Hint: it's not "Niger-Area"
A THREAD!
Nigeria is simply a geographical expression of the imperialists’ greed and spite.
Recently, I was on a flight from Dallas to London when I struck an interesting conversation with an American professor of African history. We talked...
America, he said was named after an Italian explorer called Amerigo Vespucci. Amerigo was known to denote his discovered land a “New World”. So long after her independence, the New World appropriated quite well with the dream of all Americans
“Flora Shaw Lugard coined Nigeria and her inspiration was the river Niger”. I replied.
“Wrong”. The historian responded. “Republic of Niger was named after River Niger not Nigeria”. That’s what white historians want you to believe.
Nigeria simply means “The Nigger Area” or “Land of the Black slaves”. Nigger was a common derogatory slang used for slaves” He bluntly said.
“I am still not convinced” I shot at the grey bearded historian.
What gave River Niger its name?
I looked blankly at him…
It’s the European Slave traders and done for easy mappings. That river was the longest cutting across many black lands.
Listen dear Natasha, you must have an open mind to first agree that most of what you were taught in Nigerian history is distorted and made to confuse the people.
I said nothing and he kept on talking
Ghana was named Gold Coast because the abundance of gold Britain exploited.
Zimbabwe was named Rhodesia by Mr. Cecil Rhodes who treated the country like his company.
It was so when Asaba was the capital of the Southern Protectorate under the ownership of Sir. George Goldie the founder of the Royal Niger Company which had headquarters in Lokoja
Listen, I am sorry if I upset you but your country is greatly admired world wide for its great resources especially its people. What happened to them is distortion of facts to enable indirect rule function at the detrimental discord of its people
- reach your core
- find your truth
- build your nation
I know the Royal Niger Company was given some dubious rights to half of all mining revenue for 99 years from 1900.
“Thanks once again dear sir. I need to get to my seat for some sleep”. I appreciated.
Just as I got to my seat, we hit turbulence and the seatbelt sign came on.
I took a look at the live travel map that showed we were flying above the “Natashquan River” in Canada.
What? A river bearing a similarity with my name sounding like “Natasha Can”
So I arrived Nigeria and began to research deeply; bearing in mind the professor warned that not all books are published as some information are preserved for the “discerning"
Who signed on behalf of Nigeria?
- Azikiwe was born in 1904 and was 10 at 1914
- Balewa was born in 1912 and was 2 years old at 1914
- Ahmadu Bello was born in 1910 and was 4 at 1914.
It’s clear that the formation and naming of our beloved country is shrewd.
Some would shove this off as “mere history”. However, remember the proverb “a river that forgets its source runs dry”.
However, legislative and executive power matters in quickening the processes.
Its possible to get a governor who would begin discussions towards a willing coalition of regions.
What’s in a name they say?
EVERYTHING!!!
Let's remember all Nigerians North or South, we are in this shit together.
That was the tactics of the slave masters and they passed it down to our politicians.
If we can rise above tribalism and religious bias, we have won.
We can do this by understanding we are all being abused equally by bad governance.