The Role Colonialism Played In the Divide Between the North and South—what was life like prior to colonialism? -By Muhammad Yasin Yahaya

I am of the opinion that the Colonial Rule had harmed our corporate existence more than the good they were portrayed to have done. There is a reasonable need to understand how our society was and how the colonial rule had truly changed everything.

Prior to the colonial incursions, the space called Nigeria today had several burgeoning empires striving at their own level, such as; the Sokoto caliphate, Oyo Empire, Benin Empire, Igbo, Hausa, Kanem-Borno, Ijaw nation, Igala Kingdom amongst others. They were entities on their own. Some of them ruled by a centralised system of governance while others ruled by a decentralized system. Also, some used an Acephalous system, but all these didn’t really make them feel different from each other. This is because the ecological location of Nigeria made these indigenous people dependent on one another over time as there were high degree of interdependence amongst them and this was determined by migrations, intermarriage, trade and commercial activities. This was possible, also, because of the geo-graphical variations.
  For example, those from the Northern region indigenous people were farmers of tomatoes, millet, beans, rice and livestock production, while to the South-South and South- East they were majorly fishermen, palm oil producers, basket weavers and other utensil crafters. They also farmed kola-nut, cocoa, salt, rubber and many more. All these commodities were interchanged because there was no way for one region to have it all.

Therefore, through these contacts with one another, it was possible to share some cultural traits and assimilate the next person’s ways of life and when it happens, intermarriage was ushered in. As an example, the Jukun people had close relationship with the Kanuri people of Borno. Likewise, the Nupe people and the Yoruba, the Nupe and the Hausa-Fulani also had these relationships. There were at least, to a measurable degree, interdependence and cultural exchange between the indigenous population.

As was said earlier, some political systems are centralized or with the order of a chiefly society (e.g. the Yoruba pre-colonial system, the Hausa/Fulani system) and others were decentralized or with the order of a chiefless society (like the Igbo clan system, which was acephalous in nature). Interestingly, indirect rule would not have been possible without the already established pre-colonial system.

Taking a glance at their systems of governance in the Northern part, The Hausa-Fulani had a centralised system of governance, which can further be seen as the Emirate system where power resides in the central capital.

After the great Jihad War (1804-1810), led by Usman Dan Fodio, the former fourteen Hausa states were merged and then divided into two caliphates. The Eastern caliphate; which included states like Yola, Gombe, Kano, Zaria and Katsina had Sokoto as its capital, while the Western caliphate; including Ilorin, Argungun and Kontagora had Gwandu as its capital. Usman Dan Fodio became the head (Sarkin Muslim) of the whole Hausaland, while the control of Sokoto (eastern) and Gwandu (western) caliphates went to Bello, Usman Dan Fodio’s son and Abdullah, Usman Dan Fodio’s brother respectively. 

It was divided simply for administrative convenience, however, the administration was assisted by appointed officials such as the Galadima, Waziri, Madawaki amongst others. Their constitution was the Shari’ah law, coined from divine laws and orders contained in the Holy Qur’an, in which judgements were passed.

Moving onto the Southern region, which is divided in to two parts; the South-South and South-East in which The Yoruba and Igbo constitute the majority. The Yoruba nation has a decentralized system of governance; it was system that had checks and balances.

An Oba was responsible for the administration of major towns while chiefs administered small towns. This includes Oba of Ife-Oni, Oba of Oyo-Alaafin, Oba of Abeokuta-Alake and the seven-clan hereditary king makers called Oyomesi who elected the Alaafin of Oyo amongst others.

The Igbo indigenous people of the South-Eastern region had the existence of many political institutions in Igboland and there was no centralization of power among the Igbo. Instead, political institutions were performing similar or different functions. There were no traditional rulers in the form of Kings (as among the Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani) and so, no hereditary claims to traditional stools. In this setting, there was never an Igbo Kingdom or Empire. The largest political unit was the village. The various institutions that exercised governmental power included family heads, the council of elders or the ofo title holders, the age-grades, the ozo title holders, as well as the lineage heads.

All these has got to show that we have had ways of life before the colonial interjection and therefore, if we’re meant to speak on the divide between the North and the South, it would be on the area of religion and education. Let us not a hide secret about the North pertaining that after the amalgamation of the North and South, the Northern Nigeria was left on its own in exclusion until the Hugh Clifford Constitution of 1922; it rejuvenated or incorporated the North back in to full administrative domain. Deliberating on the contending issues of the divide between the both regions, its quite imperative to see through some of the things that differentiate them.

The Northern Nigeria indigenous people, as early as the 15th century, were having contact with the outside world mainly; the Middle East such as the Arabian merchants through the Sahara territories. This contact was mainly trade and commercial activities. As dynamic as human society has ever been, it was possible for the exchange of cultural traits between these people, therefore, they were able to assimilate the religion of Islam which was fast sweeping through the Saharan region.

Apparently, after the Jihad Wars in 1804, Islam became a dominant religion in the Northern Nigeria and uptill today, Islam remains dominant in the region. Islam is a religion that has touched every aspect of human life and society and this is not a hidden truth about the North. This was what they were exposed to at the time. But in the area of education, people have made comments like “the Northern Nigeria is backward” because they lacked the ways of life and education of the Occident. This statement can always be found insulting and myopic, because if we continue to make comparison based on Western ideologies, it would not be fair enough to some people and some will see it as a lack of regards for human and socio-cultural differences.

The Northern Nigeria might be perceived this way because of the long standing ways of life and the British annexation of the indigenous people. I am aware of the belief that people of the region shares that Western ways of life were not good, rather, ‘Haram,’ due to the incompertibility of the ways of life of the Occident and Islamic teachings. Likewise, there is a general belief that women are not meant to go to school, belief of education being only for the children of the elite and emirs or the children of the “blue blood.” All these cultural fabrications and wrong ideologies have created educational crisis for the Northern Nigeria. I sincerely can’t dispute these facts.

Whereas, the Southern region, Christianity and the Occident influence began when the first contact between our people and the Europeans around 14th century, where our people first came in touch with the Portuguese, then the Dutch and lastly, Great Britain. The first contact was not on a basis of superiority, but it was on trade.

As times passes, the due influence brought about the religion of Christanity through the missionary that spread like wild fire all around the Southern region. Having noted these facts, it also pertinent for us to understand that; if the Northern Nigeria was exposed to whatever it was that its Southern counterpart was exposed to, the whole story would be a different scenario and likewise, vice versa.

In conclusion, the divide between the two regions are not far fetched; religion and education are some critical aspects of it. It is always adviced that Northern Nigeria should not be seen as a backward region in comparison to the Southern region because the sociological view on socialization shows that civilization is a phenomenon that is not and should not be defined just by the view of one society, in that every society develops socially, economically and politically in different dimensions, bordering on its environment and its inhabitants. And in addition, the people they came in contact with in terms of trade and commercial activities were impacted on with the knowledge of the dominant religion in their regions.

Every society has a peculiar challenge, in one way or the other. Also, the problems and the divide stem from regionalism that was introduced by the Richard Constitution (1946) with the politics of “divide and rule” introduced by the Colonial masters before they left our shores. This created the major issues in Nigeria uptill date, simply because it was done based on ethnic divide.

Therefore, we should believe that the damage has been done and what is left for us is to forge ahead, leave our differences behind us along with the things that divides us, if we want to move forward as a nation.