Since my last book I am into trying to get to the bottom of Old Nigeria and also what the British were actually doing over there. Not from academics but from primary sources of Colonial Officers.

This one by a decent chap is really trying to tell it as it was warts and all but the Government has been giving him and his fair wife problems, it has been so hard for him to get his book published that he decided to do it on line.

You can down load his book for free and spread it about.

“A Squalid End to Empire: British Retreat from Africa” by Harold Smith

You have to go the the middle of the book first:

I also found this quote quite relevant:

Quote:

The general level of intelligence was extremely high in so many Nigerians we met and, though often they took pains to disguise the fact, all too often one found Nigerians in relatively humble jobs who were head and shoulders in education and intelligence above the European masters whom they served.

IF you really want primary sources you would do well to actually visit Kew and search the archives

Checkout the British Consul for Oil Rivers and companis such as Goldie's National African Company and the Royal Niger Company.

These companies ineffect governed the region on behalf of Britian without goverment expenditure.

There is a wealth of info in their archives.

Bibliography of Africana Periodical Literature Database

http://http://www.africabib.org/aboutdatabases.html

This work was originally begun in September of 1974 as an effort to index all of the issues of an entire periodical/journal that contained information on Africa or was a major source of Africana, and make those citations as a comprehensive source accessible to all. While this endeavor was not completed until 25 years later, no such source exists today other than AfricaBib that indexes the entire runs of periodcals in one source.

This English language database indexes over 50,000 articles from over 415 English language and multi-lingual journals and periodicals that specialize in African Studies or consistently cover the African continent. The titles were originally chosen from the library at California State University-Chico and that number were later expanded by using materials from Northwestern University and other major university libraries as well as the Library of Congress.

Each title is indexed from its first day of publication to the present or, either its date of ceasing or a date where the journal or periodical no longer covered Africa on a regular basis. In only in a few cases were titles dropped due to the difficulty in obtaining copies or irregularities in the journal's publishing schedule.

Of the over 415 journals and periodicals indexed, some have ceased being published. Until the mid-1960's few Africana journals were indexed in major indexing tools. This work hopes to fill the gap by indexing Africana materials from the mid-nineteenth century to today all in one index.

A title list of all journals and periodicals indexed, including the years the journals or periodicals were published and indexed is included by a link from the front page of this database.

The titles indexed in this database represent Africana materials published in from over 22 nations within North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

In November of 1999, the database began adding electronic journals to its list. These journal articles are viewable by clicking on the link that reads `See this Document'. We now index ten electronic journals. Todat we include over 2000 articles available from the internet.

You can also checkout the 'historian' Micheal Crowder one of his books West Africa Under Colonial Rule (see his index/references)