THE BRITISH, THE AMALGAMATION AND… A MARRIAGE!

The amalgamation of Nigeria, a people with over 521 languages
and over 250 dialects and ethnic groups occupying 923,768
square km, to form a unified whole on January 1, 1914 has
caused both joy and sorrow. The celebration of Nigeria’s diverse
culture and tongues is a charade to some and yet welcome for
many others. Whichever the case, it is worthy of note that the
amalgamation of Nigeria did not just happen one day. It was the
outcome of a series of events and the efforts of a few people. In
this post, we highlight just two of those people: Lord Frederick
Lugard and Lady Flora Lugard (nee Shaw).
The journey to colonial rule is well known. After Lagos was seized
in 1851 and became a British colony in 1861, Britain began to
penetrate even deeper into the hinterland for trade expansion and
to gain more political control ahead of rivals France and
Germany. To avoid unnecessary conflict, the Berlin Conference of
1885 succeeded in partitioning Africa among the European
powers and Britain acquired the portion now known as Nigeria.
This was when the Royal Niger Company (RNC), established by
British merchant, George T. Goldie in 1879, came to the scene. It
began as the United African Company, renamed to National
African Company in 1881 and to Royal Niger Company in 1886.
The company received a charter from the British government to
control trade on its behalf in lower valley of the Niger River.
Flora Shaw: The colonial reporter
Meanwhile. Flora Shaw had begun her career in Journalism a year
after the Berlin Conference. She was a writer for the Pall Mall
Gazette and the Manchester Guardian. She gradually rose through
the ranks in the profession and, in 1893, became the colonial
editor of The London Times where she specialized in economic
and political correspondence. The platform gave voice to her
crusade for British Empire.
The same year Flora Shaw became the colonial editor of the
London Times, the Oil Rivers Protectorate was amalgamated to
form the Niger Coast Protectorate. As an expert in British colonial
politics and economic matters for the Times, Flora Shaw travelled
to Nigeria, then ‘Royal Niger Company Territories’ or ‘Central
Sudan, a name given to the territory by Merchants and Diplomats
from Britain, France and Germany. Over time, she gained first-
hand information about the territory.
In an article written on January 8, 1897 for the Times of London,
Flora suggested the name “Nigeria”. The article argued for a
change of name from ‘Royal Niger Company Territories’ to a
name that best describes the people of the British Colony who
live around the ‘Niger Area’.
Frederick Lugard: The Colonial Conqueror
Although Frederick Lugard had been in the picture all along (as
the commander of the West African Frontier Force, WAFF, which
was at the service of the Royal Niger Company), he became more
visible after the dissolution of the Royal Niger Company’s charter
at the end of 1899. The colonial government found him valuable
and made him the first high commissioner of the Protectorate of
Northern Nigeria in 1900 after they united the Northern states to
form one Protectorate.
To prove his dexterity as an expert in colonial matters, Lugard
undertook the military conquest of Sokoto Caliphate, which was
completed in 1903. As high commissioner of the Northern
protectorate, Lugard developed an administrative system called
the “Indirect Rule System”, by which the British ruled colonial
territories through existing local rulers.
A Marriage In Madeira
Just before the conquest of Sokoto Caliphate, Lugard and Flora
Shaw got married in June 1902. The circumstances of their
marriage are sketchy but are quite known. In 1900, Flora Shaw
had suffered depression and a nervous breakdown which was
attributed to her break-up with Sir George Goldie with whom she
had had a long-standing relationship.
A year later, Sir Frederick proposed to her. He had been one of
Goldie’s closest friend and associate (as commander of the
WAFF) and also one of Flora Shaw’s closest friends and
supporters. Indeed, he had been corresponding with Flora for a
few years. After some weeks she agreed to his proposal on
condition that they were to marry “as friends”. She was then
50 years old. They married on the island of Madeira and sailed to
Nigeria where he was the Governor for the Northern Protectorate.
The amalgamation of the Colony of Lagos with the Protectorate
of Southern Nigeria to form the Colony and Protectorate of
Southern Nigeria followed in 1906. Lugard left the country same
year the colony of Lagos and protectorate of Southern Nigeria
was amalgamated, but he returned in 1912 to oversee the
amalgamation of Nigerian protectorates into a single
administrative unit on January 1, 1914. When Frederick became
Governor-General of the united Nigeria, Flora stayed in London
and supported him; lobbying for his causes with the powers-that-
be in London, including Winston Churchill.
Together, they went to China, Japan and Hong Kong where
Frederick was Governor for five years. During their marriage,
Flora wrote what was then regarded as an important book on
African history, A Tropical Dependency . She also helped her
husband to establish the University of Hong Kong. During the
First World War, she was prominent in the founding of the War
Refugees Committee, which dealt with the problem of the Belgian
refugees, and founded the Lady Lugard Hospitality Committee. In
1918, she was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of
the British Empire. Frederick resigned from active colonial affairs
in 1919 highly regarded among his peers as a model British
administrator.
Flora Lugard died of pneumonia on January 25, 1929, aged 76,
in Surrey while Lugard died on 11 April 1945 at the age of 87. In
the last few years of Flora’s life, their marriage had developed
into a true love affair – one which had been shaped against the
backdrop of Nigeria’s amalgamation.