Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:12:55.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Dangers of Dependence: Christian Marriage Among Elite Women in Lagos Colony, 1880–1915*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Kristin Mann
Kristin Mann
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Repatriated slaves and Christian missionaries introduced Christian marriage into colonial Lagos, and spread new values about polygyny and conjugal relationships and roles. Women among the educated elite strove to marry in church and conform to foreign marital norms, in part because Christianity, European education, and colonial legal and economic changes had altered their opportunities. When they embraced Christian marriage, elite women sacrificed the autonomy and economic independence of illiterate Yoruba women for the privileges associated with membership in the elite. As elite women experienced disappointment and vulnerability created by trying to conform to foreign ideals, some began rethinking aspects of Christian marriage, particularly the wife's economic dependence.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , January 1983 , pp. 37 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kopytoff, Jean Herskovits, A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The ‘Sierra Leonians’ in Yoruba, 1830–1890 (Madison, 1965);Google ScholarAyandele, E. A., The Educated Elite in Nigerian Society (Ibadan, 1974);Google ScholarCole, Patrick D., Modern and Traditional Elites in the Politics of Lagos, 1884–1938 (Cambridge, 1975);Google Scholar and Mann, Kristin, ‘A Social History of the New African Elite in Lagos Colony, 1880–1913’, Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University (1977).Google Scholar

2 See, for example, Okoro, Keyinde, Views of Some Native Christians of West Africa on the Subject of Polygamy (Lagos, 1887);Google Scholar ‘The Debate on the European Marriage Custom’, in Agbebi, Mojola, Africa and the Gospel: Sermons, Debates and Lectures, by David Brown Vincent (Lagos, n.d.), 19–22;Google Scholar Edward Wilmot Blyden to Chancellor B, n.d., Macaulay Papers, Africana Collection, University of Ibadan Library (hereafter Macaulay), 22/8; Carr, Henry, Diocesan Synod of Western Equatorial Africa, Report of Speeches Delivered in Synod, May 1907, by Mr. Chancellor Carr… (Exeter, 1907);Google ScholarCarr, Henry, Diocesan Synod of Western Equatorial Africa, Report of Speeches Delivered in Synod, May 1912, by Mr. Chancellor Carr… (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1912);Google ScholarCoker, Jacob Kehinde, Polygamy Defended (Lagos, 1915);Google Scholar and Coker, Samuel A., The Right of Africans to Organize and Establish Indigenous Churches…Lecture Delivered in Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos, 10 April 1914 (Lagos, 1917), 24–38.Google Scholar For examples of articles in the press see the Lagos Weekly Record (hereafter LWR), 1 May 1897, 4, c. 3; 27 February 1904, 4, c. 2; 13 March 1909, 4, c. 2; 17 February 1912, 4, c. 1; and the Lagos Standard (hereafter LS), 31 January 1900, 5, c. 1; 13 August 1913, 4, c. 3; 1 September 1915, 4, c. 2.

3 Mann, Kristin, ‘Marriage Choices among the Educated African Elite in Lagos Colony, 1880–1915’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, XIV, ii (1981), 201–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Allen, Judith Van, ‘“Aba Riots” or Igbo “Women's War”? Ideology, Stratification and the Invisibility of Women’, in Hafkin, Nancy J. and Bay, Edna G., eds., Women in Africa: Studies in Social and Economic Change (Stanford, 1976), 80–83.Google Scholar Since the publication of Boserup, Ester, Women's Role in Economic Development (New York, 1970),Google Scholar several scholars have investigated African women's loss of status and economic opportunities under colonial rule. In addition to articles in Hafkin and Bay, see essays in Marcia, Wright and Jean, Hays, eds., African Women and the Law (Boston University African Studies Center publication, 1982);Google Scholar and Bay, Edna G., ed., Women and Work in Africa (Boulder, Colorado, 1982).Google Scholar Few authors have looked at new ideologies embraced by African women.

5 Jane I. Guyer, ‘Household and Community in African Studies’, paper commissioned by the Social Science Research Council, June 1981, has called attention to the importance of studying different facets of relations between men and women.

6 On the economic transformation of Lagos see Newbury, Colin W., The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers (Oxford, 1961), 34–76;Google ScholarHopkins, Anthony G., ‘An Economic History of Lagos, 1880–1914’, Ph.D. thesis, University of London (1964), 13–18;Google ScholarSmith, Robert S., The Lagos Consulate, 1851–1861 (Berkeley, 1979), 1–17;Google ScholarAderibigbe, A. B., ‘Early History of Lagos to about 1850’, in Aderibigbe, A. B., ed., Lagos: The Development of an African City (Ibadan, 1975), 1–26;Google Scholar and Hopkins, Anthony G., ‘Property Rights and Empire Building: Britain's Annexation of Lagos, 1861’, Journal of Economic History, XL, iv (1980), 777–798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 For the debate over the causes of the British occupation and annexation see Ade Ajayi, J. F., ‘The British Occupation of Lagos, 1851-1861, A Critical Review’, Nigeria, LXIX (1961), 96–105;Google Scholar and Smith, , The Lagos Consulate, 18–33, 111–127.Google ScholarHopkins, , ‘Property Rights and Empire Building’, 779–782,Google Scholar cites other relevant literature and offers a provocative new interpretation of this event.

8 Burns, Alan C., History of Nigeria (London, 1969), 127–139;Google ScholarNewbury, , The Western Slave Coast, 77–95;Google ScholarNicolson, Ian F., The Administration of Nigeria, 1900–1960 (Oxford, 1969), 46–81, 100–123;Google ScholarElias, T. O., The Nigerian Legal System (London, 1954), 17–28, 39–112;Google ScholarAdewoye, Omoniyi, The Judicial System in Southern Nigeria 1854–1954 (Atlantic Highlands, 1977), 31–68.Google Scholar

9 Mann, , ‘A Social History of the New African Elite’, 26–29.Google Scholar

10 Kopytoff, , Preface to Modern Nigeria, 24–60, 114–122;Google ScholarVerger, Pierre, Flux et Reflux de la traite des Nègres entre le Golfe de Benin et Bahia de Todos os Santos du dix-septième au dix-neuvième siècle (Paris, 1968), 573–630;Google ScholarAde Ajayi, J. F., Christian Missions in Nigeria: The Making of a New Elite (London, 1965), 25–46, 152–158;Google ScholarTurner, Jerry Michael, ‘Les Brèsiliens – The Impact of Former Brasilian Slaves on Dahomey’, Ph.D. thesis, Boston University (1975), 140–154.Google Scholar

11 Clerks in private businesses could not be identified.

12 My forthcoming book Marriage Among the Educated African Elite in Lagos Colony, 1880–1915 analyses more fully the process of elite formation and the social and economic characteristics of the elite. Christians with less education did not necessarily share the elite's marital attitudes and behaviour.

13 Fadipe, N. A., The Sociology of the Yoruba (Ibadan, 1970), 65–99;Google ScholarJohnson, Samuel, The History of the Yorubas (London, 1921), 113–117;Google ScholarAjisafe, A. K., The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba (Lagos, 1924), 47–54;Google Scholar‘A Report on the Yoruba, 1910’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, V, i (1969), 81–82;Google ScholarWard, Edward, Marriage among the Yoruba (Washington, 1937);Google Scholar and Delano, Isaac, The Soul of Nigeria (London, 1978), 121–140,Google Scholar include the best contemporary accounts of Yoruba marriage. For a fuller discussion of Yoruba marriage see Mann, ‘Marriage Choices among the Educated African Elite’.

14 Interview with Lucas, Archdeacon J. O., Lagos, August 1974. Savage v. Macfoy and In Re Ṣapara, in Renner, P. Awoonor, Reports Notes of Cases and Proceedings and Judgments in Appeal…Relating to the Gold Coast Colony and the Colony of Nigeria from 1861–1914, I (London, 1915), 504–509, 605–614.Google Scholar

15 Johnson, , History of the Yoruba, 113;Google ScholarFadipe, , Sociology of the Yoruba, 71;Google ScholarAjisafe, , Laws and Customs of the Yoruba, 47–48.Google Scholar

16 Guyer, , ‘Household and Community in African Studies’, 24–28,Google Scholar notes in a theoretical context that rights and duties between husbands and wives and other household members are subject to change. They are ‘fought over, manipulated…, and channelled by the available alternatives’.

17 On the rights and duties of Yoruba husbands and wives in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries see Fadipe, , Sociology of the Yoruba, 87–89, 147–190;Google ScholarAjisafe, , Laws and Customs of the Yoruba, 57–58;Google ScholarEllis, A. B., The Yoruba-speaking People of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), 182–190;Google Scholar‘Report on the Yoruba’, 81–82.Google Scholar For discussions of the subject in more recent times see Sudarkasa, Niara, Where Women Work: a Study of Yoruba Women in the Market Place and in the Home (Ann Arbor, 1973);Google ScholarLloyd, P. C., ‘The Status of the Yoruba Wife’, Sudan Studies, II (1963), 37–39;Google Scholar and Eades, J. S., The Yoruba Today (Cambridge, 1980), 68.Google Scholar

18 Eades, , The Yoruba Today, 48 and 68.Google Scholar

19 Fadipe, , Sociology of the Yoruba, 101–102, 140–146;Google ScholarLloyd, Peter C., ‘Yoruba Inheritance and Succession’, in Derrett, John Duncan, Studies in the Laws of Succession in Nigeria (London, 1965), 139–173;Google ScholarEades, , The Yoruba Today, 55–56.Google Scholar

20 See the testimony of Lagos chiefs on this subject in the case In Re Ṣapara, LS, 20 September 1911 to 13 March 1912. Educated Africans regularly discussed the problem of concubinage in the Lagos press. See, for example, LWR, 26 January 1901, 3, c. 2; 28 March 1903, 4, c. 3; 14 July 1906, 4, c. 3; 18 February 1911, 3, c. z; II September 1915; and LS, 2 February 1910, 4, c. 2; 6 October 1915, 6, c. 2.

21 In Re Ṣapara, LS, 18 October 1911, 6–7, 25 October 1911, 7. Interviews with Archdeacon J. O. Lucas and T. A. Doherty, Lagos, April and May 1974.

22 The press of the period contains numerous lengthy descriptions of Christian weddings. See ‘Marriage in High Life’, Lagos Observer, 21 January 1888; ‘Fashionable Marriage’, LS, 4 September 1895, 3, c. 1; or the description of the wedding of Dr J. O. Coker and Stella Forbes Davies, LWR, 26 November 1898, 6, c. 2.

23 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs C. O. Blaize and Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, January and April 1974. See also ‘Notes on Zenobia Phillips’, Phillips Papers, Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan (hereafter Phillips), 1/1/6.

24 Johnson, Bishop James and Oyejola, Dr Ayodeji sent their fiancées abroad to school. Tragically Johnson's fiancée died in England. Ayandele, E. A., Holy Johnson: Pioneer of African Nationalism (London, 1970), 28;Google Scholar interview with Mrs Oyejola Turner, Lagos, August 1980. Mrs J. P. L. Davies, Mrs T. G. Hoare, and Mrs R. A. Wright all received real estate from their husbands when they married. Evans to Knutsford, 1 January 1887, Moloney to Knutsford, 3 May 1887, C. O. 147/78; Will, , George Hoare, Thomas, Lagos Probate Registry, I, 35–38;Google Scholar interview with Mrs Ayodele Smith, Ibadan, May 1974. A marriage settlement transferring property from a husband to his wife survives in the possession of Dr J. T. Nelson Cole, Iju, Lagos State. I am grateful to Dr Nelson Cole for permitting me to consult this document.

25 An undated document in Phillips 1/1/6 lists the articles of clothing that Charles Phillips ordered for his betrothed. See also Fadipe, , Sociology of The Yoruba, 95–96.Google Scholar

26 Goody, Jack and S. J., Tambiah, Bridewealth and Dowry (Cambridge, 1973), 1–2, 61–62;Google Scholar and Comaroff, John, ‘Introduction’, in John, Comaroff, ed., The Meaning of Marriage Payments (New York, 1980), 4.Google Scholar I discuss more fully the significance of this and other aspects of Christian marriage in Marriage among the Educated African Elite.

27 Webster, John B., African Churches among the Yoruba, 1888–1922 (Oxford, 1964), 48;Google ScholarAyandele, E. A., The Missionary Impact on Modern Nigeria (London, 1966), 197, 201, 334–337.Google Scholar

28 Ordinances Nos. 10 and 21, Lagos 1863, in Algernon Montagu, J., Ordinances of the Settlement of Lagos (Lagos, 1874);Google Scholar Ordinance No. 14, Lagos, 1884, in Harrison Richards, Edward, Ordinances, Orders, and Rules in Force in the Colony of Lagos, 1893 (London, 1894), 443–457.Google Scholar

29 Oluwoli[e], Abigail C., Christian Marriage (Coventry, n.d.), 7, 12–13,Google Scholar (emphasis Mrs Oluwole's). See also ‘Christian Marriage’, in Taiwo, C. O., ed., Henry Carr: Lectures and Speeches (Ibadan, 1969), 24.Google Scholar

30 Interview with Mrs C. O. Blaize, Lagos, January 1974. See also Williams to Carrena, 25 March 1924, Albert E. Carrena Papers, Letters (9). I am grateful to E. E. I. Carrena for permission to consult this document.

31 Oluwoli, , Christian Marriage, 19.Google Scholar

32 Victor [Davies?] to Stella Coker, 25 June 1907, Coker Papers, Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan (hereafter Coker), 1/4/3. See also ‘Education of Women’, in Taiwo, , Henry Carr, 33.Google Scholar

33 Ordinance 14, 1884, 453–4.

34 Geldart, William, Elements of English Law (London, 1975), 121;Google ScholarBromley, P. M., Family Law (London, 1962), 401–402, 467;Google ScholarCrane, F. R., ‘Family Settlements and Succession’, in Graveson, R. H. and Crane, F. R., eds., A Century of Family Law (London, 1957), 245–246.Google Scholar

35 Interviews in Lagos with Percy Savage, T. A. Doherty, Mrs Ayodele Adeshegbin and Mrs Syrian Taylor, January–July 1974. Interview with Adetokunbo Ademola, Lagos, July 1980.

36 Brown, Spencer H., ‘A History of the People of Lagos, 1852–1866’, Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University (1964), 135.Google Scholar

37 Interview with Mrs Ayodele Manuwa, Lagos, May 1974.

38 Kopytoff, , Preface to Modern Nigeria, 206–207;Google ScholarBrown, , ‘A History of the People of Lagos’, 132.Google Scholar See also Evans to Knutsford, 17 October 1887, C.O. 147/62.

39 Stella Davies' Diary, 1898, Coker 3/7, records the daily routine of an elite woman. For newspaper accounts of women's activities see LWR, 12 December 1891, 2, c. 3; 21 May 1892, 3, c. I; 24 December 1898, 3, c. 3; 15 February 1902, 3, c. 3; 24 May 1902, 3, c. I; and LS, 6 February 1895, 2, c. 1; 20 February 1895, 3, c. 2; 30 January 1901, 2, c. 2; 27 February 1901, 2, c. 3; 17 May 1911, 5, c. 3; 5 May 1915, 5, c. 3; 20 October 1915, 5, c. 1.

40 The Lagos Marriage Registry houses marriage registers for the years 1884 to 1915. I located marriage registers for earlier years at St Paul's Church, Christ Church, and Holy Cross Cathedral.

41 Interviews with Blaize, Mrs C. O., Adewakun, Mrs, and Lucas, Archdeacon J. O., Lagos, January, March and April 1974. See also Eagle and Lagos Critic, 29 March 1884.Google Scholar

42 LS, 1 January 1896, 2, c. 2; 22 June 1904, 2, c. 3; 25 January 1905, 4, c. 2; and 5 February 1915, 6, c. 3.

43 Kristin Mann, ‘Marriage and the Consolidation of Status among the Educated African Elite in Lagos Colony, 1880–1915’, 8, unpublished paper presented to the Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies, February 1981.

44 Savage v. Macfoy, 505.Google Scholar

46 LS, 31 January 1900.

46 LS, 29 January 1896. After their establishment around the turn of the century, the African separatist churches in Lagos married couples in modified versions of Christian ceremonies, but did not register these marriages under the marriage ordinance. Nor did they insist on monogamy. These marriages became known as ‘native Christian’ or ‘parlour’ marriages.

47 Jacob Kehinde Coker, ‘Is Native Marriage Advisable or not Advisable?’, Coker 4/2/53, 6.

48 Interviews with Mrs T. E. Williams, Lagos, April 1974 and Mrs Adeniyi Williams, Ibadan, May 1974.

49 Interviews in Lagos with Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Mrs Tinuola Dedeke, Mrs Syrian Taylor, and Mrs R. A. Wright, April, May and July 1974.

50 For a discussion of non-elite women's motives for entering customary unions with elite men see Mann, , ‘Marriage and the Consolidation of Status’, II, 16–18.Google Scholar

51 Interview with Mrs C. O. Blaize, Lagos, January 1974.

52 Harrell-Bond, Barbara E., Modern Marriage in Sierra Leone: A Study of the Professional Group (The Hague, 1975), 3, 54, 287,Google Scholar notes that educated Africans in colonial Freetown also regarded Christian marriage as more prestigious than African marriage. She argues that this belief has carried over among contemporary Sierra Leonean professionals.

53 Mann, ‘Marriage Choices among the Educated African Elite’, gives a fuller discussion of the religious and pragmatic appeal of Christian marriage.

54 Thomas, Keith, ‘The Double Standard’, Journal of the History of Ideas, XX, ii (1959), 210.Google Scholar

55 Fadipe, , Sociology of the Yoruba, 78.Google Scholar

56 Interviews with Mrs J. T. A. Williams, Mrs C. G. Agbe, Mrs R. A. Wright, Mrs Ayodele Manuwa and T. A. Doherty, Lagos, January–May 1974.

57 Mrs Samuel Crowther to J. P. L. Davies, 16 November 1888, Coker 6/1.

58 Interviews with Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Mrs C. O. Blaize and Mrs Ayodele Manuwa, Lagos, April, January and May 1974.

59 Interview with Ardeacon J. O. Lucas, Lagos, April 1974.

60 In Re Ṣapara, Judges' Notebook in Civil Cases, 1911–12, 366, 411–16, 423–4, 443–51. Lagos High Court Archives. LS, 20 September 1911 to 13 March 1912, published much of the testimony in the trial. For an abbreviated version see Renner, , Reports, Notes of Cases and Proceedings, I, 605–614.Google Scholar

61 Interview with Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Lagos, April 1974.

62 Interviews in Lagos with E. M. E. Willoughby, the Rev. S. A. Pearce, T. A. Doherty and Percy Savage, January, March, April and July 1974.

63 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs E. M. E. Agbebi, Mrs Adewakun, Mrs Tinuola Dedeke and Mrs Syrian Taylor, March, April, May and July 1974.

64 Cohen, Abner, The Politics of Elite Culture (Berkeley, 1981), 82,Google Scholar notes that economically independent Creole women in modern Sierra Leone identify their status with that of their husbands.

65 Martindale, Hilda, Women Servants of the State, 1870–1938: A History of Women in the Civil Service (London, 1938), 192;Google Scholar and Evans, Dorothy, Women and the Civil Service: A History of the Development of the Employment of Women in the Civil Service, and a Guide to Present-Day Opportunities (London, 1934), 62.Google Scholar

66 On the disabilities English women faced in medicine and law see Bennett, A. H., English Medical Women: Glimpses of their Work in Peace and War (London, 1915), 10–57;Google ScholarMoberly Bell, E., Storming the Citadel: the Rise of the Woman Doctor (London, 1953);Google ScholarFerguson, Neal A., ‘Women in Twentieth Century England’, in Barbara, Kanner, ed., The Women of England from Anglo-Saxon Times to the Present (Hamden, Connecticut, 1979), 362.Google Scholar

67 Payne, J. A. O., Lagos and West Africa Almanack and Diary (London, 1894), 71–72,Google Scholar describes the curriculum of the C.M.S. Female Institution, until 1907 Lagos's only secondary school for girls. Although its pupils studied English, arithmetic, geography and history, they devoted much of their time to religious instruction, needlework, domestic economy, drawing and singing. At the C.M.S. Grammar School boys studied algebra, geometry, natural science, philosophy, political economy and book-keeping, in addition to the four academic subjects taught to women. For a statement of the philosophy behind women's education see ‘Education of Women’, in Taiwo, , Henry Carr, 33–34.Google ScholarBurnstall, Sara A. and Douglas, M. A., eds., Public Schools for Girls (London, 1911),Google Scholar discusses the kind of education offered girls in English public schools.

68 Leith Mullings, ‘Women and Economic Change in Africa’, in Hafkin and Bay, Women in Africa, 248–9, 251, 255; E. Frances White, ‘Women, Work and Ethnicity: The Sierra Leone Case’, in Bay, Women and Work, 19–33. The emergence of a money economy and private land ownership, the dependence of large-scale traders on extensive European credit, and the use of privately owned land as security for credit all may have put women traders at a disadvantage. Whether for these or other reasons, men dominated Lagos's import-export trade, while women worked as petty retail traders.

69 In the 1880s schoolmistresses’ salaries varied from £7 to £36 per year, with most in the £7–15 range. These teachers may have received small supplementary grants (‘Return of…Schools’, Blue Books, Lagos Colony). In 1913 schoolmistresses received little more(LS, 5 February 1913, 6, c. 3). In contrast top-ranking clerks in the colonial service averaged £212 a year between 1880 and 1915. This figure is derived from data in the Lists of Officers, Blue Books, Lagos Colony and Colony of Southern Nigeria.

70 Fadipe, , Sociology of the Yoruba, 97.Google Scholar

71 LWR, 21 January 1899, 5, c. I.

72 Coker, , ‘Is Native Marriage Advisable or Not Advisable?’, 14–15.Google Scholar

73 Coker, op. cit. 14–15. Oppong, C., Marriage among a Matrilineal Elite: A Family Study of Ghanaian Senior Civil Servants (Cambridge, 1974), 65,Google Scholar argues that ordinance marriage gives modern Ghanaian women a measure of security.

74 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs C. O. Blaize, Archdeacon J. O. Lucas and Mrs Comfort Maja, January, April and July 1974.

75 For a brief biography of Mrs Blaize see her obituary, LWR, 24 August 1895, 6, c. I. Interview with Kunle Akinsemoyin, Lagos, January 1974.

76 Will, , Blaize, R. B., Lagos Probate Records, vi, 341–346.Google Scholar

77 Mann, , ‘Marriage Choices among the Educated African Elite’, 202.Google Scholar

78 Interviews in Lagos with Michael Ayo Vaughan, Mrs Comfort Maja, Mrs R. A. Wright and Jack Randle, March, April and August 1974.

79 LS, 22 April 1903, 2, c. 3. See also LS, 9 June 1897, 5, c. 3; 29 March 1899, 3, c. 2; 16 August 1908, 4, c. 2; 17 November 1915, 4, c. 2.

80 Interview with Mrs Henrietta Lawson, Lagos, August 1974.

81 Mann, , ‘Marriage and the Consolidation of Status’, 18.Google Scholar I am currently engaged in a study of inheritance among the elite, using wills and other legal documents.

82 Will, , Wilkinson Thomas, Andrew, Lagos Probate Records, VI, 202–208, 375–380.Google Scholar Interview with Mrs C. G. Agbe, Lagos, February 1974.

83 Cole v. Cole, I Nigerian Law Reports, 15–23.Google Scholar In the High Court Archives I was unable to locate the Judges' Notebook in Civil Cases, 1897–98, which should contain records of this case. LS, 3 August 1898, 3, c. 2, provided supplementary evidence as did an interview in Lagos with Georgious Cole, January 1974.

84 Interviews with Mrs R. A. Wright, Lagos, March and April 1974.

85 Interviews in Lagos with Mrs H. F. Pereira, Mrs R. A. Wright, Archdeacon J. O. Lucas and Mrs Comfort Maja, February–May 1974. See also ‘Petition from the Protestant Ministers on the Subject of Divorce’, 15 August 1889, C.O. 147/71.

86 LWR, 21 January 1899, 5, c. I.

87 LWR, 22 May 1897. See also Coker, , The Right of Africans to Organize Indigenous Churches, 24–29;Google Scholar and Jacob Kehinde Coker to Cousin, 16 July 1913, Coker 2/1/10.

88 See for example Will, Thomas George Hoare, I, 35–38,Google Scholar Lagos Probate Registry.

89 In Re Ṣapara, Renner, , Reports, Notes of Cases and Proceedings, I, 606.Google Scholar Mrs Ayodele Wright defended polygyny while travelling in England. LWR, 16 July 1904, 5, c. I.

90 Interview with Mrs Sarah Adadevoh, Lagos, March 1974.

91 Emily Williams to Stella Coker, 11 March 1908, Coker 1/4/4; J. J. Thomas to Stella Coker, 16 September 1907, Coker 1/4/3.

92 According to popular legend, Herbert Macaulay vowed never to marry again after his Christian wife died in her first childbirth. Macaulay never did marry again in church, but he took several customary wives and concubines. Interviews with Mrs Henrietta Lawson and Archdeacon J. O. Lucas, Lagos, March and April 1974. See also In the Matter of the Estate of Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay, 13 West African Court of Appeals, 304.

93 Oluwoli, , Christian Marriage, 19–20.Google Scholar

94 Oluwoli[e], Mrs Isaac, The Training of Children (Lagos, n.d.), 22–23.Google Scholar

95 LS, 22 May 1901, 3, c. 2.

96 LWR, 21 January 1899, 5, c. I.

97 LS, 7 April 1915, 4, c. 3. See also LS, 25 January 1905, p. 3, c. I; 19 July 1911, S, c. I.

98 LS, 29 March 1899, 3, c. 2.

99 LS, 25 January 1905, 5, c. 2. See also LS, 7 December 1904, 4, c. I; 18 January 1905, 6, c. 3.

100 LWR, 8 December 1906, 7, c. 3; 19 January 1907, 3,c. I. See also LS, 27 July 1910, 6, c. 2.

101 LWR, 24 February 1906, 2, c. 3.

102 LS, 27 July 1910, 6, c. 2; 10 August 1910, 6, c. I.

103 LS, 22 January 1896, 2, c. 2.

104 LS, 5 April 1911, 6, c. 3; 19 July 1911, 4, c. I, 2; 28 February 1912, 4, c. 2.

105 LS, 7 April 1915, 4, c. 3.

106 Interview with Mrs Ayodele Smith, Ibadan, 1974. See also LS, 18 January 1915, 6, c. 3. ‘List of Important Farmers’, Moseley to Lyttleton, 21 June 1904, C.O. 147/170, contains information about R. A. Wright's farm.

107 Interview with Mrs Ebun Lucas, Lagos, February 1974.

108 LWR, 25 July 1908, 7, c. I.

109 LS, 8 December 1909, 4, c. 2.

110 LS, 1 January 1913, 6, c. 3 and 16 June 1915, 2, c. 2. I would like to thank Professor Gabriel O. Olusanya for permitting me to consult his unpublished paper, ‘Sisi Obasa – Philanthropist, Social Worker, Champion of Women's Rights and Cultural Nationalist’. Jeffries Johnson, Cheryl, ‘Nigerian Women and British Colonialism: the Yoruba Example with Selected Biographies’, Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University (1978), 97–131,Google Scholar contains a short biography of Mrs Obasa.

111 Interviews with Dr J. T. Nelson Cole, Iju, Lagos State, August 1974 and July 1980.

112 Interview with Mrs Ayodele Adeshegbin, Lagos, April 1974.

113 Aina Moore, Kofoworola, ‘The Story of Kofoworola Aina Moore, of The Yoruba Tribe, Nigeria’, in Margery, Perham, ed., Ten Africans (London, 1936), 331.Google Scholar The author contrasts her thorough education with the ‘finishing course’ her mother received abroad.

114 Interview with Dr Irene Thomas, Lagos, July 1974.

115 Vicinus, Martha, ‘Introduction’, in Martha, Vicinus, ed., A Widening Sphere: Changing Roles of Victorian Women (Bloomington, 1977), ix–xix.Google Scholar

116 Ayandele, , The Missionary Impact, 241–280;Google ScholarOmu, Fred I. A., Press and Politics in Nigeria, 1880–1937 (Atlantic Highlands, 1978), 107–115;Google ScholarKimble, , A Political History of Ghana, 506–528;Google ScholarSpitzer, Leo, The Creoles of Sierra Leone, Responses to Colonialism, 1870–1945 (Madison, 1974), 108–147.Google Scholar

117 See, for example, LS, 3 July 1907, 5, c. I; 22 March 1913, 4, c. I; and 2 July 1913, 4, c. 2.