Introduction

Analyzing Evidence presents case studies that demonstrate how scholars interpret different kinds of historical evidence in world history. On this screen, you see an excerpt from a commission hearing conducted in southeastern Nigeria in 1930 by British colonial officials. The hearing investigated a series of disturbances by local women following a rumor that the British were going to tax women. This excerpt is a statement by one of these woman. These commission records are one of the few places in the colonial record where West African women’s voices can be heard. On this screen you also see an image of local women at a market.

As you read the excerpt and examine the photograph, think about the way they shed light on gender relations in this rapidly changing society. What does it mean to be a woman in this society? A man? What assumptions do the British make about gender relations? How do these assumptions shape both the testimony and the social fabric?

Now listen to Professor Meredith McKittrick analyze these commission records.

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