6 5 o BRITISH WEST AFRICA 



A new and valuable direction has been given to education by the adoption of a com- 

 bined system of literary and technical instruction in every Government assisted primary 

 school. A Government Training Institution for teachers and a Technical School have 

 been opened at Accra. The new system has the cordial co-operation of the missionary 

 societies, on whom has fallen hitherto the bulk of the burden of education. 



The history of Ashanti 1 has been one of marked development. Much of the success 

 of the administration is attributable to the wise guidance of Mr. F. C. Fuller, Chief 

 Commissioner since 1905. The Ashanti and allied tribes, having a comparative high 

 mentality, have adapted themselves more readily than was expected to the changed 

 conditions following the establishment of British rule, and have become keen agricul- 

 turists cultivating cocoa, rubber and kola nuts. The town of Kumasi (pop. 18,853 

 in 1911, 93 being Europeans and 23 Syrians) is a great trade centre and contains many 

 handsome buildings, some of them owned by Ashanti chiefs. Christianity is making 

 progress the Christian population in 1911 was 6,000 while Islam finds few converts. 



In the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast an open park-like country for the 

 most part there is a marked improvement in the condition of the people, the last tribe 

 to dispute the authority of the British -the Zouaragu having been subjugated in 1910. 

 The protectorate is purely agricultural and pastoral; the chief exports, which are sent 

 mainly to Kumasi, being live stock, shea butter, and dawa dawa. A small amount of 

 cotton is raised. The energies of the Government have been largely directed to estab- 

 lishing and maintaining the legitimate authority of the chiefs, the country formerly 

 being in an anarchical condition when each man did what was right in his own eyes. 



See the Annual Reports on the Gold Coast, on Ashanti, and on the Northern Territories, 

 published by the Colonial Office, London; Major F. G. Guggisberg, " Mapping the Gold Cdast 

 and Ashanti" in Trans. Liverpool Geo. Soc., 1910; Mary Gaunt, Alone in West Africa (Lon- 

 don, .1912); J. A. Barbour James, The Agricultural and Other Industrial Possibilities of the 

 Cold Coast (London, 1911); L. P. Bowler, Gold Coast Palaver, London, 1911). 



Nigeria. 2 The unification of the protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria 

 was decided upon early in 1912. Sir Frederick Lugard (E. B. xvii, 115) was selected as 

 Governor of both protectorates, succeeding Sir Walter Egerton in S. Nigeria and Sir 

 Hesketh Bell in N. Nigeria. Sir Frederick (whose appointment was gazetted on May 

 i7th) did not arrive in Nigeria till October 1912. In both protectorates there was a 

 marked development of trade in the period 1910-12, while the social condition of the 

 people underwent rapid changes. The only part of S. Nigeria not brought under 

 administrative control by the middle of 1912 was a small area in the N.E. corner inhabit- 

 ed by Munshis, a wild pagan tribe. 



The population of Nigeria is approximately 18,000,000, of whom 2,400 are Europeans. 

 The census of 1911 gave S. Nigeria 7,858,689 inhabitants; and N. Nigeria 8,110,631, but 

 9,270,000 is considered a more accurate figure for the northern protectorate. The pop. 

 per sq. m. is 98 in S. Nigeria and about 40 in N. Nigeria. Yoruba numbers about 2,000,- 

 ooo; Ibos about 3,000,000. The Ycruba readiest of all West African tribes to adapt 

 themselves to Western civilisation inhabit the Western Province of S. Nigeria, through 

 which the railway from Lagos to. the Niger passes. Their chief towns are Ibadan (pop. 

 175,000, in 1911), Ogbomosho (80,000), Abeokuta (51,255), Oshogbo (59,821). In 

 contrast to the Western Province, where Yoruba is practically the only language, the 

 census of 1911 revealed in the Central and Eastern provinces of S. Nigeria 57 different 

 languages \vith 82 distinct tribes. In N. Nigeria two to three hundred different lan- 

 guages are spoken, Hausa being the widest spread. The only towns of more than 30,000 

 inhabitants in N. Nigeria are Kano (39,368 in 1911) and Ilorin (36,343). 



In S. Nigeria the energies of the administration were chiefly concentrated on sanita- 

 tion, the clearing of the network of waterways which form the Niger delta, the building 

 of roads, and the putting down of inter-tribal disputes. At Lagos, the capital (pop. 

 73,766 in 1911), great harbour works were begun to enable steamers dra vii.g 24 ft. to lie 

 alongside the quay. Large areas of swamp land have been reclaimed at Lagos and 



1 See E. B. ii, 724 el seq. - See E. B. xix, 677 et seq. 



