Bussa rebellion | |||||||
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Part of World War I | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Supporters of the Emir of Bussa | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Local British District Official, Hamilton-Brown | Sabukki, a local prince of the Borgu Emirate | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
rebels | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
600 rebels |
The Bussa rebellion, also known as the Boussa rebellion, was a small insurrection in the town of Bussa against the policy of indirect rule in British-ruled Nigeria in June 1915. The rebellion was triggered by the British deposition of the local Emir of Bussa, Kitoro Gani, and his replacement with a Native Administration. The rebels attacked and killed around half of the members of the Administration, while the rest fled, leaving the rebels in control in Bussa. Despite the ongoing Kamerun campaign against the German Empire, the British were able to use a small force of soldiers which quickly suppressed the rebellion incurring no casualties. The Bussa Rebellion was the subject of a major work by British historian Michael Crowder.
During World War I, the increased demands on the colonial state, combined with its growing shortage of manpower, put strain on British and French colonial holdings in West Africa. [1] Uprisings in British Nigeria and French Dahomey in particular served to "embarrass" European colonial powers and special precautions were taken to suppress them. Rebellions by the Egba people and the Iseyin were the cause of particular concern. [1]
Bussa was located in Borgu Province, in the west of Northern Nigeria. Traditionally, Bussa had been part of the Borgu Emirate, but it had been conquered by the British and annexed into the Northern Nigeria Protectorate. Between 1912 and 1914, under the auspices of Frederick Lugard, Northern and Southern Nigeria were merged into a single Nigerian protectorate. Lugard was a chief proponent of allowing limited self-determination to local states, known as indirect rule, based on traditional tribal groups but within the aegis of general British control.
Lugard argued that where possible, pre-colonial aristocrats or kings should be retained as indirect rulers in British service to give greater legitimacy to the system. [2] The hereditary emir of Bussa, Kitoro Gani, was judged to be a weak ruler who did not have enough influence to collect taxes or fill quotas of labourers to work on building railways. In 1912, therefore, the resident at Yelwa, A. C. Boyd, forced a major administrative reform on the Borgu Emirate which was divided up into administrative areas, each ruled by a beit-el-mal , or Native Administration. [3] In Bussa, the Administration was put under the control of Turaki, a former royal advisor. Taxes were also raised. [4]
The precise date of the start of the insurrection is unknown, but it occurred in early June 1915. A force of around 600 rebels, led by Sabukki, a local prince, occupied Bussa. The rebels were armed with bows and arrows and succeeded in capturing and killing half the members of the new Native Administration established just three months previously. The remaining members of the Administration fled the district. [5] Although small, the rebellion caused panic because the British authorities were so short of troops. [1]
The local British District Official, Hamilton-Brown, received news of the rebellion on 16 June. [6] The fighting with German forces in the Kamerun campaign limited the forces which were at his disposal but Hamilton-Brown managed to levy a small force from the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) and the Nigerian police. The government force moved into Bussa and skirmished with the rebels, although no soldiers were killed and only 150 shots were fired. Sabukki fled to nearby French Dahomey but the rebellion did not spread into the French colony. [7]
British Cameroon or the British Cameroons was a British mandate territory in British West Africa, formed of the Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons. Today, the Northern Cameroons forms parts of the Borno, Adamawa and Taraba states of Nigeria, while the Southern Cameroons forms part of the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard, known as Sir Frederick Lugard between 1901 and 1928, was a British soldier, mercenary, explorer of Africa and a colonial administrator. He was Governor of Hong Kong (1907–1912), the last Governor of Southern Nigeria Protectorate (1912–1914), the first High Commissioner (1900–1906) and last Governor (1912–1914) of Northern Nigeria Protectorate and the first Governor-General of Nigeria (1914–1919).
The Sokoto Caliphate, also known as the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the Fulani War. The boundaries of the caliphate are part of present-day Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria. By 1837, the Sokoto state had a population of around 10-20 plus million people, becoming the most populous empire in West Africa. It was dissolved when the British, French and Germans conquered the area in 1903 and annexed it into the newly established Northern Nigeria Protectorate, Senegambia and Niger and Kamerun respectively.
Northern Nigeria was a British protectorate which lasted from 1900 until 1914, and covered the northern part of what is now Nigeria.
Southern Nigeria was a British protectorate in the coastal areas of modern-day Nigeria formed in 1900 from the union of the Niger Coast Protectorate with territories chartered by the Royal Niger Company below Lokoja on the Niger River.
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Indirect rule was a system of governance used by imperial powers to control parts of their empires. This was particularly used by colonial empires like the British Empire to control their possessions in Africa and Asia, which was done through pre-existing indigenous power structures. Indirect rule was used by various colonial rulers such as: the French in Algeria and Tunisia, the Dutch in the East Indies, the Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique and the Belgians in Rwanda and Burundi. These dependencies were often called "protectorates" or "trucial states".
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Borgu is a region in north-west Nigeria and in the northern Republic of Benin. It was partitioned between Great Britain and France by the Anglo-French Convention of 1898. People of Borgu are known as Bariba or Borgawa.
The Aba Women's Riots of 1929 was a period of unrest in colonial Nigeria over November 1929. The protests broke out when thousands of Igbo women from the Bende District, Umuahia and other places in southeastern Nigeria traveled to the town of Oloko to protest against the Warrant Chiefs, whom they accused of restricting the role of women in the government. The protest encompassed women from six ethnic groups.
Bussa, also known as Boussa in older texts, was the capital of northern Borgu, in northern Nigeria. It was the farthest navigable point on the Niger River, just above the rapids. The town site is now covered by Lake Kainji, which was created in 1968 with the construction of the Lake Kainji dam. The town was re-located to what is now called New Bussa.
The African theatre of the First World War comprises campaigns in North Africa instigated by the German and Ottoman empires, local rebellions against European colonial rule and Allied campaigns against the German colonies of Kamerun, Togoland, German South West Africa, and German East Africa. The campaigns were fought by German Schutztruppe, local resistance movements and forces of the British Empire, France, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal.
Henri-Etienne Bretonnet was a French naval officer, killed with most of his men in the battle of Togbao.
Colonial Nigeria was ruled by the British Empire from the mid-nineteenth century until 1 October 1960 when Nigeria achieved independence. Britain annexed Lagos in 1861 and established the Oil River Protectorate in 1884. British influence in the Niger area increased gradually over the 19th century, but Britain did not effectively occupy the area until 1885. Other European powers acknowledged Britain's dominance over the area in the 1885 Berlin Conference.
A Sabon Gari is a section of cities and towns in Northern Nigeria, South Central Niger and Northern Cameroon whose residents are not indigenous to Hausa lands.
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The Kamerun campaign took place in the German colony of Kamerun in the African theatre of the First World War when the British, French and Belgians invaded the German colony from August 1914 to March 1916. Most of the campaign took place in Kamerun but skirmishes also broke out in British Nigeria. By the Spring of 1916, following Allied victories, the majority of German troops and the civil administration fled to the neighbouring neutral colony of Spanish Guinea. The campaign ended in a defeat for Germany and the partition of its former colony between France and Britain.
The Adubi War was a conflict in June and July 1918 in the British Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria ostensibly because of the imposition of colonial taxation. Direct taxes were introduced by the colonial government along with existing forced labour obligations and fees. On 7 June, the British arrested 70 Egba chiefs and issued an ultimatum that resisters should lay down their arms, pay the taxes and obey the local leadership.