Abstract
THE CONCEPT OF 'the steel frame' of British colonial administration, the imagery of the iron rule of the District Commissioner and an administrative straitjacket, are commonplace in the literature.1 Their definition is, however, rarely precise and has seldom been supported by extensive statistical data.2 A conference focussing on the role of whites in Africa provides an excellent opportunity to examine just what that conventional steel frame consisted of, in terms of the exact numbers of administrators involved when we talk of the colonial presence and of the proportion of rulers to ruled. Because it is arguable that every public activity during the colonial period was perforce acted out against the backdrop of the ubiquitous colonial administration, so that the District Commissioner took the role of producer or prompter
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