Herbert Macaulay

Herbert Macaulay Biography / Profile

Olayinka Herbert Samuel Heelas Badmus Macaulay was born in Lagos, Nigeria on November 14th, 1864 to Thomas Babington Macaulay and Abigail Crowther. Sometimes acclaimed as the Gandhi of West Africa, he was a man of many parts: a civil engineer and surveyor by training, a civil servant, a politician, an editor and journalist, an accomplished violinist, an historian, and an ex-convict.

Herbert Macaulay Age

Herbert Macaulay would have been 160 years old, if he were alive today. May his soul rest in peace.

Herbert Macaulay Early Life

Macaulay was the son of the Reverend Thomas Babington Macaulay, prominent Lagos missionary and educator, and the maternal grandson of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, first African bishop of the Niger Territory. Receiving his early education in the mission schools of Lagos, Macaulay in 1881 became a clerk in the Public Works Department in Lagos. He was recognized as a promising civil servant and in 1890 was awarded a government scholarship to study civil engineering in England, where he spent 3 years.

Herbert Macaulay Career

Upon his graduation in 1893, Macaulay returned to Nigeria where the colonial government appointed him surveyor of crown lands for the colony of Lagos. In 1898, he resigned from his position and established a private civil engineering company in Lagos, Nigeria. His resignation seems to have been precipitated by his growing resentment for the racial discrimination practiced by Europeans in the civil service. He established himself as a private surveyor in Lagos and slowly over the ensuing years emerged as a spokesman for opposition to British rule in Lagos and all Nigeria. Macaulay addressed himself to numerous issues, usually in articles he contributed to the Lagos Daily Times. He opposed every attempt by the British authorities to expand their administration, interpreting these developments as detrimental to the interests of indigenous Nigerians, who inevitably would be forced to pay the bills in taxes. He agitated against the payment of water rates in 1915 and, as a leader of the Lagos auxiliary of the Antislavery and Aborigines Protection Society, led the opposition against government plans to reform land tenure arrangements in Lagos and Yorubaland.

Through his antigovernment activities Macaulay rose to preeminence in Lagos politics. In 1921 he was sent to London by the eleko, or king, of Lagos to represent him in the legal appeal of a local land tenure case. In London, Macaulay proclaimed that the British colonial government was eroding the power and authority of the eleko, who, he said, was recognized by all Nigerians as the rightful king of Lagos. This episode embarrassed the British, although it did not deter their activities, and established Macaulay as a leading advocate of the rights of traditional leadership in Lagos.

In 1922 a new Nigerian constitution was introduced providing for limited franchise elections in Lagos and Calabar. In order to contest the three elective seats in Lagos, Macaulay organized the Nigerian National Democratic party (NNDP). The platform of the NNDP sought self-government for Lagos, the introduction of institutions of higher education into Nigeria, compulsory primary school education, the Africanization of the civil service, and non-discrimination in the development of private economic enterprise.

Macaulay's political activities were limited to Lagos affairs until the very end of his life, when the quest for independence began to pervade all Nigeria. He presided in 1944 at the meeting of the Nigerian Union of Students, from which ultimately emerged the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), Nigeria's first national political party. Macaulay was elected president of the NCNC and was engaged in a national tour for the party in 1945, when he was taken ill.

Herbert Macaulay Personal Life

Macaulay married Caroline Pratt, daughter of an African Superintendent of Police in December 1898. Their marriage came to an end in August 1899 upon Caroline's death during childbirth and Macaulay is reported to have vowed never to marry again. While Macaulay never remarried in the Church, he had mistresses from whom he had a number of children including Oliver Ogedengbe Macaulay, Sarah Abigail Idowu Macaulay, Frank Montague Macaulay, Enitan Macaulay, Florence Macaulay, Tokunbo Macaulay and Samuel Macaulay. He also had companionships which bore no children including Sarah Coker, daughter of JPL Davies and Sarah Forbes Bonetta, who lived with Macaulay from 1909 until her death in 1916. Macaulay was reportedly the first Nigerian to own a motor car.

He died in Lagos at the age of 81 on May 7th, 1946. Huge crowds, estimated variously as between 100,000 and 200,000 turned out in the streets to mourn and all the markets closed for two full days. As is customary among the Yoruba, when a distinguished leader dies at an advanced age, his funeral became the occasion for a prolonged celebration of a life well lived and public service well acclaimed.