Charles Kingsley Meek

Charles Kingsley Meek FRAI FRGS (1885–1965), was a British anthropologist.

Biography

Meek was born in Larne on 24 June 1885. He was educated at Bedford School and at Brasenose College, Oxford. He subsequently joined the colonial administrative service and became a District Officer and anthropologist in Nigeria. His Northern Tribes of Nigeria (1925) is a classic of African anthropology. His Sudanese Kingdom (1931), a study of the Jukun people, is a significant work of ethnography.^[1]

In 1943, Meek was elected as a Senior Research Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. He retired in 1950 and died in Eastbourne on 27 March 1965.

Works

• The Northern Tribes of Nigeria. An Ethnographical Account of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria together with a Report on the 1921 Decennial Census. [With a Preface by Sir Hugh Clifford] Oxford University Press, 1925. 2 vols.
• Tribal Studies in Northern Nigeria. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1931
  • Volume 1: The Bachama and Mbula. The Bata-speaking peoples of the Adamawa Emirate. The Bura and Pabir tribes. The Kilba and Margi of Adamawa. Some mandated Tribes. The Chamba. The Verre. The Mumuye and neighbouring tribes. The Mambila (Mandates Territory).
  • Volume 2: The Katab and their neighbours. Some tribes of Zaria Province. Some tribes of Bornu Province. Some tribes of Adamawa Province. The Yugur-speaking peoples. Divine kings. Some tribes of the Cameroons. (The Ketab, Piti, Chawai, Kurama, Kare-Kare, Ngizim, Gamawa, Bolewa, Kanakuru, Longuda, Gabin, Hona, Mbum, Jibu, Jen, Kam, Tigong, Ndoro, Kentu, etc.)
• A Sudanese Kingdom : an ethnographical study of the Jukun-speaking peoples of Nigeria. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1931
• Europe And West Africa. Some Problems And Adjustments. Oxford University Press, 1940
• Land Law And Custom In The Colonies. With an introduction by Lord Hailey. Oxford University Press, London, 1946.
• Land tenure and land administration in Nigeria and the Cameroons (Colonial research studies; no.22) H.M.S.O, 1957
• Law and Authority in a Nigerian Tribe: A Study in Indirect Rule. New York Barnes & Noble Imports 1970

References

1. Oxford DNB

External links

• Pitt Rivers Museum