Ankwe men in Shendam, 1923 appear in a historical photograph from a town that was then part of Muri Province under British colonial administration. Four men are shown together, one mounted on horseback, their clothing and posture preserving a visual record of Goemai life during a period of major political and social change.
The historical caption uses the name “Ankwe”, the designation by which the people were widely known to outsiders and in much colonial, anthropological and linguistic literature. Today, Goemai is the established name used by the people for themselves and for their language.
The photograph belongs to two histories at once. It records the appearance of four individuals in Shendam in 1923, while also preserving the vocabulary through which colonial and missionary observers described communities in the region.
More than a century later, the image offers a way to explore the history of the Goemai homeland, the rise of Shendam as an administrative centre and the wider transformation of colonial Muri Province.
Ankwe Men in Shendam, 1923 and the Goemai Name
Modern linguistic scholarship identifies Goemai as an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Chadic branch, specifically the West Chadic group. Linguists Marija Tabain and Birgit Hellwig note that Goemai is the name speakers use for both their language and ethnic group, while Ankwe is the older name by which outsiders frequently knew them.
The older designation consequently appears repeatedly in colonial records and earlier academic writing. Ankwe and Goemai do not refer to two separate peoples in this context.
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The Goemai homeland lies principally in the lowland savannah south of the Jos Plateau and north of the Benue River, within the region commonly known as the Great Muri Plains. Present-day Goemai communities are particularly associated with Shendam and Qua’an Pan Local Government Areas of Plateau State.
Historically, agriculture formed the foundation of the local economy, with fishing and hunting also contributing to livelihoods. Shendam developed into an important political and administrative centre within this wider landscape.
Shendam in Colonial Muri Province
The date of the photograph is particularly important. In 1923, Shendam was part of Muri Province under British rule. Plateau State did not yet exist.
British archival records from that year identify Shendam Division as part of Muri Province. Colonial files survive under the title Shendam Division Muri Province Quarterly Reports and Annual Reports [1923].
The location of the photograph can therefore be described as Shendam, Muri Province, Nigeria, 1923.
Earlier colonial documentation also records the administrative importance of Shendam. J. M. Fremantle’s Gazetteer of Muri Province, compiled to the end of 1919, contains sections devoted to Tshendam Division and the Ankwe District. In the spelling used by the Gazetteer, Tshendam was the principal settlement associated with the district.
The document describes how British administration reorganised communities and political authority across the area during the opening decades of the twentieth century.
British Rule and the Reshaping of Goemai Authority
British intervention in the Goemai region began around the turn of the twentieth century.
The Gazetteer of Muri Province records a British patrol entering the Ankwe country from Ibi in 1899. It states that in 1901, Tshendam was taken by Lieutenants Eckersley and Poss without opposition.
Colonial involvement soon expanded beyond military occupation. British officials reorganised political authority, district boundaries and local administration.
The Gazetteer describes a process of “reconsolidating” the Ankwe that began in 1907. In 1909, colonial authorities removed the Ankwe from the nominal political control of Wase. Several neighbouring communities were subsequently incorporated into the Ankwe administrative district.
These changes formed part of the wider British system of indirect rule in Northern Nigeria. Traditional political structures were frequently retained but reorganised to fit the requirements of colonial government.
For the Goemai, Shendam became increasingly important within this administrative order. Birgit Hellwig’s work on Goemai history describes British rule as contributing to the centralisation of political authority around Shendam.
By 1923, the people photographed there were living in a society that had already experienced more than two decades of colonial political change.
Missionaries Arrive in Shendam
Another major development preceded the photograph by sixteen years.
On 12 February 1907, three priests of the Society of African Missions arrived in Shendam: Oswald Waller, Joseph Mouren and Ernest Belin.
Catholic institutional histories identify their settlement at Shendam as an important beginning in the growth of the Catholic Church across parts of northern Nigeria.
The missionaries travelled through the Benue region before reaching Shendam. Society of African Missions accounts record that British colonial official Captain Fitzherbert Ruxton recommended Shendam as a possible location for their mission.
The missionaries were received by the Long Goemai and the local community. Establishing the mission involved learning local languages, obtaining accommodation and building the practical foundations of a permanent station.
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By 1919, the colonial Gazetteer recorded that the Société des Missions Africaines de Lyon had been established at Shendam since 1907.
Christian missionary activity was therefore already part of Shendam’s social landscape when the photograph was taken in 1923, although traditional Goemai religious practices remained significant and Christian conversion developed gradually.
The Colonial Description “Ankwe Pagans”
The historical caption associated with the photograph uses the expression “Ankwe pagans”.
The term reflects the language commonly used in colonial and missionary records of the period. British administrators regularly applied “pagan” to communities regarded as neither Muslim nor Christian.
The 1919 Gazetteer of Muri Province repeatedly uses the term when discussing the Ankwe District and neighbouring peoples.
In modern writing, the people in the photograph are better described as Goemai men, historically called Ankwe, while the wording of the original caption belongs to the historical setting in which the photograph was created.
This change in terminology also illustrates how the language used to describe Nigerian communities has evolved since the colonial period.
Clothing, Horseback and the Portrait
The photograph attracts attention because of its visual details. The men wear cloth draped across their bodies or shoulders, while one figure is mounted on a horse.
These features offer a glimpse of appearance and presentation in Shendam during the early twentieth century.
The photograph itself does not identify the mounted man by name or state that he held a particular political office. His presence on horseback nevertheless adds a striking element to the portrait and reflects the importance of horses in mobility, prestige and political life across many parts of northern and central Nigeria.
The garments worn by the men are equally prominent. They preserve a valuable visual record of dress, although the photograph does not provide the names, materials or social meanings of the individual textiles.
The image is also clearly a posed portrait. Like many photographs produced during the missionary and colonial period, it records a deliberate encounter between African subjects and the camera.
The four men were not simply anonymous examples of an ethnic category. They were individuals living in a society undergoing changes in government, religion, communication and political authority.
From Muri Province to Plateau Province
The administrative map changed again only a few years after the photograph was taken.
By 1926, Shendam Division was being administered as part of Plateau Province. Colonial holdings include a Shendam Division Plateau Province Half Yearly Report [1926], reflecting the transition from the Muri Province designation used in 1923.
This administrative change preceded the creation of modern Plateau State by several decades.
Plateau State was created in 1976 during the nationwide state reorganisation carried out under the military government of General Murtala Mohammed.
Today, Shendam is a Local Government Area of Plateau State and remains closely associated with the Goemai people.
The town has therefore passed through several administrative systems, from colonial Muri Province to Plateau Province and eventually modern Plateau State, while maintaining its importance within Goemai society.
A Window into Goemai History
The story surrounding Ankwe men in Shendam, 1923 extends far beyond the four figures pictured.
By the time the photograph was taken, British administration had been established in the area for more than two decades. Political authority had been reorganised, Shendam had grown in administrative importance, and Catholic missionaries had maintained a presence there since 1907.
Roads and routes connected Shendam with other centres, including Ibi, Wase, Langtang and Jos. Colonial government, trade, missionary activity and changing structures of authority were increasingly shaping everyday life.
The photograph captures people living within this changing world.
It also preserves an older name, Ankwe, that appeared extensively in colonial documents. Today, Goemai is the principal contemporary designation, linking the people in the photograph with a community that remains an important part of Plateau State’s cultural landscape.
Conclusion
Ankwe men in Shendam, 1923 is more than a portrait of four men before a camera. It offers a glimpse of the Goemai people during a period of significant political and social transformation.
The men belonged to the people now principally known as the Goemai, although colonial and older scholarly sources frequently called them Ankwe. Their town, Shendam, stood within Muri Province in 1923 and had already become an important centre of colonial administration and Catholic missionary activity.
British intervention had reshaped political relationships in the region since the beginning of the twentieth century. Missionaries had established themselves at Shendam in 1907, while administrative boundaries and structures of authority continued to change.
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Only three years after the photograph was taken, Shendam Division became part of Plateau Province. Half a century later, the area became part of the newly created Plateau State.
The four men therefore stand at the centre of a much larger Nigerian story, one involving local identity, colonial government, missionary expansion and changing political geography.
Their portrait remains a compelling visual connection to the Goemai people and to Shendam during one of the most transformative periods in the region’s modern history.
Author’s Note
The 1923 portrait of the men historically called Ankwe illustrates how photographs can connect individual lives with wider changes in Nigerian history. The transition from the older Ankwe designation to the contemporary name Goemai, the growing importance of Shendam, the arrival of Catholic missionaries and the movement from Muri Province to Plateau Province all form part of the same historical story. More than a century later, the image remains a valuable reminder that the people photographed during the colonial period belonged to living communities with identities and histories extending far beyond the labels placed on them at the time.
References
British Library, Endangered Archives Programme. Shendam Division Muri Province Quarterly Reports and Annual Reports [1923], EAP532/1/24/36.
British Library, Endangered Archives Programme. Shendam Division Plateau Province Half Yearly Report [1926], EAP532/1/4/68.
Fremantle, J. M. Gazetteer of Muri Province (up to December, 1919). Colonial administrative account covering Tshendam Division and Ankwe District.
Tabain, Marija and Birgit Hellwig. “Goemai.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association, Vol. 45, No. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 81–104.
Hellwig, Birgit. The Grammatical Coding of Postural Semantics in Goemai, 2003. Historical introduction on Goemai society and the political development of Shendam.
Society of African Missions. History of the Church in Northern Nigeria. Account of the arrival of Oswald Waller, Joseph Mouren and Ernest Belin at Shendam in February 1907.
Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. Historical records of the Diocese of Shendam and the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries on 12 February 1907.
International Mission Photography Archive. Nigeria photographic collections associated with Yale University Divinity School Library, including photographs from Shendam in 1923.
