Farmers and Townspeople in a Changing Nigeria: Abakaliki during colonial times (1905–1960) (review)

At first sight, this history of a provincial Nigerian town during the colonial period may seem unremarkable: the book does not pretend to offer a new perspective on colonial rule, or add new insights to any of the fashionable fields of African history today. Rather, it aims to provide an overview of the main social, economic and local political developments in Abakaliki Division and town in south-east Nigeria from the arrival of the British in 1905 until independence in 1960. The book is nevertheless relevant to a wider circle of historians of Africa, because of its focus on rural/urban relations, the specific ways in which Abakaliki history conforms to, and diverges from, the general pattern of the colonial era, and because of the author’s longstanding familiarity with south-east Nigeria.

Based on local colonial government archives, a comprehensive reading of the secondary literature, and notes from a period of field research in 1960, the book is broadly chronologically organized. The first chapter deals with pre-colonial history, including patterns of migration and settlement, the economic basis, society and culture, and relations with neighbouring groups. A second chapter (with the somewhat unfortunate title ‘The First Historic Period’) deals with the establishment of colonial rule and the emergence of Abakaliki town around the government station. The third chapter deals with the period 1920s–1940s, and describes the growth of Abakaliki’s rural economy, the infrastructure that supported this growth, and the development of Abakaliki town as an urban area dominated by Igbo migrants from outside Abakaliki Division. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the period 1940–1960, covering, respectively, economic change and the development of local government. The final chapter before the conclusion discusses local government and politics in 1960, through a detailed discussion of the workings of the 1960 Abakaliki Urban District Council.

In this sense Farmers and Townspeople in a Changing Nigeria fits Harneit-Sievers’s description of Igbo local histories as a genre, and it is thus entirely appropriate that this book – Ottenberg’s seventh on south-east Nigeria – is his first to be published by a Nigerian publisher. It is, therefore, useful to discuss the book not only in the context of the current vogue for academic texts that explore big issues in small places, but also in relation to the flourishing genre of Nigerian local histories. While the similarities with other Nigerian local histories are clear in the book’s overall structure, the focus on the colonial period, and its concern with development, there is also at least one major difference: while most Nigerian local histories do not attempt to locate their town history within a broader history of colonial Africa, Farmers and Townspeople is concerned with the bigger picture, at least in its concluding chapter.

The colonial history of Abakaliki has many parallels with that of other small towns elsewhere in Africa. In this respect, the book offers a useful illustration of local-level colonial change, and its consistent focus on the interaction between rural Abakaliki Division and the town is of particular interest. That economic development and African-led innovation were as much a feature of rural Africa as they were of towns, is well known. Compared with much of the existing literature, however, this study traces the interaction between the two spheres back to an earlier period. For historians of south-east Nigeria, this study of a peripheral town is of specific interest because of the differences from the general pattern in the Igbo area: unlike other localities, the Abakaliki countryside continued to be a viable economic resource and could absorb an increasing population, which meant that no strong pattern of out-migration developed. Meanwhile, Abakaliki town saw a significant in-migration from neighbouring Igbo areas and became largely dominated by ‘stranger Igbo’; these Igbo, who had their roots elsewhere, were mainly responsible for development initiatives...