My neighbor came to ask for help with her homework yesterday and it got me thinking. The homework was to ask parents about the impact of colonization on Nigeria, and whether it was good or bad.
As much as I wish there was a direct answer to this, It’s better to analyze history and compare with life after colonization.
Before Nigeria was colonized, each community or village was under the leadership of their chief or king. The king had the final say in each community. Colonization changed this and brought about amalgamation and a political system without credibility. However many other practices were common in that era and I’ll write about a few
Human Sacrifices: Nigerians like many African countries are traditionalists so they believed there were gods and each god has a different way of worship. They will offer cooked food to these gods, palm wine, animals and even humans to appease the gods or as a way of worship. A story I heard while growing up will interest you: There was once a war between the igala people and the Jukun people in Nigeria, the jukun people were winning already and in order for the igala warriors to win, they had to bury their princess alive. They did, and they won. Colonial masters however, came with Christianity which reduced the rate of human sacrifice in Nigeria.
Child Marriages: this has been very common in Nigeria in the past, especially in the north were it’s common to marry off children to older men because of their wealth.
Ostraticism: if a member of a village commits an offense, a form of punishment is usually to banish such person from the village. The person is taken to a forest and left alone.
Even with the terrible experience of slavery, a lot changed;Religion: many people tag Christianity as the white man’s religion, because it was first introduced in Africa by slave masters. Religion also came with its blessings like the story of Mary Slesor who was a notable activist against the killings of twins in Nigeria. Twins were considered evil at the time, and thanks to her, my husband is alive today! Yippee!
Some infrastructural development also came about during this period to facilitate movement of goods. At the time, exploited resources needed to be moved and the best way to do it was to have proper infrastructure. So railways and roads were built for export purposes.
Schools were established and a select few were opportuned to attend these schools. Many of the schools then were missionary schools and are still in existence till date
Now that the colonists are long gone, we are facing a different kind of slavery. unlike when every community had its leaderp and authority, we have one central leader who calls the shots for the others. We still are being exploited by our own with little or no compensation in return. I have heard many people wish the colonists would come back, and just maybe, the country would have proper leadership.
The effect of colonization is still felt in the world today, coincidentally, this month, African Americans will be celebrating freedom from slavery on the 19th of june. Juneteenth. Colonization did us some good, but it left a lot of scars in its trail.
My name is Ruth, from Kaduna Nigeria. I write about a variety of things such as my family, my job, my country and basically anything that interests me. I am a mother of two adorable children too
All content is mine except stated otherwise
images taken with an iphone 6 camera or edited on CanvaPro