Spoken Reminiscences of Political Agents in Northern Nigeria I

Abstract

The spoken reminiscences on political agents involved oral interviews on the role of indigenous service assistants in the establishment of British colonial rule in northern Nigeria. Conducting oral interviews was informed by the need to seek African perspective in historical inquiry. For a topic dealing with indigenous participants in the colonial establishment, historical enquiry would be enriched with the African opinion, which is largely contained in the oral traditions of the people. Such perspective would address issues such as the African mentality, which is hardly revealing in the written literature. Hence, the significance of the interviews in colonial historiography.