Adubi War: The fierce tax battle that pitched Egbas against British colonial government
The recent outrage that has trailed the increase of value added tax and introduction of new policies by government agencies, like NIPOST, that could strangulate businesses bring back memories of the 20th Century when similar moves by the British colonial government led to violent uprising in some Nigerian cities.
The Aba women riot of 1929, Egba women tax revolt of 1947 and the Adubi war of 1918 are some of the uprisings that were fuelled by unfavourable government policies which snowballed into violent confrontations between the indigenous people and the colonial authorities.
With the absence of social media to vent their anger and protest their rejection of government policies, the people of that era took to the streets to turn their outrage into physical confrontations. While some of the confrontations produced the desired results, some ended in loss for the people and victory for the British authorities.
In June 1918, the same year the Spanish Flu swept across the world, led to lockdown of socio-economic activities and killed thousands in Nigeria and an estimated 50 million people across the world, the Egba people in modern day Abeokuta, the capital city of Ogun State went to war against the British authorities over the imposition of taxes.
Unlike other towns conquered by British authorities, Egbaland, one of the most developed cities after Lagos colony, signed an alliance with the British governor, Sir Gilbert Carter allowing it to run its affairs. The pact recognised the independence of the Egba United Government from 1893 until 1914 when the independence was lost following the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates to form Nigeria.
After the annexation of Egbaland, the British governor-general, Lord Frederick Lugard, was said to have told the Egba Council: “Your court remains the same ….Your police remains the same ….Your Order in Council are to be used in your courts…. you will find no difference excepting that the Alake‘s hand has been strengthened.”
As if losing the independence was not enough, the colonial authorities imposed taxes and also introduced the “indirect rule” policy of Lugard, which made the Alake (the king of Ake in Abeokuta), formerly primus inter pares (“first among equals”), the supreme traditional leader to the detriment of the other quarter chiefs.
The decision didn’t sit well with other chiefs and people of other quarters like Papalanto, Wasimi and other communities in present day Ewekoro local government area of Ogun State – the epicenter of the war.
The final trigger that sparked the war was the arrest of 70 Egba chiefs (most of them Owu) on June 7, 1918 on the order of the authorities, to forestall a breakdown of order, for refusing to pay tax and for disobeying the Alake. Rather than forestall breakdown of order, the arrest led to a full blown war.
A news report in ‘The Lagos Standard’ newspaper of June 19, 1918 read:
“The unexpected has happened in Egbaland. The people of the district of Papalanto have risen in arms against the Authorities and the position of affairs in Abeokuta. Province, as we write, is rather serious. Various rumours are afloat as to the number of tribes that have combined to put their fate to the test of arms.
“Some say that among the people that have risen are Ijebus, Egbas, Egbados and other tribes of the Yorubas but there is not the slightest doubt that the rising is one of the most serious that have ever taken place in this part of the world.”
An ultimatum ordering the rioters to lay down their arms, accept to pay taxes and obey their African leaders was not obeyed by the agitators. When the ultimatum failed, a detachment of Nigerian troops who had just returned from service in East Africa was deployed to Egbaland on June 11. On June 13, Egba rebels attacked the railway lines at Agbesi in Ewekoro with a few Britons on board, while some others attacked and destroyed the station at Wasimi also in Ewekoro where a British agent, Ashworth, was killed.
The local fighters armed with local guns exchanged fire with colonial forces at Otite, Tappona, Mokoloki and Lalako for the three weeks the violence lasted, by July 10, the rebellion had been quashed and its leaders arrested. An estimated 600 people including the British agent and the Oshile who was the sacred Chief of the Egba Oke-Ona had been killed by the time normalcy returned on July 31, 1918.
According to the account of Harry Gailey, who was an Emeritus Professor of Military History at San Jose State University, Oba Oshile was killed for opposing the rebel‘s plans and would not lend his authority to the revolt against the authorities.
Accounts of several historians also revealed that the war was a result of Lugard’s ‘Indirect Rule’ policy and the imposition of taxes which was alien to the Egbas.
Explaining the uprising, Gailey wrote:
“As later investigations indicated clearly, the British administration had managed to alienate almost every segment of Egba society…. The Ogboni and territory chiefs saw their authority slipping away….The ordinary townspeople were required for the first time to pay taxes and yet the former exactions of labour and high sanitary fees continued.”
He added:
“To add to these concrete grievances was a general feeling of loss of an old way of life and many remembered with humiliation Ijemo and subsequent annexation…. (A) very large minority, remembering their proud military heritage, decided to take advantage of what appeared to be British weakness and resorted to arms to solve their problems.”
John Ausman’s account also corroborated Gailey’s account. He wrote:
“Lugard’s system met with some initial success in Benin, where total conquest and the exile of the Oba had provided him with a relatively clean slate. But in Oyo and Iseyin there was friction; in Abeokuta nearly disaster.”
Ausman added:
“The process of creating a suitable traditional authority, followed by the institution of direct taxation and a means of collecting it caused growing discontent in Abeokuta Province. Soon violence broke out and the irate villagers cut the telegraph lines and railway track in several places. A District Head, one European, and a number of other people were killed in the uprising, and the inhabitants of Abeokuta were cut off from the outside world.”
However, Lugard, who had ignored advice from the Lagos elites not to introduce taxes to the hinterlands yet, never accepted that the uprising was directly related to taxation. He was said to have pointed at other possibilities including what he thought of as Egba avariciousness and the accumulation of grievances which had been kept locked in their hearts.
At the end of the three-week war, the people’s agitation was noted and imposition of the direct taxes was postponed until 1925.
According to Dr. Oluwatoyin Oduntan, the Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the uprising said property worth over £55,000 were damaged but the losses suffered by the Egbas were not included in the figure.
The British soldiers who restrained the revolt received the Africa General Service Medal – awarded for minor wars that took place in Africa between 1900 and 1956. One of the songs sang by the Egbas during the Adubi war was popularised by legendary afrobeat singer who is also of egba descent – Fela Anikulapo-Kuti as ‘Gbagada Gbogodo’ in his album ‘Open and Close’ released in 1971. Award-winning Nigerian folk singer, Tunji Oyelana, also dedicated a song – ‘Ogun Adubi’, to the war in one of his albums released in 1972.
