Colonial Cuisine: Food in British Nigeria, 1900-1914

Abstract

This article uses food as a window on the British colonization of Northern Nigeria between 1900 and 1914. It examines how Britons consumed food in the material and social contexts of colonialism and argues that food was an important tool for defining boundaries between rulers and the ruled. Colonial attitudes toward food expose the tension between propaganda and practice in contemporary texts that enthusiastically supported Britain’s “civilizing mission” in Nigeria.

Diaspora, Food and Identity

“…Some of their work was aimed at providing information for newly arrived colonialists on how to use indigenous food. Some, like Mrs Larrymore, made efforts to instruct the people about what she thought to be acceptable European culinary practices (Robins, 2010).…”

Narrating São Tomé: Cape Verdean memories of contract labour in the Portuguese empire

“…Food is significant in mediating relationships and constituting identities, and it is a particularly good boundary marker (Douglas 1966). In colonial societies, food has been used to produce colonial hierarchies and to reinforce the prestige of the colonisers (Robins 2010;Rosales 2012). In São Tomé food was also a fundamental way of expressing asymmetrical power relations and divisions based on race and nationality.…”

“Cookie” and “Jungle Boy”: A Historical Sketch of the Different Cooks for Different Folks in British Colonial Southeast Asia, ca. 1850–1960

“…Jonathan Robins goes so far as to say that "colonial rule was constructed and contested in the kitchen as much as it was on the battlefield"; he concludes that the study of the meal as social practice can reveal much about the politics and economics of colonialism. 2 However, I am a little ambivalent about Robins' view, particularly in the context of South East Asian colonialism, as more often than not there were no rigid rules in colonialism. Frequently, local practices were amalgamated with European ideas, in what would appear to be a great deal of collaboration between colonizer and colonized -much more than many colonial and postcolonial scholars would care to admit.…”