What Britain Did To Nigeria.

A review of another phenomenal book on pre-colonial Nigeria, this time, by Max Siollun.

Books on pre-colonial Nigerian history by Nigerian authors are a bit reminiscent of London buses; you wait for one for a very long time, and guess what? two buses turn up at the same time. This is exactly what we have got with the brilliant work by the great historian of the Nigerian military era — Max Siollun and Formation by Messrs. Fagbule and Fawehinmi.

The need to write these books, which tell the story of British colonialism, largely from a Nigerian perspective, while taking account of global dynamics reflect a number of things:

1. The degree to which the heavily skewed British narrative has remained the dominant and unchallenged view, despite the wealth of resources at our disposal to eviscerate the numerous historical inaccuracies in works of literature from the likes of H.H. Johnston, Mockler Ferryman and their ilk.
2. The unacceptably poor standard of history that was taught in Nigerian primary, secondary and tertiary institutions throughout the 1960s till its recent banning altogether, a few years ago.
3. The existing ban on the teaching of history in Nigerian schools.
4. The inexorable rise of the generation, who are far more literate, intellectually rigorous and certainly more…