Paper short abstract:

This paper unpacks non-elite Nigerian women’s expectations of independence during the late colonial period in Nigeria using newspaper resources.

Paper long abstract:

With the achievement of flag independence in 1960, Nigeria’s political question was resolved. Yet to what extent were other economic questions determined? Kelly has convincingly demonstrated how gender complicates how periodisation in history functions, and, thus, argued that “significant turning points in history” impacted each sex differently (Kelly, 1986). Similarly, this work interrogates the case for colonial non-elite women by asking new questions of these old actors during the late colonial era of decolonisation. First, it will ask what these women understood by independence. Did they envision the same freedom as espoused by the educated and political elite? How can newspapers or not uncover non-elite women’s expectations at the end of British rule in Nigeria? This paper will explore these questions using Nigerian and African American newspapers from the late 1940s.