Nation on Board: becoming Nigerian at sea by Lynn Schler (review)

Nation on Board is the first book-length study of the working lives of Nigerian seamen in the service of Elder Dempster (ED) and the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL). It covers the era of British colonial rule and Nigerian independence during the second half of the twentieth century. The book is based on a wide range of documentary (including archival) sources in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, many of them previously unused. It is a treasure trove of life histories of the seamen, both ratings and officers, their divergent perspectives on the NNSL, and the voices of their wives, who bore the brunt of homemaking during the seamen’s long absences.

The book straddles the fields of labour, political and maritime history. It is a nuanced study of Nigerian nationalism from the perspective of non-elite actors, and from the waning years of colonial rule into the post-independence period. It provides a working-class perspective on decolonization and Nigerian nationalism, and unearths what independence meant to colonial Nigerian seamen. Nation on Board sheds light on how Nigerian seamen experienced, interpreted and responded to British colonialism, in contrast to the elite perspective that dominates the literature on Nigerian nationalism.

In the introductory chapter, Schler reviews the debates in labour history and the role of the working class in anti-colonial nationalism. In six major chapters, she examines the working lives of Nigerian colonial seamen; the seamen’s cosmopolitan imaginary; the birth of the NNSL; cultures of work on NNSL ships; and the plight of NNSL seafarers during the decline and since the demise of the shipping line. The central thrust of the book is the paradoxical experience of Nigerian seamen aboard ED and NNSL ships in the two contexts of colonial rule and independence.

The book highlights the dire working conditions of colonial seamen recruited in Nigeria - they occupied the bottom rung of a skewed, fourtiered wage structure, well below the equally poorly paid Kru; they worked long hours and suffered racial discrimination. The colonial seamen consequently looked forward to independence and the establishment of a national shipping line in anticipation of better working conditions and restoration of their human dignity. As Schler argues, ‘becoming “Nigerian” was a strategy for achieving better pay, more just relations with management, and an end to racial discrimination’ (p. 13). Paradoxically, while discriminatory treatment had forged a bond of Nigerian citizenship among them during the colonial period, ethnic divisions and unfair treatment aboard NNSL ships brought disillusionment and a longing for the ‘good old days’ of colonial-era service on ED ships.

Nation on Board is a notable contribution to the literature on maritime labour in the Atlantic Basin. It is an informed analysis of unionization of Nigerian seamen, including the remarkable career of Sidi Khayam, working conditions of the seamen at sea, and Nigerian seamen’s private lives (including amorous relations with women in foreign countries), business acumen and their imagining of nationalism and the nation state. It is an illuminating study of the seamen’s agency: how they exerted ‘various forms of economic and cultural autonomy’ in the face of ‘exclusion and discrimination’ and suffered worsening exploitation even after independence (p. 195). An equally important theme examined in two chapters is the systematic destruction of the NNSL, through political interference, ethnic strife, mismanagement, indiscipline, and the criminal and unprofessional activities of ships’ captains and seamen. The book demonstrates that the NNSL was ‘a failed political project’ (p. 156) and highlights how the seamen’s ‘disillusionment with the Nigerianization of shipping became the basis for their disillusionment with Nigeria as a nation-state’ (p. 197).

Nation on Board, a product of high-quality scholarship, diligent research and balanced analysis, is lucidly presented in accessible language. However, the author overlooks an important study, Navigating African Maritime History, edited by Jeremy Rich and Carina Ray, and engages insufficiently with some...