Colonial Forced Labour and Its Long-Run Economic Consequences in South-South Nigeria

This study empirically analyses the long-run economic consequences of colonial forced labour policies in the South South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, encompassing Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, and Edo States, from the imposition of compulsory labour obligations in the early colonial period to the formal abolition of forced labour under international labour standards in the late colonial era. Colonial forced labour, including porterage, road and railway construction, and domestic service requirements, represented a massive and violent extraction of labour value from African communities that has received inadequate attention in the economic history of Nigeria's oil-producing South. A quantitative historical design is employed, constructing a unique district-level dataset linking colonial forced labour intensity estimates from colonial administrative records with contemporary district-level economic development indicators from the 2018 National Living Standards Survey. Instrumental variable estimation using pre-colonial population density and colonial road access as instruments addresses endogeneity. The Colonial Underdevelopment Theory and the Labour Coercion and Economic Development Framework provide the analytical anchors. Findings confirm a significant negative relationship between historical forced labour intensity and contemporary per capita consumption and educational attainment, suggesting that forced labour legacies contribute to persistent spatial economic inequalities in the South South zone. Keywords: forced labour, colonial legacy, South South Nigeria, economic history, underdevelopment.