A Tropical Dependency : An Outline of the Ancient History of the Western Soudan with an Account of the Modern Settlement of Northern Nigeria

Flora Shaw, Lady Lugard, was colonial editor of The Times from 1893 to 1900. This 1905 work examines in detail the pre-colonial history of Nigeria and Sudan, before touching on the current British administration in Nigeria, where her husband was High Commissioner.

Flora Shaw, Lady Lugard (1852–1929) was the first female reporter for The Times, and colonial editor from 1893 to 1900. She travelled widely, and wrote hundreds of articles promoting the British Empire and in favour of its expansion as a world power. She became very involved in South African politics as a friend of Cecil Rhodes, and in 1897 coined the name 'Nigeria' for the colony under the administration of the Royal Niger Company. In 1902 she married Sir Frederick Lugard, then High Commissioner of Northern Nigeria. In 1905 she published A Tropical Dependency, her most extensive work. Although expressing views which assume European superiority, she stressed the fact that the vast majority of the British Empire was not white, and the book is valuable for its information on pre-colonial northern Africa. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=shawfl