ABSTRACT
Indirect rule in British West Africa took two forms: interventionist and non-interventionist. The key difference between Lugard’s system of indirect rule and the non-interventionist type was how the Resident interpreted his role as adviser. In Lugard’s conception it was an active role; his successors in Northern Nigeria tended increasingly to look on it as a passive one. Indirect rule in the Nigerian sense was not introduced to the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone until the 1930’s. In the Gold Coast, indirect rule was introduced to buttress up the authority of the Colony states, in Sierra Leone to bring the chiefdoms under some form of control. The British-controlled courts tried major criminal cases, and stopped certain classes of crime from being punished. The British political officers in practice rarely presided over the courts because they were so few in number and had so many other duties.
