Word: zik
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Nowadays, whenever Britain's imperial eye turns south towards Africa, there stands Zik astride a large slice of rich Nigerian cocoa and palm nut holdings, coal and tin and bauxite deposits. Zik has a handhold on a rich chunk of the Empire and he will...
...Watched. His newspaper, the West African Pilot, has grown into a chain of five, spanning southern Nigeria with a total circulation of over 25,000. Ex-Strikebreaker Zik has been accused of inciting coalfield workers to strike and has won and lost a string of libel suits. By flamboyant and often crude tactics, Zik has built an enormous (7,000,000, says Zik) following among Nigerians, most of whom are illiterate. To keep tabs on him the British have CID detectives watching him constantly. He shrugs them off, says, "A man with a free conscience has nothing to worry about...
...Visitor in the Night. To raise money for his political organization, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons, Zik spent months driving trucks over Nigeria's bumpy roads, walking when there were no roads, visiting hundreds of villages. He collected ?13,500. According to Zik the tour was a success. Says Zik, "Some of the Hausa emirs who were appointed by the British came to see me in the night. They promised me money and moral support...
...Zik's dream is Nigerian independence. He would like to see it come in a 15-Year Plan: ten years of equal British-Nigerian government, then five years of Nigerian government with Britain standing by. Next to that he wants the country developed industrially. He doubts that the present-day Briton will do it. "The type of Britons who come . . . now," he says, "are not as intelligent as those who came before. Either we have progressed or they have degenerated...
...Gentleman & a Student. When Zik leaves the U.S. in four weeks, he will join six other Nigerians in England for a barnstorming tour to tell the Nigerian story. He hopes to say a few words about his preference for the next Governor of Nigeria. If it must be an Englishman, Zik hopes it will be the Duke of Windsor (see PEOPLE), whom he considers "a gentleman, a student of human nature, a man with a sense of justice." But in the long run he wants an African governor for Nigeria and, like the Pirates on the day he arrived...