Beware: A lot of seminal pieces have been produced on Nigeria’s history and politics -this is not one of them. Located on the sandy shores of west Africa , the territory now called Nigeria was home to a large number of kingdoms, before being visited by Islamic missionaries, Portuguese traders and finally the English - who initially hung out on the shore and bought slaves from African middlemen. Many parts of Northern Nigeria were only really conquered by the British around 1900, after which they built transport lines and proceeded to move everything of value out of the country. They handpicked chiefs and promoted those educated by missionaries to manage their affairs on the ground. By the 1950s they had discovered oil, and were realizing it would be cheaper to let Nigeria govern itself - so
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