“It can only be described as farcical to suppose that…continental Nigeria can be represented by a handful of gentlemen drawn from a half-dozen coastal towns-men born and bred in British-administered towns situated on the seashore who, in the safety of British protection, have peacefully pursued their studies under British protection, have peacefully pursued their studies under British teachers, in British schools, in order to enable them to become ministers of the Christian religion or learned in the laws of England, whose eyes are fixed, not upon African native history or tradition or policy, nor upon their own tribal obligations and duties to their Natural Rulers which immemorial custom should impose on them, but upon political circumstances, arising out of a wholly different environment, for the government of peoples who have arrived at a wholly different stage of civilization…”
Hugh Clifford, Governor British Nigeria, 1920
No comments:
Post a Comment