_THROUGH UNKNOWN NIGERIA_
[Illustration]
BOOKS OF TRAVEL
Demy 8vo. Cloth Bindings. All fully Illustrated
LIFE IN AN INDIAN OUTPOST.
BY MAJOR CASSERLY. Fully Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net
ALONE IN WEST AFRICA
BY MARY GAUNT. 15s. net
CHINA REVOLUTIONISED
BY J. S. THOMPSON. 12s. 6d. net
NEW ZEALAND
BY Dr MAX HERZ. 12s. 6d. net
THE DIARY OF A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
BY STANLEY PORTAL HYATT. 12s. 6d. net
OFF THE MAIN TRACK
BY STANLEY PORTAL HYATT. 12s. 6d. net
WITH THE LOST LEGION IN NEW ZEALAND
BY COLONEL G. HAMILTON-BROWNE (“Maori Browne”). 12s. 6d. net
A LOST LEGIONARY IN SOUTH AFRICA
BY COLONEL G. HAMILTON-BROWNE (“Maori Browne”). 12s. 6d.
MY BOHEMIAN DAYS IN PARIS
BY JULIUS M. PRICE. 10s. 6d. net
WITH GUN AND GUIDE IN N.B. COLUMBIA
BY T. MARTINDALE. 10s. 6d. net
SIAM
BY PIERRE LOTI. 7s. 6d. net
[Illustration: A GATEWAY IN THE WALL OF KANO.
The wall, which is made of mud, is 40 feet in thickness, 50 feet high,
and 7 miles in circumference.
_Photo by the Author._]
THROUGH
UNKNOWN NIGERIA
BY
JOHN R. RAPHAEL
LATE TRAVEL EDITOR OF “THE AFRICAN WORLD”
ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
LONDON
T. WERNER LAURIE LTD.
8 ESSEX STREET, STRAND
PREFACE
Nigeria is in process of change, in some places rapid change. Since this
book has been written Southern and Northern Nigeria have been amalgamated
administratively. The two colonies, or protectorates, whichever title be
preferred, are being unified. The public service have been fused. What
were the Lagos Government Railway, the Baro-Kano Railway and the Bauchi
Light Railway recently received the comprehensive designation of Nigerian
Railways. The volume was in too advanced a condition for the alterations
to be made; and perhaps use of the old names will give a better idea of
the efforts to open up the youngest dependency brought under the Crown.
Linking rich Southern Nigeria with her Northern sister provides money
for railway and other development, which is to be pushed on vigorously.
Many of the conditions of the country must necessarily alter. The
locomotive is to whistle through regions where few white men have trod.
Wild areas are to be penetrated by trains. Naturally the character of
the inhabitants will be affected: no doubt many superstitious rites and,
incidentally, cruelty and inhumanity in social customs be dispelled.
Pagans will catch the passing fashions, or an imitation, and clothe, or
at least cover, themselves.
These and other material benedictions are sure to radiate from the
emblems of civilisation. Let us hope we shall not also be the means of
dispensing many of the blessings taken by Europeans to the Coast towns of
West Africa in former centuries and in evidence to-day by the moral and
physical degeneration of adult natives, as well as by children saturated
with hereditary disease.
Contact with aborigines may be a very fine thing for them. Let care be
taken that their second state is not worse than the first. That is likely
to be avoided if the policy followed by Sir George Taubman Goldie and Sir
Frederick Lugard with the Fulani and the Hausa population of Northern
Nigeria be scrupulously continued: that of encouraging and fostering
all which is good in tribal life, repressing only those features which
violate the principles of human existence.
No attempt has been made in the following pages at an historical survey
or at a deep examination of the difficult problems that confront the
administration. There are a number of books in which both subjects are
treated excellently. Recent ones occurring to mind are Lady Lugard’s,
“A Tropical Dependency”; Colonel Mockler-Ferryman’s, “British Nigeria”;
Captain Orr’s, “The Making of Northern Nigeria”; Mr E. D. Morel’s,
“Nigeria: Its People and Problems”; and the several publications of Major
Tremearne.
This volume is no more than impressions taken from a quiver of them
gained in the course of a rather long visit, part of it through country
not well known. Most chapters were written during the journey, either at
the close of a day’s trek or whilst detained at various spots.
My obligations are manifold for the courtesy, kindness and assistance
shown in various quarters. If all to whom I feel indebted were stated
several pages would be required.
I cannot, however, allow the volume to go to Press without again
tendering thanks to my former Editor and present friend, Mr Leo.
Weinthal, of _The African World_, for the opportunity given to carry
out the expedition and for allowing me to incorporate in these pages
matter printed in his paper; Sir Walter Egerton and Sir Hesketh Bell,
ex-Governors respectively of Southern and Northern Nigeria, for the
letters of introduction which proved an open sesame to the good-will of
the high officials administrating each colony; Mr F. Seton James, C.M.G.,
and Mr A. G. Boyle, C.M.G., both of whom in the course of my stay were
in turn Acting Governors of Southern Nigeria; Mr F. W. Waller, Acting
General Manager, Lagos Government Railway; Mr Charles L. Temple, C.M.G.,
Acting Governor of Northern Nigeria; Captain G. C. Kelly, temporarily
in command of the 1st Battalion Northern Nigeria Regiment; Captain C.
F. S. Maclaverty, in charge of the Battery; Mr C. Maclean, Agent of the
Niger Company at Zungeru; Mr E. M. Bland, Deputy Director of Railways,
Northern Nigeria; Mr Joseph E. Trigge, Managing Director of the Niger
Company; the late Mr Walter Watts, its Agent General; Mr Robert Lenthall,
also Agent General of same Company; Mr W. P. Byrd, and Captain J. J.
Brocklebank, D.S.O., of Kano, and also my native friends of that city,
Adamu Ch’Kardi and Suly; Mr F. Beckles Gall, Resident at Naragutu; Mr F.
D. Bourke, Manager of Naragutu Tin Mine; Mr S. E. M. Stobart, Resident
at Bukuru; Mr T. H. Driver, Manager of the Anglo-Continental Mines; Mr
A. C. Francis, Acting Resident at Zaria; Major E. M. Baker, temporarily
in command of the 2nd Battalion Northern Nigeria Regiment; Mr W. H.
Hibbert, of Lokoja; Mr Bertram D. Byfield, Cantonment Magistrate there;
and Mr A. E. Price, of Burutu. Although not strictly within the scope of
this book, I add Mr J. B. McDowell, Managing Director of the British and
Colonial Kinematograph Company, who gave special care and attention to
the apparatus and material which enabled me to bring back unique moving
pictures of people in whose country no instrument of the kind had ever
been taken.
J. R. R.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
OUTWARD BOUND
Call of the Coast—Mal-de-mer—Coasters afloat—From 78° to
90°—The Kru sailor—His civilised degeneration—Laundryman’s
discipline—A dangerous stretch—The skipper—From ship to train 1