About This Book
Nigeria, Its Peoples and Its Problems is a travel-based observational work written in the early twentieth century, drawing on E. D. Morel’s extended journeys through Northern Nigeria. Rather than presenting a formal political history, the book records movement through the country on horseback and by river, alongside reflections on daily life, administration, labour, trade, peace, and insecurity during the early period of British rule.
The narrative unfolds as a continuous journey, shaped by geography, encounters, and the author’s evolving questions about governance and change. The work is both descriptive and reflective, grounded in what was seen and experienced at the time of travel.
About the Author
E. D. Morel was a British journalist and writer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is known for his reporting on colonial administration and its consequences, and for documenting conditions in West and Central Africa through direct observation.
In this book, Morel writes as a traveller and witness, recording impressions without the benefit of hindsight, and leaving many questions deliberately unresolved.
Historical Timeframe
The journey described in this book took place in the early 1900s, during the consolidation of British authority in Northern Nigeria. This period followed decades of instability marked by raids, insecurity, and disrupted settlement patterns, and coincided with the introduction of centralized administration, enforced peace, and expanding infrastructure.
The book reflects a moment of transition, when the long-term outcomes of these changes were still uncertain.
How This Book Is Published Here
This book is published on this website as a faithful serialized archive.
Each installment:
Presents the original text only
Preserves the author’s language and structure
Includes light structural headings for readability
Makes no additions, deletions, summaries, or reinterpretations
Every installment is clearly labeled: Serialized from the original work Nigeria, Its Peoples and Its Problems by E. D. Morel (1900s)
Serialized from the original work Nigeria, Its Peoples and Its Problems by E. D. Morel (1900s)
Traveling Through Early 20th-Century Nigeria by Horseback, Part 1