this chapter explores the medium through which the Nigerian population addressed and contested the series of rules, restrictions, and regulations imposed by the British to address the crisis generated by the war. In this context, the letters and petitions Nigerians wrote provided opportunities to locate African voices, as they confronted the new political and economic system introduced during the war. This chapter reveals that, although support for the war cut across class lines, most of the upper class and political elite were less concerned with the issues of daily survival, such as food insecurity and matters of daily subsistence, that lay at the root of these petitions. It concludes that the richness of these petitions allows for a better understanding of the impacts of the war on rural families and urban communities and situates the civilian experience within the larger context of the war and colonial society while creating a space for petitioners to participate in the larger discourse. It argues that Nigerian petitions reveal how local economic conditions and production systems linked a broad range of people, classes, and spatial categories and allowed them to move into the realm of public discourses on war, colonialism, and policy.

The main focus of this chapter is the role of propaganda in influencing participation and opinions during the war. It analyzes how the British extensively used wartime propaganda to draw the support of the Nigerian people and explores the critical role propaganda played in Nigeria’s appropriation of the war and the enthusiastic support different sections of the population provided Britain during its hour of greatest need. It illustrates that the propaganda intended for African audiences reiterated the idea of the “interdependency” of the empire by stressing the unity of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The call on Africans to produce goods and conserve resources during the war was seen by the colonial government as an extension of its patriotism toward the empire. By creating space for the participation of the local population to consume a particular form of propaganda, the empire made Nigerians active participants in the creation of propaganda. Their intellectual contribution to this mission was largely based upon their appropriation of a new status and identity as “citizens of the empire.” Propaganda provided an effective avenue for expressions of imperial unity and acceptance of Britain’s self-image as a “virtuous imperial power,” in the words of Sonya Rose.

The concluding chapter returns to the main themes and highlights the issues analyzed in this book. The entanglements of grassroots action with the world of European colonialism, politics, and economics during the Second World War forced rural and urban classes alike to seek a role in shaping both the economic and political worlds of which they were a part. The demand for agricultural products drew a sizable portion of the population directly into the politics of war production and the ideological debates upon which the Allied fought against Germany and Nazism. By supplying needed manpower, producing essential goods, and participating in the vigorous intellectual debates of the period, Nigerians generated new discourses about self-determination and equal rights and experimented with postwar reforms. Situating Nigeria’s participation in a global conflict through the lens of colonialism and ties to the British Empire, this chapter demonstrates the significance of Nigeria in one of the greatest moments of historical significance that shaped the world in the twentieth century. The conclusion draws attention to the entangled webs of relationships and connections between the metropole and the colony and how the war ultimately created opportunities for self-determination during the turbulent years of its aftermath.

This chapter critically analyzes Nigeria’s status as one of Britain’s imperial possessions and its strategic importance during the war. This chapter shows that the mantra of the “people’s war” was effectuated through the systematic implementation of new policies and regulations, changes in existing economic policy, and specific regulations introduced to garner support for the war. This chapter then demonstrates how Nigerians were subjected to even greater demands to fight in what was seen as a glorious defense of civilization against barbarism. It presents how Nigeria was woven “into the tapestry of British warfare and Britain’s presence on the world stage as the foremost power,” to use Ashley Jackson’s expression. It argues that government policies during the war conveyed a highly paradoxical attitude toward colonized peoples: consistent with the goals of imperialism as an economic venture on one hand, and on the other, with the Allies’ commitment to the preservation of liberty and self-determination through specific wartime colonial policies.

Chapter 3 investigates the Nigerian home front. Nigeria, with its huge reserves of men, food, and raw materials, was critical to the Allied war effort. Nigerians from all walks of life, diverse regions, and various ethnicities were involved in the struggle to win the war. They were deployed as soldiers and workers, on a large scale, to theaters of war in Europe and the Middle East. The optimism expressed by colonial officials regarding support from the dominion and colonies, and the confidence that they would join the empire in the war with Germany, were not in vain. The notion that all people, including colonial subjects, were united by a common cause and a moral war fought against a common enemy drew Nigerians of all classes into a global fight against tyranny. Yet Britain embarked on a systematic extraction of human and material resources on an unprecedented scale. The drive to produce and the regulations put in place to control the local economy and meet wartime requirements created economic crises that were often ignored by the authorities. This chapter details the significant role played by Nigerians at home and the impact of the war in transforming their lives and societies in very fundamental ways to reveal its truly local and global impact.

The introduction develops a history of Nigeria’s role in World War II that allows for a meaningful understanding of the conflict as multidimensional and instrumental to critical transformations in empire–colony relations nationally, transnationally, and internationally. It shows how Nigeria’s participation in the war as a colony of the British Empire profoundly transformed the relationship between metropole, empire, and colony, created a new sense of shared view and ideology, and shaped new cultural and political ideas in the postwar period. It addresses a major gap in the historical literature, including the dearth of information on the historical contributions of Africans in the Nigerian colony as participants and victims. It presents the thrust of this book as a significant contribution to the history of the Second World War in general that explores in detail the contributions of an African society and the impact of the war on that society. It surveys the history of the war by laying out the key features of local conditions (especially on the eve of the war), the war’s impact, and local responses. This chapter concludes that the impact of the Second World War cannot be generalized or the European experience equated with the experiences of Africans in European colonies.

This chapter describes the sociopolitical and economic changes that accrued in Nigeria during the critical postwar years and situates these developments within different contexts. Foremost on the minds of colonial officials was the anticipated effects of the demobilization of thousands of men who had been employed as soldiers, and in auxiliary services, such as drivers and hospital orderlies, and who had enjoyed a higher pay, and the concomitant unemployment that would be experienced after demobilization. It reveals that the postwar period was characterized by continuing shortages of food and other essential items and labor strikes in many parts of the country, causing disruptions in shipping and manufacturing. It argues that the significant amounts of cash that entered the economy as a result of the war became the impetus for new social formations as ex-servicemen returned to their villages with a substantial amount of money and trading firms paid higher prices for export produce than in the prewar times. With this influx of money during the war years, cultural practices, including local marriage practices, were affected. The political changes that ultimately led to the independence of Nigeria from colonial rule occurred during this period of significant social and economic change.