TY  - JOUR
T1  - Bowers Tower: A Historical Monument in Ibadan, Southwestern Nigeria
AU - , S. Ademola Ajayi 
JO  - The Social Sciences
VL  - 3
IS  - 1
SP  - 45
EP  - 50
PY  - 2008
DA  - 2001/08/19
SN  - 1818-5800
DO  - sscience.2008.45.50
UR  - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=sscience.2008.45.50
KW  - Bowers tower
KW  -historical monument
KW  -colonial political subjugation
KW  -economic structure
KW  -Socio-political
KW  -Nigeria
AB  - The colonial political subjugation of Africa eroded the African peoples socio-political and economic structures while the emergence of the colonial project in itself created a new scenario, leaving bitter memories in the minds of the colonised. Despite this ugly episode, there were certain colonial officials who left memories in the hearts of the people among whom they administered. One of such was Captain Robert  Lister Bower who served as Resident and Travelling Commissioner for the interior of  Yorubaland in south-western Nigeria and in whose honour a tower  was erected. The memorial tower symbolises a plethora of meanings. On the one hand, it is perceived that the peoples reflection of the footprints of Bower in the annals of their history necessitated the erection of that historic  monument as a memorial of his relatively peaceful era, socio-economic development as well as his general administrative acumen in the course of his service among them which remain indelible. As a rider to this, the monument serves as a reminder to the Ibadan people in particular and the Yoruba in general, of the man who firmly established the loyalty of their forebears to the British imperial crown. Paradoxically, many perceive the tower as a monument of humiliation and diplomatic manoeuvring. The various sides of the pendulum are vividly encapsulated in this study.
ER  -