ABSTRACT
The city of Kaduna, established as the colonial capital of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1917, was influenced by British ideas about urban planning, which included the location of government buildings as well as the establishment of public cemeteries and industrial areas where the Kaduna Textile Ltd (KTL) mill was located. New roads and train transportation brought many migrants from the Middle Belt and Northern Nigerian states who settled in the city and sought employment at the KTL mill. They later brought their wives, whose first experiences of Kaduna contrasted with their subsequent situation after the mill’s closure, and for some, their husbands’ deaths. While large cemeteries in the Kaduna metropolis were initially established by colonial officials, many families’ continued ties with their home villages led them to bury deceased KTL workers in their hometowns or adjacent to their family houses in Kaduna. This continued preference suggests that despite the plans of colonial officials, Nigerians maintained some practices considered to be too important to be abandoned. During centenary celebrations for Kaduna held in 2017, Nigerian officials noted improvements that earlier colonial plans had contributed to residents’ lives as well as the difficult insecurity that residents have come to face.
