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Brokering Colonial Rule. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Aug 2008, Pages: 184
A group study of African political agents, this work
develops the role of the agents as brokers in the
British colonial administration of northern Nigeria.
African political agents bridged the communication
gap between the foreign rulers and the indigenous
people, a task only they could perform in colonial
administration, owing to their knowledge of the local
languages and cultures as well as some English and
colonial government conventions. As brokers,
political agents controlled communication between the
colonial authorities and the indigenous rulers.
Agents assisted government diplomacy and helped to
establish and maintain relations between the colonial
government and the native rulers. Agents
gathered information that was needed for
policy-making in administration, and many of them
would perform administrative duties. In essence, the
role of political agents reflects the dynamics of
interdependence and power relations in colonial
governance and administration in northern Nigeria.
Knowledge of agents’ activities is important for the
academic community including Africanist scholars,
graduate and undergraduate students, as well as
educated general readers.
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