The Imperial Archive
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The Colonial and Postcolonial History and Literature of Nigeria
See also Other African Regions
In many ways, Nigeria has a unique Colonial history. Perhaps more than in any other colonial project, missionaries were used to their utmost effectiveness. After their success in fighting for the abolition of the Slave Trade, they targeted Nigeria with a dual purpose - to convert the natives and to discover natural resources which could be traded as a substitute for slaves.
It was on the back of the large trading companies, like the Royal Niger Company, that colonisation began in the latter half of the ninteenth century. To a large extent, Nigeria was colonised using her own resources. Nigerian soldiers were used to apply the brute force of colonial demands, the administration and bureaucracy relied heavily on Nigerian co-operation, and the missionaries made full use of Africans in evangelising the region.
This site is divided into three sections:
Section One is concerned with the experience of the colonial administrators and missionaries in this alien land for which they were thoroughly unprepared. It will also study the portrayal of these experiences from both a colonial and postcolonial viewpoint. The main texts under consideration here are Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.
Section Two will focus on the experience of the colonised people, using as a case study the Igbo people of South East Nigeria. A historical and cultural background to these people will be given, followed by an analysis of the one of the effects of Imperialism on this culture as portrayed in Chinua Achebe’s The African Trilogy. There will also be a discussion of this trilogy as a postcolonial work ‘writing back’ to Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson, and finally, a short essay on Achebe and his attitudes to language - an important aspect of any discussion on postcolonial literature.
Section Three concerns other Nigerian postcolonial writers, including Amos Tutola.
Section 1: Colonial Administrators and Missionaries
- The experience of European administrators in Nigeria: Some historical background
- The role of missionaries in pre-colonial and early colonial Nigeria: A factual look at this important aspect of the colonial Nigerian experience
- The experience of colonial administrators as portrayed in colonial fiction: Joyce Cary's Mister Johnson
- Postcolonial responses to the missionaries : Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
- Annotated bibliography: Further reading in this area
Section 2: The Colonised People -- the Igbo of South East Nigeria
- The Igbo People - Origins and History
- Religion and the Igbo People
- Government and Social Structure in Igboland
- Corruption as a Consequence of Colonialism - as portrayed in Achebe’s African Trilogy
- The African Trilogy: 'Writing Back' to Mister Johnson
- Chinua Achebe and the Language of the Colonizer
- Things Fall Apart: The Gender Debate
- Things Fall Apart: Igbo people and tradition, powerless products of human language?
- Annotated Bibliography
Section 3: Other Nigerian Postcolonial Writers
Related websites for Nigeria
This project was completed under the direction of Dr Leon Litvack as a requirement for the MA degree in Modern Literary Studies in the School of English at the Queen's University of Belfast. The site is evolving and will include contributions from future generations of MA students on other writers and themes.
