In recent times, Lagos Island has been hit by a cyclical crescendo of juvenile crime perpetrated by “Area Boys,” jobless youths who deal in robbery, extortion, and blackmail. Such deviant behavior has historical roots back to colonial times, when youths labeled “alkali boys,” “boma boys,” and “cowboys” roamed the heart of the capital of Britain’s colony of Nigeria between the 1920s and 1960s. Examining the various types of juvenile delinquents on Lagos Island, this article explores the urban experience of criminally minded youths through explorations of street-life, vagrancy, criminality, and public reactions.
Donald Faulkner, Social Welfare and Juvenile Delinquency in Lagos, Nigeria (London: Howard League for Penal Reform, 1950), 1, and quoted in John Iliffe, The African Poor: A History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 188. In his book, Honour in African History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), Professor Iliffe says, "The history of urban youth has also been neglected… outside South Africa" (p. 368).
2.
Wole Soyinka, The Beatification of Area Boy: A Lagosian Kaleidoscope ( London: Methuen, 1995), 85, 102.
3.
"The Scourge Called ‘Area Boys,’" Guardian [Lagos], April 10, 1993; "Sweep Touts Off the Roads," National Concord, January 21, 1997; "The Extortion Albatross," Daily Champion, January 24, 1997; "The Area Boys Phenomenon," Guardian on Sunday, August 1, 1993; Jinmi Adisa, "Urban Violence in Lagos," in Urban Violence in Africa, ed. Eghosa E. Osaghae (Ibadan: IFRA [Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique], 1994), 160-61; Bernard E. Owumi, "New Trends and Attitudes Toward Crime: The Phenomenon of Area Boys in Nigeria," in Urban Management and Urban Violence in Africa: Volume II, ed. Isaac O. Albert (Ibadan: IFRA, 1994), 217-22; Agbola, The Architecture of Fear: Urban Design and Construction Response to Urban Violence in Lagos, Nigeria (Ibadan: IFRA, 1997).
4.
"In the Den of Hoodlums," Post Express, January 5, 1997.
5.
"Area Boys or SAP [Structural Adjustment Program] Victims?," Weekly Sunray [Port Harcourt], May 16, 1993.
6.
"Adeniji-Adele Exonerates ‘Area Boys,’" Evening Times [Lagos], April 29, 1993; "‘Area Boys’ Go for Stars’ Jugular," Guardian, May 12, 2007.
7.
"Police Arrest 200 ‘Area Boys,’" Guardian, January 8, 1993; "Traders March on ‘Area Boys,’" Daily Times, April 7, 1993.
8.
"LG [Local Government] Boss Seeks National Guard’s Help on ‘Area Boys,’" Daily Times, April 28, 1993.
9.
"The Scourge Called ‘Area Boys,’" Guardian, April 10, 1993; Adisa, "Urban Violence," 161. Also, Axel Klein, "Trapped in the Traffick: Growing Problems of Drug Consumption in Lagos," Journal of Modern African Studies 32, no. 4 (1994): 657-77.
10.
"‘Area Girls’ Cry for Help-We’re Dying," Lagos Life, December 30, 1993-January 5, 1994. "‘Boy’ was probably the English translation of the Yoruba word, m , used to refer to many different relationships of subordination. It is sometimes impossible to tell exactly what type of relationship the word implies"-Kristin Mann, "The Rise of Taiwo Olowo: Law, Accumulation and Mobility in Colonial Lagos," in Law in Colonial Africa, ed. Richard Roberts and Kristin Mann (Oxford, UK: James Currey, 1991). Boy is used throughout the English and French-speaking worlds (and probably elsewhere) to refer to servants of in some case, to black males of any age.
11.
"Curbing the Menace of Area Boys," Third Eye Daily [Ibadan], July 12, 1995; "Nigeria’s Image Today," West Africa, December 16-22, 1996, 1,963-64; "Crime, Prostitution Reign Supreme," Post Express [Lagos], January 4, 1997; "The Reign of Pickpockets," Sunday Champion [Lagos], January 12, 1997.
12.
Wuyi Omitoogun, ‘The Area Boys of Lagos," in Albert, ed., Urban Management and Urban Violence in Africa, 201-08; Wuyi Omitoogun, "Organised Street Violence: The Area Boys of Lagos," in Cities Under Siege: Urban Violence in South, Central, and West Africa, ed. Antoinette Loww and Simon Bekker (Durban: Indicator Press, 1996), 31-39; Timi Adewale, "The ‘Area Boys’ Phenomenon in Nigeria," PhD diss., University of Essex, 2001.
13.
Laurent Fourchard, "Urban Poverty, Urban Crime and Crime Control: The Lagos and Ibadan Cases, 1929-1945," in African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective, ed. Toyin Falola and Steven Salm (Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press, 2005), 291-319; Laurent Fourchard, "Lagos and the Invention of Juvenile Delinquency in Nigeria, 1920-1960," Journal of African History, 47, no. 1 (2006): 115-37; Laurent Fourchard, "Les Territoires de la Criminalité à Lagos et à Ibadan Depuis les Années 1930," Revue Tiers Monde, 185 (2006): 95-111.
14.
Stephen L. Humphries, Hooligans or Rebels? An Oral History of Working-Class Childhood and Youth, 1889-1939 (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1981), 181; Simon Heap, "Pickpocketing in Ibadan, 1930-1960," Urban History 25, no. 3 (1997): 324-43. See also Andrew Burton, "Urchins, Loafers and the Cult of the Cowboy: Urbanisation and Delinquency in Dar es Salaam," Journal of African History 42, no. 2 (2001): 199-216; Burton, African Underclass: Urbanisation, Crime and Colonial Order in Dar es Salaam (Oxford, UK: James Currey, 2005), 175-79, 198-200.
15.
This is not to suggest that deviancy is no older than the colonial era, although articles built around this premise include Tekena N. Tamuno, "Crime and Society in Pre-colonial Nigeria," and Omafume F. Onoge, "Social Conflicts and Crime Control in Colonial Nigeria," in Policing Nigeria: Past, Present and Future, ed. T. N. Tamuno (Lagos: Malthouse Press, 1993), 124-50, 151-86.
16.
Nigeria since Independence: The First Twenty-Five Years, 10 vols. (Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1989), esp. Volume 1: The Society, ed. Yusuf Bala Usman.
17.
Marshall B. Clinard and Daniel J. Abbott, Crime in Developing Countries: A Comparative Perspective (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1973), 84-9; Josef Gugler and William G. Flanagan, Urbanization and Social Change in West Africa (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 34-35.
18.
Annual Report of the Police Magistrate, Lagos, 1936, 2. Ken Saro-Wiwa, Mr B Goes to Lagos (Port Harcourt: Saros International Publishers, 1989) tells of Basi travelling to Lagos in a Dick Whittingtontype tale of hope. Though without money, he finds someone even worse off than himself living under a bridge for the previous three months.
19.
National Archives, Ibadan [NAI], Commissioner of the Colony’s Office, Lagos [COMCOL] 1/2947, Minute by Simeon J. Bankole-Wright, Social Welfare Officer, Lagos, May 15, 1944.
20.
Alan Mayne, The Imagined Slum: Newspaper Representation in Three Cities, 1870-1914 (Leicester, UK: Leicester University Press, 1993), 1-13.
21.
Eric J. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1959), 3, 13; Banditry and Social Protest in Africa, ed. Donald Crummey (London: James Currey, 1986). Also, Toyin Falola, "Theft in Colonial Southwestern Nigeria," Africa [Instituto Italiano Per L’Africa] 50, no. 1 (1995): 1-24.
22.
Humphries, Hooligans or Rebels, 151, 176-78.
23.
Pauline H. Baker, Urbanization and Political Change: The Politics of Lagos, 1917-1967 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974); Agboola A. Onikoyi, The History of Lagos (Lagos: Toklast, 1975); Lagos: The Development of an African City, ed. Augustus A. B. Aderibigbe (Lagos: Longman, 1975); Takiu Folami, A History of Lagos, Nigeria: The Shaping of an African City (Smithtown, NY: Exposition Press, 1982); Olanrewaju J. Fapohunda, The Informal Sector of Lagos (Ibadan: University Press, 1985); Sandra T. Barnes, Patrons and Power: Creating a Political Community in Metropolitan Lagos (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1986); History of the People of Lagos State, ed. Ade Adefuye, Babatunde Agiri, and Jide Osuntokun (Lagos: Lantern Books, 1987); Kristin Mann, Marrying Well: Marriage, Status, and Social Change Among the Educated Elite in Colonial Lagos (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988); Remi Olajumoke, The Spring of a Monarch: The Epic Struggle of King Adeyinka Oyekan II of Lagos (Lagos: Lawebod Nigeria, 1990); Margaret Peil, Lagos: The City is the People (London: Belhaven, 1991); Abiola D. Alegbede-Fernandez, Lagos: A Legacy of Honour (Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 1992); Rina Okonkwo, Protest Movements in Lagos, 1908-1930 (Lampeter: Edwin Mellon Press, 1995); A. Sommerlad, Lagos Island: A Short History (Lagos: British High Commission, 1998); Olubayo Okelola, History of Administration of Lagos State (Lagos: Lichfield Nigeria Limited, 2001); Toyin Falola and Steven J. Salm, Nigerian Cities (Trenton, NJ: African World Press, 2004); Liora Bigon, "Tracking Etho-cultural Differences: The Lagos Steam Tramway, 1902-1933," Journal of Historical Geography 33, no. 3 (2007): 596-618; Mann, Slavery and the Birth of an African City: Lagos, 1760-1900 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007).
24.
Alison Izzett, "The Fears and Anxieties of Delinquent Yoruba Children," Odu 1 (1955): 26-34; Alison Izzett, "The Yoruba Young Delinquent in Lagos, Nigeria," B.Litt thesis, University of Oxford, 1955; Peter C. W. Gutkind, "The Energy of Despair: Social Organization of the Unemployed in Two African Cities: Lagos and Nairobi, Parts I and II," Civilisations 17 (1967): 186-214, 380-405; Patrick O. Ohadike, "Urbanization: Growth, Transitions and Problems of a Premier West African City (Lagos, Nigeria)," Urban Affairs Quarterly 3, no. 4 (1968): 69-90; Olatunji Oloruntimehin, "The Role of Family Structure in the Development of Delinquent Behavior among Juveniles in Lagos," Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies 12 (1970): 185-203; Anne Bamaisaye, "The Spatial Distribution of Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime in the City of Ibadan," International Journal of Criminology and Peneology 2 (1974): 65-83; Obbi Ebbe, "Crime and Delinquency in Metropolitan Lagos: A Study of Crime and Delinquency Area Theory," Social Forces 67, no. 3 (1989): 751-65; Jadesola A. Akande, "The Disposition of Juvenile Cases in an African Country," International Review of Criminal Policy 39/40 (1990): 159-61; Muhammed T. Ladan, "Administration of Juvenile Justice in Nigeria: Institutional Treatment of Juvenile Offenders," in Law, Justice and the Nigerian Society: Essays in Honour of Hon. Justice Mohammed Bello, ed. Ignatius A. Ayua (Lagos: Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, 1995), 49-59; Selina S. Ekpo, Juvenile Delinquency in Nigeria (Uyo: Abbnny Educational Publishers, 1996); Murray Last, "Towards a Political History of Youth in Muslim Northern Nigeria, 1750-2000," in Vanguards or Vandals: Youth Politics and Conflict in Africa, ed. Jon Abbink and Ineke Van Kessell (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 37-54; Benjamin O. Olley, "Social and Health Behaviors in Youth on the Streets of Ibadan, Nigeria," Child Abuse and Neglect 30 (2006): 271-82.
25.
A history of female juvenile delinquents in Lagos, so-called "Area Girls," would include the following: M. Ekpo, Moruf L. Adelekan, Victor Inem, Ahamefula Agomoh, and A. Doherty, "Lagos ‘Area Boys and Girls’ in Rehabilitation: Their Substance Use and Psychosocial Profiles," East African Medical Journal 72, no. 5 (1995): 311-16; Abosede George, "Gender and Juvenile Justice: Girl Hawkers in Lagos, Nigeria, 1926-1955," PhD diss., Stanford University, 2006; Abosede George,
26.
"Feminist Activism and Class Politics: The Example of the Lagos Girl Hawker Project," Women’s Studies Quarterly 35, no. 3/4 (2007): 128-43.
27.
Olajumoke, The Spring of a Monarch, 67.
28.
Akin L.Mabogunje, Urbanization in Nigeria (London: University of London Press, 1968), 308.
29.
Nathaniel A. Fadipe, The Sociology of the Yoruba (Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press, 1970), 311; "Lagosians on Dits," Lagos Weekly Record, March 22, 1913, in Iliffe, The African Poor, 3.
30.
Christopher A. Sapara Williams, in "Southern Nigeria Legislative Council," Southern Nigeria Government Gazette, June 14, 1911.
31.
Mabogunje, Urbanization, 262, 267.
32.
Mabogunje, "Lagos-Nigeria’s Melting Pot," Nigeria Magazine 69 (1961): 135; Spatial Expansion and Concomitant Problems in the Lagos Metropolitan Area, ed. David A. Oyeleye (Lagos: University of Lagos, 1981), 7; Liora Bigon, "Sanitation and Street Layout in Early Colonial Lagos: British and Indigenous Conceptions, 1851-1890," Planning Perspectives 20, 3 (2005): 247-69.
33.
Peil, Lagos, 24.
34.
"Overcrowding in Lagos and the Spread of Pulmonary Tuberculosis," Nigerian Pioneer, August 29, 1919.
35.
Ayodeji Olukoju, "Population Pressure, Housing and Sanitation in Metropolitan Lagos: c.1900-1939," in Urban Transitions in Africa: Aspects of Urbanisation and Change in Lagos, ed. Kunle Lawal (Lagos: Pumark, 1994), 38.
36.
Percy A. Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, vol. 4 (London: Oxford University Press, 1926), 176-77; William R. Bascom, "Urbanisation among the Yoruba," American Journal of Sociology 60 (1955): 447-48; Mabogunje, Urbanization, 257; Ohadike, "Urbanization," 72.
37.
Peil, Lagos, 20.
38.
Mabogunje, Urbanization, 280; Olukoju, "The Cost of Living in Lagos, 1914-1945," in Africa’s Urban Past, ed. David M. Anderson and Richard Rathbone (Oxford, UK: James Currey), 2000, 126-43.
39.
Mabogunje, "Lagos," 136.
40.
Fapohunda, The Informal Sector of Lagos, 5.
41.
Federal Republic of Nigeria, Third National Development Plan, 1975-1980, vol. 1 (Lagos: Federal Ministry of Economic Development, 1975), 385.
42.
Baker, Urbanization and Political Change, 45.
43.
Neville S. Miller, "The Beginnings of Modern Lagos," Nigeria Magazine 69 (1961): 115; Sylvia Leith-Ross, Stepping Stones: Memoirs of Colonial Nigeria, 1907-1960 (London: Peter Owen, 1983), 83.
44.
Mabogunje, "Lagos," 153.
45.
Miller, "Beginnings," 118.
46.
Mabogunje, Urbanization, 302.
47.
Oberu Aribiah, "Social Aspects of Urban Housing in Lagos," Lagos Notes and Records 3, no. 2 (1972): 40-49; Aribiah, "The Politics of Rehousing," Lagos Notes and Records, 5 (1974): 5; Kunle Akinsemoyin and Alan Vaughan-Richards, Building Lagos (Lagos: F and A Services, 1976).
48.
Babatunde A. Williams and Annmarie H. Walsh, Urban Government for Metropolitan Lagos (New York: Praeger, 1968), 12.
49.
Nigeria Annual Report, 1931, 18.
50.
Aribiah, "Social Aspects," 43.
51.
Peter Marris , Family and Social Change in an African City: A Study of Rehousing in Lagos (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961), 2, 11; Olukoju , "Population Pressure," 46.
52.
"Hooliganism at Christmas, by J. O. O.," Nigeria Police Magazine 2 no. 2 (1939): 63-64.
53.
Police Magistrate, Lagos, 1927, 2.
54.
"Hooliganism at Christmas," 64; "Juvenile Offenders," Nigerian Daily Times, June 22, 1929.
55.
Lisa Lindsay, "‘To Return to the Bosom of Their Fatherland’: Brazilian Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century Lagos," Slavery and Abolition 15, no. 1 (1994): 22-50.
56.
Mabogunje, "Lagos," 136, 153; Antony B. Laotan, "Brazilian Influence on Lagos," Nigeria Magazine, 69 (1961): 165. Paul E. H. Hair, "The Cowboys: A Nigerian Acculturation Institution (c. 1950)," History in Africa 28 (2001): 83-93, misreads Alikali Boys as early Cowboys.
57.
"Area Boys or SAP Victims," 17.
58.
"Hooliganism at Christmas," 63.
59.
"Rowdy Holiday Makers," Nigerian Daily Telegraph, March 30, 1937.
60.
"Seasonal Hooligans," West African Pilot, December 20, 1942.
61.
"The Coming Festive Season," West African Pilot, November 27, 1940.
62.
Police Magistrate, Lagos, 1931-1937; Annual Report of the Police Magistrate, Ebute Metta, 1932-1937.
63.
Police Magistrate, Lagos, 1927, 2.
64.
G.T. Roberts , "Juvenile Delinquency in West Africa," West African Review, 16 (1945): 39.
65.
"Juvenile Offenders," 4.
66.
NAI, Chief Secretary’s Office, Lagos [CSO] 1/32/72, Sir H. C. Clifford, Governor, Nigeria, to J. H. Thomas, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Britain, February 27, 1924.
"Omo Jaguda l’Eko [Pickpockets in Lagos]," Yoruba News, September 20-27, 1938; "Pickpockets in Lagos," West African Pilot, August 13, 1940; NAI, COMCOL 1/2403, G. B. Williams, Commissioner of the Colony, to G. A. V. de Boissiere, Superintendent of Police, December 23, 1940; "Inside Stuff by ‘Zik’: Social Problems in Lagos (1)," West African Pilot, July 4, 1941; Heap, "Jaguda," 338-39.
69.
"Robbers Increase in Number, by Big Man," Daily Service, May 30, 1950.
70.
"Pickpockets’ Exploit at Idumagbo," Nigerian Daily Times, September 7, 1940; "The Underworld of Lagos," Nigerian Daily Times, September 9, 1940. Sango got his nickname from the Yoruba God of Thunder.
71.
"Jaguda Boys," African Advertiser, June 22, 1942.
72.
"Hooliganism and Worse," Nigerian Daily Times, November 6, 1940.
73.
"Letter to the Editor, ‘Pickpockets at Bus Stops,’ from E. A. Jacobs, Lagos," Daily Times, August 14, 1952. J. N. Zarpas and Co. started the first bus service in Lagos in 1929.
74.
"Pocket Picking in Supreme Court," Nigerian Daily Times, September 13, 1940.
75.
"Rogues and Vagabonds," Nigerian Daily Times, June 21, 1940.
76.
"Professors and Undergraduates of Theft," Daily Times, September 26, 1952.
77.
NAI, Ikeja Divisional Office [IKEDIV] 6/196, F. W. Carpenter, Acting District Officer, Ikeja, to C. T. Bailey, Acting Director of Prisons, May 3, 1937.
78.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2403, A. Ajibade, Secretary, Ereko District Traders, Lagos, to A. F. F. P. Newns, Commissioner of the Colony, and M. K. N. Collens, Commissioner of Police, August 21, 1942.
79.
"Lawlessness at Ereko Market," Daily Service, August 26, 1941.
80.
Ibid.
81.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2403, De Boissiere to Newns, September 16, 1941.
82.
Ordinance no. 43 of 1933 to Prescribe the Powers and Duties of Native Authorities, clause 12 (1).
83.
Heap, "Jaguda," 339.
84.
"‘Boma’ Boys and the Police," Nigerian Daily Times, May 30, 1940; "War Against ‘Boma Boys,’" Nigerian Daily Times, May 31, 1940.
85.
"‘Boma Boy’ Who Robbed Seaman Receives 9 Months and 12 Months’ Police Supervision," West African Pilot, October 28, 1940.
86.
"Hooliganism and Worse," 4; "European Special Constables Arrest a Boma Boy and He Is Sentenced to Imprisonment for a Month," West African Pilot, August 10, 1940.
87.
"‘Boma Boy ’ Dealt Police ConstableNasty Blows," African Mirror, July 13, 1940 ; "Boma Boy who Beat Police Officer Sentenced by Magistrate ," African Mirror, July 16, 1940; "‘Boma Boy’ Sent to Prison," Nigerian Daily Times, July 17, 1940.
88.
"Another ‘Boma Boy’ Gaoled," Nigerian Daily Times, July 23, 1940.
89.
"Six ‘Boma Boys’ Sentenced by Magistrate," Nigerian Daily Times, November 23, 1940; "Six Boma Boys are Arraigned for Idling and are Fined 40s or One Month," West African Pilot, November 26, 1940.
90.
"Major A. Jones Exhaustively Discusses ‘Boma Boy’ Problem," West African Pilot, August 13, 1940; "Boma Boys," West African Pilot, November 16, 1940. One observer claims roots in "the demobilised soldiers who had been exposed to cannabis in India, known as ‘Burma boys,’ who came back from their service at the end of the Second World War jobless, resorted to extortion activities and later trained other younger ones for this purpose" (Seth Akintoye, "Doctors Record High HIV Infection Among ‘Area Boys,’" Sunday Guardian, April 25, 1999).
91.
"Deadly Facts, by ‘Wizard,’" African Mirror, June 20, 1940; "Inside Stuff by ‘Zik,’" 2.
92.
"Sailors and ‘Boma Boys,’ by A. Father," West African Pilot, August 21, 1940.
93.
"The Underworld of Lagos," Nigerian Daily Times, September 9, 1940.
94.
"The ‘Boma Boy’ Problem," African Mirror, August 14, 1940. In the Imperial capital’s dockland, "seamen were prey to a seamy trade known generally as ‘crimping’-the enticing of sailors into cheap lodging houses, getting them drunk and involved in prostitution" (Gavin Weightman, London River: The Thames Story [London: Trafalgar Square, 1990], 32).
95.
Gabriel O. Olusanya , The Second World War and Politics in Nigeria, 1939-1953 (Lagos: Evans, 1973), 48; Iliffe, Honour, 303.
96.
"Letter to the Editor, ‘Guides for Visiting Sailors,’ from D. D. Ola," Nigerian Daily Times, November 20, 1940.
97.
"Letter to the Editor, ‘Guides for Visiting Sailors,’ From Olatunji Otusanya," Daily Service, November 25, 1940. The situation had not improved a decade later, as "unscrupulous men take the visitors to secluded places, rough-handle them and later rob them" ("Unlicensed Guides," Daily Times, October 12, 1951).
98.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2471, Faulkner, Assistant Superintendent of Prisons, and H. J. Savory, Education Officer, "Juvenile Delinquency in Lagos," July 2, 1941, appendix A.
99.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2471, Williams to C. C. Woolley, Chief Secretary to the Government, July 23, 1941; "Reader Discusses Juvenile Delinquents in Lagos Town," West African Pilot, August 6, 1942; Faulkner, Social Welfare, 1, 4.
100.
"Letter to the Editor, ‘Delinquent Boys,’ from F. A. Butcher, Lagos," Daily Times, January 28, 1963.
101.
"Boma Boys Problem, by Major A. Jones," West African Pilot, January 13, 1941.
102.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2471, Faulkner and Savory, "Juvenile," appendix B.
103.
Ibid., appendix C.
104.
Ibid., appendix D.
105.
Ibid., appendix E.
106.
"Boma Boys Problem, by Major A. Jones," 2; NAI, COMCOL 1/2471, Faulkner and Savory, "Juvenile," 4.
107.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2471, Faulkner and Savory, "Juvenile," appendix F.
108.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2471, Minute by Bankole-Wright, July 12, 1943.
109.
"Police Superintendent and ‘Boma Boys,’" Nigerian Daily Times, June 17, 1940; Iliffe, African Poor, 187. "The ‘Boma Boy’ Problem," African Mirror, August 15, 1940.
110.
"Boma Boys and the Law," African Advertiser, August 16, 1940.
111.
NAI, CSO 26/37457, Lagos Town Council Resolution, August 9, 1940.
112.
"Clearing the Scum," Nigerian Daily Times, November 21, 1940.
113.
Ordinance no. 30 of 1941 to Prohibit Unlicensed Persons Acting as Guides and to Control the Activities of Certain Other Persons.
114.
"Unlicensed Guides Bill," West African Pilot, September 22, 1941.
115.
Olusanya, The Second World War, 52, 63; Peil, Lagos, 34.
116.
"Letter to the Editor, ‘Our Children in Night Clubs,’ by Ero, Lagos," Daily Times, April 1, 1952. Also, Phyllis M. Martin, Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 88.
117.
NAI, COMCOL 1/248/S.170, Minute by E. D. W. Morgan, Commissioner of the Colony’s Office, November 24, 1950; "Police Quiz the Guard," Daily Times, January 7, 1963.
118.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2403, Inspector-General of Police Versus O. David, K. Oneman, A. Jonathan, A. Labayiwa, Lagos Magistrate’s Court, June 1, 1953. Hair, "The Cowboys" misreads Alikali Boys for Cowboys with a history going back to the 1920s.
119.
O. Balogun, "Christmas at Aba in the early 1950s," Nigeria Magazine, 101 (July/September 1969).
120.
NAI, COMCOL 1/2403, Inspector-General of Police versus O. David et al., June 1, 1953.
121.
"4 ‘Cowboys’ and a Car," Daily Times, January 7, 1963.
122.
"Letter to the Editor, ‘Ago-Egba "Cow Boys" Disturbances,’ from ‘Affected,’" Daily Times, January 21, 1949; NAI, COMCOL 1/2403, Inspector-General of Police Versus O. David et al., June 1, 1953.
123.
"A Day at the Victoria [Bar] Beach," Daily Times, April 28, 1949.
124.
NAI, COMCOL 1/248/S.170, G. Osaji, General-Secretary, Association of Nigeria Cowboys, to Morgan, November 23, 1950.
125.
"Police Quiz the Guard," 1.
126.
"Children at Night Clubs," Daily Times, March 25, 1952.
127.
Ibid.
128.
"This is the Height of Callousness," Daily Times, December 4, 1963.
129.
"The Tramps of Lagos, by Tai Solarin," Daily Times, December 14, 1963.
130.
Iliffe, African Poor, 185.
131.
Donald J.Shoemaker, Theories of Delinquency (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 192.
132.
Humphries, Hooligans or Rebels, 156.
133.
NAI, Ibadan Divisional Office [IBADIV] 1/1/1665, Bankole-Wright to G. J. Gorman, Divisional Officer, Ibadan, September 24, 1942.
134.
Urban Management and Urban Violence in Africa, ed. Albert.
135.
"Environmental Conditions also Affect Juvenile Delinquents," West African Pilot, July 31, 1943. Also, Michael Crowder, West Africa under Colonial Rule (London: Hutchinson, 1968), 341; Alan Mayne, "A Just War: The Language of Slum Representation in Twentieth-century Australia," Journal of Urban History 22, no. 1 (1995): 91-93.
136.
Shoemaker, Theories of Delinquency, 135-36, 158, 257-8.
