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THE OWNER OF THE LAND: THE BENIN OBAS AND COLONIAL FOREST RESERVATION IN THE BENIN DIVISION, SOUTHERN NIGERIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

PAULINE VON HELLERMANN  and
UYILAWA USUANLELE
PAULINE VON HELLERMANN
Affiliation:
York University
UYILAWA USUANLELE
Affiliation:
SUNY Oswego
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Abstract

Colonial forest reservation in the Benin Division of southern Nigeria was remarkably extensive, with reserves taking up almost 65 per cent of the Division by 1937. This paper explores both the various strategies employed by the colonial government in order to bring about large scale reservation and the role of reservation in changing land politics. In doing so, it provides nuanced insights into the interaction between the colonial government and local rulers under indirect rule. It shows that both Oba Eweka II (1914–33) and Oba Akenzua II (1933–79) supported reservation for strategic reasons, but also highlights the government's many underhand tactics in dealing with the Obas.

Keywords

West AfricaNigeriaagriculturecolonial policyconservationland
Type
Colonial Conservation Measures
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , July 2009 , pp. 223 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 Annual Report of the Benin Forest Administration of Nigeria 1937 (Lagos, 1938), 25.

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10 P. von Hellermann, ‘Things fall apart? A political ecology of 20th century forest management in Edo State, southern Nigeria’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sussex, 2005).

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13 J. U. Egharevba, A Short History of Benin (Ibadan, 1968); I. Okpewko, Once Upon a Kingdom: Myth, Hegemony and Identity (Indianapolis, 1998).

14 Egharevba, Short History; Hellermann, ‘Things fall apart?’; John F. Redhead, ‘The forest kingdom of Benin, Nigeria’, The Nigerian Field, 57 (1992), 113–18.

15 J. C. Anene, Southern Nigeria in Transition 1885–1906: Theory and Practice in a Colonial Protectorate (Cambridge, 1968).

16 The main logging companies at this time were the Glasgow-based Miller Brothers, Messrs Bey & Zimmer, and Scott McNeill & Co.

17 Afigbo, A. E., ‘Sir Ralph Moor and the economic development of southern Nigeria: 1896–1903’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 5 (1970), 371–97.Google Scholar

18 Afigbo, ‘Sir Ralph Moor’; Egboh, Forestry Policy; Omosini, O., ‘Background to the forestry legislation in Lagos Colony and Protectorate, 1897–1902’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 9 (1978), 45–69.Google Scholar

19 The National Archives of Great Britain (hereafter NA), CO 879/69, Enclosure 3 in no. 138, 1904, Address by the Conservator of Forests, Southern Nigeria, before the Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool.

20 Fairhead and Leach, Reframing Deforestation.

21 Annual Report on the Forestry Administration for the Year 1917 (Lagos, 1918), 2.

22 Annual Report of the Forest Administration of Nigeria, for the Year 1928 (Lagos, 1929), 7.

23 T. O. Elias, Nigerian Land Law and Custom (London, 1951).

24 P. A. Igbafe, Benin under British Administration: The Impact of Colonial Rule on an African Kingdom 1897–1938 (London, 1979).

25 The government in fact tried to use its control over land for the forced creation of reserves with the 1901 Forestry Proclamation, but this met widespread protest and could not be implemented. See Egboh, E. O., ‘British colonial administration and the legal control of the forests of Lagos Colony and Protectorate 1897–1902: an example of economic control under colonial regime’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 9 (1978), 70–90Google Scholar; Omosini, ‘Background’.

26 For a discussion of colonial preoccupation with customary land tenure and its roots in British idealism, see Cowen and Shenton, ‘British neo-Hegelian idealism’.

27 Criticism came in particular from the Aborigines Protection Society. See Egboh, ‘British colonial administration’, 83.

28 Egboh, Forestry Policy, 47.

29 NA, CO 879/69, Enclosure 1 in No. 83, 1903, Report by Conservator of Forests.

30 Nigerian National Archives Ibadan (hereafter NNAI), BP 709/1914, Claim by Chief Eson for royalties for timber felled under his charge since 1907; NNAI, BP 344/1, Conservator of Forest, Benin Circle (hereafter BC) to Senior Conservator of Forest, Olokomeji, 3 June 1915. See also Igbafe, Benin.

31 For studies of the contrasts between colonial and indigenous environmental ideas, see T. Giles-Vernick, Cutting the Vines of the Past: Environmental Histories of the Central African Rain Forest (Charlotteville, 2002); James Fairhead and Melissa Leach, Misreading the African Landscape (Cambridge, 1996).

32 Interview with Pa Omoigui Oviawe, trader and farmer (Odionwere – village head of Igue-Iyase), aged about 106, 16 Apr. 1998. See also Fairhead and Leach, Misreading the African Landscape.

33 Interview with Chief Thompson Imasogie, trader, farmer, and politician, aged about 91, at his Benin City residence, 29 May 1998.

34 Interview with Pa Omoigui Oviawe.

35 Allison, P. A., ‘From farm to forest’, Farm and Forest, 2 (1941), 95–8Google Scholar; W. D. Hawthorne, Ecological Profiles of Ghanaian Forest Trees (Oxford, 1995).

36 Egboh, ‘British colonial administration’; idem, Forestry Policy.

37 M. Worboys, ‘Science and British colonial imperialism, 1895–1940’, (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sussex, 1979).

38 This was clause 4 (iv): see F. Lugard, Political Memoranda: Revision of Instructions to Political Officers on Subjects Chiefly Political and Administrative, 1913–1918 (London, 1970), 439.

39 Egboh, Forestry Policy, 69.

40 Benin Province (with the bulk coming from Benin Division) on average accounted for about 70 per cent of Nigeria's annual timber exports from the 1920s to the 1940s. See the annual reports of the forest department of Nigeria, 1923–1942.

41 Unused forest land was under the supervision of the Eson title-holder; migrant fishermen and palm-produce collectors needed his permission and paid rent to the Oba for exploitation of land resources. See U. Usuanlele, ‘Pre-colonial Benin: a political economy perspective’, in A. Ogundiran (ed.), Pre-colonial Nigeria: Essays in Honour of Toyin Falola (Trenton, NJ, 2005).

42 T. Ranger, ‘The invention of tradition in colonial Africa’, in E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983), 211–62; idem, ‘Invention of tradition revisited’.

43 For instance Mr F. S. James, Acting Lieutenant Governor, Southern Provinces (hereafter SP) told a meeting of the Oba and chiefs that ‘although the Oba is called the Oba and head of the Binis, he is also the Oba of the British government and he will continue to remain Oba only so long as he carries out the order of the government’ (NNAI, BP 665/1914, Minutes of Meeting of Mr F. S. James, Acting Lt. Governor (SP) with the Oba and Council Chiefs, 21 Oct. 1914).

44 Igbafe, Benin.

45 Egharevba, Short History; Okpewho, Once Upon a Kingdom; Ben-Amos, P. and Thornton, J., ‘Civil war in the kingdom of Benin, 1689–1721: continuity or political change’, Journal of African History, 42 (2001), 353–76.Google Scholar

46 NNAI, BP 508/1916, 5, Resident, Benin Province (hereafter BP), to Secretary (SP), 21 Aug. 1916, 5.

47 NNAI, BP 490/18, Resident (BP), to Secretary (SP), 27 Nov. 1918; NNAI, BP725, Forestry offences prosecution for: Procedure.

48 NNAI, BP 508/1916, Acting District Officer, Benin Division (hereafter BD), to Resident (BP), 8 July 1918, 8 and forwarded in another memo of Resident (BP) to Secretary (SP), 3 Aug. 1918, 14. In 1920, the Ogbeleka, the royal guild of guards, composed a protest song: see Ekhaguosa Aisien, Benin City: The Edo State Capital (Benin City, 1995), 50.

49 NNAI, BP686/1917. Oba Eweka's protest and plea were forwarded in memo of District Officer (BD) to Resident (BP), 11 Nov. 1920, and Resident (BP) to Secretary (SP), 25 Nov. 1920.

50 Ibid.

51 Ibid.

52 The 1920s saw increased professionalism throughout the colonial service, but forestry had particularly strong support from the Colonial Secretary, Charles Furse. See Robert Heussler, Yesterday's Rulers: The Making of the British Colonial Service (New York, 1963).

53 Nigerian National Archives at Enugu (hereafter NNAE), Cal Prof 8/2, II, Report of tour of Benin Country to Akure, E. P. S. Roupell to A. Turner, 22 Apr. 1897; Igbafe, Benin, 133 and 149.

54 For an invitation to Itsekiri traders to establish trading camps on Ogbesse and Ossiomo rivers, see NNAI, BD 13/2, Quarterly Report of Benin City District for Quarter ended 31 March 1905. For land negotiation on behalf of Yoruba farmers to establish cocoa farms in the Ogbese and Olumoye areas, see NNAI, BP 89/22, District Officer (BD) to Resident (BP), 30 May 1929 and 11 June 1929.

55 For instance, the Oghara Urhobo laid claim to land around Jesse (in the Benin Division) in the provincial court in 1917, while the Jesse Urhobo migrants and settlers on Benin land started agitating from 1921 to be transferred from under the jurisdiction of the Oba in Benin Province to the neighbouring Warri Province: NNAI, 26/2 File 14617, Vol. I, Benin Province: Annual Report 1924.

56 Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Library, Benin City (hereafter MLGCAL), BP 44/Vol. I, The Oba of Benin – Oba Eweka II to Resident (BP), 1926; MLGCAL, BP44/Vol. I, Oba Eweka to Resident (BP), 1926.

57 NNAI, BP 71/1930, 13, District Officer (BD) to Resident (BP), 22 Sep. 1931.

58 NNAI, BP 89/22, 42, Minutes of meeting of Resident (BD), O. T. Faulkner, Director of Agriculture, Mr Aveling, District Officer (BD), Mr Nicol, Superintendent of Agriculture, Benin, Oba Eweka and Council and Benin Agricultural Society, 10 Jan. 1923.

59 NNAI, BP 89/22, 218, District Officer (BD) to Resident, 12 Apr. 1929. Another meeting to persuade the Oba to accede to the proposal in May was refused: NNAI, BP 89/22, 220, Minutes of Council meeting, 2 May 1929.

60 NNAI, BP 80/29, Letter from the Senior Conservator of Forests to the Conservator of Forests (BC), 6 May 1929.

61 NNAI, BP 103/1925, Letter from Oba Eweka to the District Office, 5 Apr. 1929; NNAI, BP 80/29, Letter from the Director of Forests to the Chief Secretary of Government in Lagos, 22 Nov. 1929.

62 NNAI, BP 80/29, Letter from Senior Conservator of Forests, Western Provinces (hereafter WP), H. C. Tebbutt, to the Conservator of Forests, 14 May 1928, quoting an earlier statement by Thompson.

63 NNAI, BP 80/29, Ben Prof 2/16, Removal of Forestry Restrictions in Forests other than Reserves.

64 Ibid.

65 Grove, Ecology.

66 Egboh, Forestry Policy, 57–8.

67 Ibid.

68 NNAI, BP 80/29, Ben Prof 2/16, 116.

69 Annual Report on the Forest Administration of Nigeria for the Year 1929 (Lagos, 1930), 19.

70 NNAI, BP 80/29, Letter from the Oba to the District Officer, 4 Feb. 1931.

71 David Anderson, ‘Depression, dust bowl, demography and drought: the colonial state and soil conservation in East Africa during the 1930s’, African Affairs, 83 (1984), 321–43; Fairhead and Leach, Reframing Deforestation.

72 NNAE, Cal Prof 53/1/558, J. N. Oliphant: A further report on forestry development in Nigeria, 1934.

73 NNAI, CSO 26/30802, 5, Comments on the points raised in the Tabular Statement attached to the Honourable Chief Secretary's Letter to No. 30802/3 of 21 July 1936.

74 NNAE, Cal Prof 53/1/558, 5.

75 NNAI, CSO 26 29697/V, 416, Comments on a letter from the Acting Chief Conservator of Forests to the Chief Secretary, 11 June 1938, 416; NNAI CSO 26 29697/V, 511, Letter from the Acting Secretary (WP) to the Chief Secretary, 31 Aug. 1943.

76 Ibid.

77 NNAE, Cal Prof 53/1/558, 5.

78 NNAI, Ben Prof 1, BD 27/Vol. X, Annual Report of the Benin Native Administration Forest Circle 1943.

79 NNAI, BP999, 44, Oba Akenzua II to Resident (BP), 28 Aug. 1935.

80 U. Usuanlele, ‘Urhobos in Benin, 1897–1945: changing patterns of relations under colonial rule’ in P. Ekeh (ed.), History of the Urhobo People of Niger Delta (Lagos, 2006), 576.

81 These reforms were started under Governor Hugh Clifford (1919–1925) and continued into the 1930s. See Harry A. Gailey, Clifford: Imperial Proconsul (London, 1982), 137.

82 Usuanlele ‘Urhobos’, 577.

83 NNAI, BP 1021A, Oba Akenzua II to District Officer (BD), 11 May 1935.

84 NNAI, BP 1273, Vol. II, Oba Akenzua II to Acting District Officer (BD), 11 May 1944.

85 NNAI BP 334/1, Conservator of Forest (BC) to Senior Conservator of Forest, Olokomeji, 3 May 1915; NNAI BP628/1915, Agricultural report for half year ending 30th June 1915, 1.

86 NNAI BP 1273,Vol. II, Report on the rates of wages and conditions in African owned rubber plantations in Benin Division by J. G. C. Allen, 1944, 355.

87 Annual Report of the Benin Native Administration Forest Circle 1943.

88 Igbafe, Benin, 311.

89 NNAI, BD 207/124, Petition by Odighi Villagers, regarding the farming interests of Edionwe at Odighi, 17 Apr. 1941.

90 NNAI, BP 999, 41, Letter from Oba's Council to the District Officer, 10 June 1935; NNAI, BP 999, 43, Letter from Oba to the Resident of Benin City, 28 Aug. 1935.

91 NNAI, BP 1132A, Petition by Benin citizens against the proposed forest reserves, Yesufu Eke and 74 others, 13 Sep. 1935. Apart from petitions, they mobilised the Nigerian press to publish articles against the reserves: see Daily Times, 15 May 1936 and ‘The Benin forest reserves’, Eastern Mail, 25 June 1938.

92 NNAI, BP 999, Letter from Oba's Council to the District Officer, 10 June 1935.

93 NNAI, BEN DIV 6, BD 27/XV, Annual Report on Benin Division 1948.

94 NNAI, CSO 26 29697/V, 437. The overall area covered by the new reserves was 1,770 sq. miles, but from the beginning they included many enclaves, which reduced the actual reserved area by 400 sq. miles. Enclave areas have already been subtracted from the figures used here.

95 NNAI, CSO26 29697/V, 423, Report from Acting Chief Conservator of Forests to the Chief Secretary in Lagos, 21 June 1938, which contains a copy of the original 1935 Benin Forest Scheme agreement.

96 NNAI, CSO26 29697/V, 489, Chief Secretary to the Government to Secretary (WP), Confidential Letter, 30 Nov. 1939.

97 NNAI, CSO 26 296797/V, 507–12, Acting Secretary (WP) to Chief Secretary to the Government, 31 Aug. 1943.

98 Ibid.

99 NNAI, CSO 26 296797/V, 526, Chief Secretary to the Government to Secretary (WP), 14 Jan. 1944.

100 NNAI, CSO 26 2967/V, 538–40, Chief Conservator of Forests to the Chief Secretary of Government, 13 June 1945.

101 In 1944, European concessions covered a total of 2657 sq. miles, while the four African licences covered 313 sq. miles: NNAI, BP 1217, Memorandum on the proposed changes in the granting and working of timber concessions in Nigeria, 1944, 59.

102 Annual Report on the Forest Administration of Nigeria 1938 (Lagos, 1939), 12; NNAI, IB FOR DEP 1, 1897 F, 33.

103 Hellermann, ‘Things fall apart?’.

104 Annual Report on the Forest Administration of Nigeria for the Year 1937 (Lagos, 1938).

105 Annual Report on the Forest Administration of Nigeria for the year 1940 (Lagos, 1941), 2. See, for example, NNAI, BD 207/73, 1939, Conservator of Forests (BNA), to the Resident (BC), 6 Jan. 1939.

106 Interview with the Esogban of Udo, 29 Nov. 2002.

107 NNAI, BD 450, Report on a letter of complaint by the people of Okomu, undated. Urezen is still famous today for its Ovia shrines.

108 Interview with Pa Omoigui Oviawe.

109 NNAI, BP1223, 2, SACF (BNA) to Resident (BP), 20 Apr. 1936.

110 Interview with Chief Thompson Imasogie; ‘The Benin forest reserves’, Nigerian Eastern Mail, 25 June 1938.

111 NNAI, BP 1470, Vol. II, Permanent Crops in Benin Division: Planting of Order No. 28 (No. 1 & 2), 1939; ibid. 119, Acting Resident (BP) to Secretary (WP), 2 Apr. 1941.

112 Ibid. 316.

113 Forest Administration Plan, 1946–1955 (Lagos, 1948).

114 Annual Report of the Benin Native Administration Forest Circle 1943.

115 NNAI, BP 999, 132, Joseph Olotu and E. O. Amayo, representing Uyere Court group of villages and people of Odighi, Odiguetue, Ugboki, Onwan and Agbelikaka to Resident (BP), 19 May 1944; NNAI, BP 990, 49, G. O. Amayo and S. I. Idemudia of Odighi Village to Western House of Assembly, Ibadan, 28 Apr. 1953.

116 NNAI, BD 27, Annual Report on the Benin Division 1945, 5.

117 NNAI, BP 1470, Vol. II, 162, H. Spottiswoode, Acting Resident (BP) to Secretary (WP), 26 June 1948.