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Nigeria Lugard and Indirect Rule
Frederick Lugard, who assumed the position of high
commissioner of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria in
1900,
often has been regarded as the model British colonial
administrator. Trained as an army officer, he had served
in
India, Egypt, and East Africa, where he expelled Arab
slave
traders from Nyasaland and established the British
presence in
Uganda. Joining the Royal Niger Company in 1894, Lugard
was sent
to Borgu to counter inroads made by the French, and in
1897 he
was made responsible for raising the Royal West African
Frontier
Force (RWAFF) from local levies to serve under British
officers.
During his six-year tenure as high commissioner, Lugard
was
occupied with transforming the commercial sphere of
influence
inherited from the Royal Niger Company into a viable
territorial
unit under effective British political control. His
objective was
to conquer the entire region and to obtain recognition of
the
British protectorate by its indigenous rulers, especially
the
Fulani emirs of the Sokoto Caliphate. Lugard's campaign
systematically subdued local resistance, using armed force
when
diplomatic measures failed. Borno capitulated without a
fight,
but in 1903 Lugard's RWAFF mounted assaults on Kano and
Sokoto.
From Lugard's point of view, clear-cut military victories
were
necessary because their surrenders weakened resistance
elsewhere.
Lugard's success in northern Nigeria has been
attributed to
his policy of indirect rule, which called for governing
the
protectorate through the rulers who had been defeated. If
the
emirs accepted British authority, abandoned the slave
trade, and
cooperated with British officials in modernizing their
administrations, the colonial power was willing to confirm
them
in office. The emirs retained their caliphate titles but
were
responsible to British district officers, who had final
authority. The British high commissiones could depose
emirs and
other officials if necessary. Lugard reduced sharply the
number
of titled fief holders in the emirates, weakening the
rulers'
patronage. Under indirect rule, caliphate officials were
transformed into salaried district heads and became, in
effect,
agents of the British authorities, responsible for
peacekeeping
and tax collection. The old chain of command merely was
capped
with a new overlord, the British high commissiones.
The protectorate required only a limited number of
colonial
officers scattered throughout the territory as overseers.
Depending on local conditions, they exercised discretion
in
advising the emirs and local officials, but all orders
from the
high commissiones were transmitted through the emir.
Although the
high commissiones possessed unlimited executive and
legislative
powers in the protectorate, most of the activities of
government
were undertaken by the emirs and their local
administrations,
subject to British approval. A dual system of law
functioned--the
sharia (Islamic law) court continued to deal with matters
affecting the personal status of Muslims, including land
disputes, divorce, debt, and slave emancipation. As a
consequence
of indirect rule, Hausa-Fulani domination was
confirmed--and in
some instances imposed--on diverse ethnic groups, some of
them
non-Muslim, in the so-called middle belt.
The accomplishments of Lugard and his successors in
economic
development were limited by the revenues available to the
colonial government. One of Lugard's initial acts was to
separate
the general treasury of each emirate from the emir's privy
purse.
From taxes collected by local officials, first one-quarter
and
later one-half was taken to support services of the
colonial
regime, which were meager because of the protectorate's
lack of
public resources. In the south, missionaries made up for
the lack
of government expenditure on services; in the north,
Lugard and
his successors limited the activities of missionaries in
order to
maintain Muslim domination. Consequently, educational and
medical
services in the north lagged behind those in the south.
Progress
was made in economic development, however, as railroad
lines were
constructed to transport tin from Jos Plateau and
northern-grown
peanuts and cotton to ports on the coast.
Efforts to apply indirect rule to the south, which was
formally a protectorate from 1906, in emulation of
Lugard's
successful policy in the north set off a search for
legitimate
indigenous authorities through whom the policy could be
implemented. The task proved relatively easy in
Yorubaland, where
the governments and boundaries of traditional kingdoms
were
retained or, in some instances, revived. In the southeast,
where
Aro hegemony had been crushed, the search for acceptable
local
administrators met with frustration. As a result, the
tasks of
government initially were left in the hands of colonial
officials, who antagonized many Igbo. The Igbo therefore
stressed
traditional egalitarian principles as a justification for
their
early opposition to colonial rule; in Yorubaland and in
the
north, the devolution of administrative duties to the
indigenous
ruling elites contained much of the early opposition.
Resistance
to colonial rule was mitigated to the extent that local
authorities and courts were able to manage affairs.
The British prohibited the enslavement of free persons
and
suppressed slave trading. All children in the north who
were born
to persons in bondage on or after April 1, 1900, were
declared
free. The relations between existing slaves and their
owners,
however, were allowed to continue indefinitely, on the
assumption
that wholesale liberation would cause more harm than good
by
disrupting the agricultural economy. As a consequence, at
least
several hundred thousand slaves deserted their masters in
the
early years of colonial rule. In 1906 a radical, allegedly
Mahdist, Muslim uprising that received the support of many
fugitive slaves was brutally crushed. In the south, slaves
legally could be forced to return to their owners until
1914. In
the north, vagrancy laws and the enforcement of
proprietary
rights to land were used to tax to check the flight of
slaves.
Slaves in the northern emirates could secure their freedom
upon
application to an Islamic court, but comparatively few
used this
option. Throughout the colonial period in the Muslim
north, many
slaves and their descendants continued to work for their
masters
or former masters and often received periodic payments
leading to
emancipation.
Data as of June 1991
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