THE FOUNDATIONS OF NATIVE SOCIETY—THE ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY
The policy of governing Northern Nigeria on native lines—in other words,
of training the natives to govern themselves instead of trying to govern
them ourselves—has the approval of the entire native community except the
criminal classes, who would be the only ones to benefit by a weakening in
the position of the native authorities and in the decay of the etiquette
attaching to their position. It is being pursued in every branch of the
Administration concurrently, with a steadily marked improvement in the
efficiency and purity of the public service.
The native administrative machinery varies slightly in the different
Emirates, and is better organized in some than in others, but a
description of the system as it obtains in the Kano Emirate, which is
a little larger than Belgium and Luxemburg, will serve as a general
indication applicable in its essentials to the others. The executive
consists of the Emir—advised and assisted by the Resident—and his
judicial and executive Council, composed of the Waziri (Vizier, or Chief
of Staff), the Maji (Treasurer), the Alkali (Chief Justice), and five
Mallamai (“teachers,” men versed in the law and in the customs of the
country) of repute. This is the Supreme Court of Appeal. The Emirate
is divided into districts under a district Chief or Headman (Hakima)
responsible to the Executive. Each district is divided into sub-districts
under a sub-district Chief or Headman (Maijimilla) responsible to the
District Headman. Each sub-district is composed of townships or villages
with village-heads (Masugari) responsible to the sub-district Headman.
Kano city itself is under the supervision of the _Maajen-Wuteri_, who
corresponds roughly with our English mayor with twenty town police
(dogarai), picturesque individuals in red and green, and twenty night
watchmen (masugefia) under him. Ninety more police are spread over the
various districts and attached to the District Courts. There are no
British native police whatever. That experiment was tried for a time,
being attended with such conspicuous ill-success and being accompanied
by such an increase in crime that it was wisely abandoned. Nothing could
surely convey a more striking proof of the order reigning throughout the
Emirate and of the law-abiding character of the people, than the fact
of its being policed with ninety men armed with nothing more formidable
than a sword. Think of ninety constables sufficing for Belgium and
Luxemburg or any other area of 13,000 square miles in Western Europe;
or take the population of the Emirate—one and a half millions—and
point to a single comparable proportion of police to population in
Europe. Crimes of violence are extraordinarily scarce, and the Native
Administration, backed by the British “raj,” has now such a hold upon
the country that for a case to be unreported would be hardly possible.
The roads are safe for the solitary traveller—I frequently passed
women alone, or accompanied by a child, sometimes husband, wife and
child, many miles from the capital. I have walked alone save for one
white companion through the deserted streets of Kano city at night.
Kano city is not, however, free from thieves, and seeing that so many
strangers are constantly coming and going it is hardly to be wondered
at. Some two years back night burglaries became unpleasantly frequent.
Native ingenuity hit upon a plan to cope with them. The services of
the professional rat-catchers were enlisted. They were enrolled as
night-watchmen, paid £1 a man, and told they would be fined 2_s._ 6_d._
every time a robbery was committed. Very few fines were inflicted, and
Kano was cleared of its nocturnal undesirables “one time.”
The general standard of probity among the inhabitants of Kano themselves
is, however, shown by the free and easy manner in which merchandise is
left unguarded in the great market, and it appears that lost property is
constantly being handed over to the Alkali, who has the articles called
out by a public crier in the market-place.
The absence of a fixed scale of emoluments for public servants is always
the weak point of native government. Northern Nigeria was no exception to
the rule. The proportion of the taxes actually collected which eventually
found its way into the so-called Public Treasury, was used by the Emir
with small regard to the public interest and with a great deal for his
own. The Alkalis and their assessors, though by no means universally
corrupt, were dependent for their living upon such sources as the fees
(usheri) upon judgment debts and upon the estates of deceased persons
(ujera). To Mr. Charles Temple, now Acting Governor, whose knowledge of
Northern Nigeria and its peoples is unequalled, belongs the credit of
having instituted in the Kano Emirate the Beit-el-Mal or Public Treasury
in the proper sense of the word, which has since been extended, or is
being extended, into all of them. The system follows traditional lines
but vastly improves them. In practice it works out as follows. Half the
total revenue collected goes direct to the Northern Nigeria Government.
Of the remaining half, fifty per cent. is paid into the Beit-el-Mal
to provide salaries for the native officials and to pay for necessary
public works. The balance is divided into fifths on the basis of
two-fifths of each district’s yield to the District Headman; two-fifths
of the sub-district’s yield to the Sub-district Headman; one-fifth of
his own village’s yield to the Village Headman. It will doubtless be
possible, as the system becomes perfected, for each district to have its
own Beit-el-Mal with limited powers, receiving its instructions from
the central Beit-el-Mal, just as the local British Treasuries receive
instructions from the Treasury at Zungeru. This would enable the District
Heads, Sub-district Heads and Village Heads to have fixed salaries like
the Native Executive, a very desirable ideal to aim at.
The Emir draws a fixed sum monthly from the Beit-el-Mal for his private
expenses, which are numerous, and the public expenditure is accounted
for and overlooked by the Resident. The _Waziri_ draws £1000 a year, the
_Maji_ £360, the _Alkali_ £600, the _Limam_ (High Priest) £72. There are
thirteen districts in charge of thirteen local _Alkalis_ drawing £60
a year each. The public works completed out of the Beit-el-Mal funds
during the last year or two include the rebuilding of the Kano market at
a cost of £600, a new jail at a cost of £1000, a new Court House, £250,
besides keeping the thirteen gates of the city in repair, additions to
the mosque, etc. In regard to the latter, it is interesting to note that
the work of adding to the mosque and repairing the minaret, was entirely
carried out by contract labour. The contract was given out by the Emir
and the contractor paid the workmen to the number of over a thousand, a
previously unheard-of event in native annals and an example of one of
the many improvements which the Native Administration is carrying out
under British influence. The Emir has also directed that £1000 shall
be contributed to the National School at Nassarawa, which I shall have
occasion to speak about in a subsequent letter. Legislation for the
purpose of legally constituting the native Beit-el-Mals would seem to be
called for.
[Illustration: CORNER OF A NATIVE MARKET.]
[Illustration: ANOTHER CORNER.]
The administration of justice has been vastly purified by the
inauguration of fixed emoluments. The District Courts and the Supreme
Court administer Koranic law, or customary law, _i.e._ traditional law
based on custom, or Government proclamations. Speaking generally, the
Alkalis are a fine body of men, and they appear to be realizing more
and more the dignity and responsibilities of their position. The chief
Alkali in particular is a man of very high character. The legal code in
criminal and civil matters is, of course, mainly inspired by the sacred
books, and the Alkali is generally a Doctor of Mohammedan common law.
His influence and power appear to be more extensive than that of the
Egyptian _kadi_, since he has jurisdiction in criminal cases and in land
suits, which the latter has not. Of the cases tried in the courts of
the Kano Emirate, about 30 per cent. are matrimonial, such as divorce,
restitution of conjugal rights, alimony, etc. The courts are very hard
worked, dealing with about 7000 to 8000 cases _per annum_, and the
Alkalis fully earn their salaries. I attended the chief Alkali’s court in
Kano city, and was greatly impressed by the general decorum, the respect
shown to the Alkali, the activity of the assessors, the marshalling of
the witnesses, the order, rapidity, and business-like manner in which
the whole proceedings were conducted. It was an example of _native_
self-government in Western Africa which would have astonished a good many
people in Europe. No British court, no alien magistrate, could possibly
deal with these “affairs of the people,” which require a complete mastery
of Koranic law and customary law, such a mastery as only a trained native
can ever acquire, and it is to be hoped that any attempts which may arise
to curtail the jurisdiction of the native courts—accepted by all classes
of natives—will be promptly discouraged, together with similar attempts
to interfere with the present Beit-el-Mal system. From a practical
point of view the maintenance of the Native Administration, guided and
supervised by the Resident, _i.e._ indirect rule, is inseparable from the
financial question. If the Native Administration were not financially
provided for it would cease to exist. If the Emirs and their executives
were converted into mere civil pensioners of the Government, they would
become figure-heads deprived of all power and prestige. Under the system
I have described the Emirs have power, and only hyper-sensitiveness and
short-sightedness can see in their power our weakness. It is, on the
contrary, our strength and defence against the reactionary elements which
exist, and which are bound to exist in a country but newly occupied,
and which are certainly not less hostile to the native authorities, who
pursue their labours under the ægis of the British “raj,” than they are
to the British “raj” itself. Anything that impairs the influence of the
native authorities, not only impairs the efficiency of the Administration
of the country, but is an invitation to lawlessness and disorder.
It is only fair to state in this connection that the initiative of
perpetuating, under British rule and with the modifications required,
the system of land taxation indigenous to the community, was due to
the suggestion of Sir William Wallace, for many years Acting High
Commissioner of Northern Nigeria.