V Q,.\ Y I t M · I ’ I\\`. l I dedicate this book to my parents, éhe Rem Hero; B. ian¢;·Gert;t;Z;;€ , - ‘ t`ll in me on...
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V Q,.\ Y I t M · I ’ I\\`. l I dedicate this book to my parents, éhe Rem Hero; B. ian¢;·Gert;t;Z;;€ , - ‘ t`ll in me on un ers an mg o Heinemann James Currey Ltd. David Philip Publishers t _. R MltChell' They have bath ms I 8, . . It . this Cammitmem A division of Reed Elsevier Inc. 73 Botley Road An Imprint of New Africa Books ` ` importance ofthe Sl`T‘ugg‘l€]%1' SOCZ£Il_]uSfZC8. ZS l 1?;61ltHanoti;1erI`SIt';·i)¤§8O1 3912 8xt;réiIgX2d0BS P gf;) Lr;962 _~ J; {0 Social justice that led me to this Slildy ofthe coal mirters cf 0 mm l I m ng Om Cilcsdegrlit 7702 ; Nigeria, Although today their industry ts but a ghost of its past Cape Town, South Africa ’ Y importance to Nigeria, West Africa, and Bfltalll, I hope that this - book commemorates their role in the labor history 0fAfr1ca. Wwwlhemcmmnlcom I ` I ` 'l l dedicate this book to them Ofiices and agents throughout the world Sum may © 2003 by Carolyn A. Brown. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic onrnechanical means, including information gt storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by _~ a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. 5 ISBN 0—325-07007-5 (Heinemann cloth) — j ISBN O-325—O7006-7 (Heinemann paper) · A lf ISBN 0-85255-684-5 (James Currey cloth) , 3 ISBN 0-85255-634»9 (James Currey paper) _` British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available upon request. I Library of Congress Catalugirig-in-Publication Dam ' _ Brown, Carolyn A. 1944- ` , "We were all slaves" :African miners, culture, and resistance at the Enugu government ` ~ colliery / Carolyn A. Brown. ‘ p` p. cm. — (Social history of Africa, ISSN 1099-8098) it . Includes bibliographical references and index. Q ` ISBN 0-325-07007-5 (alk. paper)- ISBN 0—325-07006-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) . 1. Coal miners—Nigeria—Enugu—History. 2. Strikes and . V ; ’ 1ockouts—Miners—Nigeria—Enugu. 3. Coal mines and rnining—Nigeria— ; _ Enugu—I·Iistory. I. Title. H. Series. — _ HD8039.M6152 N63 2003 . 331.7'62234'0966949—dc2l 2001051630 Cover design by Gail Ivaksa . Cover photo: Sculpture of the 1949 Iva Valley Shooting Incident. · Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper _ 0706050403 SB123456789 ' Humboldt-Unixrevrsitat zu Berlin — Universitétsbibliothek Z¤;mi¤hm:;(.4i-ma,
.zV V J Illustrations xi A V ’ Acknowledgments xiii ~ ‘ s African Workers and European Theories: . t. The Enugu Coal Miners and West African Labor History 1 ` PART I: THE CONTESTED BIRTH ; OF THE COLONIAL LABOR PROCESS: LABOR, COAL, AND THE STATE 27 1. Udi District on the Eve of Conquest: Slavery, Power, Q and Resistance, circa 1909 29 I Q 2. "Chiefs," Slaves, Forced Labor, and Rural Resistance: _ ;` Labor and the Contested Birth of the Colonial State, Udi ` I 1909-1915 56 1 _ 3. Creating the Colonial Workplace and the Colonial City: i j Enugu and the Coal Fields during World War I 93 4 3 4. The Postwar Conjuncture: Agitation, Urbanization, and the Emergence of a Culture of Protest, 1920-1929 139 PART II: THE ECLIPSE OF COLONIAL PRODUCTION I T y RELATIONS: WORKERS’ VICTORIES AND DEFEAT 4 177 A i 5. The Colliery on the Eve of War: State Intervention » i in the Home and the Workplace , 179
x Contents \ ;` 6. The Politics of "Productivity": Unions, the War, and Changes , i in the Political Apparatus of the Mines, 1940-1945 225 . , 7. The Iva Valley Massacre of 1949: Trade Union Struggles i V in the Cold War 282 V Conclusion: Work, Class, and Identity in Igbolaud 327 ' Bibliography 331 yi Index ` 351 G { 1 ie ILLUSTRATIONS * . MAPS ` 2.1. Udi District, circa 1917 64 ” . 3.1. Enugu. 1917 103 ` 1 PHOTOGRAPHS j Q 2.1. Chief Chukwuani, Nwangwu 1928 73 2.2. Chief Onyeama Onwusi 74 Y ét 2.3. Chief Or1yeama’s Palace, built in 1914, 1977 75 · 2.4. Ameke Railway construction, circa 1914 77 i ·J’ 2.5. Chief Eihukumere of Uzuakoli with railway workers, circa 1914 79 : 3.1. Workers digging first boreholes, circa 1913 96 ` Q 3.2. Early coal miner in his village 97 `~ 3.3. Udi military outpost, circa 1913 101 3.4. Mining conscripts in Udi 102 ~ i 3.5. Construction of railway to the Udi Mine, circa 1915 108 ~ 1* 3.6. Port Harcourt—A1·rival of first coal train alongside the S.S. Sir Hugh 109 ` ` 3.7. Boys with baskets of coal 112 3.8. Hewers with leg wraps 117 ‘ YQ 3.9. Proud miners at mine entrance 120 i Q 3.10. European underground manager and tubmen . 123 Y ih 3.11, Young men with head baskets at mine entrance 124 V . ~ 3.12. Miners with tallies around their necks 125 ` 3.13. Udi Colliery Adit, coal stacked at the mine entrance 126 Q 6.1. Entrance to Ugwu Alfred, July 1975 235 ij:. 6.2. Ugwu Alfred: Charles Ugoji, Gabriel Mbalemlu, ifi Michael Nwakuache, and Clement Egbogi.mba, 5 July 1975 236 i 6.3. Garden City Housing Estate 253
Xl 4 I Illustrations 6.4. William Leck and unidentified prominent African men 255 ii; 6.5. Isaiah Ojiyi, Amawbia, July 1975 255 ~ °. DIAGRAMS AND TABLES · Figure 3.1 Pillar and Stall Minin Dia l = Table 4.1 Chief Recruiting Feeslig192§mm g Table 42 Output per worker, 1923/24-1929/30 in cwr 162 I . Table 5.1 Colliery Accounts, 1915-1937 200 . if Tam 52 °“9“*99*M9¤-Sue 1928-1940 20] 2 .Z ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Table 6.1 Sales of Coal to African Colonies, 1944/45-1945/46 256 . `. Table 6.2 Hewers as Percentage of Underground Workforce 258 . Table 6.3 Wages of Hewers and Tubmen Based on Long Award, 1945 263 · il i Table 6.4 Number of Workers, 1938-1948 (Annual Average) 265 i l Table 6.5 Accident Rates, 1943-1946 266 I Table 6.6 Classiiication of Causes of Injury, 1944 267 I _ I have had the suppo1·t—both moral and material-—of many individuals and instiTable 6.7 Total Colliery Output, 1916-1951 269 ` tutions throughout the years during which I researched this book. First, I would Table 7.1 List of Dead Miners, Towns and Occupations, < like to mention how I came to study this coal mine. In the early seventies I became · November 1949, Iva Valley Shooting 312 2. 2 interested in labor history and was particularly fascinated by miners. However, be` ’ cause of apartheid and being anAfrican—Ameiican, I was unable to study the most GRAPHS ~ 2 important mines in Africa’s political economy—the gold mines of South Africa. I ~ wrote to a friend, Walter Rodney, about my interest and he suggested that I read Graph 6·1 H€W°YS in Relation to Other Categories of Workers 259 ' li Emile Zola’s Germimzl, to get a sense of the material conditions of coal mining Graph 6-2 Percentages of Workers by Category · 2 60 ' Y and mentioned that no one had worked on the Enugu coal mines in southeastern Graph 63 O“tP'-It PSY Man Shift, 1945-1951 260 T Nigeria. Walter’s death was a devastating personal loss at a time when the CaribGraph 6-4 Total Output of Coal in 100,000 Tong` 19404948 261 bean movement was at its peak and many times his presence is still felt in the curGmPh 65 PIOduCtivity Charted Against Wage Awards 262 rent debates about slavery and the slave trade, concems over which his shadow still towers. It was Walter who mentioned the shooting of demonstrating coal minN ers in November 1949, a date which many call the "birth date" of Nigerian naV tionalism. This incident, the Iva Valley Shooting and concluding chapter of this 9 book, was a constant presence in all my interviews in Enugu. VV The field work for this project was conducted after the Nigerian Civil War in which many documents, both held personally and in the archives, were destroyed. °’· However, these were available to both David Smock and Agwu Akpala, two scholars who had done the bulk of their research before the War and both generously ‘ ,· shared their notes and personal documents with me. Dr. Akpala was an important source of referrals for people to meet in Nigeria and was extremely helpful in ex; plaining the technicalities of mining as well as the complex system of industrial · I ` relations in force for the latter part of the industry’s history. _ py The coal industry’s history is very interwoven with that of the town of Enugu · and the immediate environs. For that reason it was quite easy to locate excellent fu ~ informants and, in many cases, to speak with the very people discussed in the vol@¤ ` umes of documents found in the Public Records Office, Kew Gardens. This al" lowed me to have more than one perspective on a specific event. There are so many,
Ac/vwwledgmenrs I Acknowledgments xv many people in Ni eria u on · - . ` Q phases of this Pmjit thatgt is {EXE $5:*; 1;* WRYIGUB through the various " 3_ Documents on the colliery were scattered through a number of record groups in sistants, Matthew Nwabucze and Charles Ugdi gC:th° im? specrfic names. My as- h' L the Public Reeords Office and among other archives in England. For the British a slfategy for identifying ihfuhmmh We Wang Ud_;_AkPakW“m°· Udl. devised ~ V Trades Union Congress records, I would like to thank the Modern Records Project when P€¤sl0¤¢fS were paid, They [heh hckkcd im I hiding Paymastcr 0** I-he day e ~ of Warwick University, Coventry. The staff of the Colonial Records Project, Rhodes pointmentS_ {conducted a series of Opcmended _ t 0 _ 6 Villages to schedule ap. House, Oxford University, Royal Commonwealth Society, British Library of l’0— out the image Of these Proud Working mm from til °fV¤sWs that helped me to nosh h , linear and Eeonomic Science, London School of Economics all helped me use perRaphael Ani, Genera] Manager of the Nigcdan C°;?Ig"S€m¤€{0HS IH the archives, V _ Sonet Papers, {-lelrl notes, letters, and other memorabilia of various colonial Civil Views and accommodations ucar the Compu 7s; dmpcmuonl Zifallged inter- V E servants and officials, Because the industry was a parastal, I often f0l1Dd ¥·ll€S€ I Wish to thank the many coal miners and Otger C eg quarters and T-he archives, ‘; Z records full of anecdotal references to the colliery. mt? to interview them and Sham than persona] wc Od wry Persolmel Wl`10 allowed Y The project was generously supported by a number of research grants. IH its lulcult arrangements to meet with me on my Vmo gh S' Ma·I}Y of them made diffi- is v tial stages, the research was supported by the now defunct Ford Foundation Pr0had lest their documents and Personal mememgs vslfrts F0 Nlgena. Although many , ~ gmt-rr for African Americans Conducting Fieldwork in Africa and the Middle East. the many hours that they spent speaking with H; SH P°l”s0¤al recollections and · li This prggrmn, which supported a generation ofAfrican-AmericanAf1‘ica11iSt scholth1S_"a°u¤m· My most useful jhfohhams were the .adi0Y§d me t° comlmnsats fOr I 1 ars and activists, enabled me to divide a year between England and Nigeria. This the 1ndus¤·y’s militant reputation and mmsfom dm _"‘ mh Wsflfefs who created 2 ig was my nrst trip to Africa and without it I could not have supported held workin slid the "rnodem_” both the City of Enugu and th; ziwuh their Vlsloll of the future I Africa, I also had several research grants from the City University of New Y01'k their spirit I Went d°¤P into the mines Watch€d;hgaC§:[c0unUys1d€‘To °aPmT¤ ,. 3 Research Foundation and a post-doctoral fellowship from the American Council m‘?a·“°r· and V€¤¤11’ed into their- homes the Vina V: bay Worked md their d€— _ of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. These grants al¤f Enugu. These were meh like Samuel Anckc of a 0* °a{*"PS» and Other areas t { lcwed me to reiine my understanding of the way the colliery impacted upon a form Wll0 Was among tl-re fh-st meh to Work in the mine Ilglaglb Udb my llfst interview, I `_ of indigenous slavery in the early decades of the century, an important component epidemic helped me to dam his age and his de; _ S_m€m0i`1€s Ofthe "Fluenza" W _ of the soeia] history of the industry’s regional role. I also held 8 two—year l°f€Sl· moved me to attempt to characterize the honor CEIPEOU Of the British invasion s { dentiel Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of California, during Whichl “°°1°“i*’] ¤¤¤Sf¤nnaticn.” Others, Ijke peter andOA;v at We hlsmmms d'YlY call j was based at the University of California Berkeley. The Stanford—U1·liversity of and wife who was a leader of the Womerhs dem *C°'Af€m¤f11na, a coal miner ig California Joint Program on African Studies provided an excellent context for the scribed the events that led up to the 1949 Crisis °;Smm0¤ at the coal mines, de. _” resting gf interpretations and Michael Watts, Richard Roberts, and PearlA1i1¤¤¤e the limi interviews i¤ Iva ian Railway and the Udi Coamcldsl These mah s hastern Branch ofthe Niger. ~ ;_ Valley Camp, one ofthe earliest coal labor camps. the °aI1Y mines and I have tried to use them hberillfuty nlmmmjng Ph°t?gmPhs of I T7 I would like to thank Marcia Wright, who has been with me during the years human dimension. I have taken these Pictures to thy}? gw? this nlmmve a m0fe I hi that this project has evolved. She encouraged me during the confusing days when, E"“g“= Where they can be available to other mscarchc agmm a¤°'m Archives, Q fresh home from the iield, I was totally overwhelmed with the material and had U.0.A. Esse, djyggtor of these archives and his sigh “’°“ld_l1k€ to thank Chief _ Q_ not s clue what to make of it. Marcia diligently read my various drafts, made condocuments on the last phase of this Pmjéct Mr ESS . or zllcmmé me tc fT_hlSt°1'gg as as Eciauy in mei; for survival. Until her study, few Africanist historians recognized an “Afi·[g;;m work p; ty , has prohrcd greatly from the contributions of fennéust stir fdgn il: Similarly cup e¤lt¤re" With its system of values attached to certain types of work, a moral ecorr. problgmatizing masculinity as a subieet of snstfnne erm; F with an Othmjthan omy of authority, and adaptation of rural forms or consultation to organize protest; _ , tural Studigg have also encouragedlrne to examine the yr 1; 5 challenged labor This led me to investigate the connections between pre-industrial work systems Z coopomistic “leris,” Together, feminist end cultural Stllay es _nY1crcm in the proleand power hierarchies and the ways that Enugu workers experienced the capital- j historians to move from a crudely teleelegical matcm ftnctivmcs that are an €S_ ist Workplace. From this perspective it was then possible to appreciate the cor-rr. mriarrizatiori theory and forcedscholars to engage ttlilstgcfl plicated power relations that ensnarled workers in a labyrinth of old (rural) and r {,` sential element of the “W°tk“ S cxlstcnce as a Som g'
i 10 "VW Were All Slaves " ` Apimpt Wm-kgrr and European Theories U Of all the eoonomistic explanations of worker activism the proletarianization T played the i-ole gf "independent and patriarchal proprietors over nltal household tl1oSiS has proven especially inadequate for this study, because Eriugu’s wor-kers’ pt·odnotion_"26 It was in this context of near seamless articulation of 1H€lt1St¤¤l and milita-noe did not arise after their alienation from the land-—this never, in fact, hep- , { ng,-lonltntnl pi-odnotion that workers drew upon indigenous social forms to 1’€¤t€ peue British hegemony the early years · V, terests_ Colonial society and workplaces were fraught with problems but the metinnucnual uéwardl mobif; 2md0Y$» ti IU UYS, A and i Hill boys of tlleplt were J 21 ropolitan state claimed to have the capacity to “dellneate Bud b0l11'1d the P1'0bl€1Tl formed Wérkcry OIY mzmgns Grieg get? n;en in their rural communities, They 4 I area and show that it knew how to set rtnght.‘"*2Abattery of intellectuals and labor adaptation of the mgm im OV 21 et ZM -0 fummya that became an industrial p , specialists was deployed throughout Brita.1n’s colomes to conduct social surveys, elite to govern the mnsmogft engen hissticlatlons, lVzuk0, formed by the Ari-rcan l` to collect statistical data on costs of living, and to delineate "legal” areas of ConSocim d V P our an er tithe colhery thesehwere mutual aid as- K 5 llict and spaces for legitimate contestation. They ignored African forms of knowlons an negotiating bodies for the miners. In these myriad ways the miners t edge and were loath to develop a meaningful understanding of the complexities of gatéiglguuxvnhdedmupn to the category "worker." U _ · l { An-icnn life and the nuances of labor mobilization. They insisted that only British Cade when th; Czgglg P Llvgiiiggzlge f7l`§0l—‘l[(§2;1-Tltilllstila-l mlllell or the post-war de- ‘ 5 institutions of worker representation and disputes management Were “H’l0deI'1'l” 31'ld . uary *1919 and late 19;}; It EX lows Sgu;11 ls; Sptltesjslx Strikes between Jan- ~ t‘useful" and forced mine workers to abandon the Nruku and use trade unions and Conmcdng processes The “l;l-B led b es emselveswluch were a product of many ` i` Joint consultative bodies, lvloreover, these "experts" introduced a shared discourse men from more distagt ang Bain (nc- Hgegpectable artisans and clerical workers, 1 t through which all interactions between labor and capital were to be expressed. This Empire Many were West Indiangfsh 1V1 Ie areas ofN1gena and the West African j t discourse arose from European models of industrial relations and the welfare state. Nigm;7 who saw themselves as J h 1§1g1'&d’?0He¤IlS, as well as Yoruba from Western ~ . Thus the struggles of colonial industrial workers were plunged into a context of manumss For them Wa cs were 01V_ g? men, and accepted a Victorian notion of A`, foreign procedures and institutions which these workers could not understandlln of meaning and Status B8 This ti an [11111 spenifgile component of their construction I defense, the workers sought out leaders who could decipherthe maze ot legal inhabimms encoma in · agmbm 111¢an;:1ty’c nugu had grown to over 10,000 ine ; _ gtruments and mandatory procedmes and employ the new discourse of industrial nuanced}; th _ if-g l U"; Qfs a1T1011g g0Ve‘1'rtment clerks that was in- J resolution, The colliery workers found such a man 1n Isaiah Ojlyl, a secondary y eir se perception as loyal employees of an imperial power they had _ " school teacher with radical nationalist sympathies, only to have him reviled by the supported durmg the Great WM. This perception, of themselves as "subjects" of a t state as a manipulative demHg0gL\€· 3;;1;11§itl;>lWer, fuetlled thetr protests which converged with the wave of postwar Chapters 5 and,5 center on two major themes: (l) the changing nature of colomscim gidufesl flgesouated among the white civil servants-in Nigeria, The , { nial labor policy forced by worker activism to accept responsibility for the reproEal Work;-1; E) SOE eglc I ;tr1keS Shaped a culture of protest which iniroducedlmari- t T tinction of the colonial working class and (2) the state’s simultaneous attempt to Professional lm; W;t;?Si0‘:?t10¤ii;fd1S1ieut, Thus colhery l\/zuko commissioned ` __ introduce more efficient systems of managerial control to regulate production and less habimated mmbbased wor; De 5:315 ailarticulated their demands, while the _ _ exert control over the social lives or miners in the villages and labor camps. The decade the Suphisdcation of this figl t iwt eu labor through desertion.ABy mid- `· Nigerian state embarked upon aipohcy of labor force stabihzation which pushed Ordmatgd their smkc with a SHOE Ofes gl? l7u;?(;’V8S suggested when the miners co- g management into the workplace in ways that reduced hewers’ autonomy, while the Strike of 1926 In 19224 9; the P6 Q0 emand during the English General 1 workers pushed ever more articulately to enhance and preserve the hyes that they harmed through a S Stem of Slévc 1"f!P$;011SS101'lS ot the Hee market in labor rever- I V ,> theniselves had created, Management-sanctioned forms of representation werellrlforced to W k _ it _ TY 1H e countryside and slaves, locally called Ohn, p posed with limited success in reducing activism because the leadership was seized or ·m e mines, became unwilling to remam subordmate men. Their by the old Nzuko leaders who now had more legitimacy through association with protest destabilized rural government in one of the adjacent areas and indicated how QV state-approved fomms of worker representation. Calilytslj labor Systems could erode pre—e>tisting structures of labor mobilization and I Chapter 7 describes the events leading to the Iva Valley Massacre of November Sghgg buitzil; ;:;;fe¢t¤— Status as Nfr ” E €¤¢1`¤10n IHYO 'free laborers and insistent that their t t tions and the labor reforms introduced by a confident, yet arrogantly unaware, Coloee men e recognized within the idiom of their commumty. ~ nial Office. The primary task of the chapter is to expand the customary treatment
i V " ” ` ( iv p _' "Wg Were All Slavgy `V African Workers and European Theories I9 ~ ,»~*Y~j?w ith — · 3 beyond the interpretations ofthe official report, the Fitzgerald Com- , to the colonies."" The Joint consultation meetings.- trade umons, labor d1sputc lcg, Report. Both the C0mmission’s hearings in December 1949 and the re- i islation, and compulsory arbitration failed to survive the deep antagomsms of late ., ,.;~== ' ltlclf require more penetrating analysis than can be accommodated in this V _ colonial society. These included the clash between p0St—Wa.t workers frustrated ex— monograph of the miners’ entire history. However, I have used both to push the ` ~y pectntions, resentful white bosses resisting the dismantling of the colomal labor i `'i’ narrative beyond the Commission’s analysis, most especially to challenge its ° i, pi-ocess and the shifting political landscape. Metropolitan colomal archuects were j scathing critique of trade union leadership at the colliery and in the national union T also insufficiently aware of local industrial conditions, and the "men onthe spot p movement. Disturbingly, with few exceptions the "of§cial story" has entered the . j who viewed all labor reforms with suspicion. Moreover, 0fficia1s’ persistent un-` ` orthodoxy of the independence narrative. ' . derestimation of the consciousness, tenacity, and sophistication of African workInterestingly, the charge to the Commission refuted the Colonial Office’s _ ers led them to see most workers as naive dupes easily manipulated by demagogic bounded concepts of "political" and "industria1" conflict. It was charged to exam- , Q _ labor leaders more interested in politics than in industrial improvements. Tgey were ` ine the question at hand--the colliery’s turbulent history andthe immediate causes ‘ quite unprepared when the miners organized their own strike without e umon ` of the strike. But it was also instructed to rove freely and examine the state of the Q leadership. l , national trade union movement as well as evaluate the proposals for political re- I P Additionally, both the colliery management and state officials resented the state s form as put forth by the Nigerian government. Again, the rniners’ struggle was sub- V i. reform efforts which they saw as unwarranted concessions to an irresponsible nasumed under a national critique. 4· Y tionalist and trade union movernent."$ The state’s decision to use violence in NoIn examining this tragedy I have taken another avenue of investigation which vember 1949 represented local political off1cials’ opposition to the application of , includes both oral and documentary resources. However, continuing security re- 2 disputes management principles in the colonies and their emphasis. on the politiStdctions over the archive deprived me of access to a crucial trove of materials, . ; cal implications of this industrial action. In many respects this decision was an mcurrently in the Foreign and _Commonwealth Ofiice, that are still not declassified 5 Z validation of a conventional fiction—that there was a distinct difference between despite the expiration of time restrictions. These included the Commissioners’ ; an economic and a political dispute in the colonies. — notes, material submitted as evidence, and other memorabilia. Speciiically, this en- t `. The labor reforms created sharp tensions in the industry between labor and mancumbered my attempt to verify allegations made in testimony asserting the trade Q agement. Similarly, state legislal-l0¤ enforong b¤r¤¤9¤r¤¤¤ SYSEQHS Of dlipdlites union 0rga.niz.er’s role in misleading the miners to strike. However, I was able to . management entangled the union leaders in consultations that un ermine err 1156 3H0£hSf series of Colonial Office tiles which detail decisions about the post- ` standing with their workers. This encouraged the miners, the m0St mllltallt-S€Gt0l' shooting disposition of the colliery manager, the police officer in charge, and the , of the workforce, to break away from the trade union and act to secure their fate. trade union leader, Ojiyi. These proved quite valuable. Secondly, I used the testi- Q 'J lt was left to a single, nervous pol1cen·ian——who approved the barrage of bullets mony published in the Commission proceedings. In many ways they read as “the— _ that m6lTyf¢d The W0fkeTS—Y° ignite this eembusuble mlxtum atre" on whose stage played all the major actors in the industrial and political , ii narrative of the industry and the birth of the independent Nigerian nation. These I " . . . . . . . t SOURCES hearings also reproduced the same antagonrsms between imperial officials and . 3 I _ African subjects that had brought the industry to the brink in 1949. I found con- I l The collection of evidence for this study was-both challenging rewarding. siderable divergences between the characterization of events and individual re- The destruction of S01’€S of P¢1’S0¤¤l PaPe1’$ dfmng the Nlgemm CW11 Wm fomcd sponsibilities as detailed in the Report and the testimonies of witnesses as in the · { mc to collect ff3gm¢1'¤tS of material from e Wide range ef s°“I°eS· This was P"` hearings. A final source was oral evidence collected from eyewitnesses of the shoot- , tially ¢0mp€¤S¤f¤d by the ge¤ef0S1tY ef David Sm¤¤k· Ham and Aswu Ak' ing. In this respect, my interviews have only scratched the surface. On each re- · l pala. Who shared ¥1h€i1'1'€Se¤-Teh notes and documents Whml; “ier€ cgndlsstcd bcfgm search trip I found additional informants who added new material and insights into t { the war. However, many record groups were permanent y ost. or e opening the event and often reveal new problems and inconsistencies. However, a thorough 3Q years—the early twentieth century—both written and oral sources proved probanalysis of these inconsistencies must await further study. ' _ lematic, Although the study begins in the not too distant past—the earlyiitwenueth The Iva Valley sit-in strike, like many others during this period, was unwittingly fg. century—there is little written documentation of the early years. Few uropeans sparked by the social reforms promulgated by the imperial state at home and in the , and literate Africans entered the area before the relatively latedco1·§1};1est,lm colonies during and after World War H. While introduced to discourage disruptive s 1909-1912. Moreover, the few available documentary s0urces—pro uce y co oWork actions and to prevent social problems £rom feeding political radicalism they 4 nial missionaries, state ofticials, and military commandersjiilteredthc complex had the opposite effect.‘“ Industrially the reforms reflected the emergence of in- L and evolving reality of Igbo society through the- static raciahzed VISIOH of H 0011dustrial relations as a "scientihc” field in the United Kingdom and its application I quemi as articulated in a discourse of the "c1vi11zmg mission. Thus these docu-
‘ 20 "We Were All siavay ` `: /\h·ic:zn Workers and European Theories 21 R ments give only a dim glimpse ofthe concerns of this part ofthe study; indigenous V . proud memories of modern trade unions. Despite probing questions they insisted ` labor systems and their transformation by the conquest, rural social relations of E; ‘ that they only had unions. This may have reflected their assessment that imions [ production, and men’s status and generational conilicts. ‘ I were "modem" organizations and their concem to present themselves to me, a forQ The earliest missionary records from the Enugu area were a 1913-1914 series 3 eigner, in the most progressive light. of Chufeh Missionary Society minutes of exploratory trips by missionaries to cnn. i A second limitation of oral sources is that they were still laced with the deep sider the opening of mission stations and the mines and several diaries of techni- ~ conflicts among various groups of workers, between "1ocal" and "foreign" African Cialis W01’k-ing 011 railway construction or on the opening of the mines. Both spoke _ 2 workers, and between loyal union members and dissenters. Some of these diviGnly Obliquely about the workers, There was some anecdotal material from the sions come from the “politics of production" and reflect conflicts arising from insmall group of westemized, literate Africans clustered around certain nodes of Eu- { scribed inequalities that were structured by the labor process. Still others reflect ropean contact-Lagos in the west and Calabar and Port Harcourt in the squtheagh V `, the complex transitions of labor systems as for example, the tensions between slave, This evidentiary difficulty, which can only partially be compensated for through ~ ‘ Ohu men, and freeborn, Amadi, conscripted in the iirst labor force, The issue of Oral history, was an unavoidable difficulty in the first two chapters of the hoo].; In slave descent is still of considerable importance today in the Enugu area and tensorne cases I have had to extrapolate from the accounts of travelers, missionaries, T ll sions arise over the selection of chiefs, admission into male societies, and marand political oflicials from l9l4 to outline some possible scenarios of the periods ` ` riagc. As in most communities where affiliation is structured along lineage and before the conquest. V kinship lines, it is generally known which families were descended from slaves Oral sources have proven somewhat more useful in capturing some of the im. and which from freebom. Moreover, in the 1920s Ohu turned their exclusion into # portant transformations that occurred after the conquesh At the time gf my first { , tt basis for solidarity and secured state support to establish several autonomous vilfield W01'k in Nigeria, in 1975, informants on the inaugural years of the industry 4 i lages and to change their name to Awbiu. Thus today, most if not all people in cerwere not difficult to locate. For most of the period of the study the industry re- E tain villages or in designated wards of freebom villages are known as Awbia."‘ 01'¤it€d its manual Workers from within a fifteen—mile radius and artisans and clerks · These contemporary antagonisms are expressed in interviews. The accounts of from either two core areas in central (the town of Owerri) or riverian (Onitsha on Y Freeborn retlect persistent prejudices towards descendents of slaves and interviews the Niger River) Igboland. The pool of local informants was large and qualitatively _ T. with slave descendants, which required special sensitivities, assumed a defensive diverse since few local men managed to become socially mature males or prcmi- V f- posture.47 Nonetheless, I was able to use these perspectives to capture the resilience nent without episodes of colliery work—whether to raise biide wealth to take a t of pre-colonial status divisions that suggest the depth of the impact of the Atlantic wife, to earn extra cash to bury a parent, sibling, or spouse, or to pay membership it slave trade. fees in prestigious male organizations. Virtually all the men in the adjacent viiiages _ r. Archival holdings reflect a wealth of documentary material for the period, mostly wove waged colliery work into their individual economic strategies. Mining was ` i YT0m th€ P0St·1935 P¤1`i0d. which ¤Yi$€ f1'0T¤ The i¤d¤S¤'Y’S Status BS 3 Pamstal and such a Central part of the economy of this area that it became a defining element ` the involvement of various multiple layers of state bureaucrats in its concerns. The in the regional identity of its inhabitants. It is with considerable pride that retired official records of the colliery itself as well as the reports of the provincial resiworkers speak of their role in an industry with such illustrious credentials in Niger. jj dents, district officers, and urban authorities are in the Nigerian Archives, Enugu. ian political history. It is still possible to visit adjacent villages and easily identify Quite by luck I was able to locate a stack of Hles containing a series of monthly articulate men, many of whom were mentioned in government records, who are 1*1 manager’s reports in the Nigerian Ministry of Labor archives in Yaba, Lagos. At anxious to give their accounts of the labor history. I the time of my visit, these records were not catalogued but stacked on industrial However, enthusiastic informants were often unable to remember important ma- shelves in a large abandoned warehouse. These began in the early 1930s and deterial from the more remote period. For example, I was especially interested in the V tailed weekly output, surveys of labor, accident rates, etc. I also found amongst the forms of workers’ organizations that predated trade unions, the Nzuka Himanya, Colonial Records Project of Rhodes House, Oxford University, diaries of district and through which workers shaped and articulated grievances, organized work ac. »· officers and less prominent colonial officials as well as such notables as Major tions, and negotiated with management. This was an important concern because it f Granville St. George Orde Brown, the Colonial Office’s tirst labor advisor, and gave important insights into indigenous work cultures and their adaptability to the Q Arthur Creech I ones, Labour Party leader. The British Trades Union Congress industrial setting. Moreover, it indicated that these men were not just peasants r j * archives at the Modern Records Project at Warwick University, Coventry, gave im“tempora1‘ily” engaged in wage labor (i.e., a semi-proletarianized peasantry) and ‘ portant insight into the policies of the Congress towards the African labor moveunable or uninterested in creating viable organizations to structure grievances and » { ment and documented the experiences of the bevy of labor advisors who worked protests. Most informants’ recollections of early organizations elided with their V, Vjjé through the colonial service in fostering "responsible" trade unions.
gg ··We were Ag gjavgsn ` is African Workers and European Theories 23 Materia] on the colhgry was found in a numbgr gf yccgrd groups in the public j ` velop their communities. lt is the intent of this study to use these memories to inRecords omce, Kew Gardens. In addition to me emciai mes ofthe Nigerian gov- , scribe these men in the i¤d¤s¤ia-1 histary of Africa ernment, the series C.O. 508, there were wartime records of the Colonial Labor Advisory Committee and other coordinating bodies, such as the Social Services { _ division within the Colonial Office. These were all useful as they indicated the of- ii NOTES Hcial anxicty that Surrounded many Every incident °f Worker Protest This- in mm= . l. For a discussion of the wave of post-war general strikes see Timothy Oberst, "Cost ¤¤°°“mS¤d mc *0 determirw the W¤fk¤fS’ ¤¤d¢fS*¤¤di¤g ¤1° this imperial ¢¤¢er¤· . ·* ‘ of Living and stakes in British Africa, C. 1939-1948: Imperial Policy and me impact ofthe Both helped me to understand that this industry, although small in comparison with , T Second World War" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1991). the mining complex in central and southern Africa, was quite pivotal both in re- . 2. See Agwu Akpala, "Background to the Enugu Collieiy Shooting Incident in l949," Spect to its role as the region’s strategic fuel resource as well as a laboratory for 1 j Journal ofthe Historical Society efNigeria 3, 2 (1965): 335-64; and S.O. Jaja, "The Enugu British social policies affiliated with the welfare state and industrial patemalism. Q .. C0lli¤¥Y Mamcfe in R€¤°5P€°[¤ An EPiS°d€ i¤ British Admi¤iS¤'¤*i°¤ °f Nis¢¤ Ufsfmdf Sfudigs in Igbv Hisfvfy and Cullum (Lagos, 1981) S0Ci0_pO]itiCal change and Economic u.ansf0H.nadOn_ These processes were fm. {mm { ri 12, Ibid., 4; Herbert M. Cole and Chike C, Aniakor, Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos _ peaceful, as development seldom is. Old political mores were being challenged by ` ~ (LDS A"ge1°S’ 1984)* l" * the realities of an insecure present. Adjustments in political structures and gov- 1 Sole xd Amakm-’ [gb') l' 1 th _ eming processes were being made to satisfy the insatiable needs of a mercantile ·' f ` S Wil mnxsfeeazhgbo culfm-e’ gr? ls ml agreement °u,the exam pammcms elite rooted in both the past··and present export economy of the region. These new r` ° ummwm n Cen S lm g (ZW . csc dc mmm is used ab°Ye’ is Uchendu who Says _ _ _ _ _ V V (hm. the ummunu is a Hurd term that in its smallest sense means children of the same father °mcS· Whcsc legitimacy was far from €m"€nch€d· Wém especially recfzptlve to col' ` " but different mothers; in its widest referent is the patrilineal members, real or putative, whom l¥ib0f&U0\’1 with the l'l€W ¤0l0i118l I'¤l€1‘S 35 PKFUIEYS IH the system of indirect Yule- r F one cannot marry.“ Victor Uchendu, The lgbo of Southeast Nigeria (New York, 1965), Many would become the tirst generation of "col0nial chiefs" whose services would I » 39-40, ` ~ be indispensable for the recruitment and control of the coal industry’s workers, V Q 15. A.E. Afrgbo, "Southeastem Nigeria in the 19th Century," in History of Wesretjrica, Their involvement would introduce all these issues concerning masculinity and ~ gg VOL 2, Zd ed., ed. J.F.A. Ajayi and M. Crowder (New York, 1974), 535-36, stratilication into the mines. L t 16* Ibid` 17. Aniakor, "Igbo Life, World View and Cosmology," Genéve Afrique 21, 1 (1988). 100. F ’ 18. Forde and Jones, Ibibia-Speaking People, 24-26. » ,, 19. Uchendu, The Igba 0fS0uzhcasr Nigeria, 96. ‘ 20. This analysis is an interpretation of Horton’s conclusions about the foundations of ` uulidarity in slave villages in the Nike clan area of northern Nkanu. W.G.R. Horton, "God, NOTES E Man and the Land in a Northem 1'bo Village Group," Africa 26 (January 1956): 23-25. 21. Phillip A. Oguagha and Alex I. lkpoko, History and Ethncarchaeology in Eastern 1. Interview with Thomas Noisike, Agbaja, Udi Division, Enugu, 7 June 1975. _ 1·Nlgeriu: A Study oflgba-lgalzz Relations with Special Reference ra rhs Anambra Valley, 2, David Eltis, Stephen D. Behrendt, David Richardson, Herbert S. Klein, eds. The Y ;, [Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 7 (Oxford, 1984), 239-40. Trans-Arlanric Slave Trade: A Database an CD-Rom (Cambridge, 1999). J f 22. A village-group is a cluster of villages that claim to have been founded by the de3. Frederick Cooper, "Work, Class, and Empire," 236. _ _: sccndants of a common ancestor. Therefore the village-group of Ngwo, for example, will 4. Keletso Atkins, The Munn Is Dead! Give Us Our Moneyf, 6. ‘_ V bc composed of several villages, each with a legend of origin attributed to a son or daugh5. This debate is summarized in several of the essays in A.E. Atigbo’s Graundwurk in ; _` ter of the founder of Ngwo. ' [gba History (Lagos, 1992). o 23. David Smock, Conjlicz and Control in anAfrican Trade Unian:A Szudy afrhe Niger6. There is a rather extensive literature of slave ship captains’ correspondence as well Q Q'- lan Cnal Miners’ Union (Stanford, 1969), 18-19. as missionary accounts. For a recent interpretation of these sources and a new analysis of t 24. NAE, "Intelligence Report for Agbani—Akpugo," 1935, 4. the Huancial infrastructure of European-African trade relations see Paul E. Lovejoy and I {V 25. Robin Horton, “The Ohu System of Slavery in a Northern Igboland Village-G·roup," V David Richardson, "Trust, Pawnship and Atlantic History: The Institutional Foundations of / _` Africa 24 (1954): 311-36. the Old Calabar Slave Trade," American Historical Review, 104 (2 April 1999): 333-55. 26. The latter, the first colliery workers, hailed from Owerri in centrall boland or Onit— 7. Several of the major ethnographic studies were based on research conducted in the · " `IllE1, the large commercial center on the Niger. Both areas had experienceii earlier contact late twenties and have been treated as contemporary accounts rather than as timeless doc— V with European rule and integration into the world economy, and came to the colliery with
50 “ We Were All Slaves" ` { Udi District on the Eve of Conquest 51 marketable skills honed in industrial missions and church schools. They saw themselves as _ _ 39. Mrs. A.H. Richardson, "Account of the Pioneer Work in the Agbani Area of Nigeria more "civi1ized" than the locals whom they disparagingly called "wawa,” or backward. , " undertaken by the Reverend Arthur Humphrey Richardson of the Primitive Methodist Mis27. This is the case for many of the village-groups in Udi. See NAE, Onprof 8/1/4740, ~ sionary Society, 1916-1920," unpublished manuscript. London: Methodist Church Over"Intelligence Report on the Nara Village Group, Nkanu Clan-Udi Division,” 1934; Ondist { _ seas Division (Methodist Missionary Society), 1976. 12/1/708, "Intelligence Report on the Village Groups of Agbani—Akpugo Group, Udi Divi- ~ X 40. For a discussion of the Igbo market system, see Ukwu’s sections of Barry W Hodsion," S.RL. Beaumont, 1935. 1 _ der and Ukwu I. Ukwu, Markets in WestAfrica (Ibadan, 1969) and Ukwu, "Trade and Mar28. Cole and Aniakor, Igbo Arts, 2. l 7 keting," 647-62. 29. See Alonso de Sandoval, S.J. De Instauranda Aeethopum Salute (Bogota, 1956), a 41. The Igbo have two types of week: the little week, Izu, which is divided into four reissue of Naturaleza , . . de Totos Etiopes, Sevilla, 1627, as cited in David Northrup, Trade Ubochi/Mbosi or days—Eke, Orie/Olie, Afo/Aho and Nkwo-—and the big week, Izu Ukwu, Vlhthout Rulers: Pre-Colonial Economic Development in South-Eastern Nigeria (Oxford, si of eight days, In the big week the four days have the same name, and the second four days 1978), 50-51. Although calculations of the numbers of slaves are actually estimates, Curtin . j end in ukwu or "big." Hence the fifth day is Orie Ukwu (big Orie) and so on. Ukwu I.T. and others estimate that between 1750 and 1810 slave exports from the Bight of Biafra rose ` ‘ Ukwu, "The Development of Trade and Marketing in Ibo1and," and Meek, Law and Aufrom 4,500 to 14,000 per year, ` , thority in a Nigerian Tribe, 36n. 30. Paul Lovejoy, Transformations of Slavery (Cambridge, 1983), 57. L _ 42. The seminal discussion of this process in British labour history is EP Thompson‘s 31. Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Lie: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave , essay “‘Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capata1ism" Past and Present 28( 1967):56-97. Trades (Cambridge, 1990), 68. _ · 43. Some South Nkanu adapted "cleansing" rituals to enable them to sell relatives. See 32. The full extent of this impact, while not adequately recognized in Igbo historiogra- E video interview "Memories of Pain and Loss Project" with Prince Harry Chukvvuani, 8 De‘ , phy, is clearly evident in the interviews in a wide range of communities. See interview with . ( cember 1999, Ozalla, A/EN/NK/1. The Prince demonstrated a ritual involving a sacrifice to Thomas Noisike, 7 June 1975. , 2 a sacred crocodile. 1 am currently directing a video/audio-tape oral history project, "Memory and the At- . 44, Paul Nwaba, oldest inhabitant of Umuaga, Agbaja as quoted in Isichei, Igbo Worlds: lantic Slave Trade: A Pilot Project in Southeastern Nigetia." The regions centuries of in- 2 An Anthology of Oral Histories and Historical Description (Philadelphia, 1976), 76, volvement in the slave trade and sheer magnitude ofthe victims (estimated 800,000 between ‘ i 45, One of the most conspicuous examples of this culture is a series of decaying wooden the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries) has seared indelible scars in the collective \ Victorian mansions scattered throughout the palm belt. I saw some of these beautifully ramconsciousness of these villages, reflected in the culture, current power struggles and lin- A j bling mansions in the village of Mbieri, Owerri, in 1975. Most were two-story buildings t gering discriminatory practices against descendants of slaves. The key states of ~ i with elaborate verandas and many bedrooms and wings. Iunderstand that a number of them the project are Anambra, Abia, and Enugu. The project is jointly sponsored by the t Q are still standing. [Communication from Dr. Austin Ahanotu, 14 July 2000, Enugu, NigeUNESCO/York University Canada Nigerian Hinterland Project, Office of the Executive . ` ria.] Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Rutgers University, Rutgers Center for African Stud- _ Q , 46. Adyi had to feed members of this society for a fixed number of days with yarns from ies, Schomburg Center of Black Culture of the New York Public Library, and the Enugu ` ,` his barn, pay fees, and perform certain sacrifices to become a member. Atigbo, Ropes of Historical Documentation Center of Enugu, Nigeria. The tapes are available at the Schom— f Sand, 127-30. The symbols of this wealth were large "yam barns/’ wooden framed strucburg Center, the Alexander Library of Rutgers University, York’s Nigerian Hinterland Proj- ` ’ tures on which yams were tied to enable them to retain their freshness for long periods, For ect, and the Enugu Historical Documentation Center. t E a flctionalized account of the significance of yams, see Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart 33. Sigismund Wilhelrn Koelle, Polyglotta Africana (London, 1854), 8. A (London, 1959). 34. Olaudah Equianc was captured in 1756. His Equianois Travels, the story of his ab- - , 47. Richardson, "Pioneer Work,” 122. duction and eventual liberation, was an important abolitionist treatise in the late eighteenth . “ 48. NAE, OP! 1070, "Intelligence Reports on Nomeh," Beaumont; "Village-Groups of century. See Ai‘igbo’s attempt to locate Equiano’s home in A.E. Aligbo, "Through a Glass ., ~ Agbani-Akpugo," Beaumont. Darkly," in A.E. Afigho, Ropes of Sand. ~ t 49. On Eze Okoli, see Amadiume, Male Daughters, 137-40; for Onyeamn, see Mabel 35. Felicia Ekejiuba, "Higl1 Points of Igbo Civilization: Tha Arochukwu Period a Soci- ‘ g Ifejika Okolo, "A History of Eke Community 1800-1993," (unpublished interviews, Owologisfs View," in A.E. Aftgbo, ed., Groundwork of Igbo History (Lagos, 1991), 315. , W erti, 1979). On Njemanze, A.E. Afigbo, The Warrant Chien: Indirect Rule in Southeartem 36. There are a number of studies of the Aro: K.O. Dike and Felicia I. Ekejiuba, "Change " Nigeria 1891-1929 (Longman, 1972), 64, 70, 72; and interview with J ,K. Ohale in Amaand Persistence in Aro Oral History," Journal of African Studies 3, 3(Fall 1976): 277-96; V j wom, Owerri, 9 August 1975. Ohale said that the chief supplied fifty to one hundred peo` Felicia Ekijiuba, "The Aro System of Trade in the Nineteenth Century," pt, 1, Ikenga 1, 1 ` ple in each group to the coal mines. Many would desert when they saw the conditions of — (January 1972);1'bid., pt. 2, lkenga 1, 2 (July 1972); Ukwu 1.T. Ukwu, "The Development Q; ` work., of Trade and Marketing in Iboland," Joumal ofthe Historical Society of Nigeria 3, 4 (1967): 3 ` 50. Onyeama’s grandson, Dillibe Onyeama, wrote the biography, Chief Onyeama: The 647-62. `_ Story cf an African God (Enugu, 1982). Although it is not an academic text, the book is 37, NAE, CSO 26/29601, "Inte1ligence Report on the Ntegbe-Nese Clan, Udi Division, ·,, ‘? nonetheless a valuable, synthesis of oral and archival information on the chief. Onitsha Province,” SPL. Beaumont, 1933, ll, 35-36. Northrup, Trade lrldthout Rulers, 136. ‘> 51. See R. Horton, "The Ohu System? 38, ONPROF 8/1/4740, “Nara Village Group." = _ ' 52. Oguagha and Ikpoko, History and Ethnoarchaeology in Eastern Nigeria, 239-40.
52 "We Were All Slove_g" ` " Udi District on the Eve of Conquest 53 53. R. Horton, "'l`he Ohu System,” 311. i ’ 72. An additional example was Nomeh, where the most junior kinship group, Onoha Eze, 54. Interview with Paul Nwanba, 16 June 1973, in Isichei, Igbo Worlds, 76. ’ became powerful because of its size, numerous slaves (over half their population), and 55. Oral tradition alleges that Eze Nwachi was the tirst man to call Agbani to arms when ` Q wealth. While the senior quarter had ceremonial powers, the opinion of the more junior they were invaded by Awkananu, and was the first to secure a head. He was then elected ( Onoha Eze patrilineage was valued in village decisions, and they were often called upon to leader and the oldest man of his lineage, and became the titular head of the town. His du- settle disputes. They zealously used "their slaves as police to arrest and sell recalcitrant ofties, however, were largely religious. In the past the descendants of Eze Nwachi were ex- ~ fenders? Onprof 8/1/4740, "Nara Village Group." ecutive heads of the town, and heads of both Ikoro drums and shrines associated with war ` E` 73. Interview with Noo Udala, Umuaga, Agbaja, 19 June 1973, cited in Elizabeth Isichei and hunting. See NAE, OP/1070, "Village-Groups of Agbani-Akpugo." i , Igbo Worlds: An Anthology of Oral Histories and Historical Description, 73. For discus56. Phillip O. Nsugbe, Ohafjia: A Matrilineal Ibo People (Oxford, 1974), 25-32. j sion of title societies see page 76. 57. One Agbaja slave, Aneke (alias Thomas O’Connor) was kidnapped in 1819 and sold ' Z 74. These exceptions, in the precolonial period, included Onitsha where the Oba, or kingto the Aro who in tum dispatched him to the coast. Koelle, Polyglotta Africana, 8. Y _ ship came from Benin. See Richard N. Henderson, The King in Every Man: Evolutionary 58. Ibid. These communities still exist and are today engaged in a struggle for political I Y Trends in Onitsha Society and Culture (New Haven, 1972); lkenna Nzimiro, Studies in lbo autonomy. They are still discriminated against. See Axel Hamiet-Sievers, “Repercussions I -2 Political Systems: Chieftuiney and Politics in Four Niger States (London, 1972). of Pre-Colonial Slavery in Contemporary Local Politics: The Case of Nike, Enugu State, . 75. See also continuing discussion on p. 43 of this hook. Nigeria," unpublished paper presented at "Repercussions of the Atlantic Slave Trade: The _ 5 76. Elizabeth Isichei, A History ofthe Igbo People, 22. Bight of Biafra and the African Diaspora," Enugu, Nigeria, 10-14 July 2000. , 5 77. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 43. 59. Elizabeth Isichei, History ofthe Igbo People (London, 1976), 82-87. K I 78. Amadiume, Male Daughters, 14. ` , 60. A.O. Arua,A Short History of Ohajia (Enugu, 1952). Also Isichei, History ofthe Igbo ·‘ ` 79. This description is based on Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 41-42. People, 81-87. ~ 80. Ibid., 44. 61. Ezza expansion was related to their ecology. Unlike most of Igboland, which had 1 { 81. After the mid-nineteenth century, palm products gained commercial importance durmore rainfall, the Ezza‘s dry climate allowed them to leave mature yams in the ground until l ing World War I, when their glycerin content made them valuable in the manufacture of exthey were used. Thus their planting season extended through most of the dry season. There- , Y plosives. Previously the kemels became an important foodstuff for cattle, especially in fore each individual farmer could produce unusually large supplies of yams by planting seed =` Germany. The development of the hydrogenation process in the late nineteenth century led yams in huge mounds of a cubic yard or more of soil. For this reason, Ezza cultivation was , I lo its use in producing a cheap butter substitute, margarine, for the growing European workexpansive, leading them to seize land from their neighbors. Because of this, military values ing class. Anthony Hopkins, An Economic History of West Ajiica (New York, 1975), 129. permeated the culture. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Ezza were expand- 82. G.I. Jones, "Ibo Land Tenure," Africa 19 (1949), 313. ing to the west, pressuring the Nkanu village group of Arnagunze. Isichei, Ibid., 88-89. it 83. Amadiume, Male Daughters, 29. 62. Ibid., 87-91. U J 84. Ibid. 63. R.E Stevenson, Population and Political Systems in Tropical Africa (New York, » 85. Afigbo, "Southeastem Nigeria in the 19th Century," 451. 1968), 199 as cited in Amadiume, Male Daughters, 56. I i 86. Jones, “Ibo Land Tenure," 311, fn. 1. 64. Cole and Aniakor, Igbo Arts, 30. , ji 87. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 24. 65. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 54. [ Y 88. Ibid., 29. 66. See also Carolyn Brown, "Testing the Boundaries of Marginality: 'I`wentieth- _ 89. The Portuguese brought cassava from America. It became an important food crop beCentury Slavery and Emancipation Struggles in Nkanu, Northern Igboland, 1920-1929," . cause of its drought resistance and high per—acre yield. Despite its utility cassava was conJournal ofAfricart History 37 (1996): 51-80. .—V sidered an inferior crop associated with urban poverty. Ohadike discovered that it spread 67. Atigbo, Ropes of Sand, 129. ` f after labor shortages following the devastation of the Intiuenza Pandemic. D.C. Ohadike, 68. Processing involved "boiling or fermenting the fruit, depulping by pounding or mash- . iii "The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 and the Spread of Cassava Cultivation on the Lower ing with the feet in a container and squeezing the depulped fiber by hand to obtain the oil." Niger: A Study in Historical Linkages," Journal of African History 22 (1981): 379-91. Palm nuts were then allowed to dry and later cracked to reveal the kernels. The production , 5 90. Uchendu, Igbo People, 25. process was gendered. Men climbed the trees and cut down fruit while preparation for pro- , Y 91. Ibid., 24. ' cessing was usually done by women and children. There were two systems of oil produc- ‘ il 92. Aftgbo, "Southeastem Nigeria in the 19th Century," 450-51. As with many aspects tion. In one, which produces "soft” edible oil, most labor was performed by women while { of Igbo culture, the farming practices varied with the village—group. "[’his is a general dein the other, for "hard" oil, most was done by men. Eno I. Usoro, The Nigerian Oil Palm I i ,1 scription not intended to be definitive, but to give some sense of the division of tasks and Industry (Ibadan, 1974), 10. `. interdependence of male and female agricultural labor. 69. Northrup, Trade Without Rulers, 186. - , 93. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 40. 70. See Lovejoy, Transformations of Slavery, 153-58. `. 94. Age grades were broad groups of men who were bom within a certain period. For ex71. See Uzeochi, "The Social and Political Impact of the Eastern Nigerian Railway on _ r ample, one group would include all the men bom between 1920 and 1930. These men would Udi Division, 1913-1945," 212. [ _ remain in this particular group throughout their lives, moving from youth to intermediate
54 "We Wye All $[§vé;" I-_ Util District on the Eve of Conquest 55 to elder. Each group had particular functions and prestige within the village. See Cole and " . 121. Jones, Influence of Chiefs, 16-17. Auiakor, Igbo Arts, 118. ‘ 122. lbid., 17. 95. Uchendu, Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 86. e Q 123. Talbot, The Peoples of Southem Nigeria, 775, 778. 96. Jones, "Igbo Land Tenure,” 315. The men of Agbaja were known for being black- * 124. lbid., 778. smiths. ` — 125. Ahgbo, Ropes of Sand, 126. 97_ This system of migrant labor, which pyedated o¤]¤nia]ism_ seems to support; Hop. ; L 126. The women’s crop was the cocoa yam which had its own ritual and proscriptions. kins’ contention that an African labor market predated colonialism. Anthony 1·1opkins, An · 1 Th€S¤. however, lacked the prestige of the "male" yam. For a discussion of the gendered Economic History of West Ajiica (New York, 1975), 20. V ¥tllsli11ctions of these yams see Ibid., 127-28, and Amadiume, Male Daughters, 29. 98. Ibid., 96. _ , , 127. Aiigbo, Ropes ofSand, 127-28. 99. Uchendu, The Igbo of Southeast Nigeria, 92. b I L 128. Yams are grown under huge mounds. Above the ground they grow long vines that 100. Ibid., 52. I arc supported by sticks. Hence, a thousand "g·rowing sticks” means a thousand yams, a con101. For a complex discussion of “wealth in people" which creatively uses Marxist tl1e- . D I1 violated the precolonial system. The court was promoted as a stabilizing force for was dlfpuse and a pglitical culture of popular participation prevailed The lH‘lP0S1· Q y conquered territories permitting the exercise of "customary" law.48 But as Mam[ion of this foreign political model would lllldefmllle, fethef msn foster. Yum] sm' · `dalll has emphasized in his recent study,‘9 the content of "cust0mary" law was far bglny_ V _ from settled by the turn of the century.5" This was especially the case in Udi where . ’ the diffuse political system struggled to accommodate the concentration of wealth · ‘ln the Ogaranyan social class. Village struggles between the Ogarcznyan and the THE CONQUEST OF UDL 1 904-1 gl 0 'F .` isi ani (elders) over the nature of the political system were ignored when a wealthy The rust labor demands on Udi began with the conquest While being l>l¤dS· Q` EQ man was appointed colonial chief. To the British, "customary law" was whatever ecned inte submission by the army, the people were fcfeed, lil defeat, to suPPlY V the “big men" claimed it to be. The Ogaranyan took the opportunity to claim as labor for a plethora of colonial projects. Under the law of ¢0¤
76 NW2 were All slave-Y', ‘ 4 "CI1ir·fs," Slaves, Forced Labor; and Rural Resistance 77 _ _The P°Wel’s Onyeama assumed within his [e¤`it°"les were iaeilily ePPT0Ved by i’0· i The Governor and the Commandant were quite excited, and all the evening the h¤¤¤1 officers even though they ¤v¤rS¤¢r¤1¤¤d the hea} fequuements ¤f the Nauye i V conversations ran on me advantages that would acme ta the district and to Courts- Belefiguered P9lmc8-I ¤f¤¤¤r§ were all mo Wlumg to ¤11¤w Onyesme YU '·`hs‘ ` Southern Nigeria generally, if coal should be found in sufficient quantity to be a ciphne hrs villages, as rt reduced their burden to ensure observance of colonial law. _ , paying pl-OpDsid0h_ They discussed the buiidiuc cf d idiiwcy iiiic ic Udi, for Fmjiheli they eheweii a b¤¤¤¤¤9r¤¤y te deVel0P heheh?-li the warrant chief because it , the transport of the coal, that would run through the middle of some of the richfacilitated the execution of their orders, Many chiefs divided their area into wards, ~ ` est palm-oil count:ry.9" each under an Udumani, headman or messenger, who implemented their orders.“° ` ‘ i The Udumani was responsible for recruiting forced labor under the Roads and Creeks ~ The Chal hhldsl 1°°ah°¤· S"m° 150 miles mm-h of The Emmy ESFUZIY. H€G€SSiOrdinance. The position of Udumani was often an entre into a warrant chieftainship · `mhd almk with the Bonny _°°aSt from which sea-1 Ceuhl be T-Y¤¤sP0Yi€d 'f0 Lagos ` upeu the death ofthe Wmuut ehiefso They suse ueduiied Weuhh Wheu iiiicdmci WiSh_ V und points west. When a suitably deep channel was discovered at the Bonny Esinc ic indiiciicc com dccicidnci Wcuid curry dicii favci, tc icccii thc chicfigl ‘ E tuary, the rail route was finalized and a major port city, Port Harcourt, was founded. The ccicnidi cmd cuvc thc achicfsa ucwcii but did uct give diem dudiciiiy in ~ · Named after the secretary of state for the colonies, Lewis V Harcourt, the city beihc cydc cf their pcccidi Aidicdch cciciiici chiefs Wcic aimpciici cicaticnss, ihcy · J came the southern terminus of the railway which was constructed between 1913 were still a part of a village society that had its own criteria for power, status, and i ' hhd 1915* Whhs Enhgh was c°m°‘€°ted with Onitsha by ¤”0¤d» the principal mode prestige. For this reason even the most authoritarian "chiefs" could not afford to of mmspoh fa the hhhhwhs th° railway r°“tc· ignore the cultural expressions of power within the Igbo polity. Chief Onyeama Tht °°lh°ry was hhhahy d°‘{°1°P°d as an aPPehdsge °f the Nigefifiu Railway 5 recognized this and paid obeisance to the old systems of acquiring authority even 5 hyhtchh Whlch was [O be the rhalor mnsumer and the m°h0P0ly UEUSPOTYET of the as he usurped the conventions and undermined them. One basic tenet of Igbo power — V hhhc S Ohtphh when thh °°lhc"Y 0P°n°d in 1915, it Was admi¤iS¤'¤T-iVely H diviimd dudiciiiy is iccipiccity, ddd ii Pcwdifui mm bccamc d aidcdci., by resuming , a mon of the rarlwdys Its first fiscal allocation of £l5,000 was debited from "Open some of his wealth to his subordinates. Onyeama devoted considerable resources L L1h°S‘ R=¤lW¤y¤a’ and the annual mP°*`ts for the colhefy were included in those to fulnlling this ideal by cultivating clients through gifts of food and other prizes, ` and sponsoring festivals and contests. He operated his own soup kitchen and fed _ hundreds of the poor daily from his pig farms and yam barns. He was given the ? Q gy oig,. ii . ai i ii.,,s_, i i · title Oogbuzubosi, "one who slaughters animals daily" in honor of this role. Like 1 l J ` ij ( I '“‘;*;jf;,i;ji ‘ · a monarch, he loved conspicuous displays of generosity and he often flung coins _ — · ''`'» .,.; if if M ‘ to the poor from the upper windows of his palace, Always acutely aware of the _ r I i" I _ L_ '“''` ' · benefits of western education, he paid the school fees of all Eke children.92 Even r »? . ` I I . as a paramount chief, he entertained his subordinate chiefs lavishly, showering A ,~ t in `V ~ ¤ »— Y them with copious amounts of palm wine and food. In retum he expected undying ` U E me ` I " { _ _ 1 · , _ loyalty and compliance with his demands. 2 E , are ` .qa"‘ i · ddd — " ,.,.,1 j _ .` ‘ es » Thus between 1910 and 1914 the fomral framework of the Native Court system _ mh: .`'t · .JS¥ Qi? * · » Q,. ; ;. j1??"{‘ A. of Udi took shape, It received its first test within months of the “chiefs"’ appoint- · i -— ‘ “'`*' H i·_l"x ments when it was used to perform its most important function: the mobilization , i . · sy · ` *7;C7:i;.__ H " ° iM"-i' , if V ` L of labor for state-sponsored railway construction to link the proposed colliery to 7 .~r· _ " :. ~ , V, s_,g “'_, {ZIV ` 1 me Delta coast. 1 i ° I 5 l` ~» ·c I I i ·‘,- ` ‘»` I ?* i , » ~ e.,, ~ ,.f¤l:"1¤~ .»‘;i‘ * __; iii 1 ` t CREATING ”FREE LABOR" WITH COERCION: FORCED LABOR { ,§_ I" . ··L, { '_,,a xi] Ir. `'``. I . ¥· ` 5` » AND RESISTANCE IN GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT 1913/1914 i - lcd ” n A gi. V v' .'i` ij idgiai —. “ i The British discovery of coal was accidental, but local people had used it for ` I Y _ " is A Ii ,~ JT ew; I many years.93 In 1909 early field officers used it to warm their post in Udi. Ap- ` ;V z_ ° _· i A ‘ sa? · patently a report of their findings to headquarters received little notice until the ,i ‘ » Y , i ·£"i y I ij, ` visit of the acting governor and his staff. Lt. Gerald Adams, a soldier in Udi, gave . **’· ’ ·‘ · V . ~` " E 51- iii? ·' E- Y 33 ,, · .. his KCCOUHIZ of the initial enthusiasm of T.l1€ g0V€¤10l'2 i 4 Photo 2.4 Ameke Railway construction, circa 1914 (Crown Agents)
78 "We Were All Slat/es"l "C/iiefis, " Slaves, F0rcedLab01; and Rural Resistance 79 of the Nigerian Railway. The first colliery manager submitted his accounts to the tutors, were eager to assume these roles and felt secure in their actions with the chief construction accountant, Port Harcourt. Administrative and financial matters) military support of the new state. related to the operation of the mines were under the administrative supervision of ; The system usually worked as follows. The railway or colliery decided it needed the appropriate official in the rai1way.°‘ y It given number of workers. “Chiefs" in the local area were then told to recruit a The mines and railway were the two major capital works projects in the East—jQ iven number of men and sometimes women. The "chief" dispatched court mesem Provinces. When wartime cuts stopped other projects, the harbor works at Port A engers to contact headmen in his villages to supply unskilled labor. Sometimes Harcourt, the Eastern Railway, and the coal held received priority attention in the; _ e would call up a specific age-grade, i.e., the "company of 1913." Other times a budget and from the colonial administration. Colonial Secretary L. Harcourt re- ` ndom selection of men would be made. When messengers were so dispatched jected the request for additional staff and funds for all other branches of the rail-; V-» ey terrorized communities, demanding "blind eye” gifts to exempt a person from way but that of Udi-Port Harcourt: y ervice, abducting women for ransom or as concubines, and seizing property. ln view of the present financial prospect I would sanction no more additional 0£;;hc2:;’;:2;;;n§f$kt?fazl;;l $5;; §;ts§;:;;£; Fgtzzgegnghliid ;[°1-liars staff for railway construction at present, except so far as may be required for the , d Servants Act they bmu ht inyworkcrs Established counsin Thgiabe as ers uti1.1>crt Harcourt section and the Bernie bridge .... The Udi-Pt. Harcourt sec- g . hi h th ’ d . gm . * .1. °‘ °““Ps~ tion is the only one of any urgency and will be extremely useful by itself for car- ~ C Sy mamigc using. , eu Own pmlaml nary groups to keep erdcn Chmf _ 97 _ , nyeama used his Ogwumrlr force, as well as labor headmen who insured that rymg palm produce and coal to the sca' _ ` orkers, once in the camp, complied with regulations.l°‘ Onyeama had an elabo~‘ The construction of a railway from Port Harcourt to Enugu between 1913 and‘ ate labor recruitment system emanating from his Native Court. He contacted ad1915 not only paved the way for the evacuation and distribution of coal, but sharp- Zi ucent chiefs, instructing them to call up specific age-grades and ordered them to ened the contradictions between the "chiefs" and their subjects. Between 1913, V ir port to a series of transit camps where agents checked off their names against when rail construction began, and 1915 when colliery work started, Udi’s people their villageswz He also used the court to enforce workplace discipline, all with came under increased victimization by the Native Court officials. By the time Wil? fi e tacit approval of the political officers. Onyeama, as well as the other chiefs, liam Leek, the new manager, arrived in Onitsha in late 1915, Udi was in open re—~* l L bellion. Initially there was friction between the Igbo peoples and the authorities _ H _ M r»_>rrr r___ WM __ V} V _ i — over the terms of the railway’s existence, including the price to be paid for exprof . ,,1 ````` `, Ki l ._ if ` ai _ ,- .· ` 3 -.[ priated land, the terms of service as workers, and the role of the warrant chiefs as , , ‘ t "" ‘ ~ ` gap · ' ·=, J fl ` _ recmiting agents. At the outbreak of World War I, as preparations were being made; ;~ Qi? F · it ¤ gl . ¤ ' aq ji;. :??`";` _. " `V Y' ," in the area ofthe eastern branch of the railway, the survey parties encountered de- . " { if? '=. YK ` . ~ ` » _ ' _. J" `*i*E_ rf ' ‘°j; B termined resistance from village-groups along the route between Udi Mine and the Qig. li _ ? cy 1-z`}` > ` `~ _t , ’.` . ', Y ?· V future site of Port Harcourt?8 They were attacked and several surveyors k.illed.°° Q, · if _ · gi _ ii Ryo; ’ ` 9 ’ ~ "` it I M * i` ll Q-; At the center of the problem was the recruitment of labor for the railway and l V lf? _; ;g·,g_;“‘-_?,:,¤;.,j ,,3 jr road construction. Recruitment followed three systems: (1) bringing labor from a. ug? { _ {gf ‘ l“¤ , ,E; git pH ’'i..` L. { ‘ ` _ distance, which entailed certain costs but recruited small numbers of Hausa and · ~ v` ; y ` Ti jj} l Qi , EQ Yoruba workers who, by this time, were accustomed to colonial labor policies and i gf `Y ~ “Q‘· L = .,,,, ,_ Jil I ii; .`*?_lt t i . ( lpiilh 7% · would work for lowerwages tha.n the eastemers; (2) trading prisoners near the sitej l ‘; 4. = . 4 $5* 7 2. '>,$. _ ·-.}¥`jl`iv fig" it Q, ·;r . f*···’ EQ}? to serve as a reliable labor force; and (3) a system called the "local method" or "po— ' if "_;t_ __} * 2} · _; T .. gg? xL; _ i lit:ica1labor“ in which warrant chiefs were engaged to recruit labor. . » . U , I V ii The "local method" was adopted under the assumption that requests throughi 1 fi? ig? ,V l_ Q it .· , : :_ »* i I "native chiefs" would be accepted by their subjects who, it was alleged, were ac- Q ii`? y. L · · I ` Y t` -Fr,\,",,t>g·f§?;;Qi pr-1yr1ege me there were s1eref ~herrereb1esi eral testimony and colonial records, see Uzoechi, "Eastem Nigerian Railway? Chap- Z ~ around who had no right to the title." But the Supreme Court Ordinance of 1911 limited the 35-64. Q courfsjurisdiction to the more settled and developed areas of the east and central provinces, 46. Isichei, History of the Igbo People, 123. i` I, nnd ended these lawyers’ official presence. Adevvoye, The Judicial System. See Chap. 4, es47. NNAI, CSO 26/211, "Report on Nkanu (North) Villages of Udi Division, fo. 5, Clark; ~ Pggiauy 117-25_ NNAI, CSO 26/19, "Report on Adaba, Nkurne, Okpata, and Umulokpa Villages of Onitsha i 65_ ·1·srmrrrO_ me Evolution Ofrhe Nigerian Stare, 31g.1g_ ])ivigion_" no, 7, Stone and Milne; NNAI, CSO 26/211, °°I1’1¥€iiig€H€€ R€P0i'l· on Nkanu · ’i 66. By the end ofthe century, the "house" system was showing signs of distress, Some (North) Wllages of Udi Division," 1933, p. 5, as cited in Isichei, Ibo People and the Euro- ; j Mheusesv were eema]1y headed by s1eyes_ Jeje ef gpebs is erre hrrrrgrrery exs_mp1e_ Marry peans, 142. ` _;- heads had lost control Over their slave members who both refused to work for the head or 48. For a discussion of the “invention" ofthe “customary," see Terence Ranger. "The In- " _. to pay cugtpmagy fees_ Djkgr Trgdg and politics vemjon of Tradition in Africa," in The Invention 0f Tfr1di!i0n, eds., Eric Hobsbewm and Tei" 67. ED. Lugard, The Political Memorandum: Revision of Instructions of Political Oficers ence Ranger (Cambridge, 1983), 221-62. 5 vn Subjects Chiefly Political and Administrative, 1913-1918, 3d ed. (London, 1970), 218.
}’ 90 "We Were All Slaves” " A "Chiefs, " Slaves, Forced Labor; and Rural Resistance 9] 68. 1'bid., 224. . V 90. The regalia of colonial power, which included a "cap and staff," were introduced as 69. This model, first used by the East India Company government in 1843, outlawed slave a way of decorating these men and creating a "tradition" of warrant chiefs and satisfactory dealing and removed slavery from its legal status. It did not inform the slaves of this dee A; *, headmen. Aiigbo, The Warrant Chiefs, 105, see photo on p. 81. velopment, but had they left their owners, the courts could not have been used to reclaim l I 91. Ibid., 104. them as property. In West Africa it was seen as an ideal method of outlawing slavery with- , 1 92. Onyeama, Chief Onyeama, 67. out creating social and economic disruption. Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts, The End .' 93. The special commissioner in West Africa of Westzlfrica magazine alleges that a Capof Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988), 12-13. E` v· tain Mitten "discovered" the coal deposits after noting *1he habit of certain natives of bum70. "l-louse" heads could contract young “apprentice" workers (up to age sixteen) for · ing in their homes coal chipped from the hillside," West Africa, 24 February 1917 76 periods of up to five years. Following a barrage of criticism by metropolitan abolitionists, .\ 94. Rhodes House Library, Mss. Afr. s. 375 (1), "Miner and Executioner " contained in the proclamation was amended to include a quarterly review of the impact of the law by_ `». _ “Five Nigerian Ta1es," Lt. Gerald Adams, n.d. l the British commissioner. But later, in 1902, the law was tightened and the period of ap- ,’ V 95. PRO, CO 683/26, Director Nigeria Railway to Under Secretary of State for the prenticeship was extended to twelve years. Tamuno, The Evolution ofthe Nigerian State, I 1 Colonies, 23 September 1914. 324. < , 96. PRO, C0 583/26, M.E. Bland, · - - 71. It fined disobedient or vagrant "house" members and authorized the ‘“head" to claim ` ` sha, 18 December l9l4_ Ganaml Manager Railway to Commlssmlm Omia percentage of their profits and/or earnings when employed outside the "house." Further, Q i 97. PRO, CO 583/26, Harcourt Minute, 1 September 1914; PRO, CO 583/26 Lewis V it imprisoned any person hiring "house" members without the consent of the "head." De- ‘ L Harcourt Minute, 1 September 1914; PRO, CO 583/44, "Address of the Governor;Genera1 ’; < spite humanitarian opposition, the ordinance remained in force until 1914. I _ Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the Nigerian Council, 29 December 1915 8-9 l ` 72. PRO, CO 588/1, No. 15 of 1903, clause 5(a) as cited in Tamuno, The Evolution ofthe · _ 98. PRO, CO 583/14. Harcourt Memorandum, 19 May 1916. l V Nigerian State, 319. l.C. Anene, Southern Nigeria in Transition: 1885-1906 (Cambridge, 1 V 99, Ibid, 1966 , $08. ¢ i? I 100. An bo, The warrant Chia S, i · 73l The most extensive discussion is in Amadiurne’s Mole Daughters, 137-40. I 1914, g f 76-77, PRO, CO 583/9* Bayncs Mmme’ 18 February 74. There are no studies of Chief Chukwuani. The most extensive treatment is in a { = 101. Only anecdotal information is available about this group. Dillibe Onyeama whorerom; Study by a n0n.1nstor·ian, Anayo Enechukwu, History of Nlwnu (Enugu, 1993)- SR ·‘ , lisd on oral testimony, notes that Onyeama selected members from Ngwo, Nsudg land Ekc Chap. 12. ’; I Who participated in wrestling and boxing matches he staged at Eke. Tignor and Mgboh sug75. Despite his prominence, Onyeama has not received serious study. With the exception , gest that they terrorized Onyeama’s villages as a paramilitary force. They were not paid cash of anecdotal references to him in Afigbo’s Warrant Chiefs, there are only two studies: => ·. but "in kind and lived primarily on loot and plnnder," and even seized other men’s wives Onyeama, Chief Onyeama; Felix C. Mgboh, "Biography of Chief Onyeama," (Research ‘ Onyeama was very big on "inventing" regalia so they wore a distinctive unifonn—long red paper of 1-11snn·y.(;1v1;;s, Alvan Ikokn College of Education. Owerri. Nigeria. -11-U18 1980)- ` WPS Md matching unifomt. Tignor alleges that "the Agwumili (sic) , ,, 1ir€;a11y tm-Oyizcd There was a fourth chief in the Owerri area, Chief Njemanze, who brought in large num- _ ’_ local communities committing all kinds of crimes, including a number of murders with imbm-S gf Qwgni men, However, he has not been studied to tho €X1€1'\E0f T-116 0*-l1€1` \hI€¢· `i` " Pu¤l1Y·” And, he asserts that the impending govemment prosecution of Onygamglfgy com. 76, Amyo Emchukwm Hispgyzy DfNk,mn, see especially Chap. 12. - W * [11i€itY in S¤V€f&1 niimiers they committed was the reason behind Onyeama’s suicide in 1934 77, Onyeama, Chief Onyeama, 21. ` l I O¤Y€¤m¤. Chiefwtyeomo, 40; Tignor, "Colonial Chiefs," 350; Mghoh, “Th5 Biography or 78. Ibid., 24. — V Chief Onyeama," 12, 79. Interview with Chief Nwafor Chukwuani, Enugu, Nigeria, 15 June 1975 and Prince ` — 102. Interview with C.O. Ude, Amokwe, Udi, February 23, 1972; interview with Chief J Harpy Chukwumi, omni, is July 1999. see several pages in Enechukwn. History ofNk¤¤¤. , ‘ » Nwankwo. Eke. Udi, March 7, 1972 as cited in Uzeochi, “Eastem Nrgsnim Ranway ~ iggl Chap, 12, ` 103._ F.D. Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa (Hamden CT ,1965). 80. Enechukwu, History ofNkanu, Chap. 12. . . 217-18. ' ’ ’ 81. Interview with Nwafor Chukwuani. 104. For a discussion of Lugard’s policies, see Afigbo, The Warrant Chiefs Chap. 482. Onyeama, Chief Onyeama, 26. Mi 105. Thomas, Anthropological Report, vol. 1-4. , I 83. Ibid., 28. i g . 106. Afigbo, The Warrant Chiefs, 158. ' 84. Interview with Chief Edwueme II, Egede, 19 February 1972, as cited in Uzeochi, , I 107. Ibid., 126, 162 for summary. "Eastem Nigerian Railway," 122. t 108. Ibid., 137. 85. Onyeama, Chief Onyeama, 28. Y , 5 109. Enechukwu, History of Nkonu, 288. 86. Uzeochi, "Eastem Nigerian Railway? 122. V fj 110. Onyeama, Chief Onyeama, 43, 87. Robert L. Tignor, "Colonial Chiefs in Chielless Societies," Journal ofModemAfrican g ` lll. PRO, CO 584/15, "Report on the Cost of Construction of Eastern Railway " Lugard Studies 9, 3 (1971): 350. · V to Harcourt, 12 June 1914. ’ 88. Onyeama, Chief Onyeama, 40. ~. 112. Ibid., "Nigerian Eastem Railway Construction Estiniate—First Revise " 22 April 39, Aiigbo, The Warrant Chieh, 104. ‘ y ` 1914. enclosure in Contidential dispatch, Lugard to Harcourt, 12 Jung 19i4_ l
, ’= 92 "We Were All Slaves " 113. Ibid., Lugard to Harcourt, "Eastern Line First Progress Report," 22 May 1914, ¥ 114. Ibid. · E 3 115. PRO, CO 583/21, Lugard to Harcourt, 18 December 1914. ‘ C 116. Ibid., "Eastem Railway Progress Report," 18 December 1914, enclosure in Lugard ` i to Harcourt, 6 January 1914. , V 117. Ranger, "Invention of Tradition in A.f1ica," 220. _ E 118. PRO, CO 583/9, "An Ordinance to Provide for the Control of Large Bodies of I , Labourers Employed on Govemment Works," 24 January 1914. j. j 119. Ibid, Harcourt Draft Despatch, 20 February 1914. T 5 120. PRO, CO 583/9, Baynes Minute, 18 February 1914. ~· ,_ ‘ 121. Harcourt Draft Despatch, 20 February 1914. { , 122. Tarnuno, The Evolution ofthe Nigerian State, 45. · 123. Jones, "Chieftaincy in Southeastern Nigeria." ~ ‘ 124. NNAE, Onprof 1/15/3, Lt. Governor’s Office Onitsha to H.E. Govemor-General , i Lagos, 16 November 1914. ~ 125. PRO, CO 583/12, Despatch from Lugard, April 15, 1914. Q • E _ e ,,6_,,,,,,_ , CITY. NUGU AND THE 127. PRO, CO 583/32, Despatch from Lugard to Harcourt, 29 April 1915. ' 128. PRO, CO 583/20, Lugard to Harcourt 19 November 1914. 1 4 F 129. Interview with Chief Yaro¢Onaga, cited in Isichei, A History of the [gba People. S 130. PRO, CO 583/19, Lugard to Harcourt, 10 November 1914. , ‘ 131. Interview with Chief Yaro Onaga, lsichei, A History ofthe Igbo People. PRO, CO j g ` N 7 ` N l I 583/32, T. W Dann, DO Udi, "F`inal Report Upon Operations of the Udi Pat:ro1," 18 Feb- · j ruary 1915, enclosure in Lugard to Harcourt, 29 April 1915. . ` 132. PRO, CO 583/32, T.W. Dann, DO Udi. Q 133. Ibid., Lugard to Harcourt, 29 April 1915. 1 134. Documentation of the Udi Revolt is included in two records series, NNAE, Y, V ONPROF 1/15/28 and PRO, CO 583 tiles /12, /14, /19, /20, /23, /32; Akinjide Osuntokun, ' "Disaffeey;i¤n and Revolts in Nigeria During the First World War, 1914-1918/` Ccvulditm Q With ih€ Udi 11pI`iSing defeated, the state concentrated on establishing the ma] inJournal ofAfrican Studies 5, 2 (1971): 180. I dustry and T-h€ of Eflllgll. Ellllgll WB.S 3. BSW type of settlement-a colonial 135. PRO, C0583/31, Despatches February-April 1915. · —. `, ¤ity—and the colliery a new system of preduction—the ea italist mine Both 136. NNAE, Onprof 1/15/28, EngineerWarri to Commissioner Onitsha, 16 March 1915. Q = emerged under the watchful cya of Frederick Lu ard the P ' 137. 1b1a.,n1s¤-act omcei our to commissioner omaha, 31 March 1915. ; Nigeria Lugmdg personal interest in the my andih 3 d ‘:§l°V°m°;§°¤;;db°f , _} _ · _ e in us arose m 's e1 _ V, 11ef that while wage labor was of educative value for African labor, Africans should · ' remain socially rooted in their rural communities away fmm the "dan " · _ _ _ gcrous temp» I Lationsa-pf;·baa1 lg 13ut neither the city nor the workplace was shaped only by ~ o om o cia s. rican men and a small number of women from both local and ` g more distant areas entered Enugu and the colliery and shaped them according to » { their life strategies, values, concerns, and cultures. With the oppression of the chiefs L gl in the countryside, Enugu became a refuge for men and women seeking "freedom" = and it would never be the ordered, racially segregated colonial city that Lugard t ’ hopeid to create. In a similar manner workers in the mines, both voluntary and covr, , erce , conditioned the industry to accommodate the rural rhythms that , , _ I pulled them » -1 away from theirjobs to farm or to fulfill village social obligations. They too forced VI management to acknowledge a limited control over the supply of labor and the ; labor process itself.
94 “We were All Sidney " Creating the Colonial Workplace and the Culorrial City 95 For the slave and rreeborn men of Udi, most especially the young, urtrnarried r their values clashed with the needs of the coal companies of the rnid—nineteenth men, the conquest presented new possibilities and challenges. On the one hand, y Century: they had to develop strategies to avoid the disruptive impact of the chief’s exac- i V The bslisvsdth t rt . . , . _ _ _ tions on their lives. On the other, they tried to position themselves to benefit from . 1 as L]; lsu th of if CB Thmn clilucms d°°m°“S °°“°"’mmg the mmmg Of COB-L such any new opportunities that emerged under the nascent state and new market econ- i should gout limcufygl wl spcrid undcrgmund md h°W much Coal they omy. Subordinate men—the young, slaves, and the indigent—became adept at : must O1? m an a ’sry WIT? B gemgmvc °f the we getter a}‘d “°° °f the °aPl‘ evading the exploitation of their superiors (i.e., senior men, Ogamnyan, slave- , the nsw com ' ' .mieY ues cléshed at evmiy Pm? with the ““°“&1° Of owners) in the village. The Udi uprising during the war had proven that direct con- 1, musm ,,i P S’ wl Bu Emphasis °n Wmk d1¤·=¤r>1¤¤¤ and °°mP*mY Pamfrontation with the colonialialists was futile and it was prudent to make a judicious ` s ` accommodation to the new conditions. The problem was how to manipulate this i E¤¤g¤’s miners Shared these values, but, unlike British ntinei-s_ were able to pw nep; system of authority while avoiding a conflict with me-state, most notably the , I SFYVS thiim throughout the iuduS¤'y”S history because as a state enterprise, the eo]eru;;s_ Bath she city and tl; industry offereri new gossrbrlitrgs. Th hl t f th r` y ;;>;;*’:iE;’€1' $0ggY drive? by the ingperatives of the capitalist market, Because s c ap er examines e war years as a orma ve perro in e is Oty 0 e ` ‘ _ SUSE arming 0 temper eir reliance on the coal indus ,tiie‘ industry and the sity of Enugu_ it investigates the many ways that ioeai men ma. `I l sciousness retiected elements of the peasantry and of independent ruruayl craflisinoeln neuvered against authoritarian chiefly control, forced labor, and workplace ex- E ; contracting to work on mutually agi-eeabic te,-ms_ { plgitation by "native" and expatriate staff. Despite the context of extreme state *_ They abscmed themselves ffum the mines to participate in the planting and hat. gppressigns workers septired some measure gf eqntrgl ove; the terms under which I j V€S'Ei11g SS2lS0l’1SiH thCiI villages, and IO fulfill social ObIig8ti0llS (L8. f\.ll'lS1'é1IS milf- . they ggld their labgppower, theeqrgariization of work in the mines, the intensity ` i Iiagesi festivals, ¢t¤·) to their families and communities, And to the dismay of with which they were prepared to work, and the frequency with which they pre- i ` management they sold their labor-power in small and irregular units. The British sented themselves at the colliery. They molded the workplace according to their ` imerpreted this spirit of rural-based independence as Connrmauon of their racist culture, beliefs about work, and their strategies to improve their positions as men ' aSS“mPti¤¤S about the urationality, laziness, and inherent moral infei-ini-ity of in the village, In so doing they exemplified the creative strategies that early African ` · ' Afficail W0fk¤fS· Their interpretation of the workers’ behavior said moi-e about the workers developed to insure that they benefited from the colonial eXperiBn¤¢· Theif `Z ` “im·agi“€d” Africa in their heads than the reality of the society they had conquered work eulture andthe priorities they attached to village life enabled them to ncgo- ~ The TWHYY Was that T-h¢S¢ men had developed strategies to elude the "rnai-ket_” tisliate ai-gas rflgcontigyl within the labor process at the mines and to humanize and de- `· i CWB; ¤X¤H1i;¤1¤g0n of rural life, and an acknowledgment of the integiity gf Igbo ne ur an ` e in nugu, j 2 Some Yi WUI-‘ aV€ revealed 6. competing economic strategy with its Own if lh Din-ing this peiisogi eolliery mnejrlisgtabltished agattegnvsl ot; gevsifstaiircph that grystalic _ j f’·lgYd”~¤d validity. Sigctg Africans would not respond to the market in ways tif; si;. Us In s Wave O smpme s s is C W S 0 O1. al. _ S sn ject O ; is is e emp oyerssan e state, the salient characteristic of the "African w k " Chapter 4. Some of these wartime protests reflected the problems posed by rapid V E bewmc his "Africa.nness" and as Cooper has noted the two Words scsmsdc; ;l;_ urbanization for the region`s food system, as well as the difiiculties of monetiz— I PYESS two incompatible concepts? ing new currencies. Others were related to c¤il0ny—wide grievances of both African . S€1f·imPf0V€m€Hf and commitment to uplift the village, two dynamic nm-ms of · and European civil servants after the Great War. The connections between this I Igbu masculinity, also iniiueneed the men’S behavior in the industry and the mls unrest and the agitation of civil servants and workers in England, demonstrated g R that mine Workers played in village pbiitiss They were a progressive force Chas that some Afi-iean weikets saw themselves as pai-t of a iai-ge; eommunity of Biitish . ~ lenging the, autocratic policies of the chiefs while operating from a position of coneivii servants with legitimate expectations of improvement while working for the j i sidefiblc PFTUSS The progressive role they played in the village also drew upon state. [ i an ur an po 'tic culture in Enugu where men from more distant re io f I Although some coal employees saw themselves as workers or loyal staff, racism , _ bfgldfid and 3-U regions of Nigeria created new institutions of assggigtiqis sgprevented colonial authorities and the industry’s managers from recognizing the ` it 61 IZQUOH, and power. similarities between Nigeria’s miners and their British counterparts. In the mid- `Q ` In '-ha °itY» Skiucd l¤b¤1’¤1‘S and Clerical workers in the railway and the cgiljery nineteenth century, British miners were fiercely independent, reserving the right ` r f°¤'m°d OTS?-¥uZ¤ti0¤S, Called Nzukv, to give shape and order to urban 1i£e_ They Cie. to work when they pleased in the mines and, alternatively, to farin on their own ' Bled networks that acculturated newcomers to city life, established judicial proce{ields. They shared “the connnon traditions of the peasantry" and considered them- 3 s ’ d“1i°;f°1‘ Settling disputes, transferred resources to the rural village, and functioned selves to be rural tradesmen and not proletarrans. In many important respects g 4 HS 21 Or bureaus for men seeking Jobs And because they incorpommd misans and
l 96 ww were All Slaves" J l= Creating the Colonial Wcrlqylzzce and the Colonial Ciry 97 th H t Christian cme as WGH as laborers, they became anin]p()]'1‘_3]){C()I\·~ , The city offered protection and "freedom" to subordinate men who used Enugu cl°rkS’ 6 tcm €’ ’ ~ ‘ [ ' ` t challe ethee erc'se of h` il th ' ' the v'lla es "C 1 " e d text for disseminating the nationalist ideas emanating from the westermzed e ite in ~` . 0 HE _ X _ I C *6 Yfm IOUYY U1 1 S · °g·m°¤ gm Tg? L War ro a anda that emphasized the rights to Self-determination, democracy, ` j as a contentious social group, the inevitable consequence of the mdustry’s exisag°s' . P P g · - ‘ ’ ire held a ainst the ` tence and in sh enin contradiction with colonial rural olic . The rural-based and equality resonated with the grievances that the Nigerian ¢l g V V · 31'P g l Q p y E iadon Of The colonial service at the tum of the ccmm-y_3 i miners transferred and adapted these liberal ideas to the villages where they beump g came an ideological counterpoint to the despotism of the chief. As a group the elite _ V _ V _ mx __ _ t and the coal workers opposed the state policy that favored "traditional" chiefs and . . ij,. . · ig ‘ P5? . *5* ; { 4 _ . V‘ l consciously campaigned against both Onyeama and Chukwuani. By the war, the iw V, ., —~ ,g.—. g_ ‘ ‘ , V X V `¢ *. V "· , · T-—·‘;é;.__V i { V city had become a center of anti—chief agitation, further popularizing it as a refuge P4 4/F" · · ` g:·.r.T' . ‘·‘i"".. l . ‘ . r l ;»» ‘ VV t - V V L V. 6 ‘·?¥ `» .,» ` - ’ .;=. si. -‘ ; . ~ ‘'»_ ` Vw! V V · ’ . . ‘ A ;..V; ` bah J e 5: R B V . .: >_ ., _ _$` .-1;;* . . i 4 V _ Att: V VJ: ` 2 l"%»r”Y` NY ** ~ ‘-'"*»¤ » ~ *”·#c· ~ V; "°*X$ - lt. .- ¥V l` · __; ...t itc ; *1;; i"zI@;;.`>¢,‘§;`;i.a;*’.;i_ . ”.`°` - ` ‘ { l = ` _V.. · · li __ · V IQ V · V ~ wv -· V ‘ P’*¤_`¤».'·’C.;*;·r -·(— * , V L ' l . · : ‘ · . - A "i» V _ 1 bx F, _ ·. ~{, *;£_';_.f¤va J, 5 gy ' A ` ,= {fg.; V A i _ V AV yl M ;»»·.,—`\ yy: Q: wg] 1 ~ °'\ .'“” T ’ i ~ ;-— » ,· ~, ¢·4 I . ` '`'` ` =~ » t··· gi » ’?l`¥*`*’l¤J’ {V 'tlrg lf , V .VV ·::— ’$“°—. in V yy _;.,,@‘;.: V g ‘- ?.i·‘·$re¤%·i V *' . l li = ;j ati i ·· x i. _ ..~··.,:a ‘—‘“ `; IV l, _ _ · ' ’ ", fl"` . ,6 i _ {gv? ., 1 It . el l — _ V V gy M Vp y, .. KV- _ V it »¤_— il yi; Vi "· *.4% wi ... J ~ _~ \ il` " ~, V .1 »4 .. ~‘ LV V.: Vi.: _: -—g__ j r f ( l ·· ¢r.__ V - { -%u\ ·A ; »." I: V- _ it l l >LL_’£,` _ 4 fn; W " ' - lu V “i’é° A l ` wi · " l ` l ' ` 4 ~ ri ‘ "'l» ¤~ w ~» . V ·.. ’t " ···+··"‘ * r r »·-— { . i. i ·. ' · A 5* V · V r ,. .·~t·—* »~ ·iV _ 4V V · . ;.;. V V _} gtciéq l T" Ib -:2. 1¤*;_;;_§»•.·__ ~ It ` V ~ MQ'. ri ` V LE 'ilaw HJ V·~ ·y__ L n I . C`} mi .. ‘ ’ Z ‘ ’ · · ` ‘ w n · *· I Pg"“‘f‘""*~r??*&é$ V l , i r· ,, ; V ._ ._ ¤ V .~.V V —— V ·#*· ’i‘j5‘yl?· " will ` Q`? Yyf 4*. · E,.·L• (A · 1 V 1 ` M` ` I A L, V ~ J` —— -— . s` ·‘i gi · ~ set t, · ’ t W i . · l .. V Q .. _V_;V`»Q _ . V. , V. 3 *» Q: ¥ " "·e""?. photo 3,1 Workers digging first boreholes, circa 1913 <MS.AFR.s. 384 lv N0- ` Lgl';r}td¤· Ti T ` ofthe Others were less concerned with presenting such "respsotnb]o" oppo. c and Woodrow Wilson’s calls for "self—determination" shifted the inter- Ty 4 smon to the state. They were the men who seized "il1egal space" to forge new types miirag discourse around colonialism and ind to a rgfgrmulaticn of the rationale 1 of households with several men, usually single, and one or two boy-servants. Their KE; E; Coinnini state, Authorities argued that the new task of ¢l¤i¤li$m was *0 ``‘* [ * presence gave Enugu a dennite male working class ··nsvor_·· , d the ascent of the Tmcivihzcd peoples 0fAi=ncn through "ma.ndates," "trustee- `T As authorities designed the physical space for Enugu, the new manager organized gu} 2 d ·· ti aramountgy "46 This new patemalistic packaging Was ViY¤l€¤dYx { Work and created structures of power and authority to instill industrial order, But he Sh1p’ {mb IE Vcdp cated elite Mm were Paniculgxly disgruntled by the renewed X did not work in a vacuum. The Igbo men in the industry defined the limits of manaammkéd y ic ingnitinnnin rulers 47 But they also positioned themselves to me Q J gerial control and carved out areas of freedom and autonomy. The relations of power c?mnmmtim.:h nt commdictimés in this idcniogy_ They too were British Ser- Q in the early workplace were the context in which the miners developed their notion mpulatc d gh; Ciiim as arbmamf of superior British law, could not ignore their T of moral economy. As they measured their experiences against the moral and social { Xaigsa; loyal British subjectsf"; ~ fF¤¤1€W0fk that shaped their approach to work, they created new patterns of rosis. The seditious political content of elite discourse was disseminated to the village T tance The Enugu workpioos was snow and unpleasant; oxpsr-ionooT fraught with darinnd bi-ond sectors of the urban African community through the m¤mb€YSh1P ba$° Of i ° ger- It required that they become a different type. of man-a colonial worksn This the unions. They included a cross section of all "respectable" sectors of urban so- TT workplace operated under different rules, conventions, and regulations than the rural cig thereby making the group a conduit for radical ideas t0 the illiterate “f9{kmE ` economy with which they were most familiar. A harsh system of authority and rogi ty’49 Political] these unions rallied 0pp0si1i0¤ I0 The 1'Lml chiefs and T-hw meas i imemed work rhythms were enforced through racial discrimination and violence? ciiiizind into the tillage through the coal miners who daily Weill between mine rrd `— While as a capitalist workplace it required their hnbitnation_ mining was work and village 50 As seliianointed agents of modernization, civilization, and progress, mem- T — the men had well-formed ideas about work.55 It was these ideas that they adapted bers assumed the task of marshalling resources to develop the village. In addrtionrr and applied to their experiences at the colliery. These constituted a work ethic.56 to raising funds for village improvement, they also served as advocates for ruralp communities with the authorities and sent delegations to meet wrthresponsrble gov- TTT . MI Nl NG OPERATIONS BEGI N: THE PHYSICAL CONTEXT emment officials? They presentedadilemma forthe chiefs. Their respnrces V . OF AN EVOLVING W OR K CULTURE were important for village development but therrhostihty to the rnstrtutronp I cps; , , I · U tommy,. colonial chicfmjncy ulmmtcly undcnninod the powers-of chle S- T T ·On 23 June 1914, Wrlham J. Leek was selected as manager of the future Udi While the role of urban "unions" in nationalist political mobilization has bee; ,T _ Mme by Professor John Cadman of the Umversrty ofBu·m.1ngham, the Colonial Ofrecorrnized their relationship to working class agitation has not been explored. ~T T T tice’s technical adviser, and J. Eaglesome, director of the Nigerian Railway and Howizver cities like Enugu, these "union" members were in the forefront ofthe T Works. He was only twenty-five years old but had seven years’ managerial experient-1 labdr struggles in the city, This particular strata was most aware of the fonns ip I ence at Wniihavcn and Mm Hm Coumcs following his mining as a mining engif y t what were Within the lights of Subjects of the British Crown.53 The pror111·~` neer in the Northumberland area, Britain’s largest coal flelds.57 Leek sailed for Flcgftiii played by eouiery employees in the "uni¤ns" created ri Structural °°*}· ; · Nigeria in September 1914, reaching Onitsha several weeks later and finally mw. nccnnn bgigwggn this new type of association and the iHd11S¥Iy`S W°l”k€TS· There is , i lng at Udi in February 1915, only a few weeks after the insurrection was or-nshod_5K documentary evidence that the "unions" and the cultures of protest that they fos- TT Let;k’sdgp3_i1;|_u·5 from Njorthurnbgrland was woi].tnnod_ The vga; pinngod those ooni tered were adapted to industrial protest. While the precise dates of the foundation ; T tields into a deep ISCSSSIOH with the loss of the German, Belgium, and Baltic (Rusgf c¤]_[jgry.ba55d Nzuko are not l€110WI1, the l`BSl1 of strikes that Spammd the lénerr. Bla-H) Hl61'k€¥S That i.l’I1pOl'I€t‘l 80 percent of the area’5 0utput_59 Nigeria was a fom]ars of the war and the twenties indicates the existence of worker 0IgBl'1lZZlZl‘{U$ T . itous move that would prove decisive for him. It launched a career in the colonial iliat lanned and coordinated protests and selected deputations to negotiate with ‘ civil servigg Hg wonid roninin in Enngn fgr tho noxt thirty yonrs_ manggement. The structure of these worker organizations and their role in the first ; ~ The mines proceeded at a remarkable pace given the insurrection, inexperienced series of colliery protests will be examined next. `e Tj labor force, and war—induced shortages in the desired tools and equipment. The z·
3 "Wg Were All Slut/es', Creating the Colonial Workplace and the Colonial City 109 108 _ = ’s anxiety as his , that supplies were available for sale to the commercial and shipping community railway YEPQHS of 1315 gfx in MaICh 1915 a in Nigeria and other West African (;0](mig5_63 Yescwcspf Import? co · md thgh- Supply could only last twenty days.6° The`. ` The govemment usually recruited workers from villages near such major projwhen mdway Offugalstljiilfiizan) coal was used up and the hostilities in E¤r0p6; · ects under a system called the "local method." But because of the unsettled narcscwc of Natal (you f Welsh coal doubtful. By May the locomotive superinten- j ~ ture of the district it was considered more prudent to bring workers from Onitsha made flmhcr supplieliod onl two weeks’ reserve and had resorted to burning Hl‘€·" and Owerri. Political conditions also required that clear institutions of authority dam rcpmltad that E amcicit and ajso dangerous, especially during the hamartarf and colonial control be established at the colliery, where a handful of Europeans wood, which was less; hmm Of june with all coal stock depleted, most trains, tried to transform men, who had just been defeated at the battlefield, into indusOr dry Siascml By td: woogl as fuelland in 1916, the railway lost twenty—SlX{_ trial workers. The warrant chiefs and their associates were brought into the enWcm bcmg opiate WLS fmm the wood 61 Thus, the British commercial contmui terprlse as recruiters, managers of the labor camps, and as “native" staff in the Vlagclns kiumFd y spat dc abgut the new Enugu coal fields. In February 1917 re- ` mines. The chiefs’ main representatives were the "boss boys," who brought in mty In Nlgcna Xvaigg amen- kg journal West Africa, noted with enthusiasm “itC , their crews and were in charge of particular underground districts. It was expected P°rtS from the QF, m y , ’ H=,€1ds··62 , » that they would handle all grievances their teams had, just as the warrant chief is certain that Udi is one of the Wvfld S great we _ · ld t _mmdimc1y, , did in the Village · f th ` 't`al excavations cou no 1 L , · Coal extracted m the cgllisctlfe wgruliih by the end of 1915, 8,000 tons were Lugard also took a personal interest in the colliery and the railway and regarded meet the shimag? cauign E-Ac railway (see Photo 3.13). The railway arrived int i both projects as a type of experiment in social engineering. His dispatches to the J Stacked at Pu hea a\lJ;7 riarked the refinement of the coal transport system all ~ Colonial Office were decidedly enthusiastic, as if he felt his massive project was May 1919 The year th ;;e11'e manifest in the increase in coal output to $5,405 truly bearing fruit. He visited the area soon after Leck’s arrival in February 1915, m01’€ 6391*31 wvrks at ° _} ry’ . { 130 to 150 tons per day. By ~ and again in April.6" At that time, he reported that mining operations were well untons. The new Iva Valley Mine delivered at a rate o · , t Houma. d Th _ V September 1917, Lugard felt confident enough of the mine s outP“t O an 2 ` °YWaY— 6 miners Wem~ ` .·r:r” , ~ ¥?‘ W5 , · ‘ l " 1 ` W-? ‘‘l· § ` , ` T if t 1; l lv ·` . ~ `l _V ` A Q ` i ~ Y l ‘ V V4 V ` , ,, , l _ M`, { " . , t., , H. ., ~ , , [ ·*:?’»#;g~, .,~,, ,¤~; _ , V, ; ·_. Vg.; ·`.,» { .5 ~' . M l ‘ · ‘*“1‘Zv=* . ~` U ‘ ~ " t·`‘`` ` El . " ,2 ° ‘‘’` V s ¥:’“?¥i ` V , ‘· .;. ` ` .i`· .. ., , · · · .V _ '¢»·~1'“Q ”` "" 7 · ’~ :.—;Q§‘ia"’¢€§f -. . ‘ ·` if l. t . , dt t e; M ` A it l~ . .... . , , .a ~· - ` P-°i a ·‘ A , , - »_ · , ·"r.__r':j`l Ké`&.llHt.t>t§i.` ‘ ·`. _. ’L ... _ zi . . . g . _ v I V V _ . A ‘_ Wah. r ; 1 r Miclhg ~ ~ t. p . ’ xi . V. ` ` i 5 F; t V i ._ _ V 4 . . Q .t·· hiv 2, `.`_ j‘ .· ;· r l , it eiigtiaitizet-¤;g¤·-*?i¤*> ;~ ‘ A . I- ` _ VA f L A ii _`· -`L_r " 7_ I . ei ` · A ·' _,‘£;;;:` — _ - V V _ I' lv Y 4 · tt-‘· -» »r· jay. , 1 _ I !_ me ·°_ _ ` x it , l ( = ` , . · ·‘ i " ‘’»’ — ‘ 4 . — U _ · -,. ,.., , ** " n l ‘ ' V V i V. . ..,,._.. » '_ ., ,... ft an rr ‘ V X ’*’*" ‘ ` F_ . ‘ _ l g , Tir" _ ,` ¤ "“‘j”" ‘ .. ¤ " ` l · e »#`* i t if ia 1 .,,,., , · ~ ··ee—— . . . · TL., A} ` `,`W,_v rv .-, N. . ._ T -.. te;- _. , l l , A _,?,» _ . . ···“· ‘ . .. .;% ‘‘.t ; ;=—;-·-mam, _ . .. . l l ., . t " "i V " `. ie ;""#rii ‘‘·. . ‘~,. 1 V. ° l ‘`‘ ·»=- . · — . . i _;· ‘· t; tag Q M , t - `ti t .a.e ‘ · . .. i .~ 1 ?`3l , ` ; ; a · ~ aq T" ; —.·· . — e~ . .’:» =e·;T·¥ T ‘ » ‘ · _ _ _ ~ ei _ I §%;iif€*“Q;a?;¤&i:a: " ;z· , ~ · -§'° p hoto 3.6 Port Harcourt—Arrival of first coal train alongside the S.S. Sir Hugh 3 5 Construction of railway tothe Udi Mine, €ifa;J¤i3§s;im§shu;; EXE! j a {Tab _ me E- SKF 0 th ° fst Id!-mls 2_ of therroadways. The timbermen set timber to support the roadways, and railmen · Pcncmc m cmg Pus e mm S mm"s· , i lay rails for the tubs used to carry coal from the work face to the surface. HowWe were forced to carry barrels of cement from Onjtshe le Udi Where they were I ' ever, in the year before the railway reached Udi, coal was carried in head baskets building Udi Customary Court. A barrel of cement will be carried by four per- V wher by young boys or by P"isO“m`S· sons from Onjtsha to Udi, though they wm be changed by another fem men when 2 The special labor gangs built the main road, or adit, into coal outcroppings on theyre med That is they Wm be eighe when we reached Udi We were forced I the side of the hill. Branching off from the adit at specific intervals like ribs from to Continue the construction of the present Mdiken Hm [e mad} When We ,`.` . the spine, were secondary roads or side entries. The side entries were mutually reached Enugu, We were forced to stm working in the mine Oh! We suffered! parallel and extended some distance into the seam. The area between two side enWe cannot go back for we were under the guard of court messengers. We at long ; V mes wa? ¤¤ll=d aP“”El· wd was managed as a distinct unit of dw mine. The BClast discovered that working in the mines is beneficial for we are being paid and ` we dumng operations were l¤¤¤¤h¢d from These Bmdds imo the wal- E¤¢h 8101-IP We were no more being harassed by the chiefrsg { { of mmers opened a coal face at regular intervals along the side enrijy, working from 3 j the entry back into the coal. (See Figure 3.1.) Mbamelu’s gradual accommodation to the mines was fairly typical for youn 2 The heading is the miner’s workplace, the coal face where he excavates the coal. men who were usually the targets of the corrupt chiefs. Even with Onyeama’s elab I _ The dimensions of the space depend on how wide he makes the coal face, and the
V "We Were All Slave.r" f l. Creating the Colonial Workplace and the Colonial City 113 112 g . Figure 3.1 Pillar and Stall Mining Diagram ~ ` , ` i ` Bird's-eye view of a typical Enugu mine district that is being worked in "develop_ `_ i ment." Coal is extracted in the process of dividing up the site. Pillars are left to » . , · A ` ,. ` g _ . W , support the roof. The extraction of the pillars is called ”robbery." As the pillars are ' v` ““' ` y. , ~•x _ :-» { mined, the area is temporaroily supported by timber which, when withdrawn, . 4 { ` _ ` ` allows the roof to collapse. Q T sine Errrkv . i l r w i an s o MCE ` o· ` ·» i ,_ , _, ;_ E , tgp { 4_ ·;,§.»_ig, g lu. Fin.; ` . { _____ J 1 . l ‘r‘’ Y a 4 i l 'r _ _....., 1 _ ’ ua g E . ¢ » Q ' rm X » . . s... _ E ` . = 2 ·{>léi§ei23`*Z~‘=i>L he Vue r~-/A‘*’ ` r. ,_ W ra xi are ` · “ V V _ * W - --4* ·r ir? .` A. i W· ° ' l ` ra r r-—”’V‘lr“i~T?Z F ? ‘l‘< ii"' V Fi * I ,,2 - A W - it » aZ>"* WV ·u”.e . W I A ‘Fl#* ii, » Vu» e:"?a r ` V il =· ir - V `· ·V “‘i °· ¤;i=·‘“·W= - ` isi ' :1;.* '·*= w ·‘ V“~·».s...-’ **:1 - , » ` “ ·¤ ' .~1?l’.· `;+‘;` YV- ye. h ,,¤~ r W. '’`‘ 5 i ae W V Wa; W e i `‘,V " »~ { 4 ·· Y -V . - ur-. , ·` V is wer;-·:; ·,.W ,__ ~ " V ~ L l ‘ -. ~ t V V—-- i "’ U ii - pi W ‘ 5; ii ·V·W W_& A ‘ ··"'*$e· ` I" _ IAQ r E ‘ ` { 'QE"·sr: $ $·‘§ lm r " ¤ W, . Q, ( Q _ J V ·· . ; ev; ;·.· Qrjqh ._.;. .yr;»,._.r E ‘ ·· W rV WW V r. ‘ -. r » e- V ¤ . ~ e. he "€ »·»— ~`r -1 M V e ' gg. `V ` ' V- .nfe;‘;:?¥¤?e Wji; Wi; VV i ` .- W =r ,; ” f git; W r·.~ ;,_= ~. · V V · _·¤ . ; r _,W,, e; ry. Wg _ ~ b, _ ; . ,, _ . A -r.» K A ,r _ qs -- rz » ·· V ·-· V V r V ;..~ ;;*5h¤.?··=_W· —. . t V;¥}Y~ . · ..r*e?‘ ¤-(¢ . ,*5 ` ‘ l ° ga-; » i ‘ ' E A ’ age di i V W " W . J¤”i** I V'VV 1 . V V i» W F ‘;;,r‘:¤‘.r· '::·. .W=»e.· ‘ , ’_ i W . ·e· “ A V W ~ 1 i V .· W ",’ ‘ - , W - ?*°=»; `* ' -..·°‘r¤ L · 4 A ` ‘ '`_V $3-iii ~ A » -‘ A g WW - W V, _ V ‘ - ¤ VV `- VV‘· ° A? —‘VVV " ` W fra:--°r"·*V=· VWWWWWW W Ws ` TT W ‘ . V“VV ‘ W V i" _- A L ··W: E W,~W ‘ * WV LW =»;i· ¤W · .'‘i V V Y I `V‘:W W iii ‘‘`‘ ” ` ·` — °" Y·a‘e‘~?V··w~—-£¢"i-€Wl~..- W ~7e#??’Y:,e·t “'iT’ A ~ ."°% V ‘·"* :*s§’ e W ir ·· -.W·W .. ~r. =» ~V · - V mw W V· · · r - i l r _ , Jig" ' -4 ` '. I- ‘t»;t`; ‘ :‘ ‘»_ %Q;‘j;{?*€?'¤.‘{;yi;ev·`r: W _ 1 Photo 3.11 Young men with head baskets at mine entrance (Crown Agents) $ I l ' " ` ` " t lu W h U l ` e Photo 3.12 Miners with tallies around their necks. A group of hewers, circa 1915. V V’· H Atally, like the ones worn around the necks of two men in this photo, is attached to court messengers and absconded from Enugu, returning to their villages. Even there V _; V` the W0fl<ef'5 tub te id€¤Th°Y his ¤ut¤ut· (C'°W"’ Agents) ` the chiefs weren’t always strong enough to force them to retum to the mines. Man- g 3 agement also had difficulty insuring that men, once appearing at the job, would, in ` z _ _ fact, remain throughoutafull shirt, erprrrsrre nerr were withrequisite enerr. The i l W- E¤¤gu’sma¤agerswereeehfrehtedW¤t*raae¤efahZedP*°bl°mamuue °°‘°¤}“ arrangement er me mine Wren ns multiple entrances facilitated unauthorized de. i· g capital in Africa—h¤W te get Afhcahs ttl “ale i V that enhanced the wer1rers· role as political and economic pertretpehts in their ynte eernpre en e vagenes o e mer et· e v rn e trnagtnatton o oro" . lages. Increased wages became a commonality for fully proletarianized workers pean colliery staff and state officials, and reflected ethnocentric assurnptions about the nfeteighv uthehized Wotketsi and their mtahbased ··i0e8_i»· eOi_mtei.PaitS_ Both Africnn abilities. racism, and s ncstalgie view cf an cidcrcd snd repressive nirsl . ‘ felt eh enduring commitment to remit reeedrees ter the development ofthe home lifes Wnne vilifying African men as bein; too etmottwatdd t° b°°°nt° dtsctptmed . Z village. But while the "foreigners"’ involvement in village politics was more rev¤ri<ersr_ celenid efghits scrnevvhst envied their lives in the hdedhe vet sed¤¤· t mete, the philosophical errerrretreh wes stm against the city, which they considtive Y Pnnnttvet nn nge- t ered "made and owned by the white man." This ciileniclist pnsni prevented the rnsnsserr Leek. frcin seeing these Ennen E i For s·1eee1’· weekly or daily eerttrrrdters the connection was more intimate ehd incn as miners- Despite his awhreness cf the deeply rccted trdditicns cf indepen- r ‘ _ they were active errd respected participants ih the social and political hre er the denee= resrstnneet end absenteetsrn ctthc Nonnnrgbertand nnners <Eit·shsh)· sllhe ` village. Steady and adequate wages from government work allowed them to preccnld see in the Enngn nnncrs wss difference They were heys snd net in- g r serve and ehhehee their role as men in the yrnege, edd gave them ehetrgh her. dnstnd rnen rgrtinerr etttervenees fren; tne lshcr market was tnljerlsreted as sn ` gaining power to shape a pattern of work that maintained this involvement. rndreanon cr their taztness snd PnnnnYe ennraeter- Howeveri rn ree·ntY e dt‘ Z ¥ Although this pattem contradicted the capitalists’ conception of work discipline, verse ccllicry Wcrking class was defining itself in the tcwnshipr lshcr enrnpsr and rri _; punctuality, and hdehty, it nonetheless indicated the perrdttrrerrt place 0fl’IllD€ work
142 "We Were All Slaves" The Postwar Crmjuncture 143 in their social reproduction. They were committed to work at the colliery but on ` organizational patterns that they developed reflected Igbo sensitivities, political their terms.5 Their high rates of absenteeism, equally characteristic of their British ` ` structures, and processes, but were filtered through the new challenges of the incounterparts, were also related to the danger and unpleasantness of their work site. dustrial workplace, the city, and the political institutions introduced by the coloThey were social beings and not just a social category, and their priorities, com- `i nial state. plaints, and goals had to be examined in light of their overarching concems.° The } Thirdly, the chapter argues that the organization of work, and the ways in which industry accornrnodated itself to this pattern. workers relate in the process of producing coal, shapes the struggles that occur in After the war Enugu workers recognized their increased power in a nascent labor _ , the mines. By identifying the lines of authority within the various systems of exmarket that was further weakened by the influenza epidemic, new demands for un- g traction, one can outline the conflicts, autonomy, and interdependence of various sldlled labor from the extension of the Eastern railway to Kadima, and the con- i I categories of work.7 This sociology of production, aptly analyzed by Michael Bustruction of the Southern Protectorate headquarters in Enugu. These conditions ~ rawoy, and noted in the previous chapter, allows us to identify the points of fricpulled even harder at the fragile fabric of the labor system. Even when export mar- i 7 tion and potential for collaboration between workers, and to understand the forces kets collapsed during the recession of 1921, the labor market was too weak to at- fi that encouraged and encumbered collective action. tract workers, and management experiments with various systems of recruitment Y It is therefore argued that as African workers interacted with each other and with had limited success. { European staff, they both experienced and reproduced "par1:icular social relations" This chapter makes several arguments. First, it contends that the postwar period `T and the "political and ideological notions that regilate production."“ These nowas a critical conjuncture for the development of a culture of protest with an evolv- Y t tions, that included the assumptions about white and African labor, constituted an ing ideology of reciprocal rights and responsibilities of employers, employees, and `i_ "apparatus of production" which was reinforced by the legal and "customary" pathe state. In this new culture, workers used delegations, strikes, petitions by pro- ` rarneters of colonial labor policy. In Enugu the centrality of "indirect rule" in both fessional letter-writers, and pre-tmde union organizations to place their grievances ` j· · the workplace and general society was an important aspect of this apparatus. The before the industry. Even inexperienced, unskilled workers came to the workplace .`.. i ` . "Native Court" and its officials were charged to supply and discipline labor from with goals, expectations, and approaches to work that shaped their responses to the 4 ` the villages. And the mines reproduced the co1·ruption, extortion, and graft which material conditions of the mines and their relationships with fellow workers, su- c they sponsored in the villages outside.9 The ability of workers to defend themselves pervisors, and European staff. These formed a moral world against which they mea- .` against these industrial abuses was initially circumscribed by their vulnerability to sured their experiences in the mines. As workers for a state industry they had j strong rural chiefs and the weakness of their movement. But by the end of the despecitic expectations of treatment that reflected the cultural dimensions of politi- cade, they had begun to chip away at the hegemony of "boss boys" in the discical authority. Their ideas about political authority reflected Igbo notions of the re- f plinary structure of the mines. sponsibilities of leaders in which reciprocity was an underlying principle. They ~ ~‘ In the workplace, points of friction between various categories of workers and accepted the ideology of "progress" and "personal improvement," which they were A the African and European supervisory staff created a dynamic that affected the optold were the reasons for imperialist conquest. However, the exact nature of this `. Z eration of the mine. These contradictions in the workplace were the cause of much "progress" was not just a reproduction of the ideologies of colonialist architects. _ of the unrest in this and subsequent decades, and reflected Burawoy’s "politics of It was nltered through the cultural idiom of their cornrnunities and incorporated ‘ production,” that is, the exercise of power and authority within the production progender ideologies that reflected the deep social transformations of the early twen- · cess.1° By identifying how individual men and categories of men affected the pay tieth century. Igbo men were com.m.itted to their families and villages, and utilized il V pocket of a worker, the dynamics and contradictions between men in the workmine work in creative ways to fulfill old and new masculine norms. ", _ ` place can be traced. Second, the chapter explores the connections between the men’s position in the ;; The chapter will establish the connections between the organization of work and hierarchy of production and the self-identity and consciousness that this encour- “' the miners’ involvement in village life, which brings the villages in Nkanu and Agaged. As the men entered the various sectors of the underground workforce and baja into our analysis. While a full social history of rural life requires more suslearned the tasks that constituted their jobs, they developed an acute awareness of ~ ., tained research, anecdotal references in the archives and corroborating interviews the power relations in production. One part of this awareness empowered them to Q suggest that the socioeconomic ascent of colliery men in their villages was organize collective action at favorable moments with good effect. Another part of ~`i ' watched with foreboding by political officials and "chiefs" alike. They became this awareness led them to challenge colonial forms of industrial discipline that 5, vectors of new, and often insurrectionary ideas in the countryside and championed victimized them daily. The unfavorable conditions at work and the harassment and J [ new definitions of "freedom" that challenged the "irnagined" authoritarian order brutalization by various "native" and European staff encouraged the workers to , that colonialists created in the rural areas. The interplay of these rnen, asserting experiment with new organizational forms to mobilize around their interests. The H Z their position as social beings, and the management’s perception of them as mere
144 "We Were All Slzwes” Tl The Postwar Canjunr-ture 145 “units of labor," makes this a particularly rich period in the history of labor at the { J critical to the attem of protest at the colliery. 'These men, often semiliterate and TP colliery. I = familiar with the law, framed working class grievances and complaints in the pe* T ` titions to the government. James Jaja of Oha, an ex-slave of King Jaja of Opobo, THE CITY OF ENUGU: A CRUCIBLE OF POLITICAL T was a railway worker and petition writerll wh;) became famous throughout OnitAND INDUSTRIAL FERMENT s sha Province until lns death in the late fifties. T T Although in many respects Enugu was a typical colonial city (i.e., the predomBy the end of the war Enugu had rnany of the trappings of a fuH-fledged c01o- TT inance of single men, overcrowded housing, poor sanitation, and a cordan saninial town. The layout was complete and it now had a "native" and European area, ` l tuire between the “Native" and European areas), it differed in many significant expatriate trading firms, and several schools run by the Church Missionary Soci- ways from colonial towns in settler colonies. For example, urbanization did cause ety and the Roman Catholic Church." In addition to the colliery labor camps at ~ adjustments in gender roles, but working class men did not delegate domestic tasks Coal Camp, Iva Valley 1 and 2, and Riverside Camp, there were several for rail- ‘ to prostitutes, as White has described in Nairobi.1’ Neither did they perform "fe— way, the Public Works Department, the police, prisons, and other govemment agen- VT male" tasks which, as socially mature men, they considered to be beneath them. cies}2 The housing stock was still rather rustic with over 500 "bush houses," but Y, They used young boys, usually relatives, to cook and clean for them. In Igbo so- ’ the opening of the indus1;ry and railway attracted the major expatriate trading {inns .r ciety mature men did not cook, and they did not trust non-relatives to cook for and the Christian missionary societies. The competition for "sou1s" between the 1 them.7·° The boys also retumed home with the men on weekends and brought back Protestant (Church Missionary Society and Primitive Methodists) and the Catho- { yams and food on Sunday. It was not uncommon for several men to share one "boy lics (Holy Ghost Fathers) was already in full swing, and by the twenties both had T . servant." This use of junior men to perform women’s tasks suggests that one critchurches and schools in the city}3 — ical social differentiation for males in Igbo society was between men and boys.2l The city grew rapidly during World War I and became increasingly cosmopol- T The boys also assumed tasks that symbolized the ma.n’s position in the workforce. itan. It was a bustling working—class town in which most wage laborers worked for Y, In a ritual of workplace status they carried the "pick boys’ " tools to work daily.22 the state. Fully 7,000 of its 10,000 inhabitants were employed by various govern- This preservation of socially matme male privilege created problems for urban ofment departments in 1927.** Of this total there were 200 African staff and some licials who were confronted with overcrowding in the labor camps}3 "Small boy" 786 skilled workers and artisans (colliery skilled workers, carpenters, bricklayers, servants outnumbered women and children in the colliery’s labor camps.2" But state Htters, etc.) with incomes of £40 a year}5 'I’he varieties of jobs in govemment em- officials never reached a consensus on the organization of space in Enugu, unlike ployment gave Enugu’s African population a class complexity uncommon in most T i. T more strictly controlled settler towns like Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Lusaka. Nigerian cities. The railway always had a significant number of artisans, men who _ . While the working class elaborated an urban culture, colliery employees transworked as electricians, mechanics, fitters, et cetera. Many were seconded to the T; formed the countryside as well. In the twenties only a third of the colliery’s 2,000 colliery, where they constituted the most conscious sector of the mir1es’ working employees lived permanently in the city, and were usually "foreign" skilled or clerclass. All had had some prior training, often in mission schools, and considered { . ical Igbo and others. Another third of "local men" lived in the various labor camps themselves in a class apart from the "common" laborers. ` and commuted home to the village on weekends. The iinal third lived in the vilSpanning all categories of govemment employment were a crucial group of ’ T lages within a fifteen·mile radius of Enugu and cormnuted daily to work.25 These clerks, all literate, Christian men, most often from areas considered more "civi- ,» 1 differential commitments to urban life did not prevent the enlightenment and lized" than Enugu. Some were also employed as civil servants when the adniinis- t modernity of the city from influencing the countryside. On the contrary, both daily trative ca ital was moved to Enugu in 1929. These men played a prominent role i and weekly commuters thought of themselves as, and were perceived by others to P. in establishing and running the many urban improvement ("tribal") unions that cre- ,, be, a progressive force in their villages. District officers often mocked their selfated some order in the city and became important sites for networking and the prac- V confidence and prestigious position in the village. For these men steady wages from ticing of valuable organizational skills. , T colliery work brought enhanced status in the village as patriarchs. The steady wages of government employees stimulated a small but significant T j After the war the discontent of the elite found institutional expression in the African business class in transport, real estate, and commerce. Predictably, Udi’s ` V _ founding in 1920 of the National Congress of British West Africa. While this early ovm Chief Onyeama was among the most prominent, having invested his recruit- ‘ J nationalist organization did not successfully galvanize the support in Lagos that it ment and trading income and proceeds from extortion in land. There was also one ` I had in Britain’s other West African colonies, Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, it trader and lorry owner named Brodrick, from Benin, who owned Enugu’s tirst hotel T? ~ nonetheless systematically articulated the grievances and demands of the educated and cinema.*‘ The large working class also attracted a service sector of tailors, "na— i . elite.26 During this period the elite became aware of the commonality of their istive doctors," goldsmiths, and the ubiquitous letter writers whose services were so . ? sues with their counterparts in the African diaspora. While Africans were under-
r. [46 “We Were All Slaves Y The Postwar Conjunczure 147 represented in the Pan African Congress movement organized by W.E.B. Du Bois, whose strike threat led to wide-ranging concessions on salaries and pensions, Nigerian newspaper coverage fostered a sense of the international dimension of I ` African workers also succeeded in securing a 30 percent wage increase? The derhe struggle for the rights of the black man. Even stronger racial awareness €m€fg¤d`}g' gmc of militaucy of the European civil servants shocked Lord Milner, Seeremry with me Garvey Movement, whose development between 1920 and 1925 Was folj ` of STZIS f0l' fhé C0l011ieS, who considered them to be very close to seditious,34 For lowed with enthusiasm in West African ` { Affiwn Civil Servants. this coniiict produced a crack in the facade of imperial eoThese new ideological formulations aroimd the central pivot of race and co10-` ` hesion and racially based control. Emboldened, they began to agitate to emphanialism encouraged challenges to the colonial state. They crystallized in a national size their grievances. mobilization that engulfed both European and African civil servants. These move- aj While in most respects these men were a westemized elite, the dissonance bements pulled iu the colliery workers who had their own speciiic difficulties. 5 tween their cultural affinity with England and their political critique of the racism ` V of British rule created an ambiguity that was expressed in both cultural and political wa s. While the fou ht a ainst racism in the ovemment service the viewed THE POS-I-WAR CONIUNCTURE: RAD'€AL'$Mr SEDI-HON' ""QL laborer;] with disdaih, ang resinted having to liv? so close to their "soci>ail inferiAND RECAI-Cl-{RANT WORKERS ~ ~? ors" in the "native" areas of town. Thus to them, low wages and squalid living conWorld War I had as much of an impact on Nigerian coal miners as it had on their , ditions were both cultural and economic issues and they joined their counterparts British "brothers." Both Welsh and Nigerian miners felt that the state treated them in Lagos and Port Harcourt in a postwar general strike for higher wages and against unfairly after they had given so much to the war effort, and both had been forced _ the color bar. by conditions to strike during the war. After the armistice they continued to press M Among the most compelling demands of the Nigerian staff was the call for an their dissatisfaction with economic conditions. For Nigerian government workers; _ end to job discrimination. From the late nineteenth century, the African westemthe severity of the wartime economy was exacerbated by imperial economic pol- U ` ized elite had increasingly lost prestige as the state replaced them with British civil ioy_ Bulk purchasing agreements, import shortages, and pl'iC€ ceilings offered by ir; I servants at the tum ofthe Century. The color line became an important indicator of British expatriate firms reduced the income for the thousands of farmers selling E` ` col0nialism’s racial system of authority, and restrictions on the upward mobility palm products, The economic impact deepened with trade dislocations following " I of African staff were onerous, especially for men who considered themselves to the banning of popular German merchants, who had purchased over 54,000,000 _ be the epitome of the civilized Victorian gentlernan.35 Since the tum of the century Nigerian agro—exp0rts before the war. Wartime inflation was exacerbated by short- racial issues had long been grist for the mill of the Nigerian press, whose lively ages of silver specie which the United Kingdom used to tinance the war, The hoard- A agitation attracted the attention of literate and illiterate Nigerians alike. Now, after ing of coins by trading companies and individuals pushed prices higher.28 The l Q, _ a war fought against injustice and for democracy and self—determination, these introduction of paper currency, widely unpopular and often rejected by traders, in#`_; - protests continued with renewed vigor, creased prices exponentially? . The P0]1t106l and labor unrest in England, and the agitation of expatriate civil Some of the economic conditions that sparked Nigerian unrest were common to·‘ I servants and the Nigerian educated elite, created a discourse about the responsiboth Britain and Nigeria, and encouraged an atmosphere of political diSCOut€Ht and ’ bilities of the State to those workers who had sacrificed for the prosecution of the labor unrest that erupted after the war. In early 1919 English miners struck for a j . war. The Nigerian elite felt their loyalty to the British state was not being repaid, 30 percent wage increase, a six-hour day, and naticnalization of The iIld\1ST-YY-30 The" KS lh€ state WRS Sl1pp0Sed t0 bring progress, advancement, and "civi1iza\;ion" to the political environment was so unstable that in January and February, British sol-` i colony. Instead, the govemment’s treatment of its African civil servants made it diers rioted demanding dernobilization. Additionally there were disturbances in ` ` difficult for them to progress or to live as civilized men. Their meagre wages made Glasgow and Belfast, and threatened strikes in public transport in London? This ` { it impossible for them to support their dependence on prohibitively expensive imunrest encouraged government to pay attention to colonial protests. wg 1 ported clothes, furniture, and the like. To them the conditions in which they were The first series of oolliery strikes were cormected to the postwar u11I€Si 0fAfI`i¢6I1 y t f0l'¤€d to live WSIC humiliating. In Great Britain the theme of the social responsiand European civil servants. The reverberations of metropolitan unrest ripplcdg bility ofthe state was thrown into public debate in February and March 1919 by through the European and African civil service in Nigeria. Africans in the Niger- ~) ` _ national hearings convened by the Sankey Commission that investigated strikes in inn Civil Service Union petitioned for salary increases and protested diS¤Iimiu¤* ‘ the Coal industry. In dramatic presentations before the commission, the Miners Fed» gory treatment in 1918 to no avail.32 But officials could DOI igl”l01’€ E111'0P€31l~Y ¢f8¥-i0Il of Gl'€8I Britain detailed the harsh realities of their lives.36 These testimonies colonial servants who in early 1919 formed the Association of European Civil SB1'*i» ~ captured public sympathy with their brilliant use of the occasion to describe the vants in Nigeria. They launched an escalating campaign for wage increases and j severe conditions of work, and the poverty suffered by their families, which they improved conditions of service. In the vanguard were the European rail W01‘k€fS* ` contrasted With the lush, prosperous life of company owners, By franijng their ar. 2—*
148 awe Werenll Slaves,. The Postwar Conjunczure 149 gument around the concept of social responsibility and the expectations of better Ucatmcm cxpamatc Stf*fj`· A m°ml_ incident sparked dd acimn "{ thc "“1W*‘Y noatmom by tho slats, the Brnlsh minors provldod a dlsourslvo framework with io when a_Br1t1sh employee ridiculed African members of the African Civil Servants broad resonance for the Enugi miners, In early 1920 this would become a refer- ', . Umdd m Lag°s·40 While the Pc"? dddtdr was Lag°si P°n Hdrdddd- thc tcnmnus woo Point for the mss sodas of sn.lkos_ ` ofthe eastem branch of the Nigerian Railway, became the command center for the While the activism of the colliery workers was contextualized in national and * i sulkc In th°_ castfm Pr°Ym°°s· Thd mst scrles °f_P°StWar Eddgd Smkcs W°'° m` metropolitan political and labor unrest, it was activated by tha specihc conditions i dvddd by ddddddddd d¤$v¤¤¢· dmhdddvddddgddvddddddddtddtdthdvrdbddmd and concerns of their own reality. In addition to the hardship from general infla- tl m bmh uic ujdumy and m th? my _ _ _ tionary pressures, they faced food shortages resulting from the rapid growth of ` Thcm is mac d°°“m°mau°“ °“ me first Smke Dafxmbcr 191* b'j“ mrcc Enugu Colonial olsllolals had failed to create a food system to food sho bul.goou_ i events occurred that would characterize worker activism in the colhery. Fl1'SI,·[l’l6 lng urban Population in the olly and in the labor camps Rural agdoulmral systems men contacted the- general manager of the railway in Lagos rather than negotiate ofthe area were unable to adjust to this sudden demand, aaa food shortages atappaa ( wd Lddk thc dddidx ddddgd dr Md Said ¤fd]€ l?l6§’€d l>y artisan}, spd tlne key producers in the colliery, the “pjck `I Toward the end of 1919 there were signs of an economic crisis. The PHGES of boys, gives insight mto the pnonues, mtolerances, and expectations of these work- ~ palm products began to drop. The return to "n0m1z.lcy" by March 1920 did not SFS. It IS mnt Colnclclental that they should be in the vanguard of this period of un. _ ] mem what the labor problems of the collicry were over. Labor Supplies W€1’€ still rest. Bolh were foreigners and members ofthe urban ethnic unions which, by now, ` short because the labor market had not recovered from the iniiuenza pdndcmjc. has culmfeted a style of protest adagtcd for the mines. In sending deputations and ; \ Moreover, the smallpox epidemic, the labor demands of other government deUsmg P€Ul-IOHS, Théy Deed Z fathéiz standard form of citizen pronegp ~ E _ pgytmems, and the paper currency crisis sti]1 made 1’€CI'U.i¥1T1€1‘lI difficult. Th€ di$· H {he amsan class, ]1kB.t]'1€ clerlcal workers, saw themselves as part of an en- { » trict oflicer called for the expansion of the catchment area for rccruitzmennél The S mled g1’0¤P wgth 3 Sk1lljWr1T1ng—that was valuable, if um indispensable, for ; Q ’ Enugu djsuict officer proposed a rational recruitment system that deplfryed IHUOF the smooth operatxon of the mdustry. As "f0reig11ers" they assumed an awareness " I masters to check off names cf village companies. of colemal society t:l1at came from their earlier exposure to mission education and _ Cognizant of the labor shortage, the hewers requested that they be permitted to colomal adrrumstrauoln Tihey were loyal members ofthe colonial civil service and ’ ` take on assistant hewers and "tubb0ys" in an arrangement that resembled the butty they em}1lated·the radicalism of their European counterparts. They were enemies 3V . system of the Yorkshire coal fields}; The "tubb0ys," who were also paid by the of ‘H’8d1UO[lZ.11SH1,” and most especially of the rural chiefs, and contributed to a [ · hewers, in tum took their own "helpcr" "tubb0ys." The master hewer was paid a general envuorlmcnt of resistance and protest characteristic of urban life. They I ` tonnage (piece) rate and he in tum paid his "helpers." The "helper" hewer paid his were what cfficxals fca1icd—"dc¤ibalized” Africans beyond me moderating mm,- f . corresponding “hé1pe;" "mbboy." The "he1pers" did not appear on the nfiicial rcs€1'1¢¤ Bild-€0¤¤”0] of th€1I Chiefs. But in their urban associations they were an im- le; gf meu actively employed at work on a particular day. By 501116 i1C¤0l1HiS» U1€ Eongntgnxllsr of urban order for a belcagured colonial administration, reliant on rl “ hewer, tubmen, and their respective assistants functioned as a team with internauve allles both and usban `L ` changeable work functi0ns.‘3 Given the pride the hewer had for his skill it is very Their politics was anu—"11·ad1ti0na1ist" and they led the urban opposition to the l ° doubtful that such an egalitarian distribution of tasks actually existed. However, Shlefsf Qvmplalllts by the chiefs of the insurrcctionaxy influence of these urban L ; the principal hewer was clearly the leader and the recognized Worker W}10 Was paid seph1st1cates" became more frequent after World Wa: I, and most officials shared ‘ the wages by the management, and he then paid the helpers? their concern about this autonomous urban population. Missionaries also became * The hewer contractor system continued until 1937 when a strike scttlegnent alarmed at the fhght of young men to the city. In 1928 they remarked that large A ' brought it to an end. The contractor system had several implications for the dc¤1¤fHb€1'S Qf y0¤Hg men Of the church were leaving the villages for Enugu mwuis s , velupmem ofthe werkers’ movement and the productivity levels at The miH€S· First, It was quite easy for young men, disenchanted with the depredations of the rural y it provided an opportunity for the supenexploitatiou of the "helpers" and "tub— chiefs, tg ‘flee’ fo Enugu and join other discontented men and women in the city’s ` b0ys," because their payment was at the discretion of The principal hewer. Secscvc-:ra1“ shanty towns, areas of African autonomy. 2 ondly, it distorted the productivity figures for hewers from 1919 until 1937 when I The Plfk b0}’S,” 011 the Other hand, had a consciousness arising from their I-Ole > * it ended It was virtually impossible for management to accurately 385555 the f€1’1~Ud1 S farmers, the `_ who used his "customa.ry" rights to labor as a village priest to trick his men mto _ ry °r Supp cs remained tenucl-*S· The d€m0gT9·Pl11C impact of the pan- ... going to Iva Valley but explained how villagers resisted: demic, the demand for labor to construct a railway extension to the north, and the ‘i C0¤Stt‘uct1o11 of government buildings for the relocation of the southern Secretariat 2 · I heard the townspeople say that they had to tum up with hoes to Chukwuani’s to Ellllgl pulled at the fi-agile labor mafku Market fumes and the Old coercive Sys_ " _ house (Paramount Chief under D.O.), They left their hoes there and went to Iva [51715 required some modification The smc Wanted Sufficient Supplies Of nfmc ` Valley, They were at Iva 21 days when they came back to his house, they said 1ab0r," but only without wyenchjng the ··natiVE Wcrkep from the moderating in A they would work no more. And [if] they did not work for a month they would fluence and autocratic controls of village rulers. This was a contradiction that W * get no pay mmwould the Chick The people refused to go back to Work and deplagued the state for most of the Colm-dal pcdod The labor Crisis lcd amhmmes to y j i manded their hoes. I said they did not want money. They ran back and did not entplore two radical proposals to stabilize labor supplies, One, offered by the dis- l finish this Work and got no pay not did I when I Ordered P°°pl° to work I did trict officer of Enugu, called for the appointment of a labor officer who would de- i J I not take any mmlcy`70 XELOESEEFTSES gig;} slits; Iain in °a°f};Vm¤§€» keep 1'¢¢0rdS Of labor needed, I Even with this extortion and oppression, labor was still not forthcoming. Afrr-isfound this to be unaccg table Eaczizs Hill gequests. Cigvemor Hugh Clifford · trated district officer painted this exaggerated piQ¤¤f= of the ?f¤¢d¤m of Vma8°*’$ the railway manager SE pimp 16 ¤0¤f¤1¤n. I The other, offered by E. J pushed into the mines, He advocated a more "rat10nal" recruitment scheme. ‘, ggested stabilizing labor by establishing housing estates 1 ‘ . - - · · ¤10d€led·0n domestieity myths and mm] fantasies mythologized in English and { , A man is detailed by his chief to do a month s work. He starts off and on the way Welsh mining villages. Q his wish persuades him that the Chief must have meant a fortnight. He arrives would it be of any use if We con ml ted d _ ' ` and goes to camp. So far as I know he can do what he likes. There are no rules. a certain quantity of mmd and? dc _ a ;f°° typ? °fh}1tg§V¤¤s each l§b¤\1f€f l` - Even if there are, he can break them all with impunity. The only fom-i of control him and make their irrmamm In fum"? m m bnnglus Wife and family with j y is his pay, the amount of which depends upon his punctuality. lfhe is such a nuiin time é _ rh P _ S6 0 Emp Oyges Who might also produce colliers li sauce that he is sent away itis probably the very thing he wants. In any case when s is e case in England and Wales. ij he feels inclined and his respect for the order of the Chief and the Govemrnent
156 ·*wa ware All szamc ` W P¤¤W¤* C¤"fW*¤¤”e 15 7 \ has dwindled snfneiendy hg naeks up and gees heine_ Theie are no binding agree. This abuse interfered with the colliery’s functioning. Colliery overmen complained: lllellls f°l lllllallllll °l w°l`ll* ll° by laWs* ll°llllllg‘7l ll When used for carrying oil after their Colliery day’s work is finished they usuDescriptions of the earliest labor camps (noted in Chapter 2) attest to far more `1 any mum for Work at 7 °l` 7:30 (Very llml) ll`lSl°llll °f al 6 AM q“ll° flllsll Hence coercion than the district ofhcer cared to acknowledge. What frustrated some of- i li *1 PYOPBT d¤Y'$ W0l’k ¤¤¤¤0Y bv 20* out °f Yh°m·l5 ticials was their inability to operate a sufficiently coercive labor system to obtain r Ohyeemee efforts ebbeered selndefeaung because he ennld not Pygvgnt his inen numbers of required workers, or to insure that once at the mines, they would re- t ` frem deeerring when {breed td work all nighh gfien men deployed for ii nienlh main. This reached to the heart of the "West African labor problem." A colonial Q i` only lasted rvve ei. three Weeks befere they beeeme in er simply iefrjs hr he had economy built on peasant production could not risk weakening that peasantry in L i diirieibered this, Onyeema would probably have ineasui-ed his earnings fi-ein nadllle lllllilcsl °f S“PPlYl“g lab°’ for all lllllllslly that Wast llll°l alli allxlllaly l° lllc if Z ing activities against income from mine recruitment and deferred to the former. In Pcasllll c°°n°mY· · — ' trict officer and collie officials, concemed because of the Further, as Phillips has argued for the West African colonies, the state was too . i 5;;,;] ?;ge1.£;igrt;;£ seembiained er Onyeeniyds reealeiuanee and insnbeidinaiien weak to exert the coercion required to enforce wage labor, a coercion that took sev- if aiieging than eral centuries to dispossess the peasantty in Britain where the state was on more i ~ _ _ solid ground. But as the Enugu case demonstrated, the colonial state was so weak ` l , H5 ia-kes 0¤ ¤¤¤¤’¤¤€S Slibly Wlf-h°“* the S1i$ht°§t Idea vf Whilt a ignuacl lS· md it could only be "sustained .. . through a complex of shifting aJliances with local [ Wm TTY md wrigle [sic] Om when thc €l“°S¤0¤ is Pm “P *0 him}, llllclsll Wlll°ll· as s°°ll lll Ellllgll· “°ll°lal€'l lllll mms °ll which °°l°lll‘°lllSlll °P°ll“ l ` There is no evidence that the lieutenant govemor ever responded tc the comated." At the crux of Enugu's labor problem was free access to land. As long as a A pidihre efieeei erheie_is_va The ··ehief·s·· abuses were eensidei-ed a ··iradiiienal·’ ex. mall Could lcmm to his land Ol. llllggalc clscwllellc lll flll`lll’ he would llol be a dc` ` · ercise of his rights to his people’s labor. Officials were too dependent on Onyeama pendable "worker." There could be no landless proletariat. Colonial authorities be- ». » re diseibiirie him Rather than censure him in Maieh 1920, Liguignant Gevei-ne; llcvcd that the Pl'°S°llVllll°ll °f rural Stabiliw md Economy required mat llle smc ~ Moorhouse increased recruitment incentives with a fee schedide. Chiefs were given Support the clllcfs to lllsulle that llelllllmls of colllllllllllll llllld lclllllc lclllalllcll This Q £lO per shift per 100 surface workers and £l5 for underground. The differential llelllg lllc °lls°* lllc Stale was f°l°°ll l° lcly °ll lllc llclllcfsll l° S“PPlY llll°°l* llllll at l` reflected two things: the importance of underground labor for the colliery’s operleast in the early decades, was quite dependent on their whims, which in the case i * eriehi and seeendiye reeegninen that getting n-len undeigiennd niay_ in faeh require lll Clllffs Cllllkwlllllll md Ollyeallllwelll clillslllclablce llllll ‘”hal°Y°‘ llcglcc of l extra coercion. The revision was agreed to in a private meeting between the chiefs °°‘ll°l°ll lll°Y °x€llll°lj72 ll_WaS lllls lllllflllllll lll Wlllllll l°°l’ll llllllls llll°l°lllallllg°‘l · V and Moorhouse after amass recruitment meeting at Eke, Onyeama’s home town.79 lllllll P°plllall°llS· Vlcllllllzlllg lllclll lll pclly WayS· llllll gcllcllllad lcslslllllcc lll lllc i The district officer convened a meeting in Eke to attract men previously emNkanu areas of Udi during World War I. The weakened co1on.ia.l state failed to win i Pieyed by The ebiherv He Offered in pay any i-nan whe i-en_n·ned in wei-k fg; iwe legitimacy in the eyes of the people because of its close association with the abu- .i 1 months the bid relie bins a 20 bereeni war beuus_ At the end ef tvyo inenins this pay sive chiefs. In many ways, as Phillips has argued, "the state .75. was incomplete and Weuid be reereeerive te 1 January 1917.80 ¤¤d¢v¤l¤v¤d - -- i¤ mw Ways =¤ mw f¤¤Simi1= Of ¤ St¤¤¤·" · nhs hawaii an nam can ma his uota of workers to the Despite their schemes to extort and coerce their people, neither Chukwuani nor .2 4 gihuglegnrsgras W;h en his Way in beebining a #·nied§i—n*· businessman, eager O“Y°”·‘“*‘ Could Plcvclll lllc lllllsslvc dcscllllllls when lllcll lllcll lllllllllcd l° lllell l · to identify opportunities in urban real estate and he did not entertain the illusionfalllls °ll llllsmlldcll l° thc °itY· B°lll lllllllllslllllll this wellkllcss llllll Seized the lll°` ll ary models of colonial control that the field administrators held. He lcnew he was ment to conscript labor for their own economic activities. Onyeama was more suc- powerful and he was pursuing his nwn inndel of dgvcloprngnt Bin he was also cllssflll lllall Cl‘“l"”“*‘“l~ llflcll l°°P*“‘llZl“€ S“PPli°S °f llllsklllell lalllll in thc z A aware of the threats that urban leaders posed. He knew he could not supply all those l“°l“S"Y· lll lll° msc lll Agbaja men, llllllll lal°°l llld ll°l cxcmpl llllllll from lllc workers he was contracted to recruit. In April he supplied only 220 of the prom°l‘l°fls °Wll a°llVlll°S‘ lll lllllllllly lgzo Lcck wlllpllllllcll llllll llls men Wclll being · ised 600-900 Agbaja laborers. At the end of May, 700 workers left Iva Valley mine f°ll°lld’ allcll W°ll°’ l° cllllly O“Y°“m“lS Palm °ll lll llllllkcl llll°llgll°lll the lllglll .i l before replacements arrived. The real limits of even Onyearna’s powers were unAll Udi llcld °lllC€l. descllbcd sllcll a callavlllll l E l derscored in June when he was unable to force some 200 new workers to work unLast month when I was coming on here to see the Resident . . . I saw on the road l d€l'§'°lmd~ Yeilul-Ying that r