BRITISH COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION IN THE TOTO AREA OF NASARAWA STATE, 1900-1960: NATURE, IMPACT AND CHALLENGES

This paper demonstrates the imposition of British colonial administration among the peoples of Toto area of Nasarawa State. It specifically shows the nature of British rule and how it has impacted on the inter-group relations of the area. As a consequence of indirect rule, Hausa and Fulani domination was confirmed-and in some instances imposed-on diverse ethnic groups in Toto area. The implementation of indirect rule, as it is demonstrated in this paper, ran into problems in Toto area precisely because of an actually existing ethno-cultural difference, a difference deemed unsuited, if not injurious, to the British goals. The paper therefore examines the fraught nature of indirect rule and how it had serious consequences for both colonial power relations and inter-ethnic relations in the area. In fact, as from 1900 to 1917 the British were bent on creating ‘paramount rulers’ and Districts with District Heads to rhyme with the policy of indirect rule. The chiefs, emirs and their political structures were to be incorporated into the colonial administration under the supervision of the British officials. This new political arrangement destroyed the Bassa traditional political organisation, enthroned soured relationship among the Bassa and their neighbours, and as an aspect of the colonial legacy, this continued into the twentieth first century. The paper, using both oral and written sources notes that although colonialism no doubt provided a new platform that deepened contacts and interactions between the Bassa and their neighbours, it also created conditions that increasingly made inter-group relations essentially antagonistic.