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NOTICE

The Mechanics Mutual Aid Provident and Improvement Association

Members in arrears for monthly and quarterly Subscriptions due to the above Association, are hereby informed and notified that unless such dues are paid up in full on or before the 6^th day of October next, the names of all such members shall be struck off from the rolls of the Association; and they shall cease to be members thereof and consequently forfeit all rights, privileges, and benefits of the said Association from the above date.

JAS. HERMEZ HAMILTON, Hon. Secretary.

Lagos, 25^th July, 1884.

(E&LC, 26 July 1884, 4).

5.2.2. Industrial and Technical Education

In addition to the encouragement of artisanal associations, Lagos newspapers urged the introduction of industrial and technical education, which was “a great desideratum” since manual labour was the “essential” factor in the building up of every

“nation or community” (LS, 25 September 1907, 5). The CMS provided an agricultural and industrial training from 1851 in Abeokuta, but this was on a small scale (Ajayi 1963, 519; Ajayi [1965] 1969a, 156).²¹⁸ Special schools for “an adequate instruction to be given in carpentry, joinery, smithy, masonery[sic], &c.” which compel the pupils to

218 CMS Abeokuta Industrial Institution established in 1851 gave instructions on collecting and cleaning cotton for export, “brickmaking, carpentry, and printing” (Ajayi 1963, 519). However, it never succeeded in exporting (Webster 1963b, 422). Another example of missionary industrial training was Agbowa Industrial Mission in 1908. Mojola Agbebi was influenced by the African Institute established in 1890 at Colwyn Bay, North Wales, established by Rev. William Hughes, returned missionary from the Congo. This Institute collected students from Africa offering them religious instruction and industrial training between 1890 and 1911 (Adenijia 1986, 45).

Agbowa Industrial Mission in Ijebu conducted J. E. Ricketts and Mojola Agbebi and taught farming, carpentry building, and machine construction (LWR, 25 April 1908, 6).

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“serve reasonable periods of apprenticeship” were required in Lagos because apart from

“what is done by Brazilian workmen, the knowledge generally displayed in the community… is very low and [shows] vulgar standards of workmanship” (LWR, 29 October 1898, 4). The press repeated the following phrase: “The working classes are the real, the rest are ornamental, to any community” (LO, 1 & 15 January 1887, 2) and encouraged the youths to take up skilled labour and to sweep away the widely shared disinclination to artisanal trades. The youth’s tendency to the “High Collars and Neckties” white-collar occupations was described as a lamentable situation (LS, 12 October 1910, 5-6), because book learning of “Latin and Greek and Algebra, cannot administer to the cravings of an empty stomach” (LO, 7 May 1887, 2). Moreover, as we will see below, encouraging the artisanal calling and education was represented to have moral advantages of regaining independence, public-spiritedness, and self-respect as an

“African”.

The first initiative to establish a vocational school in Lagos was taken by the Britain based “Rebecca Hussey Slave Charity”, with the inauguration of the Rebecca Hussey Slave Charity Institution in August 1882. This charity was established under the last will of Miss Rebecca Hussey, a daughter of Baronet Sir Thomas Hussey of Lincolnshire, who died on 22 April 1714 in London. She bequeathed ₤1,000 to the “the redemption of slaves… or else to the easement of their slavery”, but her will was almost forgotten and was left for 150 years when this charitable provision had increased to

₤23,481 “by accumulated interest”. It was in 1872 when London Trustees decided that the annual interest should be allocated between St. Helena and Lagos. Lagos trustees were composed of Surgeon-Major Frank Simpson (Assistant Colonial Secretary), James P. L. Davies, A. H. Porter, C. Foresythe (Secretary), Charles J. George and N. T. King (Payne 1881, 51). Lagos Trustees were directed to expend only the interest of the Lagos

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share of the Fund, which yielded about ₤376 a year. With this fund, the Lagos trustees run the Rebecca Hussey Slave Charity Institution, where the boys who were ex-slaves found in asylums could receive elementary education as well as industrial training, such as “carpentry, bricklaying, coopering, smithering [sic] and other practical mechanical arts” by the “native artisans” (LO, 31 August 1882, 2).²¹⁹ According to the report by C.

Foresythe, a secretary of the institution in 1882, there were “15 boys in the Institution receiving elementary education” at its opening (ibid, 3). The number of pupils increased to 50 in 1899 with the scheme of broadening the conditions for application from only

“slave boys” to those of “free born”. One hammer, which received a prize in a school exhibition, was sent to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, then the Colonial Secretary in Britain.

It was proudly reported that there was “no doubt the Colonial Minister will use [it] for nailing some things in his house”! (LS, 12 April 1899, 5). Despite high expectations toward this institute from the society the maintenance of the Institution had been beset by difficulties, such as misappropriation of supplies, inability to secure students or teachers, and the prejudice of its being originally a place solely for “escaped slave boys”.

The Lagos Times admitted “though there are undoubtedly multitudes of slave boys in the Interior who desire their liberty and would profit by the advantages the Institution offers, it is not easy for them to effect their escape and travel to the Coast” (13 September 1882, 2). In 1906, the headquarters in Britain constituted the African Fund in lieu of the Lagos Fund and the St. Helena Fund. Along with this re-organisation, it was resolved to abolish the Rebecca Hussey Institution in Lagos because the problem of slavery had almost been solved (Brown 1964, 224-246; LS, 13 October 1897, 3; LWR,

219 Assistant blacksmiths, assistant schoolmasters, teachers and bookkeepers, were employed with the salary of ₤48, ₤60, and ₤100 per annum respectively (LS, 1 May 1901, 5; 5 June 1901, 5; 18 June 1902, 2).

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30 June 1906, 4; 14 July 1906, 7).²²⁰ Despite what the press called the “deplorable”

extinction of the Rebecca Hussey Charity Institution, their ambition of promoting industrial education had succeeded²²¹ and subsequently two vocational education institutions were inaugurated by the good will of “natives”. These were Isaac A. Cole’s Technological Institution in Lagos and the Blaize’s Memorial Industrial Institute in Abeokuta, which were established in 1905 and 1908 respectively.

At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century there were governmental apprenticeship systems in the Department of Railway, Marine and Public Works as well as several individually offered vocational trainings, such as Herbert Macaulay’s Training Institute for civil engineering, surveying and architecture and R. K. George’s the Tailoring Cutting Academy.²²² In September 1905, the first successful technological institute was established by a “native” in Lagos, Isaac A. Cole (1862-?). The detail of his background is not easy to trace, but Cole started his business as a builder and contractor in 1883 (Macmillan [1920] 1968, 110-111) and became one

220 The donation of ₤100 was made to the Freed Slaves Home in Bornu in 1907 and annually

₤100 was given to the Abeokuta Industrial Institute between 1909 and 1936. The headquarters of the “Charity of Rebecca Hussey for Africans” still exist in London in 2009 and contribute to the “promotion of Christian religion, relief of poverty and ignorance, aiding self help projects”

in the following 10 countries: Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, with the average annual expenditure of ₤11,977 in 2003-2007 (Charity Commission 2009; Lugard Papers, MSS Brit. Emp. S. 71:

Slavery and the Liquor Traffic, ff 107-111; CMS (Y) 2/4/2; CMS (Y) 2/1/52).

221 Five years after the extinction of the Hussey Charity Institution, the “scheme for the Hussey Exhibition” was proposed in order to “bring to remembrance the useful end which the Hussey Institution served in the way of teaching trades and handicrafts, and of which the Native has been wilfully deprived for reasons that have still to be set forth” (LWR, 20 August 1910, 3).

222 On his speech at the Agricultural Show in 1911, the Governor of Southern Nigeria, Sir Walter Egerton (1858-1947: Governor of Lagos 1904-1906, Governor of Southern Nigeria 1906-1907 and 1907-1912), mentioned technical schools in several governmental departments (NC, 20 January 1911, 2 & 7). For the government Agricultural Apprentice Scheme, see (LS, 16 November 1898, 3). The Lagos Standard printed the notice of the “Training in Science & Art”

by Herbert Macaulay which offered “Professional instruction in civil engineering, surveying, architecture… for a term of three years of five years” (15 March 1899, 6) and the Tailoring Cutting Academy by R. K. George with the tuition fee of ₤1.1.0 for one month and ₤15.15.0 for 18 months (24 October 1900, 5).

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of the initiators to systemise vocational training in traditional society which was run on the apprenticeship system.²²³ The notices in the Lagos newspapers inform us that he was recognised as a “self made man” and a “leading mechanic”, who worked as a building contractor as well as a funeral undertaker “throughout Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan and other Hinterland countries” (NC, 6 May 1910, 2; LS, 19 January 1916, 8). In 1910, it was reported that there were 80 apprentices and 15 journeymen in Cole’s institute (NC, 6 May 1910, 2). They were reported to be disciplined in a way “not far from that of a military School”, however, there was a convivial association called the Jolly Jenkins Friendly Society for the boys to enjoy their pastime at balls, plays, and athletic sports (LS, 1 December 1909, 6; LWR, 27 December 1913, 4). The eligible boys, at its inauguration, were only “Mohammedan or Pagan” Africans but it expanded the apprentices to include Christian boys in 1910. The Lagos Standard praised the encouraging fact that the majority of the 65 youths in the institute were “recruited from the educated or Christian elements in the community” as it was rare to find “the educated or Christian youth” eager to follow industrial or manual callings. The success of Cole’s work was reported to be “useful” for the community because it proved that

“the pursuit of an industrial calling” could provide people not only wealth but also

“respect and honour as well” (LS, 25 September 1907, 5). Despite its small scale, confining its function to teaching only carpentry and joinery, Cole’s institution was introduced in newspapers as an exceedingly rare example of the “exhibition of individual native energy” and the only institution in Lagos that was “owned and

223 According to Fafunwa (1974), there were three types of vocational training in Nigeria. The first was agricultural education, farming, fishing and veterinary science such as animal care and animal rearing; the second was trades and crafts, weaving (baskets and cloth), smithing, hunting, carving, sculpturing, carpentry, building, barbering, drumming, pottery-making, leather-working, dyeing; and the third is professions, doctors, priests, witch doctors, civil servants, village heads, chiefs and kings, and so on (30).