"In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person. Lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewellery. His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future, or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals' placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the State he has reached.
Through the ages the African appears to have evolved no organized religious creed, and though some tribes appear to believe in a deity, the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural" "He lacks the power of organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business. He loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility ....he will work hard with a less incentive than most races. He has the courage of the fighting animal, an instinct rather than a moral virtue......
In brief, the virtues and defects of this race-type are those of attractive children, whose confidence when it is won is given ungrudgingly as to an older and wiser superior and without envy.......Perhaps the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and his lack of ability to visualize the future."
Ninety years on would Lord Lugard have a different account of Africa and its Leaders today? To what extent are Lugard's observations applicable to modern day Africa? Share your thoughts on i-Muse.
Who was Lord Lugard?
His full name was Frederick John Dealtry Lugard.
He was born on 22 January 1858 and died on 11 April 1945.
He was a British soldier, colonial administrator and explorer of the African continent, having explored Nyasaland (modern day Malawi), Uganda, Niger and Nigeria.
He was Governor of Hong Kong (1907-1912) and Nigeria (1914 – 1919) under British rule.
He created University of Hong Kong in 1911.
The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa’ was published in 1922 by Lugard : He discussed reasons and methods recommended for the colonisation of Africa by Britain, including spreading Christianity, curbing ‘barbarianism’, and pushed for native rule in African colonies.
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