Herbert Macaulay

Herbert Macaulay (1864-1945) was a Nigerian political leader. One of the first leaders of the Nigerian opposition to British colonial rule, he was also a civil engineer, journalist, and accomplished musician.

Born in Lagos, Herbert Macaulay was the son of the Reverend Thomas Babington Macaulay, prominent Lagos missionary and educator, and the maternal grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, first African bishop of the Niger Territory. Receiving his early education in the mission schools of Lagos, Macaulay in 1881 became a clerk in the Public Works Department in Lagos. He was recognized as a promising civil servant and in 1890 was awarded a government scholarship to study civil engineering in England, where he spent 3 years. Upon his return to Lagos he was appointed surveyor of crown lands for the colony of Lagos, a position he held until 1898, when he resigned the post.

Macaulay's resignation seems to have been precipitated by his growing resentment for the racial discrimination practiced by Europeans in the civil service. He established himself as a private surveyor in Lagos and slowly over the ensuing years emerged as a spokesman for opposition to British rule in Lagos and all Nigeria. Macaulay addressed himself to numerous issues, usually in articles he contributed to the Lagos Daily Times. He opposed every attempt by the British authorities to expand their administration, interpreting these developments as detrimental to the interests of indigenous Nigerians, who inevitably would be forced to pay the bills in taxes. He agitated against the payment of water rates in 1915 and, as a leader of the Lagos auxiliary of the Antislavery and Aborigines Protection Society, led the opposition against government plans to reform land tenure arrangements in Lagos and Yorubaland.

Through his antigovernment activities Macaulay rose to preeminence in Lagos politics. In 1921 he was sent to London by the eleko, or king, of Lagos to represent him in the legal appeal of a local land tenure case. In London, Macaulay proclaimed that the British colonial government was eroding the power and authority of the eleko, who, he said, was recognized by all Nigerians as the rightful king of Lagos. This episode embarrassed the British, although it did not deter their activities, and established Macaulay as a leading advocate of the rights of traditional leadership in Lagos.

In 1922 a new Nigerian constitution was introduced providing for limited franchise elections in Lagos and Calabar. In order to contest the three elective seats in Lagos, Macaulay organized the Nigerian National Democratic party (NNDP). The platform of the NNDP sought self-government for Lagos, the introduction of institutions of higher education into Nigeria, compulsory primary school education, the Africanization of the civil service, and non-discrimination in the development of private economic enterprise.

Macaulay's political activities were limited to Lagos affairs until the very end of his life, when the quest for independence began to pervade all Nigeria. He presided in 1944 at the meeting of the Nigerian Union of Students, from which ultimately emerged the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), Nigeria's first national political party. Macaulay was elected president of the NCNC and was engaged in a national tour for the party in 1945, when he was taken ill. Returning to Lagos, he died in the same year.

Further Reading

Isaac B. Thomas, Life of Herbert Macaulay (1948), is a biography which is difficult to obtain. An excellent discussion of Macaulay and the early nationalist movement in Lagos is in James Smoot Coleman, Nigeria: Background to Nationalism (1958). Robert July, The Origins of Modern African Thought (1968), contains a chapter on the intellectual underpinnings of Macaulay's activities.

Additional Sources

Tamuno, Tekena N., Herbert Macaulay, Nigerian patriot, London: Heinemann Educational, 1975 i.e. 1976.

Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay (November 14, 1864—May 7, 1946) was a Nigerian nationalist, politician, engineer, journalist, and musician and considered by many Nigerians as the founder of Nigerian nationalism.

Contents 1 Early life 2 As an opponent of British rule 3 As a supporter of the British 4 Towards the end 5 References

Early life

Macaulay was born in Lagos on November 14, 1864. He was the grandson of bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther and the son of the founder of the first secondary school in Nigeria.^[1]. After going to a Christian missionary school, he took a job as a clerk at the Lagos Department of Public Works. From 1891 to 1894 he studied civil engineering in Plymouth, England. On his return, he worked for the Crown as a land inspector. He left his position in 1898 due to growing distaste for Nigeria's position as a British colony.

As an opponent of British rule

Herbert Macaulay was an unlikely champion of the masses. A grandson of Ajayi Crowther, the first African bishop of the Niger Territory, he was born into a Lagos that was divided politically into groups arranged in a convenient pecking order – the British rulers who lived in the posh Marina district, the Saros and other slave descendants who lived to the west, and the Brazilians who lived behind the whites in the Portuguese Town. Behind all three lived the real Lagosians, the masses of indigenous Yoruba people, disliked and generally ignored by their privileged neighbours. It was not until Macaulay’s generation that the Saros and Brazilians even began to contemplate making common cause with the masses.

Macaulay was one of the first Nigerian nationalists and for most of his life a strong opponent of British rule in Nigeria. As a reaction to claims by the British that they were governing with "the true interests of the natives at heart", Macaulay wrote: "The dimensions of "the true interests of the natives at heart" are algebraically equal to the length, breadth and depth of the whiteman's pocket."^[2] In 1908 he exposed European corruption in the handling of railway finances and in 1919 he argued successfully for the Chiefs whose land had been taken by the British in front of the Privy Council in London. As a result, the colonial government was forced to pay compensation to the chiefs. In retaliation for this and other activities of his, Macauley got jailed twice by the British.^[3]

Macaulay became very popular and on June 24, 1923, he founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), the first Nigerian political party. The party won all the seats in the elections of 1923, 1928 and 1933.^[4]

As a supporter of the British

In 1931 relations between Macaulay and the British began to improve up to the point that the governor even held conferences with Macaulay.^[5] Macauley had lost his desire for reform and became a conservative supporter of the British.

Towards the end

In 1944 Macaulay founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) together with Nnamdi Azikiwe ^[6] and became its secretary general. The NCNC was a patriotic organization designed to bring together Nigerians of all stripes to demand independence.^[7] In 1946 Macaulay fell ill in Kano and later died in Lagos. The leadership of the NCNC went to Azikiwe, who was later to become the first president of Nigeria.

References

1. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 266.
2. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 266.
3. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 266.
4. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 267.
5. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 267.
6. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 299.
7. ^ Webster, James & Boahen, Adu (1980), The Revolutionary Years; West Africa since 1800, p. 299.

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