Nigerians on Mission in the British Southern Cameroons is a succinct account of the efforts
made by Nigerian officials in the British Southern Cameroons to annex and Nigerianise this
territory which was historically ethnically geographically and economically related to
Eastern Nigeria or Igbo Land. The author examines the important role played by Nigerian
military and non-military personnel in the British conquest of German Kamerun during the First
World War the exploitation of the economy of the territory by Nigerians the civilising
mission of Nigerian teachers and civil servants and the struggle by the political elite to
retain the Southern Cameroons within the Nigerian polity. This mission of annexation
colonisation and civilisation failed because of the atrocities and barbaric acts of the
imperialists and largely because the Southern Cameroon nationalists resisted Nigerian
domination and the attempts to make their home land a colony of a colony. The merit of the book
comes from the use of abundant primary sources to demonstrate that some Africans attempted to
use European imperialism to acquire additional territories for their kingdoms and states.
