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Paper short abstract:

This paper shows how historians can uncover ordinary colonial Nigerian women traders' experiences during the Second World War through government notices in local newspapers. Their exposure for "criminality" reveal that traders frequently opposed colonial economic encroachment and strangulation.

Paper long abstract:

Increasingly, newspapers have become a vital source for writing the political, social, cultural and intellectual history of African societies. They reveal the times they were printed in, act as purveyors of news or as contributors to political debates, and serve as repositories of “‘facts’, culture and knowledge” (Sawada 2011, 7). In addition, historical newspapers reveal individuals’ dynamics, interactions, and lives during a given period. Newspapers like the West African Pilot initiated by the United States-trained Nnamdi Azikiwe perform a crucial historical service in documenting the activities and voices of those considered on the margins of history, such as non-literate colonial young girls and women. While the contestations of these female historical actors appear sparsely in written records since few written accounts about them existed, these women appeared more visibly, notably, in statistics, as part of an account of a small group of literate men, or fleetingly in the archives when they clashed with the more powerful—the colonial state, native authorities, or church institutions.

Through an innovative use of newspaper contents, historians can bring colonial women’s elusive histories and perspectives to light. Government notices published in local newspapers help establish the circumstances and conditions of these lives. In particular, prosecution lists and radio broadcasts by the Inspector of Prices converted to text which appeared in the newspaper during the Second World War helps us tease out women traders’ conflicts with the colonial state over enforced economic strangulations. Thus, this presentation will exemplify how historians can view and understand ordinary women’s resistance and survival during the Second World War in colonial Nigeria through supposedly elite newspaper sources. The public exposure of women traders for their supposed criminality showcase women’s everyday opposition to the colonial state’s encroachment into their traditional economic spaces.