Shortly after the start of colonial rule in Northern Nigeria, a series of scandals over flogging brought international attention. A network of newspapers reported on flogging cases, particularly those involving women and educated, often Christian, Africans from outside the north. International attention focused on these cases as humanitarian outrages. The Nigerian administration and the Colonial Office deflected the scandals through a shifting series of strategies: justifying flogging as appropriate and humane, attempting to ensure floggings were only administered by Africans, carefully regulating the practices of flogging, and investigating cases of flogging to exculpate the officials responsible. These scandals led to a reform of the criminal justice system in 1933, but had long-lasting effects. They entrenched the trope of whipped bodies as a particularly “African” outrage. They helped to institutionalize the notion that particular judicial and governmental techniques were culturally specific. They politicized key markers of personal identity.

尼日利亚北部开始殖民统治后不久，一系列鞭刑丑闻引起了国际关注。一系列报纸报道了鞭打案件，特别是涉及来自北方以外受过教育的非洲人（通常是基督徒）的鞭刑案件。国际社会将这些案件视为人道主义暴行。尼日利亚政府和殖民部通过一系列不断变化的策略来转移丑闻：证明鞭打是适当和人道的，试图确保鞭打只由非洲人实施，仔细规范鞭打的做法，并调查鞭打案件以证明官员无罪负责任的。这些丑闻导致了 1933 年刑事司法系统的改革，但产生了长期影响。他们将鞭打尸体的比喻视为一种特别的“非洲”愤怒。它们帮助将特定司法和政府技术具有特定文化特征的观念制度化。他们将个人身份的关键标志政治化。