Dinners of the Society - Sir Fredrick Lugard 1911

A Dinner of the Society was held at the Trocadero Restaurant on Thursday, May 16th, 1912, when the Society entertained Sir Frederick Lugard, G.C.M.G., D.S.O., Governor of Northern and Southern Nigeria, as its Principal Guest.

The Rt. Hon. John Burns, M.P., Sir Hesketh Bell, K.C.M.G., Sir Walter Egerton, K.C.M.G., and Sir Percy Girouard, K.C.M.G., were also the Guests of the Society on this occasion, and Sir Clement L. Hill, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., M.P., the President of the Society, occupied the Chair.

The Rt. Hon. Sir George T. Goldie, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., said: "... Just consider what it is. In these days in which science is taking such extraordinary strides, it would be presumptuous to assert that Nigeria can never become a white man's land.

Any man who says that convicts himself of an unscientific mind; but for present practical purposes we are justified in assuming Nigeria is not a white man's land. It contains already a vast native population, and under the climatic and social conditions of equatorial Africa that population must increase rapidly to immense proportions now that slave raiding and intertribal wars have ceased.

But it is not the numbers of the population of Nigeria that will make the difficulty of the administrator; it is the heterogeneous nature of their characters and training. Whoever administers Nigeria — an United Nigeria — in the near future will have to deal with almost every stage of humanity since the dawn of history.

In the material and political sphere he will have to deal with people ranging from the almost autonomous families who earn their living on their solitary platforms fishing in the swamps of the delta, up to highly organised communities having a large acquaintance with the decorative and useful arts.

In the sphere of emotions he will have to deal with people ranging from the lowest form of fetishism up to those who hold the pure tenets of Islam; and in the intellectual sphere he will have to deal with those ranging from ignorant savagery up to a race of whom a high authority, Henry M. Stanley, once said that they were the only African people who loved a book."

* portrait of Sir George Dashwood Taubman Goldie by Sir Hubert von Herkomer from Wiki Commons

Journal of the African Society.

1911 - 1912