Government and administration of Kano emirate 1900-1930.
Date
1985
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Enugu: University of Nigeria Press, Nsukka,
Abstract
Precolonial traditions of government and administration; Establishment and crisis of British administration, 1900—08; Evolution of a new central administration 1909—30; Territorial administration and power structure; The judicial system; The fiscal system: Revenue and expenditure; Education and manpower development.
Description
Since the past fifty years scholars dealing with African history have shown varying degrees of interest in colonial rule. The British system of imperial administration
known as Indirect Rule has invariably attracted a great deal of attention. In 1928 R.L. Buell produced The Native Problem in Africa, and eight years later Lucy Mair’s Native
Policies in Africa appeared. Both authors showed interest in Indirect Rule, but in the Nigerian context the first attempt at a detailed study of the subject was Dame Perham’s native administration in Nigeria which was published in 1937. As pioneer works these studies did command and still attract a lot of interest inspitc of the limited facilities and techniques of investigation at the disposal of their authors. For over two decades now African scholars have been writing on the theme of
colonial rule in Nigeria. Some of these works have now been published and have added substantially to our understanding of the subject. The approach of the African authors differ in several ways from that of their expatriate colleagues. For instance, each author has limited his inquiry to a particular area of the country and thus carried out a study in depth. He has also made a more critical use of documentary sources than the earlier generation of writers ever cared to do, quite apart from utilizing in his reconstruction information retrieved from oral evidence — again a technique which was alien to the pioneer authors.