Farmers, traders, and labourers: dry season migration from north-west Nigeria, 1900-33

"This paper looks at the origins and development of dry season labour migration from Sokoto in north-western Nigeria, a migratory system which is generally accepted as being a product of colonialism. The argument takes the opening years of colonial rule in Sokoto and tries to uncover the nature and type of migration which obtained at this time. It is suggested that early migration was influenced by the economy of the central Sudan of the late nineteenth century, and there was an overlap, rather than a sharp break, between pre-colonial and colonial economies." The changes that occurred in the 1930s are also analyzed. (summary in FRE)