EVENING LECTURE: 'Networks of Impunity' - Chiedozie Obia

Part of our 2026-27 Roots & Networks Lecture Series

Join us for a drinks reception from 6pm. The lecture will start at 6.30pm and afterwards there'll be time for questions.

'Networks of Impunity: Native Courts, Sexual Violence, and Colonial Governance in Nigeria, c.1916'

Chiedozie Obia

This paper examines the Native Court system in colonial Eastern Nigeria as a critical node within the networks of power, authority, and accountability that shaped colonial governance during the First World War. While historians have primarily examined Native Courts in relation to indirect rule, local administration, and socio-economic transformation, this paper shifts attention to the gendered dynamics embedded within their judicial and administrative operations. Drawing on court proceedings, petitions, and colonial correspondence, it argues that Native Courts created conditions in which sexual coercion and abuse could occur with limited oversight and significant barriers to accountability.

Focusing on 1916, the paper reconstructs encounters between women and court authorities, tracing how warrant chiefs, court clerks, messengers, and British colonial officials participated in overlapping networks of judicial and administrative power. Petitions and complaints provide rare evidence of women’s attempts to seek redress, while court records and official correspondence reveal how cases were processed, minimised, redirected, or absorbed into the colonial bureaucracy.

The paper situates these encounters within the wider pressures of wartime governance. During the First World War, British officials in Eastern Nigeria prioritised political stability, revenue collection, and administrative efficiency, often at the expense of meaningful judicial oversight. It argues that administrative inaction and institutional silence helped reproduce a broader culture of impunity. By following complaints across courts, petitions, and colonial correspondence, the paper demonstrates how colonial justice operated through interconnected British and Indigenous actors whose relationships could facilitate governance, mediate access to justice, and shield abuse from scrutiny.