Lagos Post Office, about 1910
Bud's Big BlueBud's Observations
Two themes
crop up repeatedly in BB. Both themes produced stamp avalanches and, no doubt,
headaches for BB’s designers and editors. One is World War I and its aftermath
and the other is Europe’s colonization schemes, particularly “the scramble for
Africa,” as it came to be known.
Lagos stamps
need to be studied in connection with this scramble, and also with the stamps
of the Oil Rivers Protectorate (renamed Niger Coast Protectorate), Southern Nigeria, Northern Nigeria and, beginning in 1914, Nigeria proper. BB awards spaces to all of these except the
Oil Rivers stamps.
Britain had
long claimed and fought for territorial rights in Lagos, a group of islands
narrowly separated from the African continent and home to several combative
African peoples. It became a colony in 1862; the rest of modern Nigeria followed
suit in 1887.
Meanwhile,
German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who wasn’t particularly interested in
Africa but didn’t want Germany to lose out in the scramble for African
resources, called a conference to negotiate and settle how European nations lay
claim to African territories. No native African leaders participated. At the
Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 Europeans set the guidelines, then quickly seized
what they could -- a colossal land-grab.
By 1900, 90
percent of Africa was a colony or protectorate of a European nation. For the
most part, the boundaries set following the Berlin Conference still exist
today.
Moreover, decisions made at that conference shaped Big Blue’s table of
contents, although I don’t suppose Bismarck intended any philatelic fallout.
Nevertheless,
the Berlin Conference’s effects on world-wide stamp collections is profound.
It’s a topic I’ll return to in future posts.
Census: 14
in BB space, seven on the supplement page.
Jim's Observations
Big Blue '69, on two lines of one page (after Labuan), has 14 stamp spaces. Coverage is 24%.
Notes
• BB provides a nice representation for Lagos.
• Despite some close calls, and using a judicious selection for the four blank spaces, no stamps need to cross the CV $10 threshold.
• BB has the usual dilemma of one space for multiple choices. The BB checklist describes the choices.
Lagos Blog Post & BB Checklist
Page 1
Supplements
Page 1
Comments appreciated!
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