about 60,000, 82 m. S.S.W. of Kano; Katsena (q.v.), 84 m. N.W. of Kano; Hadeija, near the N. eastern frontier; Gando, 60 m. S.W. of Sokoto; Bida (q.v.), 25 m. N.W. of Egga on the Niger; and Yola (q.v.) on the Benue near the German frontier. Jegga, 85 m. S.W. of Sokoto, is an important entrepôt for trade from the hinterland of the Guinea coast and the Hausa states. The chief towns of Bornu are Kuka (q.v.) on Lake Chad, and Maidugari, some 70 m. S.W. of that lake. Most of these towns are capitals of provinces and residences of native princes subordinate to the British administration. They are nearly all surrounded by strong mud walls and outer dry moats. Their interior is divided into a series of compounds, each entered through a flat-roofed audience chamber. Inside are the beehive-shaped huts of the household. The gateways are strongly fortified. In addition to the towns mentioned there are many others containing populations of from 10,000 to 20,000, the bulk of the inhabitants of the Hausa countries being town dwellers.
Communications.—The rivers are the great highways of communication, but, in consequence of the lowness of the water between October and May, navigation is then only possible for shallow draught stern-wheel steamers and launches. From the Forcados mouth of the Niger steamers can ascend the main stream as far as Jebba, a distance of 530 m. and, at some risk, to Fort Goldie, 30 m. farther up at the foot of the Bussa rapids. Steamers can also ascend the Benue to Yola, 480 m., above the confluence of that river with the Niger at Lokoja. It is also possible by this route to proceed by small boat via the Shari system to Lake Chad. The Kaduna from its confluence with the Niger can be ascended by steamer 50 m. to Barijuko, which is 22 m. by rail from Zungeru. The Gongola is navigable at high water for 130 m. from its junction with the Benue. In the delta region every place of importance is easily reached by river steamers, and there is a regular service between Forcados and Lagos by the lagoons. The Cross river is navigable 240 m. up to and beyond the frontier of Cameroon.
A 3 ft. 6 in. gauge railway from the port of Lagos to Ibadan was completed in 1900, the distance by rail being 123 m. Only about half that distance intervenes between Ibadan and the sea. This line was, during 1906–1910, extended via Oshogbo, Illorin and Jebba to Zungeru, whence it is continued to She, 40 m. E. of Zungeru and about 450 m. from Lagos, where a junction is effected with the Baro-Kano line. A small light surface line 22 m. long, 2 ft. 6 in. gauge was built (1901–1902) in Northern Nigeria between Barijuko on the Kaduna and the capital, Zungeru, and proved most successful and lucrative. In 1907 the construction was begun of a 3 ft. 6 in. railway from Baro on the Niger via Bida and Zaria to Kano—a distance of about 400 m. Good roads connect some of the great Hausa cities, and Kano and Kuka are starting-points for caravans across the Sahara to the Mediterranean. There are also old established caravan routes from Kano to Ashanti and neighbouring countries.
Regular communication is maintained with Europe by steamers running between Liverpool and Forcados, Bonny and Calabar, the steamers calling at other West African ports en route. The time occupied between Liverpool and Forcados is about seventeen days. Other steamers ply between the ports named (and others in the protectorate) and London and Hamburg. There is telegraphic communication between Brass and Bonny and Europe by submarine cable, and land lines from Calabar to Lagos and from Lagos to Jebba, Lokoja, Zungeru, Kano, &c., a connexion being also effected with the telegraph system of French West Africa.
Agriculture.—The natives of the coast region cultivate yams and other food plants but in that district agriculture proper scarcely exists, the fruit of the oil-palm supplying an easy means of obtaining almost everything that the natives require. In the plains of the north, inhabited by Hausa and by agricultural pagan tribes, and in the fertile river valleys, agriculture is regularly carried on. Rice and wheat are cultivated in many parts, though the staple food is guinea corn. Sweet potatoes, ground nuts, yams, onions and other vegetables are largely grown. Of fruits, dates, pomegranates, citrons and bananas abound in certain areas. The shea-butter tree supplies an excellent oil for lamps, and also for cooking, though it is only used by the poorer classes. The most important vegetable products are cotton and indigo, which are universally grown. Tobacco and kola nuts are also grown.
Mineral Products.—Tin ore of excellent quality is found in the province of Bauchi, alkali salts are abundant in Kano province, iron ore and red and yellow ochres are found in Kontagora and other provinces, kaolin (china clay) and limestone in the west central regions. Silver and lead have been found in the Benue area.[1]
Trade.—Throughout Nigeria local trade is active and has shown rapid increase under British rule. Its further development will be fostered by the improvement of communications which is taking place. Export trade in the delta and forest regions is almost entirely confined to “jungle produce,” the most important articles being palm oil and palm kernel. Rubber, ebony and other timber, cocoa and gum copal come next in importance. Cotton is also grown for export. The quantity of palm oil exported annually exceeds 12,000,000 gallons, and is worth over £600,000. Of palm kernels 50,000 to 70,000 tons are shipped yearly, with an average value of £500,000 a year. The principal imports are cotton goods (nearly all from the United Kingdom), and in the southern region spirits—gin and geneva—almost wholly from Holland and Germany, salt, rice and other provisions, tobacco, hardware, cutlery and building material, &c., mostly from the United Kingdom. The value of the trade (imports and exports) of Southern Nigeria (exclusive of Lagos) increased from £1,566,000 in 1894–1895 to £3,464,000 in 1905. In 1906 the total trade, inclusive of Lagos, was valued at £6,299,000—imports, £3,148,000; exports, £3,151,000.
In Northern Nigeria up to the moment of the British occupation the foreign trade was chiefly in the hands of Tripoli Arabs whose caravans crossed the desert at great risk and expense, and carried to the markets of Kuka and Kano tea, sugar and other European goods, taking away the skins and feathers which constituted the principal articles of export to the Mediterranean coast. There was also a very considerable caravan trade in native goods which the industrious Hausa population carried for great distances through the western and central states of the Sudan. The principal articles of this trade are salt, kola nuts, ivory, leather, sodium carbonates and spices. The centre of the cloth manufacture is Kano. The cloth is made of the cotton grown in the country, woven on small hand-looms and dyed either with indigo or with a magenta dye obtained from the bark of a tree. If the Hausa history, which exists in written form, be correct, the manufacture of this cloth has been carried on in Kano since the 9th century. Kano and the district around it clothes half the population of the Sudan. The kola nut, chewed by almost every native of the country, is brought from west of the Niger, traders from Ashanti, Accra and Yorubaland frequenting the markets of Jegga. Salt and “potash” are imported from Absen in the Sahara; and ivory, ostrich feathers and leather goods are exported to Tripoli. The principal exports to Great Britain have come hitherto from the forest regions, and are of the same class as the forest products of the south. Rubber constitutes at present the most important export. The cultivation of cotton is however indigenous to the country. Inquiries made under the auspices of the British Cotton Growing Association have led to the conclusion that Northern Nigeria offers the most promising field contained within the empire for the growth of cotton required to render Lancashire looms independent of foreign supplies. Steps have been taken to stimulate the native industry, and it is hoped) that cotton may take the place in Northern Nigeria which palm oil and kernels occupy in the coast zone. Any great expansion in the cotton trade is however dependent on the development of cheap and efficient means of transport—hence the importance, commercially, of the Baro-Kano railway, with its base on the navigable Niger. With the increase of transport facilities it is probable that the trade with the Mediterranean coasts will also be diverted to the south, and profitable minor branches of trade would be formed in leather, ostrich feathers, gums, fibres, &c. The imports from Great Britain, which come via Forcados, are mostly cotton goods, provisions and hardware. The importation of spirits is prohibited north of 7° N.
Currency and Banking.—The legal currency, and that in general use, is British sterling. There is a subsidiary coinage (introduced in 1908) consisting of a nickel penny and a nickel tenth of a penny (the last-named was first coined in aluminium, but this metal proved unsuitable and was withdrawn). Cowries (1000＝3d.) are still occasionally employed, and on the coast, accounts are sometimes kept in gallons of palm oil. Banking is in the hands of the Bank of British West Africa and the Bank of Nigeria. There is also a government savings bank.
History.
Of the early history of the races inhabiting the coast lands little is known. The Beni appear to have been the most powerful race at the time of the discovery of the coast by the Portuguese in the 15th century, and the kings of Benin in the 17th century ruled a large part of the south-western portion of the existing British protectorate (see Benin). The Benin influence does not seem to have reached east of the Forcados mouth of the Niger. In the greater part of the delta region each town owned a different chief and there was no one dominant tribe. Among these people, who occupied a low position even among the degenerate coast negroes, and who were constantly raided by the more virile tribes of the interior, trading stations were established by the Portuguese, and later on by other Europeans, British traders appearing as early as the 17th century. There was no assertion of political rights by the white men, who were largely at the mercy of the natives, and who rarely ventured far from their ships or the “factories” established on the various rivers and estuaries.
By the end of the 18th century British enterprise had almost entirely displaced that of other nations on the Niger coast. But the principal trade of all Europeans was still in slaves.
- ↑ See Colonial Office Reports, Northern Nigeria Mineral Survey 1906–1907; Southern Nigeria Mineral Survey 1905–1907 (Miscellaneous, Nos. 59, 67, 68).
