for the “modernization” of Africa is the fact that the vast majority of Africa went into colonialism with a hoe and came out with a hoe.28 The eastern part of the Muri Province was inhabited by pagan tribes, who, especially in famine times, were much given to selling their children to Muslim traders.29
The export of natural products had much declined in five years following the introduction of colonialism. According to some colonial reports, some of the reasons were firstly, the creation of an Administration and of a large military force, including a battalion of mounted infantry, created a demand for grain and supplies which was new, and which the native had not yet recognised as normal. He found it more lucrative to supply this local demand than to carry produce for export to more distant markets.
A large portion of the population formerly consisted of more or less recently-enslaved persons, who left their state of servitude and returned to their homes among the Pagan tribes or taken up land for themselves. This decreased the labour supply available for the classes who formerly raised exportable produce with which to buy the imported cottons they desired, which temporarily decreased the wealth of the classes who were the chief purchasers.
Labour formerly available for agriculture or the collection of silvan produce was needed by
Government for the construction of roads, railways and other works, which in the future greatly developed trade though it tended to reduce the exportable output. The cash earnings by canoe-men and carriers for transport of Government goods were also very considerable.30
The Nigerian colonial economy, which was mostly rural-based, was heavily structured to enhance the economic success of the colonizing powers, in a manner that subjected peasant
28 Rodney W. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle L' Overture Publishers. p. 239, 1972. 29 Colonial Reports—Annual. December, No. 651. Northern Nigeria. Report for 1906-7. London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, By Darling & Son, Ltd., 3440, Bacon Street. p. 32, 1907. 30 Colonial Reports—Annual. No. 616. Northern Nigeria. Report for 1906-6, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Darling & Son, Ltd., p. 76, January, 1907. 201
farmers to exploitative relations mediated by notable British companies such as United Africa
Company, John Holt, Paterson and Zochonis (PZ) and Lever Brothers.31
British colonial interest in rural Nigeria was characterized by two-prong exploitation. In the first place, the rural areas were available only as primary resource areas for export of raw materials. The second level of exploitation saw the rural areas as food productive centres for the few urban centers which eventually were to serve the basic food needs of the colonial inhabitants.32
According to Coleman, British rule brought a range of changes.33 The most significant changes for the aim of this study are: First, slavery was abolished in Northern Nigeria and the whole of Nigeria, but – in order not to upset the social structure – only those who ran away from the former masters were deemed free. British control of all of Nigeria created a large free trade area. Security along the trading routes was enhanced and transaction costs reduced.
As a result, the volume of internal trade increased. Investments in infrastructure (roads and railways) promoted trade.
A common currency was introduced, although it took until the mid-20th century to replace the traditional money units. In 1922, more than 40 per cent of the revenue of the colony was spent on construction and maintenance of infrastructure. In 1950, there were better transport infrastructure, free trade and currency unit. They sounded economically great, but they mainly served the overall goal of providing resources for British manufacturers and markets for British goods.34 Hence, colonial economic policies aimed to maximize exports and imports. Internal markets seemed to have been neglected. International trade was almost monopolized by a few European companies, such as the United Africa Company (UAC). Off
31 Ajayi, G. Internal politics of decolonization and the emergence of neo-colonial in post-independence Nigeria. In: G. Ayaji (ed). Critical perspectives on Nigeria’s socio-political development in the 20th century. Lagos: Stebak Books, 1-28, 1999. 32 Nseabasi S. Akpan. From Agriculture to Petroleum Oil Production: What Has Changed about Nigeria’s Rural Development? International Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. 1, No. 3, 97-106, 2012. 33 Coleman James. Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963. 34 Ibid. 202
the main exporting routes, internal markets had hardly been developed during colonial rule.35
The British created a class of educated local bureaucrats needed to perform routine tasks of administration. To avoid corruption, this group was liable to serve in areas different from those of their birth.36
A common feature of all these agricultural programs was their neglect of the interest of the peasants. The peasants were neither taken into account, nor involved in their policy formulation, manpower mobilization and in the utilization of modern methods for greater productivity, and for the improvement of their standard of living.
6.5 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Food Production in Muri Emirate
Africa seemed attractive to European rulers for economic and racial reasons, that is national pride. Africa offered Britain, France, Germany and other countries an open market for trade, a market that bought more from colonial power than it sold overall.37
In Nigeria, agriculture was entirely a peasant industry.38 Colonial rule and the exploitation of the economic resources of the colonised territory were inextricably intertwined. Even though agriculture was the mainstay of the Muri Emirate economy and constituted the main source of income for the rural dwellers, not much effort was made by the colonial administration to modernize and commercialize agriculture, especially in the area of food crop production.
Rather, their emphasis was on cash crop production for export purposes. Emphasis on cash crops production made many farmers to abandon food crop production. Rodney points out that; “in the centuries before the imposition of colonial rule, the dominant agricultural activity was food crop production”.39 The colonial interest in cash crops stemmed from the serious need to keep the British and European industries running. It must therefore be pointed out
35 Eslam Badawy. Botswana and Nigeria: Same Colonial Legacy but Different Paths MPP Professional Paper. The Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The University of Minnesota. p. 21, 2015. 36 Coleman James. Nigeria: Background to Nationalism. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963. 37 Shillington, K. History of Africa. Revised Second Edition. Macmillian Publishers Limited. New York, 2005. 38 Colonial Reports – Annual. No. 1569. Annual Report on the Social and Economic Progress of the People of Nigeria, London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 22, 1931. 39 Rodney W. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle L' Overture Publishers. p. 48, 1972. 203
that the economic exploitation of the resources of the Muri Emirate was the prime raison d'etre of colonialism.
The Native Authority was charged with the responsibility of controlling societal vices such as gambling, carrying of weapons, bush burning, etc. However, since it was operating within a society that was clearly divided between two share classes of the rich and the poor, total eradication of such vices turned out to be highly difficult if not impossible. Moreover, it was the colonial administration’s policy of highly taxing local manufactures that rendered many of them jobless; hence they resorted to gambling and loitering. In terms of bush burning, the
Native Authority failed in its bid to curtail the phenomenon. This was possibly due to two main reasons: Firstly, because of the colonial administration’s policy of cash crop production instead of food crops, a number of families ran short of grains, and resorted to hunting, hence bush burning. Secondly. During the dry season, the fresh grass that usually grew after the dry ones had been burnt were more favourable to cattle. Therefore, cattle owners on whose shoulders rested the payment of the jangali could not help but resort to bush burning in order to obtain fresh grass for their cattle.40
Muri Native Authority did not also achieve much in terms of building/construction and maintenance of roads, due to the problems posed by the colonial administrative system.
Roads that were built and maintained were only those that served the interest of the colonialists in terms of exchanging resources from one area to the nearest buying station of the European trading companies where they were sold. In most cases, the farmers carried their produce to the station where they could be sold. Again, it was also the policy of the colonial administration not to construct roads to link the various villages, particularly economically less viable villages.41
40 NAK/490/15920, 631:648. 41 Ibid 204
Colonial policies resulted in the diversion of labour and surplus produce from families and households to the colonial state, European trading firms and their local agents. This development made families unable to meet their subsistence needs and social obligations which forced them to migrate to urban areas to access the dwindling opportunities. Despite the social breakdown before the 1930s, the colonial state left “welfare” to the indigenous communities, which were incapable of providing it. The social services and welfare policies that emerged before 1939 were miniscule and provided in piecemeal.42
In the Lau Division (Muri Emirate), Mr. Haughton reported that the cultivation of groundnuts supplanted all other crops; even guinea-corn.43 The trading instinct of the people was so strong that they prefered to run the risk of cultivating produce for export and of buying their foodstuffs. The consequence was that every year, great scarcity of foodstuffs prevailed in and near all trading centres.44 This was a direct effect of colonialism, since the situation they found themselves was as a result of the demand for export cash crops than food crops.
Because of this, all District Heads were advised to see to the cultivation of more millet, guinea-corn and yams next year (1914) in order to be ready to meet the not unlikely demands of the railway construction parties.
The increased cultivation by 1912 of groundnuts in the Lau Division, of cotton in the Ibi
Division and Beni seed in the Munshi Division was very noticeable. All these crops were principally cultivated with a view to sale to the Export Firms.45 This had serious effects on food crop production in Muri Emirate.
6.6 Effects of Colonial Agricultural Policies on Local Industries in Muri Emirate
42 Uyilawa Usuanlele. Poverty and Welfare in Colonial Nigeria, 1900-1954. A PhD thesis Department of History. Queen’s University. Kingston, Ontario, Canada. p. 4, 2010. 43 NAK/717P/13/ Muri Province Report – September Quarter, 1913. para. 112. p. 30. 44 Ibid. 45 NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual by F.H. Ruxton, Resident Muri Province, 1912. 205
The communities that made up the Muri Emirate were engaged in one form of industrial production or another. These industries were all affected by colonialism in one way or the other. Canoe building as one of the craft of the riverine communities was affected not only by colonialism but by climate change; such as falling water level and so on. Fishing was also affected along-side canoe building. In the course of the study, we identified several industrial activities the people of Muri engaged in and the level they were variously affected by colonialism. One thing that however brought them together was the fact that they were related to agricultural production. The attention of the colonialist was on the mainstay of the economy which was agriculture, and once an allied sector was affected, it permeated to other sectors of the economy.
The iron mining and blacksmithing industry which was the industrial practice of the hill side and hill top communities of the Muri Emirate was also affected by colonialism. This was in terms of importation of cheap iron ore and iron finished products in form of iron bars and the imposition of heavy taxation on the local iron ore and finished products from it. The heavy taxation therefore made the local products to be expensive for the people.
Throughout this study, attention has been focused on the effect of colonial agricultural policies on agricultural development and transformation in Muri Emirate. We have also looked at the attendant economic backwardness that these policies brought to Muri Emirate.
Our finding is simple; colonialism had a negative effect on agricultural development in Muri
Emirate and the general economic development of the Emirate. First off, colonialism met a peasant based agricultural system and did nothing to transform it. What it did was to reinforce it and redirect it to serve the purpose of the so-called mother country or in Marxian parlance; the metropole.
Textiles industry was one of the important industries in the Muri Emirate area. When English cotton goods were allowed to pass toll free, traders abandoned travelling with native cotton 206
goods which were taxed 15 per cent., and traded solely in imported cloth, and the great danger of an important native industry being crushed out through an unfair application of the caravan tolls appeared. This was pointed out just in time, and all goods traded in were placed on exactly the same footing as regards tolls. The native cloth, though less showy than English cloth, was much more durable and better value to the native than the cloth imported and described by the Resident as “grey baft,” and no native, he reported, will take the English material if he could possibly get the native article, even though he might have to pay more for the latter.46
The poor technological base of most of the present day Nigerian states, which has been responsible for their underdevelopment, stems from their poor foundation of education laid by the colonialists. Colonial education essentially aimed at training clerks, interpreters, produce inspectors, artisans, etc., which would help them in the exploitation of the Africa’s rich resources. Colonial education did not aim at industrialization of African territories or at stimulating technological development within the Nigerian environment. Colonial education brought about distortion and disarticulation in Nigerian indigenous pattern of education which was rooted in Nigerian technology. Before fully embracing colonial education,
Nigerians were good technologists, advancing at their own rates with the resources within their environment. For example, Africans were good sculptors, carvers, cloth weavers, miners, blacksmiths, etc.
The introduction of colonial education made Nigerians to abandon their indigenous technological skills and education in preference to one which mainly emphasized reading and writing. This was the prelude or foundation for the present poor technological base of African states which has perpetuated their underdevelopment. As we know, education that is not deeply rooted in a people’s culture and environment cannot bring about any meaningful
46 Colonial Reports—Annual. December, No. 651. Northern Nigeria. Report for 1906-7. London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, By Darling & Son, Ltd., 3440, Bacon Street. p. 72, 1907. 207
technological advancement. This has aptly been shown in the unsuccessful attempt at the so- called technological transfer, which is more of a myth than reality.
Canoe-making or caving is another occupation the riverine communities such as the Bandawa and Lau people were engaged in for their livelihood. Canoe making was carried out in the dry season and it was done in the forest where the correct specie of tree such as African mahogany and silk cotton tree were obtained.47
Canoe carving took a long process. The canoe carvers first of all cleared a space round the foot of a large tree in the vicinity and deposited an offering of foods drinks and local beer
(shin) with a prayer to their ancestors. Normally, when felling trees for canoe carving, people considered most expert in the practical work of canoe making were those to do the job. The felled logs were dragged down to the river bank over logs of tree branches used as rollers.
They are soaked in the water in order that the wood might not split during the final stage of completing the canoe carving. The process of soaking might last as long as three to four days and during this period, the party returned homes.48
However, sometimes the African mahogany log will be cut down in the forest during the annual River Benue flood When the water overflowed it banks and changed it course, an existing canoe will be used by the canoe carvers to convey the log of African mahogany from the forest to the canoe carvers local workshop in the community, usually near the river Benue bank. The log would be kept there for three or four days before the canoe carving would commence.49 Experts in canoe making would then be invited. The canoe was pulled to the bank and the final work, which included decorations then took another three or four days.
Canoe paddles were made from soap berry trees and poles or stick from bamboo were all carved for paddling the canoe on water. Damaged canoes were usually mended by experts
47 Judge Kpashan Umaru, 61 years old, Oral Interview, Fisherman, Bandawa, 31/12/2016. 48 Saleh Awe, 74 years old, Oral Interview, Carver, Bandawa, 7/3/2017. 49 Ahmed Dajiri, 55 years old, Oral Interview, civil servant, Jalingo, 14/2/2017. 208
using special materials such as cotton wools, gum Arabic mixture with clay were used to block holes through which water leaked into the canoes.50
Finally, the canoe had served the communities on the north and south banks of the
Benue and its environs as a major means of fishing and transportation on the River Benue since the earliest time. The canoes were used for transporting farm produce, fishing and hunting expeditions in the rainy season However, with the emergence of formal British colonial administration in the 1900s, the steam engine boats and lorries were introduced for conveying large quantity of goods to and fro the river ports in Lau. These affected the local canoe carving business through patronage and gradual decline. This industry was also undermined with the coming of the British colonialist through it preference of agriculture.
Due to some of the policies introduced by the British the canoe industry was affected in several ways. These included the introduction of boats into the area which carry out transportion of the commodities that these canoes were supposed to ferry.
6.7 Conclusion
50 Barnabas Ibrahim, 48 years old, Oral Interview, Sarkin-Kwatan Bandawa, Kwatan Bandawa, 2/1/2017. 209
Colonialism in Nigeria was a system that put the interest of the colonizers first. It was established with the sole purpose of benefiting the British to the extent that whatever benefit that came to the Nigerian people was indirect. The first thing to observe is the fact that colonialism met an agricultural sector that was peasant based and left an agricultural sector that was peasant based.
There was no effort genuine enough to advance agricultural practice in Muri Emirate area.
The advancements that were being recorded by the people of Muri Emirate area in the area of agriculture was halted and stagnated with the coming of the British colonialist. The British were after raw materials for their industries in form of cash crops and forest based plants.
Because of their interest in cash crops, food crops were relegated to the background. This resulted in famine and draught in the Muri Emirate to the extent that people resorted to selling their children into slavery to obtain food. This came about despite the fact that slavery was abolished by the British.
Because of the decision by the British colonialists to give preference to imported cotton and imposed heavy taxation in form of tolls to local cotton, the farmers suffered and the cultivation of local cotton was discontinued by the Nigerian farmers. This affected the textiles industry of the Muri Emirate. This was a vibrant industry as of old in the Muri Emirate.
As far as food crop production was concerned in relation to the colonial economy, it did not receive much attention by the British colonialist in Muri Emirate. At some point, food crop production was even abandoned in favour of cash crops by the people of Muri Emirate as a result of colonial agricultural policies. These policies were targeted at increasing cash crop production to feed the European industries. The British colonialists imposed heavy taxation on the people of Muri Emirate such that they were forced to abandon food crops production and engaged in cash crop production to get money to pay the taxes.
210
The British colonialist focused their attention towards Northern Nigeria and Muri Emirate for tax collection intensively because the Southern part of Nigeria was not paying tax due to the fact that the south was not used to tax collection. In order to meet up the shortfall of revenue from the South, more taxation were collected from the North. The Aba Women Riot took place as a result of the fact that the people were not used to taxation as a whole, not to talk of taxing women.
The most important industries that were affected by the British colonial agricultural policies in Muri Emirate were the textiles and iron industries. These industries were instrumental to the Industrial Revolution in England. The aim of the British colonialists was to make Nigeria and other colonized areas of the world into primary producers of goods in form of raw materials for their industries back home. Iron ore mining and continued working on it by the smiths would have brought about refining the iron and improve its technique by the people of
Muri Emirate. This was truncated deliberately by the British colonialists through importation of cheap iron and imposition of heavy taxation on the locally mined iron ore of the Emirate.
The intensification of the production of cash crop within Muri Emirate brought about food shortage on the area. Cash crops production also affected soil fertility which led to draught and famine within the Muri Emirate in the colonial period.
The British colonialists decided to conquer Muri Emirate so as to control the resources of the
Emirate. The conquest of Muri Emirate took place as a result of diplomatic outreach of
Mafindi who led the British delegation into Muri to meet his brother who was the Emir then.
Mafindi had witnessed the power of the British in Adamawa and the devastation they could cause in any area that resisted their rule. while other emirates and societies within Nigeria were conquered by the force of arms, Muri Emirate and some other areas on the other hand
211
surrendered peacefully. However, there were other parts of the Emirate that proved difficult and were subjected to expeditionary actions.
On the event of the conquest, the colonialists set out ordinances and laws in order to regulate and direct economic and political activities of the area. The British colonialists met an economy that was dependent on agriculture as the mainstay. They enacted several ordinances to control production and sale of agricultural products. As a rule, the colonialists employed various means to make the people of Muri concentrate on the production of cash crops, since that was what they needed for their industries back home.
The British colonialists re-oriented the economy of Muri to serve their interest. The people therefore welcomed the British with mixed-feelings. They introduced paper money thereby disorganising the economy of the Emirate. Various sectors of the economy of Muri were affected by the British colonial agricultural policies. Local textile industry and iron industry were the most affected. In terms of fertility of the soil, the area also was affected as a result of focusing attention on cash crops production and the neglect of food crops production. The
British met an agricultural sector that was peasant based, employing crude implements in farm input and left it in that state. Attempts were not made by the British towards mechanisation of the agricultural sector of the Muri Emirate.
Another adverse impact of colonialism in Nigeria was the disarticulation of their economy.
Colonialism distorted African pattern of economic development in many different ways.
There was disarticulation in production of goods, markets, traders, transport, provision of social amenities and pattern of urbanization, etc. The colonialists introduced a pattern of international division of labour which was to the disadvantage of Africans. They assigned to
Nigeria the role of production of raw materials and primary products for use by their industries at home. Nigerians were not allowed nor encouraged to go into manufacturing. The
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only industries Nigerians were encouraged to build were those that would facilitate in the processing of the raw materials for export. The Nigerian raw materials were bought at a very low prices while manufactured goods from abroad were sold at expensive prices. This situation accounted for the impoverishment of most Nigerians.
There was also disarticulation in the type of goods produced by Nigerians. The colonialists compelled Nigerians to concentrate in the production of goods meant for export. Nigerians were not encouraged to produce those goods required by the local population. This made many Nigerians to abandon the production of food items required to feed the teeming and growing population. The effect of this was food shortage and escalation in food prices. The present day situation where Nigerians now import their food is a carry-over from colonialism.
The point being stressed here is that colonialism distorted the satisfaction of local needs in terms of food production and other requirements in preference to production and satisfaction of foreign needs, especially the industries.
Colonialism also disarticulated African markets and trades. The traditional or original
Nigerian marketing centres were distorted by colonialism. Most of the traditional Nigerian marketing centres or routes were formed based on local needs. When colonialism came and introduced a different need, this changed the original or traditional marketing centers to new marketing centres because it rendered them irrelevant.
Colonialists created new marketing centres and routes where their required raw materials could be easily bought and evacuated back home. This led to the gradual decay or death of most of the original or traditional marketing centres thereby distorting Nigerian pattern of development and urbanization. As we know, most of these traditional Nigerian market centres constituted the traditional or original Nigerian centres. Colonialism also made
Nigerian trade to be mainly export-import oriented.
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It integrated African trade and economy prematurely into the world market and international trade. It is a known fact that before a local economy fully integrates itself into the world economy or trade, it must have developed adequately its internal dynamics and forces of production. The consequences of premature integration is that such economy will be hijacked by the more advanced ones; and the vagaries in international trade will make the country concerned a perpetual debtor. Furthermore, premature integration cannot absorb shocks from the international market and will never enjoy trade balance or comparative advantage.
The export-import orientation pattern of African economy introduced by colonialism did not allow for accelerator and multiplier effects necessary for economy advancement and development. The raw materials produced by Africans were not used by industries located in
Africa but abroad. Therefore, there was no organic linkage between the agricultural sector and the industrial sector in Africa. Consequently, the African economy could not move forward because the surplus profit appropriated from the economy by the colonialists were not ploughed back or spent within the economy.
Farming require constant improvement in both technique and inputs. The British colonialists failed to initiate progammes or policies that would bring about development in the agricultural sector of the economy of Muri Emirate. Maintaining the peasant agricultural practice goes a long way in retarding agriculture in Muri Emirate and Nigeria.
APPENDIXES Appendix 1
Map 1: Map of Sokoto Caliphate showing Muri Emirate and other Emirates
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Source: www.webpulaaku.net
Appendix 2 Map of Southern Adamawa Province showing parts of Muri Emirate and its peoples Map 2
Source: www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de Appendix 3 Map of Muri Emirate showing rivers in the area Map 3
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Source: www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de
Appendix 4 Map of Jalingo the Muri Emirate capital showing neighbouring villages Map 4
Source: www.keyword-suggestions.com
Appendix 5 Map of Northern Nigeria
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Map 5
Source: www.waado.org
Appendix 6
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Map of parts of Nigeria and Cameroun Republics showing parts Muri, Gombe and Bauchi Emirates Map 6
Source: www.keyword-suggestions.com
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Appendix 7 Map showing some ethnic groups within Muri Emirate Map 7
Source: www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de
Appendix 8
Table 1: The population figure of Muri Emirate by the year 1933-1934:
Year Males Females Children Total
1933 58281 61002 59111 178394
1934 56761 61107 58248 176116
-1520 +105 -863 -2278
Source: NAK, SNP, 2356, Muri Division Quarterly Annual Reports, 1934, para. 15.
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Appendix 9 Table 2: SCHEDULE OF ROADS. (A). From To Via Approx: Remarks Distance Ibi Takum Wukari 70 Cleared, widened and bridged. Ibi Bantaji Jibu 54 Cleared and re-bridged. Tunga Awe - 15 Cleared and widened. Azara Awe - 17 Cleared and widened. Yellua Tshendam - 9 Remade, widened and straightened Keffin Fan Tshendam - 19 Remade, widened and straightened Gurkawa Tshendam - 19 Cleared and widened. Kurgwi Tshendam - 18 Cleared and widened. Damshin Tshendam - 16½ Cleared and widened. Damshin Namu Kurgwi 29 Cleared, stumped & widened. Wukari Donga - 17 Cleared and rebridged Ibi Katsena Allah Wukari 90 Cleared, cambered & widened Takum Katsena Allah - 50 Cleared, cambered & widened Akwana Katsena Allah - 50 Cleared, cambered & widened Takum Obudu - 30 To S. N. Boundary Katsena Allah Obudu - 15 To S. N. Boundary Katsena Allah Abinsi - 60 Being cleared, cambered and widened Katsena Allah Akwarra - 37 Being cleared, cambered and widened Abinsi Akwana - 35 Being cleared, cambered and widened Abinsi Awe - 35 Being cleared, cambered and widened Abinsi Keana - 28 Being cleared, cambered and widened Abinsi Lafia - 32 To Nasarawa Boundary Abinsi Ogoja - 45 To Boundary Abinsi Okwoga - 50 To Boundary Awe Arafu - 20 Being cleared, cambered and widened Wukari Akwana - 40 Being cleared, cambered and widened Beli Wase Bakundi 135 Cleared & widened, ferries. Beli Ligri Muri 140 Cleared & widened, ferries. Gassol Jalingo Mutum Biu 70 Cleared, widened & bridged Lau Jalingo Kwona 27 Cleared and widened Lau Mutum Biu Gora 58 Cleared & widened with wells dug in four places Gankita Jalingo Ba Hamadu 43 Cleared and widened.
Total 1373½ Source: NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual, 1912.
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Appendix 10 Table 3: Schedule of Roads Constructed (B). Ibi Ajikamai - 31 With 11 bridges and 2 causeways. North Bank Benue Kudu - 4 Ibi Arafu Riti 18 Cambered and bridged. Mutum Biu Shaaba Ardo Musa 7 Cambered and bridged.
Total 60 Source: NAK/SNP10/781P/1913/ Muri Province Report Annual, 1912.
Appendix 11 Table 4: Tax Assessment Statistics in Muri District, 1912/1913
Dist: Detls of Asst: Assesst: Population Inc: per adult (i.e. K/Kassa Cpd: M F C Total Male and Female) Rents Muri 1912 by Emir 507.19.6 . . . 3416 3818 2055 9289 1/5 Amar ...... 70.4.0 . . . 368 374 145 887 1/10½
Totals £578.3.6 . . . 3784 4192 2200 10176 1/5½ N 1913 by A.R 543.10.0 76 . . 3212 3658 2650 9520 1/9½ Glenny Amar -do-do- 62.10.0 . . . 284 304 182 770 2/1½
Total £606.0.0 76 . . 3496 3962 2832 10290 1/10 Source: NAK/473P/1913 Muri Province, Muri District (Lau Div.) Assessment Report by Mr. H. Q. Glenny
Appendix 12 Table 5: Jangali (Cattle) Tax Collection in Muri Division in 1933/34 fiscal year Year Cattle Jangali (Cattle Tax) 1933 22455 £1684.2.6 1934 19788 £1484.2.0 Decrease 2667 £200.0.6 Source: NAK/2356/ Muri Division Quarterly Annual Reports, 1934.
Appendix 13 Table 6: Jangali (Cattle) Tax Collection Year Cattle Jangali (Cattle Tax) 1933/34 22455 £1684.2.6 1934/35 19902 £1492.13.0 Decrease 2553 £191.9.6 Source: NAK/2356/ Muri Division Quarterly Annual Reports, 1934.
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Appendix 14
Table 7: Appendix. 1. Yundam (Yandang?) Tribe
Village Assessment Remarks
£ S D
Dapanti 2 Paid first. Fowls, hoes, cloth, cow
Alkali Kufuru 4 15 Fowls, hoes, cloth, cattle
Alkali Manga 6 10 Cattle, goats, cloth
Buje 5 Hoes, fowls
Bajuma 1 Goats, cloth, hoes
Bumbum 1 Stock
Gombola 5 Hoes, goat, cloth, fowls
Kudaku 2 Goats, hoes, fowls, stock.
Jaio 1 5 Sheep, corn.
Lumpo 1 5 Fowls, goats, cloth, corn, hoes.
Tasin 5 Stock, hoes, goats, cloth.
Wujingsu 5 Goats, cloth, hoes.
Wuyanga 5 5 Cattle, at first threatened trouble.
Wurro Boki 1 Sundries, goats, cloth, hoes.
Wukari 4 Stock, goats, cloth, hoes.
Yeti 4 Goats, cloth, fowls, hoes, 1 bull rebate applied for. Wudingding 5 Cattle, goats, cloth, fowls, hoes.
£44 15
(Sgd) Standish H. P. Vereker Assistant Resident 22.11.1910 Source: NAK/SNP10/ 2575/CN12 Yola Province Yundam & Waka Pagans Assessment Report, 17.1.1913. 222
Appendix 15
Table 8: Appendix. 2. Waka Tribe
Village Assessment Remarks
£ S D
Wubungru 4 - Sundries, hoes, cloth, cattle.
Bububarandang 10 Goats
Kouli 1 Goats, hoes, cloth fowls. Rebate of 10/- applied for here 1910-11 Kakalum, S. 10 Sundries, goats, cloth.
Kakalum, N. 5 Hoes, fowls.
Pokero 1 Fowls, hoes, cloth. Rebate applied for this year Muki 5 Goats, cloth
Tiluki 2 Cloth, goats, cattle.
Tasin Petel 5 Cloth, hoes, goats, fowls.
Temmi 10 Cloth, goats, hoes.
Wawandi Manga 1 5 Cattle.
Wawandi Petel 10 Goats, cloth, hoes.
Watanza 10 Goats, hoes, cloth.
Wakule 1 1 bull, cloth, goats.
£13 10
(Sgd) Standish H. P. Vereker Assistant Resident 22.11.1910 Source: NAK/SNP10/ 2575/CN12 Yola Province Yundam & Waka Pagans Assessment
Report, 17.1.1913.
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Appendix 16
Table 9: Appendix. 1. To Report on Zinna Pagan Assessment. Dec. 1910.
Name of Town Assessment Amt. pd to 12.12.10 Remarks, how paid etc.
£ S £ S
Zang 5 - 2 - Goats, cloth, stock
Zang (Hausa) 1 10 1 10 Cash
Bubon Vuda 5 10 5 10 8 head of cattle; goats, cloth, corn
Bubon Lopo 8 - 8 - 10 head of cattle; goats, cloth, corn, fowls.
Bissa - 5 - 5 Goats, cloth
Dingding 6 10 3 10
Dosa 2 10 1 15 4 head of cattle, goats, cloth, fowls.
Didonko 3 10 1 15 4 head of cattle, goats, cloth, fowls.
Jarran 8 10 4 10 Goats, and cloth.
Kagun Nakori 4 10 3 - 2 cows and goats, cloth, fowls.
Kagun Butaku 8 - 1 12 4 head of cattle and cloth.
Kagun Zekki 6 - 4 10 7 head of cattle, goats, cloth, corn.
Kagun Dingbe 5 - 2 10 3 head of cattle, goats, cloth.
Kakulum 16 - 6 18 8 head of cattle, goats, cash, fowls, cloth.
Koko 5 15 3 - 4 head of cattle, goats, cloth.
Kachella 2 10 1 - 1 head of cattle, goats, fowls, cloth.
Laguna 4 15 - 15 2 head of cattle, goats.
Lumpo 1 - 1 - 1 Cow.
Panna 8 - 3 10 4 head of cattle, goats, cloth, fowls.
Pafun 2 - - 5 Goats.
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Yonko 3 - 3 - 4 head of cattle, goats, cloth, fowls.
Zandi 6 - 3 - 4 head of cattle, goats, fowls & cloth.
£ 113 15 £62 12
(Sgd) Standish H. P. Vereker Assistant Resident 14.12.1910 Source: NAK/SNP10/ 2575/CN12 Yola Province Yundam & Waka Pagans Assessment Report, 17.1.1913. Appendix 17 Table 10: Muri Province Return of Customs Duties in the year 1912: Name of Customs
Stations:- Takum & Mutum Biu
Nature of goods. Quantity Value per 1b. 1/-. Amount of Where Where Remarks At Customs Customs. from to Station
£ s. D £ s. d Kola-nuts 87979½ 4398. 19. 6 380. 8. 8. Kameroons N. Mutum Biu was 1bs. Nigeria opened from 1st July 1912 (2) Duties levied at 4/- per 100 1bs from Jan: to 9th April, 1912 and at 10/- per 100 1bs from 10th April, to December, 1912. Total 8797½ 4398. 19. 6 380. 8. 8 1bs. Source: NAK/SNP10 781P/1912 Muri Province Report Annual 1912.
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Appendix 18
Table 11: Return of exported by Firms established in Muri Province
Produce 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 Ivory 13 cwt 8 cwt 4¼ cwt 6¼ cwt 5¾ cwt ½ cwt Rubber, all kinds 46 tons 15 tons 15 tons 15 tons 178 tons 165 tons Fibres 10 tons 120 tons 120 tons 102 tons 42 tons 14 tons Tin 3½ tons 25½ tons 35 tons 35 tons ¾ tons 2½ tons Bees wax 1½ tons 1½ tons 1½ tons 1½ tons ¾ tons 1¾ tons Ground nuts 36 tons 51½ tons 121 tons 143 tons 161 tons 288 tons Shea nuts 164 tons 447 tons 1701 tons 193 tons 411 tons 828 tons Beni seed (sesame) 84 tons 148 tons 282 tons 206 tons 238 tons 333 tons Palm Kernels 5 cwt . . . . 3 tons Gambia Pods (gabarua) . . . ¼ tons 5¾ tons 7¾ tons Wild Silk . . . . 2½ tons 2¾ tons Gum 103 tons 105 tons 50 tons 115 tons 130 tons 80 tons Ginger . . . ¾ tons . . Hides & Skin . . 2 tons 2¾ tons 7 tons 7 tons Shea butter . . . 17 tons 6 cwt .
Source: NAK/SNP10 781P/1912 Muri Province Report Annual 1912.
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Theory and Evidence. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 265-297. Cambridge University Press, Jun., 1990. http://www.jstor.org/stable/160863. Accessed: 03- 07-2015. Semakula, Kiwanuka M. Colonial Policies and Administrations in Africa: The Myths of the Contrasts. African Historical Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 pp. 295-315. Boston University African Studies Center. 1970. http://www.jstor.org/stable/216218. Accessed: 21-06-2015. S.O. Ọṣọba. The Phenomenon of Labour Migration in the Era of British Colonial Rule: A Neglected Aspect of Nigeria’s Social History. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 515-538. Historical Society of Nigeria. June 1969. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41856777. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Sa’ad Abubakar. The Emirate-Type of Government in the Sokoto Caliphate. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 211-229. Historical Society of Nigeria, June 1974. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41857009. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Saadia Touval. Treaties, Borders, and the Partition of Africa. The Journal of African History, Vol. 7, No. 2 pp. 279-293. Cambridge University Press, 1966. http://www.jstor.org/stable/179955. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Sara Berry. Hegemony on a Shoestring: Indirect Rule and Access to Agricultural Land. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 62, No. 3, Rights over Land: Categories and Controversies. pp. 327-355. Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute, 1992. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1159747. Accessed: 21-06- 2015. Shea, P.J., Economies of Scales and the Indigo Dyeing Industry of Precolonial Kano, in Kano Studies, 1, 2, pp. 55–61, 1974/77. Shem Migot-Adholla, Peter Hazell, Benoît Blarel and Frank Place. Indigenous Land Rights Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Constraint on Productivity? The World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 5, No. 1. pp. 155-175. Oxford University Press, Jan., 1991. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3989974. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Stephen Ellis and Janet MacGaffey. Research on Sub-Saharan Africa’s Unrecorded International Trade: Some Methodological and Conceptual Problems. African Studies Review, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 19-41. African Studies Association, Sep., 1996. http://www.jstor.org/stable/525434. Accessed: 26-06-2015. Sunkel, Osvaldo. National Development Policy and External Dependence in Latin America. The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1. October 1969. Thomas Spear. Neo-Traditionalism and the Limits of Invention in British Colonial Africa. The Journal of African History, Vol. 44, No. 1 pp. 3-27. Cambridge University Press. 2003. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4100380. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Timothy M. Shaw and Orobola Fasehun. Nigeria in the World System: Alternative Approaches, Explanations, and Projections. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 4 pp. 551-573. Cambridge University Press, Dec., 1980. http://www.jstor.org/stable/160798. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Ubah. C. N. Suppression of the Slave Trade in the Nigerian Emirates. The Journal of African History, Vol. 32, No. 3 pp. 447-470. Cambridge University Press. 1991. http://www.jstor.org/stable/182663. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Udo. R.K. Sixty Years of Plantation Agriculture in Southern Nigeria: 1902-1962. Economic Geography, Vol. 41, No. 4 pp. 356-368, Clark University. Oct., 1965. http://www.jstor.org/stable/141946. Accessed: 21-06-2015. W.M. Adams. Traditional Agriculture and Water Use in the Sokoto Valley, Nigeria. The
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Geographical Journal, Vol. 152, No. 1 pp. 30-43. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). Mar., 1986. http://www.jstor.org/stable/632936. Accessed: 21-06-2015. ______, Rural Protest, Land Policy and the Planning Process on the Bakolori Project, Nigeria. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 58, No. 3 pp. 315-336. Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute. 1988. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1159803. Accessed: 21-06-2015. Wariboko, N. A theory of Canoe House Corporation in African Economic History, 26 pp. 141-72, 1998. William F. S. Miles. Partitioned Royalty: The Evolution of Hausa Chiefs in Nigeria and Niger. The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 25, No. 2. pp. 233-258. Cambridge University Press. Jun., 1987. http://www.jstor.org/stable/161013. Accessed: 21-06-2015. William M. Adams. Large Scale Irrigation in Northern Nigeria: Performance and Ideology. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 16, No. 3 pp. 287-300. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), 1991. http://www.jstor.org/stable/622949. Accessed: 21-06-2015.
12. Books Adeleye, R. A. Power and Diplomacy in Northern Nigeria, 1804–1906. New York: Humanities Press, 1971. Abubakar, Sa’ad., The Lamide of Fombina. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press/Oxford University Press, 1977. ______, The Established Caliphate: Sokoto, the Emirates and their Neighbours. in Obaro Ikime. Groundwork of Nigerian History. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, pp. 303- 326. 1980. Abubakar, Sa’ad. The Northern Provinces under Colonial Rule,” in Obaro Ikime, Groundwork of Nigerian History, Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, pp. 447-481. 1980. Adamu, M., The Hausa Factor in West African History. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1978.
______, ‘Distribution of Trading Centres in the Central Sudan in the 18th and 19th Centuries’, in Y.B. Usman (ed.), Studies in the History of the Sokoto Caliphate, 59–104. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1979. ______, The Military and Economic Nerve of the Sokoto Caliphate: An Examination of the Position of Kano within the Caliphate, in B.M. Barkindo (ed.), Kano and Some of her Neighbours, 191–204. Kano: Bayero University Press, 1989. Austin, G. ‘African Business in the Nineteenth–Century West Africa. in A. Jalloh and T. Falola (eds.), Black Business and Economic Power, 114-144. New York: University of Rochester Press. 2002. Baker, Geoffrey L. Trade Winds on the Niger. The Saga of the Royal Niger Company 1830–1971. London, New York: Radcliffe Press, 1996. Backwell, H.F., The Occupanion of Hausaland 1900–1904. Being a Translation of Arabic Letters Found in the House of Wazir of Sokoto, Bohari in 1903. London: Frank Cass, 1969 [1927]. Barth, H., Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa. England: Longmans Green, 1857–8. Bodenheimer, Susanne. Dependency and Imperialism: The Roots of Latin American
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Underdevelopment. in K.T. Fann and Donald C. Hodges. (eds.). Readings in U.S. Imperialism. Boston: Porter Sargent. 1971. Chafe, K.S., ‘The transformation of Socio-political policies of the leaders of the Sokoto Caliphate: A Preliminary Study of the impact of the socio-economic programmes and policies on political integration’, in A.M. Kani and K.A. Gandi (eds), States and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate, 31–62. Sokoto: Usman Danfodiyo University, 1990. ______, ‘Remarks on the Historiography of the Sokoto Caliphate’, in H. Bobboyi and A.H Yakubu (eds.), The Sokoto Caliphate (history and Legacies, 1084-2004, 317-327. Kaduna: Arewa House, 2006. Clapperton, H. Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa from the Bight of Benin to Soccato. London: Frank Cass, 1966 [1829]. Colonial Reports—Annual. Northern Nigeria. No. 704. Report for 1910-11. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty January, 1912, London: His Majesty's Stationery Office. Crowder, M. West Africa under Colonial Rule. London: Hutchinson and Co. 1968. Denham, D. and Clapperton, H., Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in Mission to the Niger, Vols II–IV. The Bornu Mission 1822-25, (ed.) E.W. Bovill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1966 [1826]. Dusgate, Richard. The Conquest of Northern Nigeria. London: Frank Cass. 1985. Dos Santos, Theotonio. The Structure of Dependence. in K.T. Fann and Donald C. Hodges. (eds.). Readings in U.S. Imperialism. Boston: Porter Sargent. 1971. Ester Boserup. The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change under Population Pressure. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. 1965. Flegel, E.R., The Biography of Madugu Mohamman Mai Gashin Baki (trans. M.B. Duffill). Los Angeles: University of California, 1985 [1885]. Flint, J.E. Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria. London; Oxford University Press. 1960. ______, and McDougall, E.A., ‘Economic Change in West Africa in the Nineteenth Century’, in F.A. Ajayi and M. Crowder (eds.), History of West Africa, Vol. II (2nd ed.), 386–93. England: Longman, 1987.
Frank, Andre Gunder. The Development of Underdevelopment. in James D. Cockcroft, Andre Gunder Frank, and Dale Johnson. (eds.). Dependence and Underdevelopment. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books. 1972. Fremantle, J.M. Gazetteer of Muri Province. In: Gazetteers of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, vol. 2. London: Frank Cass. 1971. Geary, W. N. M. Nigeria under British Rule. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1927. Gervis, P. Of Emirs and Pagans: A View of Northern Nigeria. London: Cassell. 1963. Gerald Cecil Dudgeon. The agricultural and forest products of British West Africa. Imperial Institute Handbooks, London: John Murray. 1911. Hastings, A.C.G. Nigerian Days. London: John Lane Bodley Head. 1925. Hetherington, P. British Paternalism and Africa 1920-1940. London: Frank Cass. 1978. Hensslen, R. The British in Northern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press. 1968. Hogben, S. J. & Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. The Emirates of Northern Nigeria: A Preliminary Survey of their Historical Traditions. London: Oxford University Press. 1966. ______, An Introduction to the History of the Islamic States of Northern Nigeria. Ibadan: Oxford University Press. 1967. ______, and Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. The Emirates of Northern Nigeria. A Preliminary Survey of their Historical Traditions. London: Oxford University Press. 1966. 241
Hogben, J. J. The Muhammadan Emirates of Northern Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press. 1930. Hogendorn, J.S. Nigerian Groundnut Exports: Origin and Early Development (Zaria, I978), 141-3. ______, Nigerian Groundnut Exports: Origins and Early Development. Zaria and Ibadan, 1978. ______, and Gemery, H.A., ‘Assessing Productivity in Precolonial African Agriculture and Industry 1500-1800’, in African Economic History, 19, pp. 31-35. 1990-1991. Hopkins, A.G., An Economic History of West Africa. England: Longman, 1973. Ibister, John. Promises Not Kept. 6th Ed. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press. 2003. Idrees, Aliyu A. Ochefu, Yakubu A. (eds.) Studies in the History of Central Nigeria Area, Vol. 1. Lagos. 2002. Ikime, Obaro. The Fall of Nigeria. The British Conquest. London, Nairobi, Ibadan: Heinemann. 1977. Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. Gazetteers of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria. Vol. 1, The Hausa Emirates (Bauchi, Sokoto, Zaria, Kano). London: Frank Cass. 1972. ______, (ed.). Barth’s Travels in Nigeria, London: Oxford University Press, 1962 [1857–8]. ______, Adamawa Past and Present. An Historical Approach to the Development of a Northern Cameroons Province. London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press. 1958. ______, (ed.), Barth’s Travels in Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. Johnson, M., Technology, Competition and Crafts, in C. Dewey and A. Hopkins (eds), The Imperial Impact. Studies in the Economic History of Africa and India, pp. 259–69. London: Athlone Press, 1978. Johnston, H.A.S. The Fulani Empire of Sokoto. London, Ibadan, Nairobi: Oxford University Press. 1977. Kriger, C., Cloth in West African History. Lanham: AltaMira Press, 2006.
L. de Haan, P. Quarles van Ufford and F. Zaal, Cross-border cattle marketing in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1900. Geographical patterns and government induced change. In: H.L. van der Laan, T. Dijkstra and A van Tilburg (eds), Agricultural Marketing in Tropical Africa, African Studies Centre Leiden, Research Series 15, Leiden: Ashgate, pp. 205-226. 1999. Lamb, P.H., The Past, Present, and Future of Cotton Growing in Nigeria, in The Empire Cotton Growing Review, II (1925): 184. Last, M., The Sokoto Caliphate. London: Longman, 1967. Last, M., The Sokoto Caliphate and Borno, in J.F.A. Ajayi (ed.), General History of Africa, Vol. VI, 225–38. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1998. Lawal, S.U., The Political Economy of the State in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Preliminary Examination, in K.A. Gandi and K.A. Kani (eds), State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate, 158–70. Sokoto: Usman Danfodiyo University, 1990. Lovejoy, P., ‘Biographies of Enslaved Muslims from the Central Sudan in the Nineteenth Century’, in H. Bobboyi and A.M. Yakubu (eds), The Sokoto Caliphate. History and Legacies, 1804-2004, 187–216. Kaduna: Arewa House Edition, 2006. _____, and Hogendorn, J.S., Slow Death for Slavery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Low, Victor N. Three Nigerian Emirates. A Study in Oral History. Evanston (Illinois): Northwestern University Press, 1972. 242
Lugard, F. D. Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa. London: Frank Cass. 1923. Mabogunje, Akin. The land and peoples of West Africa. J. F. Ade Ajayi & Michael Crowder. History of West Africa. Vol. 1. London: Longman Group Ltd. 1971. Marjomaa, Risto. War on the Savannah. The Military Collapse of the Sokoto Caliphate under the Invasion of the British Empire 1897–1903. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, 1998. McBride, Ira E. n.d., Stories of long ago Kulung history. n.p. Meek, C.K. The Northern Tribes of Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press. 1935. _____, Land Law and Custom in the Colonies, Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press. 1946. _____, Land Tenure and Administration in Nigeria and the Cameroons, London: MSO. 1957. McNehing, R. Hill Farmers of Nigeria. London. 1970. Morel, E. A. Nigeria: Its Peoples and Problems. London. 1967. Muffet, D.J.M. Concerning Brave Captains. A History of Lord Lugard’s Conquest of Hausaland. London: André Deutsch, 1964, _____, Nigeria - Sokoto Caliphate. In: Michael Crowder (ed.) West African Resistance. The Military Response to Colonial Occupation, pp.268–299. Second edition. London: Hutchinson. 1978. Muhammad S. Umar. Islam and Colonialism Intellectual Responses of Muslims of Northern Nigeria to British Colonial Rule. The Netherlands, Koninklijke Bill NV. 2006. Myint, H., The economics of the developing countries. 4th edn. London : Hutchinson, 1973. Na-Dama, A.G., ‘Urbanisation in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Case Study of Gasau and Kaura- Namoda’, in Y.B.Usman (ed.), Studies in the History of the Sokoto Caliphate, 140–64. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1979. Nicolson, I. The Administration of Nigeria 1900-1960. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969. Njeuma, M.Z. Fulani Hegemony in Yola (Old Adamawa) 1809–1902. Yaounde: Centre for Teaching and Research. 1978. Nzala, A.T. et al. Forced Labor in Colonial Africa. London: Zeb Press, 1979. Orr, C.W.J. The Making of Northern Nigeria. London: MacMillan. 1911. Palmer, H. R., Sudanese Memoirs, III. London, 1928. Perham, Margery. Lugard. The Years of Authority 1898–1945. London: Collins. 1958. Perani, J. Northern Nigeria Prestige Textiles: Production, Trade, Patronage and Use, in B. Engelbrecht and B. Gardi (eds.), Man Does Not Go Naked, 65–80. Basel: A.G. Verlag, 1989. Perani, J. The Cloth Connection: Patrons and Producers of Hausa and Nupe Prestige Strip- Weave, in Smithsonian Institution (ed.), History, Design, and Craft in West African Strip- Woven Cloth, 95–112. Washington D.C.: National Museum of African Art, 1992. Pokrant, R.J. The Tailors of Kano City’, in E. Goody (ed.), From Craft to Industry. The Ethnography of Proto-Industrial Cloth Production, 85–132. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Roberts, R. L. Two worlds of cotton. Colonialism and regional economy in the French Soudan, 1800-1946. California: Stanford University Press, 1996. Sabine Dinslage and Rudolf Leger. Language and Migration the Impact of the Jukun on Chadic Speaking Groups in the Benue-Gongola Basin. Berichte des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268, Band 8, Frankfurt a. M. 67-75. 1996. Shea, J.P. Approaching the Study of Production in Rural Kano, in B.M. Barkindo (ed.), Studies in the History of Kano, 93–116. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books, 1983. Smaldone, Joseph P. Warfare in the Sokoto Caliphate. Historical and Sociological 243
Perspectives. Cambridge, London, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Smith, M.G., Government in Zazzau 1800–1950. London: Oxford University Press, 1960. Smith, Robert S. Warfare and Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa. Second Edition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976. Staudinger, P., In the Heart of the Hausa States (trans. J. Moody). Athens: Ohio University Press, 1990 [1899]. Steven Pierce. Farmers and the State in Colonial Kano Land Tenure and the Legal Imagination. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 2005. Stennirty, D.J. Savannah Nomads. London: 1959. Temple, O. & Temple, C. L. Notes on the Tribes, Provinces, Emirates and States of the Northern Provinces of Northern Nigeria. London: 1965. Temple, C.L. Native Races and their Rules. Cape Town: 1918. Ubah, C. The Emirates and the Central Government: The Case of Kano-Sokoto Relations, in Y.B. Usman (ed.), Studies in the History of the Sokoto Caliphate, 296–319. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1979. Ukpabi, S.C. The Beginning of the British Conquest of Northern Nigeria'. Bulletin de l'Institut Fondamental de'Afrique Noire, Sér. B 35/3:593–6, 1973. Usman, Y.B., The Transformation of Katsina, 1400–1883. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1981. Usoro, E.J. The Nigerian Oil Palm Industry. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1974. Watts, M., Silent Violence – Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria. Los Angeles: UCLA, 1983. Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. A Modern Economic History of Africa, Vol. 1: The Nineteenth Century. Dakar: CODESRIA, 1993.
13. Conference Papers Adamu, Abdulkadir. The Major Trends in Nigerian Agriculture: Towards the 21st Century. Paper Presented at the 38th Annual Congress of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Held in Zaria. 1994. Austin, G., Markets With, Without, and in Spite of States: West Africa in the Pre-colonial Nineteenth Century, Working Paper, LSE, 1-28, March 2004. Carol Kerven. Customary Commerce: a historical reassessment of pastoral livestock marketing in Africa. Overseas Development Institute. ODI Agricultural Occasional Paper 15. London: Regent's College, Inner Circle, Regent's Park. 1992. Daniel Berger. Taxes, Institutions and Local Governance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Colonial Nigeria. September 7, 2009. Retrieved on: 02 July 2015. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/255606155 Ewout Frankema, Jeffrey Williamson, Pieter Woltjer. 2015. An Economic Rationale for the African Scramble: The Commercial Transition and the Commodity Price Boom of 1845- 1885. Working Paper 21213. NBER Working Paper Series. http://www.nber.org/papers/w21213. National Bureau of Economic Research. Massachusetts Avenue. Cambridge. Fulginiti, Lilyan E.; Perrin, Richard K.; and Bingxin, Yu, (2004). “Institutions and Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa”. Faculty Publications: Agricultural Economics. Paper 10. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ageconfacpub/10 Hogendarn, J. S. New Views on the Origin of Northern Nigeria Groundnut (peanut) Export. 244
Paper Presented at the seminar on the Economic History of the Central Savannah of West Africa, Kano. Northern History Research Scheme (N.H.R.S.) File No. 111. 1976. Marisa Candotti, Cotton Growing and Textile Production in Northern Nigeria from Caliphate to Protectorate c. 1804-1914’: A Preliminary Examination, Paper for the European Conference on African Studies, Leipzig, Germany. 4 to 7 June 2009. Northern History Research Scheme (N.H.R.S.). File No. 311, (1985). The Colonial Economy and Society of Nigeria 1900-1960. paper presented at the seminar on the Nigerian economy and society since the Berlin conference 1984-1985, ABU Zaria, 11th-15th November. Omotayo, Akinwumi Moses. “The Nigerian Farmer and the Elusive Crown,” University OF Agriculture Abeokuta Nigeria 30th Inaugural Lecture 2010, Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Agriculture Abeokuta. 2010.
14. Oral Interviews Interview with Hajia Zainab (Abu) Suleimuri, Aged 103 years, Suleimuri Residence, Jalingo, 12/02/2015. Interview with Alh. Mohammed Dinga (Bobbo Dinga), 86 years, Muri Emirate Council, Lamurde Street Jalingo, Bobbo Dinga Residence, December 2 2016. Interview with Malam Jauro Muazu Mafindi, 90 years, Behind Customary Court, Unguwan Gadi, Retired Civil servant, 3 December, 2016. Interview with Alh. Bubayero Mafindi, 80 years, Hospital Road, Politician, 5 December, 2016.
Interview with Mal. Danladi Danda, 87 years, Courtier, Palace Official, Muhammad Nya Primary School Road, Jalingo, 6 December, 2016. Interview with Alh. Dahiru Tutare, 73 years, retired Civil Servant, Millennium Suites, Jalingo, 8 December, 2016. Interview with Mal. Nuruddeen Muhammad Dinga, 45 years, Chief Imam, Jalingo Central Mosque, Kasuwan Yelwa, Jalingo, 10 December, 2016. Interview with Hajia Safiya Galadima, 66 years, Retired civil servant, President FOMWAN, Lamurde Road, Jalingo, 12 December, 2016. Group interview at the Emirs’ Palace 09/10/2016. Interview with Mallam Bello Manga Ardo Iware district, 60 years, Ardo-Ko1a Local Government Area Taraba State on 81 June 2014. Interview with Alh. Rabiu Saleh, 65 years, Lamangoro Jalingo, September, 2016. Interview with Alh. Habu Hamman Sani Kona, Retired Permanent Secretary, 72 years 17th November, 2016. Interview with Alh. Hammadu Ardo Kola, 97 years, retired politician, At his residence in Kano, 30th December, 2015. Judge Kpashan Umaru, 61 years old, Oral Interview, Fisherman, Bandawa, 31/12/2016. Saleh Awe, 74 years old, Oral Interview, Carver, Bandawa, 7/3/2017. Ahmed Dajiri, 55 years old, Oral Interview, civil servant, Jalingo, 14/2/2017. Barnabas Ibrahim, 48 years old, Oral Interview, Sarkin-Kwatan Bandawa, Kwatan Bandawa, 2/1/2017.
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