Abstract

Who held power in colonial Africa? Colonial governments made policies which have had lasting impacts on the continent’s development. But they were constrained in many ways – by lack of staff and resources, and by their lack of legitimacy with those they ruled. Recent research in political science has shown that the survival of autocratic regimes in contemporary African countries has depended on the strategic use of patronage, either in the form of power showing with potential rivals or through the use of public resources. Similarly, British colonial governments used strategies of power sharing and resource distribution at various administrative levels to secure the stability of colonial rule. New data on the composition of colonial legislative councils and local governments shows how these methods varied between and within colonies, reflecting local economic and political circumstances.