Boko Haram (7 page)

‘I am very vexed with myself for having mentioned the matter', Lugard wrote. ‘I had just been sent for by the king in the night, and naturally my mind was full of the matter, for I thoroughly believed in its truth. Suffice it to say that I am travelling in a part of Africa which does not bear a good name – that I find my way very full of difficulties. No European has been here before.'

More than two weeks after that, he would indeed be attacked, and Lugard himself was hit in the head with what may or may not have been a poisonous arrow. He set out the details in another letter to the same friend.

Lugard would succeed in the main goal of his journey and conclude a treaty with Nikki, the capital of Borgu, on 10 November, ahead of the French by 16 days. It would be dubbed a ‘steeplechase', won by Lugard, though he would later say that those using that word would have chosen a different one if they were familiar with the trudging pace of the expedition's donkeys.
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He would later head back south to Akassa before deciding to move north again after falling ill in the delta's humid climate and taking large amounts of quinine to avoid contracting malaria.
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His Nigerian adventure was only beginning.

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European interference in what is today Nigeria dates back centuries before Lugard's Borgu expedition. The Portuguese arrived in the kingdom of Benin in today's south-western Nigeria in the fifteenth century and began trading in pepper and slaves. The British arrived later, seeking to muscle in on Portugal's dominance of trade in the region.
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By the mid-nineteenth century, Britain and other European countries had outlawed slavery, and changes were sweeping across not only their countries, where Enlightenment ideas were taking hold, but also West Africa, which was seeing trade patterns shift dramatically. Britain was seeking palm oil to help power the industrial revolution back home, and it wanted to penetrate into the
interior of West Africa to cut out middlemen and trade directly. The so-called ‘scramble for Africa' would also play out between European powers seeking to expand their footholds on the continent in search of new markets and vital resources. For the British, a focused and determined Goldie would take on the role of pushing further inland, first through his United Africa Company, which saw him bring together several trading outfits, and later with the Royal Niger Company, which would be chartered by the British government after initial reluctance to do so, with concerns of overextending in the region. The results of Goldie's pursuit of furthering the Empire would have far-reaching consequences, and some would later label him, with or without irony, ‘the founder of modern Nigeria'.
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By the time Goldie turned to Lugard for the Borgu mission, the British had already established a fully fledged colony in Lagos and protectorates in the Niger Delta and parts of Yorubaland in the south-west. Christian missionaries had also been arriving in southern Nigeria, bringing with them new beliefs, Western forms of education and a desire to eradicate slavery. Despite reluctance among many in Britain for further colonial expansion because of the costs involved, among other reasons, a combination of factors moved the country gradually in that direction. First, as Goldie and others sought to open up more markets, security was a major problem. Fighting in Yorubaland disrupted trade, and African middlemen retaliated against British traders who sought to penetrate further inland and break their hold on the market. Disputes over pricing and other matters related to trade also broke out regularly.

Beyond that, there had also been a major effort to halt slave trading along the coast, with British ships pursuing and stopping slave ships leaving the region. The bid to stop slave trafficking was no doubt to a large degree altruistic, driven by Enlightenment ideas that were changing the world, but it also worked hand in hand with Britain's goal of expanding its own trade. If African traders could not deal in slaves, a more lucrative business, they would opt for
palm oil, which Britain needed. British officials would also remove local leaders based on their involvement in the slave industry.
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Another important factor was that competition among European nations over African territory was intensifying. In 1884, negotiations began in Berlin among the major European powers – the so-called Berlin Conference – that would stretch into the next year and reach decisions on how to divvy up the continent among them. Judging from the results, one could mistakenly believe that the Europeans must not have realised that ancient, functioning societies existed in the locations that they were carving up on paper. They of course knew better.

Britain's punitive expeditions in today's Nigeria to end slavery as well as bring local chiefs and kingdoms in line with the Empire's will would have devastating consequences. Perhaps the worst example occurred in 1897, when an overwhelming British force of some 1,500 men was sent to the kingdom of Benin, centred in part of what is today's south-western Nigeria. A dispute had arisen over trade as well as the kingdom's continued use of human sacrifice and slavery. After a treaty was signed covering those three issues, a British party sought to visit the kingdom to ensure the treaty was being followed. When it drew near, the king's messengers informed them that it was not an appropriate time to visit and that they must turn back. Fighting erupted and resulted in a massacre on the British side, with six from the British party killed including the protectorate's acting consul-general along with most of the 200 or so African troops travelling with them. In response, the force of 1,500 was sent to Benin's capital, Gwato, and reduced it to ashes. As the historian Michael Crowder has noted, the punitive expedition ‘marked the end of one of the greatest and most colourful of West African kingdoms'.
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One legacy of the assault can be found today in far-away London. Many of the now-famous Benin brass plaques, produced by skilled artisans in the kingdom in the sixteenth century, were carted off. Some remain on display in the British Museum.

Despite the presence of the British, the Sokoto Caliphate founded by Usman Dan Fodio remained in power, but it would soon fall. Lugard would be the driving force, having been appointed high commissioner of the newly formed British protectorate of northern Nigeria in 1900. In one letter to his brother in February of that year, he talks of the beauty of the site of his house in Jebba on the River Niger. He was writing from Lokoja, at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers in central Nigeria, located south-east of Jebba, and the protectorate's administrative capital at the time. He expressed pride in the progress he had made so far in setting up an administration in the new protectorate despite battling through illness. He wrote to his brother Edward:

Lugard and Goldie, the two men who would be, for better or worse, largely responsible for the creation of modern-day Nigeria, had also become friends, and they exchanged letters about their struggles as well as more personal anecdotes. In one letter from July 1900, Goldie, who had struggled over the death of his wife two years earlier, seemed in better spirits, having just returned from a trip to China. His Royal Niger Company had been bought out by the British government at the start of the year in 1900 to make way for the new protectorates, and his work in West Africa would
be all but done.
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‘I believe I have reached a plane of stoicism (not hard heartedness) from which nothing can dislodge me', wrote a 54-year-old Goldie. ‘I have a few friends (you among the chief) and I want no more.'
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As for Lugard, he had struck up a relationship with a well-regarded journalist named Flora Shaw. She had travelled extensively, and she suggested in her writings that Britain's territories along the River Niger in West Africa be given the name Nigeria.
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In 1902, she and Lugard married.

Within a few years, Lugard's efforts to bring northern Nigeria – all of the Sokoto Caliphate as well as the remnants of the Bornu Empire – under one administration were coming to a head. He had been carrying out his version of ‘indirect rule', the idea, also used elsewhere, that the British would govern through the local authorities, meaning the emirs and the existing structure of the caliphate, though they would have the final word on all matters. He had decided on such an arrangement mainly because the British did not have nearly enough people on the ground to even come close to effectively governing a region as large as northern Nigeria, though he also spoke of his desire not to interfere in religious beliefs and of instituting reforms gradually.
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While the caliphate's Islamic ideals may have been severely compromised in its final years, with its later leaders far less attached to the vision of the Shehu, the state itself appeared to remain in somewhat functioning order.
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Lugard would, however, argue otherwise when he later pushed for a military assault in his correspondence with the Colonial Office in London. He also acted with a firm hand when he believed it was necessary, replacing non-compliant emirs from a combination of humanitarian concerns and hard-nosed practicality. The humanitarian aspect involved the continued use of slave raiding and attacks on other communities by certain emirs, which Lugard insisted must end. But those reasons often seemed to mix with a more simple desire to install someone willing to cooperate with Lugard on his terms.

By 1902, much of the region had been subdued, but the main leaders of the caliphate had no intention of giving up control to the Christians. A series of controversial letters between Lugard and the caliph showed the dicey diplomacy being engaged in by both sides. One in particular would become the subject of debate in later years, with doubts since raised over whether it had been badly misinterpreted or misrepresented – a vital point, since Lugard used it when arguing in favour of the raid that would lead to the caliphate's downfall.
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It was said to have come from the caliph at the time, Abdurrahman, who had earlier been informed in letters from Lugard that he was replacing the emirs of Bida and Kontagora, which were part of the caliphate.

‘From us to you. I do not consent that any one from you should ever dwell with us', read a British translation from its original Arabic into English of the letter received in May 1902. ‘I will never agree with you. I will have nothing ever to do with you. Between us and you there are no dealings except as between Mussulmans and Unbelievers (“Kafiri”) War, as God Almighty has enjoined on us. There is no power or strength save in God on high. This with salutations.'
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Later that year, in October 1902, the murder of a British officer named Captain Moloney in Keffi set off a final chain of events leading to an assault on Kano. The murderer was the Magaji – a high-ranking official there – though the circumstances of what happened have been in dispute. The Magaji then took refuge in Kano, where the emir welcomed him, all but inviting a firm response from the British. In convincing the British government of the need for military action, Lugard quoted from the caliph's hostile letter as a way of responding ‘to the strong feeling which you inform me exists in England that Military Operations should if possible be avoided, and the desirability of conciliatory measures'. After quoting the letter, he wrote that ‘to send a messenger to Kano would probably be tantamount to condemning him to death and courting insult myself'. Lugard
then wrote in striking language of what he clearly saw as the righteousness of the British campaign, literally labelling it a mission ordained by God, and spoke of the noble goal of wiping out slavery and barbaric punishments. He also argued that the Fulani rulers of the caliphate had come to be seen as oppressors by Hausa commoners and brutal slave masters.