BRITISH COLONIAL CONQUEST AND POPULATION MOVEMENT IN NORTHERN NIGERIA 1897– 1903

The panic and fear planted by the British forces in the minds of the people of Northern Nigeria during the conquest and the amount of destruction that took place led to large – scale movements of people. The destructive manner in which towns and villages were shelled and lives were brutally killed, using sophisticated weapons put the innocent population in most unsettled conditions. This uncertainty led to displacement and movement of people in all direction across and beyond the borders of Northern Protectorate. People irrespective of cultural, religious, ethnic or economic backgrounds migrated from their places of “origin” to unknown destinations within and without the region. This development is one of the neglected aspects of social histories of the colonial Northern Nigeria. This does not mean that there was no history of migration in Nigeria and in particular, Northern Nigeria prior to this period. However, the scale and extend of migration during conquest period was a unique one. In most (if not all) cases the migrations were unplanned and without a specific destination. In fact, it is safe to qualify this form of migration as “forced migration”. The paper therefore establishes how the British conquest of Northern Nigeria led to cross movements of people in the region and how these movements affected social well-being of the people in the early years of colonial rule. To achieve this, the paper relies heavily on written published and unpublished materials