This year marks the 50th anniversary of Nigeria’s independence. Nigeria is a land of culture filled with rich history dating as far back as 9000 BC. Looking back at their years of history, one can find that it very complicated.
Colonization is an important part of Nigerian history, and many will tell people only one side of the story of it. It is vital to research two sides of the story of Nigeria; to be able to present the facts and the realities of both. The impact of Nigerian colonization has been a controversial issue for a long period now.On one side, liberal-orientated historians see colonization as essentially a good thing for Nigeria. They argue that European rule promoted not only economic growth and development, but also great educational and religious work—the so called “civilizing mission” that played an invaluable role in the regeneration of Nigeria. On the other side, and at the other extreme, there are Marxist oriented scholars who believe that colonization was essentially a bad thing; it had no redeeming features.
These scholars were opponents of colonization as an idea, because Nigeria would become dependent of the British and their resources.Therefore, the British would be seen as a needed power for survival of Nigeria. The theme of colonization ties in with the novel Things Fall Apart by the famous Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. The theme is shown through the eyes of the Nigerians and the reader can see and experience what they are feeling. Achebe is an author of the truth; with his story and the controversial issue of colonization, the reader is brought inside the Nigerians world of destruction, survival and forgiveness.
Before disassembling and analyzing the story about Nigeria, the facts have to be presented.During pre-colonial times Nigeria did not exist as a country, but composed of city states, kingdoms and empires. In 1472, Portuguese navigators reached the Nigerian coast and they became the first European settlers. More Europeans followed the Portuguese and settled into Nigeria. Soon, European settlers established ports for slave trafficking. The 18th century was a period that was called the “Scramble for Africa”, where many European powers tried to occupy various parts of Africa.
That was a time when millions of Nigerians were forcibly sent to the Americas.European slave traders created coastal ports to ease the increasing traffic of slaves destined for the Americas. When the British arrived in 1805, they were not very pleased with the situation and decided to abolish slave trade in 1807 and slavery in 1833. African slaves were emancipated in the 1830s.
Still, in many places slave trade continued. In 1861, the British became extremely frustrated with the expanding slave trade, so they decided to occupy Lagos, a major slave-trading post and the largest city of present-day Nigeria.It was not until the 1900 when the British started to slowly and hesitantly occupy parts of Nigeria, making Nigeria a protectorate of Great Britain. They created a system of indirect rule through local kings and chiefs until the year of 1914. In 1914, Nigeria became a British colony. Achebe published his novel Things Fall Apart in 1958, two years before British granted Nigeria their independence, and this is his unique way of making the Nigerian story known to the world.
When a more powerful country occupies and conquers a land of lesser power and strength, there must be a powerful reason for the act.The scramble for Africa was one of the biggest reasons why the British made Nigeria number one priority. Along with Royal Navy, as the British Army was called, Christian missionaries arrived to Nigeria. They set themselves a different mind than the Royal Navy. They wanted converts, but they also wanted to make a positive change on the people and the country itself. Missionaries were used by the colonial power as an avant garde, to expand into new regions, a fact keenly shown by Achebe in Things Fall Apart.
For many Nigerians, missionaries were the first Europeans, and white people, with whom they came in contact with.Missionaries were at first thought as a threat and were tried to get rid of. In time, however, Nigerians became open to their presence and they dug deeper to try to reveal their true image. Nigerians first saw a piece of their work when they abolished slave trade.
Michael Crowder, author of The Story of Nigeria says that the missionaries took the emphasis out of “human products” of Africa in an effort to use more fully her abundant natural resources. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton puts forward that,” The only way to save Africa from the evils of the slave trade…would be call out its own natural resources” (Crowder, The Story of Nigeria, 111).Their aim was to make better ties between the trade of Europe and Africa. Right from the start, there was both a commercial and religious context to all missionary work in Nigeria.
It can be argued, initially, that the commercial aspect was more pressing than the religious one, due to the urgent need to find a quick substitute for trading slaves so that European traders would not fell that their profit was at stake. Many missionaries were dedicated to their mission in Nigeria and they worked beyond their line of duty to accomplish their goals, often risking their lives in order to do so.Modern education was a huge problem and British missionaries helped many Nigerians to get proper education. “They also sent many capable young Nigerians to England for education.
The experience of Nigerians who lived overseas in the years preceding, during, and after World War II gave rise to a class of young, educated nationalists who agitated for independence from Great Britain” (Schwartz 222). Overtime Nigerians became very educated and they realized that they did have the power, and most importantly the knowledge, on how to run a country.One of the main reasons why Nigeria was able to get their independence was that the British let many Nigerians get educated. Without the British letting Nigerians get strong education, Nigeria would probably still be a community of tribes today.
The British were probably the most “humane” European power of all because of the fact, that they, “[abolished]…slave trade in 1807 and slavery on 1833” (Tamuno. "Nigeria: History and Government: Southern Nigeria from c. 1850 until Independence. ” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara). They were persistent on this issue from the very start.Occupying the cities and communities of Nigeria was a way to stop the slavery.
This was one of their goals when arriving to Africa. They saw how tortured the Nigerians were and they wanted to lift a weight out of their life. The British were not all cold as stone and vicious as snakes. In the end, British colonialism installed in Nigeria the foundations of a modern democracy which played a vital part in reducing African superstitious beliefs that hindered the progress of the country. How does one capture a colony? The simple answer is “Look at Nigeria.
” Colonization had become an epidemic in Africa.Every European power was trying to get a piece of the land, including Great Britain. Great Britain was treating Nigeria as a piece of meat; they caught it, cooked it and ate away its integrity of its people and its culture. “One of the most important results of Europe’s colonization of Africa was the division of Africa into at least fifty nation-states. Rather than being a part of a society determined by common language and livelihood, Africans lived according to political boundaries. The divisions often split ethnic groups, leading to tension and sometimes violence.
The cohesiveness of the traditional society was gone” (Tamuno. "Nigeria: History and Government: Southern Nigeria from c. 1850 until Independence. ” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara). “After the arrival of the British, when conflicts came up between villages, the white government would intervene instead of allowing villagers to settle themselves” (Novels for Students 272).
It seemed that the British government wanted to get involved in every part of the Nigerian’s lives in order to influence them into doing something the way they want to do it instead of the way the Nigerians want to do it.The British wanted to control every element of the people’s lifestyle in order to gain the authority and power that they specifically desired for. The British were known for military power and they did like to show this when they were in Nigeria, not a positive idea for the Nigerians though. “Maxim guns, rifles, and seven-pounders were carried wherever the British went.
During the dry season, there were yearly military campaigns until 1912” (Tamuno. "Nigeria: History and Government: Southern Nigeria from c. 850 until Independence. ” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara). British were in a way evil, this example show the reason why: “If violence involved any white missionaries or bureaucrats, British soldiers would often slaughter whole villages instead of seeking and punishing individuals.
The British passes an ordinance in 1912 that legalized this practice, and during an uprising in 1915, British troops killed more than forty natives in retaliation for one dead and one wounded British soldier” (Novels for Students 272). Driving the desire to possess Africa was no the only hope that immense natural wealth would result but also increasingly racist pseudoscientific beliefs in the superiority of white people over people of color” ("Colonization. " World History: The Modern Era. http://www. worldhistory. abc-clio.
com). This meant that British were in fact racist: they believed that the white people were superior over the people of color. In this time, however, many countries around the globe believed this idea too, such as the United States, which was exercising slavery as well.All in all, the British was a country “who sought to pursuit more and more jurisdiction, power, and authority in their lands” (Tamuno. "Nigeria: History and Government: Southern Nigeria from c.
1850 until Independence. ” Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara). To Nigerians, Britain was an enemy, a negative influence, not an aid, and certainly not a protector. The British only brought violence and wars and a misunderstanding between the people. Soon they all started to go against each other. The British took their identity away; they did not know who they were anymore.
They were lost. Three options were open to the Africans, confrontation, alliance or acquiescence and submission. The strategy of confrontation involved open warfare, sieges, guerilla tactics, scorched-earth policies, as well as diplomacy” (Gueye, Boahen. 27(3)).The only reason that so much violence and tension broke out not only between the British and the Nigerians, but between the people themselves, was the British. They brought in that tension and still to this day, it is at a standstill.
This is why Chinua Achebe wrote the novel, Things Fall Apart to write and describe the lives of the people that were affected by this treachery. Achebe felt it was important to portray Nigerians as they really – not just provide a shallow description of them as other authors had. The story takes place in the typical tribal village of Umuofia, where the inhabitants (whom Achebe calls the Ibo, but who are also known as the Ibo) practice rituals common to their native traditions” ” (Novels for Students. 272).When Achebe describes the work of the missionaries, he does not write about how they were good for the Nigerians. He tells the stories from the villagers themselves so he understands exactly how they are feeling.
Missionaries would convince these tribesmen that their tribesmen, that their tribe worshipped false gods and that its false gods did not have the ability to punish them if they chose to join the mission… As the mission expanded, the clan divided, discontent simmered, and conflicts arose” (Novels for Students. 272).This explains how the work of the missionaries divided the clan in the novel which led to problems. Problems of which that would be unsolvable because of the contrasting beliefs that each religion shared. If one tribesman had converted, they would not support their own clan’s beliefs and would go with Christianity belief.The missionaries were a way to make the people go against each other.
When there is a divided community, there are many different opinions even though they are from the same place. By breaking apart the community of Nigerians, the British were able to have less and less resistance from the side of the Nigerians. They would have to stop the attacks on the British because there wouldn’t be enough of them; they would have conflicting opinions based on religion.An example of a problem that occurred because of Christian converts is in the novel, Things Fall Apart. A white District commissioner brings with him court messengers whose job is to bring in people that break the white man’s law. The messengers were called, “Ashy-Buttocks” Because of the ash-colored shorts they wear.
They are hated for their high-handed attitudes. These messengers and interpreters were often African Christian converts who looked down on the villagers who still followed the traditional customs and rituals” (Novels for Students. 272-273). In the end, the argument that can be reached is that Nigeria, although made up of many different clans and communities did share one goal and that was to gain autonomy from the British Empire.
It was clear to everyone that the British had no right going to a nation and destroying their identity. They set up a system there which would never, ever work. The British set up ethnic borders to a nation where there were none, they set up a different faith to a nation that had traditions and customs that were thousands years old, and they crushed the spirit of a nation where there was peace and hope. It is a fact: the British did not belong in Nigeria and they never would be.
As they all say the winners write the history, and even historians have controversial opinions of the pros and cons of Nigerian colonization. The histories of many countries are complicated and it is very difficult for an outsider to understand the real issue of one’s country. Nigeria is located far away from Britain and they share no history or culture, no common ground where people would meet. During colonization times it was very usual for more powerful Western countries to occupy third world countries, not just African countries. We can all see the damage that has been done to all of these colonies.One of these colonies is Nigeria, whose culture; future, history, and religion were all destroyed because it was brought together under British rule to form an entirely artificial nation.
Although, it is still a controversial issue, my opinion is that British should not have taken part of the trend of colonization in Nigeria. Nigeria had been given models of governance not suited to their way of life. This entirely diminished their identity and a nation without identity is no nation at all. It is hoped one day that Nigeria will somehow, someway find their common realm where they can become one.
