Colonial Nigeria under Indirect Rule

After the 1914 amalgamation, British administrators sought to govern Nigeria through indirect rule, adapting institutions used in the north to regions with very different political traditions. District officers relied on appointed intermediaries, native courts and administrative categories that often simplified or distorted local authority.

In southeastern Nigeria, warrant chiefs and colonial courts altered balances among villages, age grades, lineages and religious offices. Mission churches and schools offered alternative routes to status, while land disputes and taxation brought communities into direct contact with the colonial state.

Arrow of God belongs within this phase because its conflict between Ezeulu, Umuaro and the district administration turns on the collision between sacred authority and the British search for governable representatives.