Introduction

The development of society is an ongoing process, creating records and materials that either describe that development or the influences that have stalled it. As time passes, additional records accumulate to describe that time. Record keeping positions archives as not only important but also necessary.Footnote ¹ Archived history can exist in individual fragments before it is gathered in an architectural structure.

An archive is often described as the set of materials created or received by a person or organization – in a personal or official capacity – highlighting important information about events, actions, orders, and decisions.Footnote ² The materials and their provenance are carefully controlled to be preserved in their original state.Footnote ³ Archives are distinguished from other sources of history by “collective control, principle of provenance and original order.”Footnote ⁴ Provenance refers to the originality and the authentication of the materials’ origins, and it emphasizes the fact that archival maintenance requires different materials to be preserved differently.Footnote ⁵ An archival record needs to be stored in connection with the events it describes, which explains the principle of collective control. Materials with similar historiography need to be preserved jointly in the same record. These records must also be preserved in their original order.

The definition of an archive transcends the realm of materials or records to include the building that stores the materials. This includes the preservation mechanisms that are used inside the structure. The buildings and institutions that hold information are as important as the records and materials they retain.Footnote ⁶ The archivists who maintain such records are equally important.Footnote ⁷ They decide which materials are relevant, and that influences the kinds of stories that archive records. Despite the guiding principles of provenance, collective control, and original order, archival facts can be aligned to support a subjective viewpoint.Footnote ⁸

Different scholars have examined the extent of archival appraisal and how their voices explain reality.Footnote ⁹ The colonial archives, in particular, have been challenged based on the anachronistic manner in which early colonial scholars appraised them. Their work did not describe the true state and intent of Africa and Nigeria.Footnote ¹⁰ It has been described as intellectual imprisonment and the colonization of the African thinking process, shaping African views of their colonial history. After Nigerian intellectual efforts developed an increasing consciousness of their history, these records were scrutinized. Nigerian-oriented accounts of events and appraisals of archival records were examined and explained in their fixed “native” natures.Footnote ¹¹ To set the record straight, examining differences in these stories and the perspectives of African writers is expedient.

The Creation of the Nigerian National Archives

The preservation of historical records is essential.Footnote ¹² Past events and exchanges must be retained to serve as reference points. Archives enable the proper documentation and preservation of national values, cultures, and history for reference in the present and the future. The usefulness of archives is not confined to an appreciation of the past; they can also provide insights into current and developing situations.Footnote ¹³ This requires a proper recording of current developments alongside the records of the past.Footnote ¹⁴ Nigerian authorities, beginning with the colonial government, have made efforts to retain old records and preserve materials from the present.

The late introduction of writing skills complicated recordkeeping in precolonial Nigeria. Instead, most memories and records were maintained through other methods. The most widely recognized archival records from precolonial Nigeria are the old Arabic records and collections that can be traced back to around the eleventh century AD.Footnote ¹⁵ These came from early interactions between the Arab world and residents in the territory now known as Nigeria, which was facilitated through the trans-Saharan trade.Footnote ¹⁶ Unfortunately, most of these records were maintained privately and have not been preserved in modern archives.Footnote ¹⁷ S. S. WanikoFootnote ¹⁸ was an early archivist who successfully retrieved some of these Arabic manuscripts, ensuring they were adequately preserved.Footnote ¹⁹

Aside from older records, which have been difficult to collect, Nigeria’s archival activities to document ongoing events increased with the advent of the British colonial administration. After the 1914 amalgamation, Nigeria was officially recognized as an entity, and records of its existence and activities were collated in earnest.Footnote ²⁰ The 1914 amalgamation marked the start of archival recordkeeping and its administration as an entity and a state.Footnote ²¹ The Colonial Office initially performed the functions of archival administration, and it was interested in keeping accurate records. From the amalgamation onward, the Colonial Office was interested in protecting current and historical records. In 1914, the colonial dispatch requested an organized structure for the preservation of early and contemporary documents, asserting that these records should be kept in colonial custody.Footnote ²² The Secretary of State asked Sir Frederick Lugard to send records of the arrangement to the Colonial Office.

In 1936, the Colonial Office sent two different circular dispatches.Footnote ²³ The first dispatch concerned the office’s interest in keeping and preserving records, reminding colonial officers of the matter’s importance. The second dispatch concerned the preservation of contemporary records, which included treasury records and account books. Through the Colonial Secretary, it made suggestions regarding when it was considered unnecessary to retain these records, along with guidance on which records to destroy and which to keep.Footnote ²⁴ The final dispatch of 1948 was of great importance, and it included a memorandum from Sir Hilary Jenkinson, the well-known archivist, issuing directions for appropriate recording.Footnote ²⁵

Nigeria’s colonial officials responded with assurances that records were being kept adequately and appropriately. Lord Lugard stated that the records were “in a very fair state of preservation and that the current arrangements were adequate for their safe-keeping,”Footnote ²⁶ finding no notable challenges to obstruct recordkeeping in colonial Nigeria, especially in the early stages. In 1937, one Mr. J. A. M. Maybin circulated an internal memorandum to all officials, requesting that they send reports to the Chief Secretary Officer stating how their records were being kept and preserved. Unfortunately, the heads of various units and departments responded with statements explaining that they lacked the staff and facilities to assist with recordkeeping and the preservation of documents.Footnote ²⁷

Kenneth Dike also conducted a public record survey of all governmental bodies from 1951 to 1953. He strongly advocated the creation of a public record office in Nigeria, which was established on April 1, 1954, and was later appointed as the first Supervisor of Public Records.Footnote ²⁸ In 1949, Dike was awarded the Colonial Social Science Research Fellowship, which authorized him to conduct comprehensive research on Nigeria’s history. During that research, he discovered that many records had been inadvertently destroyed by neglect. Official records and documents had decayed or suffered damage from water and insects. Dike began working pro bono to retrieve the remaining records and care for them, which led to his appointment as head of a survey to identify and gather all available historical records and documentation. This work led Dike to issue the recommendation for the establishment of the Nigerian Record Office.Footnote ²⁹

The Nigerian Record Office was established at the University College Ibadan, in 1954, in a small two-room apartment under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Works.Footnote ³⁰ The office was legally recognized after its name was changed to the National Archives of Nigeria on November 14, 1957, with the promulgation of Public Archives Ordinance No. 43. The National Archives of Nigeria moved to its permanent site at the University College Ibadan in 1958, occupying its first official building.Footnote ³¹ The building was the first archive in tropical Africa, and its ongoing development continued.

The National Archives was instrumental in establishing a local interest in historical scholarship and encouraging a nationalistic consciousness among scholars. As the relevance of the archives became more visible, they expanded to serve the nation better. The Kaduna and Enugu branches of the National Archives were established in 1962 and 1963, respectively. These archives have maintained federal, regional, and state records and documents to preserve Nigeria’s historical heritage. Each region’s colonial administration records, official publications, newspapers, and other documents are stored in their relevant archives. The archives in Ibadan still retain records of the oldest newspaper in Nigeria, Ìwé Ìròhìn, which began operating in 1859.

Nigeria’s archives still function, and their facilities have expanded to include repair and binding rooms, repository rooms, processing rooms, and search rooms. Branches were established in Sokoto and Benin in 1982; Ilorin and Akure in 1985; Calabar in 1986; Port Harcourt and Owerri in 1989; and Abeokuta, Jos, and Maiduguri in 2005. Offices in Ibadan, Enugu, and Kaduna now hold authority over other archives within their regions.Footnote ³²

Kenneth Dike was head of the National Archives, as supervisor of records, from 1954 to 1963. He had also headed the effort before the archives were officially established. The 1957 Public Archives Ordinance changed Dike’s role to that of Director on a part-time basis, although this decision was criticized.Footnote ³³ Lloyd C. Gwam, appointed to succeed Dike in 1964, was respected for his scholarship and understanding of the archive. His book, Archive Memoranda, is regarded to date as orientation material and a guideline for newly appointed archivists,Footnote ³⁴ but his tenure was cut short by his early death. S. O. Sowoolu took over responsibility for the archives after Gwam’s death, and many new ideas were adapted to develop the archive during his eighteen-year tenure. One of Sowoolu’s many reputable achievements was how he protected records from the East during the 1967–70 Nigerian civil war.Footnote ³⁵

The Use of the Archives to Write on Colonial Nigeria

Thomas Richard describes imperial or colonial archives as not only a building, or the books it keeps, “but the collectively imagined junction of all that was known or knowable, a fantastic representation of an epistemological master pattern, a virtual focal point for the heterogeneous local knowledge of metropolis and empire.”Footnote ³⁶ In most cases, colonial archives were evidence of controlled information supporting a dictated line of thought. At the inception of the British colonization of Nigeria, colonial officials controlled most of the information about their activities in Nigeria and some information from the precolonial era.Footnote ³⁷ Their control over these materials determined which resources were available to scholars studying early Nigeria. Many scholars have observed that colonialism extended to the fortification of power through the use and control of knowledge. Early studies of African history could only be conducted with the materials made available by colonial officers.

Dike’s work to create the National Archives of Nigeria was instrumental in developing a native African interest in African history. It laid a firm foundation to aid the trajectory of a paradigm shift that brought African history from colonial narration to African inquiry. The limitations of the colonial archives and their influence on African colonial history had an overbearing tendency to narrate the African experience from colonial and British perspectives. Dike fought against these artificially imposed constraints. As other activists and nationalists rose against colonialism, Dike inspired others to tell African stories from African perspectives; this approach was seen in his criticism of Margery Perham’s written work on Nigeria’s independence.Footnote ³⁸ Perham was an important political figure who influenced the Colonial Office.Footnote ³⁹ Perham’s argument opposed independence for West Africans based on claims of technological underdevelopment, “incapability,” “primitiveness,” and other imagined shortcomings.Footnote ⁴⁰ Dike opposed this denigration and stated that every society has a background and a culture in which its values and orientations are built.

Dike’s criticism of Perham noted that Africa came from a long stretch of unexplored history, and that making assumptions about African history and statehood based on “slender evidence” was illogical at best.Footnote ⁴¹ This was a clarion call for Africans – and Nigerians in particular – to conduct research and emphasize self-knowledge through available materials. Dike asserted that anything else would encourage European slander against African history, distorting it “to justify the continent’s colonization.”Footnote ⁴² Dike’s urging, and his knowledge of the Nigerian archival material, shifted the course of African history.

Dike’s studies, research, and knowledge gathered from examining the archives allowed him to take different positions, issue new affirmations, and mount alternative criticisms of earlier claims and narratives about the British colony in Nigeria. One of his several rebuttals opposing the anachronistic viewpoint of British scholars disagreed with the justification of the British invasion of Lagos. Britain deposed King Kosoko as the Oba of Lagos and installed Oba Akitoye in 1851, claiming that Kosoko was undemocratic and alleging that he promoted the slave trade that Britain opposed.Footnote ⁴³ Dike countered these claims, suggesting that Lagos was invaded like any other territory, as Kosoko’s removal may have been caused by his past efforts at preventing European traders from accessing Lagos’s trade with other Yoruba communities.Footnote ⁴⁴ Oba Akitoye’s replacement was regarded as flexible and willing to accommodate British interests. These allegations were supported by the fact that the British deposed Bonny’s king, Dappa Pepple, who was confrontational and defended his territory against colonial imperialists.Footnote ⁴⁵

After the Lander brothers launched their historical exploration of the Niger in 1830,Footnote ⁴⁶ the British government partnered with missionaries and commercial entities. Their ventures allegedly focused on developing the Niger Valley, especially after contracting it to Macgregor Laird in 1857, hoping to replace Europeans with educated Africans. Dike offered an alternative explanation: The interest in expanding the Niger Delta was to extend colonial trade and commerce, not to advance scientific or missionary endeavors.Footnote ⁴⁷

Nigeria was amalgamated in 1914,Footnote ⁴⁸ and a central legislative council was formed for its administration through the 1946 Richards Constitution.Footnote ⁴⁹ The decision to amalgamate different British-controlled areas with their protectorate had been seen as a positive development and the beginning of the nation.Footnote ⁵⁰ However, Dike provided a different perspective on the amalgamation, framing it as driven by the British need for more resources. Dike asserted that the decision was premeditated, intending to use resources from the Southern Protectorate to exploit the Northern Protectorate, which was less capable of supporting colonial administration on its own. This decision was calculated to reduce Britain’s financial commitments.

Dike also pointed out that extractive infrastructure, like roads and railways, was also more easily constructed under a centralized administration. Dike opposed the notion put forward by Lord Frederick Lugard, who asserted that the amalgamation and indirect rule were focused on economic development and the advancement of civilization.Footnote ⁵¹ Instead, Dike considered the colonial endeavor and the amalgamation of Nigeria to be exploitative and undertaken to benefit the British administration.Footnote ⁵² This intent was apparent in the British manner of approach, the administration’s use of force, and the discriminatory attitudes toward Nigerians.Footnote ⁵³

Dike and other early historians, such as Professors Jacob F. Ade Ajayi and Saburi O. Biobaku, contributed materials for the foundation of African historiography.Footnote ⁵⁴ This enabled other historians to draw from the archives’ pool of knowledge to write about Nigerian colonial history. It laid the foundation for the institution known as the Ibadan School of History.Footnote ⁵⁵ The school was developed at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s first university and the first to form a dedicated history department. The Department of History at the University of Ibadan was instrumental in developing the local school of history because of its high quality of teaching. The very first set of Nigerian historians emerged from these efforts, and they shared the school’s philosophies.Footnote ⁵⁶ The Ibadan School of History was credited as the first coordinated school, having a profound influence on the telling of Nigeria’s history until the 1970s.Footnote ⁵⁷

The Ibadan School of History’s primary assignment was to retell the history of Nigerian colonialism, oppose the way that it had been recorded and told by colonial records, and create a national consciousness for postcolonial Nigeria.Footnote ⁵⁸ The National Archives at the University of Ibadan provided access to colonial records, enabling the global visibility of the work of people like Dike and encouraging the development of the school. The school emphasized the consideration of historical sources and the use of a multidisciplinary approach to collect data. Aside from decolonizing the narration of African history, it also reconciled historical facts to promote national unity.Footnote ⁵⁹

Within the Ibadan School of History, Dike made several significant contributions to the reconstruction of African and Nigerian history. His book, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta,Footnote ⁶⁰ was outstanding for its retelling of African history using knowledge gained from orally recorded sources. In relying on oral accounts, Dike drew attention to the conceptualization of African perspectives for African history, appraising the roles of major African historical actors and examining different events from new viewpoints.Footnote ⁶¹

Martin Klein provided a comprehensive review of works written by scholars identified with the Ibadan School, examining their orientation.Footnote ⁶² The first collection of views from African historians was Ajayi and Crowder’s volume on the history of West Africa,Footnote ⁶³ wherein two-thirds of the writers identified with the Ibadan School of History.Footnote ⁶⁴ Ebiegberi J. Alagoa, one of the writers included in the volume, discussed the precolonial Niger Delta from 1600 to 1800, giving a new explanation for the slave trade during that period. Alagoa found fault with Horton’s arguments about the veracity, uselessness, and incredulousness of oral tradition. He established that other data, apart from colonial records, could explain the past, especially the slave trade activities in the Niger Delta from 1600 to 1700.Footnote ⁶⁵

Abdullahi Smith,Footnote ⁶⁶ making inquiries outside of the colonial boundaries of the Ibadan School, reconstructed and changed the view of history in old Central Sudan. He explained how the country’s Kanuri and Hausa groups emerged from Central Sudan, supporting his assertions with linguistics, geography, archeology, and other documents. Smith traced the origin of the Kanuri kingship system to relationships between the old nomads and the stable agriculturalists, identifying the links that joined the Hausa monarchs to society’s economic systems. His work took an African view of institutions and identified diversity at work in the process of Islamization for society and general systems.Footnote ⁶⁷ Philip Curtin was another historian aligned with the Ibadan School, and his historical exploration of Africa’s slave trade belongs in the echelon of top scholars on the subject.Footnote ⁶⁸ Curtin’s radical opinion asserted that the slave trade in African society was more social than economic, opposing views emphasizing the economic intent of the transatlantic slavers.Footnote ⁶⁹

The Ibadan School of the 1950s and 1960s has received criticism because the scope of its work was largely confined to colonialism and the events that preceded it.Footnote ⁷⁰ This restriction has not allowed for much expansion of the school and the subject matter that it discusses.Footnote ⁷¹ Some scholars have also criticized the Ibadan School’s apparent preference for written records, like those in the archives, and their traditional nature of understanding subjects.Footnote ⁷² The school has excluded or unconsciously omitted oral history.Footnote ⁷³ However, the school enjoyed intellectual success by producing scholars who identified with its philosophy.Footnote ⁷⁴ The first set of academic gladiators from the University of Ibadan included Kenneth Dike, Tekena Tamuno, Saburi Biobaku, Jacob F. Ade Ajayi, Emmanuel A. Ayandele, Joseph C. Anene, and Henry F. C. Smith. They ensured the torch was passed to others who extended the school’s engagements. Scholars such as Obaro Ikime, Ebiegberi J. Alagoa, Rowland A. Adeleye, Benjamin O. Oloruntimehin, and Okon Uya became the new Ibadan scholars, raising the standard for African history.Footnote ⁷⁵ In 1955, the pioneer scholars formed the Historical Society of Nigeria.Footnote ⁷⁶

In its early formation, the Ibadan School of History inspired other writings that refocused scholarly works to interpret African history through African lenses and voices. One example is Meillassoux’s discussion of different studies presented at the International African Seminar at Fourah Bay College, tracking the development of trade and markets in West Africa.Footnote ⁷⁷ He examined studies of African trade routes and how they came to be, studying the problems discussed by Abner Cohen, the different types of routes discussed by Jean-Louis Boutillier, and African efforts to maintain those routes.Footnote ⁷⁸ Scholars also considered the social impact of Nigeria’s older trade systems and the relationships between European traders and West African traders.

The scholarship that refocused African history, removing it from the ethnocentric and colonized constraints of early narratives, was not solely an African effort. European scholars also used records to criticize colonial narratives of African history.Footnote ⁷⁹ Jean Suret-Canale, a Marxist and a strong pro-African activist, was one of these scholars who worked to view Africa from an African perspective.Footnote ⁸⁰ Suret-Canale embarked on a project correcting colonial writings and records to create a more comprehensive and aggregated perspective.Footnote ⁸¹ He linked the African occupation and invasion with the economic interests of European colonial officers.Footnote ⁸²

The Limitations of the Colonial Archives in Writing About Colonial Nigeria

The first and most obvious limitation of the colonial archives is its control over the voices that are included in and the stories that are told by its documents. Archival records are not necessarily objective and devoid of interpretations. However, the acquisition of records exerts control over these voices; therefore, colonial archives rely on voices that might have been distorted by control over resources. Clearly defined objectives have to be established to recognize and claim the hidden voices.

European colonial governments did not compromise on their need for detailed and deliberate recordkeeping, which was also the case with Nigeria.Footnote ⁸³ The Colonial Office in England sent a memo that asked British officials about the state of records in Nigeria and suggested that Dike should be given the power to conduct a coordinated survey. This points to the structural imbalance of power and suggests that voices are missing from the state archives.Footnote ⁸⁴ Despite this, they maintain a veneer of objectivity.Footnote ⁸⁵

Another shortcoming is that Nigerian archival records were incomplete, leaving postcolonial writers with remnants of documents that show colonial administrations in a positive light.Footnote ⁸⁶ Some scholars assert that Britain divided public and colonial records into groups to be elevated, transferred, or left behind.Footnote ⁸⁷ In Northern Nigeria, four months were spent removing and destroying documents.Footnote ⁸⁸ According to the Malayan Report on Nigeria, an estimated 747 files were tagged as classified, 79 were moved to the Colonial Office, and 480 were destroyed. Only a carefully compiled set of documents was passed down to the incoming government after independence, while most of the files that were moved to London concerned constitutional and administrative issues.

The affected documents included records relating to the separation and amalgamation of Nigeria, reports on Nnamdi Azikiwe and fund management, and reports on the Minority Commission and the African Continental Bank.Footnote ⁸⁹ Why were archival and official documents transferred or destroyed, and why were not all documents passed down to the incoming government? This underscores the limits of the documentation available to Nigerian officials and scholars, leaving many of the British colonial officials’ activities and intentions obscured.Footnote ⁹⁰ The archives and remaining documents have left Nigerians with an incomplete understanding of their colonial past, especially when relying on colonial records.Footnote ⁹¹

The National Archives in Nigeria are arguably more of a colonial archive, despite the time between the realization of independence and the present. This is largely due to the limited acquisition of public records, which makes the colonial records about 90 percent of the material that it preserves.Footnote ⁹² These records and other colonial archives have received criticism, encouraging scholarly efforts to address the imbalance.

Moses Ochonu, examining the archives’ current problems and their influence on postcolonial discussions of postcolonial history, has outlined and explained different problems that could affect historical scholarship.Footnote ⁹³ Ochonu’s perspective was shaped by his experience with the Nigerian Archives. His concerns included “archival fragmentation, the politicization of historical data, the boom in memoirs and autobiographies, and the question of sensing Africa outside the oral, written, and ethnographic templates.”Footnote ⁹⁴

Fragmentation is a notorious problem for colonial archives and their records. The scattering of sources and materials on similar subjects compels scholars to undertake a monumental task of assembly.Footnote ⁹⁵ This has been viewed as a defining feature of the archives, subject to disorganization resulting from political anxiety.Footnote ⁹⁶ The fragmentation of colonial archives reflects the uncoordinated colonial government and the manifestation of a “dysfunctional bureaucracy.” Fragmentation can be advantageous in some situations, but for the archives it means more time spent researching with less effective results.

Colonial archives have also been shaped by the politicization of the materials and records that they hold. The retained information and records had been selected to support colonial or national interests in the present day. This filters their collections and excludes materials that could have historical value. These efforts can distort the voices of the past, and present-day historians are left negotiating their way through skewed records to access the truth amidst documents buried by politicization. The Malayan Report suggests what kinds of information, files, and documents were destroyed or moved to the United Kingdom. The remaining documents are unlikely to condemn colonial officials or their actions. This postcolonial limitation has left historians desperate for those materials.Footnote ⁹⁷

Another phenomenon that shapes archival records is the glorification of individuals who had the resources to publish or center themselves in biographies. The personal accounts of these people tend to become public history, shaping how official records present them. By publishing their perceptions of incidents, these accounts can become part of archives and be embraced by society.Footnote ⁹⁸ A typical example of this dynamic can be seen in the life of Nnamdi Azikiwe, who partly shaped what public records would say about him by what he published about himself in his newspapers.Footnote ⁹⁹ Newell has claimed that Azikiwe deliberately made himself politically visible in the colonial archives. His anticolonial opposition to British colonial authorities and records of activities in Nigeria were obvious in London. Azikiwe used his West African Pilot and African Morning Post newspapers (based in Lagos and Accra, respectively) to criticize the racist, capitalist, and colonial activities in the British colony. The Colonial Office in London kept records of this criticism.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ The editorials, columns, and critical opinions from the newspapers formed parallel official records around the 1930s, and some of the material was tagged as “top secret.”Footnote ¹⁰¹

One factor that made Azikiwe’s work notable and popular was the emergence of different nationalist movements agitating for independence. The environment encouraged increased unionism, petitions, riots, and strikes, and the creation of a public relations department by the colonial officials provided many opportunities to criticize the administration of the British colony in the 1930s. Azikiwe’s motives were studied for around three decades. After examining his publications, bank transactions, and other details, colonial officials could only arrive at speculative conclusions.Footnote ¹⁰² Azikiwe’s activities, and the colonial scrutiny of his tendency to dominate archival documentation, have created a substantial biography of a single person. Some colonial officials and African scholars believe this to be intentional.Footnote ¹⁰³

Colonial archives are challenged by the anachronistic approach to acquiring documents and the struggle for control over material that should qualify as public records. Records and reports detail intentional interference with documentation that has created a lacuna of knowledge. In appraising these records, voices are distorted by missing or only partially available information. The colonial archives in Nigeria ended at the point of decolonization, and the expected amount of postcolonial documentation has not been acquired. Colonial records still compose the bulk of the National Archives, with few postcolonial governmental activities included.

Alternative Voices to the Archives

Nigeria’s historiography has not been primarily based on archival documents and records. The weaknesses of the colonial archives have encouraged writers to tap into other historical knowledge through alternative sources. Their work has exposed a massive amount of information about the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras in Nigeria. Sources have included local chronicles, oral traditions, objects, rituals, performances, and festivals. Objects such as atupa (lamps) are important materials produced by Nigerians to light their homes at night. Gourds from plants and pots made of clay were used for storage and to refrigerate water. As Figure 1.1 suggests, knowledge-based solutions to everyday problems were designed prior to British rule, and through these objects or materials one could easily draw superior historical knowledge and alternative sources to sufficiently understand the different phases of the Nigerian past.

Figure 1.1 Light was produced from an atupa (lamp), depicting a knowledge-based solution. Behind the atupa is a gourd filled with water for preservation and as a coolant.

Nigeria’s history transcends the advent of colonialism in Africa. Africans are not people without history or historical records. European explorers and scholars failed to appreciate how Africans conceptualized that history.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ Chronicles have explained the existence of African history outside of colonial archives, and their distinguishing features are their originality and their resistance to biased interpretation. Kanem-Borno, for instance, was one of the earliest areas to develop teaching and scholarly traditionsFootnote ¹⁰⁵ due to its interactions through the trans-Saharan trade and relationships with the Amazigh (Berbers) and Arab traders. This tradition developed throughout the eighteenth century, and Fulani scholars were among the predominant scholars putting history into records. Islamic schools, especially in Gazargamu and among Sufi communities, had large amounts of writing and chronicles of events,Footnote ¹⁰⁶ although many of them have not survived to the present day. The calligraphy schools and learning traditions of the Borno still provide credible historical sources, offering alternative voices for inquiries into Nigeria’s history.Footnote ¹⁰⁷

Scholars such as Shaykh Ibrahim Salih have used these sources most effectively. Scholarship in the North extended to Kano. The Tijaniyya school, at the height of its influence in the twentieth century, became a major center of scholarship.Footnote ¹⁰⁸ One of its distinguished scholars was ‘Abd Allah Suka, who wrote poems on praxis and piety in Islam, known as ‘Atiyyat al-mu’ti. Some of his works have been preserved for contemporary historians.Footnote ¹⁰⁹

Documentation and scholarly writing were also present during the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate.Footnote ¹¹⁰ Usman Dan Fodio, his son Muhammad Bello, and his brother ‘Abd Allah have been credited with more than 300 written works. His family was renowned for its writing during the early nineteenth century.Footnote ¹¹¹ Despite colonial rule, these efforts continued into the twentieth century, nurtured in reputable Islamic schools in Zaria, Kwara, and elsewhere. Some of the earliest chronicles of the region have survived to the present day, despite being written in the sixteenth century or earlier. This includes the anonymous “Kano Chronicles,”Footnote ¹¹² which Herbert R. Palmer translated into English in 1908.Footnote ¹¹³

The Kano Chronicles established lines of succession for the kings of Kano from about 1000 CE to the reign of Mohammed Bello,Footnote ¹¹⁴ showing how precolonial Nigeria can be studied through the records maintained by established institutions. Another chronicle was Ahmad B. Furtuwa’s recording of the first twelve years of Mai Idris Aloma’s reign in Borno. These records covered his activities in Kanem and other wars, along with a chronicle of Mai Idris Katakamarbe’s war in Kanem, which allegedly inspired the former.Footnote ¹¹⁵ The chronicling was not restricted to these areas but extended to other parts, including those inhabited by the Yoruba. Adam ‘Abd Allah was credited with writing history chronicles that touched on several Nigerian groups.Footnote ¹¹⁶

Another alternative to a reliance on colonial archives is the use of oral tradition to reconstruct the history of precolonial and colonial Nigeria. The absence of extensive written records in many places in precolonial Nigeria meant that historical accounts were frequently maintained as oral traditions.Footnote ¹¹⁷ Many historical objects, artifacts, and performances are given historical context through oral traditions passed from generation to generation.Footnote ¹¹⁸ Oral tradition is a set of verbal information transmitted from eyewitness accounts, hearsay, memories, and stories to retrieve memories of the past.Footnote ¹¹⁹ These traditions do not need to involve interviews with elderly African men or women since they can exist as proverbs or idioms describing past events. One example is the reenactment of Abeokuta’s war stories, expressed as a proverb: kógun mája Iléwó, kógun mája Ìbàrà, ogún ja Iléwó, ogún ja Ìbàrà, ólé ará Aké dà séyìn odi (Ilewo and Ibara should not be faced by war, they were attacked and the Ake’s indigenes have been exiled).Footnote ¹²⁰ Another example is Láyé Abíódún afi igbá won owó, Láyé Àólé adi àdìkalè (During the reign of Abiodun, money was weighed by calabash, and during the reign of Aole, the people fled).Footnote ¹²¹ Poetry, praise, and other renditions create a comprehensive oral record of Nigeria’s history.

Oríkì, popular among the Yoruba, has been a common way of telling the stories of people, institutions, families, and kings.Footnote ¹²² The Yoruba are well known for developing the strong oral tradition exhibited in their cultures and laws, but this technique of recording the past extends beyond their borders. In Igala, accounts from different oral traditions have been combined with a study of past kings’ burial grounds to place their reigns in chronological order and link them with specific dates. The tradition allowed Clifford to reconstruct the genealogy of Abutu Eje, tracing a link to the contemporary monarch.Footnote ¹²³ Oral tradition was also used to record the history of precolonial Igbo peoples in the territory that is currently Southeast Nigeria. These traditions recounted the activities of their ancestors and the construction of their society’s political structures.Footnote ¹²⁴ They also reflected on the motivations behind their egalitarian society and the scattered settlements of different Igbo villages, which had similarities in cultures and beliefs, including the worship of Aro. Songs, stories, and tales from elders established chronological accounts for different villages and their people.Footnote ¹²⁵

The establishment of Arabic scholarship, which brought writing and specific learning modes, has meant that oral traditions are not the only sources of precolonial history in the Northern region of Nigeria. Many historical events in regions such as Borno and the territories occupied by the Hausa/Fulani have been recorded in written records. The region’s early exposure to trans-Saharan trade formed a foundation for accepting the Islamic religion. Many political leaders before Usman Dan Fodio practiced Islam, and they may have performed pilgrimages to Mecca and other Islamic states.Footnote ¹²⁶ The North depended on Arabic writing, and its records have survived the test of time. The Sokoto Caliphate emphasized Islamic doctrines at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and scholars felt that oral traditions were less important.

The reliance on oral accounts and memories has challenged the credibility of these historical resources. Some of the details they provide may be false or have failed to capture full and true accounts of the events they intend to record. Many oral traditions are premised on mythological beliefs and legends, which can defy logical conclusions in the present day. Figures such as Sango, Ògún, and Obàtálá were painted as Yoruba gods who possessed unearthly power.Footnote ¹²⁷ Sango was popularly believed to control thunder and embody mythological bravery.Footnote ¹²⁸ However, he was an Alaafin of Oyo who had a human brother. The legend of Ògún is often told by Yoruba hunters, revered for his supernatural control over iron and the fate of hunters.Footnote ¹²⁹ Many legends that try to explain the past of the Yoruba people have details that cannot be verified. In Ilaro, an old Yoruba settlement had an oral tradition claiming that its fourth king did not die but stated that he would enter the ground and become immortal. However, archaeological evidence from that location has failed to confirm the story.Footnote ¹³⁰

In the royal courts of African monarchies, an official historian was often appointed to maintain the oral accounts of history that were shared with the public.Footnote ¹³¹ These historians celebrated their kings’ victories and influenced public sentiment.Footnote ¹³² Faseke, emphasizing the reported experience of Kunle Afolayan at the Egbado palace, noted that a palace historian had described the victories of an Egbado Oba in 1840. Many other historical reports contradicted this account, which may have been intended to claim accolades for the Oba’s lineage.Footnote ¹³³

Another challenge for oral tradition is the fact that the accounts frequently fail to note specific dates.Footnote ¹³⁴ There is a heavy reliance on the reigns of kings, or sequences of events, to compensate for the fact that there was no established consensus for recording time. It can also be difficult to separate exaggerations from statements of fact since many oral accounts tell their stories with “condensed or poetic language.”Footnote ¹³⁵ Finally, oral records of the invasion and the occupation of Nigerian societies are less reliable when tracking the establishment of the British administration. This information was recorded more thoroughly in the colonial archives because societal preferences shifted away from oral traditions. Western civilization encouraged a more logical, scientific approach to history. The shortcomings of oral traditions are undeniable, but they served as primary sources of history in Nigerian communities.Footnote ¹³⁶ Oral traditions are true to Africa and represent the African approach to recounting African history. They have been the most reliable and readily available sources of information from the continent’s antiquity.

African societies have diverse historical sources for scholars, including rituals and festivals. The polytheistic origins of Nigerian societies have encouraged them to worship different deities that serve different purposes, with different stories attached to them. In most cases, the Orisa were human, worshipped as deities that established ways of living in African societies. Some of these gods have different appellations, in the form of Oríkì, that also tell the people’s history.Footnote ¹³⁷ Oríkì is often rendered in the dialectic format of their corresponding societies. In some instances, they include people from different settlements. The eulogies and tributes sung to many of these gods also retell African histories.Footnote ¹³⁸ Ifá, the god of divination, is consulted with different enchantments and poetry, including songs. The Babaláwo may say adífá fún Obàtálá nígbà tín ó ti òde òrun bòwáyé (cast divination for Obàtálá when he journeyed from heaven to the earthly realm), referencing Obàtálá when he descended into the world.Footnote ¹³⁹

Yoruba mythology made Ile-Ife look like the center of the world, serving as an origin point from which everyone migrated.Footnote ¹⁴⁰ The historical sanctity of this town protected it from attack and made it a point of reference for many Yoruba kingdoms. Rituals in Africa are performed by consulting the gods and, in so doing, worshippers state the powers and supremacy of the god by chanting stories of what the said god had achieved in the past. Many festivals honoring these deities involve historical details.

Voices from outside the colonial archives play a major role in reconstructing Nigerian history. Nationalist writers and scholars have advocated traditional sources of history to protect African history’s integrity and purity. These goals cannot be accomplished through the colonial archives because of the biases in their curatorial decisions.

Conclusion

The colonial archives served as a trigger for the development of Nigerian historiography. The creation of the National Archives at the University College Ibadan, under the pioneering leadership of Kenneth Dike, was instrumental in encouraging the study of history. The National Archives also marked the conceptualization of African history and a growing consciousness around its approach and scope of discussion. The Ibadan School of History carved out a niche for restating colonial and precolonial Nigerian history from Nigerian perspectives devoid of colonial influence. The Ibadan School criticized anachronistic and ethnocentric accounts of African history.

However, the archives are plagued by deficiencies. The colonial acquisition of materials about precolonial and colonial history was politically influenced, and many records were destroyed, while few were turned over to Nigeria after independence. The archive faces other challenges that encourage scholars to look elsewhere when reconstructing African history. These other resources can be referred to as other voices, historical sources that are specific to Nigeria, which are continuous modes of transmitting history across generations. They include local chronicles, like the Kano Chronicles, along with oral traditions from Western and Eastern Nigeria, rituals and festivals, and different historical objects. Some of these sources face challenges in retaining their credibility over time, rendering many unreliable.

Understandably, the colonial archives might face limitations in preserving African and Nigerian history, which is why all voices must be heard. Other sources must be considered through a comprehensive, methodological approach to access the full construction of Nigerian colonial history.