We Are Nigerians - Journey to Amalgamation Documentary
Voice Over Words
"Nigeria: unique, fascinating, a country of multiple tribes, cultures, religions and expressions. A country full of promise. On January 1st 2014, Nigeria will mark 100 years since the amalgamation of the North and the South to form one country.
How did this melting pot of diverse people, language and culture become one nation? How did this vast territory with artificial borders become one country? Evidence of civilization traces back as far as the 8,000 year Dafuna Canoe with the most sophisticated design of its time discovered in present day Borno State. Similarly, the terracotta art of the North people reveal an advanced culture thriving in the area now called Kaduna State.
Before the Europeans ever set foot on West African soil, the territory that makes up the present day Nigeria was dominated by independent empires and city states: from the great Kano and Borno empire which expanded through long distance trade and military technology, to the Iboku civilization -- the first bronze casters in Africa who source materials from faraway as Egypt; from the thousand old year Benin empire with infrastructure and far-reaching diplomatic links to the formidable military and administrative machine of the vast Oyo empire; and the power of the great Sokoto caliphate in the 19th century under the legendary Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio.
These precolonial state were highly organized societies with evolved administrative systems, courts, diplomatic functions, educational centers, and successful method of commerce and agriculture. Rulers expanded their economies through trade, and sometimes expanded their trade through war. Amina, the Warrior Queen through her military conquests, made The Zahu, now Zaira, center of the North South Saharan and East West Sudan trade in the 16th century. Amina was also the originator of the earthen walls that fortified Zaria and other cities that she conquered, such as Kano. Trade networks stretched as far as the Europe and the Middle East. And by the time the Portuguese landed on the coast of Benin in the late 15th century, West African had been trading with foreigner countries for 400 years. The Portuguese explorers were soon followed by the British, French and Dutch. First, they came for our pepper, palm oil, groundnut cocoa, clothes, beads and ivory. Then, they came for our people. 25 million men, women and children seized and shipped to work as slaves in the cotton fields of the Americans, the desserts of Arabia, the farms and factories of Europe, and the plantations of the West Indies.
Three Africans also became part of European society. Most famously, Olaudah Equiano -- the first African to write a novel -- a celebrated author biography published in 1789. Taken as a slave from Igbo land, Equiano eventually bought his freedom, worked all over the world, and married an English lady. There was also a sailor, Captain James Labulo Davies, a London-based Yoruba millionaire who arrived with 16 gold carriages for his wedding in 1861 to Sarah Forbes Bonetta, the adopted African goddaughter of Queen Victoria.
After the legal abolition of the slave trade in 1807, the British used a combination of religion, commerce and politics to secure trading advantages for British companies. When the indigenous rulers proves uncooperative, British diplomacy often gave way to British gun boots. This was seen when the British naval force entered Lagos' bay in December 1861. They disposed the king and installed a more pliable ruler and eventually annexed Lagos as the first Crown colony in Nigeria, now governed directly from Britain. However, the path to British rule did not always run smooth. Nigeria from North to South, East to West fought valiantly to preserve their freedom.
We salute heroes like the former slave from Amiigbo, the most prosperous city-state in Detla region. His name was Jaja, king of Opobo. He received the sword of honor in 1875 from Queen Victoria after Opobo soldiers helped the British in the Gulf Coast. But when British extremities policies began to threaten the livelihood of local traders, Jaja's vigorous opposition became a deep thorn in the flesh of imperial ambitions. Afraid of the influential king, the British lured Jaja onto a ship and gave him an ultimatum: surrender himself or face the bombardment of Opobo by naval forces. He was deported to the West Indies, never to see his beloved Opobo again.
We salute the indomitable Nigerian chief, Nana Olomu, who valiantly protected the economical and political independence of the Itsekiri Kingdom for more than 10 years until 1894 when he too was forcible deported for being a treat to the colonial interest.
We salute the great Oba Ovonramwen of Benin who resisted British attempt to take over his trade routes, even banning them from entering his territories. In 1897, after a punitive expenditure to Benin, the great Oba was forced into exile in Calabar while the British regiments looted the ancient city's priceless treasures. Nigeria is still negotiating for their returns today.
We salute the brave Ekumeku resistance movement, a secret army of thousand of Ibo warriors who used conventional and innovative guerrilla warfare to take down Royal Niger Company outposts in the South East. Even as late as 1909, the Ekumeku were instrumental in defending the town of Okwachuku from colonial invasion.
We salute the courageous Sultan, Mohammedu Atairu the 1st, who after the sagging of Sokoto Caliphate continued to fight its invasion, putting his warriors on horseback against the canons until he died in battle at Brumi on 1903.
The treaty of Berlin of 1885 had divided a prospectively 10,000 African states into 52 countries, shared among the European powers. The British expanded its interest through the powerful trade conglomerates. The Royal Niger Company, formerly United African Company (UAC) added by Sir George Taubman Goldie, a man so instrumental that at a time the British considered naming the country Goldiesha in his honor. The British were desperate to control trade routes because in the 19th century, the volume and economic value of agriculture export by independent Nigerian states was much greater than that of Britain.
Using military might and renegading on trade agreement at every turn, the Royal Niger Company seized control of the Delta region, and took over key western state like Ijebu, Abeokuta, and spread North where technocrat and army officer Frederick Lugard transformed the RNC's commercial influence into British full political control.
Continuing the British policy of indirect rule, Lugard disposed of uncooperative rulers and installed new emirs and leaders in their place. Some went on to do great things. Sarkin Katsina Mohamman Dikko, installed by the British in 1901, set up new administrative structures, promoted commerce and education, founded Katsina, later Barewa College and the first school for girls, and was also the first Northern emir to go on Hajj and to fly in a plane.
In 1900, Calabar became the capital of the new Protectorate of Southern Nigeria while Zungeru became the capital of the new Protectorate of Northern Nigeria. In 1906, Lagos colony and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria were merged with Lagos as the capital. Between 1900 and 1914, the Protectorates had made impressive economic gain, all of which now went to the British empire. The cocoa and groundnut trade were booming. Tin and coal were discovered in Jos and Enugu respectively. The Lagos-Kano railway lines were built and the construction of a port in Ekwere, Port Harcourt expanded the export trade.
These new opportunities were exploited by astute Nigerians like wealthy groundnut trader, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, multi million transport and shipping magnate, Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu who late became founding member and first president of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, and Candido Da Rocha, who made a fortune selling water and whose former mansion in Lagos still stands, fittingly named Water House. A growing crop of Nigerian professionals had also immersed from trail blazers like the first Nigerian doctor, Nathaniel King who qualified in 1875, and the first lawyer, Christopher Sapara Williams called to bar in 1879, George Adebayo Agbebi who qualified as the first Nigerian engineer in 1911, and Miss Oreoluwa Green, the first African female pharmacist.
Some became political leaders like England educated Prince Bassey Duke Ephram who led the delegation of the Calabar people to London on 1913 to make representation on the land tenure reform. The professional clause became the forefront a new nationalist movement, led by Herbery Macaulay -- the grandson of the first African Bishop, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who raised political awareness through his newspaper -- the Lagos Daily News. On January 1, 1914, Britain amalgamated the two Protectorate spanning 330,000 square miles into one Nigeria.
The creation of Nigeria was no random accident or political whim as now Governor-General Lugard stated in among his amalgamation speech: His Majesty's government after long and matured consideration, arrived at the conclusion that "... It would be to the great advantage of the countries known as the Southern and Northern Nigeria that they should be amalgamated into one Government, conforming to one policy and mutually co-operating for the moral and material advancement of Nigeria as a whole.'
Amalgamation changed the way that we as Nigerians saw ourselves. It inspired those who believed in the possibility of a different future and who in turn inspire the men and women that drove that train of self determination into its final stop at independence. At along this journey, we became truly Nigerian. Not just in name but in our hearts. In the course of our rich history, we have seen the heights of greatness and the depths of cruelty. We've seen the birth of new civilizations and the depths of ancients empires. Our testimony is this: we were beaten but never broken, subdued but never conquered. Today, we are many, yet we are one people, one nation, forever united by a shared struggle, a common heritage and a bright future. WE ARE NIGERIANS!"
An OutSource Media Production © 2013
Length: 14:57
Executive Producer: Obi Asika
Producer and Writer: Nkiru Askia
Line Producer: Uche Ikejimba
Consultant: Emeka Keazor
Editors: Olaide Sadiku, Femi Salau and Chuka Ejorh
Voice Over: Jonathan Hanson
Sound Engineer: Christopher Babs Akerele
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