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Many histories of twentieth century Nigeria will focus on the big picture: British colonialism, nationalism and independence, political parties, the civil war, petroleum, and military rule. Unfortunately, hometown associations (aka progressive unions or town improvement associations) may be ignored in many histories, for at least three reasons: they are difficult for academics to classify, they have no standard name in the literature, and they have repeatedly changed their goals and methods over time.Despite this, hometown associations deserve to be considered a success story of twentieth century Nigeria. They helped to build the first schools in much of Southern Nigeria, and they channeled migration flows from people's homes to areas of greater economic opportunity. In addition, hometown associations were arenas for local political struggles. They served as the launching pad for the educated middle class against its political adversaries, the traditional rulers. Looking behind the major events of twentieth century Nigeria, it is frequently possible to spot hometown associations. This is so even if we omit any mention of hometown associations' larger, more politicized and controversial cousins: the ethnic (or so-called 'tribal') unions such as the Egbe Omo Oduduwa and the Igbo State Union. One large impact of hometown associations is linked to their near absence in large parts of Nigeria's Core North. The Core North's lack of indigenous hometown associations is correlated with the tendency for North and South to evolve socially in different directions during the twentieth century.

Shari'a and States' Rights: Religion and the Resurgence of Federalism in Nigeria in the Third Republic

Since the inauguration of the Third Republic a few states in northern Nigeria have adopted the Shari'a as the principle and guidance of the law, and several others have considered doing the same. This has generated heated controversy. Opinions and conclusions have varied widely from total support to outright condemnation. The controversy itself has focused on religious fundamentalism, political radicalism, religious intolerance, ethnic conflicts, inter- and intra-party disagreements, and the reverse fear (of southern domination). What have these analyses missed? Could the resurgence of the Shari'a and political Islam be linked to the resurgence in federalism in this post-military era? Could the adoption of the Shari'a by a few states of the federation be viewed as the assertion of states' rights entailed in the federal principle? If so, is this a healthy development for federalism in Nigeria? What are the implications for the guarantee and protection of individual and group rights? The paper evaluates these questions.

Wale Adebanwi, Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Until recently, the media did not get the deserved attention in the literature of social theory owing to the tendency to neglect - or failure to reflect - the centrality of the media in social and political formations (Thompson, 1994). Now, there is general acknowledgement (though grudging in some cases) in the literature - even if from different and differing perspectives - that the media can enable and constrain the politics of society (Crowley and Mitchell, 1994), particularly if acting in concert with other social forces. This has pulled and pushed our understanding of the relationship of the variety and verity of the media to the social and political worlds into new terrains.

The press in Nigeria predates the idea of Nigerian nation. And from its inception in 1959 with the founding of Iwe Irohin fun Awon Egba
ati Yoruba (Newspaper for the Egba and Yoruba), through the birth of a unified Nigerian geography, to the present day, the press in Nigeria has contested this idea of a Nigerian nation. Given the fact that it predates Nigeria and its centrality in the power vortex as a reflection of the interests of the different power/identity groups, the Nigerian press is an interesting and intellectually stimulating site for the analysis of the struggle for power, access and accommodation in Nigeria.

This paper courses through the history of the Nigerian project from its beginning in 1914 to the year 2001 in an attempt to track the trajectory of how the press relates to, reacts to, constructs and reconstructs the idea of Nigerian nation. The press is taken here as a valid source of the dynamics of the construction,deconstruction and circulation of the discourses of oneness. The paper analyses the ways in which the symbolic forms deployed in the press intersect with relations of power and domination in the contestations over Nigeria. Does a Nigerian nation exist in the ‘lexicon’ of the Nigerian press? What justifications are given for the presence or absence of such nation in the narrations? How are the groups and power centers - and ethnic nations - represented in the press in relation to the attempt to construct a common center?

The departure point is a theoretical standpoint that views media messages as symbolic forms which are capable of establishing, sustaining and nourishing relations of power and domination and counteracting or obstructing same.

At the dawn of the twentieth century, traditional Nigerian art was perceived as an integral aspect of everyday-life activities. However, in the years following Nigeria's independence from Great Britain in 1960, the perception of art was transformed from being a domestic activity to a signifier of cultural and national identity. From independence to the end of the century, newly formed regimes had looked up to the arts as an avenue for solving the pervading problem of tribalism. This was done by promoting national unity through the doctrine of a common artistic heritage. This paper will review the methods employed by the Nigerian Federal government in utilizing art as an instrument of nation building in the twentieth century. Furthermore, the paper will analyze the outcomes of Federal government sponsored art enrichment programs and reflect on the impact of such efforts on the goal of national unity.

Saheed A. Adejumobi, Department of Africana Studies Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Bourgeois Rebels: Decolonization and the Politics of Citizenship and Social Welfare Reform In Nigeria, 1940-1970

With special reference to recently declassified documents and select Yoruba political party papers on the decolonization era, this paper explores the intellectual history of the British-Yoruba relationship that was established in Nigeria's western region. It discusses the legacy of British missionary-influenced Western education and social reform initiatives in Nigeria, and views from an in-depth perspective the changing notions of class relations and cultural nationalism. Another point of focus is the postwar dimension of colonial development principles that addressed new economic initiatives, the collectivization of providing public goods, and the debate over the Colonial Office's implementation of the rudiments of welfare state. The paper also discusses the reaction of the Nigerian nationalist elite towards these new developments, particularly in light of how reforms had the potential to create an economically productive, politically contented work force in the emergent modern Nigerian State. The education and social welfare reform plans of the British Colonial Office are juxtaposed with the reform plans advanced by the Yoruba nationalist intelligentsia under the leadership of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987). The paper examines the key motivating factors behind the contentious debates that raged between British officers, as representatives of Commonwealth leadership, and Yoruba leaders, as the bourgeois elite with leadership aspirations. As Nigerian leaders grew increasingly discontent with British constitutional and structural models of modernization and citizenship standards, elites from both sides were forced to renegotiate their respective political and intellectual agenda in the struggle to control the trajectory of post-imperial Nigeria.

Mortality trends in Nigeria in the 20th Century: Nigeria in the Course of the Epidemiologic Transition

In 1971, Abdel Omran published his paper that set forth the theory of epidemilogic transition. According to this model, in the course of socioeconomic development, a society moves from the era of pestilence and famine through the era of receding pandemics to the era of degenerative and man-made diseases. Each period is associated with specific pattern of mortality and main causes of death among children and adults. In 1986, Olshansky and Ault suggested a forth stage, but that is only a sub-segment of stage 3. Although this theory, like many others, is influenced by historical shifts in Western population health, it has useful applications to Africa and other parts of the developing world. In this paper, we discuss the application of this theory to Nigeria. Published and unpublished materials available to the author are reviewed to assess where Nigeria is now and where the country was at the beginning of the 20th Century in terms of mortality levels. Trends in under-five mortality rates in the colonial and post-colonial Nigeria are also reviewed. Available evidence suggests that more than two out of every five children born at the beginning of this century did not survive to their fifth birthday. Today, that proportion is just a little over 1 out of every ten children. Similarly, Nigeria moved to the era of receding pandemics (stage two of Omran?s formulation). It is certain that the country will enter into the era of degenerative and man-made diseases in the new century. How fast it moves to stage 3 depends on several factors. The policy implications of the findings are discussed as Nigeria begins the 21st century.

Hakim Adi, PHD, School of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Middlesex University

In the heart of the Empire: Nigerian Anti-Colonial Activity in Britain 1900-60

For the first sixty years of the twentieth century the most pressing problem facing Nigerians was how to organise the reform or removal of British colonial rule. The loss of sovereignty and the right of Nigerians to determine their own affairs, euro-centrism, the colour bar and other forms of oppression inevitably led to resistance of many types, culminating in mass opposition to colonial rule and demands for self-determination and independence. Many of those who played a key role in the anti-colonial struggle organised their activities not in Nigeria itself, but in Britain in the heart of the empire. These student-politicians, in concert with their compatriots in Nigeria, lobbied the imperial government, established important links with sympathetic political figures and organisations in Britain and elsewhere and formed their own organisations that often served as a training ground for future Nigerian political leaders. Perhaps most importantly Nigerian anti-colonial activists in Britain were instrumental in developing and disseminating, through their own writing and publications, those political ideologies that informed the anti-colonial movement in Nigeria itself. It was after all from Britain that many of the earliest demands for self-government were proclaimed. This paper aims to analyse the significance of the role of Nigerian anti-colonial activists and organisations in Britain, from the earliest nationalists such as Prince Bandele Omoniyi, to the activities of such organisations as the Nigerian Progress Union, West African Students Union, Nigeria Union and the pan-African Committee of African Organisations.

International Migration or National Dehydration?Examining Effects of United States Diversity Lottery Visa on Nigeria as a Nation and on Educated Nigerians as Recipient Immigrants

Grounded on the principle of pragmatic utility, this study is predicated on two assumptions. One: That the United States Diversity Lottery Visa instituted by the United States government had drawn a record number of Nigerian top intellectual and professional elites into the United States since its inception in 1994. Two: By virtue of such draw, it has contributed to and escalated an acute wave of brain drain that Nigeria as a nation has been experiencing in its intellectual and professional workforce since the 1980s. The study will be informed by a proposed dual hypothesis. That is, "educated Nigerians brought to the United States under the DV lottery visa were utilized to the maximum extent of their professional abilities and intellectual preparedness or were consistently underutilized, to the detriment of Nigerian immigrants and the country, Nigeria, from where such considerable workforce emanated." In order to reject or confirm this hypothesis, an instrument comprising 48 questions in a survey questionnaire will be administered to an estimated 50 recipients of the DV lottery visa who had been in the United States for a minimum of two years. These are drawn from five randomly selected states in the continental U.S.A. - Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. An open-ended interview will be conducted to follow-up on responses obtained from the survey of five available survey respondents. The survey only examines the first two years of recipients' residency in America. This is an on-going preliminary investigation of the overall impact of this immigration initiative of the United States government on Nigeria and Nigerians. Specific questions in the survey will provide conclusive evidence as to the validity of the study's hypothesis. Suggestions will be provided as to how best to utilize the educated Nigerians who are drawn to the United States through the Diversity Visa initiative.

Social Movements of Resistance and the Social Transformation of the Nigerian State: Politics, Ritual and Rhetorics of the Ogoni Movement

This paper intends to look at emergent social movements, especially those of a resistant kind, and evaluate them in terms of the structuring of the Nigerian political and social order. The paper intend to look at the organizing paradigms that motivates and necessitates the formation of social movements of resistance, and their implication for the transformation, contestation and re-ordering of the social and political structures. The Ogoni Movement would be examined to look at the ethnographical and historical dynamics that led to the formation of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1990. This paper would investigate what within the essential character of the Ogoni historical identity and imaging, mythology and history, encoded their politics and ritual, and rhetoric that led to the resistant confrontation ordered by MOSOP in its discourse toward Ogoni social transformations as constructed against the Nigerian Federal Government and the International Oil major (Shell, Exxon-Mobil, Chevron).
Further, the movement would be subjected to a critical analysis in the lights of legitimation theory, specifically those of Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens. Other theoretical emphases would be placed on the sociological and anthropological understanding of the themes of ethnicity, collective memory and the resilience of indigenous minority groups.
The Ogoni movement would be evaluated within the wider occurrence evident within the Nigerian Federation, in terms of the issue of social structuring, ethnicity, political and social marginalization, distributive justice and the context of the militarization of the Nigerian psyche. The Ogoni movement through the governmental and Oil major attraction towards repression would be seen as representing a power idiom of contesting oppressive state and capitalist instrumentality. Thus, we it would be argued that the forceful repression represents a consciousness of its power as a dynamic movement of transformation. It would be asserted that the Ogoni repression reflects a dominant attitude by “rogue leaderships” of “hijacked states” to experiment and clamp down opposing polities as warning adopted toward muting differing views from those of the dominant hegemony.
The paper attempts to look at the contradictions that exists within the articulation of social movements and their attempt as structuring agencies to transform institutionalized polity. These would also underline the inherent limitation within the self-conceptualization of the movement and its attempt at actualization.
Having examined these the answers that we seek to answer is whether social movements actually portend the agencies towards radical transformation of the social order. This answer would be sought within the unfolding dimensions of the present political formation of the Nigerian State.

English has become one of the 'indigenous' languages of Nigeria. Though it is officially the 'National' language, English like all other languages of the country, is functionally limited and a minority language. This paper traces the inception, spread and place of English in Nigeria. From a linguistic perspective, the paper discusses its current structure and shows that regardless of 'Nigerian English' affinity with English world wide, it has become a native Nigerian language. The paper also sees in the rise and sustenance of English within the body polity of Nigeria, a reflection of the social and political machinery of the Nation in the 20th century.

Military Occupation, National Question and the Rise of Ethnic Nationalism in Nigeria

Nigerian federalism has failed. There are two dominant views about the failure of federalism in Nigeria. One of them accuses the colonial masters of bequeathing a Federal structure that was bound to fail with time due its un-accretive origin and the unequal sizes of its constituent parts. The other blames the military for taking up politics and governance, a task it is ill-prepared for. However, these views exclude the stark reality of negligence, political and economic alienation suffered daily by individuals, which has given rise to ethnic nationalism that is threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria. The state of affairs presently, is that violent ethnic agitation is rampant in all ethnic sections of the country, causing huge loses to loves and non-existing social properties. This paper shows that the unethical extension of military command structure to civil affairs through military occupation is the genesis of the hydra-headed national question; this is the question about equity, fair play and justice among the plural societies that inhabit the Nigerian political space. In addition, this paper plots a link between national question and ethnic nationalism to show, that the surging rise in ethnic nationalism overtime, is due largely, to the hitherto unanswered national question and disregard to the associate socio-economic injustices therefrom by government. This paper ends with recommendations on: (i) convocation of national conference (ii) implementation of resource control and (iii) engineering peoples' constitution.

The Igbo speaking people of southeastern Nigeria are amongst the most important ethnic groups in modern Nigeria history. By the 1930s, the Igbo exposure to Christian missions and modern educational institutions began to bear fruit. The British colonial administration of Nigeria in its own policies created a political structure that brought the diverse peoples of Nigeria together. Henceforth, the Igbo-speaking peoples saw themselves actively participating in the religious, social, economic and educational history of modern Nigeria; and with Nigeria political Nationalist activism, Ndi Igbo got themselves embroiled in the politics of independence and post-independent Nigeria. The Igbo State Union and recently the Ohaneze have claimed the hearts and souls of Ndi Igbo. How and why this claim is significant in the lives of Ndi Igbo is the aim of this paper. Under what context did both organizations (Igbo State Union and Ohaneze) arise; the goals of both organizations are reexamined to better understand the circumstances under which the Igbo outcry of marginalization is occurring. In so doing, we shall put a new outlook on ethnic discourse in modern Nigerian history.

Gender and Nationalism in Contemporary Nigerian Literature: A Histocritical Analysis.

Contemporary Nigerian literature dates to the beginning of the 20th century when a new historical dawn broke on the country. A new imperial power creates a new geographical entity called Nigeria and the brand new citizens attempt to define their new identity variously.

Historically, literature fiction, poetry, myth, and drama - has often been a concrete way of imagining and legitimizing the abstraction called nation. It forges unity (or otherwise), and helps to define who the people are, giving them a frame of reference for action, roles and identity. Nigeria at its creation, was not any different, but perhaps its beginning was not as simple as many other nations. Nigeria is an amalgamation of many different peoples, and cultures. Even more complex are the implication s of power and subjugation within the creation of this new nation , and the inevitable struggle for freedom and independence.

How do the people grapple with the issues of nationalism and its peculiar circumstances? How are the aspirations for nationalism expressed? How do the people reconcile the issues of differences? What is the relationship between the old cultural identity and the new one? How have the new political realities and emerging cultural expressions affected the gender relationships and roles?

In attempting to answer these questions and more, this paper adopts a two-tiered approach - historical and critical analysis, hence the coined term "histocritical." In the historical phase, a abroad overview of the works with their content is related to actual historical events happening in the country to determine the role of literature in nation building. The critical aspect focuses closely on the content of selected works, analyzing how the answers to the above questions are articulated. Subjecting these works to theoretical analysis such as Negritude, liberation and gender theories, the paper examines especially the impact and significance of gender construct and structure of the works in nation building and the psyche of its citizens.

Nigeria women in SMT professions have found themselves in a precaucious situation. There is the need to put in more hours at work, like their male counterparts, in order to be a success in their profession as well as put in hours at home in order to have a successful family life. This is because both aspects of their lives are very important to fulfil their role in nation building as well as family building. A study carried out showed that both aspects of their clash with each other most especially because of the problems they encounter which is generally due to irregular epleptic supply of social amenities in the nation (i.e. water electricity, cooking fuel etc). the study is an indication that for the women to be fulfilled in their profession and at home, there is the urgent need for the intervention of employers government, non-government organizations etc. methods of intervention by the various bodies to help enhance the productivity of these professional women are examined in this paper.

A number of agricultural policies have been made in Nigeria for the development of the Agricultural sector. This has led to the provision and development of agricultural technology to improve productivity of the farmers. However it has been observed that the main food producers and processors, the women, have been neglected in the production and use of agricultural technology or implements. This paper is aimed at examining the implication the neglect of the women in the use of agricultural technology has had on the development of agricultural in Nigeria. A number of reasons for this neglect is also identified in the write-up. A number of recommendations/suggestions which should be considered by government and policy makers are made so as to increase the involvement of women in the use of agricultural technology.

Forever in Minority: The Impact of Administrative Policies on the Borgawa Society in the Twentieth Century Nigerian History

Ever since the 1898 Anglo-French treaty, which partitioned Borgu between the two foremost colonial powers in West Africa was signed, the Nigerian Borgu, the region that came under the British control, has been affected by the various administrative re-structuring policies in Nigeria. The most significant of these was the various state creation exercises carried out by the military administrations in Nigeria. The exercises further condemned a minority group, in a larger Nigerian context, into a permanent minority group in the various states the group found itself. Today, the Borgawa are located in Kwara, Kebbi and Niger states respectively. This paper therefore focuses on the impact of these administrative re-structuring policies on this group. The central issue of discuss is the minority status of this group in their various administrative locations.

Northern Yourba and the Struggle for Identity in the Twentieth Century Nigeria

The issue has remained topical in Nigerian history since the last century. The issue is the struggle by a section of the Yoruba to free themselves from the yoke of northern domination since the beginning of the last century. This group has always condemned their geographical location in the northern Nigeria on the basis that it has no cultural affinity to the zone. As a result, it has consistently demanded that it should be merged with its kith and kin in the southwestern region of the country. This paper examines the struggle and how successive administrations in Nigeria, colonial government inclusive, have scuttled the ambition of this group. It will also focus on why this issue is generating new interest in today's politics.

History can be understood in three principal senses, namely, the actual course of events, the record of those events, and, as an academic discipline concerned with the study of the past. This paper appraises the contribution of ethnic minorities to the making of Nigerian history in the last century. Specifically, it examines how the minorities shaped the course of Nigerian history through agitations for states creation and resource control; their dominant hold on the military institution; the alliance of opposites that characterised the ethnic politics of the century and how they re-interpreted or invented history in their bid to create an elbow room for themselves in the Nigerian Federation.

Yomi Akinyeye, Department of History, University of Lagos.

Nigeria's Defence in the Twentieth Century

This paper discusses Nigeria?s defence in the last century. A nation?s defence is a dialogue among its national interests, the threats to them and available resources for the protection in the face of competing demands. The paper examines Nigeria?s interests as articulated by its leaders, the perceived threats to them and the quantum of resources available for their defence in relation to other demands. On the basis of its findings, the study will make some suggestions about the conduct of Nigeria?s defence policy for the future. By enriching our knowledge of Nigeria?s defence in the previous century, it would serve as a guide for the country?s defence policy makers for the future.

Constructing "darkness" to Create "light:" The Impact of Islamic Reforms on Hausaland Societies, 1770s-1860s

The purpose of this paper is to present the working language used to convey reform and progress based on an Islamic paradigm expressed in the writings of the jihad leaders and scholars (Shehu Usman dan Fodio, Muhammad Bello, Abdullah b. Fudi, Nana Asma'u and Umar b. Muhammadu Bukhari), during the 1770s-1860s in Hausaland societies. They defined progress as a move away from the past, (darkness), characterized by the appropriation of Islamic law, (light), expressed in the new state and its citizens. The Islamic "modernity" in this case, was synonymous with "Islamization" helping the region to "look like the land of Islam." This attempt was articulated to two different audiences. The "international" audience (and local scholars), were targeted through the written word in Arabic, and at times ajami was used for the ulama, while the "local" people were often lectured to mostly in Fulani and Hausa.Although the translated primary materials written by the Islamic reformers are limited, there is a consensus on what they envisioned as their ideal Islamic society. This is not based on what was argued for "their" alternative, but rather what they said against Hausa or non-Muslim rule. The leaders of the jihad, Usman dan Fodio, Muhammad Bello and Abdullah b. Muhammad Fudi, and family members, Abdullah Bukhari, Nana Asma'u and other scholars in the movement, had a plan for post-jihad Hausaland. The reformers mentally mapped out what the new society would be, and they committed their thoughts, particularly on what it would not be unto paper. The writing used to articulate the Islamic ideal was mostly written in Arabic, but many lectures, and oral presentations did what written languages were not able to do. Arabic was not read or understood by the majority of the population of Hausaland. The Shehu and others used Arabic for a different audience, usually coming from the wider Islamic world, particularly North and West Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula's literate communities. The written word was used to express and showcase one's ilm, or Islamic knowledge in the form of handwriting styles and methodology. In their writings, these scholars relied upon previously published materials coming from the "heartland" but also from already existing written materials within West and North Africa's Muslim societies. Part of the methodology and writing process, was to showcase a scholars' familiarity and knowledge of other materials from the wider Islamic world. The written word was also used as the avenue to criticize the ulama, or the learned Muslim community, among whom scholarly debates erupted over interpretation and doctrine. This paper will utilize the writings of the leaders mentioned above to highlight their discourse on progress, or "a move away from the past," and how the society, women's rights, their physical and personal space were altered by these changes. The presence of this discourse, articulated by the scholars, expressed a concept of color consciousness in pre-colonial Hausaland. This would later enable British racial policies in the region to flourish along the already existing "racial" policies evident in the pre-colonial society. European racial policies often meet a pre-existing notion of "whiteness" and "blackness" in the region, particularly in Muslim societies. These concepts often collaborated to define who spoke for Islam. Islam noir or the Islam practiced by the blacks, "in its least," was regarded as "paganism." Fulani and British rule accommodated each other in this regard. Lugard was appointed High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria in 1900, and governor of the entire country in 1914. His divide and rule tactics were based on the supposition of Fulani "racial" superiority and thus were regarded as "true" Muslims. British imperialism reinforced the alleged, but widely held notion of Fulani superiority over "natives." Lugard often referred to the Fulani as the "light-skinned invaders," constructing the Fulani "foreigners" in Africa and thus are "other" than "natives." Thus "light" was better than "dark," in pre-colonial and colonial Hausaland.And to be Muslim was to be socially on a higher standing than a "traditionalist."This paper is divided into five sections. The first section, Before the political Discourse, provides an understanding of the language used by the Shehu to convey reform among the populace, before the commencement with the political "jihad of words," which would be used to discredit Hausa governments. The second section, Targeting Darkness---The Ways of their Governments marks the Shehu's discursive transition from preaching reform to the people to demanding to "enlighten" the region by toppling their governments. This section articulates what the Shehu and Bello saw as "backward" characteristics of non-Muslim rule. The Ways of Muslims in their Governments presents the Islamic difference which signified progress and better governing. Constructing Darkness deals with the creation of Hausa rule as "darkness" and that of Islamic rule as its antithesis. The Sunna as Light, the final section, deliberates on the Islamic alternative or model that the Shehu, Bello, Fudi and Asma'u had envisioned and promised as the Islamic ideal. This section focuses on the works of Asma'u to present the continuum of her father's and brother's discourse in her own writings. This paper will trace the discourse used by the jihadist to "whiten" the region's religious and social identity in their "jihad of words."

Lillian Ashcraft-Eason, Africana Studies & History, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

Thinking Mytho-Historically About Woyengi, the Egbema-Ijo's Goddess of Destiny

One of the most enduring aspects of African cosmological thought is the belief in destiny and its role in the calibration of the length and quality of an individual's life. Nowhere in Africa is thinking about destiny more graphically articulated than in the Egbema-Ijo myth of the deity of destiny, Woyengi. The central deific images in this myth are females Woyengi--the supreme creator--and the hapless Ogboinba, her chief priestess. The Egbema (Ebiama) are a matrilineal people. Apropos to this characteristic and other sociological and religious realities, I believe this myth reflects the continuing vibrancy of the notion of destiny and the demise of the Woyengi cult. In this paper, the English translation of the Woyengi document is interfaced with secondary critical studies in order to determine the relationship between the mythic and social changes in Egbema society by the mid-twentieth century.

David Aworawo, Department of History, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria.

Since the attainment of flag independence in October1960, Nigeria has struggled to occupy an important place in world affairs in keeping with its self acclaimed title of "giant of Africa". And some scholars believe that Nigeria's role in world affairs has indeed been that of a giant, as titles such as "Nigeria: Giant in the Tropics" suggests. Others however feel that even if Nigeria is to be referred to as a giant on account of its potentials, its role in global politics since independence has been nothing more than that of a dwarf. This group argues that with a per capital GNP of less than 300 USD as compared with 500 USD for sub - Saharan Africa at the close of the 20th century, and with only 5.5 per cent of its GDP coming from manufacturing, Nigeria's role in world affairs could only be minimal. However, some have pointed to Nigeria's leading role in assisting in the struggle against colonialism especially in Southern Africa and in peace keeping in West Africa such as in ECOMOG operations in the 1990s, as evidence of the country's powerful role in global politics in the late 20th century. This paper will critically examine Nigeria's role in world affairs from independence to the close of the 20th century. It will analyze the country's foreign relations in West Africa, and in Africa at large, as well as its activities in such bodies as ECOWAS, OAU and the UN. A comparison of the country's role in these bodies will be made with developments within the country in political, social and economic spheres of life. This would make it possible for a balanced appraisal of Nigeria's role in global politics up to 2000 A.D. and also point the way to the future.

Dr Ademola Babalola, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University

Democracy and National Development in Nigeria

It is too early to assess the impact of the two-year democratic experiment in Nigeria on the people and the country. The ultimate question we should have to ask at the appropriate time however, is how far the new experience has helped to correct the following:

1. (a) Gross instability and inequalities in the standard of living between the majority of the people and those who control public institutions and public business.

(b) Economic development between various villages, districts, provinces, states and sections of the country and sectors of the economy.

2. The great amount of material benefit which accrues to those holding public offices due to the very high level of official and unofficial remuneration, arising out of the failure to clearly and sharply separate the holding of public office from the private accumulation of wealth in all the major public institutions.

3. The conduct of public affairs on the basis of the belief widely propagated that political activity is about the competition for material resources and public status between areas, ethnic groups, clans, families and individuals.

4. The absence of any systematic and effective means by which the common people can on a regular basis understand, guide and discipline those who are supposed to represent and serve them.

5. The manipulation of political activity by foreign interests through the supply of funds and ideas.

There is ample and growing evidence in the relevant literature that scientific and technological advancements are important stimuli of economic growth and development. Indeed, through technological innovation, diffusion, and commercialization, (newly) industrialized countries have enhanced the international competitiveness of their enterprises, generated wealth, and improved the living standards of their populace. Against the backdrop of the 20th century, especially during the post-Second World War, it is evident from the literature that those countries that have sharpened their innovative, distributive, and exploitative expertise tend to belong in the categories of advanced industrial and newly industrialized countries. Conversely, those nation-states that have yet to develop this ability tend to languish in the category of the “underdeveloped.” According to recent classifications by various international non-governmental organizations, Nigeria is an underdeveloped country after four decades of independence. Given its resourcefulness, human and natural, did independent Nigeria have a science, technology, and innovation policy during the 20th century? What was the policy? Was it systematically and coherently defined or was it a hodgepodge of ideas? How did it fare vis-à-vis its implementation and the realization of its objectives? The aforementioned are among the analytical questions that will constitute the basis of this discourse.

Tunde Babawale Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Political Science, University of Lagos

Although it is widely acknowledged that the existence of the Nigerian State dated as far back as 1914 when the British amalgamated its Northern and Southern Protectorates into a unified entity, the country is yet to evolve a virile nationhood characterised by a distinct national consciousness among the diverse ethnicities that inhabit the territory.
Aside from a civil war that lasted for 3 years (1967-70), there have been numerous inter-ethnic, inter-regional and inter-communal conflicts that have perennially threatened the unity of the Nigerian State.
The British colonial overlords implemented divisive policies that rendered the northern and southern sections of Nigeria into “point of the compass” as opposed to “definite political statement”. This gulf was widened in the post-independence era by the power-elite who exploited the differences in religion, region and ethnicity to keep themselves perpetually in political office by keeping the people almost permanently divided.
The incursion of the military into politics led to the freezing of efforts to evolve a Nigerian nation through the frequent resort of the military regimes to the suffocation of the civil society and the silencing of the voices of dissent.
Invariably, those individuals and organisations that agitated for minority rights, regional self-determination and equity in the distribution of power and resources were driven underground. The ineluctable consequence was the emergence of ethnic armies and the proliferation of atavistic and anomic groups that are threatening to overrun the Nigerian State and make the country ungovernable.
This paper is aimed at identifying the various dimensions of the challenges of nationhood, which Nigeria faced in the 20th century. It will also examine the possibilities that exist for the emergence of a virile Nigerian nation that will be able to dispense justice to its component units and consequently checkmate the current drift towards the Yugoslavisation of the country. It further examines the deepening crises of the Nigerian State exemplified in neo-colonial exploitation and mismanagement, chronic poverty, political instability, foreign domination and a general systemic decay- all of which have contributed to the frustration of the dreams of a virile Nigeria in the 20th century.

Cultism and the Hope of the Nigerian Youths in Higher Institutions in the 20th century

Cultism is a strange phenomenon that has engulfed many higher institutions in Nigeria and has brought unnecessary grief to some homes.The effect it has on the academic performance and the general well-being of Nigerian youths involved in cultism frightening.

Apart from the clandestine activities in which members of the cult are involved in, other outlandish behavior include the use of lethal and dangerous weapons and the taking of hard drugs.Innocent and defenseless members of the society at times sustain injury during outings or clashes of cult members.

On the Nigerian scene a clearer picture of the activities of cult members is painted thus:

"Students keep on dying,they keep getting maimed and disfigured,they keep being sexually assaulted and the orgy goes on. If only the Government can stop this madness.If only the school authorities can confront the devil,if only the lives of the students can be protected from the blood thirsty occult confraternities -if only, if only --------------"

This paper discusses the evolution of cultism in Higher Institutions in Nigeria, the present trends and activities and actions geared towards eliminating cultism on campus.

Nigerian Diasporic Realities: Migration to Navigate between Modernity and Tradition In Tess Onwueme's The Missing Face and Legacies

The postcolonial urge to wholeness, in the context of the African people, is a theme in Tess Onwueme's The Missing Face and Legacies. The plays speaks to a specificity of vision that illustrates the interconnection between Africans and those of African decent in the diaspora, especially in the United States. In several of Onwueme's plays, she portrays African women returning to Africa from either the United States or Great Britain to serve as educated, elite leaders of the ignorant masses. However, in The Missing Face and Legacies the main characters are African American women who migrate with their sosn to the mythical village of Idu to search for identity and regain what was lost in the middle passage. It is a position that gives a solid affirmation to the varying urge in black cultures everywhere, which is to secure the future with a recovery of what was taken away by colonialism, of that missing face and to claim ancestral legacies. This paper will investigate how Onwueme illustrates that in modern times it is sometimes necessary to return to ancestral lands and confront, or embrace tradition to find wholeness to mend split identities.

The determination of British colonial administrators in Northern Nigeria to keep the Muslim areas of the territory free from Christian proselytizers is generally well known and has been written about many times. Unfortunately, the battle between missionaries and administrators over entry into Muslim territories has overshadowed the larger relationship between missionaries and administrators to the detriment of the historical understanding of both the establishment of Christian missions in the region and through those missions, vibrant indigenous Christian churches. Without a doubt, the contest between the two groups of Europeans helped determine the way Christianity was presented in the region, but it was not the only factor. Concern by government officials over issues such as the provision of European style education and medical services, as well as the provision of social services for the emerging Southerner communities attached to Northern cities prompted these officials to seek cooperation with missionaries, even while they were denying access to the emirates to the latter. For their part, few of the missions that operated in the North had sufficient funds for their various schemes not to look to the government for subsidies. In this paper I will sketch out what I think will be a more balanced narrative of the relationship between the colonial government in Northern Nigeria and the Christian missions. I will attempt to show that despite the battles that missionaries and administrators fought during the early years of the colonial era, by the second half of that era, their relationship would best be characterized as one of reluctant yet mutually appreciated cooperation.

Navigating Taboos in Nigerian Culture: Suppression of Women's Desires in Zulu Sofola's Play

Nigerian playwright Zulu Sofola concerns herself with writing women's identities. She explores feelings of loss and alienation in a culture that suppresses women's physical, emotional, and spiritual desires.While certain staple conflicts abound in her plays, such as rural versus urban, traditional versus progressive or modern, one essential conflict revolves around the impact of Western feminist influences on Nigerian culture and, concomitantly, the pressure that is placed on Nigerian women by the patriarchy to accept narrowly prescribed identities. Sofola critiques the feminist influences that reach across the seas to divide men and women in her homeland and from their kin in the diaspora. Her plays interrogate her people's search for wholeness and concludes that the hope for Blacks lies in owning the disruption caused by the Middle Passage and in shoring up a sense of community, locally and globally. Sofola advocates for a flexible tradition, one in which women strive for a middle ground between traditionalism and modernity. This study examines the shifting perspectives of Nigerian women to include their insistence upon a modicum of freedom and independence while simultaneously working toward a meaningful union between black men and women. Sofola's plays suggests that she wants the best of the old world to survive, to become part of a useable past that emerges as a cornerstone of a present that facilitates growth and fulfillment for both women and men in Nigeria and the diaspora.

My paper is on Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe, whose musical career in highlife spans 40 years in Nigeria. Osadebe is currently on tour in the US, promoting a recent release which compiles songs recorded between 1970-1985.While doing fieldwork among Nigerians in Houston, it came to my attention that Chief Osadebe is an important cultural figure for Ibo people living in Houston. Fans play his music at social events such as wedding receptions and bridal showers to assert regional and ethnic identity. In July 2001, Osadebe played four back-to-back concerts in Houston and will return in October. I will sketch a biography of Osadebe's musical career in Nigeria and also focus on how his music provides a strong nostalgic force for Nigerian immigrants today, perhaps transporting them back to a more prosperous and hopeful time in Nigeria (such as the 70s). Sources for the study include oral interview and personal interactions with the band.

Kassahun Checole, Publisher & President Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press

Discussion will address the challenges and various obstacles to publishing; identifies industry trends as well as new themes and frontiers in publications; reviews the range of available venues and formats, including monographs, journals, textbooks, anthologies, text editions, encyclopedia entries, re-published archival materials and documentary evidence. Dr. Checole will share his personal experiences with students and professors.

Women and the Complexity of Gender Relations in Nigeria: A Historiographical Overview

Using historical methods, this paper analyzes the concept of gender, and how it relates to Nigerian women. The focus is on the various ways women have used gender to express their identities in different Nigerian societies, identities which were regularly and systematically reshaped to fit a broad array of their productive and political needs and interests.

Using the precolonial period as a background, five broad categories of identities of Nigerian women in the twentieth century, namely, female husbands, female sons, female fathers, female kings, and female priests will be analyzed. Effort will be made to examine how such factors of change as Islam, Christianity, Western education, the legal system, colonialism and the bureaucratization of state power have affected gender relations in Nigeria.

Nigerian Anti-Military Movements in the 1990s

Nigeria suffered under military rule for nearly 30 years after its independence from Great Britain in 1960. The military regimes of Babangida and Abacha repressed civil society organizations and preyed upon the people of Nigeria. When the military government annulled a free and fair election, many segments of the population began to seek alternative paths to end military rule and restore democracy. Some groups operated abroad, while the majority was inside. This paper proposes to examine the development and activities of anti-military groups in the 1990s and to evaluate their role in affecting political change. It is a contribution to contemporary politics, as well as to studies on social movements.

The Role of Assessment in Nigerian Education

The 1950s were a pivotal decade for the development of education in Nigeria. In anticipation of independence from colonial rule, educational opportunities for Nigerians expanded at all levels. This expansion was a result of both private initiative among Nigerians and Africanization programs instituted by the colonial and regional governments. The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was created during this era, in 1952. Educators envisioned that WAEC would be an institution that would indigenize the process of developing examinations in the WAEC member countries. Nationalists, government officials and educators believed that Africanization of curriculum would be a natural corollary to the Africanization of bureaucratic institutions. In fact, examinations played an important role in limiting the extent of educational reforms in Nigeria prior to independence. Drawing on the history of WAEC’s development in Nigeria, this paper seeks to analyze the struggle for Africanization in Nigeria’s curriculum and discuss the changing role of educational tests in Nigeria’s educational system.

Nigeria and the Diaspora, Solidarities and Discords : The Drama of Tess Onwueme

Amongst the work of living Nigerian women dramatists, that of Osonye Tess Onwueme is perhaps the most significant and provocative. Her early plays deal with Nigerian domestic and social issues (The Broken Calabash) and with the continuing despoliation of an Africa vulnerable to global interests incompatible with its own (The Desert Encroaches). In these plays Onwueme develops some of the most audacious dramaturgy to have emerged in the Nigerian English-language theatre. With her move to the USA at the end of the 1980s, however, the subject-matter of Onwueme`s plays undergoes a pronounced shift--and it is her plays of the last decade that the present paper addresses.

While Onwueme`s most recent published play, Shakara: Dance-Hall Queen (2000) returns to a Nigerian setting, plays such as Legacies, Riot in Heaven, The Missing Face and Go Tell It To Women focus, in one way or another, on the interconnections between African (and especially African women`s) history and experience and that of the diaspora. The paper explores the dramaturgy that Onwueme employs in addressing this issue and the textual ideology that emerges from these plays. It locates these works within the realm of other literature on diaspora concerns. In particular, it analyses Onwueme`s problematization of perceived differences between African and Western concepts of social organization, development aid and feminist activism.

I met Aseda Awo Adeyefa, one of the sixteen diviners of the Ooni of Ile-Ife, during a brief visit to Nigeria in March 1990. He was recommended to me as a seasoned and knowledgeable diviner by Dr. Wande Abimbola. His demonstrated knowledge and his demeanor impressed me. Over the next 4 years, the aseda divined for me, and he and I had lengthy conversations about Ifa as I observed his work in Ile-Ife and the United States. What impressed me most about him was the liberal and creative way in which he interpreted Ifa divination myths to meet twentieth-century interests of African Americans.

In this paper, I present his articulated insights into the transformative nature of Ifa and examine his use of these insights in discussions of gender issues and in his adjusting to travel and visiting in the United States. I use notes and electronic documentation from interviews and conversations with him to write this paper. My presentation will be supported with video clips.

The aim of this paper is to delineate the major phases in the attempt to reconstruct the history of Nigeria. Historical reconstruction based on memory, now generally known as the oral tradition, is the established tradition. The oral tradition enables an understanding of the notion of popular historical consciousness. An established writing tradition in Arabic and Ajami provide rich historical accounts of Islamic areas. During the nineteenth century, English spread and a number of African languages acquired a written form, which is, of course, another crucial development. As a result of writing, chronicles became an established vehicle of historical preservation.

All of these genres were developed extensively in the colonial period itself with some actually becoming part of the colonial documentation of Africa. As ethnography and anthropology turned their attention to Africa, they also significantly impacted the writing of history. Academic history writing began in the 1950s, borrowing data and themes from the earlier genres.

In the 1960s, the civil war and problems of political instability imposed the need to dwell on contemporary history, and historians were pressured to seek relevance. The economic devastation of the 1980s affected the discipline and the organization of academic society. An "academic void" did not occur, but writing diminished in quality and quantity. Oil wealth produced a new generation of elite whose members were interested in using their money for self-glorification expressed in the writings of memoirs. If the century opened with the glorification of communities and groups, it ended with the celebration of individuals and their wealth and power.

Toyin Falola will lead a panel to discuss how scholars and others who are interested in Nigeria can contribute to the strengthening of academic institutions and scholarship in Nigeria. Among the issues to be considered are:

i. The revival of academic associations, such as the Historical Society of Nigeria;

ii. The Contribution to the publication of journals, such as the Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria;

It explores the dominant African element in Krio culture, which latter is a blend of African and western values. This dominant element which is Yoruba, is a result of British attempts to outlaw the Atlantic slave trade which led to a large number of Yoruba being brought to and liberated in Freetown. The paper examines the element of Krio identity as it emerged by the early twentieth century, with an emphasis on the hegemonic western culture established by early colonial rule there and the predominantly Yoruba aspects. These latter are delineated in some detail with regard to their prominence in the Krio language - aspects like the Yoruba words in the Krio language, Yoruba institutions liks esusu, food items, komojade, hunters and egungun societies and the like. The paper also seeks to clarify the background to Krio identity which led many Krios to refuse to accept that the term Krio came from the Yoruba akiriyo rather than from 'Creole'.

The Crucial Role of the Market Women in Nigeria Between 1940 and 1960

While the military and political party leaders played an important role in the transition to independence from the British in Nigeria between 1940 and 1960, it is the market women who gave them the strength and support they needed. In this paper I will examine the important role of the market women in Nigeria during this time of decolonization. Because they had the ability to shut down markets, organize large groups of demonstrators, and manipulate the prices of goods in the market, the political leaders recognized their importance in the future of an independent Nigeria.

"Amirul Inglis?": Lugard and the transformation of the local aristocracy in northern Nigeria c. 1903-1918

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the new local aristocracy and the colonial state using some original letters from the emirs to F. D. Lugard. The significance of these letters lies in their essence in reconstructing the basis of what later came to be known as the indirect rule system.The paper intends to also re-examine nature of the collaborative relations between the aristocracy and the level of subservience Lugard envisages to have inculcated in the emirates of northern Nigeria.

"An account devoted exclusively to fact," Ruth First wrote in the introduction to her study of coups d'état in Africa, "would present an Africa that is desiccated and dull." To what alternatives to "fact" then did First turn in the research, organization and writing of her 1970 book Barrel of a Gun (published in the United States as Power in Africa)? First goes on to maintain that she "tried [in the book] to convey something of the way people see, and say things about, their condition..." and to accomplish this narrative dictum through "scattered, sometimes unattributed, quotations throughout the book." Many of those quotations would have been recorded during her extended travel through West Africa and the Sudan in 1967 and 1968, during which she apparently sought to catch what she referred to as the "pulsating life in the streets of West Africa, where the rumbustious spirit seems so incompatible with the earnest political futility in high places." First concludes her introduction, bylined London, November 1969, and following two paragraphs of acknowledgements, with her own hopes not only for an "account [not] devoted exclusively to fact," but for Africa's options in the post-independence period, and for her own personal participation in scripting those alternative scenarios: "Harsh judgements are made in this book of Africa's independence leaderships. Yet this book is primarily directed not to the criticism, but to the liberation of Africa, for I count myself an African, and there is no cause I hold dearer." Barrel of a Gun is part and parcel of First's own story, her intellectual history as a South African communist and anti-apartheid activist who died in exile, a story that necessarily combines both biography and bibliography. This paper proposes to examine both the composition of the book - its research as told in First's correspondance at the time as well as the book's final draft - and its "after life" - in the reviews and debates it elicited at the time of its publication and in a retrospective consideration of its prophetic prescience or, perhaps, its foibled failure as not an "account devoted exclusively to fact." In other words, Barrel of a Gun both proposes a study of coups in Africa (with special reference to the Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana) and provides a chapter in the life of Ruth First and her own contributions to the "liberation of Africa."

Ashimuneze K. Heanacho, PH.D., Prof. of Educational Philosophy & Urban Education, Lincoln University

Ethnois are natural realities ñ nations -- and the ontological imperative, for a nation state to emerge. With no political-economic exigency, differing ethnois may not accede to a common political structure. Where no ontological ingredient exists as a historical fact, it can be created, cognitively, and conceptually. But, no such effort is occurring, in Nigeria. On the contrary, ethnic differentiation, and marginalization prevails, creating divergences, as dominant elements of the Nigerian condition By dividing the geographic space it acquired, into autonomous regions, Britain acceded to the indefatigability of ethnicism. However, since nominal independence, Nigerian federal governments have been at variance, with their regional coordinates, in enunciating concepts of a Nigerian nation. While regional sentiments forge ethnic consciousness and identity (however muted), federal governments defer to ethnicity, as a problem. Constitutionally strong ethnois, are essential to Nigeria becoming a viable nation. But, strong ethnicism will not be tolerated, within a foreseeable Nigerian construct. Mostly, it is the elite, who benefit from the existing sociopolitical and economic arrangement, who advocate a Nigerian nation state. To others, Nigeria is a map, not a people. Thus, a necessity, for a Nigerian nation state is not indubitable. Indeed, indications are that, there is a greater need, for the fusing across national boundaries, of viable ethnois, in Nigeria, and elsewhere, to emerge as political nations. These entities may become more successful, given that they will not have to expend as much resource, as Nigerian governments do, to procure conformity, and exert coercion. -- resources needed for the emergence of a strong Africa, which remains postponed, as long as Nigeria, wastes resources, compelling unwilling ethnois, to remain in the existing structure. A powerful Africa is more necessary, and viable, than a strong Nigeria, especially because, regardless of the country, the rest of the world views Africans, collectively, and reductively, as Africans, and nothing more.

Daintee Glover Jones, University of Houston, Ph.D. Candidate in Literature

Womanish Madwomen in Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa and Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro

Womanism as a critique endeavors to include all women of color; therefore, I will attempt to compare and contrast gender and racial identity issues that are portrayed in Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo and Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy. Aidoo is a Ghanian playwright who writes in English and Kennedy is an African American playwright who penned her play while in Ghana. Each playwright presents protagonists who are faced with identity issues that are colored by colonialism and who are postmodern mythologists who are not comfortable performing within society's myths and metanarratives that define gender and racial identity. Aidoo's character Anowa must contend with the absence of children in her marriage and the loss of her husband's masculinity which leads to her 'madness' while Kennedy's Sarah has madness as a result of struggling with multiple levels of consciousness. I will argue that both playwrights use the deaths of their protagonists to symbolize the necessary demise of patriarchal definitions of gender and race.

Dr. Joni L. Jones Associate Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Associate Director of the Center for African and African-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Transatlantic Transformations: Osun and an African-American Context”

This paper is the first of a two-part examination of the transformation that occurs as the Yoruba life force known as Osun is reconfigured to suit an African-American context. This paper describes the annual Osun Festival in Osogbo, Nigeria with an eye toward the ways in which the Festival has reshaped itself in light of shifting Nigerian political and economic realities, and after the cultural amalgamation born of a host of international influences. The paper questions the union of spirituality and commercialism, the effects of a reverse diaspora, and the tensions between the private and public veneration of Osun. Finally, I will preview the second part of this analysis which looks at how Osun has moved from Nigeria to Cuba to the United States, and what this journey suggests about the power of a socio-political context on spiritual practice.

Throughout the twentieth century Muslim entrepreneurs were a large and significant part of the business landscape of Nigeria. In fact, Muslim private capital advanced in growth, management, and organization. But Nigerian Muslims have a long history of entrepreneurship extending several centuries into the pre-colonial period. This is evidenced by the entrepreneuralism of the prominent Dantata family based in northern Nigeria. This paper examines Nigerian Muslim entrepreneurship from the 1960s to the 1990s. It focuses on Muslim capital accumulation, as well as business organization and management. In exploring the trajectory of Muslim private enterprise in Nigeria, the paper discusses both entrepreneurial success and challenges. Furthermore, the paper situates Nigerian Muslim entrepreneurship within the broad comparative framework of Muslim private enterprise in post-colonial West Africa.

Nigeria, since its independence has been in search of political and economic transformation, without success. Societies in the Nigerian area have experienced great transformations in their political, economic and cultural organization and ideas in the past. The socio-economic conditions underpinning such changes, as well as the responsible agency are usually very important, as shown in analyses of these changes. Thus the situation for pre-colonial Nigeria is no different from what obtains for other parts of the world. What seems to be different includes a disjuncture between past experiences and modern attempts at political transformations. Could colonialism, or perhaps, slavery and the slave trade, or imperialism be responsible for the lack of a living heritage of social and political transformation on which modern ones could build on.The character of agency that had succeeded in the past and that could succeed in transforming the current society also needs be revisited. Why has the leadership that has assumed the management of the politics and economics of Nigeria seemingly unitedly been anti-Nigeria. There is a need for answers that go beyond the usual answers of corruption, nepotism, and/or imperialism been the cause of the problem. The paper, therefore, tries to question the current or modern attempts at political transformation by reference to histories of political and social transformation in Nigeria before 1900. It seeks to determine if there is much that is relevant in the pre-colonial political history of Nigeria and how relevant it may be to the current attempts; and to what extend there might be a need to wander afar for a heritage on which to base a Nigerian political revolution that could stand the chance of success.

Throughout the colonial era and most of the post-independence era, the state invested little in women. In Nigeria as else where in Africa, colonial officials discriminated between men and women and made the former the primary target of the agricultural development policy. The result was a gendered development agenda. This paper focuses on the gendered nature of state agricultural policy and the impact on gender relations and the agricultural economy. Specifically, it considers the manner in which state policies and the neglect of women farmers in particular adversely affected agricultural development in the country. The paper highlights a number of key areas of concern for Nigeria's agricultural development in relation to gender and food security and provides an exploratory framework for discussion and analysis.

Why did Wole Soyinka return to Nigeria in 1960? What did he hope to achieve? How did he support himself? Who helped him to reinsert himself into the Nigerian theatrical world? These are questions it is now possible to answer by examining documents gleaned from the files of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Easily the most populous country in Africa, with a powerful army and an oil-rich economy, Nigeria has long aspired to a leadership position in the West African sub-continent. In its role as a sub-regional growth pole, however, smaller states in West Africa have resisted, for better or for worse, this growing influence of the ailing giant. Nigeria is an economy in abject decay, where ethnic and religious prejudices have found fertile ground and where most of the population have questioned whether their country should remain as one entity or discard the colonial borders and break apart like the worldwide phenomenon played out in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Yet, rather than focus priorities on her many pressing domestic problems, Nigeria has taken principled stands in the fierce opposition of Senegal and now Sierra Leone, over important issues such as regional security and stability. Nevertheless, Nigeria may not be a lone duck in this conspiracy theory of opposition as in East Africa, Kenya suffered a similar fate in the hands of Uganda and Tanzania. This paper argues from an optimistic point of view that in the economic and political co-operation in West Africa, the new wave of sentiments over the fear of Nigeria?s dominance need neither be the beginning of economic nor political wisdom.

In 1956, Tai Solarin and his wife Sheila founded a high school called The Mayflower School, named in honor of the ship which sailed from England to America via Amsterdam in 1620 to seek religious freedom in the New World. The school began with sixty-nine boys and shortly thereafter began admitting girls as well. There are now over 2000 students enrolled. The only secular school in Nigeria, it has long numbered among the top learning institutions in the country, and has educated Nigeria's first female engineer and more doctors and scientists than any other school in the country. Long one of Nigeria's most prominent social critics, Solarin (affectionately known as "Uncle Tai" to his many admirers) was involved in human rights activism throughout his life. After his death, his widow continued to run the school along the Enlightenment principles he espoused. In this paper, I will give a history of the school, discuss its educational principles, and talk about the current efforts to keep alive the ideals of Tai Solarin.

The paper will explore the issue of early interaction between the independent Nigeria and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The paper is part of my larger work on the history of Nigeria-Soviet relations. At the time of Nigerian Independence the Soviet Union undertook a concerted effort to establish closer ties with the new African nation. This effort was rebuffed by the Nigerian ruling establishment during the First Republic. To better understand the dynamics of evolution of the relationship between the two countries that would come to play a very special role in Nigeria's dramatic quest for political independence, unity and economic self-sufficiency it is essential to look at this early phase of interaction, which to a large extent set the tone of Nigeria's future association with the Communist world, and shaped Nigeria's perceptions of international reality and its role in it. The paper will utilize a wide variety of Nigerian and Soviet primary sources, such as various periodicals, diplomatic correspondence, memoir literature, personal interviews, official government publications and statistical abstracts.

Thriving Peasantry, Communal Ownership, Native Administration, and Social Change: Debating Land Policy in Colonial Nigeria

Upon the establishment of colonial rule in Africa, the British (and indeed, all the other colonial powers), were deeply interested in the land question, for several reasons, ranging from labor reproduction, capitalist production, revenue generation, to power and social control. The colonial government set up several committees and commissioned several studies, some for individual colonies or protectorates, and at least one for the whole of British West Africa. Many of the committees never reported their findings, but those that did, failed to come up with satisfactory answers to the land question. In this paper, I will explore the developments and the debates of the British colonial policies relating to land in Nigeria. The paper will show that although there were extensive debates, and enormous data collected by the British about land in Nigeria throughout the colonial period, yet, they never developed consistent and coherent land policies for Nigeria. The committees, and the debates surrounding them, showed in glaring ways, the confusion and contradictions that confronted the British colonial administrators in dealing with the land question in colonial Nigeria.

Beyond any other contemporary advancement in technology, electronics is foremost in helping to enhace the claim of a 'global village' in the twenty-first century. We're now in the age of 'virtual television' and 'instant internet communication' and the first world, especially the United States, seems to explore this great achievement to define the global village as its own village, a village with its Super Voice as the global voice.

This paper shall adopt Elaloro, a performance-based theoretical perspective emanating from indigenous Yoruba discourses, to show how the Yoruba community, and the Nigerian nation, has coped with the electronic age. It shall offer theoretical insights aimed at ensuring a cross-cultural performance at cyperspace, and present a global village as a world where all component communities must have their own voices.

A cursory glance at Nigeria's environment in the twentieth century reveals steady degradation of conditions. Whereas the beginning of the century was marked by balance in eco-systems and harmonious bio-diversity, the end represented a picture of a spectrum. The visible dimensions include environmental problems/disasters, weak remedial measures, and the ubiquitous ecological threats and challenges. Key environmental issues at the end of the century were soil degradation, rapid deforestation, desertification, threats to bio-diversity, and poor waste management techniques. Other issues were ozone layer depletion and global warming. Critical to policy-makers was the issue of how to get Nigeria out of the vicious circle of poverty and environmental degradation and, thus, remove "sustainable development" from the realm of utopia. The thrust of this paper, therefore, is to examine environmental policies and practices of the various Nigerian governments {colonial and post-colonial} in the light of socio-economic conditions of the populace and to offer explanation why the remedial measures proved weak. The methodology adopted here is deliberately holistic, eclectic, and interdisciplinary.

The last century is one that witnessed the birth and considerable growth of female writing in Nigeria. With the publication of Flora Nwapa's Efuru in the mid- sixties, commenced a gradual but steady evolvement of dynamic and vocal women, who sought very determinedly, to represent female experiences from the female perspective in their literary works.

Prior to this era, the Nigerian literary scene had been dominated mainly by male authors. Consequently, the women characters that were depicted in their texts were insignificant and served certain roles only in relation to the men. Patriarchal attitudes and beliefs dictated the treatment of women. Thus, male characters positioned as subjects within the narrative, dealt with the females in their lives in conformity to the oppressive tradition of a purely patriarchal society.

Nigerian women writers as well as other African women, found themselves burdened with the enormous task of revealing the true consciousness of the female in their societies. It became their responsibility to create and present women in their texts who specifically challenge the myth of the unchanging docile and naive rural woman who accepts without argument the social norms of her male oriented society. (Chukukere,1995)

This paper will seek therefore, to examine the ways in which the Nigerian female writers in particular have sought to project a true essence of the female experience and reality. It will attempt to highlight the manner in which selected writers have expertly deconstructed existing stereotyped images of the female figure in male-authored texts, while simultaneously reconstructing such images.

Finally the paper will equally focus on some Nigerian female writers who have recently gone beyond reconstructing the image of the woman in their works, to embark on making definitive statements on vital issues, pertaining to the survival of mankind as a whole. For this study, more recent writers like Promise Okekwe, Akachi Ezeigbo and Chinwe Okechukwu have been selected, and the issues raised above will be examined as they appear in their works.

At a public lecture in Abeokuta in August 1999, the Nobel Prize Laureate for literature, Professor Wole Soyinka, noted that Nigerian universities "have been dying piece-meal," and that they should be closed down for a while to enable the authorities address the many problems afflicting them. As he puts it, "I propose that it is time to think of closing the universities for a year or two. I insist that the period (of reflection and restitution) would not be a waste". For Soyinka to make such a somber plea, the situation must be quite critical. The enormity of the problem has eroded confidence in the country's university system. It has resulted in an unprecedented number of student dropouts, particularly by those who have been unable to contend with the unnerving effects of degeneracy such as the selling of grades by faculty, lack of library resources, attractions of quick wealth, and the growing influence of bribery/corruption on campus policies and practices. It is rather difficult to recall that on the eve of independence, Nigeria had only one university, the University College of Ibadan, which had gained international reputation as a center for academic excellence. A number of foreign scholars went to the University College for advanced studies and Ibadan graduates were proud and highly prized internationally. At independence, three other universities were established at Nsukka, Lagos and Zaria, and the tradition of excellence was maintained up to the middle of the 1980s. Even the proliferation of universities in the 1970s and 1980s did not pose any tangible threat to the standards and fortunes of higher education as Nigerian diplomas continued to be respected overseas. From the 1990s, however, the table was overturned as the universities rapidly began to crumble. The reputation of the universities and the diplomas they awarded began to come under serious question. Many factors accounted for this state of decay viz: the economic crisis of the 1980s and 1990s; criminal neglect by successive military regimes; the politicization of the university administration; moral laxity among many lecturers and students; the high level of unpreparedness of students for the challenges of higher education; the lack of direction on the part of faculty, staff, and administration; the tradition on dependency of foreign resources, etc. This paper will trace the origins of these problems and attempt to correlate them to the larger socio-political and economic framework within which these universities have existed and operated.

Ebenezer Obadare Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics and Political Science

The emerging discourse on civil society in Nigeria is plagued by an eerily familiar definitional muddle. In several respects, this chimes with the global scholarly factionalism about the subject. Divided positions range from outright denial by postmodernists, to the cautious acceptance of Marxists and the scepticism of ‘Eurocentrists’ who reject the possibility of civil society, the perceived outgrowth of a specifically European cultural soil, taking roots in other social milieus. Although Gellner (1994) who equates civil society with ‘Atlantic society’, and Callaghy (1994) who dismisses the concept as ‘imported’ are commonly perceived as the arrowheads of the Eurocentric phalanx, a rigorous survey of the literature reveals that doubts about (1) the possibility of civil society in Africa, (read Nigeria); and (2) its utility for the elucidation of social processes on the continent has an older ancestry (Ferguson, 1980).
Yet, a cursory survey of the literature shows that a robust response to the doubts of sceptics is lacking. The essential dilemma, in my view, can be summarised as follows: does civil society have an authentic intellectual history in Nigeria, nay Africa, outside its putative western provenance? Thus far, a rigorous and consistent answer to this vital research question has been lacking. Nigeria being an excellent example of what Gellner referred to as a ‘segmented society’, and therefore one in which civil society should ordinarily be unheard of, the objective of this paper is to respond to this poser by using the country as analytic template.
In the process, I hope to achieve two other related objectives: first, lay bare a geography of civil society in Nigeria with an accent on its history. Extant literature has neglected this important task. Second, I attempt to describe actually existing civil society in Nigeria with a view to showing to what extent it is similar to or different from its European counterparts.
Finally, studies on civil society in Nigeria have been largely obsessed with analysing it in relation to democratic transition and/or the state. Again, considerable intellectual energy has been lavished on determining whether civil society in Nigeria is ‘weak’ or ‘strong’. Conducting a critical panoramic overview of such studies, the paper transcends this ‘dual mandate’ by (a) looking at civil society as a locatable empirical reality and (b) exposing the superfluity of the debate on its ‘weakness’ or ‘strength’.

Ropes of Oil: Ethnic Minority Agitation and the Spectre of National Disintegration in Nigeria

Nigeria's fragile unity as it were, remains bound by ropes of oil. Totally dependent on oil exports which are mainly sourced from the Niger Delta, a region inhabited by people of ethnic minority stock, the mix of an inequitable distribution of oil revenues, a history of ethnic minority agitation against marginalisation by a centralist federation, and the current democratic openings, pose a combustible problem with future dire consequences for the survival of a democratic, multi-ethnic Nigeria.

Since the 1990's, militant oil minority resistance groups such as Ken Saro-Wiwa's MOSOP have confronted the Nigerian federal state and the oil multinationals, especially Shell, operating in the Niger Delta. At the heart of such protests are demands for resource (oil) control, self-determination and respect for minority rights, and compensation for oil pollution.

The interface between oil politics, global business, ethnicity, the national question, and environmental rights have been rather poorly mediated by the Nigerian state, leading to the escalation of tension in the Niger Delta, fears of succession and the looming spectre of national disintegration should the ropes of oil snap in the future. Thus, Nigeria lies in the coils of the ropes of oil, prisoner to its past as well as its future.

The foregoing captures the essence of the paper, which in its concluding section examines the prospects of staving off the possibility of the break-up of the Nigerian nation-state project.

The federal Military Government of Nigeria at the end of the civil war in 1970, mouthed a propaganda slogan of 3Rs: Reconciliation, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of the war ravaged Igboland. But reconciliation as a process entails the appreciation by two parties that had been estranged over a period of time of the need to let bye gone be bye gone. It is the highest point of spiritual maturity and sober reflection in which both parties acknowledge the need to work harmoniously for the common good of all concerned. In post-civil war Nigeria, there were instances of vendetta, grudging welcome of the Igbo people back into the Nigeria fold, that the term reconciliation appears superficial, deceptive and a mere political gimmick. Reconciliation can only obtain among equals. But the situation at the end of the civil in which the Igbo people were worsted and all those that fought on the Biafram side were denied reinstatement into the armed forces, the civil service, public corporation could only be a vendetta exerted by the victorious federal government of General Gowon. The issue of abandoned property of the Igbo in various parts of the country exposes the hypocrisy of the doctrine of reconciliation. Reconciliation could not have taken place where some people were forced into exile. To the Igbo people that got twenty pounds (£20) at the end of the civil war and their previous bank accounts frozen, reconciliation was a far cry. When would the wounded Biafran soldiers that have continued to live on charity after thirty years of the end of the civil war be reconciled with their antagonist? It is the aim of this paper to point out missed opportunies of true reconciliation in Nigeria at the end of the civil war and of the need for the rest of Nigeria to fashion a new political contract that would be less conflict prone than obtains now.

The issue of human rights violations has generated intense global discourse since the endorsement by the United Nations (UN), of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights some fifty years ago. The resultant new world order, inspired by the UN actions represented a moral barometer for measuring the efficacy of government institutions in proctecting human rights abuse. This paper will briefly examine the troubling issues of human rights abuses by the police in Nigeria and the institutional mechanism designed to ameliorate police-citizen distemper. The paper argues that though human right violations by police abound in most jurisdictions throughout the world however, pace of such violations has reched its crescendo during the various military administrations that ruled Nigeria. The end result was the dramatic downturn in rights protection and the escalation of repressive measurses that subjugated civil liberties. The paper proceeds to examine the nature and pattern of rights infringement by police and posits that police intransigence and abusive tendencies is a reflection of its colonial heritage. It also argues that the military administration failed to uphold the tenets of the UN charter in preserving individual liberty but rather, contributed to the sordid deprivation of civil liberty- and that citizen*s were comprehensively squeezed by obnoxious and repressive laws. It also finds that the police have become the mischievous instrument of government repression, indifferent to institutional mechanism for preserving hum,an rights privileges. This work concludes by suggesting that repressisve measures in whatever form negates national or inter- national covenant to advance human right causes.. The Nigerian misfortune has aroused national and internation awareness on the necessity for concerted effort to arrest the situation and the current democratic administration is attempting to rectify the situation.

The Colonizers and 'The Natives': Isolation and Exclusion Practices in Colonial Nigeria

British colonial policy in Africa and elsewhere was informed by the tacit assumption that the colonized "natives" were inferior to the European colonizers. Ideologically this assumption informed the isolationist and exclusionary practices in colonized territories such as Nigeria. Following the process of pacification of the geographical expression called Nigeria, the British developed with time social and political policies which excluded and isolated Africans during the colonial period. These practices led to the establishment of institutions which furthered the racist goals of the colonial state. The institutions included prisons, leprosy settlements, infectious disease hospitals and Government Reservation Areas. Using archival sources, newspapers and colonial official documents the paper will examine the colonial mind set which informed the policies. The nature and effects of isolation and exclusion on the African population will be explored. The reactions of Africans to exclusion and restriction will also be discussed.

Archaeology, Historiographic Traditions, and Institutional Discourse of National Identity in Nigeria since 1930

This paper examines the impact of archaeology on historical writing and the institutional discourse of national identity in Nigeria since 1930. The study will present an intellectual history of Nigeria's archaeological practice with emphasis on the relationship between archaeological interpretations and historiographic traditions, and also between archaeological research and the political agenda for national unity and development. The study delineates four major phases in Nigeria's archaeological practice: 1930-1960, 1961-1977, 1978-1992, and 1992-2000; and examines how each period was related to the shifting paradigms and methods of historical writing and the different agendas of the national government. Using case studies of archaeological investigations in Ile-Ife, Benin, Igbo-Ukwu, Daima, and the Benue, Anambra and Cross River Valleys, the paper will consider, for example, how the institutional identities of specific ethnolinguistic and cultural groups, such as the Yoruba and the Igbo, have been constructed by emphasizing continuity between the contemporary ethnic groups and the past archaeological records. The paper will also examine how the political quest for national identity and national unity has led to the appropriation of the local archaeological finds to produce public narratives of national history through such exhibitions as Treasures of Ancient Nigeria and Nigerian Images.

Between the Ideology of Ethnogenesis and the Politics of Cultural Nationalism: Looking Back, and Questioning the Making of the Yoruba

The goal of this paper is to examine the conceptual issues and the historical referents in the debate of Yoruba ethnogenesis and the making of the Yoruba nation. A number of scholars have noted that the idea of Yoruba nationality was created by the British colonial hegemony through its anthropological enterprise and its religious ideology - Christianity. Others have argued for the transatlantic Diaspora origins of modern Yoruba identity, claiming that the Black Nationalism in the Americas laid the foundations for the creation of the "idea of Yoruba", especially through the Christianized Afro-Brazilian and Saro returnees. These claims have been justified mostly by making a caricature of the so-called popular sense of the ageless, primordial origins of Yoruba identity rather than addressing the scholarly evidence that lead to the pre-20th century origins of the Yoruba ethnogenesis. This study will explore the relationship between citizenship, ethnogenesis, and nationalism in the Yoruba experience. Historical narratives, archaeological data, and ethnographic evidence will be presented to demonstrate that the socio-cultural repertoire of Yoruba ethnogenesis predated the cultural nationalism of the early 20th century by about eight centuries. The paper will argue that citizenship in city-states or towns has been the primary unit of political identity in Yoruba region but that this level of identity was subsumed under the ideology of a pan-regional cultural identity into which individuals and different groups were socialized. The articulation of this pan-regional identity is found mostly in the abstract and tangible aspects of material culture, in religious practices, and in the social practice of interconnection, especially in the regions that adopted kingship institution as the order of sociopolitical relations. The paper will therefore reverse the question from how Christian ideology, colonial modernism, and the transatlantic Diaspora experience created the Yoruba to how the cultural repertoire of Yoruba ethnogenesis, formed over a period of eight centuries, was utilized in defining a new form of Yoruba cultural nationalism during the 20th century.

AbstractReports about African population, its growth and distribution are froth with contradictions that invariably lead to false conclusions and inadequate policies. False policies lead to poor socio-economic planning and wasteful allocation of human resources. The final results are frustration and violence. Focusing on Nigeria, and using historical methods, this paper seeks to demonstrate that rural poverty and urban crisis are the direct products of Western education, industrialization, and misguided migrations. The colonial entrepreneurs' expectation that Western education, expanding industrialization and increased population would result in better standards of living, increased life expectancy, and co-operation among the various Nigerian groups is yet to be realized. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for policy formulation that would lead to the reduction of the current levels of rural poverty and unnecessary violence.

Proposal for Paper: Dependent Status in the Twentieth Century: Continuance and Effects

This paper examines the legacy of slavery and the continuance of various forms of dependency, including pawnship and what might be called serfdom, in Nigeria from about 1900 to the 1980s. The paper discusses the social, economic, and political consequences of continued dependency. The city of Ilorin and its agricultural districts provide the major case study. Material from other parts of Nigeria is introduced for purposes of comparison, and suggestions for further research are provided.

This workshop is intended for senior graduate students in the humanities and social sciences and scholars who have recently completed the Ph.D. It introduces the process of preparing manuscripts, both book-length manuscripts and articles/chapters, for publication. It provides practical advice on submission, revision, and editing. The stylesheet for African Economic History and the "Author's Manuscript Guide" issued by the University of Rochester Press are used to illustrate the process. The Chicago and APA styles are compared, as are Nigerian/British and U.S. writing styles in general. Questions and discussion are encouraged.

Pat Uche Okpoko, Cultural Anthropologist, Department of Archeology, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

This paper appraises the implementation of the policy of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction, popularly referred to as the three 'RS', proposed by General Yakubu Gowon in1970. General Gowon had in speech after the Nigeria- Biafra Civil War of 1967-1970 stated that there were no victors nor vanquished and subsequently announced the policy of reconciliation to bring back the Igbo into the main stream of Nigeria polity. This paper takes a longitudinal survey of the implementation of this policy. The issue that readily comes to mind is the extent to which the objectives of the policy have been realised. It is contended that three decades after the war, the Igbo are still marginalised in political appointments as well as in the decision-making caucus of the economy. This state of affairs negates the basic tenets of reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction.The paper proposes that the policy be revisited. It goes further to recommend the steps, including the equitable sharing of political and other national offices, that should be taken to redress the problem and avert a reoccurrence of internal conflict of that magnitude.

Experts in the field of Canada's foreign policy have devoted a considerable amount of time and energy to the study of the country's foreign policy considerations to the United States and the Commonwealth body as a whole. But the laudable contributions of most of these scholars to the writing of Canada's foreign policy have often neglected the country's foreign policy considerations to the African continent. However, in the period following the independence of most African states in the 1960s, a new generation of scholars began to focus attention on Canada's foreign policy considerations to Africa. The findings of these scholars have been underlined by a common denominator. These distinguished scholars have argued, and rightly so, that Canada's foreign policy considerations to Africa during the period revolved around several factors. These scholars contended that Canada's foreign policy to the African continent was motivated by the desire to reduce its dependency on the United States. They also argued that Canadian foreign policy goals in the African continent were necessitated by the need to ensure that the Commonwealth body maintained a multi-racial structure. Furthermore, the scholars pointed out that Canada's foreign policy considerations to Africa were informed by the desire to rid the continent of any communist influence, which formed part of the Cold War policies. They also explained that Canada extended its foreign policy considerations to the African continent in the need to broaden its economic interests in an area that possessed immense economic potential. Finally, these scholars have pointed out that Canada extended its foreign aid and technical assistance to countries in Africa in order to maintain continuous contact with such states. The aim of this paper is to clearly demonstrate that although Nigeria served as a ready made ground for the furtherance of Canada's foreign policy objectives, Canada had a special interest in Nigeria. In fact, Canada exhibited a high degree of consistency in its efforts at contributing to Nigeria's overall development and well-being. A good illustration is Canada's role in the Nigerian Civil War.

The transition from precolonial media of exchange to the British Imperial currency system was a major event in the colonial history of Nigeria. This entailed the demonetization of indigenous currencies (such as brass rods, cowries and manillas) and foreign coinage (such as the Maria Theresa dollar) which were supplanted by British silver and the so-called subsidiary coinage, made of alloy metal.

Much has been written on currency transitions in colonial Nigeria but Northern Nigeria remains neglected in the literature. This paper, therefore, considers the process by which the precolonial currencies of Northern Nigeria were displaced by imperial coinage in the period 1903 to 1939. The vast size of the territory and the diversity of its currency systems (since the Sokoto Caliphate and the Sultanate of Borno which dominated the area in the precolonial period operated different currency systems) posed special challenges to the personnel and material resources of the colonial administration. The paper focuses on the introduction and role of silver and subsidiary (alloy) coinage in the emergent colonial economy. The debates in official and commercial circles, and the policy options considered by the colonial administration as it faced these challenges are analyzed for the light they shed on a neglected aspect of the monetary history of colonial Nigeria.

The Faulkner Blueprint and the Evolution of Agricultural Policy in Colonial Nigeria

The subject of colonial agricultural history has received some attention from scholars but the treatment is lopsided in favour of the post-World War II period. As a striking example, Tom Forrest has undertaken an admittedly detailed study of the development of agricultural policies in Nigeria from 1900 to 1978 in a 1981 book co-edited by Judith Heyer, Pepe Roberts and Gavin Williams. However, Forrest focused on the post-1940 period, to which he devoted 28 of the paper's 35 pages. Consequently, the pre-1940 period has received inadequate coverage thus leaving a gap in the literature.

This paper, therefore, fills this gap by considering debates in official circles on aspects of colonial agricultural policies in Nigeria from about 1902 to 1945. A major turning point was the presentation in 1921 of what was a veritable blueprint for agricultural development submitted by O.T. Faulkner, Nigeria's longest-serving Director of Agriculture. The essay analyzes the components of the Blueprint, examines responses to it by successive colonial governors from Clifford to Bourdillon, and highlights its significance for inter-war developments in particular and Nigeria's colonial economic history in general. The paper concludes by highlighting continuities with, and departures from, post-World War II developments highlighted by Forrest.

Colonial Anthologies And The Myth of Self-portraiture. Four Nigerian Autobiographies and Autogynographies From The Twentieth Century

The effect of time on the human psyche in all situations is a phenomenon, that like time itself, can be said to be both impressing and elusive. Impressing, because experiences borne out of tragic, comic, spiritual or oppressive circumstances are comparable to budding of flowers in Spring, the plush vegetation in summer, the shedding of psychedelic leaves in Autumn, and the dormancy of seeds in Winter. It is also comparable to the rising and setting of the sun whose differences and similarities remain matters of interpretation and location. Elusive, because with the cosmic system of things, revolution of the earth around the sun, the distances between the four cardinal points and the limitlessness of the horizon, even our affiliations to inherent or dominant political ideologies, religious convictions or socio-cultural condition shimmer, flicker and fade. Our perception of time-reality hinges, tinges, and dinges. Colonial practitioners were no exception to this fact. Time was, when all of them with one voice supported the colonial policies and activities of their countries in several dispossessed countries of the world. But at the call of a single voice again, time galvanized these individuals into action, literally slapping them out of their slumber. So it is Time that makes things beautiful again or at least makes possible the making of things new and beautiful. In this study, I am going to present and discuss four self-portraitures of Nigerians as recorded in two different European anthologies of the late 1930s. The study will survey the political situation in Africa during this period, analyze the motivations for the collection and publication of the life stories as well as examine the commentaries prefacing the stories by the recorders of the anthologies. Furthermore, the study will make an individual presentation of the four personal narrations, commenting on the life exposed in the book, situating the texts in their historical and socio-cultural context. Some of the questions that one considers of prime importance given the raison d’être for the collection are as follows: Were the selected writers coerced into this Rousseauesque confession? What did the four writers say about their culture, history, spirituality and above all their individual colonial experiences? Were the recorders of the languages fluent in the languages of the interview or did they work with interpreters? What was recorded and what was trashed? Finally I will comment on the literary styles of the writers that wrote their life stories and those that were recorded. The importance and place of the self-portraiture in modern African literary discourse will also be considered.

Transitions in the Political Structures of Igboland in Nigeria: The Case of the Warrant Chief System 1900-1929.

Following the creation of the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria in 1900, the British colonial administration sought to govern Igboland through the Warrant Chief System, which mandated indigenous authority under the supervision of the British colonial administration. Accordingly, the contextual framework of the Warrant Chief System in Igboland authorized Warrant Chiefs to administer and preside over cases in the Native Courts. But when the Aba Women Riot culminated the Warrant Chief System in 1929, it dramatically showed the defects and perplexities of the system. Essentially, the historical fashion of this paper will attempt to examine the changes of the Igbo political structure during the course of Indirect Rule in Nigeria.

Chika B. Onwuekwe College of Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies University of Saskatchewan

Militarism Versus Democratic Governance in Nigeria: Comparing the Choice of Either Martial Music or Political Inadequacies to "The Devil or The Deep Blue Sea"

Nigeria was prominent in the late 20th century for championing justice and freedom to oppressed nations. This big brotherliness was aptly demonstrated during the apartheid South Africa and in other freedom movements across the African continent. However, like the biblical injunction of "physician heal thyself", the country was unable to disentangle itself from military oppression and dictatorship during the same period. Thus the political freedom obtained through a negotiated independence from colonial Britain overnight became a bitter pill for the civilian population. Rule of might rather than rule of law was enthroned. In the process, the traditional role of the military in any democratic society was forgotten. Rather, it was widely suggested that they be formally involved in Nigerian politics through a constitutionally defined power sharing arrangement. Some commentators even blame the colonial overlords for the woes of the country under military dictatorship. This paper takes an opposite view.

It will be argued that the Nigerian constitution was/is adequate to check military or other unconstitutional incursions into the political, albeit governance arena. The problem therefore is not the inadequacy or otherwise of the existing legal legislation but in the unwillingness of the people and its institutions to uphold the supremacy of Nigerian constitution. Other issues that have plagued the nation since its independence and which fuels military interest in politics, such as the none-involvement of the people in the decision-making process, will be discussed in detail. Thus, notwithstanding the wave of democratization sweeping across nations, chances of the military returning to power in Nigeria is still high unless urgent steps are taken to re-orientate the civilian population, and also address the existing imbalances in the Nigeria polity. Top on the agenda would be the perceived oppression (as Nigerian's would like to say "marginalization") of minorities in the country's political, economic and social affairs. In conclusion, the paper will make suggest