Colonization In Nigeria

Gabriel Aborisade

GEOG130-0108

Legacies of Colonization in Nigeria

03/02/2018

Introduction

The name Nigeria was coined from the river Niger. Miss Flora Shaw who later became Lady Lugard named it Niger-Area on January 8th, 1897. Nigeria became a British protectorate as a Northern and Southern protectorate. Those two protectorates were amalgamated by 1914 by Lord Lugard. After 60 years of colonial rule, Nigeria finally gained her independence on October 1st, 1960.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Located in West Africa and the trigger of the African continent, Nigeria boasts a population of over 190 million people ranking her among the top 10 most populous in the world. Nigeria has three major tribes and languages which

There are 250 to 400 different ethnic groups in the country. Each ethnic group has its own peculiar language, traditions, and norms beliefs. There are over five hundreds of indigenous languages spoken within the country, namely: Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Hausa, Edo, Ibibio, Tiv, and English etc. (Olaniyan; 1985)

British Colonialism in Africa created a pathway for missionaries to spread Christianity and the word of the Lord in hopes that the people would see the evils in slave trading. As a result, Nigeria became an attractive spot for Christian missionaries. The first Methodist Church was established by Thomas Freeman in Abeokuta a village at that point in Western Nigeria. Several religions coexisted in Nigeria, helping to accentuate regional and ethnic distinctions. All religions represented in Nigeria were practiced in every major city in 1990. Majority of religious denomination depends on the region you are in the country. Christianity and Protestantism are predominant within the Yoruba tribes of the west, Catholicism within the Igbo tribes in the east and south and Islam with the

Young men were expected to take after their father’s occupation and if that wasn’t the case, the young man could go ahead to learn from another skilled individual as an apprentice. Training given to this young boys were more on a holistic approach. They are trained physically, socially, behavior-wise and the actual vocational skills. Vocations they train for include hunting, blacksmith, art & craft, business, farming etc. Ladies, on the other hand, were expected to be more submissive and stay behind learning household chores like cooking, sweeping, tie & dye, weaving etc.

Western education came into Nigeria through the missionaries and the first school was created in 1843 by the Methodist church in Ibadan, Nigeria. The Nigerian western education system is modeled after the British style of education. It is a three-tiered system that includes primary, secondary and tertiary institution. English which is the country’s lingua franca is used to teach in all schools except for qur’anic schools who mostly teach their students in Arabic.

There are three different education systems in Nigeria: Western education, indigenous education, and Arabic or quranic education. For Arabic schools, the classes are taught with a solid basis on their Islam faith. Indigenous education encompasses education received by individuals before the colonial era. It is very common in