BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE
Herbert Macaulay (1864-1945) was a Nigerian political leader.
One of the first leaders of the Nigerian opposition to British colonial rule,
he was also a civil engineer, journalist, and accomplished musician.
Born in Lagos, Herbert Macaulay was the son of the Reverend
Thomas Babington Macaulay, prominent Lagos missionary and educator, and the
maternal grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, first African bishop of the Niger
Territory. Receiving his early education in the mission schools of Lagos,
Macaulay in 1881 became a clerk in the Public Works Department in Lagos. He was
recognized as a promising civil servant and in 1890 was awarded a government
scholarship to study civil engineering in England, where he spent 3 years. Upon
his return to Lagos he was appointed surveyor of crown lands for the colony of
Lagos, a position he held until 1898, when he resigned the post.
EDUCATION AND EARLY CAREER
Herbert Macaulay attended primary school in Lagos and his
secondary education was also at CMS Grammar School, Lagos, then took up work as
a clerk at the Lagos Public Works Department in 1881 after high school.
Thereafter proceeded to Plymouth, England where he studied civil engineering
(1891-1894) and became a member of many intellectual societies and circles upon
graduation (he was an Associate Member, Institute of British Architects). He
went to the United Kingdom in 1890 on a government scholarship and when he
returned, he worked briefly as a Surveyor of Crown Lands (government surveyor)
before deciding to go for independent practise as an engineer, architect and
surveyor. He resigned in 1898.
AS AN OPPONENT OF BRITISH RULE
Herbert Macaulay was an unlikely champion of the masses. A
grandson of Ajayi Crowther, the first African bishop of the Niger Territory, he
was born into a Lagos that was divided politically into groups arranged in a
convenient pecking order – the British rulers who lived in the posh Marina
district, the Saros and other slave descendants who lived to the west, and the
Brazilians who lived behind the whites in the Portuguese Town. Behind all three
lived the real Lagosians, the masses of indigenous Yoruba people, disliked and
generally ignored by their privileged neighbours. It was not until Macaulay’s
generation that the Saros and Brazilians even began to contemplate making
common cause with the masses.
Macaulay was one of the first Nigerian nationalists and for most
of his life a strong opponent of British rule in Nigeria. As a reaction to
claims by the British that they were governing with "the true interests of
the natives at heart", he wrote: "The dimensions of "the true
interests of the natives at heart" are algebraically equal to the length,
breadth and depth of the whiteman's pocket." In 1908 he exposed European
corruption in the handling of railway finances and in 1919 he argued
successfully for the chiefs whose land had been taken by the British in front
of the Privy Council in London. As a result, the colonial government was forced
to pay compensation to the chiefs. In retaliation for this and other activities
of his, Macaulay was jailed twice by the British.
Macaulay became very popular and on 24 June 1923 he founded the
Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), the first Nigerian political party.
The party won all the seats in the elections of 1923, 1928 and 1933.
AS A SUPPORTER OF THE BRITISH
In 1931 relations between Macaulay and the British began to
improve up to the point that the governor even held conferences with Macaulay.
In October 1938 the more radical Nigerian Youth Movement fought and won
elections for the Lagos Town Council, ending the dominance of Macaulay and his
National Democratic Party
LOVE AND MARRIAGE
The year Macaulay left civil service; he got romantically
entangled with Caroline Pratt, who happened to be the daughter of an African
Police Superintendent. They later got married but the union came to an end in
August 1899 following Caroline's sudden death. They had no kids from the
marriage. Even after her death, he maintained good relations with the Pratt
family and saw to their welfare. A devastated Herbert later married Maria Pase
but some records indicated that he also kept a string of mistresses who bore him
a battalion of children. Caring for the kids sapped his pockets but he had no
option.
FURTHER POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
Macaulay's political activities were limited to
Lagos affairs until the very end of his life, when the quest for independence
began to pervade all Nigeria. He presided in 1944 at the meeting of the
Nigerian Union of Students, from which ultimately emerged the National Council
of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), Nigeria's first national political party.
Macaulay was elected president of the NCNC and was engaged in a national tour
for the party in 1945, when he was taken ill. Returning to Lagos, he died in
the same year.
TOWARD THE END / DEATH
In 1944 Macaulay co-founded the National Council of Nigeria and
the Cameroons (NCNC) together with Nnamdi Azikiwe and became its president. The
NCNC was a patriotic organization designed to bring together Nigerians of all
stripes to demand independence. In 1946 Macaulay fell ill in Kano and later
died in Lagos. The leadership of the NCNC went to Azikiwe, who later became the
first president of Nigeria. Macaulay was buried at Ikoyi Cemetery in Lagos on
11 May 1946. Nnamdi Azikiwe delivered a funeral oration at Macaulay's burial
ceremony.\
Source:
"Herbert
Macaulay" 43 (17-25). Newswatch Communications Limited. 2006. Jump up to:
a b Webster et al. 1980, p. 267
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