Captain Short teaching soldiers of the Nigerian Regiment musketry drill, 1902 (c)

Photograph, West Africa, 1901 (c).

Between November 1901 and March 1902 elements of the Northern and Southern Nigeria Regiments took part in the Aro Expedition. This was aimed at bringing a large area between the Niger and Cross Rivers under British control by breaking the power of the Aro Confederacy in the region. The Confederacy was a large slave trading network led by the Aro people who had been conducting raids against tribes allied to the British in attempt to curb British expansion into Nigeria, which they saw as a direct threat to their own domination of the region.

The main objective of the British campaign was to destroy the shrine of Long Juji, which was the centre of Aro religion. According to British accounts, this religion entailed the use of terror, superstition and human sacrifice to subjugate the local population. As a result of the operation the power of the Aro Confederacy was decisively broken, the slave trade and the Aro religion was subdued and British control of Nigeria firmly established.