Colonialism, Migration and the Emergence of Urban Spaces in Colonial Nigeria

Abstract

Arguably, urbanisation, which entails spatial, social, and temporal phenomena, is a social process describing how cities grow and societies become more complex. From this point of view, urbanisation is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. The process of urbanisation in Nigeria began in the pre-colonial period and continued during the colonial and post-colonial periods. However, the factors or conditions that facilitated urbanisation in each historical epoch of urbanisation in Nigeria have changed over time. This paper interrogates the effect of colonialism on the emergence of urban spaces in Nigeria between 1900 and 1960. It argues that migration, which constituted one of the main drivers of the emergence of urban spaces in Nigeria during this period, was promoted by the introduction of the British colonial policy of the administration. The main trend of internal migration during colonial Nigeria examined in the paper involves a drift from the rural areas and the lesser towns to the new urban centres of commerce and administration which developed in response to the establishment of formal colonial rule. This trend of internal migration was witnessed in different parts of Nigeria such as Lagos, Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Osogbo, Benin City (all in Western Nigeria); Onitsha, Enugu, Calabar, Port Harcourt (all in Eastern Nigeria); Kano, Jos, Makurdi, Zaria, Sokoto and Kaduna (all in Northern Nigeria) between 1900 and 1960. It concludes that the physical spaces in these cities have had a fundamental significance for the host communities, migrants and for host/migrant relations.