ABSTRACT
British methods of colonial rule in West Africa did not receive such trenchant criticisms as those of the French either from its own nationals or from those of other colonial powers. The educated elite was disinherited under the new British system of colonial rule in favour of the traditional chiefs, who were not encouraged to speak the language of the coloniser, nor imbibe Western culture. The emphasis on the traditional ruler rather than the educated élite as the means for administering Africa was to have a profound impact on the nature of African nationalism in British West Africa, and the character of the countries they inherited on independence. Until the Second World War there was very little communication between the four administrations of British West Africa. The nineteenth-century concept of a united British West Africa was kept alive by the educated elite whose early political activities had a pan-West African focus.
