From Tribal Society to Nation-State

The Centenary of Nigeria: A Window to Observe the History of Modern African Countries

In 1914, the British amalgamated several of their colonies from the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa to the inland to create the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, marking the initial formation of modern Nigeria. On January 1, 2014, the Nigerian government celebrated the centenary with a grand ceremony. President Jonathan recalled the country’s checkered history over the past hundred years at the ceremony. He said, “One hundred years ago, on the 1st of January 1914, the British Colonial authorities amalgamated the Southern and Northern Protectorates, giving birth to the single geo-political entity called Nigeria which has become our home, our hope, and our heritage. I have often expressed the conviction that our amalgamation was not a mistake. While our union may have been inspired by considerations external to our people; I have no doubt that we are destined by God Almighty to live together as one big nation, united in diversity.” As an ambitious state leader, the President also envisioned in his speech that the populous African country, in its 2nd century of existence, “is bound to overcome the transient pains of the moment and eventually take its rightful place among the greatest nations on earth” (“President Goodluck Ebeie Jonathan’s Speech on the Occasion of Nigeria’s Centenary Celebrations on February 2014” 2014).

Nigeria’s growth from a traditional tribal society and European colony to a modern state in the past century is the epitome of the century- long history of the contemporary African continent and the most historically significant change and development in Africa in the last century. The state-building and growth of contemporary African countries, including Nigeria, have unique backgrounds, motives, and experiences. We know that Nigeria is a place on the African continent where a brilliant ancient civilization flourished. This land had witnessed the evolution of ancient civilizations and the rise and fall of political structures and boasted vicissitudes of ancient kingdoms and tribal emirates in various forms. However, rather than the results of the natural evolution of aboriginal history, culture, and political structure, this country of Nigeria is a new modern state gradually formed with the growth of local powers and the rivalry among various powers under the impact of external forces.

In general, this modern state emerged as a result of the interaction of a series of historical events triggered by European colonial expansion. It was clearly subject to external implantation or dominance in the initial phase and finally became a modern legacy and basis for the country’s development that the indigenous Nigerian people had to accept.

In the 15th century A.D., the Portuguese began to invade the vast Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, where Nigeria is located today, followed by the French, British, German, and other European powers. After the 18th century, Britain emerged as the winner of the colonial wrangling in the region, and with the gradual abolition of the African slave trade, it began to view this vast area as an important target for commercial colonial exploitation. From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, the British, as they contended with the Portuguese and the French, established such colonies as the Lagos Settlement, the Lagos Colony, the Oil Rivers Protectorate, Niger Coast Colony and Protectorate, the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, and the Colony and Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and colonial institutions such as Royal Niger Company from the coast to the inland and from the south to the north in what is now Nigeria. These colonies and institutions varied in the sphere of dominance, and their interrelationships were never definitive. Instead, they changed according to Britain’s needs and interests or its position in the competition with other European powers. However, throughout history, the establishment and development of these colonies of different mother countries and the gradual strengthening of their interrelationships largely formed the foundation of the new country, Nigeria.

In 1900, the British government abolished the Royal Niger Company and subsequently established the two colonies of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. In 1906, the Lagos Colony and the Southern Nigeria Protectorate were amalgamated to form the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. On January 1, 1914, the British government officially merged the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria and the Colony and Protectorate of Northern Nigeria to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Its first governor was Lugard, the creator of the British colonial policy of indirect rule. By and large, the political boundaries and ethnic composition of the modern Nigerian state were thus set, which became the basis of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s formation and development.

After decades of colonial rule, the colony finally declared independence from British rule on October 1, 1960, and was formally constituted as the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a new and young nation. In the half-century that followed, this emerging African country experienced the twists and turns of development, a series of military coups, and alternating civil governments. It had once worked the African economic miracle and had also been reduced to an African economic beggar, becoming the “crippled giant” of Africa. After entering the 21st century, Nigeria has gradually accelerated its development and seems to have gained the inner confidence and motivation to explore a new path of independent development. However, it still faces daunting challenges, including the various anti-government forces and terrorism threatening the survival of the country, such as Boko Haram; as President Jonathan said, “While the occasion of our centenary undoubtedly calls for celebration, it is also a moment to pause and reflect on our journey of the past one hundred years, to take stock of our past and consider the best way forward for our nation.”

A Chinese scholar, Qian Mu, once said, “Any country that can exist and flourish must have a founding spirit. The cultivation, maintenance, and propagation of that founding spirit must be subject to the country’s education (Qian 1985, 285).” Observing the history of African countries from Mr. Qian Mu’s viewpoint, we may wonder how the fifty-four countries on the African continent today, including Nigeria, were formed and established. What historical process have they undergone? In the process, have they all developed “a founding spirit that has allowed them to survive and flourish”? What is the future of these young African countries? What are their similarities and differences from China? If we wish to cooperate with these countries and communicate with their people, it would be helpful to comprehend their history and culture and understand the feelings and thoughts of their people, wouldn’t it?

The combination of these “curious” questions with the “useful” ones and the theoretical innovation with the expectation of knowledge accumulation becomes the chief motivation for our study of country-specific African histories today.

In this book, we chose Nigeria as a case study to see how these contemporary African countries were founded and how they have evolved by systematically describing Nigeria’s past and present and looking in detail at its whole story. In general, Nigeria’s growth from a colony to a modern state over the past hundred years can be viewed as a meaningful window into the century-long African history. Through this window, we can witness how this continent has undergone the rises and falls of modern state-building and development, unlike other parts of the world, and how the African countries, propelled by internal and external forces, have struggled to develop in the modern world system.

The dozens of countries in the African continent were the last entrants to the modern state system, and their emergence and evolution in the past century drew up a vast picture of the development history of modern states. The picture shows the unique phenomenon of the so-called “developing countries’ evolution in the post-colonial era.” The complex transformation process of “traditional tribal societies’ converging into a modern state” it presents has provided scholars who have the courage to challenge theories and ambition to innovate ideas with sufficient historical materials and theoretical problems in terms of history, sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, and even the so-called “development studies.” They are thus empowered to reconstruct a new theoretical framework and knowledge map to explain the founding and growth of different types of countries in the world or to propose new conceptual tools, research methods, and observation perspectives through the systematic study of the founding history of these young countries. This is why writing the country- specific history of modern African countries motivates people to explore theoretical innovation and embark on an intellectual adventure, and it is an exceptional opportunity and challenge left for contemporary Chinese scholars.

What Is the Special Significance of Historical Writing for African Countries Today?

We often say that people have a past, tribes have a genealogy, and nations have a history. The fifty-four countries on the African continent today, regardless of their size and wealth, all have pasts and histories of their own. If outsiders want to know and understand a country and interact with its people, the best way is to start by knowing its history and learning about its culture.

Over the past hundred years, despite the different courses of history they went through, African countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, share Nigeria’s experience, evolving from traditional tribal societies or ancient emirates to European colonies and then modern independent states. The year 1960 is the watershed, before which traditional tribal societies started to collapse, and the emirates began to disintegrate and become colonies of the West because of Western colonialism. After 1960, it was a period of struggle for equality, freedom, emancipation, and independence, as well as the creation of modern states with independent sovereignty.