Hamilton, Nigeria's Founding Fathers & Who Gets to Tell the Story of Revolution

by •

https://open.spotify.com/album/1kCHru7uhxBUdzkm4gzRQc?si=pKlvqzPqRhOpIqA3VQhUXQ


The Setup - "Alexander Hamilton" & The Question of Narrative Power

Hamilton opens with a question that haunts all national origin stories: "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished get up and climb?"

This is Lin-Manuel Miranda asking: WHO GETS TO BE REMEMBERED? Who gets their story told? Whose narrative survives?

Nigeria's founding story has the same problem. We celebrate Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Kwame Nkrumah (the "Big Four"), but how many know about Herbert Macaulay? Samuel Ajayi Crowther? Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti fighting for women's rights while the "official" founding fathers got the credit?

In "Alexander Hamilton," we meet a young immigrant with ambition. In Nigeria's founding, we meet men shaped by colonialism, educated abroad, returning to fight for independence. But like Hamilton, the question persists: who decided these men were the heroes?

36 Replies
Upvote · +12
Comment

Related discussions

View full discussion
[author]

Regional Factions - The 1960s Split & "Cabinet Battles"

Nigeria's three main regions in 1960:

  • Northern Region (Ahmadu Bello, NPC party)
  • Western Region (Obafemi Awolowo, Action Group)
  • Eastern Region (Nnamdi Azikiwe, NCNC)

This was supposed to be federalism. It became three power centers constantly fighting.

  • The 1962 Western Region Crisis: Awolowo's opposition government was accused of treason. He was jailed. His Action Group was banned. This is what happens when "democracy" is really just a contest for who gets to use state power.
  • "Cabinet Battle #1" between Hamilton and Jefferson? Now multiply it by 3 regions, add colonial baggage, add ethnic nationalism, and you get Nigeria's 1960s.
  • Neither Hamilton nor Nigeria's founders figured out how to manage deep regional differences without one region dominating. America had the Civil War (1861-1865). Nigeria had it in 1967-1970 (Biafran War).
Reply
Upvote · +5