British Protectorate Research Articles

:Possessing the Pacific: Land, Settlers, and Indigenous People from Australia to Alaska

In Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and even Australia, recent decades have witnessed a fragile but positive trend toward reparative justice for indigenous peoples. Strong moral and practical cases can be made for such reparations, but it tends to be the legal case that produces results. Entire archives of evidence have been roused out and a whole new field has opened up for historians. But there are problems; when high-paid, high-powered lawyers work with low-paid, job-hungry historians on reparative justice cases, the legal approach often wins out. Comparative and transnational histories offer a way out of this trap. They are connected to no particular case, no particular group of clients, and can apply the valuable new data produced by “reparative history” to wider issues. Stuart Banner's new book is a welcome case in point. The book ranges impressively across nine complex histories of nineteenth-century land alienation, from the American colonies of California, the Pacific Northwest, Hawai'i, and Alaska to the British colonies and protectorates of Australia, New Zealand, British Columbia, Fiji, and Tonga. Banner shows that the relevant colonial regimes had three options when deciding on how colonial law would interpret indigenous land rights. They could deny that indigenous peoples had any ownership rights at all, the doctrine of terra nullius; they could accept that indigenes owned all land until alienated by sale or cession; or they could take a middle course and recognize indigenous ownership only of land “actually used,” with “waste” land falling to the state. Under the second and third options, where indigenous land title was recognized, colonial regimes tried to detribalize or individualize it.

Language as Vehicle for Spread and Prevention of HIV in Malawi

Malawi, formerly Nyasaland, is a southeastern African country bordering with Tanzania to the north and northeast, Zambia to the west, and Mozambique to the southeast, south, and southwest. The country became a British colony after the voyages of Scottish Medical Missionary and anti-slave trade campaigner, Dr David Livingstone. Later, it was transformed to a British Protectorate colony until it gained political independence in 1964 and became a republic in 1966. The first case of the human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Malawi was diagnosed at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in 1985. By the end of 1985, a total of 12 adult HIV cases were identified. The first case of childhood AIDS-related illness was recognized in February 1986. The KCH is the second largest referral health facility of the country, the main referral center for Lilongwe City, and the main referral center for the central region of the country. Until recently, the Kamuzu Central Hospital was also the main referral center for the sparsely populated northern region of Malawi. Mzuzu Central Hospital in the northern district of Mzimba and now the main referral center for the northern region, was opened in 2000. The hospital was built and largely equipped with the funding from the Republic of China (Taiwan). Taiwan had also provided about half a dozen physicians until 2007, when the Malawi government sided with the Peoples’ Republic of China (Beijing) in regard to the diplomatic recognition of Taiwan independence from the mainland China. It is important to remember that this was the period when the country was under one-party system of the Malawi Congress Party and the constitutional Life President Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a medical doctor with qualifications from the United States and Scotland. The Kamuzu Central Hospital was just one of the institutions which were named after the first Malawi President (the list Kamuzu International Airport, Kamuzu Procession Road, Kamuzu Highway, Kamuzu College of Nursing Kamuzu Academy, Kamuzu Barracks, Kamuzu View and a dozen or so Kamuzu bridges). Kamuzu was Prime Minister of Malawi between 1964 and 1966 and the president until 1994. In 1993, there was a national referendum in which the citizens voted in favor of a multi-parti system. The period between 1964 and 1994 in Malawi was characterized by monopolization of power and information. The Ministry of Health was, therefore, the only party which could issue reports about any health-related occurrence in the country. Anyone else who would try to warn about epidemic or community health threat faced the danger of ending up in prison. Such an “offense” was characterized as intending to raise public alarm and disrupting public peace or security. This did not mean that rumor mongering was absent; only that people involved in spreading information needed to be careful as to whom they were discussing any aspect of public life. The political and social environment prevailing in the 1985 Malawi colored the discourse and the response toward HIV in the country. Like in many other countries, the first cases of HIV infection emerged in traditionally marginalized groups. While in the United States, the first cases appeared among the members 4 Hs (Haitians, hemophiliacs, homosexuals, and heroine addicts), the situation in Malawi the virus appeared among “innocent men” who got infected from prostitutes. Blaming a marginalized group such as prostitutes was a convenient strategy in a sense that it supported the perception that “good” people needed not to pay attention to the HIV problem, as long as they were good. “Bad” people, on the other hand, deserved to be infected. For the rest of the community, the advice was that people needed to avoid malezala (razor blades) and zotsukira mmano (tooth brushes). Any admission that HIV was becoming a public health threat was met with the usual response of the time that such warnings were coming from government enemies (akapilikoni) aimed to “tarnish the good image of Malawi.”

The ‘Northern Dominator’ and the Mare Nostrum: Fascist Italy's ‘Cultural War’ in Malta

Within the wider attempt to transform Italian communities abroad into Fascist colonies, the Italian Fasci Abroad sought to build nationalist propaganda in the Mediterranean. The irredentist activities and the propaganda of the Fasci in Malta alarmed the British governors on the island, the British government and MI5. This article analyses the cultural conflict organised in Maltese schools, bookshops and universities by the Italian nationalists against the British protectorate–a conflict the British suspected could be followed by military activity, in particular when Italy began building its empire in Ethiopia. The nationalist offensive was supported in the 1920s and, more vigorously, in the 1930s by the Fasci, the Italian consulate on the island and, ultimately, the Italian government. Not even the Second World War and the bombing of Malta by the Italian air force concluded the conflict between Italian and British imperialism on the island.

Pragmatics of letter writing in Setswana

Using a corpus of about 200 letters written during the time that Batswana was a British protectorate (1885–1966) by and to the British administrators on one hand, and letters written to and by Batswana (natives of Botswana) on the other hand, this paper explores the main differences and similarities between letter writing by Batswana and by the British. The study found that in the letters written by the British there is directness in presenting the point, very little stylistic ornamentation, and emphasis on information or content of the letters. The letters are more formal with shorter salutations and signatures. Letters written by Batswana on the other hand reveal that the conventions of letter writing in Setswana require greetings and an employment of address forms that convey respect and politeness in the Setswana culture. Letters written by Botswana thus have longer introductions and longer salutations which involve greetings and best wishes.

Comparative Aspects of Farm Labour in Twentieth Century Botswana

Botswana became a British protectorate in 1885 and attained independence in 1966. The British had for the most part neglected the country for the entire colonial period, and Botswana's economy was ...

The Misappropriation of Malaitan Labour:

During the ‘crisis years’ in Solomon Islands from 1998–2003, Guadalcanal militants and the Guadalcanal provincial government showed resentment to the ‘foreign’ Solomon Islanders, mainly Malaitans, who lived there and forcefully claimed that the indigenous people of Guadalcanal suffered economic disadvantage on their own island. Malaitan counter-justification related to the need to protect their families in Honiara and stabilise the crumbling central government. This paper looks at the historical reasons why Malaitans left their island in the first place. The answer involves complex causes going back to the 1870s. Because Malaita has always been heavily populated, it drew labour recruiters from Queensland, Fiji and within the Protectorate, but for various reasons never attracted traders or planters. Unthinkingly encouraged by the British Protectorate administration and all post-independence governments, a pattern developed of ‘Malaitan muscle for hire’. Malaitan males became primarily a labour force for development projects elsewhere, and little attempt was made to introduce similar projects on Malaita. The paper also explores issues relating to resource development in Malaita Province and concludes that the problems there are no more difficult than on other large Melanesian islands.

From Kings Cross to Kew: Following the History of Zambia's Indian Community through British Imperial Archives

In the summer months of 2005 I traveled to London for the purpose of carrying out archival research in the Oriental and India Office Collection (OIOC) of the British Library at Kings Cross. My aim was to document the history of Indian immigration to the former British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia), about which very little has been published. The OIOC contains a vast amount of material relating to Asia and Africa—reportedly some 14 kilometers of shelving—including the India Office Records (IOR) and its key manuscripts detailing Indians' migration to British Central Africa.Indians' arrival into Northern Rhodesian territory can be traced in these archives to 1905, and I was interested in the period from then until the independence of the country in 1964. The information held in the IOR is partic ularly rich: because the India Office acted as an intermediary among the Colonial Office in London, the Governor's Office in Northern Rhodesia, and the Government of India in New Delhi, the records bring together and represent the concerns of all the official actors. However, when India achieved sovereignty in 1947 the doors of the India Office closed and matters relating to the Indian diaspora were transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Dominion and Colonial Offices, whose interests were empire-wide. These sets of files are presently held in the National Archives at Kew.

The Nigerian Wars, Regional Crises and Ethnic Disturbances: Policy Responses and Democratic Implications

Nigeria was incorporated in 1914 when Frederick Lugard(First Governor-General) amalgamated the two British protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria and the Crown Colony of Lagos into a single entity. The primary reason for amalgamation was economic rather than political. It is therefore, a matter for great regret that this country(Nigeria) has suffered as a result of the all pervasive disunity that has characterised all government action since our accession to independence in 1960. This disunity has distorted, complicated and to a large extent stultified every developmental effort undertaken by government. This paper therefore argues that the much celebrated Nigerian reform progress might be a rhetorics or much ado about nothing. And that the 'BB-, BB and B' rating of the Nigerian economy might have been a baseless exercise. Consequently, the paper recommends the adoption of e-governance(development) as a therapy for a heterogenous and divisible nation such as Nigeria (ceteris paribus).

Presbyterians and politics in Malawi: A century of interaction

This paper focuses on the historical record of Scottish missionaries and subsequently the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian in relation to government in Malawi. It considers their relationship to the colonial government, reactions to the Central African Federation and then to the increasing authoritarianism of Hastings Banda. Over the whole century between Harry Johnston's declaration of a British Protectorate over Malawi in 1891 and the issuing of the Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Letter in 1992 the churches have often provided the most effective civil opposition to the extremes of government. In the early colonial period this opposition came most actively from the Scottish missionaries of both the Blantyre and Livingstonia missions.

Erik Gilbert. Dhows and the Colonial Economy of Zanzibar, 1860–1970. Athens: Ohio University Press/Oxford: James Currey/Zanzibar: Gallery Publications, 2004. xiii + 176 pp. Photographs. Maps. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. $26.95. Paper.

Erik Gilbert. Dhows and the Colonial Economy of Zanzibar, 1860-1970. Athens: Ohio University Press/ Oxford: James Currey/ Zanzibar: Gallery Publications, 2004. xiii + 176 pp. Photographs. Maps. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. $26.95. Paper. In Dhows and the Colonial Economy of Zanzibar, 1860-1970, Erik Gilbert offers a thorough examination of the dhow trade and its relation to the colonial economy in Zanzibar. The work emphasizes the importance of the dhow-a wooden sailing vessel of Arabian origin-in shaping the history of various locales within its Indian Ocean trade domain, most notably Zanzibar. Basing his work on both archival research and interviews, Gilbert traces the survival of the dhow as a central element of the Zanzibar! economy over a ninety-year period, from its peak in the islands' colonial heyday until the period following the Zanzibar Revolution of 1964, during which the longestablished dhow trade was neglected in favor of rapid modernization. In contrast to prior historians who have regarded dhows as little more than relics of a bygone era, Gilbert presents evidence confirming that they have indeed remained the lifeblood of Zanzibar's economy from the colonial period until recent times. Gilbert begins his study c.1860, by which time the dhow trade had long been a staple of Zanzibar! life. He chronicles the dhow's prominence in the parallel development of the formal and informal economies under the colonial administration of Zanzibar, first as a sultanate of the Omani Arabs, followed by the establishment of the British Protectorate in 1890. Dhows destined for distant markets in Arabia and farther abroad carried slaves, cloves, ivory, and mangrove poles until 1897, when the British abolished the slave trade in Zanzibar. Thereafter, cloves and mangrove poles continued to be the dhow's primary exports, as they remain today. In exchange, dhows returning from foreign ports brought essential goods to Zanzibar, such as cloth and rice from India; coffee, dates, and dried fish from Arabia; and hides from Somalia. Gilbert explains the surprising resilience and longevity of the dhow trade in the face of British attempts to encourage modernization. Around the turn of the century, a conflict emerged between the official colonial economy and the growing informal economy. Gilbert characterizes this conflict in terms of a struggle between the colonial administration's dirigiste policies and the free-market tendencies of the informal economy. Despite the colonial state's attempts to modernize the economy through the increased adoption of steamers for shipping purposes, the informal dhow economy survived, and its indigenous entrepreneurial elements prospered, in essence subverting the colonial state in a way no other element of Zanzibari society could (19). …

Serjeant Musgrave’s disease

The present title takes a liberty with the title of playwright John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, but not with the text. Toward the end of the play, Serjeant Musgrave exclaims...

Families of a new world: Gender, politics, and state development in a global context

Families of a New World: Gender, Politics, and State Development in a Global Context. Lynne Haney & Lisa Pollard (Eds.). New York: Routledge. 2003. 300 pp. ISBN 0-41593447-8. $23.95 (paper). Consistent with Urie Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological theory, this anthology focuses on the associations between macrosystems (politics, economics, public policy, law, social services, media, agriculture) and the family microsystem. The text's framework is a feminist analysis of state development in a historical/cultural context. Chapter authors note the ways in which macrosystems affect men and children, but the greatest emphasis is on women's familial experiences or imagery of women in the family. The text provides a diverse sample of cultures; chapters address families in countries such as Australia, Chile, China, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Malawi (when it was still the British Protectorate of Nyasaland), Puerto Rico, and the United States. The text is divided into three sections: (a) familialism as state imagining, (b) familialism as state building, and (c) familialism as state reform. The first section focuses on events from the early 19th century to the mid-20th century. The first two chapters (and a similar chapter in the second section) analyze how British/U.S. colonialists applied a Euro-American definition of the appropriate family structure to justify limitations placed on indigenous women and families in Egypt, Puerto Rico, and Nyasaland. The authors indicate that colonialists work from the premise that certain states and groups were unprepared for self-rule until a Euro-American model of family was adopted. A third chapter in this section details the description of family and gender in the Zionist movement. This chapter connects individuals' relational histories with their artistic and activistic expressions of family values. The second section on state building examines the ways in which states actively engaged in family reform. This section centers on events from the late 1800s to the 1950s in Chile, the United States, and Australia. In each country, the family was perceived to be a foundation for the state because the family was the source of productive citizens. Individuals, communities, and the state were expected to benefit from successful families. Because the family and state were mutually dependent, the state used a variety of resources (e.g., material incentives, legal sanctions) to promote the desired family structures and relations. The last section has three chapters that focus on more recent (1950s to the present) developments. These chapters delineate changes in (a) Hungary and the Czech Republic following the decline of socialism, (b) Germany following reunification, and (c) China following the implementation of household registration to control urban female workers. Given the contemporary nature of the events, these three chapters contain qualitative data from interviews with women who identify the direct and indirect effects of such events on their family lives. …

Thomas W. Gallant, Experiencing Dominion: Culture, Identity and Power in the British Mediterranean. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002, 252 pp., ISBN 0-268-02802-8.

While the mildness of the colonial encounter in the European edges of empire is belied by intractable political standoffs in Northern Ireland and Cyprus, such locations traditionally have been of only secondary interest to scholars of colonialism. This book valuably documents the complexity of one such “sideshow in the great game of European imperial expansion” (p. x), the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands (1815–1864), which now form a part of Greece.

Hadiboh: From Peripheral Village to Emerging City

Hadiboh is Soqotra Island's main urban formation. It was the capital until 1999, when the island was administratively divided into two districts: the Eastern District (mudîriyya sharqiya) with Hadiboh as its capital, and the Western District (mudîriyya gharbiya) with Qalansiyah as its capital. The article retraces the evolution of Hadiboh from the 1st century BC, when it was named Panara Tamara, as the main settlement of the island of Panchia, one of the many ancient names of Soqotra. Subsequently, the village of Suq (Shiq in Soqotri) became the main settlement as well as anchorage point for all ships until the end of the 15th century. In early 16th century, when the Sultan of Mahra sought to establish a more permanent presence on the island, Hadiboh regained its status as main settlement. Henceforth Hadiboh was commonly known as Tamarida until the end of the British Protectorate in 1967. The constitution of Hadiboh as a mosaic town is discussed through different phases of immigration starting toward the end of the 19th century until the dawn of the 21st century. Its spatial configuration around three formally constituted neighborhoods symbolizing the town's attachment to the major events in Yemen's modern history is discussed. Its social organization into an ascriptive status hierarchy and the subsequent changes are described. The evolution of the economy from autarkic subsistence based on food bartering and minimal external trade to international ecotouristic desti-nation is explained. Finally, the article briefly highlights Hadiboh's pivotal role in the island's political history, and considers the dilemmas confronting its transformation as well as that of the island.

On the Edge of Empire

In the preface of her On the Edge of Empire: Hadhramawt, Emigration,and the Indian Ocean 1880s-1930s, the author explains that a westernercould conduct research in the Hadhramawt region only after the unificationof North and South Yemen in May 1990. Hence, we can concludethat Boxberger’s work is an effort to add to our knowledge of this underresearchedarea. I have seldom read such a wonderfully detailed book,clearly written and polysonic in its application of diverse researchmethodologies, such as archive studies and oral stories collected fromanthropological fieldwork. It gives several important insights into a complexhistory of one of Arabia’s most fascinating regions.One often encounters the notion that Arabia has been isolated fromforeign influence, and thus left alone with its own traditions and lifestyles.This understanding particularly applies to Yemen, as being a mythical landthat has not changed since ancient times. However, this is far from thetruth. Since Yemen could be viewed as what the rest of Arabia would havebeen without oil, one could conclude that petrodollars have actually conservedcertain cultural values and social organizations. Yemen, on theother hand, has experienced communism, civil war, and recently democratization,unlike other parts of the Arabian peninsula.Boxberger’s study covers Hadhramawt’s Qu’ayti and Kathiri sultanatesduring 1880-1930, a period that is crucial for understanding modernYemen. Her study focuses on the British influence, as these sultanatesbecame British protectorates; the emigration of natives to other parts ofthe Indian Ocean region; and the development of modern communication ...

The Almajiri Heritage and the Threat of Non-State Terrorism in Northern Nigeria--Lessons from Central Asia and Pakistan

The Almajiri heritage is, like the madrassahs in Central Asia, a system of Muslim education that dates back several centuries. With the imposition of British colonial rule between 1902 and 1960 on parts of the Sokoto Empire that currently constitute northern Nigeria, the North's amalgamation with Southern Nigerian British protectorates in 1914, and the formal abolition of slavery in northern Nigeria in 1936, this heritage underwent major structural and functional transformations. Given the lessons from the 1980 Maitatsine terrorist insurgence in Kano, Nigeria, and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in northern Nigeria since 1999, a potential exists that the heritage may evolve into an apparatus for perpetuating non-state terrorism. Drawing on the trajectory of similar educational systems in Central Asia prior to, during, and following Russian communist rule, this article outlines reasons for the growing terrorist potential of the Almajiri heritage, and suggests measures for avoiding such trajectories.

Is Malawi guilty of spoiling the Queen's language?

The present study reports on the history and current circumstances of the English language in Malawi (formerly the British protectorate of Nyasaland), where the standard of English, in terms both of teaching and use, has been in decline since the time of Dr Hastings Banda, the first president (who insisted on high standards in English and education). The study also describes and analyses Malawi's currently rising appetite for English in an environment in which the language is more or less synonymous with education itself.

Historical dictionary of Malawi

Malawi, established as the British protectorate of Nyasaland in 1891, gained its independence in 1964 and moved immediately into three decades of one-party rule. Since the mid-1990s, however, the country has held multi-party elections, as directed by its constitution, and President Bingu wa Mutharika is currently serving his second term. The fourth edition of the Historical Dictionary of Malawi, now newly expanded and updated, covers a wide range of areas in Malawi history, including the rise and fall of state systems, religious and socio-political movements, the economy, environment, transportation, war, disease, and natural sciences. Author Owen J. M. Kalinga charts developments from pre-history to the post-Banda Malawi, from Tom Bokwito to James Sangala, and from the UMCA mission at Magomero to the second term of Bingu wa Mutharika's presidency, paying particular attention to the individuals, groups, communities, and forces that have molded this South African country.

The Kingdom of Swaziland: Studies in Political History

Preface Introduction The Ngwane-Swazi Expanding and Consolidating Boundaries: The Transvaal Boundaries: Portuguese Territory The Concessions Scramble Independence Fades Governing by Committee Politics in Flux The Boer Administration Assassination: The King's Part? War in South Africa The British Takeover Annexation or Protectorate A Test of Wills Partition Carried Through Regency to Kingship Archival and Library Sources Abbreviations References and Notes Glossary Recent Books on Swaziland Index

Bishop Alfred Tucker and the Establishment of a British Protectorate in Uganda 1890-94

AbstractThe article considers the involvement of Bishop Alfred Tucker and other missionaries of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in the establishment of a British Protectorate in Buganda between 1890 and 1894. These missionaries were drawn, often not unwillingly, into political affairs, both within Uganda and internationally. The contribution made by Tucker was frequently ill-informed and sometimes tendentious. Nevertheless, he sought to uphold the long-standing CMS regulation that missionaries should abstain from any political involvement. The theoretical distinction between the sacred and secular was alien to the intellectual heritage of Uganda, and in practice it was contradicted by the activities of CMS missionaries, who justified their involvement in terms of considering Uganda to be a 'special case'.