This is an important book. It consists of a collection of reminiscences from retired
Colonial Service officers - the Tarawa ('red-skinned people') of the title - who
worked in Northern Nigeria in the last decades of British rule. The contributors mainly
served from the 1940s through to the 1960s, though a few refer back to earlier periods and
one or two 'stayed on', in a few cases, even to the 1980s. As such, these reminiscences
are the raw material of History and they overflow with valuable insights into the workings
of Empire and the development of Northern Nigeria in a critical period.
The collection is arranged in a series of thematic chapters - army life, surveying,
mining, forestry, agriculture, engineering, education etc - dealing with the realities of
life 'on the ground', before moving seamlessly to deal with the political events of these
years and the move towards self-government and then concluding with chapters covering
independence and the early post-independence years. Although there are linking
passages which helpfully contextualise the contributions, by and large the editor allows
the writers to speak for themselves. Regrettably, a plea for Nigerian officers to contribute
went unanswered, but the volume is comprehensive in its compass, giving space for a
wide variety of professions who served in Northern Nigeria: vets, doctors, agricultural
officers, surveyors, engineers, museum curators, police officers, journalists, broadcasters,
secretaries and town planners as well as DOs. Given that the history of several of these
professions in colonial Nigeria still remains to be written, this is an immensely valuable
resource for historians. It balances contributions from the 'Holy North' with those from
the Middle Belt, includes the Northern Cameroons and even on occasion ventures into
Chad. For the comprehensiveness of this coverage, if for nothing else, the editor should
be commended. Not least of the book's merits is the space that is given for the voice of
women in this story.
This is a book that challenges many of the stereotypes of colonial rule. It avoids the
hackneyed approach that sees colonial administration as being about larger than life DOs
and Residents (though there are plenty here) 'up against it' in the bush. While many of
the expected features of administrative life in the North are present - the tensions
between officers on the ground and headquarters in Kaduna, between those in the
emirates of the North and those serving in the Middle Belt, between the Northern Region
and Lagos, and the oft repeated assertion that if the Africans left Nigeria then civil war
would break out between the Europeans of the North and the South deservedly finds a
place here - what is striking is how this volume emphasises the multifaceted texture of
colonial administration, that colonial rule was as much about bridge-building and locust
eradication as about tax collection and justice.
This is far more than just a collection of reminiscences. What then, do these
contributions tell us? It may seem odd to commend the way many writers emphasise the humdrum nature of their work, but the daily grind was indeed what work was about for
most people in the service for much of the time. Occasionally dramatic events from
outside would intrude - a Royal visit, an election, a UNO inspection - but for most,
work was humdrum, routine and even monotonous. This point in itself is important. This
is a story of people struggling with limited financial resources to improve the lives of
their charges. No doubt sometimes they got it wrong but usually they got it right. But it
is a story of small steps rather than giant leaps, undertaken by sincerely motivated
officers working alone and with little support, best summed up by the (anonymous)
governor who stated that nothing in his career gave him more satisfaction than when as a
young ADO he managed to purloin a few sacks of cement from the PWD to put down an
unauthorised floor in a remote school. Humdrum it might have been, but as one engineer
who planned to stay for only a year or two notes, T little knew how addictive the life
was to become'.
Revealing too, is the network of relationships that the Tarawa developed. They were
never remote from the society they lived in. What is striking from these contributions is
the resilience of the relationships that were established between colonial ruler and ruled
in these years, seen not least in those Tarawa who hid the vulnerable in their homes
during the 1966 massacres. 'Their concern for the people they governed was wonderful'
comments one relative outsider, while the editor, in his own contribution to the volume,
writes that 'memories of comrades, still here or passed on, are warm - but memories of
so many Africans still make the heart pound'. Another contributor notes that 'we
remember the peaceable, decent, kindly folk with a lively humour who showed great
loyalty and respect for the British they knew in Nigeria'. As the volume proceeds, these
relationships move centre stage with 'Audu in the bush' being replaced by figures of
more immediate prominence in Nigeria - Muhammadu Ribadu, Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa, Aminu Kano and more ominously, the Sardauna. The portrait of the Sardauna
that emerges here is striking.
Indeed it is the political events of the 1950s and 1960s, as these figures come to the
fore, that leave the deepest impression, on this reviewer at least. It is noticeable how
little impact the moves to self-government during the 1950s had on many of the
contributors here, at least initially. In the early 1950s few had premonitions of what was
to come; more than a few comment that independence was seen as being 20-30 years in
the future. Only by the mid 1950s did this time-scale appear to shorten: 'the rumblings of
independence were making themselves felt, and we were beginning to wonder if this was
going to be the life time job we had thought'. Remarkable too are the chilling, eyewitness
accounts herein of the 1966 coups and the accompanying killings. As throughout
this book, what is notable is how grippingly the contributors tell this story.
All this emphasises the importance of this collection. This is reinforced by the array
of contemporary photographs, the excellent bibliography, and the useful biographies of
the contributors. Historians will regret the absence of an index and the relatively limited
information on editorial policy, such as how the contributors were chosen and what
factors determined how they were edited (more editorial footnotes would have helped
here), but this is a major book that deserves the widest circulation among historians of
the region as much as among those with an interest in the Colonial Service. 'We have
been through much together' comments one writer of Nigerians and the British. The
editor and his contributors have produced an immensely readable volume that genuinely
does justice to this story. Not just historians are in their debt.
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