Renting out the Empire: A History of the Royal Niger Company

Abstract

This thesis is a revised history of the Royal Niger Company. It seeks to include perspectives and narratives missing from the company's history. These are the contribution of its African employees to the company's trading and military operations as well as the link between the company's need for managers and skilled artisans that could work in the disease climate of the Niger with the rise of a new social class in West Africa. This class here, referred to as Anglicized Africans, came into existence as Africans acquired western education and artisan training in missionary schools on the West Coast of Africa. Without the Anglicized Africans, maintaining trading stations and steam vessels on the Niger would not have been possible. At the same time, working for the company gave Anglicized Africans opportunities for material and social advancement not available to other indigenous people. The Anglicized Africans who worked with the RNC in the early colonial phase of company rule would later play a critical role in colonial politics and anti-colonial nationalism. This study draws attention to their antecedents to help us better understand their later role in the colonial and post-colonial states. The thesis also explores how the company's operations affected existing social and political structures in West Africa. The most significant conflicts were the company's wars with the Nembe Kingdom and the Sokoto Caliphate. The internal political changes within the Nembe Kingdom due to the Akassa War have not been discussed in previous company histories. This revised history of the company explains how conflict with the RNC caused the balance of power within the Nembe state to shift to a previously marginalized Christian faction led by Anglicized Africans. The thesis also expands on the company's operation of a fully functioning army of African and European soldiers, the largest British fighting force on the Niger from 1886 to 1899. The tactics and strategy of this semi-autonomous military force are explored for the first time, and the integration of the Constabulary into the West African Frontier Force is covered in more detail than has previously been done.