Missionary Knowledge and the State in Colonial Nigeria: On How G. T. Basden became an Expert

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 433-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitri van den Bersselaar

Between 1931 and 1937, the Anglican missionary G. T. Basden represented the Igbo people on the Nigerian Legislative Council. The Igbo had not elected Basden as their representative; he had been appointed by the colonial government. Basden's appointment seems remarkable. In 1923 the Legislative Council had been expanded to include seats for Unofficial Members, representing a number of Nigerian areas, with the expressed aim of increasing African representation on the Council. In selecting Basden the government went against their original intention that the representative of the Igbo area would be a Nigerian. However, the government decided that there was no “suitable” African candidate available, and that the appointment of a recognized European expert on the Igbo was an acceptable alternative. This choice throws light on a number of features of the Nigerian colonial state in 1930s, including the limitations of African representation and the definition of what would make a “suitable” African candidate.In this paper I am concerned with the question of how Basden became recognized as an expert by the colonial government and also, more generally, with the linkages between colonial administrations' knowledge requirements and missionary knowledge production. Missionary-produced knowledge occupied a central, but also somewhat awkward position in colonial society. On the one hand, colonial governments and missions shared a number of common assumptions and expectations about African peoples. On the other hand, there also existed tensions between missions and government, partly reflecting differing missionary and administrative priorities, which means that the missionary expert was not often recognized as such.

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Abdul Wahid

Land tax (landrent) was first introduced by British Ruler, Thomas Raffles in 1811/1812, but was later retained by the Government of the Dutch East Indies until the end of its power in 1942. The long history of applying this tax has led to various dynamics from continuous administrative reforms to socio-political resistance from the taxpayer (community). In general, the application of land tax adapted to local economic and political conditions to make it work effectively and efficiently. In the autonomous region of vorstenlanden, the application of land tax became the pull out field of political authority between the Dutch East Indies Colonial Government and the traditional Governments of the Yogyakarta and Surakarta palaces, both of which share political and administrative powers in their respective territories. On the one hand this condition leads to dualism administrative, because the land tax operates as a central tax and local tax, thus potentially causing double tax burdens for local communities. This article seeks to critically examine how the pull out of land tax administration in vorstenlanden and how far the tax became part of the political relations of the colonial state with the indigenous traditional state.


1992 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayodeji Olukoju

Shipping, a vital element of maritime trade, has not hitherto received adequate attention in studies on Nigerian colonial economic history. This article therefore fills a gap in the literature by studying aspects of the shipping trade during the First World War, when shipping was indispensable for maintaining economic links between Britain and her colonies. Shipping in Nigeria revolved around the practices of the Elder Dempster Shipping Company, which enjoyed an undisputed monopoly of the trade throughout the war, and the reactions of the colonial government and private shippers to them.Scarcity of tonnage and higher freights were the chief features of shipping during the war. The allocation of shipping space, however, ranged the colonial government, the shipping company and the Combine (that is, big European) firms against non-Combine shippers. While Elder Dempster's allocation formula suited the government and the Combine firms, it was considered inequitable by other shippers. This arrangement reflected the community of interests between the colonial state and Big Business vis-à-vis smaller traders.The interests of the government and Elder Dempster were, however, incompatible on the question of ocean freights. Thus, high freights which boosted the firm's turnover were detrimental to the economic interests of the colonial state. The company's monopoly and the non-intervention of the Imperial government enabled it to have its way. Consequently, despite losses at sea, requisition by the Imperial government and rising running costs, Elder Dempster conducted a profitable business during the war. In achieving this, it also served the Imperial interest by effectively linking Nigeria with the metropolis.On the whole, wartime shipping conditions, particularly Elder Dempster's practical monopoly, were a departure from pre-war trends. There was a gradual return to normality in the early 1920s but the firm remained pre-eminent in the West African shipping trade.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Fabian Krautwald

Abstract Historians have drawn on newspapers to illuminate the origins of modern nationalism and cultures of literacy. The case of Kiongozi (The Guide or The Leader) relates this scholarship to Tanzania's colonial past. Published between 1904 and 1916 by the government of what was then German East Africa, the paper played an ambivalent role. On the one hand, by promoting the shift from Swahili written in Arabic script (ajami) to Latinized Swahili, it became the mouthpiece of an African elite trained in government schools. By reading and writing for Kiongozi, these waletaji wa habari (bearers of news) spread Swahili inland and transformed coastal culture. On the other hand, the paper served the power of the colonial state by mediating between German colonizers and their indigenous subordinates. Beyond cooptation, Kiongozi highlights the warped nature of African voices in the colonial archive, questioning claims about print's impact on nationalism and new forms of selfhood.


1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen Hicks

One must presume that the parties who placed this procedure in the Labour Relations Act had a specific goal in mind. If we look at the Government Green Paper Industrial relations, a framework for review, volume 2, page 173, - one of the options with regard to this topic - the one ultimately legislated for is set out as: To extend the definition of personal grievance to specifically include discrimination in the work place or alternatively to create a separate grievance procedure to deal with such matters. This option would be attractive in offering all workers covered by awards and agreements an easily accessible, flexible and relatively quick mechanism for resolving such matters close to their point of origin.


2005 ◽  
pp. 395-403
Author(s):  
Uros Suvakovic

Social sciences should always aim to reach the highest possible level of exactness, as much as they can when one has in mind their topic of research. In the case of research about political parties, we believe that it is possible - with relatively exract indicators - to establish their successfulness and quantify it by using two measuring instruments: the ten-member graphic scale of successfulness of political parties and the index of successfulness of political parties. Political parties are political organizations of ideological-political like(similar)-minded persons who create associations lasting relatively long period of time to promote specific programme standpoints with the basic goal to win, that is stay in power or participate in power. Through power, they realize and confirm the interests, values and goals of those social groups which they tend to represent, as a rule trying to present these interests, values and goals as general, that is as global as possible. This definition of the notion of political party clearly indicates that its basic goal is winning, that is staying or at least participating in power. Therefore, to measure the successfulness of political parties means to determine the degree a party succeeded in realizing that basic goal of any party. Since the political power is implemented through the parliament and the government is a product of the power relations in it, one could assume that successful political parties are only those which have a parliamentary status. How much one of them would be successful depends on the position it can ensure for itself in a concrete constellation of political relations. Among the successful ones the least successful is the political party which has a parliamentary status but it is in the opposition and not leading this opposition - so it has no influence on the government (the position 6 on the scale); the most successful party is the one which has enough power to form the government alone (position 10). From the standpoint of any party - winning, staying or participating in power, the nonparliamentary parties are unsuccessful political parties. Amnog them, the most unsuccessful is the party which just satisfied the conditions for registration, whose leaders meet twice a year and which formed at least 5 local leadership bodies (the position 1 on the scale); the least unsuccessful political party is the party which won more than 3% of the votes of those who voted at the parliamentary elections, but is below the census proposed for entering the parliament or which managed to nominate at least 10% of the total number of the candidates for the representatives in the assemblies of the local communities at the municipal rank (position 5). While calculating the index of successfulness, each party is given a number of points for every year - these points reflect the position of that party on the scale of successfulness for that year (for example, the party X has the position 5 in 1993 and it gets 5 points). Since the index of successfulness is calculated for the period of 10 years, the sum of points acquired for these 10 years is divided by the number 10 to get the index of successfulness of political parties.


1998 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donal Cruise O'Brien

The relationship between language and politics in the African post-colony remains obscure and underexamined. Here we withdraw into a poorly lit area, an area of potentialities, where new political shapes may emerge as the outcome of half-conscious choices made by very large numbers of people. Language choices in the first place: the expansion of the Wolof language in Senegal, principally though far from exclusively an urban phenomenon, is to be seen in a context where the individual may speak several languages, switching linguistically from one social situation to another. Such multilingualism is general in Africa: the particularity of the Wolof case, at least in Senegal, is the extent to which this language has spread, far beyond the boundaries of core ethnicity, of a historical Wolof zone from the colonial or pre-colonial periods. And these individual language choices cast their political shadow.The political consequences of this socio-linguistic phenomenon are as yet indistinct, but to see a little more clearly one should in the second place relate it to the subject of the politics of ethnicity. Language is of course an important element in any definition of ethnicity, and there is an evident overlap; but the politics of language is also a distinguishable subject in its own right. Where the assertion of ethnic identity can be identified as a possible weapon in the individual's struggle for power and recognition within the colonial and post-colonial state, the choice of a language is that of the most effective code in the individual's daily struggle for survival. Language choice in such a setting may be less a matter of assertion, the proud proclamation of an identity, than it is one of evasion, a more or less conscious blurring of the boundaries of identity. And in Senegal the government itself by its inaction has practised its own shadow-politics of procrastination.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Roohi Javed ◽  
Farheen Javed

At the outset, this study dwells on the ambiguities surrounding the definition of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the non-adherence to international norms in measuring the FDI inflows by India. The study finds that portfolio investors and round-tripping investments have been important contributors to India’s reported FDI inflows, thus, blurring the distinction between direct and portfolio investors on the one hand and foreign and domestic investors on the other. These investors were also the ones who have exploited the tax haven route the most. These observations acquire added significance in the context of the substantial fall in the inflows seen during 1991–1992 to April 2015–December 2015. FDI as a strategic component of investment is needed by India for achieving the economic reforms and maintaining the pace of growth and development of the economy. The government should design the FDI policy in such a way where FDI inflow can be utilised as a means of enhancing domestic production, savings and exports through the equitable distribution among states by providing much freedom to states, so that they can attract FDI inflows at their own level. The impact of FDI inflows into India in recent years is highly significant. JEL: C40, C82, E44, F210, G15


Author(s):  
Irina Kostenko

Formulation of the problem. In the early 21st century, the concept of e-government, E-government, emerged in the world. The young independent Ukrainian state, which inherited the archaic governance mechanism, has not stayed away from this global trend. As of today, Ukraine has developed progressive regulatory framework for implementing any of the existing e-government models in the world. Ukraine, in terms of implementation of e-governance, is a young country. There is already some experience in the world practice, there are several basic models of e-government: Anglo-American, European, Asian models. Thus, the choice of topic was determined by the social and scientific relevance of the studied issue, the lack of its theoretical and methodological development. Formulating the purpose of the article. The purpose of the study is the content and principles of e-governance and the state of its implementation in the sphere of public administration of Ukraine. At the time of writing, the author came to the following conclusions. Today, there is no unanimous opinion in the scientific community regarding the definition of "e-governance". On the one hand, e-government is seen as a system of interagency interaction, as a concept of increasing the efficiency and transparency of the activity of public authorities, which should minimize the involvement of the official person. In the process of writing the work, the following definition was formed: e-government is a form of public administration that promotes the efficiency and transparency of the activity of state and local self-government bodies using information and telecommunication technologies to ensure the further development of a democratic society. Also, two additional principles were formulated in the analysis of e-Government principles in accordance with the Government Concept: the partnership principle and the responsibility of the official person. The principle of partnership is to perceive citizens and their associations as equal partners in the decision-making process. The law should specify the degree of responsibility of the official person for non-compliance with the adopted decisions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Bulajić ◽  
Miomir Despotović ◽  
Thomas Lachmann

Abstract. The article discusses the emergence of a functional literacy construct and the rediscovery of illiteracy in industrialized countries during the second half of the 20th century. It offers a short explanation of how the construct evolved over time. In addition, it explores how functional (il)literacy is conceived differently by research discourses of cognitive and neural studies, on the one hand, and by prescriptive and normative international policy documents and adult education, on the other hand. Furthermore, it analyses how literacy skills surveys such as the Level One Study (leo.) or the PIAAC may help to bridge the gap between cognitive and more practical and educational approaches to literacy, the goal being to place the functional illiteracy (FI) construct within its existing scale levels. It also sheds more light on the way in which FI can be perceived in terms of different cognitive processes and underlying components of reading. By building on the previous work of other authors and previous definitions, the article brings together different views of FI and offers a perspective for a needed operational definition of the concept, which would be an appropriate reference point for future educational, political, and scientific utilization.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-424
Author(s):  
Jamaluddin Jamaluddin

Indonesian reformation era begins with the fall of President Suharto. Political transition and democratic transition impact in the religious life. Therefore, understandably, when the politic transition is not yet fully reflects the idealized conditions. In addition to the old paradigm that is still attached to the brain of policy makers, various policies to mirror the complexity of stuttering ruler to answer the challenges of religious life. This challenge cannot be separated from the hegemonic legacy of the past, including the politicization of SARA. Hegemony that took place during the New Order period, adversely affected the subsequent transition period. It seems among other things, with airings various conflicts nuances SARA previously muted, forced repressive. SARA issues arise as a result of the narrowing of the accommodation space of the nation state during the New Order regime. The New Order regime has reduced the definition of nation-states is only part of a group of people loyal to the government to deny the diversity of socio-cultural reality in it. To handle the inheritance, every regime in the reform era responds with a pattern and a different approach. It must be realized, that the post-reform era, Indonesia has had four changes of government. The leaders of every regime in the reform era have a different background and thus also have a vision that is different in treating the problem of racial intolerance, particularly against religious aspect. This treatment causes the accomplishment difference each different regimes of dealing with the diversity of race, religion and class that has become the hallmark of Indonesian society.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document