"Anxious to have Friends" : A Case Study of Transnational Letter Writing among Colonial Nigerian Children (1930s-1950s)

Title data

Edeagu, Ngozi:
"Anxious to have Friends" : A Case Study of Transnational Letter Writing among Colonial Nigerian Children (1930s-1950s).
2023
Event: Colonial Letters and the Contact of Knowledges : Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Colonial Correspondences , 11.-14.04.2023 , Bayreuth, Germany.
(Conference item: Conference , Paper )

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Abstract in another language

In 1900, letter writing in Southern Nigeria became an officially recognized trade, governed by the Illiterates’ Protection Ordinance’. Utilising a pen or a typewriter, this new occupation of the colonial era produced professional letter writers who wrote business letters and those that “compel attention.” In addition, public letter writers, who also functioned as debt collectors, enabled the predominantly non-literate in English population to communicate their grievances in the form of petitions. However, letters held other uses besides venting which had become what Burns called “a national sport” in the colonial territory. Children, particularly in the colonial capital of Lagos, used letter writing to get in touch with others, create friendships and understand the world around them. Yet, the body of literature has not adequately addressed letter writing among children or outside the worn lens of petition writing. This paper aims to address this gap by examining letter writing among children in southern Nigeria. These children’s letters were found mainly in the Chicago Defender newspaper, a widely circulating national African American publication in the United States. Through this case study, this paper expands the scope of the literature by incorporating alternative voices and diverse understandings of letter writing during the colonial period. These letters of various lengths demonstrate children’s willingness to traverse space by reaching out to their brothers and sisters in the United States and affiliating with them through the instrument of the Bud Billiken children’s club. Thus, this paper also aims to show how racial and social identities were built and sustained through letter writing.