In 1897 to 1898, Lord Lugard reported back to the Secretary of State for the Colonies about two of his achievements of the year, the raising of the 1st and 2nd Battalion. Full details of the report can be found here. The document is only 36 pages long but be warned that many comments there denigrate Africans.
Lt Col Pilcher built the 1st Battalion and it had 900 soldiers. What had not dawned on me before I read this document was how the colonial master staffed most his fighting forces with Africans! This is very sad as it means Africans are deployed against one another as the colonialists carried on its conquest of the land.
On page 4 of this document, Lugard noted “The difficulty of recruiting Hausas has prevented the Battalion from reaching more than three quarters (900) of its establishment”. The organisation of the West African Frontier Force was very sophisticated and divided into several departments: Artillery, Engineers, Telegraph Section, Transport Department, Medical Department, Accounts Department and Headquarters. Of note was the Medical Department of which Lugard (page 6). said “Of the senior officers, Dr Poole and Dr Rees not only earned the complete confidence of all, and were unceasing in their attention, but by microscopic research, have endeavoured to elucidate the obscure origins of malaria and blackwater”.
The commander of the 1st Battalion, Lt Col Pilcher described his brief (page 10):
..I was asked by the Military Secretary whether I would raise and command a battalion of Hausas and Yorubas in the hinterland of Lagos. I accepted.
He continued later (page 11):
Since the month of June, the Governor of Lagos had been enlisting Yorubas at Ibadan, which is in the centre of the Yoruba country
On page 13, Pilcher reported the arrival of 98 Hausa recruits. On the same page, Pilcher reported how the 1st Battalion, staffed mostly by Yorubas, Hausas and Nupe, were deployed in war (which he called expedition!) against the Emirs of Lapai and Argayeh. After the “expedition” Pilcher reported:
The behaviour of my recruits was good, their volleys being perfect…
Another “punitive expedition” was organised to Asaba. The mission was to “punish the tribes in the neighbourhood of Anam, about 100 miles below Lokoja and on the Niger”.
On one occasion, the colonialists underestimated what was needed for an “expedition” to arrest the Chief of Hello Island, “situated at 30 miles above Boussa” and suffered the loss of one of theirs, Lieutenant Keating. The group included some Nupe soldiers. Pilcher gave an account of their role;
The only consoling feature in this sad affair is that all died fighting, and that the men (Nupes) from all accounts which can be gathered, fought with determination and courage, until they fell at the side of their leaders
The Africans working as soldiers for the colonialists were just trying to survive. The perfect condition of domination is to reduce people to the level at which all they can think about is how to survive from day to day. The survival of those African soldiers became synonymous with the success of the colonialist who was simply there to dominate them. Sad, but not different from what obtains today: the people who exchange their votes for a fee so that they can continue to be dominated and exploited by politicians who are just in it for their own narrow interests.
oyebode.com 