Interrogating Men and Women’s Emotions in Criminal Cases in Ogoja Province, Nigeria, 1900–60

With a few notable exceptions, historians of Africa have not been active in the field of the history of emotions. They have therefore missed an opportunity to understand gendered experiences integral to relationships and violence under colonial rule. In the court trials of Ogoja Province of colonial Nigeria, plaintiffs, defendants, witnesses, and legal advocates would explain a man’s or woman’s action as occurring because he or she was naturally overcome with rage and unable to control himself or herself. Most victims and assailants did not use the word rage, but they described states of heightened anger that superseded reason. This paper examines descriptions and experiences of overwhelming anger that led to killing. We will explore how men and women in Ogoja Province experienced rage between 1900 and 1960. The methodology will draw on patterns within criminal cases in this region to construct a recognizable and specific culture of emotions. We ask whether rage entered relationships differently for men and women in this place and time and ask to what extent it was associated with masculinity. Three types of cases will be interrogated prescriptively to explore the patterns within these dramas. First, those that refer to rage directly. Second, those in which rage appears to be at work but the term is not used; third, one in which rage does not appear to be a motivating factor behind the offences. The paper will propose new ways of thinking about how gender and emotion within this particular division during the colonial period.