Livelihood in Colonial Lagos initiates a new line of historical investigation into colonial urban culture, focused on the intersections between daily living and the urban experience. It examines the livelihood challenges that Africans faced between 1861 and 1960 due to the urban planning and development policies of the British government in colonial Lagos. It historicizes the urban livelihood strategies in the informal sector, and it explores how the flow of social capital mitigated the challenges faced by both migrants to and indigenes of Lagos in that time period. Monsuru Muritala illuminates the economic and social history of Lagos with special emphasis on the coping mechanisms adopted by the people under colonial rule.

This book bridges gaps in the historical record of the lived experience of the people of Lagos. It utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to reconstruct the urban history of Lagos and with thick descriptions of how Lagosians across social class, gender, location, ethnicity and even race negotiated their livelihoods in the city.

This book is the first comprehensive analysis on the history of infrastructural development and urban policies in Lagos since the colonial annexation to date. I think that the author faced almost three challenges to write it. It was necessary to consider a long term analysis (one century and a half), to take into consideration the growing size of the city – the biggest in the south of the Sahara since the 1960s – and, finally, to inquire into three key infrastructural sectors: water supply, electricity supply and transportation system. Both fascinating and depressing issues for town planners and officials; Lagos is probably one of very few cities with more than five million inhabitants without mass transportation system.

A sophisticated history of colonial interactions in Nigeria during World War II drawing on hitherto unexplored archival resources.

A rich and accessible account of Yoruba history, society and culture from the pre-colonial period to the present.

A study in the relationship between one department of the Colonial Office and the colonies in which it had responsibility.

Badru examines the class dimension of the Nigerian political crisis since 1960, when this culturally diverse nation became independent. He claims that the ruling elite, whether constituted in the military or the civil society, consistently used ethnicity to secure its own class domination in the absence of a coherent class ideology.

The first edition of State and Society in Nigeria, published in 1980, was and remains a dominant influence in teaching, research, policy and practice of state-society relations in Nigeria for more than a generation. The volume of essays has remained one of the most cited in the field – testimony to its enduring content and perspective as well as the beauty, accessibility and clarity of its language. This new edition revisits, extends and reconsiders aspects of the first edition in light of developments in the literature since 1980 and offers new insights and interpretations on issues of political economy, politics, and sociology such as the country’s Civil War (1967-1970) the political economy of oil, debt, and democratization and the complexities and ethnic identities and rivalries and religious accommodation and conflict, and of the multiple ways in which they intersect with one another.