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Urhobo Historical Society |
A Book Review:
TITLE: T.E.A. SALUBI: WITNESS TO BRITISH
COLONIAL RULE
IN URHOBO LAND AND NIGERIA
No. of
Pages:
578
pages.
Editor:
Professor
Peter Palmer Ekeh
Publisher:
Urhobo Historical Society
(UHS), Buffalo, New York USA &
Lagos, Nigeria
Year of Publication:
2008
Reviewers:
Professor
Simon Obikpeko Umukoro and Dr. Sunny Awhefeada
An
obvious defect in Nigerian historiography has been the neglect of the
account
of minority ethnic nationalities. This is noticeable, for instance, in
the
history of colonialism in Nigeria, an experience which opened an
entirely new
epoch in the lives of the people and annals of the ethnic groups. It is
now
clear that there was no group in Nigeria that was not affected by the
colonial
experience.
However,
the historicization of the colonial encounter with its aftermath has
been quite
lopsided. The dominant strains in the Nigerian chronicle have been
woven round
the big ethnic nationalities that have assumed the facile stance of
being the
sole representative of the national experience. On the other hand, the
politics
of exclusion and marginalization have confined ethnic minorities to the
margins
of silence and obscurity, so much so that the rich and variegated
historiography of minorities has either been muffled or confined to a
subaltern
status. Thus, while Nigerian history vivifies the story of big ethnic
conglomerates, it mutters faint echoes of the odyssey of the minorities.
Nevertheless,
it is safe to acknowledge the redeeming factors and resilience of
Nigerian
scholarship and its expanding frontiers. In the last twenty years or
so, there has
been a seminal effort to reclaim and document the history of these
marginalized
minorities. Involved in this act of reclamation are redoubtable
scholars and
coteries who felt challenged to tell the story of their own people to
illuminate their past and see what heritage their forebears instituted.
It is
within this tradition that we unreservedly locate the Urhobo Historical
Society
(UHS) chaired by the erudite Professor Peter Palmer Ekeh. The UHS,
whose avowed
raison d�etre is enscrited in its motto �Serving Urhobo History
and
Culture� is doing remarkably well to excavate and document the
forgotten or
abandoned history of the Urhobo nation.
The
book, T.E.A. Salubi: Witness to British Colonial Rule in Urhoboland
&
Nigeria, edited by Professor Ekeh, is an indisputable attestation
to the
foregoing assertion. No doubt, a magnum opus, the book wears
many hats
as a biography, an autobiography, memoir, history, dairy, and more. Its
academic value spans varied yet interconnected disciplines such as
Literature,
Law, History, Archeology, Politics, Sociology, Philosophy, Geography,
as it
sails the borderlessness of post-modern engagement. It is a compendium
that
engages the future in its exposition of the past. It is a telling
account, an
unbiased and unsentimental recreation of a triple layered story:
Salubi�s,
Urhobo�s and Nigeria�s.
The
records, in this invaluable five hundred and seventy eight page book
published
by the UHS, are an attempt by the subject Chief Thomas Edogbeji Aitkins
Salubi,
�to write here, as a record, the history of my life for the information
and
benefit of my children, relatives and those interested in me and for
posterity
in general��. Thus, Chief Salubi�s attempt to inscribe his story for
his
children and posterity unwittingly veers into the history of the
colonial
enterprise in Urhoboland and by extension Nigeria. This tendency in
Chief
Salubi�s narratology implicates the biography/autobiography as the
narrative of
not just the self, but a race and nation.
Chief
Salubi conjectured his year of birth to be 1906 at Oko r� Agbamu in Ovu
situated in the present Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta
State,
Nigeria. He goes on to trace his genealogy and establish extended
family links.
Chief Salubi�s records demonstrate ample evidence of the benign,
sometime
malevolent, forces that shaped his childhood, and subsequently later
life.
Among these forces, the fast encroaching factor of colonization, and
parental
choice stand out. One of the agencies of colonisation was western
education.
When the moment to decide whether the young Salubi should be educated
or not
came, his parent decided wisely that to school he should go. This
ingular
decision turned out to be the watershed of the many trailblazing deeds
of Chief
T.E.A. Salubi.
The
young Salubi�s path to school opened in 1917. the primary school was
C.M.S.
School, Ovu. He left this school for Lagos in 1919, returned to Ovu six
years
later, tried resuming his educational pursuits in Sapele, but could not
due to
bad eyesight, and eventually returned to Lagos in 1926, where he began
work as
temporary Sanitary Inspector in 1927. Through sheer brilliance and
diligence
Chief Salubi transferred his services to the newly created Department
of Labour
in the Nigeria Government Civil Service in 1943. It was from here that
he rose
to the top echelon of the Civil Service meritoriously.
Chief
Salubi�s academic credentials were towering for his time. While in the
colonial
service, he took several examinations in which his brilliance shone.
However,
the icing to his academic accomplishment was his winning of a
government
scholarship to study at the University of London between 1943 and 1945.
This
rare feat accelerated his rise to stardom. By the time he retired from
service
in 1962, he had reached th zenith of public service, garlanded with
several
honours including the highly coveted Queen�s honour, Officer of the
Most
Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Chief
Salubi�s glorious exit from public service helped him to chart a new
cause for
his people (the Urhobo) through the agency of the Urhobo Progress Union
of
which he became President General in 1962. From thence, Chief Salubi
became a
most articulate and committed advocate and champion of Urhobo cause.
His
piloting of UPU affairs was by no means fortuitous. He had been the
secretary
of the Lagos branch as early as 1934. He was also instrumental in
giving the
Union the name Urhobo Progressive Union, later amended to Urhobo
Progress Union
between 1934 and 1935. Chief Salubi can also be regarded as a foremost
follower
of the avatar, Chief Mukoro Mowoe who was the leading spirit of UPU
before his
transition in 1948.
Chief
Salubi turned out to be longest serving President General of UPU ever,
as he
was in the saddle for twenty years, from 1962 to 1982 when he passed on
to the
great beyond. Before his emergence as President General, UPU has
receded into
doldrums, the Union�s giant strides in the days of Chief Mowoe had
dwindled
just as its influence waned. However, when Chief Salubi took over the
affairs
of the Union he revived and reorganized it with an uncommon verve and
vigour to
make it vibrant as a force to be reckoned with. His efforts marked a
new dawn
of relevance for the Urhobo people in the affairs of Nigeria.
Chief
Salubi�s retirement from the civil service also opened the flood gate
of
political appointments for him. He was commissioner in six different
ministries
between 1964 and 1972. In all this, his records were impeccable and
superbly
meritorious. The Justice M.A. Begho Public Officers Investigation Panel
of 1967
described Chief Salubi as �the most honest minister, who should not
have been
invited before the Tribunal for trial�. When he resigned from office in
1972 he
did so with his dignity intact. A very rare feat in Nigeria.
Chief
T.E.A. Salubi was a man of many callings and for all seasons. His
scholarly
engagement marked him apart from his contemporaries. His research into
Urhobo
history, and the ventilation this attempt gave neighbouring ethnicities
remain
a sine qua non in the apprehension of the colonial enterprise
in the
Western Niger Delta. Chief Salubi brought to bear on his research and
writing
the ardour and rigour of a trained scholar-historian. The Urhobo and
indeed
Niger Deltans owe him a debt of acknowledgement for his illuminating
probing
and recording of the past.
Chief
Salubi�s effort remains unparalleled in the recovery of Urhobo
heritage. His
diaries, speeches, minutes of meeting constitute a rich mine of
information
which considerably point at the way the Urhobo should go. This book
portrays
Chief Salubi as a man ahead of his time. He had vision, courage and
conviction
that marked him out as the most outstanding champion of Urhobo cause in
the
second half of the twentieth century as did Chief Mowoe in the first
half. This
great son of Urhoboland, nay Nigeria, like all mortals succumbed to
illness in
1978. Even in the throes of ailment, he demonstrated admirable courage,
but
then the bell tolled for him. He passed on in 1982.
The
book is enriched by a foreword, an introduction, and an afterword. The
foreword
written bu Chief Dr. Fredrick Esiri, first Urhobo medical doctor, and
lifelong
associate of Chief Salubi is a glowing tribute to the sterling
qualities of the
subject and the revivalist and redemptive role he played for the Urhobo
people.
The introduction by Professor Ekeh is a lucid exegesis of the content.
Professor Ekeh�s brilliance and mastery of interpretative nuances
brings a
fluidity and coherence so uncommon to bear on Chief Salubi�s narrative.
The
book�s afterword is by Chief (Dr.) T.E.A. Salubi (Jnr), the medical
doctor heir
of the subject. This chapter of the book provides an update to the
story. The
content is gleaned from the interaction between father and son, the
latter�s
excursion through the former�s dairy. Dr. Salubi (Jnr)�s account
provide
significant insights into his father�s service to the UPU, and the
political
maneuvering of the first republic involving the NCNC, the late Chief
Festus
Okotie-Eboh and the formation of the Midwest Democratic Front (MDF).
These
events are full of lessons in constructive resistance, courage,
sincerity and
determination. The afterword covered the last moments of Chief T.E.A.
Salubi,
projecting him as a nationalist, stateman, and patriot in an endless
and
selfless service to his people.
Chief
Salubi�s book is a very significant contribution to Nigerian History.
Apart
from detailing the Urhobo experience of colonialism, it also provides
an
eyewitness account of the evolution of Nigeria as an independent State.
The
narrative is peopled by famous Nigerians, Azikiwe, Okpara, T.O.S.
Benson, H.O.
Davies, Awolowo, Okotie-Eboh, among others who have become synonymous
with
Nigerian nationalism. The book�s front and back covers are significant
in the
appreciation of the preoccupation. The front cover has a looming
portrait of
Chief Salubi in Urhobo dress over a colonial structure on which rests
the
British Union Jack. The back cover has a 1932 picture of Chief Salubi
in a
European suit. These are signifiers of the man, Chief Salubi. They
signify him
as an Urhobo, a witness to British imperial presence among his people,
and one
who attained great heights through the instrumentality of colonial cum
western
education. Beyond all this, the book invites the reader to celebrate
Chief
T.E.A. Salubi, as scholar and chronicler of Urhobo heritage, the great
defender
of Urhobo cause and revivalist of Urhobo consciousness.
Professor
Umukoro & Dr. Awhefeada are of the Department of English and
Literary
Studies, Delta State University, Abraka.