Dark Subjects in Nigeria

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24254, 23 March 1940, Page 4

Dark Subjects in Nigeria

Dark Subjects. By H. L. Ward Price, "Dark Subjects" is an instance of singularly happy titling, for Mr Ward Price's book, which covers 24 years of administrative life in Nigeria, not only deals with the natives (who might most reasonably be expected to be the dark subjects) but tells of dark ways and dark deeds, not always connected solely with the dark-skinned peoples There is something of everything in Mi Ward Price's book—humour, tragedy adventure It is a record of the excellences which befell him and his associates during the years from December. 1912. when he went to Onitsha a very green Assistant District Commissioner, until December. 1936 when he retired as Resident of Oyo Province. He has selected his material with much more discrimination than is frequently the case in a book of memoirs of this type, and the result is an immensely readable volume. His observations are shrewd, intelligent, and full of reason. In drawing comparisons with the days before the Great War and the more sophisticated life of later vears he has chosen a number of apposite incidents which tell more than nages of verbose description. He laments that. " the tough days" have departed, modern conditions pampering both the inner and the outer man He finds that the pre-war administrative staff haa "more personality and colour than have the post-war products of the university who are good fellows enough, but of a similar standardised character and outlook." Yet sometimes the minds of the ure-war officials worked strangely. Citing one instance dealin? with a clash between an executive officer and the Public Works Department, when a new bridge was contemplated he says: "The engineer drew plans providing for bridges which would pass over the ditches at a height of four feet or so: just high enough for a canoe to pass under, while the paddlers bent their heads. But the executive officer considered the proposal to be unnecessarily extravagant, and suggested that, instead of removing the old bridges and putting up new ones, it would be simpler and less expensive to dig the bed of the ditch four feet deeper, and

Illustrated (Jarrolds) £1 2s 6d. so lower the surface of the water to the required level!" The Great War was not of major importance to Nigeria, military activities being restricted to the bloodless capture of a 1000-ton German steamship which was berthed up river when war broke out. However, the author touches briefly on fighting in the adjoining colony of German Kamerun He was an invalid Dassenger on the West African mailboat Karina which, in December. 1917. was , torpedoed in the Irish Sea just as England was nearly reached, and this oassage makes for dramatic reading. Of interest are his comments on the Cameroons. "a war-baby" given to Nigeria's care by the Treaty of Versailles. He discusses the country's value as a British possession, and the feeling against a possibility of its return to Germany. The Germans developed the country well, but onlv in the light of its being a fertile land worthy of exploitation. The ideas of governing the colony as a " sacred trust" for the welfare of the indigenous population did not occur to them —although Mr Ward Price declares that neither did it occur to administrators in British colonies for a long time. Mr Ward Price believes that the natives would not favour a return to Germany, if only because the Germans would deny the native that sympathetic co-operation with the European that the British encouraged. Elsewhere, however, the author inclines to the opinion that the natives generally would not worry very much whether they were under German or British rule. In passing, it is interesting to note that even after British control was established the bulk of the exports of the Cameroons went to Germany The author writes informatively of native customs and traditions, much of his knowledge being based on long investigation, particularly in connection with the sacred city of Ife. the cradle of the Yoruba race. He recounts stirring, incredible tales of witchcraft and sorcerv. of the horrors of headhunting, and the thrills of hunting in the iungle. Some of this material, it must be confessed, is "just Africa" again. A. A. A.