Hello everyone, I am currently working on a presentation about Nigeria. I already studied its history (my Bachelor thesis was about Nigeria and Boko Haram specifically), but for this presentation I would like to address the specific topic of agriculture and how the British colonization affected the agricultural sector in the country, both positively and negatively. So, to be more clear: I am looking for materials about this topic revolving about the first decades of the 20th century, but possibily with some reflections on the long term influences.
Thank you very much to anyone that can give some help. Bless
You could start off with A History of Nigeria by Toyin Falola and Matt Heaton. It talks about late 19th century British palm oil companies, and economic policy in early 20th century.
The Transformation of Nigeria edited by Adebayo Oyebade contains chapters about colonial economic planning and Ag policy.
The Transformation of Central Nigeria edited by Sati Fwatshak also has information about cash crops in the middle belt region.
the Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial history edited by Toyin Falola and Martin Shanguhyia has chapters about African peasants and the economy (chapter 5 by Moses Ochonu) and about economic planning and development (ch 24 by Ruth Rempel). These are about the continent broadly during the colonial era, though Nigeria is mentioned.
Africa's Development in Historical Perspective has a chapter about entrepeneurship and conspicuous consumption in colonial Western Nigeria (ch 6 by Ayodeji Olukoju) and about cash crops in tropical africa from 1890-1930 (ch 9 by Gareth Austin) which may be relevant.
There are also economic historians who have written about colonial West Africa and colonial Nigeria specifically. Moses Ochonu is one. Gareth Austin has written much about cocoa in Gold Coast, but he might have written about Nigeria too. Emmanuel Akyeampong is a Ghanaian economic historian, and has written about Nigerian women and development, though AFAIK mostly in a post-colonial context.
Each of them might have journal articles that could help you.
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