In a small telecommunications room in Kano, a young Nigerian woman sits upright before a wooden manual telephone switchboard. The board is crowded with jacks, cords, and signal lamps, arranged for efficiency rather than comfort. Her hands rest close to the plugs, trained to move the moment a light flickers. The room is quiet, but the work carried out here reaches far beyond its walls. In the early 1960s, this desk helped keep government offices, commercial firms, and essential services connected across Northern Nigeria.
The photograph, taken around 1961, captures a moment when communication depended as much on human attention as on machinery. Manual telephone exchanges were still central to everyday telephony in Nigeria during the first years after independence. While newer systems existed elsewhere, many Nigerian cities continued to rely on operators who physically connected calls, making human skill an essential part of communication.
The Work Behind the Lamps and Cords
A manual switchboard did nothing on its own. When a subscriber lifted a handset, a lamp lit up on the operator’s panel. The operator answered, identified the requested line, and created the connection by inserting cords into the correct jacks. Each call required speed, memory, and precision. During busy periods, multiple lamps could light up at once, demanding quick judgment and calm control.
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Mistakes carried consequences. A misplaced cord could interrupt business, delay urgent messages, or expose private conversations. In an era when telephones were limited to institutions and select households, every successful connection mattered. The operator was not simply performing a routine task, she was maintaining the flow of information that kept organisations running.
Kano’s Exchange and the City It Served
Kano had long been a centre of trade, governance, and influence. By the mid twentieth century, the city supported major commercial activity, transport networks, and administrative offices that depended on reliable communication. Telephone exchanges in Kano linked railway operations, government departments, and trading firms whose work depended on timely coordination.
The operator’s position placed her at the centre of this network. From her seat, she enabled decisions to move forward, instructions to be delivered, and emergencies to be addressed. Though unseen by callers, her work shaped the rhythm of daily activity in the city.
Managing Communication in a Changing Nation
During this period, telecommunications services in Nigeria were managed by the Posts and Telecommunications Department, often known simply as P and T. This institution oversaw postal and telephone services across the country, organising exchanges, staffing operators, and maintaining infrastructure. The work environment reflected established civil service routines, with structured shifts, formal training, and strict expectations of conduct.
Operators were expected to remain composed and discreet. Many calls involved official or commercial matters, and confidentiality was an unspoken requirement of the job. The exchange room was a space where authority passed through quietly, one connection at a time.
From Colonial Foundations to Independence
Nigeria’s telecommunications system had grown out of colonial administrative needs. Early communication networks were developed to support governance and commerce, rather than broad public access. Telegraph and later telephone services expanded gradually, following routes that made sense for administration, transport, and trade.
By the time Nigeria gained independence in 1960, the country inherited a working but uneven system. The technology itself had not been designed for a newly independent nation, yet it became essential to running one. Government offices, regional administrations, and commercial centres relied on the same networks that had once served colonial authority.
In this new context, Nigerian workers increasingly operated and maintained the system. The infrastructure may have been inherited, but the responsibility for keeping it functional rested in local hands.
Women at the Switchboard
Women were a visible presence in telephone exchanges. The role demanded patience, clear speech, and disciplined routine, qualities that had become associated with clerical and communication work across many administrative systems. For many women, employment as a switchboard operator offered stable income and social respectability at a time when formal wage work was expanding.
The job also came with constraints. Operators worked under close supervision, with strict rules governing punctuality, behaviour, and performance. The exchange offered opportunity, but it also reinforced institutional control. Professional identity was shaped by uniforms, schedules, and expectations that left little room for error.
Why Manual Systems Endured
Manual switchboards were labour intensive and limited in scale, yet they remained reliable when properly staffed. As demand increased in growing cities, pressure on the system became more visible. Callers sometimes waited, and long distance connections often required coordination across multiple exchanges.
Despite these challenges, manual systems continued in use because replacing them was complex and costly. Expansion and modernisation required planning, investment, and time. Progress arrived gradually, layered onto what already existed.
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Toward Consolidation and Change
In the years that followed, Nigeria moved toward broader expansion and restructuring of telecommunications. Institutional changes eventually led to the formation of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, bringing domestic and external services under a single national structure. These later developments built upon the foundations laid by earlier systems and the workers who kept them running.
The operator in Kano represents this bridge between eras. She worked within a system shaped by the past while supporting the daily needs of an independent nation. Her labour sustained communication at a moment when continuity mattered as much as change.
What the Image Still Tells Us
At first glance, the image shows a woman at work in a quiet room. Look closer, and it reveals a world where connection was physical, deliberate, and human. Every illuminated lamp required attention. Every inserted cord carried a voice across distance.
This was communication before speed became invisible. It depended on listening, timing, and care. In that exchange room, Nigeria’s modern life moved forward one call at a time.
Author’s Note
This account centres on a moment rarely preserved in official records. The switchboard operator in Kano did not appear in policy documents or leadership photographs, yet her presence shaped how institutions functioned each day. Seated before a panel of cords and lamps, she formed the living link between offices, businesses, and authorities who relied on timely communication. In an era when telephone calls required direct human involvement, her work was defined by attentiveness, routine, and technical skill. Through this image and its context, we glimpse the everyday labour that sustained communication during a period of national transition, work carried out quietly, with little recognition, yet essential to how society operated.
References
Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, History of Telecommunications in Nigeria
Toyin Falola, Colonialism and Communication in West Africa
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries, Harrison Forman Collection
