1920s–1930s: (The National Congress of British West Africa and the Expansion of Political Vision — A Commercial and Professional Elite Securing Elected Repre…

1920s–1930s: (The National Congress of British West Africa and the Expansion of Political Vision — A Commercial and Professional Elite Securing Elected Representatives in Territorial Legislatures, the West African Students’ Union Fostering Pan-African Ideas in London, Nnamdi Azikiwe and the Logic of Regional Unity, and the British Dismissing Nationalism in Their Tropical Colonies as Inconsequential): In British West Africa, political vision was expanding and activity becoming ever more supra-tribal, at least in rhetoric. A commercial and professional elite formed the National Congress of British West Africa, with branches in Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia, securing the concession of elected representatives in territorial legislatures through the 1920s — particularly in coastal towns where a new politicized class was reaching maturity. The Congress spawned other organizations reflecting expanded political vision, such as the West African Students’ Union, which fostered radical debate and introduced young West African students in London to pan-African ideas. The leaders of these movements were now thinking regionally, believing that no single colony could challenge the British alone — hence the influence of pan-Africanism, which advocated unity of purpose across territories and was associated with figures such as the Nigerian Nnamdi Azikiwe. Many argued that strictly territorial political activity was illogical, since individual colonies were wholly artificial constructions. The British themselves, however, were largely unconcerned about the growth of nationalism in their tropical African colonies, regarding the latter as mere geographical units — an imperial complacency that would prove spectacularly misplaced within a single generation.