International African Institute

The Story of Nigeria by Michael CrowderReview by: A. H. M. Kirk-GreeneAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1963), pp. 161-162Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1158292 .

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REVIEWS I6I

of the Coast of Tanganyika, has pointed out the difficulties in accepting this view. But with so little available material we can perhaps expect little more than conjecture in any case, and certainly Sir John Gray's conjectures are more informed than most and worth attending to. The later sections of the book contain much information only briefly referred to by Coup- land, the principal earlier writer on Zanzibar's first contacts with Europe. The author has made interesting excerpts from writings of French and American consuls and slavers, and we are given a clear account of the ways in which Seyyid Said faced the many threats to his State, divided as it was between Zanzibar and Muscat, made by anti-slave-traders, merchants, and less reputable fry.

There are several small misprints, and proof-reading might have been better. For example, there is clearly a confusion in the dates given for the arrival of the missionaries Krapf and Rebmann (pp. I89 and 19I). But these faults are balanced by an excellent list of references and a full bibliography.

As a traditional history of Zanzibar, mostly from the viewpoint of the outside observer, this is most adequate. The reviewer expresses the wish that in future there should be more ethnological research into the history of Zanzibar and Pemba islands. It is not a criticism of Sir John Gray's work to say that it would have been better for such material. With available historical material he has been unable to throw much light on the actual relationship between the Sultan and the tribal rulers of the Hadimu, Tumbatu, and Pemba, or on the organization of the latter's polities. He has done better than earlier writers on these matters, but there is still much missing. Likewise we are given tantalizing mentions of the internal organization of the Arab-owned clove plantations, worked by slave labour, and of the economics of the slave-trade: more information should be gathered while it is still just possible. Meanwhile, this book is the standard work on the history of this Sultanate. JOHN MIDDLETON

The Story of Nigeria. By MICHAEL CROWDER. London: Faber, I962. Pp. 307, ill., maps. z2s. WHEN tackling secondary school history masters on why they do not include more Nigerian material at the expense of, say, Greek or Carthaginian in their history syllabus, I have been countered with the retort: 'Because there is no good book on Nigerian History.' Such a

reply has so far been only too sadly true. Sir Alan Burns's History of Nigeria was first written in the I920's and its subsequently added chapters in no way bring it into line with con- temporary African historiography. Sir Rex Niven's A Short History of Nigeria has been more relevant to senior primary and old middle schools than for a West African School Certificate history syllabus. Professor J. D. Fage's Introduction to West Africa, useful as it is for school work, is clearly too broad in its scope to fill the role of being a standard history of Nigeria.

With the publication of Mr. Crowder's The Story of Nigeria it seems that the teacher's

prayer is answered. Well written and comprehensive, combining a wide reading of original works and

standard secondary sources with the latest tools of modern African historical research (in particular the resources of archaeological evidence and oral tradition), Mr. Crowder's book takes us, in sixteen chapters, through the story of Nigeria from the Sudanese States and the kingdoms of the forest to the unification of Nigeria, the rise of nationalism, and final independence. There are plenty of photographs, a dozen well-drawn maps, and figures that will be of considerable teaching value.

Mr. Crowder succeeds admirably in the first three chapters in dispelling the erroneous but common assumption that 'before the colonial period Africans had very little history '. Common sense rather than emotionalism marks the chapter on the Atlantic slave-trade: ' Once slavery had been instituted it was hopeless to expect those Africans who profited from it to have any more conscience about it than those Europeans who bought slaves,

REVIEWS I6I

of the Coast of Tanganyika, has pointed out the difficulties in accepting this view. But with so little available material we can perhaps expect little more than conjecture in any case, and certainly Sir John Gray's conjectures are more informed than most and worth attending to. The later sections of the book contain much information only briefly referred to by Coup- land, the principal earlier writer on Zanzibar's first contacts with Europe. The author has made interesting excerpts from writings of French and American consuls and slavers, and we are given a clear account of the ways in which Seyyid Said faced the many threats to his State, divided as it was between Zanzibar and Muscat, made by anti-slave-traders, merchants, and less reputable fry.

There are several small misprints, and proof-reading might have been better. For example, there is clearly a confusion in the dates given for the arrival of the missionaries Krapf and Rebmann (pp. I89 and 19I). But these faults are balanced by an excellent list of references and a full bibliography.

As a traditional history of Zanzibar, mostly from the viewpoint of the outside observer, this is most adequate. The reviewer expresses the wish that in future there should be more ethnological research into the history of Zanzibar and Pemba islands. It is not a criticism of Sir John Gray's work to say that it would have been better for such material. With available historical material he has been unable to throw much light on the actual relationship between the Sultan and the tribal rulers of the Hadimu, Tumbatu, and Pemba, or on the organization of the latter's polities. He has done better than earlier writers on these matters, but there is still much missing. Likewise we are given tantalizing mentions of the internal organization of the Arab-owned clove plantations, worked by slave labour, and of the economics of the slave-trade: more information should be gathered while it is still just possible. Meanwhile, this book is the standard work on the history of this Sultanate. JOHN MIDDLETON

The Story of Nigeria. By MICHAEL CROWDER. London: Faber, I962. Pp. 307, ill., maps. z2s. WHEN tackling secondary school history masters on why they do not include more Nigerian material at the expense of, say, Greek or Carthaginian in their history syllabus, I have been countered with the retort: 'Because there is no good book on Nigerian History.' Such a

reply has so far been only too sadly true. Sir Alan Burns's History of Nigeria was first written in the I920's and its subsequently added chapters in no way bring it into line with con- temporary African historiography. Sir Rex Niven's A Short History of Nigeria has been more relevant to senior primary and old middle schools than for a West African School Certificate history syllabus. Professor J. D. Fage's Introduction to West Africa, useful as it is for school work, is clearly too broad in its scope to fill the role of being a standard history of Nigeria.

With the publication of Mr. Crowder's The Story of Nigeria it seems that the teacher's

prayer is answered. Well written and comprehensive, combining a wide reading of original works and

standard secondary sources with the latest tools of modern African historical research (in particular the resources of archaeological evidence and oral tradition), Mr. Crowder's book takes us, in sixteen chapters, through the story of Nigeria from the Sudanese States and the kingdoms of the forest to the unification of Nigeria, the rise of nationalism, and final independence. There are plenty of photographs, a dozen well-drawn maps, and figures that will be of considerable teaching value.

Mr. Crowder succeeds admirably in the first three chapters in dispelling the erroneous but common assumption that 'before the colonial period Africans had very little history '. Common sense rather than emotionalism marks the chapter on the Atlantic slave-trade: ' Once slavery had been instituted it was hopeless to expect those Africans who profited from it to have any more conscience about it than those Europeans who bought slaves,

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.96 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:19:44 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

especially since in this case the Africans were not usually selling their own people but members of other tribes whom they considered very often not only as inferior but also as only fit to be slaves.' It does us all good to be reminded sharply that the slave traffic raised surprisingly few objections in the minds of either Africans or Europeans, the two being complementary. Sensible, too, is the writer's stand over missionaries, Christian as well as Moslem. The former at least appreciated the fact that West African religions were much more closely integrated with West African cultures than Victorian Christianity was with the rest of Victorian culture; while 'the Moslem proselytizers, probably approaching the problem a little more sceptically and with a greater appreciation of the realities of African society, made a bee-line for the chief, realizing that once he was converted the rest of the community would the more readily follow suit'.

For readers in Northern Nigeria, the chapter on the Jihad of Othman Dan Fodio will be of special interest, particularly Mr. Crowder's well-argued conclusion that 'it is impossible to say whether religious or economic motives, class feelings or tribal loyalties, played the largest part in the revolt'. His observation that, although the Fulani have been accused of destroying the books of the Habe, their jihad in fact brought about a veritable literary renaissance, is in keeping with the view gradually gaining ground that at heart the Fulani revolution was a revolution of radical intellectuals.

If I mention a few minor matters in that irritating way that zealous reviewers have, these in no way detract from the merit of the book but at least suggest that your reviewer has done it the compliment of reading it with an eagle eye. They may be noted against the further editions to which this concise, readable, and reliable history of Nigeria is bound to run. No good Jukun would allow that his people are no longer classified as a separate Nigerian tribe, and more evidence is required to prove that the slave revolts in Brazil, chiefly among the Hausa in Bahia, were directly inspired by thejihad in Northern Nigeria. Baikie did not get as far as Yola and the town bombarded by Mizon was Kona, not Kwang. Was Usman Dan Fodio really ' elderly' at the age of forty?

Mr. Crowder, whose distinguished editorship of Nigeria Magazine for the past three years has already earned him recognition both inside and outside Nigeria, deserves our thanks for having written a first-rate introductory history of Nigeria. His publishers, too, earn our gratitude for having produced a handsome 3oo-page volume for only z2s.-a feat that the reading public will wish other publishers of Africana to notice and imitate.

A. H. M. KIRK-GREENE

Ideophones in Shona. By G. FORTUNE. (An Inaugural Lecture given in the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland on 28 April 1962.) London: Oxford University Press, 1962. Pp. 43. ISS.

IT is perhaps fitting that the inaugural lecture of the first Professor of African Languages in the new Central African University at Salisbury should concern the language with which Professor Fortune's name is most closely associated, which is spoken by one of the largest tribes'of the Federation, and in whose area the university stands. The subject, though limited, is of interest to all students of Bantu languages. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of ideophones, mentioned near the end of the lecture, lies in the fact that although 'as a cate- gory [they] come from Proto-Bantu ', there is no common Bantu, scarcely even a common Shona, stock of ideophones. Most grammarians have noted that they form a special cate- gory, differing from the main body of words, in any particular language, without attempting a comprehensive or precise statement of the differences, or to do more than enumerate the grammatical contexts of their occurrence and to sketch their relationship to other parts of speech. Professor Fortune goes further. He demonstrates fully the freedom of ideophones

especially since in this case the Africans were not usually selling their own people but members of other tribes whom they considered very often not only as inferior but also as only fit to be slaves.' It does us all good to be reminded sharply that the slave traffic raised surprisingly few objections in the minds of either Africans or Europeans, the two being complementary. Sensible, too, is the writer's stand over missionaries, Christian as well as Moslem. The former at least appreciated the fact that West African religions were much more closely integrated with West African cultures than Victorian Christianity was with the rest of Victorian culture; while 'the Moslem proselytizers, probably approaching the problem a little more sceptically and with a greater appreciation of the realities of African society, made a bee-line for the chief, realizing that once he was converted the rest of the community would the more readily follow suit'.

For readers in Northern Nigeria, the chapter on the Jihad of Othman Dan Fodio will be of special interest, particularly Mr. Crowder's well-argued conclusion that 'it is impossible to say whether religious or economic motives, class feelings or tribal loyalties, played the largest part in the revolt'. His observation that, although the Fulani have been accused of destroying the books of the Habe, their jihad in fact brought about a veritable literary renaissance, is in keeping with the view gradually gaining ground that at heart the Fulani revolution was a revolution of radical intellectuals.

If I mention a few minor matters in that irritating way that zealous reviewers have, these in no way detract from the merit of the book but at least suggest that your reviewer has done it the compliment of reading it with an eagle eye. They may be noted against the further editions to which this concise, readable, and reliable history of Nigeria is bound to run. No good Jukun would allow that his people are no longer classified as a separate Nigerian tribe, and more evidence is required to prove that the slave revolts in Brazil, chiefly among the Hausa in Bahia, were directly inspired by thejihad in Northern Nigeria. Baikie did not get as far as Yola and the town bombarded by Mizon was Kona, not Kwang. Was Usman Dan Fodio really ' elderly' at the age of forty?

Mr. Crowder, whose distinguished editorship of Nigeria Magazine for the past three years has already earned him recognition both inside and outside Nigeria, deserves our thanks for having written a first-rate introductory history of Nigeria. His publishers, too, earn our gratitude for having produced a handsome 3oo-page volume for only z2s.-a feat that the reading public will wish other publishers of Africana to notice and imitate.

A. H. M. KIRK-GREENE

Ideophones in Shona. By G. FORTUNE. (An Inaugural Lecture given in the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland on 28 April 1962.) London: Oxford University Press, 1962. Pp. 43. ISS.

IT is perhaps fitting that the inaugural lecture of the first Professor of African Languages in the new Central African University at Salisbury should concern the language with which Professor Fortune's name is most closely associated, which is spoken by one of the largest tribes'of the Federation, and in whose area the university stands. The subject, though limited, is of interest to all students of Bantu languages. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of ideophones, mentioned near the end of the lecture, lies in the fact that although 'as a cate- gory [they] come from Proto-Bantu ', there is no common Bantu, scarcely even a common Shona, stock of ideophones. Most grammarians have noted that they form a special cate- gory, differing from the main body of words, in any particular language, without attempting a comprehensive or precise statement of the differences, or to do more than enumerate the grammatical contexts of their occurrence and to sketch their relationship to other parts of speech. Professor Fortune goes further. He demonstrates fully the freedom of ideophones

I62 I62 REVIEWS REVIEWS

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.96 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 07:19:44 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions