‘I Beg to Tell’: Everyday agency in colonial Lagos, 1940–1960

‘I beg to tell’ – Everyday agency in colonial Lagos, 1940–1960 foregrounds everyday life as a major component of colonial Lagos history. It is an interdisciplinary study of a segment of neglected historical actors in colonial Nigeria with significant implications for Nigerian and African historiography. It draws insights from anthropology, sociology, social psychology and textual studies, and aims at enriching the research of academics as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students working on different aspects of African Studies.

The book’s interesting interpretation of the Nigerian colonial archive and its arguments on life writing views the case studies in colonial Lagos as precursors and instances of the globalisation process. Particularly, ‘I beg to tell' examines petitions written by ordinary peoples to the colonial establishment as cultural creations that reveal the selfhood, consciousness and agency of those who live at the fringes. The detailed and imaginative interpretation of these microtexts will be of real interest to other historians working in colonial African archives.

Reviewer’s Comments

"This is a strikingly original book. ... [It] will open the door to new kinds of historical interpretation of West African colonial archives. It will help shift the historical point of view from the agency of prominent historical actors who effected social and political change to the agency (and lack of agency) of people who were not in command of resources, discourses, social capital or colonial protocol. ... [The work is] an adventurous foray into theories of self, identity and consciousness."
Karin Barber, University of Birmingham, UK

Part of the African Humanities Series