British Colonial Research Articles

Crippled Giant: Institution Crisis of Monarchy since

All human institutions are dynamic. Traditional institutions emerged because of man's need for them, and they change because of various factors. However, monarchical institutions are known to be conservative, culture bound and consistently consistent. Notwithstanding, this giant had faced a lot of crisis and had been crippled over the years in Nigeria through the imposition of the British Colonial rule and post –Independence political developments. In contemporary times, they have been battered, hurt and brutalized by modern political leaders who have seen the monarchical institution as a rival and as an obstacle to their hopes or as instrument to be used and chosen to accomplish their aims. To this extent, little is known historically on the event of change and continuity in the traditional powers and functions of the monarchical institutions. The paper highlights the functions and powers of the monarchy in the society before and during the colonial rule. It also examines their place during the military interregnum and in the current political dispensation. The authors insist with all sense of responsibility, that, monarchical institution has a pivotal role as a link between modern government and local communities, thereby providing a feedback channel through which community needs and aspirations are felt, assessed and addressed. However, what should be done constitutionally is to accept the traditional rulers as purveyors and upholders of traditions, while curtailing and limiting their powers so that they do not clash with executive authorities.

IMPACT OF BRITISH COLONIALISM ON THE ỌDIONWERE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTION IN BENIN KINGDOM, NIGERIA

This study examines the profound impact of British colonialism on the Odionwere conflict management institution in Benin Kingdom, Nigeria. Before the colonial intervention, the Odionwere played a crucial role in resolving disputes and maintaining social harmony within the community. However, the advent of British colonial rule in the late 19th century significantly changed traditional governance structures. The imposition of indirect rule by the British colonial administrators altered the Benin Kingdom’s power dynamics, marginalizing the Odionwere’s authority. The establishment of colonial courts and the introduction of Western legal systems further undermined the traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. This study explores how the Odionwere, once central to dispute resolution, experienced a decline in influence and autonomy as colonial policies reshaped the socio-political landscape. By meticulously analyzing archival documents, oral histories, and ethnographic data, this research contributes to understanding the intricate interplay between colonialism and Indigenous institutions, shedding light on the lasting repercussions of colonial policies on local governance structures and conflict resolution practices in the Benin Kingdom.

The politics and limitations of Afrodiasporic humour: Elnathan John’s Be(com)ing Nigerian

This article examines the politicisation and limitations of Afrodiasporic humour in Elnathan John’s 2019 text: Be(com)ing Nigerian. Although most literary commentators tend to categorise this satirical guide as a novel, it does not follow the plot structure of a conventional prose narrative. Rather, John models his text on ethics and aesthetics of Onitsha pamphlet literature, a popular culture tradition which flourished during the colonial epoch. My central argument is that John’s satirical critique of Nigerian national identity does not only elicit the reader’s laughter, but also challenges his fellow citizens to recalibrate their cultural ethics, in order to achieve a self-improvement agency both individually and collectively. In providing this self-improvement guidance, John effectively invests the reader’s aesthetic sensibility with an ideological hermeneutic, which underpins, and so enables, a vicarious satirical critique of what it means to be Nigerian in different socio-political contexts. I therefore demonstrate how John deploys colonial and Eurocentric clichés, biblical imagery and rhetoric, irony, sarcasm, parody, and hyperbole to satirise the constructedness, complexities, and ambiguities of a Nigerian identity born out of British colonialism and post-independence misrule of both military and civilian dictatorships. For insofar as form dialectically overlaps with theme, John’s self-improvement guide is ineluctably embedded with a satirical politics and poetics. That is, as a Nigerian diasporic writer who currently lives and works in Germany, John inhabits a transcultural space between the local and the global, from which he satirises both indigenous and Western values. I also contend that John’s transcultural ambivalence reveals the limitations of his Afrodiasporic humour, since Nigeria’s ethnic diversity implies cultural incommensurability and potential audience conflict. I then conclude by reflecting on how John’s satirical guide adumbrates the production, circulation, and critical reception of African postcolonial humour, a genre which remains largely undertheorised.

The Translator as a Colonial Agent: Reframing the South in the English Translation of Season of Migration to the North

This paper sets out to examine the translation of Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North in light of Narrative theory. In his work, Salih is writing back to the empire as a form of resistance against British Colonialism. The translation seems to tone this resistance down by constructing a narrative that underlines the superiority of the North over the South. The paper attempts to offer a fresh perspective as it explores how the South is reframed in the target text to be represented to the target audience. It also attempts to answer the question of how the East/South is narrated and whether it has been (dis)empowered in the novel’s translation. Given the importance of the text, It is essential to investigate how the novel has been introduced in the West using a strong and adaptable framework capable of capturing the complexities of the interactions among various powers involved. Narrative theory offers such a framework and is particularly suitable for the current study.

Colonialism and Environmental Degradation in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: An Ecocritical Perspective of Development

This paper aims to analyse the dichotomy between colonialism and environmental degradation, which is presented in the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. The paper claims that colonialism and modern development destroy the nature and native culture. The main mission of colonizers is to create political, imperial, and economic hegemony over the country. However, it has negative impact on nature, forestry, animal kingdoms, and cultural wilderness. For the theoretical perspective, the paper borrows ideas from Cheryll Glotfelty and Greg Garrard's about ecological consciousness and environmental literature. The arrival of the British colony in India caused terrible deforestation and cultural fall. It is a textual analysis of the novel. The paper concludes that colonialism through its infrastructural development caused deforestation and loss of natural and cultural wilderness.

(Un)rooted spaces of belonging: migrant kinship structures in Nadifa Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy

While African intercontinental migration to Western countries continues to receive vigorous scholarly attention in African literary studies, this article draws its focus to intracontinental migration during the 1930s and 1940s in Nadifa Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy (2010). After the protagonist Jama loses his mother, he searches for his father across East and North Africa in a quest to solidify his brittle familial bonds. As Jama constantly refashions his kinship bonds throughout his peregrinations, familial belonging lies at the thematic core of the narrative, which necessitates a more thorough discussion of family structures alongside Mohamed’s realistic portrayal of African geographies transformed by Italian and British colonization to better analyze how kinship operates as a mode of resistance against such forces. Considering Mohamed’s exploration of familial roles in different East African societies, I argue that this novel showcases how migration paradoxically destabilizes and reshapes traditional African family systems foiled by colonial violence. It does so by portraying Africans’ creative resilience in engendering new familial/communal spaces while concomitantly dislodging geographically fixed ideas of belonging. To deploy this analysis, I combine geocriticism and Black Geographies to examine how varied spaces and places shape the characters’ identities and the familial connections they construe. In making this argument, I demonstrate that families/communities mark belonging more significantly than citizenship in the context of migration and buttress space-making for East African migrants in Mohamed’s narrative.

A Study on the Strategy of Modern Border Governance in the Qing Dynasty -- A Brief Discussion on the Governance Strategy of Zhao Erfeng during his tenure as the Resident Minister in Tibet

In the late Qing Dynasty, in order to consolidate the southwest border and resist the invasion of British colonizers. The central administrative group of the Qing Dynasty carried out a series of governance and business activities on the Xichuan border. In this series of activities, Zhao Erfeng, who was then the Minister of Border Affairs of Sichuan and Yunnan, was known as the "Zhao Butcher". He cruelly suppressed the national movement with iron and blood methods, and implemented strategies such as land reform and new policies, which greatly changed the form of border areas in Sichuan. This article aims to explore the development process of modern ethnic relations and border governance by exploring Zhao Erfeng's governance period, extracting the ruling ideas of Qing rulers towards ethnic border areas, and exploring the development process of modern ethnic relations and border governance.

Retaining Chinese Indentured Labour in Interwar British and French Pacific colonies

ABSTRACT British attempts to reform or close down the indentured labour system as it applied to Chinese labourers across the British empire were carried out on an ad hoc basis, one colony at a time. In the southwest Pacific islands indentured labour recruitment was retained into the 1930s and beyond. Between 1920 and 1953 thousands of Chinese workers suffered under penal clauses for labour offences and endured harsh conditions on contracts that often extended beyond five years. This article investigates the means by which colonial authorities in Hong Kong and the southwest Pacific were able to maintain the indentured labour system despite the British Colonial Office preference for abolition. It compares government correspondence, labour contracts and ordinances from Nauru under British-Australian mandate, Western Samoa under New Zealand mandate, and the Anglo-French Condominium of New Hebrides (Vanuatu). It demonstrates that Chinese indentured labourers were retained with only minor changes to their contracts, put in place for the most part so that colonial administrators could avoid national and international censure.

Exceptions to the Abolition of Chinese Indenture: Chinese workers on rubber estates in Interwar British Malaya

ABSTRACT In a 1931 report investigating the status of labourers in British colonies, the Colonial Office declared that the system of indenture had been abolished across Malaya. This claim belied the realities of labour practices on the ground. On plantations, mines and in colonial homes, Chinese workers continued to labour under formal indenture and to endure indenture-like practices well into 1930s. This article explores the slow decline of Chinese indenture in Malaya, concentrating on the rubber industry in the Unfederated Malay State of Kelantan during the interwar years. The Chinese migrant workers that were brought to Kelantan in that era signed contracts for one year with the terms of the contract enforced by colonial administrators. These workers endured poor working conditions and high death rates. Those that sought to escape faced criminal conviction and punishments including fines and incarnation. By showing the continuation of indenture in Kelantan, this article challenges the assumption made by historians that Chinese indenture had ended globally by the early 1920s. It also develops new understandings of the fragmentary and complex process of abolition.

‘Becoming manly’: white South African defence force veterans negotiating masculinity

ABSTRACT This study examines how white South African men reflect on their experiences of being and becoming army veterans, while negotiating masculinity. In the context of ‘high apartheid’, Afrikaner domination of the socio-political landscape, ethnic and racialised inequalities, the veterans negotiated being white English-speaking men through reflecting on, critiquing and disassociating from military masculinity. An English South African masculinity was upheld by distancing from Afrikaner domination and values, violence and compulsory heterosexuality. These findings suggest that while a military masculinity offered men a powerful template to assert their authority as white men, such power was nuanced by English South Africans’ relative political impotence, the domination of Afrikaans as a language and illustrates the heterogeneity in the experience of white veteran masculinity under apartheid. At the same time, however, white English veterans were complicit in and benefitted from whiteness and the power accrued in the country by virtue of race, class and history of British colonialism. We argue that the experience of being and becoming conscripts and the reflection on military masculinity directs attention to the ways in which broader social and political contexts have effects for the shaping of masculinity reflecting hierarchies of power and fluidity.

South African Allegories in Richard Jefferies’s After London; or Wild England (1885)

This paper argues that Richard Jefferies’s After London (1885), often praised as a pioneering work of speculative fiction, has not been sufficiently understood within the context of late-Victorian imperial expansion. While After London is frequently read in tandem with Jefferies’s nature essays and speculative fiction like H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1895), I locate the novel within the generic conventions of lost world fiction, a subgenre of the imperial romance associated with masculine adventure tales. Analysing After London’s parallels with, and potential influences on, H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885), published later that same year, I argue that Jefferies’s unflattering portrayal of English ‘Bushmen’, coupled with the geography of Wild England, gesture emphatically to South Africa. In turn, the motif of a ‘relapse into barbarism’ serves to rationalise the fantasies of terra nullius [‘nobody’s land’] and extractive treasure hunting that Felix Aquila, the quixotic hero, enacts. By connecting After London to Haggard’s highly influential fiction and drawing on Jefferies’s writings about British colonialism in South Africa and the conventions of travel literature, cartography, and ethnography, this paper provides a more complete understanding of Jefferies’s contributions to the canon of lost world fiction.

EVOLUTION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN INDIAN WRITING THROUGH THE POSTCOLONIAL LENS

English as a language has undergone many fundamental and linguistic changes over the ages. From Old English, or Anglo-Saxon that was spoken in England and Scotland in the early Middle ages, to the Middle English, which underwent a lot of changes after the Norman conquest until the late fifteenth century. English saw many changes during the Renaissance all through to the modernist period to finally become what it is today. English, consequently, emerged as a language that is ever-changing in nature, a language that adapts and accommodates all. One such evolution in the language can be seen through the postcolonial experience of the former British colonies. The adoption of English in India, like other colonies, was a result of the Raj. Indian writing in English emerged as an honest enterprise that has turned out to be a new form of Indian culture and voice that has been adopted and adapted by the native people. Indian writers- poets, novelist, essayists and dramatists, have been making great contributions to world literature while gaining immense recognition and fame. It has achieved independent stature in world literature. Subsequently, the use of English became essential for postcolonial writers as it works towards the enlightenment of both the colonizer and the colonized about the ‘Self and the ‘Other’. This paper attempts to highlight the evolution of the English language by navigating through the postcolonial narrative of writers who have not only adopted the language but also have changed it

Postcolonial Identity and Discourse: Foucauldian Analysis of Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone

This research article delves into the intricate interplay between postcolonial identity and discourse in Kamila Shamsie's novel, "A God in Every Stone," employing a Foucauldian analytical framework This paper presents a Foucauldian analysis of Kamila Shamsie's novel, "A God in Every Stone." Drawing upon the works of Michel Foucault (2016), the paper examines the novel through the lens of power, knowledge, and the construction of historical narratives. Through a close reading of key characters and events, this analysis elucidates how colonial power structures and systems of knowledge production intersect in the novel to shape individual and collective identities. The present study has been conducted on Shamsie’s A God in Every Stone to highlight the process of colonization. The interpreter has examined the ways by which the colonized resisted colonial rule. Foucault’s model of Power has been used as the conceptual framework of the study to analyze the postcolonial aspects of Shamsie’s (2014) novel. The present study is qualitative in nature. The data has been collected through the close reading technique of the A God in Every Stone. For data analysis, those textual lines have been selected in which the elements of power and resistance are present covertly. The interpreter has explored different dimensions of Foucault’s power, i.e., Sovereign power and disciplinary power. British Empire justified its colonial rule over the colonized through the colonial discourse which was prejudiced against non-white people. The colonized people resist colonial rule through their dialogues in this novel. In A God in Every Stone, the major protagonist is Vivian Rose Spencer. She is an English woman who carried out digging in Turkey to unearth the ancient silver circlet. The interpreter has inferred that the colonizers used many disciplinary strategies to subjugate the colonized people. The Indian soldiers were trained by the British imperialists to fight in the battlefield on the Western Front. Many innocent Indian soldiers lost their lives in fighting the enemies of the British Empire. The major character of the novel Qayyum Gul, fought bravely in the battlefield. Unfortunately, he lost an eye during the battle. When he returned to Peshawar, he joined a freedom movement, which aimed to liberate India from the British colonizers. Ultimately, this Foucauldian analysis of "A God in Every Stone" underscores the intricate dynamics of power and knowledge in the colonial context and sheds light on the complexities of historical representation and identity formation in a postcolonial world.

English Loanwords in Urdu Language: A Study of Borrowing

When a new object or activity or idea enters in a culture, the word or words which express it may be borrowed. The most basic function of a loanword is communicating the new object or idea. A culture may elect to use its own resources (as ‘horsepower’ for a steam locomotive engine) for the new item Hoffer, (2002). The present research aims at examining the English borrowed words into Urdu language. It begins with Introduction to the borrowing in general and English with reference to Urdu in particular. It also discusses various forms of borrowing. English language has been in contact with Urdu during the British colonization in India. This has resulted into borrowing so many lexicons into Urdu which must be studied linguistically. It is argued that borrowing has enhanced the communicative range of Urdu lexicons. This is the qualitative study in its nature. Loanwords have been categorized in different domains. Then, the historical background of Urdu and English language interaction until now, and the processes, reasons that are involved in the borrowing of loanwords in Urdu from English language has been discussed.

The role of the labor movements in the colonial spaces: trade unionism in Palestine and Lebanon in the colonial era (1920-1948)

ABSTRACT This article aims to demonstrate how the working class evolved and was organised in Palestine and Lebanon between 1920 and 1948. Palestine and Lebanon, which share characteristics such as being a part of the Ottoman Empire and being governed by mandates, also share similar experiences in combating sectarianism based on nationality or religion. The establishment of British rule in Palestine and French administration in Lebanon after World War I also influenced the trade union movement in these two countries: Nationalism flourished, trade unions became tools of politics, and the divide and rule policy of the colonial administration made organization difficult. Although these administrations were referred to as ‘mandates’ of the League of Nations, they actually experienced a colonization process and its effects similar to those in Africa. In this study, particularly the concept of colonization will be used, and the activities of trade unions in colonial regions will be examined through two Middle Eastern countries. While the Palestinian trade unions, which struggled against both British colonization and settler colonialism, were effective in preserving Palestinian identity, the Lebanese trade unions, dealing with French colonization as well as sectarianism, also managed to significantly preserve working-class unity.

Architecture and the Existing Urbanisms: The British Colonial Legacies in Kano, Nigeria, 1909-2000

Architecture and the Existing Urbanisms: The British Colonial Legacies in Kano, Nigeria, 1909-2000

Māori loanwords in New Zealand English

Abstract The Indigenous language of ANZ, Māori is undergoing significant revitalisation, following severe loss of vitality caused by English colonialism. One dimension to this revitalisation is the normalising of borrowings from Māori into New Zealand English (NZE). However, there are currently no empirical studies of adults’ naming patterns for concepts that can be lexicalised by Māori words in NZE. We report on a picture-naming experiment in which 48 participants are asked to name a set of target and control pictures depicting everyday concepts from three semantic categories which involve Māori borrowings: flora/fauna, people/places, material culture. Following a background questionnaire, we group participants into three categories, depending on their orientation towards Māori language and culture. Results suggest a clear association between participant orientation and their use of Māori loanwords. Alternative interpretations are discussed, including questions for future research on the relationship between NZE lexical variation and language planning.

Where is the Seeker Who Searches for Another? Decolonial Approaches to Digital Public History

Abstract This article delves into the role of public history within the context of suppressed and erased colonial pasts, underscoring the importance of individuals in actively shaping, uncovering, documenting and disseminating history. The period from the late 1940s–1960s marked a pivotal transition for the British Empire, as numerous colonies gained independence. This shift in sovereignty from colonial rule to sovereign nations unveiled deep apprehensions regarding the potential use of Britain’s historical actions and documents by newly independent governments. Operation Legacy was a clandestine initiative by British colonial authorities to destroy or hide records that could tarnish the British government’s image or compromise secret intelligence. The ethical ramifications of this operation, and its impact on the construction of memory and knowledge, remain a contentious issue for many in former colonies who are still striving to piece together their colonial history and seek justice for past wrongs. By highlighting the experience, methodologies and challenges of the Museum of British Colonialism collective, the article explores what a framework for decolonial public history may look like in a digital age. Decolonial public history requires negotiations that are continuously shaped by interrogating multiple sources, employing multiple mediums, engaging diverse audiences, and constantly reflecting and refining one’s own process and methodology. Inspired by Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s influential work Devil on the Cross, which portrays resistance to colonialism as a communal and interconnected endeavor, the article reflects on the character Wariinga’s query: “Where is the seeker who searches for another?” It concludes with thoughts on how digital public history can achieve decolonial significance and effectiveness, not merely through technological means, but by centering human connections and extensively building communities of practice across multiple frontiers.

A “Fanatic in Morality”: The “Native” Question, Revisions, and Emotional Intensity in Anthony Trollope’s South Africa (1878)

ABSTRACT This article compares the manuscript and two published editions of Anthony Trollope's understudied travelogue South Africa (1878), exploring the affective impetus driving the inconsistency and revisions in his articulations concerning the “native” question in South African colonies. It argues that Trollope's inability to fully legitimise Britain's colonisation of South Africa through conventional discourses stems from the profound impact of his immediate affective responses to the atrocity of colonialism. Trollope wrote with great haste as he travelled, in order to preserve his immediate emotions and thoughts experienced during his travels. In the travelogue, his scepticism of British colonialism ebbs and flows as he vacillates between moral scruples and conservatism during the writing and revision process. This article illuminates a neglected facet of nineteenth-century British travel writing: the travellers’ fluctuating emotions contributed to the subtle fluidity of their narratives of colonialism, complicating their complicity in perpetuating racial and colonial ideologies.

British Colonial Education in the Indian Subcontinent (1757-1858): Attitude of Muslims

This article investigates the British colonial education imparted in the Indian Subcontinent during the priod 1757-1858, keeping in view the Muslim perspective. The objective is to comprehend the complex and diverse ways in which Muslims responded to British education throughout the colonial era, which were influenced by revolutionary and reactionary movements ignited by British domination. Muslims developed a complicated relationship with colonial education as a result of tensions heightened by the repression of indigenous concerns and the disregard for the acquisition of Islamic values. This study aims to comprehend the purpose of British education in the Indian subcontinent, analyses competing Muslim ideologies surrounding colonial education, uncovers factors influencing Muslim attitudes toward education during the British rule, and also analyses the differences in how different groups of Muslims responded to British education throughout British colonialism. For this purpose, this study uses a qualitative research methodology to investigate historical sources and determine the factors contributing to the hostile and defensive views of Indian Muslims regarding colonial education. The findings demonstrate the complex effects of British colonial policies, underlining the conflicts brought about by the disregard for Islamic knowledge and the fallout from the Sepoy Revolution. The study depicts varying responses to western education and competing ideologies among Muslims in India and underscores the significance of placing Muslim views in the larger sociopolitical context of colonial India. It also emphasises how critical it is to comprehend Muslim viewpoints on colonial education to dispel myths and promote a nuanced awareness of the historical legacies that continue to influence educational practices in post-colonial cultures.