Province of Northern Nigeria 



437 



nant tanks the vultures fight for the 

 carcase of some dead dog or the stray 

 leg of a bygone fowl. 



The great market is said to contain a 

 floating population of 30,000 persons, 

 and camels, horses, asses, oxen, and 

 goats are exposed for sale. Tripoli 

 merchants, Asbenawa from the desert, 

 Salaga merchants from the Gold Coast, 

 and Hausas each sell their own particu- 

 lar class of wares. I would linger here 

 and describe to you this interesting town , 

 the nature of the trade, and the history 

 of its people, but I must pass on with 

 my narrative. Suffice it to say that in 

 an Arabic document obtained by Mr 

 Wallace some years ago, I find that the 

 history of 42 kings of Kano is given, 

 covering a period of 768 years. The 

 manuscript breaks off .suddenly, and it 

 is not possible to fix with accuracy the 

 date of the events it records, but the last 

 king is probably identical with the man 

 whom the Fulani ousted, which would 

 carry back the history to 1040 A. D. 



THE EMIR'S DUNGEON AT KANO 



The dungeon at Kano was an incredible 

 horror. A doorway 2 feet 6 inches by 1 

 foot 6 inches gives access into it. The 

 interior is divided (by a thick mud wall 

 with a similar hole through it) into two 

 compartments, each 17 feet by 7 feet and 

 1 1 feet high. This wall was pierced 

 with holes at its base, through which 

 the legs of those sentenced to death were 

 thrust up to the thigh, and they were 

 left to be trodden on by the mass of 

 other prisoners till they died of thirst 

 and starvation. The place is entirely 

 air-tight and unventilated, except for 

 the one small doorway, or rather hole, 

 through which you creep The total 

 space inside is 2,618 cubic feet, and at 

 the time we took Kano 135 human 

 beings were confined here each night, 

 being let out during the day to cook 

 their food, etc. , in a small adjoining area. 

 Recently as many as 200 have been in- 

 terned at one time. As the superficial 



ground area was only 238 square feet, 

 there was not, of course, even standing 

 room. Victims were crushed to death 

 every night, and their corpses were 

 hauled out each morning. The stench, 

 I am told, inside the place when Colonel 

 Morland visited it wasintolerable, though 

 it was empty, and when I myself went in- 

 side three weeks later the effluvia was 

 unbearable for more than a few seconds. 

 A putrid corpse even then lay near the 

 doorway. Even the memories of the 

 Black Hole of Calcutta can not eclipse 

 this plain statement of the state of things 

 in a British protectorate in the twentieth 

 century, of which, in general terms, I 

 have long been aware. One of the great 

 pools of the city is marked as the place 

 where men's heads were cut off at the 

 arbitrary order of the king ; another, 

 near the great market, is the site where 

 limbs were amputated almost daily for 

 theft or some less real crime. 



THE BRITISH ADMINISTRATION 



The aim of our government has been 

 to rule through the native chiefs, and, 

 while checking the extortionate levies 

 of the past, to fairly assess and to en- 

 force the ancient tribute. By this means 

 a fair revenue will be assured to the 

 emirs in lieu of their former source of 

 wealth, which consisted in slaves and 

 slave raiding and in extortionate taxes 

 on trade. A couple of years ago there 

 was not, I suppose, in Africa any coun- 

 try in which slave raiding was carried 

 on to the extent which it was in northern 

 Nigeria. Regular armies took the field 

 each dry season, and the country had 

 become depopulated . Ruined towns met 

 the eye in every direction. The cur- 

 rency of the country consisted of slaves 

 and cowrie. All this is now a thing of 

 the past. 



The country has been divided into six- 

 teen provinces, coinciding as nearly as 

 may be with existing emirates and tribal 

 divisions. Each resident-in-charge will 

 be assisted by two political officers and 



