‘My People Say they have paid enough and refuse to pay more’: Taxation and the Dramaturgy of State-Society Conflict in Colonial Central Nigeria

We are pleased to welcome A.G. Leventis fellow, Dr Danladi Abah from Kogi State University, Nigeria.

Dr Danladi Abah's paper examines the convoluted history of imperial taxation in both monarchical and acephalous societies of central Nigeria. I argue that the forceful processes of revenue generation through taxation by the colonial state rendered payment of tax conflict-laden, especially during crises like the two World Wars and world economic depression of 1930s.

Using primary data especially archival documents and secondary literature, this study shows that there were important differences in the reaction of different central Nigerian groups animated by their pre-colonial socio-cultural and political heritage which constitute important factors in explaining regional differences in colonial tax administration. Drawing from the potpourris of tax revolts across colonial central Nigeria villages of Igala, Idoma, Tiv and Igede, the study addresses the question of, which counter-strategies these paradigmatic groups employed to confront and mediate the colonial state within the field of taxation and traces back differences between them by accessing their pre-colonial traditions.

By this explicitly postcolonial approach, my study enriches international tax history research on colonial taxation by adding the perspective of the colonized and their cultural heritage to the examination of colonial tax conflicts.

About the Speaker

Dr. Danladi Abah is lecturer in the Department of History and International Studies, Kogi State University Anyigba, Nigeria. Dr Abah holds a PhD in History from Benue State University, Makurdi, Nigeria. A multiple award-winning researcher, he has over forty publications including three co-edited books. He was, twice a Laureate of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), a 2017 Ford and Rockdale Foundations Research Fellow at the West Africa Civil Society Institute, Accra, Ghana; a 2018/2019 fellow of the Institute for French Research in Africa (IFRA-Ibadan), Nigeria and a 2022 Guest Research Fellow at ZMO, Berlin Germany.

Dr Abah is a grantee of British Library, London (Endangered Archives project, EAP 2022-2023) and also a 2023 Laureate of the Program on African Social Research (PASIRI,) New York and 2023 British Academy sponsored Writing laureate of the Lagos Studies Association (LSA), Nigeria. Dr Abah has delivered public lectures within and outside Nigeria.

A multidisciplinary scholar, his research interests straddle African Philanthropy, Conflict and Agrarian studies. He is a member of the African Studies Association (ASA: USA), Women Caucus (USA), International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR), Lagos Studies Association (LSA) and Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP).