West African colonial civil servants in the nineteenth century: African participation in British colonial expansion in West Africa

Abstract

From the 1850's to mid 1890's Africans were employed in top positions in the embryonic West African colonial services. This book contains the biographies of three of them: Ferguson on the Gold Coast, Lawson in Sierra Leone and Payne in Nigeria. All three had in common that they believed in British rule as an instrument for civilizing their compatriots. They all believed in progress as exemplified in the British way of life. Without them, there would have been colonial rule. But the countries that emerged from the colonial scramble are, certainly, the richer for their work.