NIGERIA BACKGROUND INFORMATION

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Historical Geography of Nigeria

A Basic Chronology for Nigeria’s Historical Geography

It is not possible to speak of "Nigeria’s" historical geography before the year 1914. Before this date, there was no territorial entity known as Nigeria. Despite this obvious problem, this section addresses the historical geography of the region that became Nigeria in the twentieth century. As the opening sentence suggests, great emphasis will be placed on the period of British colonial rule. Before this, however, it is instructive to take a brief chronological look at Nigerian history, emphasizing those events and developments that affected the region’s geography. The following chronology provides a brief sketch of this history.

Several broad points can be noted from the chronology. First, many historians and archaeologists believe that agriculture was developed in the Niger valley as early as 4,000 years ago. While the domestication of plants occurred earlier in places like Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley, this agricultural hearth is one of the earliest in the world. This development also contrasts with the stereotype that all pre-colonial people were hunters and gatherers. Second, the

Nok culture, which was at its height around 200 B.C., was a highly advanced culture. Many archeologists now believe that the Nok people independently developed the ability to smelt iron. This is in contrast to older theories that claimed that iron-making skills had diffused to West Africa from Egypt. Local innovation of iron making is just one example of how western notions of African primitiveness have influenced interpretations of African history. Incidentally, the Nok culture is also well known for its terra cotta sculpture, many of which have been discovered in archaeological sites.

The chronology entry for 100 A.D. is a significant one for Africa as a whole. Many scholars believe that the area of present-day Nigeria was the original source region for all Bantu-speaking peoples of Africa. The migrations basically proceeded in a southeasterly direction from present-day West Africa. This is highly significant since a sizable portion of west and central African languages are Bantu in origin. If the theory about Bantu migration is correct, it means that many peoples of West Africa and Central Africa can trace common ancestry back to the first or second century A.D.

The next entry that deserves special attention is the Muslim conquest of northern Africa, which began during the seventh century, and was essentially complete by the ninth century. While this conquest did not directly involve Nigeria, it marked the beginning of Islamic influence on the African Sudan, of which northern Nigeria is part. More will be said later about the expansion of Islam in West Africa.

While Muslim influence from the north intensified after 1000, European influence in the region did not develop until approximately 1500. As the chronology notes, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish consistent relations with the peoples of Nigeria. The Portuguese had particularly close relations with the well-established Kingdom of Benin, located in south-central Nigeria. During this period, relations between Europeans and Africans were rooted in trade, notably the slave trade. The trans-Atlantic slave trade lasted from approximately 1500 to 1880, near the start of British colonial rule.

Notable large-scale states of Nigerian history include the Songhai Empire, the Yoruba city-states, the Kingdom of Benin, Kanem-Bornu, and the Sokoto Caliphate. The Sokoto Caliphate is among the largest and most recent of these states. Inspired by Islamic renewal and opposition to the ruling aristocracies of northern Nigeria, the caliphate came to encompass approximately one-half of modern-day Nigeria by the end of the nineteenth century (see map). Although better thought of as a federation of individual caliphates, the Sokoto Caliphate encompassed the majority of northern Nigeria within a single political entity. The Kingdom of Benin is another relatively large state that existed in the pre-colonial period. It was in existence for approximately four centuries until the British conquered it in 1897. Thus, before the British arrived around 1900, the region already had several well-established states. The colonial period lasted from approximately 1900-1960. It is during this period that the modern territorial state of Nigeria came into existence. The amalgamation of the southern and northern Nigeria colonies occurred in 1914. Thus, like most other African states, "Nigeria" was a European territorial invention. While Nigeria’s borders were largely decided by Europeans (see information of the Conference of Berlin), Nigeria retained many cultural, social, and economic characteristics that are distinctly African. The preceding has served as a basic sketch of Nigerian historical geography; the following sections will highlight particular themes and periods in greater depth.

Islamic Diffusion and Expansion

The two most important cultural and economic influences on Nigeria came from the Middle East (by way of northern Africa) and Europe. The influence of the Middle East often goes unrecognized in Westerners thoughts about sub-Saharan Africa in particular. This is not surprising, since many westerners (including the European colonizers) conceive of Africa as an isolated and "Dark Continent" that had little historic interaction with other parts of the world. The influence of Islam in the African Sudan does a good job of illustrating the fact that African societies were not isolated prior to the arrival of European traders and colonizers.

Islam spread rapidly after the death of Muhammed in 632. Between the seventh and the ninth centuries northern Africa was conquered by Arabs, many of whom settled in the region and became a ruling elite. By the eleventh century, Muslims formed a majority in northern Africa. After Islam was established in the Maghreb, it began to expand southward through the desert to the savanna. The important difference between the diffusion of Islam south of the Sahara and that north of the desert is that the northern expansion of Islam was accompanied by military conquest. The spread of Islam to regions like northern Nigeria occurred mainly through the efforts of trans-Saharan traders (see map link). Indeed, the first converts in West Africa were fellow merchants. Over time, ruling elites converted to the new religion. Only gradually did the masses convert to the new world religion. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the overwhelming majority of people in northern Nigeria (the Sokoto Caliphate) converted to Islam. A major factor in some conversions was slavery. Islamic law in the Sokoto Caliphate allowed for the enslavement of non-Muslims. In order to avoid enslavement, some people converted to gain personal security. Slave trading and religious renewal were central to the expansion of African Islamic states throughout the nineteenth century. Listed below are more resources on the diffusion and expansion of Islam in Africa.

Historical Demography and the Slave Trade

As mentioned earlier, Nigeria has the largest total population of all African countries. While its population is large, there have been several historical processes that have kept its population lower than it would otherwise be. The most important of these factors was the slave trade. Understanding the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the internal African slave trade is crucial to understanding both the historical demography and the wider social, political, and economic development of Nigeria.

Slavery existed in many parts of Africa before contact with Europeans. It was European influence, however, that intensified the sale of human beings as commodities. The Portuguese were the first European power to engage in the African slave trade. Their slave trading began around the middle fifteenth century. Spurred by the development of plantation colonies on the islands of Sao Tome and Cape Verde, located just off the west coast of Africa, the Portuguese soon were engaged in the transport of African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean. The region of Nigeria was a prime source region for the Portuguese and the other Europeans that followed them. Here was one of the most densely populated regions of Africa, located relatively close to the coast. Another important factor was cooperation with the Kingdom of Benin, and later the city-states of Yorubaland (e.g. Oyo, Ile-Ife). These highly organized states provided the governmental apparatus and organization necessary to conduct the slave trade on a large scale.

The Europeans use of existing state power and African trade networks is an important aspect of the trans-Atlantic African slave trade. Contrary to many people’s understanding, whites were rarely involved in the direct capture and transport of slaves to the coast. Most slaves were victims of war, debtors, or prisoners who were collected and handled by African states and traders. Indeed, during much of the slave trade, there existed a sense of mutual respect and deference between the Europeans and the slave trading elites of Africa. Part of this "respect" was based on the relative equality of power between African and European states and the limitations of European influence in Africa.

Tropical diseases were one of the most important limitations prior to the latter half of the nineteenth century. Because whites did not have immunity to diseases like malaria, yellow fever, and typhoid, early European expeditions in the continent suffered extremely high rates of mortality. This is one of the major reasons that Europeans were not typically involved in the capture and transmission of slaves from the interior to the coast. Another important factor is technological differences. During much of the total trans-Atlantic slave trade period (ca. 1500-1880), Europeans did not have a decisive technological advantage over Africans in areas like weaponry.

Even though Europeans were limited in the conduct of the slave trade, their involvement in Africa had a major impact on the development of African populations. Statistical records of the slave trade are sketchy, but many historians accept a conservative estimate of 12 million slaves transported to the Americas from Africa. In addition, as many as 15 percent of all slaves died en route to the Americas. As one can imagine, the slave trade had a major impact on African population numbers. This was particularly true of major source regions like southern and central Nigeria.

The European slave trade gradually declined in the nineteenth century. This was partly through the efforts of the British, who outlawed the slave trade in 1807. Other reasons include the declining profitability of slave production in some areas, humanitarian movements, and the increasing price of slaves from Africa. As the trans-Atlantic trade declined, however, the internal African slave trade increased dramatically. It is during this period that the populations of Nigerian Middle Belt and other areas were decimated. The Sokoto Caliphate was one of the most important destinations for slaves. In the late nineteenth century, large slave villages were formed in northern Nigeria. Caliphate aristocrats profited from these plantations. The vast majority of these slaves were non-Muslims, since Islamic law forbade the enslavement of fellow Muslims.

As the internal slave trade increased during the nineteenth century, many parts of Africa, including Nigeria, became extremely violent and insecure places. Thus, even before European colonialists arrived in the late nineteenth century, Nigeria had been seriously impacted by the rise and the fall of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. During this period, it was extremely dangerous for people to take long trips for fear of slave raids. This was particularly true for members of small ethnic groups, which were often the targets of raids from larger states.

British Colonialism and the Scramble for Africa

During the period 1885-1900, nearly the entire continent of Africa fell under the formal political control of European powers; Nigeria was no exception. After the ground rules for colonial conquest had been ironed out at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, Europeans intensified their expeditionary and colonial activity within the "Dark Continent." Their motives in conquering African societies were complex. Among the most important were economic motives. Africa was a vast region of potential raw materials and markets. And, after the "scramble for Africa" got underway in 1885, there was something of a pre-emptive motive in individual European states’ motives. That is, individual states perceived their interests to lie in checking other European powers’ efforts to establish control over African spoils. Individual states could only achieve this end by establishing their own colonies in Africa. Other motives for the scramble included European nationalism, and military factors. Colonialism served to lessen tensions within European societies. The acquisition of colonies served as a unifying issue for patriotic fervor and pride. Domestic European tensions were based on class, religion, and ethnicity. There were at least two military factors that were important in the colonization of Africa. First, European weapons were sufficiently superior to African weapons by the late nineteenth century that colonial military conquest of Africa was relatively easy. Small numbers of whites joined with African recruits could subjugate large populations and territories quite easily. Second, military engagements of this kind proved very attractive to military officers interested in promotion and career advancement.

Whatever the reasons, the British established their rule over all of present-day Nigeria by about 1905. An important aspect of early colonial rule is that the territory of Nigeria was actually two colonies until 1914. This is important because the British approached the two regions differently both before and after amalgamation in 1914. In the North, the British sought the cooperation of the ruling aristocracy of the Sokoto Caliphate. In return for recognizing the overall authority of the British, the ruling elites of the Caliphate were allowed a certain degree of autonomy by the British. This autonomy meant that northern Nigeria witnessed much less political, cultural, and economic change during the colonial period relative to southern Nigeria. Two major areas of this semi-autonomy were religion and education.

One of the major compromises struck by the British was the agreement to discourage Christian missionary activity in northern Nigeria. Since the North was strongly Islamic at the time of British incursion, the rulers of the North and the common people of the North had a great interest in keeping European missionaries out of their part of the colony. In southern Nigeria, however, the Christian missionaries were encouraged. They were particularly encouraged to provide education and health care to southerners. This dual regions policy of the British has had a substantial impact on the post-independence development of Nigerian society. In the contemporary period, northern Nigeria is still overwhelmingly Muslim, the South overwhelmingly Christian.

Related to the colonial policies on regional religions, the British also pursued different regional educational policies. In broad terms, southern Nigeria was the region most intensively influenced by western education and culture. While this development was closely related to the activities of Christian mission schools in the South, it was also related to the concentration of colonial economic development along the coast. As the colonial period (ca. 1900-1960) progressed, the British employed more Africans in the civil service. Most of these educated civil servants and government administrators were western-educated southerners. While western education promoted British administrative interests, it also provided the impetus for anti-colonial agitation. Not surprisingly, some of the most vocal anti-colonialists came from southern Nigeria.

Education in northern Nigeria remained within religious control. To this day, education in the North is strongly Islamic in character. This fact and the legacy of colonial educational and religious policies have had important consequences for regional political and economic development within Nigeria. Partly because of southern educational advantages, this part of the country is more economically developed and prosperous than the North. In political terms, northerners have had a long-standing fear of domination by their southern counterparts, namely the Yorubas and the Igbos.

While the British maintained distinct regional educational policies within Nigeria, one should not get the impression that the British devoted substantial resources to the average Nigerian’s welfare. Indeed, as mentioned already, many educational resources came from religious missions and not the government. Most Nigerians’ were severely taxed but received very little in exchange. One legacy of British colonial development, however, is limited infrastructural development. During their sixty-year stay in Nigeria, the British constructed railway lines, roads, and ports. The transportation network constructed by the British has served as one unifying element in the post-independence period. Thus, while transportation within Nigeria is facilitated by the legacies of the colonial era, ground transportation networks between Nigeria and other African countries have been constructed almost entirely after independence. In this way, the colonial geography of West Africa is important in understanding the development of transportation and communications infrastructure in Nigeria and its surrounding countries. Here it is important to remember that the British colony of Nigeria was surrounded by French possessions after the withdrawal of Germany from the Africa. Other aspects of colonial infrastructural development include unevenly spread communications and electricity grids. These developments were highly uneven in that most rural areas never received access to telephone and utility networks.

This section on the historical geography of Nigeria will close with a look at one of the most important legacies of colonial rule, the non-diversified and dependent nature of the Nigerian economy. Like most other African countries, Nigeria’s economy is based on Agriculture. While oil revenues provide the vast majority of the country’s export earnings (up to 95% in some years), the vast majority of Nigerians still work in the agricultural sector. Relatively few Nigerians are employed in industrial jobs. This situation is partly a result of British colonial policies. The colony of Nigeria was primarily developed as a source of raw materials for British industry, and secondarily as a market for British goods. These colonial policies ruled out the large-scale development of industry in Nigeria. As a result of this colonial legacy, international competition, and post-independence mismanagement, Nigeria continues to import many of the manufactured products that it consumes. Because Nigeria’s economy is mainly focused on agriculture and oil, it is highly vulnerable to international markets for key products like automobiles, computers, and other electronics.

Web Resources on the Historical Geography of Nigeria (general)