Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T22:51:27.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Saro in the political life of early Port Harcourt, 1913–49*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Mac Dixon-Fyle
Mac Dixon-Fyle
Affiliation:
DePauw University, Indiana
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The western-educated Krio population of Sierra Leone participated in British imperial activity along the West African coast in the nineteenth century. Facing a far more complex ethnic configuration than their counterparts in Yorubaland, the Sierra Leoneans (Saro) in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, acquired much influence through the manipulation of class and ethnic relations. Though most Saro here had a modest education and were working-class, a few came to form the cream of the petty-bourgeoisie and were active in economic life and city administration. Potts-Johnson, arguably their most famous member, developed a flair for operating in his middle-class world, and also in the cultural orbit of the local and immigrant working-class. I. B. Johnson, another prominent Saro, lacked this quality. Though presenting a homogenous ethnic front, celebrated in the Sierra Leone Union and in church activity, Saro society was sharply polarized on class lines, a weakness not to be lost on the numerically superior and ambitious indigenous population. Faced with a choice, the indigenes opted for the avuncular Potts-Johnson, for whom they felt a greater social affinity than for the more distant I. B. Johnson. After Potts-Johnson, however, no Saro was to be allowed scope to develop a similar appeal.

Type
Other Articles
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 125 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 The 1841 Niger Expedition in which Samuel Ajai Crowther was involved paved the way for the Niger Mission which brought several Krio missionaries and traders to Nigeria. See Fyfe, C., A History of Sierra Leone (London, 1962), 221, 236, 381.Google Scholar

2 The C.M.S. established a boys' Grammar School in 1845. The Female Institution (later Annie Walsh Memorial School), for girls, was also operated by this group. Ibid., 237, 253.

3 In 1858 James Horton and William Davies took their M.R.C.S. in England, and many followed thereafter. By 1867, W. T. G. Lawson had also qualified as an engineer in England. Ibid., 295, 238, 406.

4 Several came on the 1841 Niger expedition.

5 See Crowder, M., Pagans and Politicians (London, 1959), 113–17.Google Scholar

6 Kopytoff, J. H., A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The Sierra Leonians in Yoruba, 1830–90 (Madison, 1965).Google Scholar

7 Alagoa, E. J., A History of the Niger Delta (Ibadan, 1972).Google Scholar

8 Anyanwu, C. N., ‘The Growth of Port Harcourt, 1912–60’, in Ogionwo, W. (ed.) The City of Port Harcourt (Ibadan, 1979).Google Scholar

9 Ibid. p. 19.

10 Fyfe, , History, 50–51, 80, 262, 282, 495.Google Scholar

11 Ibid. p. 459; Kopytoff, , Preface, 214–27.Google Scholar

12 The minutes of the Sierra Leone Descendants Union (S.L.D.U.) meeting of 9 February 1980 lists seventy-six members. The family names mentioned are: Brown, Domo-Spiff, Potts-Johnson, Thompson, Cole, Noble-Johnson, Bucknor, Ulzen, Johnson, Jibunoh, Yowika, Rollings, Bright, Boyle, Williams, Green, Marshall, Alagoa, Hazeley, Garrick, Barnes, Wilson, Sawyerr, Agu, Bull. Macauley, Cline, Mansaray, Bonny, Manley-Rollings, Akor, Nickle, Crillings, Daniels, Dansuzer, Meyer, Moore, Peters, Prince, Wise, Zizer, Spencer, Roth, Savage, Derell, Ogan and Onuaguluchi. The more obviously Nigerian-sounding names are, of course, a reflection of inter-marriage between Saro women and local men. Such husbands were associate members of the Union. The Byron family, active in the Union since 1937 is, inexplicably, not mentioned in this document. See minutes of the general meeting of the S.L.D.U. 9/2/80, held in the Union Secretariat.

13 This Union, now the Sierra Leone Descendants Union, is still active in Port Harcourt. See Dixon-Fyle, , ‘The Sierra Leone (Descendants) Union of Port Harcourt, 1933–86: A Research Note’, Africana Research Bulletin, XIV, 3 (06, 1985).Google Scholar The Union's Secretariat holds a collection of Union papers (minutes and correspondence) covering the period 1970 to the present. Earlier documents were unfortunately lost during the Nigerian civil war.

14 Riv-Prof. 8/7/126, File OW449/19, National Archives, Enugu (hereafter N.A.E.), Station Magistrate to Commissioner of Police, 13 Nov. 1919.

15 Ibid. Petition of T. R. Benjamin to Governor Clifford, 16 Oct. 1919.

16 Riv-Prof. 8/7/126, file OW449/19, N.A.E., J. M. Metzger to Governor Clifford, 22 Oct. 1919.

17 Riv-Prof. 8/18/40, N.A.E., Alicia Williams to Resident, Owerri Province, 2 Oct. 1930.

18 Ibid., Senior Resident, Owerri Province to Secretary, Southern Provinces, Enugu, 2 Feb. 1931.

19 Anyanwu, , ‘Growth’, 26.Google Scholar

20 Riv-Prof. 8/13/43, N.A.E., Resident, Owerri, to Secretary, Southern Provinces, Lagos, 29 June 1925.

21 Interview with W. S. Byron (10/2/85), a Sierra Leonean who settled in Port Harcourt in 1937.

22 Riv-Prof. 8/7/197, N.A.E., Local Authority to Resident Owerri, 10 March 1938.

23 Riv-Prof. 8/13/189, N.A.E., Handing-over notes, D. O'Connor to J. M. Pollen, 18 June 1925.

24 Wolpe, H., Urban Politics in Nigeria: A Study of Port Harcourt (Los Angeles, 1974).Google Scholar

25 Dixon-Fyle, M., ‘Towards a Biography of the Rev. L. R. Potts-Johnson’, Alore: The Ilorin Journal of the Humanities, I, (12, 1985).Google Scholar

26 Theirs was the politics of accommodation which sought amelioration of conditions, within the status quo. This was essentially the politics of local political focus of which Lonsdale has written. See Lonsdale, J., ‘Some origins of Nationalism in East Africa’. J. Afr. Hist., IX (1968), 1.Google Scholar

27 Riv-Prof. 9/1/1212, N.A.E., Annual Report on Port Harcourt Township, 1943.

28 Riv-Prof. 8/13/189, N.A.E., Handing-over notes, D. O'Connor to J. Pollen, 18 June 1925.

29 Riv-Prof. 8/13/137, N.A.E., Resident, Owerri, to Secretary, Southern Provinces, Lagos, 11 April 1926.

30 Riv-Prof. 8/13/189, N.A.E., Handing-over notes, D. O'Connor to J. Pollen, 18 June 1925.

31 Riv-Prof. 8/13/137, N.A.E., Secretary, African Progress Union to Resident, Owerri, 28 March 1925.

32 Ibid. Secretary, African Progress Union to Governor, 9 March 1925.

33 Ibid.

34 Ibid. Secretary, African Progress Union to Governor, 23 May 1925.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid. Secretary, African Progress Union to Governor, 28 April 1928.

37 Riv-Prof. 8/14/117, N.A.E., Minutes of the Township Advisory Board (T.A.B.) meeting of 2 July 1926.

38 Riv-Prof. 8/15/69, N.A.E., Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 7 March 1927.

39 When, for instance, the Local Authority summarily rejected Johnson's suggestion that the water supply to the African location be extended beyond 6 p.m., Johnson acquiesced and never raised such an important subject again. See Riv-Prof. 8/16/17, N.A.E., Minutes of the Township Advisory Board meeting for 12 January 1928.

40 Riv-Prof. 8/16/17, N.A.E., Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 8 March 1928 containing Coker's submissions to the T.A.B. on behalf of the A.P.U.

41 Riv-Prof. 8/13/137, N.A.E., Minutes of meeting between A.P.U. and Lieut. Governor, 25 September 1928.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid. Secretary, A.P.U. to Resident, Port Harcourt, 14 August 1930.

44 Riv-Prof. 8/17/n, N.A.E., Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 10 January 1929.

45 Ibid. Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 4 July 1929.

46 Ibid. Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 23 April 1936.

47 Riv-Prof. 8/18/16, N.A.E., Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 8 February, 1940.

48 Dixon-Fyle, ‘Biography of the Rev. L. R. Potts-Johnson’.

49 A childless marriage resulted in a number of extra-marital liaisons within the indigenous population, which produced several off-spring. This was to provoke a conflict with the white officials of his church, culminating in his having to leave the ministry.

50 Riv-Prof. 8/18/16, N.A.E., Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 27 August 1937.

51 Ibid. Minutes of T.A.B. meeting of 4 May 1939.

52 Ibid. Minutes of the T.A.B. meeting of 2 March 1939.

53 The Meyer (Sherbro) and Mansaray (Temne) families of Port Harcourt have always been very active members of the S.L.D.U.

54 Several Sierra Leoneans served on the Committee, among them Nat Cole, V. A. B. Martins, J. C. Roberts, Mrs J. Macauley, Mrs C. E. Garrick, M. D. Showers, F. E. Johnson, N. J. C. Cline and D. Atanda Pratt.

55 Riv-Prof. 13/1/3D. File RP2807, N.A.E.

56 Palmer was the Local Authority who was most uncompromising in his enforcement of township plot rules, and had evicted several offenders, who then took their problems to the A.P.U. It was also Palmer who, in apparent exasperation, once observed, ‘In view of the recent “experiment” at Cape Town, I would like to see a similar experiment in Port Harcourt. But this is too much to hope for’. The experiment referred to here was probably attempts at limiting African land-ownership rights in Cape Town. Riv-Prof. 13/1/3D. File RP2807, N.A.E. Resident to President, African Community League, 16 November 1943, and Local Authority, to Resident, Owerri, 22 Dec. 1943.

57 Interviews with T. Jos Wilson (17/2/85) and W. S. Byron (10/2/85).

58 The African Community League (ACL) elections of 1950 resulted in non-Saro securing the five principal positions in the Executive. O. Ajibade was elected President, R. O. Nzimiro, Vice-President; Barrister A. E. Allagoa, General Secretary; C. E. J. Egi, 1st Assistant Secretary; and P. U. Ukpobo, 2nd Assistant Secretary. See Riv-Prof. 13/1/ 3D, File RP2807, N.A.E., ACL list of officers and executive committee, 1950.

59 As we can see, the commercial bourgeoisie was, of course, in part, an extension of metropolitan capital. This analysis has been greatly influenced by Mamdani's, Mahmood excellent book, Politics and Class Formation in Uganda (New York 1976).Google Scholar