Document 1
Macgregor Laird, Scottish explorer and shipbuilder, wrote
this narrative after travelling by steamship up the Niger
River in West Africa between 1832 and 1834. Out of the
forty-eight members of the expedition, Laird was one of nine
who survived.
We have the power in our hands, moral, physical, and
mechanical; the first, based on the Bible; the second, upon
the wonderful adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon race to all
climates, situations, and circumstances . . . the third,
bequeathed [given] to us by the immortal James Watt. By his
invention [of the steam engine] every river is laid open to us,
time and distance are shortened. If his spirit is allowed to
witness the success of his invention here on earth, I can
conceive no application of it that would meet his
approbation [approval] more than seeing the mighty streams
of the Mississippi and the Amazon, the Niger and the Nile,
the Indus and the Ganges, stemmed by hundreds of steam-
vessels, carrying the glad tidings of “peace and good will
towards men” into the dark places of the earth which are
now filled with cruelty. This power, which has only been in
existence for a quarter of a century, has rendered rivers truly
“the highway of nations,” and made easy what it wouldhave
been difficult if not impossible, to accomplish without it. . .
.
Source: Macgregor Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield, Narrative of
an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the
River Niger in the Steam-Vessels Quorra and
Alburkah in 1832, 1833, 1834, Volume II, London,
Richard Bentley, 1837
Document 2
N
namdi Azikiwe was a Nigerian writer, a nationalist
leader, and a Christian, who was born in Nigeria
during British rule. He attended and taught at a
number of universities in the United States between
1925 and 1934. Azikiwe returned to Nigeria in 1934
and became the first president of an independent
Nigeria in 1960. This excerpt is from a speech he
gave at a dinner in his honor arranged by university
alumni while he was visiting New York in 1947.
. . . Socially, the ogre [monster] of racial segregation
and discrimination makes it extremely difficult for
the colonial to develop his personality to the full.
Education is obtainable but limited to the privileged.
Hospitals are not available to the great number of the
people but only to a negligible [small] minority.
Public services are lacking in many respects; there
are not sufficient water supplies, surfaced roads,
postal services and communications systems in most
communities of Nigeria. The prisons are medieval,
the penal [criminal] code is oppressive, and religious
freedom is a pearl of great price.
Source: Zik: A Selection from the Speeches of
Nnamdi Azikiwe, Cambridge University Press
3a. Identify a similarity or a difference regarding ideas about the role of the British in Africa as
expressed in documents 1 and 2.
Score of 1:
Correct response
Similarities: both documents discuss the power of the colonizers; both documents discuss
control of areas in West Africa; both address Christianization/religion in West
Africa/Africa
Differences: two different perspectives about British imperialism are expressed; document 1
expresses British reasons for imperialism and document 2 expresses reasons to
decolonize
Score of 0:
• Incorrect response
Examples: they were written at different times/the years are different; imperialism; both
believe industrial technology will play a part in the future of Nigeria; document 1 is
positive, document 2 is negative
• No response