Roles and Conditions of African Middlemen during Colonial Rule, 1930-1960

Abstract 
The paper traces the decline of African middlemen in Nigeria from wealthy entrepreneurs in the late nineteenth century to petty traders after 1930. The decline of African middlemen was in phases. For instance, during the first phase, 1900-1905, the middlemen lost only political control of their trading areas but benefitted commercially. The establishment of colonial rule expanded their market. Besides, with the reluctance of expatriate firms to move into the interior, the continued ignorance of the natives of the actual prices of their produce and of imported goods, and the encouragement from the colonial administrators, African middlemen prospered. Scholars of colonial period have through their works evaluated colonial Nigeria where they examined colonial system of administration, transportation, urbanization, monetary policies, land ordinances and colonial health care policies etc. However, these intellectual efforts have not comprehensively interrogated the roles which the Nigerian middlemen played during the import-export trade and the conditions under which they operated. It is against this background that this paper seeks to examine the role indigenous middlemen played during the colonial trade as well as the conditions under which they operated. The discourse adopts historical method and data would be sourced from the archives, official government publication, articles from learned journals and books. The study maintains that before 1946, many of the big firms such as United African Company and John Holt were engaged in both wholesale and retail trades. Besides, with the appearance of the indigenous businessmen after 1946, many of these firms withdrew from retail trade and collecting of export produce directly from farmers. Consequently, this changed the conditions of African middlemen in the export-import trade. The paper concludes that trade relationship between African colonial states, Nigeria specifically, and Europe was characterized by an unequal exchange. 
Key words: colonial rule, export, import, indigenous, middlemen, petty traders,