Introduction

Abstract

That the history of children is still yet to emerge into a viable sub-field of Nigerian history in the second decade of the twenty-first century attests to the limited scholarly attention given to this aspect of Africa’s demography and past.¹ The study of the history of children is significant to the understanding of every aspect and era of African history. If historians have convincingly proved that Africa’s past is incomplete without the history of women, so also is it lacking without children’s history. In broader terms, the history of children is generally submerged in the larger history of state and empire formation, colonialism, modernity, and sociopolitical transformation. Children und Childhood in Colonial Nigerian Histories examines the central historical role of minors. It seeks to answer these interrelated questions, among others: What place did children occupy in colonial Nigeria’s past, and how has their role changed over time? Who was a child in colonial Nigeria? What is the value of using age as a category of historical analysis? What is the intersection between childhood and modernity? We invite readers to join in reflecting on the idea of modern Nigerian childhood and how it emerged. The goal of this book is to place our received notions of an ideal or modern childhood—namely, school enrollment instead of work; child rights and legal protections; juvenile delinquency as a problem of nation building; and children as belonging to ethnic, national, and global spheres—into proper historical context.