Adamawa past and present:
Date
1958
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
London: International African Institute (Oxford University Press,
Abstract
general description; ethnological notes; exploration; the royal Niger company;the British occupation; war and peace; some later travelers;. the development of general administration; history of Adamawa division; history of Muri division; history of Numan division; leaves from the provincial diary; valediction; Adamawa bibliography.
Description
The history of Adamawa
Province presents a straightforward and vivid picture of the
Province as an officer in the Nigerian Administration has come
to know it during several years ofservice and study devoted to its
interests and problems. He describes its mountains and waterways,
the character and occupations of its peoples, the political and
economic conditions of the present day. He also sketches, in an
equally lively manner, the history of the area over the past 150
years—a period in which it was the scene of the rise and warfare
of the Fulani kingdoms, became of increasing interest to European
trading firms, and was laid claim to by three different European
powers within the short space of twenty-five years. For this part
of his book the author draws on the works of French, German,
and British travellers and explorers, on the reports and records of
administrators and trading companies, and on Fulani texts and
traditions, using verbatim quotations many of which are here
translated for the first time.
While making no claim to exhaustive historical research or
the presentation of new ethnographical material, this record of
the varying fortunes of the territory, of the life of its peoples, the
efforts and endurance of its explorers and the achievements of the
early administrators, is of particular interest when the pattern of
economic and political life in Nigeria is again being rapidly transformed.