British Africa

I contend that we are the first race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race. ... If there be a God, I think that what he would like me to do is paint as much of the map of Africa British Red as possible.

-Soon to be Lord Protector Cecil Rhodes in an interview, 1894

Personally, I believe the European has a god in whom he believes and whom he is representing in his churches all over Africa. He believes in the god whose name is spelt Deceit. He believes in the god whose law is "Ye strong, you must weaken the weak". Ye "civilized" Europeans, you must "civilize" the "barbarous" Africans with machine guns. Ye "Christian" Europeans, you must "Christianize" the "pagan" Africans with bombs, poison gases, etc.

-Excerpt from a column by Nnamdi Azikiwe in the African Morning Post, 1936

British Footholds in Africa

Although long of interest to the British Empire, Africa had mostly been a rough coast with trading posts for slaves around the Niger delta and a waystation on the way to the Indies at Cape Good Hope. Considered too impenetrable for serious colonization, in addition to the dangers of malaria and distrustful natives, earned West Africa the nickname ‘White Man’s Grave.’ Sub-Saharan Africa was for a long time left alone, save for some foolhardy explorers and stubborn missionaries. 

Further south, after the initial conquest of the Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1790 and its rapid expansion from thereon out, the area became the center of British presence in Africa. Around that same time, American Freedmen and women likewise founded the US-backed colony of Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Many other nations, including the British, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, and the Holy Roman Empire maintained nominal trading posts along the Gold Coast for rubber, copper and agricultural goods, but the colony of Liberia can be considered the first large-scale settlement (or re-settlement) of a colonial power in West Africa. 

Although slavery was not outlawed in most parts of the world around the 1790s, the abolition of slavery with the US declaration of independence caused the trans-Atlantic slave trade to strongly decline. While at first only in effect in the United States themselves, enthusiastic abolitionists began to patrol the Caribbean and the Gold Coast on the hunt for slave ships, putting a strain on Spanish and US relations and further souring relations with the British. 

With developments around Joseon and further consolidation of British power in the Indies, the Cape Colony steadily grew in size and importance, right up until the construction of the Suez Canal in 1853. For a decade or so it seemed the heyday of the Cape Colony was behind it; a far off farmer’s settlement at the edge of the empire doomed to obscurity. Then, in 1864, diamonds were found in Kimberley, and a whole new era began for the Cape Colony and the British presence in Africa as a whole. 

The Gold Coast Takeover

Meanwhile in West Africa, the many kingdoms, tribes, and city-states had been warily watching the approach of the Europeans. Although at first often welcomed as a source of firearms and interesting new technologies, it seemed more and more that they had no intention to stick to old trade treaties and mere trading posts. With the invention of quinine in 1811 slowly a stream of a new kind of Europeans began to arrive in central Africa. Farmers and fishermen, miners and ministers, in between 1820 and 1850 the former trading posts and slave forts, especially after the abolishment of slavery in the British territories in 1830, transformed into towns and cities, populated with poor and enterprising Europeans looking for a better life far from the dense, smog-filled European population centers. The surrounding African natives were increasingly at odds with the colonists, whose domains and farms kept expanding, and whose missionaries and explorers kept pushing further and further from the coast. Rubber plantations to fuel the endless demand of European, American, and Asian factories popped up more and more. Meanwhile, prospectors of the United Africa Company, the newly formed Central Africa Company, and various private mining firms were conducting surveys around areas they deemed likely to possess rich mineral deposits. 

After the Island War between the United States and the British Empire in the 1860s, Liberia was forced into independence and token neutrality, eventually leading to it’s takeover by the British Empire in 1870. The annexation of Liberia was a nearly bloodless affair, in one part due to the Liberian people’s understanding of the British military capabilities, whose zeppelins and aetherships could now be seen more and more frequently making sorties into Africa overhead. A considerable detachment of the British Atlantic fleet was also anchored off Hamiltown, guns trained on the city center. When the British Foreign Office representative who was leading negotiations gave many assurances of partial self-governance and trade rights, they hoped they could retain a degree of independence. On the British side, Hamiltown, being a well-established trading port for over 100 years of American colonial presence, strong civil infrastructure as well as a regional hub for education and finances was deemed a very valuable asset to both the Foreign Office as well as the various companies already operating in Africa. Although the British Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Lagos colonies had been long established, Liberia and Hamiltown in particular were considered to be a prime location for more direct regional colonial government, and in a way became the first capital of the African Commonwealth. 

After the incorporation of Liberia into the Empire, the new military governor of Hamiltown made short work out of vastly expanding the existing maritime port, turning all of Bushrod Island into docks, cranes, container storage and warehouses. As part of this process, Governor-General Malcolm Brinkburn also razed New Kru town to make way for an attached Zeppelin- and aether dock to service airship expeditions into the Gold Coast interior, as well as project power to the ever encroaching French African territories in the Sahel. It was immediately clear to the Liberians that the new British authorities had great ambitions for their country, but also that those ambitions would not necessarily be to the betterment of its citizenry or indeed their neighbors. 

Rhodes’ Rise and Europe’s Prize

Over the course of the 1890s, British presence in the whole of Africa rapidly intensified. Spearheading this was the young prime minister of the Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes. Having made his fortune in the first Kimberley diamond rush of the 1870s, he had quickly expanded his portfolio by lobbying for the invasion of the Witwatersrand mountain range in the South African Boer Republic in 1874 after gold had been discovered there a year earlier. After staging a false-flag attack on British prospectors in the Boer territory he offered the aid of his diamond company’s fledgling private security force to the Cape Colony’s military to ‘protect British citizens and interests’ in the Boer Republics that had been a thorn in their side for too long already. Despite some impressive early victories thanks to guerrilla-style raids and ambushes by the Boers, the British zeppelins proved the perfect counter to cavalry raids and ambushes lying in wait in the long grass. 

After crushing the Boer republics, successfully ‘defending British citizens’ and consolidating control of a large part of the Witwatersrand gold fields, Rhodes and his fellow ‘Randlords’ (gold barons of Witwatersrand) entered the British public eye in the home islands as champions of British prosperity and expansion. Shortly after, Rhodes entered politics and was elected Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1886, at just age 33. 

Rhodes’ political stance can be best described as expansionist imperialism. A firm believer in the racial and cultural superiority of the British Empire, and simultaneously convinced of the notion that the fast population growth of the past decades and growing inequality in the British home isles could lead to civil war, Rhodes believed it vital to colonize as much of Africa as possible to give the British people more room to grow, as well as seize its vast natural wealth for the betterment of the Empire. Little regard was given to the people who happened to already live in Africa. Furthermore, he believed a system of puppet states and protectorates all around the globe would be the best way to resecure Britain’s position as the greatest power in the world. Lastly, he was a strong proponent of allowing both chartered and private companies to spearhead these colonization efforts, as he believed they had the required will and instincts to build a presence in unmapped territory as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

As prime minister of the Cape Colony, Rhodes had a lot of political weight to throw around, and he wasted no time in doing so after his appointment. He personally oversaw northward expansion into what the settlers there came to call Rhodesia in his honor, and pressured, convinced, and cajoled his colleagues all along the western and eastern coast to do the same. He also pushed his allies in British parliament to grant British chartered companies greater autonomy in setting up and managing colonies in the interior. 

Lastly, although Rhodes was not personally involved, the Foreign Office organized the Crystal Palace Conference. A sizable and impressive French and Holy Roman Empire delegation was invited and treated to all honors befit their station, and negotiations began. A quick agreement was reached between the French and British Empires. Both powers, having the largest presence in Africa already, had a vested interest in solidifying as much of their hold on Africa as they could without stepping on their neighbors toes, lest clashing ambitions cause strife and global conflict between the two superpowers. It was agreed France could continue southward expansion past the Sahara and maintain control of the majority of Northern Africa, as well as lay claim to Madagascar. Additionally, Britain would drop territorial claims on much of French Canada and give French commerce bound for Indochina free passage through the Suez canal for the next 50 years. In exchange, Britain would consolidate power in Egypt, and France would not interfere with any colonization in the whole of Central and Southern Africa, south of the Sahel. The Imperial delegation from Vienna however, was far less quick to agree with the ambitions of its peers. Although having a far smaller presence in Africa, mostly limited to the chartered Ostend Company trading ports and catholic missions, their new allies in Ethiopia were notably not invited, and the Imperial dignitaries fought hard to defend the territorial boundaries of their only African partner in the League. After several heated negotiations it was agreed that Vienna would give up on most territorial ambitions in Africa in the Gold Coast, Cameroon and Namibia; and would notably stop diplomatic relations with the remaining Boer Republics in South Africa whose cause had been unofficially supported by several entities within the Holy Roman Empire. Although a tough pill to swallow, the Boer Republics had stopped being a serious political entity since the Cape Colony had declared open war on them, and were now mostly a band of guerrillas operating in the backcountry. By contrast, British privateers and adventurers had time and time again been unable to breach into Ethiopia and install a puppet government, and the British Empire had not yet seen it safe to commit to military action against Ethiopia fearing the political fallout. It was agreed Britain would take actions against the private entities operating against Ethiopia, and begrudgingly respect Ethiopian sovereignty, opening the way for Ethiopia to fully join the League of Emperors in 1903. Lastly, Britain would allow the Ostend Company market access to British-African ports. As a final goodwill gesture, the League's other partner of Brazil would be allowed to re-open a trading port on the coast with the Kongo Kingdoms where their Portuguese predecessors had been operating for centuries. 

Thus began what historian and civil rights activist Nnamdi Azikiwe later called  ‘the invasion of Africa’. In short order troublesome kingdoms and city states fell. The Aro Confederacy was bombarded into rubble by airships, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Benin became the staging ground for one of the first aerial dropped infantry assaults as Zeppelin barges dropped from enormous aether-carriers landed right in and around the city's palace and center. After a quick and decisive overwhelming of the defenders, the city was looted and emptied in just 3 days, after which it was bombarded from the lower atmosphere as a show of the Navy's latest aether capabilities. Word and refugees began to spread fast, and smaller kingdoms and tribes began to subject themselves to British rule to avoid destruction. Nonetheless, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Matabele Confederacy, the Zulu, and several others still were bombed into rubble on the path to British dominion over Africa. 

Similar scenes played out all from lake Zimbabwe to Sudan, with one notable exception. The Kingdom of Kongo had seen the gathering storm with some precious decades to stabilize and prepare. Under the lead of King Alvaro XIII Mabambo, Kongo and it’s various client states and kingdoms had confederated into the Kongo Kingdoms Confederation. Although the Brits followed their usual playbook after making their way to the Congo delta in 1896 by bombing the capital of Mbanza Kongo from afar and forcing concessions and subjugation, the Kongolese fought a well-rehearsed fighting retreat into the densely forested and massive interior of the Congo river basin. The usual strategy of bombing population centers into rubble and forcing subjugation did not work, and neither were attempts to put boots on the ground and claim large territories. The Kongolese leaders had evacuated in time before the assault started in earnest. The dense canopy overhead formed a very effective cover from prying eyes from the sky, and the Kongolese council had been building covert weapons stores and redoubts scattered throughout the country for a decade.

Supplied with modern weaponry and in part trained by the Ethiopian Empire who had been looking for a way to stall or otherwise frustrate British advances in Africa, Kongo proved a considerably harder pill to swallow than previously assumed. From the 1920s onward, nominally the Central Africa Company controlled the Congo river basin and the interior. Renting out mineral deposits and rubber plantation farmland to various British and Japanese corporations, they outwardly seem fully in control and in the process of extracting various valuable metals and natural resources. In reality, the many private security forces need to fight tooth and nail to hold on to their precious open-pit mines and rubber plantations, and maintain control in only small patches of land through aggressive deforestation, fort building and constant airship patrols. 

The Lagos Boom

Meanwhile, in west Africa the British Lagos colony had grown significantly through aggressive expansion and now joined the Gold Coast colony to the west and the Protectorate of Cameroon to the east. While initially ruled by the chartered Royal African Company, ownership of Southern Nigeria fell to the crown in 1901. Northern Nigeria remained in company hands, as its less official status allowed for a degree of plausible deniability if conflict arose at the border with the French Sahel. 

The British center of governance in Nigeria had been the city of Lagos since its initial conquest. Its relatively sheltered geography with the Lagos lagoon and the many delta inlets provided a sheltered port from the strong currents of the gulf of Guinea. Under the Benin kingdom, it developed into a major slave port for the Caribbean and South America, but after British abolishment of the slave trade in 1802 and total abolishment of slavery in 1833 it was seized by the British Navy after a naval bombardment as one of the first major ports on the Gold Coast. In part to end the slave trade, but otherwise for its attractive location as a naval and trading port, the colony of Lagos was established. 

Although British expansion in Africa was often a matter of violence and conquest, it was equal parts diplomacy and negotiation. Land deals and mineral rights were often the more common and preferred way of gaining control, at times exploiting local and ethnic disputes choosing to support one party over the other in exchange for land rights. In several other instances, especially as news of high-profile bombing runs and British military victories spread, many tribes and kingdoms felt they had no other choice than to bend to British rule and through cooperation retain their customs, claims and indeed, lives. If not convinced by the news, colonial administrators often found that merely sending a patrol of armored cars to circle the territory or send an airship flying overhead was enough to convince local leaders still on the fence. 

Heading this ‘diplomatic’ approach was the governor of Lagos, Sir Walter William Gravesend. A military man who had started his career in the Royal Navy Air Service, Gravesend had been deployed on multiple ‘pacification’ campaigns all over West Africa. As governor in his later years, he had worked hard to ensure British spread of influence through less direct ways.  Although some of his critics argued he had ‘gone soft’, Governor Gravesend argued he merely wished to save British strength and resources, an argument that held some sway after the scrambling to redeploy British troops during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan around 1885 and again during the Irish Uprisings and deportations around that same time. During his time as governor, besides acquiring large concessions and nominally stabilizing Southern Nigeria, Gravesend also headed large infrastructural projects with the Nigerian railway, setting up a power grid in the main cities and draining the swamps around Lagos to combat the spread of Malaria. He is also credited with requiring the British Nigerian courts system to employ translators for the main language groups in Southern Nigeria, train native judges and lawyers to advise in matters of land claims and local disputes, as well as instituting mandatory primary schools across the country where children were taught British English, shortly before he died in 1916. 

Lagos experienced a population boom between 1900-1915. The improved infrastructure had made it easier to reach and a large influx of Hausa and Gwari and others spread into predominantly Yoruba and Igbo-speaking Southern Nigeria. The Royal African Company did not care too much to keep matters peaceful in the north and their heavy handed approach was a primary reason for many people to pack up and head south. Although often criticized as yet another means to project British control, the education and courts system of Southern Nigeria provided a chance for Africans to start businesses of their own, get an education, and enjoy a limited degree of self-governance. 

Calls for Equality 

It was during this period of relative prosperity and strong growth that voices for increased self-governance, de-colonization and even African independence began to be heard. One of the earliest and most prominent of these voices belonged to Herbert Macaulay, a Lagos native and son to Thomas Babington Macaulay, founder of the first secondary school in Lagos. Having studied civil engineering in England, Herbert Macaulay returned to Lagos to start a seemingly promising career as a land surveyor and civil clerk, but reportedly became discouraged by the lack of career development available to him as a native Nigerian. He quit the civil service and became quite successful as a private surveyor, but that was far from the only profession he pursued. He was also a rather skilled musician, founded several newspapers, became involved in founding the Lagos cinema and movie industry, and was a well-known and popular socialite in upper Lagos social circles. Lastly, he also gained a reputation for being able to acquire seemingly classified information from the colonial offices, city hall, or many other institutions. Herbert operated a large number of informants whom he paid handsomely for information he’d pass along to those best able to make use of it.

Being a well-known local celebrity and entrepreneur, and having been disillusioned with colonialism and the Brits, Herbert used his significant outreach to popularize the idea of Nigerian nationalism and write opinion pieces in his newspapers questioning colonial policies. Although also printing in Yoruba and Igbo, his English newspaper the Lagos Daily News was ironically the one with the most broad outreach, as the various language groups (thanks to the efforts of late governor Walter William Gravesend) were fluent to varying degrees in English. 

Nigerian nationalism and anti-colonialism started to cement itself in the Nigerian public conscience in August of 1920, when the new governor of Lagos, one Morrisson Shelby, ordered the dispersal of a gathering of Lagosian students protesting outside city hall after a particularly confrontational piece by Herbert Macauly in the Lagos Daily News attacking the new governor’s newly implemented segregation laws in the Southern Nigeria healthcare sector. Although giving the order to disperse the crowds non-lethally, 13 students died with a further 268 wounded who were now unable to find medical treatment as the most well-established hospital in the city had been designated as ‘white-only,’ while ‘African-only’ hospitals were still scrambling to find a location and supplies appropriate for the massive population of Lagos. 

This fueled a wave of protests and strikes throughout the city that lasted months. Although governor Shelby quickly recalled the segregation directive, Pandora’s box had been opened. Calls for greater self-governance, representation, and even occasional cries for independence could be heard. Some very high stakes feats of diplomacy and public outreach were required to diffuse the situation. Unfortunately however, in 1920 the Great Famine struck the world. Harvests failed globally but especially in Europe, who in response looked to their colonies to fill their stores and prevent starvation in their homelands. West Africa was not spared.. In short order crops and foodstuffs were exported in great numbers to the British Isles and the wider European market, causing immediate shortages in the places they came from. The resulting famines killed an estimated 6% of Lagos inhabitants and caused public outrage. Protests, strikes and violent clashes were a daily occurrence, and it took the Royal Navy steaming into the Lagos Lagoon and training their guns on the city to stop the populace from storming the British Quarter. 

In 1922, the subsequent Bengal Flu hit the British Isles hardest of all places worldwide. The food shortages of the Great Famine in the Empire were solved by the death of nearly 50% of all Britons on the Isles. Institutions were devastated. Parliament was decimated. The Foreign and Colonial Offices were crumbling under the weight of personnel shortages. All over the world and beyond officials and military personnel were recalled to fill the gaps at home. Lagos, amongst other colonies, was largely left to it’s own devices as Governor Morrison Shelby had become one of the most experienced administrators left overnight and his presence was demanded back home. For 2 years, interim-governor William ‘Bill’ Barnaby, former director of the Lagos municipal tram service, did all in his power to stabilize the situation in the city. Handing out blanket concessions all over, Bill Barnaby managed to save the government in the colony from collapsing by pretty much agreeing with the majority of demands from protest leaders and civil rights activists. Native Nigerians were allowed in government jobs and eligible for promotion. Herbert Macauly was tasked with forming a parliament and elections. Lastly, and most controversially, Governor Barnaby allowed and arranged transport for a Nigerian delegation to London to make the case for Nigerian independence. The passionate appeal fell on deaf man’s ears, as British Parliament was in crisis mode stabilizing a country ravaged by tragedy, save for newly appointed head of the Foreign Office Morrison Shelby. 

The Watchman Cometh

Governor William ‘Bill” Barnaby was quickly relieved from his position to the overall disappointment of the Lagos populace in 1924. Although his rule had been short and mostly been a string of concessions and apologies, ‘Governor Bill’ had been a friendly listening ear and overall breath of fresh air for the Nigerians, and he would be fondly remembered. In his stead was appointed former Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab Sir Michael O’Dwyer. His position in India had become untenable after endorsing the massacre of over 500 protestors in Punjab not 2 years earlier. The foreign office, although uneasy with the man’s reputation, felt it could not afford to throw away a man with his experience given current shortages, especially with an otherwise impressive administrative career. It was felt that by simply moving him to a different continent his experience could be retained, while his reputation could receive a clean slate. Lastly, given his Irish heritage there was a certain discomfort in allowing him into too powerful a position in London. 

Although told in no uncertain terms that a certain amount of delicacy was required, O’Dwyer was also in equally certain terms given the task to reassert British control which his predecessor had let erode so quickly. Although Governor Bill had managed to prevent a full-on uprising from occurring, it had come at great cost to British legitimacy. However, undoing all of the concessions of the past 2 years would undoubtedly reignite public outrage. A less direct approach was called for. 

Upon his appointment, he was given a new tool to achieve this task. In 1925 the first G.R.A.I.L. uplink was installed inside a newly constructed wing of the Lagos Constabulary Bureau. In short order security cameras, a wholly new technology to the average citizen European or African alike, were installed all over town feeding directly into the G.R.A.I.L. uplink. Police reports, meeting notes of the fledgling first Nigerian local parliament, all African-owned newspaper editions and radio broadcasts of the past years and even telephone records went straight through G.R.A.I.L.

The Nigerian Parliament was allowed to continue to exist. Although its initial inception had been an almost grassroots movement, Governor O’Dwyer reframed the continued existence of the parliament as a matter of British benevolence. He also ordered the construction of a purpose made parliament building in the British Quarter and oversaw the creation of a Board of Elections, in charge of setting up elective districts, ballot counting, and administration.

Herbert Macaulay, aware of O'Dwyer's reputation in India thanks to his informants and all too wary of the way his parliament was being reorganized, wasted no time in launching fiery attacks and passionate appeals to protest in his newspapers. O’Dwyer, warned by G.R.A.I.L. had requested the Constabulary’s East Wing (the unofficial name for the MI5 detachment now stationed in Lagos) to limit the outreach of Macaulay’s newspapers. Unfortunate power outages, a colony-wide ink shortage, a tragic fire in the district where the majority of printing presses were located all in the span of a month significantly limited the outreach of Macaulay. A new Journalistic Integrity law pushed through the Nigerian parliament with the help of British pawns and bribes further limited continued publications by Macaulay, even after production issues were solved. Suspecting what happened but now unable to confirm as his informants seemed to mysteriously disappear one by one, Macaualy was growing paranoid. In early 1926 he moved from his estate to the Olympic Hotel on Broad Street, in the middle of the city. Trying to stay in the view of the public eye as much as possible to discourage any perceived assassination plots, he resorted to giving fiery speeches in the lobby of the hotel and all along venues on Broad Street. 

To the annoyance of the colonial government, Henry’s speeches drew thousands of Lagos citizens to Broad Street every day. It was clear he would not simply shut up. As a last resort, it was decided in 1928 that Henry had to go after inciting a strike amongst dock workers which was threatening to turn into a general strike. An operative was instructed to administer a poison to the decanter of brandy in Henry’s suite unseen, hoping to be rid of the problem in a way that could be framed as natural causes. For whatever reasons however, Henry Macaulay on November 15th, 1928 returned to his suite sooner than expected, catching the would-be poisoner in the act. After loudly shouting ‘assassin!’ Herbert pulled out the snubnosed revolver he had started carrying on his person at all times, hitting the assassin 2 times before fatally being hit by the operative’s return fire. 

The fallout of this event was immediate and severe. The dock worker’s strike devolved into an uprising in a matter of hours. Martial law was declared, parliament was disbanded, and Lagos was ordered into lockdown. In a desperate attempt to regain a grip on the situation, strike teams were sent out the following night in airships and armored cars from the Constabulary’s East Wing to arrest protest leaders and community figureheads pointed out as essential to the movement by G.R.A.I.L. Mostly successful with some notable escalations happening, the unrest of the following day was decapitated from its most established leaders and most vocal proponents. Additionally, newly arrived legions of Tommybots together with Commonwealth troops from Burma were tasked with pacifying the populace and preventing mobs from reaching the main centers of government. This was part of the newly established Inter-Commonwealth Pacification Programme wherein police forces raised in a Commonwealth dominion or protectorate would not be used to police their own peers, but rather sent overseas to police another dominion with unruly populaces. 

After several weeks of unrest, nightly raids and many casualties, a very tense quiet descended over Lagos. The several million inhabitants, divided by islands and bridges, patrolled by automata, desperate Commonwealth forces, armored cars and airships overhead had been beaten back violently and beaten into compliance by targeted strikes on leadership, checkpoints and cutting entire districts off power (save for surveillance equipment) and water when unrest got too high. Although Michael O’Dwyer effectively had another massacre on his hands, the Foreign Office felt there was no one to replace him, and even if they did it was very questionable anyone new could improve the situation as it was now. A passionate plea for immediate British withdrawal from Nigeria from former interim-governor Bill Barnaby, now forcibly retired in a small home in Manchester, was completely ignored. 

Macaulay’s Legacy

Against the backdrop of all these events in Nigeria, a young Nnamdi Azikiwe decided to cut his studies short in America and return to his homeland. Azikiwe, a bright young man inspired by the ideals and ideas of Macaulay, left to study political science and history in the United States to one day return and use his education to help his homeland. Or at least, that was the plan. The murder of Macaulay and violent crackdown of protestors shook the young Azikiwe, and he made up his mind to return as soon as possible. 

To fly under the radar for as long as possible, Azikiwe first arrived in the British Gold Coast colony where he took on the job as editor for the African Morning Post in Accra, an at the time relatively small newspaper that was nonetheless published all throughout Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Nigeria. Over the course of the next 3 years he worked himself up to be head editor, and in part thanks to his dedication and commitment, the African Morning Post became a voice for not just Nigerian nationalism, but also of the new concept of Pan-Africanism. Focused on collaboration between the many different African peoples and a rejection of European dominance over Africa, his opinion pieces and publications saw increased popularity as time went on. It was no surprise when the African Morning Post was outlawed by the Gold Coast colonial government in 1936 after a particularly critical piece, and Azikiwe, not waiting for an arrest warrant to materialize, made his way back to his homeland where he found shelter amongst the millions of people of Lagos. 

A tense form of peace had settled over Lagos, especially after the assassination of governor O’Dwyer in 1935 by Udham Singh. One of the survivors of the Punjab massacre and Indian independence activist, he had been finally able to exact his justice on the hated governor after 15 years. Because the assassin had been a total outsider, the fallout of his assassination had been minimal for Lagos, and indeed even loosened some of the still palpable tension that hung in the air since the events of 1928. The new governor, Alan Burns was in many ways the total opposite of his predecessor. Having worked under O’Dwyer for over 6 years in Nigeria, Alan Burns had been essential in lessening some of the worst parts of the previous administration after the events of ‘28, as well as maintaining and expanding the education system of the colony with public libraries and scholarships. Upon his appointment there was an air of careful optimism amongst the population of Lagos. Governor Burns on the other hand was stuck between a Foreign Office ordering stricter colonial control and a suppression of independence sentiments, and the Nigerian citizenry clamoring for representation, equality and self-governance. 

Burn’s solution was to on the one hand expand the Lagos Constabulary significantly, but to predominantly hire Lagos natives to fill the ranks to police the most unruly districts. Many sectors and levels of government were opened to native Africans, including urban planning, the board of education, town hall and the Nigerian railway board of directors. Burns also eased back on control on the media and subsidized public radio and television programs, while also filling radio, television and newspapers in English, Yoruba and Igbo with government-positive messaging. Lastly, Burns reinstated the Nigerian Parliament with elections, while simultaneously granting permanent seats in parliament to members of the colonial administration. 

All this was enough to hold on to the precarious peace that had settled. While criticized for his double-edged approach and never fully fulfilling demands from both the Foreign Office and the more prominent Nigerian independence activists, it seemed governor Burns had found a balance for now. 

During governor Burn’s reforms, the young Nnamdi Azikiwe, although technically a fugitive in the Gold Coast colony, had found quite some traction in local politics and parliament within the newly founded Nigerian Youth Movement. With most of the first wave of Nigerian nationalists having met their end during the O’Dwyer years, people were looking for a new voice. Azikiwe’s focus on not just Nigerian nationalism and self-governance, but Pan-African liberation and collaboration as a whole struck a cord in the South Nigeria colony but also the surrounding colonial holdings. In 1938 however, the Pan-African movement would meet and clash with the Communist cause. After the revolution in Paris and the eventual start of the war, a wave of Communist revolutions swept all over the former French Empire, including their Sahel holdings that bordered with the Northern Nigeria colony. Communism appealed to much the same principles as the Pan-African cause, however it also promised more direct and violent action to achieve independence and retribution, whereas the Pan-African cause still largely championed non-violent and policy-driven reforms and protests.

Conflict flared up all over the border with the French Sahel as nominally independent guerrillas, supported by fledgling communist governments and councils hoped to push the Liberationist ideals further south into British Africa. Royal African Company and the Royal African Frontier Force’s compounds were raided in cross-border surprise attacks by nominally independent factions, and Communist ideology and weapons began to seep into southern Nigeria. Quickly the careful balance crafted by governor Burns’ policies threatened to slip away, and he formally applied for support from the Royal Navy and Special Air Service in Hamiltown after Bengalese Commonwealth forces in Benin City had been ambushed and were forced to abandon the city.  Aware of the optics governor Burns tried to persuade the Royal Navy to withhold from too severe bombardments of the city which had been subjected to one of the most violent examples of British expansion 70 years ago, but he could not prevent precision bombardments being carried out on parts of the town. To make matters worse, the Gold Coast colonial government, having long sent formal protests to the Foreign Office about the supposed status of safe haven for subversives in neighboring Lagos, succeeded in governor Burns having to give up policing powers to the newly arrived Brigadier General Basil Jones. Upon his arrival, he wasted no time in aggressively pursuing supposed communist cells, although it became quickly apparent that the Brigadier General operated under a rather broad interpretation of the term ‘communist’. 

This led to the creation of the joint United Council of Nigeria, a unified front of Pan-Africanists, labor unions, communists, democrats, student unions, and even some African monarchists. Despite far stretching internal divisions, the increased crackdown of the Constabulary and the implementation of forced conscription as the Great War started to heat up proved sufficient reason to set differences aside for now. As part of the United Council, Nnamdi Azikiwe developed himself as a voice of reason and collaboration within the faction, always working hard to present a unified goal and find similarities rather than let differences split them apart. 

Although the past had not been kind to Africa, there were no illusions that the Empire would allow it to slip from its control.