Through unknown Nigeria

Previous to taking my last railway journey in the course of the present stay in Nigeria, it will not be out of place to give a sketch of the building of the Baro-Kano line. It starts, southwards, from Baro, on the River Niger, to Kano, joining at Minna the system running from Lagos. The portion of that system in Northern Nigeria was constructed with funds advanced from rich Southern Nigeria, whereas the Baro to Minna portion was built from the Northern Nigeria exchequer exclusively.

Although the line was imperative both for strategic and commercial purposes, care was taken not to ride roughshod over the susceptibilities of the people nor to run full-tilt against any prejudices of theirs. The Emirs through whose territory the track passed were formally asked to signify assent, which they readily gave. They are highly intelligent men who, long ago having realised that British ascendency was inevitable and permanent, saw clearly that their own positions would be strengthened by increased facilities of the paramount and protecting Power to move troops should that be necessary.

Every palm-kernel or other trade-value tree cut down was paid for at five years’ purchase, assessed at the rate of 10s. annually, the money handed to the Chief of the area. This policy earned the hearty good-will of the population directly affected.

The line passed through the county of three Emirs: those of Bida, Zaria, and Kano. All displayed the utmost cordiality and co-operation in the construction. They directed and encouraged their subjects to work in building the railway, though labourers were paid personally and individually.

The Emir of Zaria evinced so much interest in construction that he was in the habit of sitting on the embankment, with his officers of State around, watching the rails laid. He would repeatedly enquire how much the locomotive ate, in the matter of fuel—wood—and what quantity of water it drank. He regarded it quite as a living creature. Above everything, he loved to hear its voice, to listen to its whistle and shriek. For his greater enjoyment, the whistle would be kept going at its loudest for several minutes at a stretch. That appealed to him more than the finest tones of a Caruso or the sweetest notes of a Melba or a Tetrazzini.

The Emirs were each invited to perform the ceremony of opening the railway in his own Province. In 1909 the Emir of Bida opened the 43 miles’ section from Baro to Badegi, Sir Percy Girouard, then Governor of Northern Nigeria, being present with his staff; early in 1911 the Emir of Zaria opened the extension to 267 miles’ point, Mr C. C. Temple, Acting Governor, attending; and the lengthening to Kano was opened by the Emir of that name. The Emirs were presented with bronze spanners—a material more highly valued than silver—with which they screwed up the last fish-plate bolt.

For the first few months or so that weekly trains were running to Kano, natives from the city and the surrounding villages displayed curiosity concerning the locomotive to the degree of assembling in crowds on the track at the railhead—there is no station yet—to gaze again and again at the engine. Quite polite and giving no trouble to the officials, they would examine it from every point of view, some lying on the ground to look underneath the phenomenal thing.

Last January, shortly after the railway started, a treat was given to the pupils of the Government schools at Nassarawa. The establishment is used for instruction to the sons of Emirs and Chiefs and to men for public duties, of whatever age, to equip them better mentally for their tasks. The treat consisted of an outing by train. One of the pupils, a Mallam from Bornu, 70 years old, was with difficulty persuaded to go into the truck. Covered carriages had not arrived. Eventually he did and was soon at his ease. He watched intently all that took place during the trip and on returning was asked cheerily by one of the young engineers what he thought of it all. The old man thanked the railway officials for so much education given in so short a period, but in reply to the question he said he could tell them only by writing a big book. One pointed out that some of them might not live until he had finished, in which event they would die in ignorance of the knowledge sought from him. Therefore he should speak at once.

After thinking, the Mallam replied that he might tell them a few of his impressions in a long speech, and was preparing to gird up his loins for the operation. That prospect was not at all alluring to the audience, so he was urged to give voice to the one thing which impressed him most. He at once answered, “The fact that the engine drank more water than a thousand elephants!”

Some Chiefs from outlying districts were brought in for a joy ride in trucks. When the initial uneasiness at the novel form of movement had passed off, they seemed to enjoy the thrill of being whirled along at 20 miles an hour by no effort of theirs. Asked whether the sensation was not better than travelling in the saddle they replied, “Certainly not, as the horse did not spit hot sparks at a man on his back or behind him.”

A little after 6 a.m. the train by which I travelled left Zaria for Baro, which is a two days’ journey. The first night was spent at Minna, 155 miles from Zaria. The line from Lagos and that from Baro roughly form the apex of a triangle at Minna, with the Niger, between Baro and Jebba, as the base.

Two years ago railhead from Baro was at Minna, then a small, temporary station, really merely a stopping-place. Now there are platforms 300 yards long, and the station offices are of red brick, made on the spot, with cement facings. The station is lit by incandescent oil lamps, the oil forced up 30-feet standards. It is the only station which has semaphore signals, three in each direction. There are six tracks of the standard West African gauge—3 feet 6 inches—and a turn-table capable of taking the largest vehicle on the railway, 50 feet.

One sees as many as 50 trucks, brought up or down the line, waiting to be made up for their several destinations. They contain cotton goods from England, cement and machinery for the tin mines, kola nuts from the Gold Coast Colony for the great Mohamedan centres of Zaria and Kano. Formerly the nuts were taken by head carriage.

After the first few stations from Minna towards Baro permanent buildings are in existence: square, brick buildings, with an annexe consisting of a roof on pillars, used as a waiting-room for native passengers, where they can go for protection from the rain. I noticed, too, that the open trucks, which were all that could be obtained for the unexpected dimensions of the native traffic in the earlier months of the opening of the line, are being converted into covered carriages.

It is good to see on this Baro-Kano Railway, so much used by native passengers, the provision made for their reasonable comfort. They are regarded as human beings, not merely freight. Their fares contribute considerably to the revenue of the railway. There were people in England, and plenty in Nigeria who had not been through the district, who saw in the scheme of the line from Baro to Minna, running as it does parallel with the section from Jebba to Minna, only an unnecessary competing span with the latter stretch, just built, so they said, to satisfy Sir Percy Girouard’s idea, he being “out” to propound a scheme of construction in accordance with his reputation as a railway builder.

Persons who formed so ungenerous a judgment thought of merchandise alone; they took no note of the inhabitants of the land. Such persons should see the immense convenience the line is to the native; to what an extent it has lightened his life, in more ways than one, and then they would recognise both its utility and necessity. This is stated independently of considering the Baro-Minna section in the general, broad policy of railway development.

A gladsome sight at some of the stations south of Minna was bananas brought by women for sale. A bunch of 12 for a penny was the price, which my boy, who made the purchases, told me was double the charge he would pay if marketing for himself. Still, I was eager enough to buy at the higher rate, for I had had no fresh fruit, and, with the exception of onions and potatoes, very few vegetables of the same character for about six months.

The appearance of the fruit showed I was passing into country where the cultivation and climate differed from that lately seen. There were other signs. Flat, open, grassy land, fairly wooded, but not to the extent of marring the landscape view, the general effect in several respects is to make it indistinguishable in appearance from English country. This effect is rather added to than otherwise by an occasional sheet of water. But a characteristic of the tropics is distinguishable in the aristocratic-like palms, standing separately and much higher than the other trees.

Near some villages along the railway are a few small patches of tobacco growing, the long and broad leaf drawing attention to the plant from the surrounding greenery. There is a freshness of verdure in these low-lying lands of more marked kind than the higher, cooler, and drier reaches yield. It is here and still further below in the valleys of the Benue that cotton will be produced if the plant is to be cultivated in any quantity in Northern Nigeria.

The train was due at Baro on Saturday evening, and my plan was to go straight on board a launch, if one was available, leave in the early morning for Lokoja, there to join the first mail stern-wheeler for the sea. During Saturday afternoon a telegram was handed me at a station, sent by Mr E. N. Coleman, Transport Agent of the Niger Company at Baro, who had been a fellow-traveller on the voyage from England, containing an invitation to the hospitality of the bungalow there for the night, and stating that the launch was ready for continuing the journey next day. It was quite dark when the train drew into Baro.