Cameron, Mitchell, Cohen & Furse - African Admins

History: AQA A Level The British Empire, topic 3.4.5

Colonial Administrators in Africa, 1914-1947

Britain's position in its African colonies was managed by colonial administrators.

As Governor of Nigeria between the years 1931 and 1935, Cameron made significant changes.
His main focus was to make the country more economically profitable for the British.
He increased the exports of local goods including groundnuts and palm oil.
He also built up regional infrastructure like railways and harbours to support more exports and economic activity.
Cameron did support small moves towards a 'trusteeship' style of rule. For example, he allowed indigenous people to work for the civil service.
Nonetheless, his vision of political reform was limited and slow.

Mitchell tried to achieve trusteeship in Uganda.
He grew Makerere College and worked to create an elite of Ugandans who had a formal university education and could, therefore, meet entry requirements of the British ruling political institutions.
Mitchell later became the Governor of Kenya.
Kitchen (1996) describes Mitchell as "openly contemptuous of the white settlers, whom he thought self-seeking, politically short-sighted, and vulgar".

Cohen saw that Britain should try and play a role in decolonising Africa.
Unlike other members of the Colonial Office, he actively worked to build relationships with nationalist leaders rather than suppress them.
In Northern Rhodesia, he encouraged white settlers to share their wealth with Africans. However, he found white people there resistant to the idea and 'incorrigibly racist' (Kitchen, 1996).

Furse was responsible for improving the recruitment and training of colonial administrators. His work in this sector led to him being dubbed, the “father of the modern colonial service”.
In 1930, Furse reformed Colonial Services. He centralised and standardised recruitment and training.
His new recruitment put a greater emphasis on references and interviews than written tests.
His service provided more rounded training for recruits.
The quality of new recruits increased as a result of his work.