Colonial Cuisine: Food in British Nigeria, 1900-1914

Abstract

This article uses food as a window on the British colonization of Northern Nigeria between 1900 and 1914. It examines how Britons consumed food in the material and social contexts of colonialism and argues that food was an important tool for defining boundaries between rulers and the ruled. Colonial attitudes toward food expose the tension between propaganda and practice in contemporary texts that enthusiastically supported Britain’s “civilizing mission” in Nigeria.