Herbert Samuel Heelas Macaulay (November 14, 1864—May 7, 1946) was a Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n nationalist, politician, engineer, journalist, and musician and considered by many Nigerians as the founder of Nigerian nationalism.

Early life

Macaulay was born in Lagos

Lagos Colony

Lagos Colony was a British colonial possession centered on the port of Lagos in what is now southern Nigeria. Lagos was annexed on 6 August 1861 and declared a colony on 5 March 1862....

 on November 14, 1864 to Sierra Leone Creole parents. He was the grandson of bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther was a linguist and the first African Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Born in Osogun , Rev. Dr...

 and the son of the founder of the first secondary school in Nigeria, the CMS Grammar School, Lagos

CMS Grammar School, Lagos

The CMS Grammar School in the Bariga district of Lagos is the oldest secondary school in Nigeria, founded on 6 June 1859 by the Church Missionary Society...

.
After going to a Christian missionary school, he took a job as a clerk at the Lagos Department of Public Works. From 1891 to 1894 he studied civil engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 in Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. On his return, he worked for the Crown as a land inspector. He left his position in 1898 due to growing distaste for Nigeria's position as a British colony

Colony

In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

.

As an opponent of British rule

Herbert Macaulay was an unlikely champion of the masses. A grandson of Ajayi Crowther, the first African bishop of the Niger Territory, he was born into a Lagos that was divided politically into groups arranged in a convenient pecking order – the British rulers who lived in the posh Marina district, the Saros and other slave descendants who lived to the west, and the Brazilians who lived behind the whites in the Portuguese Town. Behind all three lived the real Lagosians, the masses of indigenous Yoruba people, disliked and generally ignored by their privileged neighbours. It was not until Macaulay’s generation that the Saros and Brazilians even began to contemplate making common cause with the masses.

Macaulay was one of the first Nigerian nationalists and for most of his life a strong opponent of British rule in Nigeria. As a reaction to claims by the British that they were governing with "the true interests of the natives at heart", Macaulay wrote: "The dimensions of "the true interests of the natives at heart" are algebraically equal to the length, breadth and depth of the whiteman's pocket."
In 1908 he exposed European corruption in the handling of railway finances and in 1919 he argued successfully for the Chiefs whose land had been taken by the British in front of the Privy Council

Privy council

A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...

 in London. As a result, the colonial government was forced to pay compensation to the chiefs. In retaliation for this and other activities of his, Macauley got jailed twice by the British.
Macaulay became very popular and on June 24, 1923, he founded the Nigerian National Democratic Party

Nigerian National Democratic Party

The Nigerian National Democratic Party , was Nigeria's first political party.Formed in 1923 by Herbert Macaulay to take advantage of the new Clifford Constitution, the NNDP successfully organized various Yoruba interest groups into a single group that was able to compete politically...

 (NNDP), the first Nigerian political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

. The party won all the seats in the elections of 1923, 1928 and 1933.

As a supporter of the British

In 1931 relations between Macaulay and the British began to improve up to the point that the governor even held conferences with Macaulay.
In October 1938 the more radical Nigerian Youth Movement

Nigerian Youth Movement

The Nigerian Youth Movement was Nigeria's first genuine nationalist organization, founded in Lagos in 1933 with the name of Lagos Youth Movement and renamed the Nigerian Youth Movement in 1936.-Early years:Founding members included Dr...

 fought and won elections for the Lagos Town Council, ending the dominance of Macaulay and his National Democratic Party.

Towards the end

In 1944 Macaulay founded the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons

National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons

National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons , was a Nigerian political party from 1944 to 1966. The name included 'Cameroons' because Cameroon had become an administrative part of Nigeria in 1945. Cameroon had been a colonial territory of Germany...

 (NCNC) together with Nnamdi Azikiwe

Nnamdi Azikiwe

Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe , usually referred to as Nnamdi Azikiwe and popularly known as "Zik", was one of the leading figures of modern Nigerian nationalism who became the first President of Nigeria after Nigeria secured its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 October 1960; holding the...

 and became its secretary general.
The NCNC was a patriotic organization designed to bring together Nigerians of all stripes to demand independence.
In 1946 Macaulay fell ill in Kano

Kano

Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...

 and later died in Lagos

Lagos

Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...

. The leadership of the NCNC went to Azikiwe, who later became the first president of Nigeria.