The history of the Nigerian slave trade is a complex and multifaceted topic, spanning centuries and involving various actors and forms of exploitation. From the pre-colonial era to the present day, slavery and human trafficking have had a profound impact on Nigerian society, shaping its demographics, economy, and social structures.
Before delving into the specifics of the Nigerian slave trade, it's essential to understand the broader context of slavery in Africa. Slavery was not an invention of the West; it predates all written records. On the African continent itself, slavery predated the arrival of Europeans by centuries, and it still continues to this day. Africa as a continent bled from slavery for 14 centuries: ten to the Arab World, and another four to the Western World.
The Arab slave trade started in the 8th century AD very likely because Islam prohibits Muslims from enslaving each other. Despite this prohibition, human labour was needed for certain tasks, so the Arabs had to forage into the African hinterlands to get slaves. To start with, they stayed on the East coast of Africa, close to the Rift Valley, but as they traded, they spread their religion. This meant that the former slaving areas went out of the picture for slavery, so eventually, they reached West Africa. Time went by and West Africans became wise to the prohibition of slavery by Islam, and started to convert to Islam.
One thing the Arabs and the West had in common was the use of religion, Islam and Christianity, to justify trading in people. In giving this similarity, we must then state that fundamental difference between the Saharan trade and the Atlantic trade was the racism involved. While the Arabs’ slaves could adopt Islam and their kids at least would not be slaves, in Europe/America it was different. For example, the king of the Kongo, Nzinga Mbemba became a Christian about 1491 hoping it would stop Portugal from taking his people. That did not work as many letters he wrote to the king of Portugal were ignored. Some of his own kids were even sold into slavery.
Another difference was the needs of the slavers. The Arabs mainly wanted domestic servants, soldiers, eunuchs for their harems. The Europeans on the other hand were industrial in their demands. They wanted their slaves for one thing: to make money. Before we move on, it must be pointed out that Arabs did try to enslave Africans for production, but it was a disaster.
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Pre-Colonial Slavery in Nigeria
Several Nigerian societies practiced slavery before the arrival of Europeans. These include:
- The Oyo Empire: The Oyo Empire was a powerful Yoruba state in the modern country of Nigeria. It began in the 1300s in the West African savannah north of the tropical forests where other Yoruba peoples lived. Being in the savannah proved beneficial, as Oyo could use horses, which were unable to live farther south (due to the tsetse fly). Using this armored cavalry, the empire was able to extend its reach across parts of what is now northern and western Nigeria. Oyo was generally unable to penetrate to the coast except where the savanna reached southward to the ocean in Benin.
- The Igbo: The Igbo traditionally maintained the Osu caste system of the Odinani religion. Osu were people who were regarded as spiritually inferior, as they were guilty of breaking sacred laws. Thus, they were segregated from regular Igbo society. Osu were either kept as slaves, killed as offereings to the alusi, or sold into the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
- The Yoruba: Slavery had traditionally existed among the Yoruba people before it was officially abolished by the British in 1893, during colonialism. Owning slaves was a status symbol in Yoruba society. There were three categories of slaves in Yoruba society: ìwọ̀fà, war captives, and criminals. The term ìwọ̀fà refers to slaves who were voluntarily handed over by one family to another as a collateral to pay off a loan. The slave typically worked for their master as long as the loan remained unpaid. War captives were another category. Warriors who were victorious in war typically brought war captives to important chiefs and kings, who enslaved them and forced them to work on their farms or work in trades.
- The Sokoto Caliphate: The Sokoto Caliphate was a powerful 19th-century Sunni Muslim caliphate with its capital Sokoto located in northern Nigeria.
The treatment of slaves varied depending on the personality of the masters, and the behaviors of the slaves themselves. Efunsetan Aniwura, the Iyalode of Ibadan, was reputed to be an extremely cruel slave master who punished her slaves with death by decapitation.
The colonial period in Nigeria began with the slave trade in the 15th century. According to an article from The Commonwealth entitled "Nigeria: History," the Portuguese paved the way for the slave trade, and Nigeria was a big area of business for them. They sold slaves in order to obtain spices and weapons in other areas.
However, the article written by John Edward Phillips entitled "What's New About African History?" states that the Nigerians themselves were the ones who provided the slaves. Tensions between different ethnic groups and tribes caused prisoners of war, so to speak, who would be sold to the Portuguese as slaves. For many Nigerians, this was their main source of income.
Now, the balance of global power shifted sometime in the 15th century, as Muslim power waned, and Western Europe took the reins. Shortly after that, the New World, with all its resources was discovered, with great environment for growing sugar and cotton. The demand for sugar was growing at the time, but growing it, and cotton are very labour intensive and a workforce was needed.
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In 1517, a Catholic Bishop, Bartolome de las Casas, wrote and suggested the use of slaves from Africa, because according to him, Africans were stronger, less likely to rebel, and most importantly, shared the same diseases as Europeans, so were unlikely to fall sick and die. Bishop de las Casas’s suggestion was well received, so off some people went to get them some slaves, and of course they saw some Delta youths willing to sell them a consignment. Soon other European countries began to get involved in the Americas and as a result face the same issues the Portuguese faced. They all took the solution that the Portuguese had taken, go get us some African slaves.
The part about Africans being willing to enslave their fellow Africans is crucial because then, Europeans couldn’t go deep inland. Little things such as the mosquito made sure that Europeans never strayed far from the shore, so they needed collaborators. As Masters of the Universe then, it was only natural that Britain came to dominate the slave trade for the next 300 years.
Much of the blame for the growth of the slave trade into a major industry is attributed to a Briton named John Hawkins (pictured above). Hawkins “modernised” the rabble the Portuguese started, cleaned it up, and made it a “respectable” business. He started what was called “the triangular trade”. Ships would sail from Britain with guns, mirrors and alcohol; these ships would go to the area known as the Slave Coast, today’s Niger Delta, and would anchor off the coast; the crew would row ashore, where they’d be met by natives who’d take their weapons and drinks in exchange for slaves; the slavers would then take this unfortunate slave cargo on a truly memorable trip across the Atlantic, to the New World where, the slaves would be exchanged for sugar, cotton and cash. These goods would go back to Europe for a great profit.
At first, the people who were given to the slavers were victims of wars, or raids, or in a few pathetic cases, efulefu. But as the demand for slave labour increased, that demand fuelled wars and more raids specifically to satisfy the commerce.
"Nigeria: History" also states that by the 18th century, the British had replaced the Portuguese as the leaders of the slave- trade business. According to Google Culture Institute's "Birth of the Nigerian Colony," British traders settled in Nigeria around this time in an area that surrounded the Niger River known as Lagos. The abolition of the slave trade was the key moment when the British truly “intervened in the region.” They placed their focus on obtaining goods to increase their ability to trade, as well as on converting the people of the area, which was previously heavily Muslim, to Christianity.
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Nigerian dignitaries, 1841. [William Allen, A Narrative of the Expedition sent by Her Majesty's Government to the River Niger, in 1841 (London, 1848), vol.
The increasing European demand was what spurred Africans to continue capturing and selling slaves, which didn’t end until well into the 1800s.
The Impact of the Slave Trade
The slave trade had a devastating impact on Nigeria, leading to:
- Loss of human capital: The immediate, and most cited effect of the slave trade is that it robbed us of millions of our best and brightest. While I’m not sure of that, those who captured them were probably stronger, it definitely robbed us of a lot of human capital.
- Erosion of trust: The most important thing that the slave trade robbed us off is trust. A lot of our mistrust today is historical. This lack of trust was evident in that when the Europeans decided to colonise, we could not, and did not, stand together. An Nri man circa 1800 would not have sold another Nri man into slavery, but he’d have sold an Ezza man with no second thought. The fabric of trading in goods (and probably services) which existed before slave trade had been gone for centuries. Nri and Ezza are within a day’s walk from one another, but that ancient trust was long gone.
- Establishment of African collaborators: In summary, what slavery did to us as a people, was to establish, and entrench, the African collaborator with Europe. As long as the Europeans could not get into the hinterland they sold their guns, mirrors, alcohol, basically low end products to the willing African collaborator, who went further afield to go and get people. This pattern was worse in the Niger Delta.
The British began their colonization of the area by slowly moving around the area and defeating different power heads in order to obtain more trading goods. According to an article written by Toyin Falola titled "Nigeria as a Colony," the British government gained control over the Royal Niger Company’s territories, and added on lower regions near the river to create the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. The British kept their control over Nigeria via indirect rule, which meant that local leaders would govern the area under orders of the British. This way, the British could profit from the economy of Nigeria that, because of their intervention, was based primarily on the export of different crops including palm oil, cacao, and peanuts, while also not getting in the way of ethnic tensions.
Falola also writes that in order to deal with the diversity of groups of the area they had essentially created and defined as a colony, the British created a “divide and rule policy” that could keep different Nigerian groups as far away from one another as possible. Further divisions among the country came about from the fact that “traditional authorities” led the north, and subsequently Islam resisted the spread of Christianity. The south, however, was home of a “political hierarchy” in which the British “ruled through those who were most malleable.” Here Christianity spread quickly, adding further tensions to the area by separating people in both religion and politics.
So let’s now skip forward a few centuries, and a young Brit called Wilberforce led an anti slave trade movement, with success. We must note that when the British legislated to ban the slave trade, the French, Spanish Portuguese and Americans were not thrilled. But then, Britain was the supreme naval power, so her word was law. The ban held.
I must also point out the African role. When the Brits banned the slave trade in 1807, the Ashante King wrote to the King of England to ask why he would do such a thing. Not only the Ashante King, the Oba of Benin, and the Arochukwu Confederacy kicked against the ban. As did Spain and Portugal. But as stated earlier, Britain’s word, much like the United States today, was law, so the ban held, the trade went underground.
Britain’s ban on the trade was not altruistic. Britain did not need slaves any more. Britain is the first industrialised country in the world, and it’s no coincidence that their ban came after the industrial revolution started. Again, the Brits came back and colonised us, with almost equally devastating consequences.
What we will now look at is just HOW, the slave trade affects us today. The immediate, and most cited effect of the slave trade is that it robbed us of millions of our best and brightest. While I’m not sure of that, those who captured them were probably stronger, it definitely robbed us of a lot of human capital. The most important thing that the slave trade robbed us off is trust. A lot of our mistrust today is historical.
This lack of trust was evident in that when the Europeans decided to colonise, we could not, and did not, stand together. An Nri man circa 1800 would not have sold another Nri man into slavery, but he’d have sold an Ezza man with no second thought. The fabric of trading in goods (and probably services) which existed before slave trade had been gone for centuries. Nri and Ezza are within a day’s walk from one another, but that ancient trust was long gone.
In summary, what slavery did to us as a people, was to establish, and entrench, the African collaborator with Europe. As long as the Europeans could not get into the hinterland they sold their guns, mirrors, alcohol, basically low end products to the willing African collaborator, who went further afield to go and get people. This pattern was worse in the Niger Delta.
Now, and for the sake of balance, it must be pointed out that Africans themselves did resist slavery. Problem is by the time we began to resist it was already too late. Slavery in Africa changed because of the Atlantic Slave Trade as the justification for enslaving people became more flimsy. Some of our ancestors sold their neighbours’ children into slavery. Some others, simply turned on their neighbours themselves. The Aro, Edo and Ashante are perhaps, the best examples of peoples who turned their neighbours into virtual slave depots.
Meanwhile, there was a lull for about half a century, before Europe came back as colonisers, but the trust was already gone. In that intervening period, new power structures had formed here. When Europe returned to colonise Africa, things had changed. Modern medicine made it possible for them to penetrate inland.
When Europe returned to colonise, they again found willing collaborators in Africans, but under different rules this time.
Major Ethnic Groups in Nigeria.
Following WWII, Kamerun (Cameroon), a former German colony, was to be divided based on a League of Nations Mandate between the British and the French. According to Falola, the British added their part of the Former German colony to Nigeria, and once again, the diversity within the borders of Nigeria expanded. The British had a hard time keeping control of Nigeria, partly due to the trouble between groups and partly due to Pan-Africanism and the struggle to liberate black people form racism and European domination.
The movement inspired the first political party of Nigeria, which fought against the British rule via the youth, the media, the educated, and the farmers. The response of the British included slowly changing the governing system within Nigeria in order to allow the Nigerian people to have more of a voice. However, this resulted in further divisions and disagreements among Nigerians. Near the mid 20th century, many groups in Nigeria were fearful of gaining independence, for they knew the major ethnic groups would gain control of the new country. However, by 1960, Nigeria achieved its independence (Falola).
Slavery Museums in Badagry
While I was in Lagos for work, I took an extra day to visit Badagry, Nigeria. This town on the east side of Lagos was the “Point of No Return” in the Nigerian slave trade for 400 years.
Our first stop was Seriki Faremi Williams Abass Slave Museum; a “Brazilian Baracoon.” Built in the 1840s, this was, essentially, a warehouse for storing captives. Each room, about three meters by three meters, originally had only one small window near the ceiling for ventilation, holding up to forty men, women and children. These rooms held slaves: up to 40 in a room.
The second room of the museum is one of the original cells, and it was easy to imagine how nightmarish this would be with only that one small window-still there-and crowded with people for weeks or months on end, without a toilet or other sanitary facilities. I can only imagine how that period of imprisonment under such cruel conditions would break the captives’ spirits, if they survived.
Another room gave information about Seriki Williams Abass, the owner of the “baracoon.” Ironically, he had been a slave himself, and his owners took him to Brazil to be a domestic slave. They taught to read and write, which allowed them to send him back to Africa. There, he worked with his former owner as a slave trader.
Our guide told us of the intention of the Nigerian government to convert the entire former “baracoon” to a museum, but for now local families live in the former cells. They will eventually face eviction to accommodate the museum. Descendants of Abass own the building, so it is, for the moment, a private family museum. I found it interesting and a bit puzzling that his family still honors his memory in this way.
The Seriki Faremi Williams Abass Slave Museum: beside the Badagry post office.
We passed two cannons on the way to the next museum, just around the corner.
Another museum, called Mobee Slave Relics Museum, also addresses slavery, and is, like the Abass museum, family-owned by descendants of a traditional chief who was a prominent slave trader. Just? This museum consists of just one room, and the man who explained the objects around the room to us was, I think, a member of the family. He showed us the noisemaker that was used to announce the arrival of the chief, as well as telling us pretty much the same story of slavery that our guide had already told us.
The contrast between the lesson of these two museums - that slavery was nightmarish for the captives - and the evident pride and profit in being descendants of prominent slave traders is something that neither museum addressed directly.
Mobee Slave Relics Museum: on Mobee Street off of Hospital Road.
When the European ships arrived, slave traders took the captives out of the jails and chained them together single-file, except for children, who they chained to their mothers. They took them by boat to Gberefu Island, just across a small distance of water.
Arriving on the island, the slave traders forced the slaves to follow a narrow path through a forest across to the ocean side of the island. It’s not far; I’d guess we walked a kilometer or so. Today it’s a scrubby, sandy path, and I found it difficult because of the heat and the deep sand.
We passed a “spirit well” on the path. This well was believed to cause anyone who drinks the water to forget their past. The captives were forced to take a drink before reaching their embarkation point.
The path ends at the “Point of No Return” on a long straight beach lined with tall coconut palms.
Once on board, packed into the belly of the ship, they would endure the “Middle Passage” to the Americas, which could take as much as three months.
The history of this place is shameful and heart-breaking. In any form it would be difficult to convey the magnitude of suffering caused by the slave trade for 400 years.
A memorial marks the spot where the slaves finished their walk across the island, though it does not appear as originally intended. That disintegration is indicative of the state of the place as a whole: neglected.
Judging from some photos I found online, a new structure was added to the two remaining vertical pieces of the original monument. They now frame the entrance to a tunnel that rises and curls around and over itself, ending with an opening facing the sea. It is called the Ark of Embarkation. I presume the idea is to represent the darkness of those last steps into a dark, unknown future.
Putting aside the history of the place, the beach itself should have enormous potential for tourism. On the day we visited, it was completely empty as far as I could see in both directions, and those coconut palms are lovely lining the beach.
