SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the social and economic history of the communities of the Akwanga division of Plateau province in central Nigeria from the beginning of formal British administration in 1911 to the end of colonial rule in 1960. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first looks at the early history of the peoples of Akwanga with emphasis on their political, religious and economic organisation. It also discusses the effect of the nineteenth-century Sokoto jihad on settlement patterns in the region. Chapter 2 deals with resistance to the colonial conquest, which lasted up to 1925. Chapter 3 discusses the development of the indirect rule system and native administration, focusing on the creation of chiefs, divisional boundaries and the native administrative policies pursued by successive Governors of Nigeria. Chapter 4 looks at taxation and cash crop production and their impact on the peoples of Akwanga. Chapter 5 examines the use of local labour for building the infrastructure of colonial rule and for tin mining, which dominated the economy of Plateau province. Chapter 6 discusses the religious encounter between Islam, Christianity and indigenous belief and how these two world religions shaped the political identity of the people of the region. Chapter 7 focuses on the demise of indirect rule and the emergence party politics in Akwanga with emphasis on minority politics and the role of the educated groups in the politics and process of decolonisation.