I picked up my wristwatch and read “2 AM.” The GST112 (Nigerian Peoples and Culture) slides are wide open in front of me. I need fresh air. Reading the history of Nigeria for the past 4 hours has been exhausting; little did I know I was about to read something that would blow a new breeze of thoughts my way.
“They viewed and described the indigenous people as hordes of savages, among other derogatory terms. Therefore, they had a duty to civilize these barbarians and establish law and order.” My sunken eyes read. ‘They’ are the British; ‘the indigenous people’ are the forefathers of you and me.
A rancorous feeling built up in me. I wondered who uses such an absurd term against those having a similar physical structure to them. Or are they trying to describe our forefathers as less human? I mean, they are coming in to take our raw materials with the audacity to claim ‘having the duty’ to civilize our forefathers and establish law. We had law before their arrival; we are in order and have been peaceful people long before they tried claiming what is not theirs—our land and resources. Far before they tried taking away our way of life. The British are audacious!
I could stop reading and think more about how our forefathers had suffered, but that will mean failing this course; I have to continue. I wanted to cry and wished our forefathers never had to die because some humans, ‘deficient in melanin,’ wanted to maintain law and order on our soil.
“In 1897, the kingdom of Benin, under Oba Ovonramwen, resisted British attempts to dominate its lucrative trade in palm oil, ivory, and rubber.”
If men with advanced weaponry want to snatch your source of income and make you beg for crumbs falling from their table, you should fight back even if death is inevitable, right? Your family depends on it, and it’s equally your responsibility to protect that with your life. If that’s so, what have our forefathers done wrong to resist British control over their income? They fought hard to protect what is theirs and just couldn’t measure up to the enemy. I paused, felt the anger build up in me, and the first drop of tears fell on my book.
“Politically, Britain’s move to conquer Nigeria was partly to outpace European rivals, especially France and Germany, during the scramble for Africa.” Britain must have believed the autonomy of our forefathers was not as important as their hunger to become the lord among their fellow oppressors. “Take it if you can.” That must have been their motivation to take what belongs to us. To weaken other people for a show of superiority.
They took it because they could. A single bullet capable of splitting heads is in their possession, and over time, our forefathers yielded, handing the responsibility of their families’ feeding over to outsiders. In the end, they lost their freedom. “An injustice to one is an injustice to all.” We lost our freedom!
“Railways and roads were constructed to move resources from the interior, coal from Enugu, groundnuts from Kano, and cocoa from Ibadan, to coastal ports like Lagos and Port Harcourt for export, not to connect regions for internal growth.”
We know you granted us freedom at the end, but at what cost? After turning our countrymen against each other. “Obafemi Awolowo (1947): Nigeria is a geographical expression, not a nation.” My eyes scanned through the texts. They made one of our founding fathers say that, a statement that threatens our national unity—fueled by the British continued effort at turning them against each other. The founding fathers should have done better; national unity should have been their priority, but they, the so-called ‘European Powers,’ are the ones behind it all.
I took my exam and passed in spite of my anger against what I had read. I don’t know if I will end up remembering everything, but should I forget, then I have betrayed my past. Even if the interest of you and me in this country is dwindling and its history has not been made compulsory to remember, we should revisit the past. We should reminisce on how this nation has come to be! For now, there is nothing it needs more than our unity, or the civilizers shall come in a different form with a new justification.
Abdulgafar Omoyemi
