Sergeant Bakari and the Southern Nigeria Regiment occupy an important place in the visual history of British colonial rule in Nigeria. An archival photograph dated 2 February 1905 depicts two African soldiers at Ikot-Ekpene, a town that had recently become a British colonial military and administrative station.
The photograph’s caption identifies the men as Sergeant Bakari and a lance-corporal of G Company, Southern Nigeria Regiment. Both are described as wearing military dress uniform and displaying medals.
The image belongs to a period of significant political transformation in south-eastern Nigeria.
During the early twentieth century, British colonial authorities were extending their administration into territories where local communities maintained established political institutions, commercial networks and systems of authority.
Military expeditions, the establishment of government stations and the deployment of African soldiers formed part of this process.
The photograph offers a glimpse into the military institution through which British colonial authority operated during this period.
Its historical setting is particularly significant because Ikot-Ekpene had become a colonial military and administrative station in 1904, approximately one year before the portrait was taken.
Sergeant Bakari and the Southern Nigeria Regiment
The Southern Nigeria Regiment formed part of the West African Frontier Force, a British-controlled military organisation that employed African soldiers in Britain’s West African territories.
Its personnel undertook garrison duties, military patrols and operations associated with the extension and maintenance of colonial authority.
The Southern Nigeria government’s annual report for 1904 recorded the regiment’s total strength as 1,379 personnel on 31 December that year.
The establishment comprised 49 officers, 22 British non-commissioned officers and 1,308 rank and file.
The report also identified Ikot-Ekpene among the stations garrisoned by the regiment during 1904.
These figures demonstrate the considerable military establishment maintained by the British colonial administration.
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African military personnel were central to the functioning of the regiment, serving within an institution directed by British colonial authorities.
The ranks attributed to Sergeant Bakari and his companion indicate that they occupied recognised positions within its military hierarchy.
A sergeant held a rank above that of a lance-corporal, although the precise responsibilities of the two men at Ikot-Ekpene are not recorded in the photograph’s description.
Their portrait represents an important part of Nigeria’s military history: African soldiers serving within a colonial military organisation during the expansion of British administration.
British Colonial Expansion into Ibibio Territory
The military developments surrounding the photograph were closely connected to British operations in Ibibio territory during the early twentieth century.
By 1904, British authorities were seeking to extend their administrative control into areas between the Cross and Imo rivers.
The region contained communities with established political, social and commercial institutions.
These communities maintained their own leadership structures and relationships with neighbouring settlements. They were not organised as a single political state under one central authority.
British attempts to extend colonial administration therefore involved encounters with different communities whose responses to the expanding colonial presence varied.
One of the most significant military operations of this period was the British expedition into North Ibibio territory in early 1904.
The expedition was undertaken as part of the colonial government’s efforts to establish authority over the region, secure commercial routes and create new administrative stations.
Its objectives and military strength became the subject of discussion in the British Parliament.
The 1904 Ibibio Expedition
On 3 March 1904, Sir Charles Dilke, Member of Parliament for the Forest of Dean, questioned the Secretary of State for the Colonies about the British military expedition into Ibibio territory.
Dilke asked about the operation’s objectives, the number of troops involved and whether it had received government authorisation.
Alfred Lyttelton, who was serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies, responded on behalf of the British government.
He explained that the expedition was intended to bring the district under government control, confiscate certain weapons, open the territory to trade and prevent slave raiding.
Lyttelton stated that the force consisted of four columns operating together, comprising 430 rank-and-file troops, four Maxim guns and two 75 mm guns.
He also confirmed that the expedition had been authorised by his predecessor.
The expedition was connected to the wider establishment of British colonial authority in Southern Nigeria. Territorial administration, disarmament and commercial access were among the government’s stated objectives.
Resistance and Disarmament During the 1904 Campaign
The Southern Nigeria government’s annual report for 1904 recorded that a contingent of 387 officers, non-commissioned officers and men entered North Ibibio territory at the beginning of the year.
The colonial administration described the operation as an expedition intended to punish communities accused of obstructing trade routes, establish government control over territory between the Cross and Imo rivers and create a new administrative station.
British troops encountered considerable opposition.
The colonial administration reported that, by the beginning of March 1904, communities described as hostile had submitted and surrendered 3,941 guns.
Military force and disarmament formed part of the British administration’s efforts to establish control.
The expansion of colonial authority also involved securing trade routes and establishing government institutions in territories brought under British administration.
Ikot-Ekpene Becomes a British Colonial Station
The expedition into North Ibibio territory was followed by important administrative developments.
The Southern Nigeria government’s annual report for 1904 recorded that Ikot-Ekpene District was added to the Calabar Division.
A government station was opened at Ikot-Ekpene during the year, and the town was among the locations garrisoned by the Southern Nigeria Regiment.
These developments established Ikot-Ekpene as a colonial military and administrative location before the photograph of Sergeant Bakari and his companion was taken in February 1905.
The creation of a colonial station had significance beyond the presence of soldiers.
Government stations provided locations from which British officials could undertake administrative duties and organise the extension of colonial authority into surrounding territories.
Military garrisons also provided an armed presence through which the administration could maintain its position and support further operations.
The establishment of a station at Ikot-Ekpene formed part of the wider transformation of political authority in the region.
It marked the expansion of British administrative institutions into territory where local communities had previously maintained their own systems of governance.
The documented opposition to the 1904 expedition illustrates the resistance that accompanied the establishment of colonial authority in parts of the region.
African Soldiers and the Machinery of Colonial Rule
The photograph of Sergeant Bakari and his companion draws attention to the role of African military personnel within the British colonial establishment.
The Southern Nigeria Regiment was a British-controlled institution, but African soldiers formed a substantial part of its military personnel.
They served within an organisation that undertook garrison duties and participated in military operations across the protectorate.
Their service connected them to the administrative and military structures through which British authority operated.
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The photograph also raises important questions about the personal experiences of African soldiers serving in colonial armies.
Its caption identifies Bakari as a sergeant and his companion as a lance-corporal. Their military ranks placed them above ordinary privates within the regiment’s hierarchy.
The portrait provides a visual connection to the African personnel who served within the colonial military during a period of significant political change.
It reminds us that the military institutions of British colonial rule were staffed not only by British officers but also by African soldiers who occupied different ranks and performed duties within the colonial army.
The Historical Importance of Sergeant Bakari’s Photograph
Military photographs preserve images of people, uniforms, ranks and institutions from earlier periods.
The portrait attributed to Sergeant Bakari and the lance-corporal is particularly significant because of its location and date.
Taken at Ikot-Ekpene in February 1905, it belongs to the period immediately following the establishment of the town as a British colonial station.
The Southern Nigeria Regiment maintained a military presence at Ikot-Ekpene during this period.
The photograph connects the history of individual African servicemen with the wider military and administrative developments taking place in Southern Nigeria.
It also provides an opportunity to examine the relationship between African military service and the expansion of European colonial authority.
Military Expansion and the Transformation of Political Authority
The events surrounding Ikot-Ekpene in 1904 and 1905 formed part of a wider process through which British authorities extended colonial administration across Southern Nigeria.
Military operations were undertaken to bring territories under colonial control, secure trade routes and establish new administrative stations.
These objectives were closely connected.
The extension of political authority enabled the colonial government to introduce its administrative institutions into newly controlled districts.
Military forces provided support for that process through expeditions, garrison duties and the protection of government stations.
The communities affected by these developments experienced substantial changes to the political environment in which they lived.
The establishment of British administrative authority introduced colonial officials and institutions into territories where local communities already possessed their own forms of leadership and governance.
The resistance recorded during the North Ibibio expedition demonstrates that the process was contested.
The military portrait of Sergeant Bakari belongs to this larger history.
It places two African soldiers within the institutional world of British colonial rule at a time when that system was expanding into surrounding territories.
Conclusion
The photograph of Sergeant Bakari and a lance-corporal of G Company, Southern Nigeria Regiment, captures a moment in the military history of colonial Southern Nigeria.
Its date of 2 February 1905 places it shortly after the British expedition into North Ibibio territory and the establishment of Ikot-Ekpene as a colonial administrative station.
The Southern Nigeria Regiment maintained a military presence at Ikot-Ekpene, while British authorities pursued territorial expansion, established new administrative institutions and encountered resistance from communities affected by their operations.
The photograph places African military personnel within this wider historical setting.
It illustrates the participation of African servicemen in the military institutions through which British colonial authority operated.
Sergeant Bakari’s portrait is therefore more than an image of two men in uniform.
It is a visual record connected to the military expansion, administrative transformation and changing political authority that shaped the history of south-eastern Nigeria during the early twentieth century.
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Author’s Note
The story of Sergeant Bakari and the Southern Nigeria Regiment reminds us that the history of colonial expansion cannot be understood solely through the names of British officials, military commanders and administrators. African soldiers served within the military institutions that supported the establishment and maintenance of colonial rule, while local communities experienced the political and administrative changes accompanying that expansion. The 1905 photograph from Ikot-Ekpene provides a connection between these histories, preserving the image of two African servicemen at a time when British military operations and the establishment of colonial institutions were transforming Southern Nigeria.
References
Great Britain, Colonial Office. Southern Nigeria, Report for 1904. Colonial Reports, Annual, No. 459. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1905. Sections on the Southern Nigeria Regiment, military operations in North Ibibio territory and the establishment of Ikot-Ekpene as a colonial station.
Great Britain, House of Commons. Southern Nigeria: Ibibio Expedition. Parliamentary Debates, 3 March 1904, volume 131, column 58. Parliamentary questions by Sir Charles Dilke and responses by Alfred Lyttelton, Secretary of State for the Colonies.
British Museum. Collection of Historical Photographs of Southern Nigeria. Photographic material associated with Ikot-Ekpene and the Southern Nigeria Regiment in the early twentieth century.
