On my way to Federal High Court, Lagos
recently, my route passed through Awolowo Road. One of the historic structures
on the street is Military Hospital. It is to your right if you are coming from
Onikan driving towards Falomo. I saw Nigerians trooping in and out of the
hospital. And I remember that if not for the struggles of some Nigerian youths,
the hospital could have remained a forbidden territory to Nigerians, at least
until independence.
When we talk of apartheid today, it is
common to discuss the practice of racial discrimination with reference to only
South Africa. This is not entirely accurate. There was a time in this country
of ours when Nigerians were prohibited from accessing certain public facilities.
Yes, you read that right. Some hospitals
funded by the government were reserved for only Europeans. Some clubs did not
admit Nigerian members. Some hotels were not open to people who were not white
in colour. Onigegewura had already told you that Pa Tony Enahoro was the first
Nigerian to be admitted as a member of the Ikoyi Club.
How was this practice stopped? Who were the
young Nigerians who spearheaded the struggle?
Today, Onigegewura brings you the first hand
historic account of how the practice was forced to stop. The following account
is in Pa Alfred Rewane’s words. And by a very strange historical coincidence,
the road named after Pa Alfred Rewane is not far from the Military Hospital.
History Does Not Forget
-Onigegewura
APARTHEID AT BRISTOL HOTEL, LAGOS
In
1948, Mr. Ivor Cummings, a distinguished African-Caribbean national and a top
official of the Colonial Office in London was scheduled to pay an official
visit to Nigeria. Naturally, his first
port of call was Lagos, then our capital. Accommodation was reserved for him at
the Bristol Hotel, Martin Street, Lagos, then owned and managed by expatriates.
Apparently,
the hotel authorities thought, from the name Cummings, that he was a white
Anglo-Saxon. But they were shocked when he presented himself at the reception
to find that he was black. He was refused a room at the hotel on that ground.
One
witness to the incident was a Warri-based Sierra Leonean legal luminary called
T. E. Nelson-Williams. He deeply resented the action of the hotel management
but was helpless in the circumstances.
It
was a hot and humid afternoon and Nelson-Williams left for the Grand Hotel (now
defunct), on Broad Street by Odunlami Street, Lagos, to rendezvous with friends
for an afternoon drink. There, he met Frank Olugbake, the trade unionist, and
others and narrated to them the Bristol Hotel incident.
They
later trooped to the Island Club where they met me and my friends, also having
a drink and cooling off in the gentle breeze from the lagoon. The Onikan
Stadium was not walled round then. Nelson-Williams told us what had happened,
and we were dumb-founded, angry, outraged, furious and bitter.
One
of my friends at the Island Club was Oladipo Odunsi, a distinguished and
enterprising Lagos lawyer. He stood up and exclaimed, “Our Nigeria of 1948, we cannot have this, let’s go and die.” I
jumped up and shouted: “Die? No! Let’s go
and teach them a harsh lesson.”
Pa Alfred Rewane |
The atmosphere
of the club was now charged, and under Odunsi’s leadership, the late Milton
Macaulay, the late Akiniran Olunloyo, Prince Adeleke Adedoyin, the late Garnet
Williams and others and I marched through the Onikan Stadium, to the Marina.
Our
elder friends, the late JK Randle and the late Bolaji Finnih, wanted to join us
but we asked them to go and get hold of two lawyers, the late Oladipo Moore and
the late Alaba Akerele, and our other colleagues to go to Tinubu Police Station
(now defunct) on Customs Street, which is now part of the land on which the
Central Bank of Nigeria headquarters is located (then), to wait for us because
we were sure that we would be arrested and brought there if we carried out our
plan “to die or teach them a lesson.”
At
the Onikan Stadium point on Marina, we assembled all sorts of people known
compendiously as Boma Boys, who
collected their clubs and sticks and horse whips (koboko) and followed us without hesitation, although they did not
know our plan or where we were headed to.
We
then launched an assault on Bristol Hotel. By the time we finished, the
reception, bar and restaurant were sacked and the white men in the hotel
premises and its vicinity had a sorry tale to tell. The whole place was wrecked
and left in a shambles.
Meanwhile,
some police officers arrived on the scene but, surprisingly, did not arrest any
of us. The job completed, we trooped back to the Island Club, to a rousing
reception and warm congratulatory embrace from members.
But
the then chairman of the club, late Mr. Omololu, was deeply concerned about our
action, realizing that the then British Governor of Nigeria, Sir Arthur
Richards, was himself the grand patron of the club. Mr. Omololu was sure that
sooner or later we would be rounded up. We had only a pyrrhic victory and the
inaction on the part of the colonial government was no more than the calm
before the storm. However, we waited all day but there were no arrests.
Meanwhile,
Mr. Omololu contacted our patron, the late Sir Adeyemo Alakija, to intervene
with the authorities to preempt our arrest. Subsequently, Sir Adeyemo made an
appointment to meet with Sir Arthur in his capacity as grand patron of our club
and it was suggested that we who led and participated in the sacking of Bristol
Hotel should accompany him. We reluctantly agreed.
A
day or so before we were to meet with Sir Arthur, the Governor made a statement
to the nation in which he referred publicly for the first time to the Bristol
Hotel incident. His Excellency declared that some seventy years previously,
there might have been justification for whites and blacks to live apart, for
the reason, if none other, that there were some diseases to which whites were
immune but which killed blacks, and vice versa.
But
for well over seventy years there had existed a medical department in Nigeria
maintained at public expenses to find a solution to the problem and if no
solution was found, then there was left only one of two choices, that is either
to continue to live apart and abolish the medical department or to live
together and continue to maintain the department.
Sir
Arthur then declared: “I have chosen the
latter. With effect from today, there will be no more European hospital, club
or reservation in Nigeria.”
Thus,
racial discrimination or apartheid was abolished in Nigeria. The European
hospital in Lagos (now Military Hospital) and European Club at Ikoyi were
renamed Creek Hospital and Ikoyi Club respectively. The European hospital at
Warri serving the then Central Provinces of Ondo, Benin and Warri, was changed
to Maple Annex. The European hospital at Ibadan was changed to Jericho Nursing
Home. Areas otherwise known as European Reservation were renamed Government
Reserve Area (GRA). And so on throughout the country. There was general
jubilation throughout the country.
Led
by Sir Adeyemo and Mr. Omololu, we later went to meet with Sir Arthur at
Government House, Marina. Naturally, we expected a hostile reception, but we
were widely mistaken. Sir Arthur, undoubtedly tempered by age and maturity and
experience, welcomed us warmly, smiled broadly and, turning to Sir Adeyemo, said
jokingly something in words like these:
“Sir Adeyemo, I did not
make my statement because of your young rascals, who took the law into their
hands, but deliberately to preempt an imminent danger. This is the first time
that violence has been introduced into the public life of Nigeria, and once it
started, it may never recede. I have seen it happen in many countries where I
served, in India, Burma and the Caribbean. My statement, therefore, was to
prevent violence spreading.”
Apparently,
Sir Adeyemo expected us to apologise to Sir Arthur but we never did. The
Governor then turned to Sir Adeyemo and asked: “Will you and your friends like to have a drink with me?” Sir
Adeyemo thanked the Governor for the invitation but expressed regret that we
had no time and had to go.
On
our way back to the Island Club, travelling in two cars, all of us somehow
began to develop a guilty conscience about what we did at the Bristol Hotel.
This was because Sir Arthur, who had the security agencies and the full force
of British imperial might behind him, chose to completely disarm us with his
charm and unprecedented diplomacy.
At
the club, Odunsi was the first to speak. He addressed me and asked me how we
could be sure that, in fact, all the white men we attacked at Bristol Hotel
supported racial discrimination and the treatment meted to Ivor Cummings? Was
it not possible that many of our victims would have disapproved of the
treatment? How could we be sure that many of them were not innocent persons who
did not even know what happened to Ivor?
We
felt thoroughly ashamed that in prosecuting a worthy cause, we might
inadvertently have wronged innocent people. We were all convinced that if a
similar act of discrimination was re-enacted, we would never yield to violent
reaction as we did at Bristol Hotel.
Sir
Arthur had taught us, as youths, an enduring lesson – to be responsible and
give peace and reason a chance.
I hope next time you are on Alfred Rewane
Road and Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, you will remember this story and its inherent
lessons.
May the soul of Pa Alfred Rewane continue to
rest in peace.
Onigegewura©
Image Credits: NNP and PM News.
Awesome read as always I am learning so much about Nigerian history and historical events
ReplyDeleteKudos and more grace Sir
Wow! Imagine me, I pass that place everytime but never had an inkling on the history behind that place. Once again, I thank you. I'm sure by the time this blogs clocks one year, I would have become a historian.
ReplyDeleteWhao! Educating as well as teaches morals
ReplyDeleteWonderful and educative.
ReplyDeleteAmen... I think we should take this further,by having a physical venue where we discuss about history, read historical books that will wake up patriotism, nationalism and agelong lost morals amongst present day Nigerians. We have lost a lot and it's only by reading through our past and all the lofty achievements of our heroes past that we can regain lost glory.. Once again onigegewura has done it
ReplyDeleteThat "physical venue" you mentioned , could that be the four walls of a classroom.
ReplyDeleteWow! This is very educative writeup. I wish we can go back to the archive of the past to learn on how to turn things around in this country. I can now firm up names of people that came up with history. See how young men from different backgrounds showed courage and put a stop to mistreatment of someone of different descent. I hope we can bring down all the walls that have turned us to enemies and change the face of humanity for this country. Through your historical storytelling a lot can be achieved with this blog. Keep up the good work onigegewura. Thanks
ReplyDeleteTo think, we knew it all?! Kudos bro. Plz do kindly keep us informed about our dear country and her history. Such we can't see or get off the shelves.
ReplyDeleteAnd how did Pa Rewane end up?
ReplyDeleteHow did Nigeria reward him?
Sad.
Thanks again, Onigegewura. There are lot we all can learn from this 'Blog-Post.' You have surely woken up the 'Historical yearnings' and hunger in me. The Wise men said "Life is Education, and death is graduation,' hoe true? We are learning a great deal from your posts. May the Lord continue to bless you with 'wisdom' knowledge and understanding' as you discharge this national duty. I am impressed. Please keep it up.
ReplyDeleteMany other nationalists added their voices (and instruments) to the battle against these colour-bar establishments, as my parents told me, without resorting to heavy handed lawbreaking - they hired drummers to play very loudly outside their premises till very late, citing traditional rites and rituals as the reason for their actions.
ReplyDeleteGreat read as usual; Pa Rewane and friends, rest their brave souls, can be proud of their efforts to divest us of the shackles of odious colonial servitude and discrimination.
Love this to bits. Keep them coming please. God bless you
ReplyDeleteI am brazingly educated. Thank you vrry much. More of this sir
ReplyDeleteI am brazingly educated. Thank you very much. More of this sir
ReplyDeleteHistory really is.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for a wonderful job.
ReplyDelete