Thread by @cchukudebelu

The British were so scared by the Mahdist Uprising in Sudan, that they embarked on a program of educating upper class Sudanese - "to free their minds from such backward thinking".

But the educated Sudanese developed other "dangerous ideas", like independence from British rule.

When the British discovered that education didn't produce "pliant, obedient colonial subjects" in Sudan, they reverted to the familiar; "indirect rule".

But it was too late.

You can't "uneducate people", Sudan still has a significant educated middle class.

As for South Sudan, throughout colonial rule, the British treated them as sub-humans - didn't really bother how they ended up, or whether they died in large numbers. Very little infrastructure was built there, and almost no attempt at effective governance.

Now how does this relate to Nigeria? Well, Lugard was aware of the "challenges in Sudan", and could not afford to have a class of educated people in Northern Nigeria challenging colonial rule;

So he made a DELIBERATE effort to discourage Western education in Northern Nigeria.

Lugard laid the foundations of British colonial policy in Nigeria, and contemporary British foreign policy. It has not changed significantly since then.

One thing about British colonial rule in Africa was how haphazard the whole affair was.

British colonial rule depended more on the whims of strong willed colonial administrators than on any "grand strategy" from the Colonial Office.

Unfortunately, for Nigeria, an idiot like Lugard defined British colonial rule, and nobody effectively challenged him.