Imperial Incarceration
Detention without Trial in the Making of British Colonial Africa

A rich study exploring the use of detention without trial to facilitate imperial expansion of the British African Empire.

Michael Lobban (Author)

9781316519127, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 September 2021

379 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 3.2 cm, 0.86 kg

'Recommended.' M. M. Heaton, Choice

For nineteenth-century Britons, the rule of law stood at the heart of their constitutional culture, and guaranteed the right not to be imprisoned without trial. At the same time, in an expanding empire, the authorities made frequent resort to detention without trial to remove political leaders who stood in the way of imperial expansion. Such conduct raised difficult questions about Britain's commitment to the rule of law. Was it satisfied if the sovereign validated acts of naked power by legislative forms, or could imperial subjects claim the protection of Magna Carta and the common law tradition? In this pathbreaking book, Michael Lobban explores how these matters were debated from the liberal Cape, to the jurisdictional borderlands of West Africa, to the occupied territory of Egypt, and shows how and when the demands of power undermined the rule of law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Acknowledgements
List of Maps
Abbreviations of Archival Sources
1. Introduction
1.1. Habeas Corpus and the Rule of Law
1.2. Martial Law 1.3. Legislating for Emergencies
1.4. Ad hominem Legislation
1.5. Emergency Law in East Africa
1.6. From 'Rule of Law' to 'Lawfare'
2. Martial Law and the Rule of Law in the Eastern Cape, 1830–1880
2.1. Four Wars and Two Rebellions
2.2. The Reach of Martial Law
2.3. Detention without Trial
2.4. Conclusion
3. Zulu Political Prisoners, 1872–1897
3.1. The Trial and Detention of Langalibalele
3.2. Cetshwayo's Capture and Detention
3.3. Dinuzulu's Trial and Exile
3.4. Conclusion
4. Egypt and Sudan, 1882–1887
4.1. The Exile of Ahmed Urabi Pasha
4.2. The Detention of Al-Zubayr Rahma Mansur
5. Detention without Trial in Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, 1865–1890
5.1. The British Presence in West Africa
5.2. Detention without Legal Authority
5.3. Regularising Detentions
5.4. 'Peacekeping' Detentions in Sierra Leone
5.5. Political Detentions in the Gold Coast
5.6. Conclusion
6. Removing Rulers in the Niger Delta, 1887–1897
6.1. The British Presence in the Oil Rivers
6.2. Jaja of Opobo
6.3. Nana Olomu
6.4. Ovonramwen
6.5. Conclusion
7. Consolidating Colonial Rule: Detentions in the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone, 1896–1901
7.1. The Deposition of Prempeh of Asante
7.2. Sierra Leone's Hut Tax War and the Detention of Bai Bureh
7.3. Conclusion
8. Detention Comes to Court: African Appeals to the Courts in Whitehall and Westminster, 1895–1922
8.1. Sigcau, Sir Henry de Villiers and the Privy Council
8.2. Sekgoma Letsholathibe
8.3. Saad Zaghlul Pasha
8.4. Conclusion
9. Martial Law in the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902
9.1. The First Invasion, October 1899-October 1900
9.2. The Second Invasion, October 1900-March 1902
9.3. Ending Martial Law
9.4. Conclusion
10. Martial Law, the Privy Council and the Zulu Rebellion of 1906
10.1. Martial Law before the Rebellion, February-March 1906
10.2. Martial Law after Bambatha's Uprising, April-September 1906
10.3. Natal's Indemnity Act, the Privy Council and the Rule of Law
10.4. Tilonko's Deportation
10.5. Conclusion
11. Conclusion
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], African history [HBJH]