Olomu and Development of Urhoboland and Western Niger Delta offers fresh perspectives on the origin of the Urhobo people as well as the pre-historic development of their lands in Nigeria's Western Niger Delta. The book posits that the uninhabited rain forests of the central Western Niger Delta were conquered and developed by Edoid-speaking Urhobo migrants who took advantage of Iron Age implements that emerged from the transition from Late Stone Age to Early Iron Age some two thousand years ago in the West African region. The book postulates that the progenitors of the Urhobo people arrived in the Western Niger Delta through the waterways of Niger River and its tributaries and that they first settled on the western banks of Ase River and Patani creek. Their descendants moved northwards in cohorts of Kinsmen that conquered and settled portions of the rain forests, resulting in a cascading formation of twenty-two clans with distinct subcultures. Olomu stands out among these due to its central location in Western Niger Delta and has ample linkages with several sub-cultures of Urhoboland, neighbouring Isoko, and Western Ijaw. In Ancient times, Olomu was exceptionally prolific in serving as the origin of four major sub-cultures in northern Urhobo and northern Isoko. Moreover during the early decades of British colonial rule in the 20th century, Olomu played a significant role in the development of Urhoboland. For these reasons, Olomu has been used as a handle for examining the patterns of development of Urhoboland and Western Niger Delta they are presented in this monograph.

History of The Urhobo People of Niger Delta is the most comprehensive compilation and study of various aspects of the history of the Urhobo people of Nigeria's Niger Delta. It begins with an examination of the prehistory of the region, with particular focus on the Urhobo and their close ethnic neighbour, the Isoko. The book then embarks on a close assessment of the advent of British imperialism in the Western Niger Delta. History of The Urhobo People of Niger Delta also probes the arrival and impact of Western Christian missions in Urhoboland. Urhobo history is notable for the sharp challenges that the Urhobo people have faced at various points of their di?cult existence in the rainforest and deltaic geographical formation of Western Niger Delta. Their history of migrations and their segmentation into twenty-two cultural units were, in large part, e?orts aimed at overcoming these challenges. History of The Urhobo People of Niger Delta includes an evaluation of modern responses to challenges that confront the Urhobo people, following the onrush of a new era of European colonization and introduction of a new Christian religion into their culture. The formation of Urhobo Progress Union and of its educational arm of Urhobo College is presented as the Urhobo response to modern challenges facing their existence in Western Niger Delta and Nigeria. History of The Urhobo People of Niger Delta extends its purview to various other fragments of the Urhobo historical and cultural experience in modern times. These include the di?culties that have arisen from petroleum oil exploration in the Niger Delta in post-colonial Nigeria.

For nineteenth-century Britons, the rule of law stood at the heart of their constitutional culture, and guaranteed the right not to be imprisoned without trial. At the same time, in an expanding empire, the authorities made frequent resort to detention without trial to remove political leaders who stood in the way of imperial expansion. Such conduct raised difficult questions about Britain's commitment to the rule of law. Was it satisfied if the sovereign validated acts of naked power by legislative forms, or could imperial subjects claim the protection of Magna Carta and the common law tradition? In this pathbreaking book, Michael Lobban explores how these matters were debated from the liberal Cape, to the jurisdictional borderlands of West Africa, to the occupied territory of Egypt, and shows how and when the demands of power undermined the rule of law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

This unique book is the product of pioneering research carried out by scholars native to the Urhobo culture and language. Unlike many of the other major ethnic cultures in Nigeria, which were studied by Western anthropologist in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Urhobo language and culture remained neglected. Studies in Urhobo Culture represents a comparatively new area of research, approached from an indigenous perspective. The result is a wide-ranging survey of Urhobo culture in Nigeria, offering diverse perspectives on topics such as: naming traditions and practices of the Urhobo; religious beliefs, values and movements; traditions of marriage; artistic productions, food and dress subcultures; and the geography of Urhoboland and agricultural practices. In-depth consideration is given to Urhobo traditional poetry and the intellectual aspects of Urhobo culture and language, within the wider complex of the Edoid languages and cultures. The contributors further situate the language question within the global context of language endangerment, arguing the Urhobo case is an example of how English and Pidgin are imperilling small and medium-sized languages in Africa, and weakening the hold of indigenous cultures on the younger generation.

T. E. A. Salubi: Witness to British Colonial Rule in Urhoboland & Nigeria is a remarkably lucid autobiographical account of the rich experiences of a man whose eventful life spanned the extent of British colonialism in the Western Niger Delta and Nigeria. Adogbeji Salubi was born at the beginning of British colonial rule in Urhoboland, in the hinterland of Western Niger Delta. He attended one of the earliest colonial schools in Urhoboland, before embarking on a two-week canoe voyage through rivers and creeks to distant Lagos, capital of colonial Nigeria, where he completed his elementary school education in 1926. Thereafter, he worked in the Colonial Civil Service, beginning in February 1927. In 1943, Salubi was awarded a scholarship that enabled him to pursue social studies, with emphasis on colonial affairs, at Cambridge University, in partnership with the London School of Economics and Political Science, in war-time England. On retirement from the Civil Service in 1962, Salubi became the chief leader of his people, the Urhobo. He headed Urhobo Progress Union, an organization that was formed by the Urhobo in the 1930s in order to cope with the difficulties that British colonial policies had created for them. When Salubi was thirty-two years old, he took an uncommon decision to narrate his life history for the information of his descendants and posterity. From 1938 onwards, he not only chronicled his recollections of his childhood and the events of his adolescence and youth; he became a serial and disciplined diarist of his adult life. At the time of his death in 1982, Salubi left behind extraordinarily cogent records of his life experiences that reveal a great deal about the nature of British colonial rule in Nigeria. Some of these accounts are now published in this volume along with an illuminating introduction by Peter Ekeh. T. E. A. Salubi: Witness to British Colonial Rule in Urhoboland & Nigeria is enmeshed in Urhobo history and culture. Salubi s early childhood, his growing up in Urhoboland and Lagos, and his adult life shed light on the interface between Urhobo culture and fragments of Western culture that were filtered through British imperialism in Nigeria. Salubi was therefore an effective witness both to colonialism and to his native culture in a unique and compelling manner. Because he chronicled these experiences as they occurred, at a time when his contemporaries offered only verbal narration and distant memories of colonialism, this book stands out in studies of European imperialism in Africa.

This volume presents a multinational perspective on the juxtaposition of language and politics. Bringing together an international group of authors, it offers theoretical and historical constructs on bilingualism and bilingual education. It highlights the sociocultural complexities of bilingualism in societies where indigenous and other languages coexist with colonial dominant and other prestigious immigrant languages. It underlines the linguistic diaspora and expansion of English as the world’s lingua franca and their impact on indigenous and other minority languages. Finally, it features models of language teaching and teacher education. This book challenges the existent global conditions of non-dominant languages and furthers the discourse on language politics and policies. It does so by pointing out the need to change the bilingual/multilingual educational paradigm across nations and all levels of educational systems.