Portuguese adventurers who sailed southeast along the Gulf of Guinea in 1472 landed on the
coast of what became Nigeria. Others followed. They found people of varying cultures. Some
lived in towns ruled by kings with nobility and courtiers, very much like the medieval
societies they left behind them. More than a century earlier Benin exchanged ambassadors
with Portugal. But not all African societies were as developed. Some enjoyed village
existence in primeval forests remote from outside influences.
The first African slaves landed in the Portugese port of Lagos in 1442. The old slave market
now serves as an art gallery.
Economics was the driving force
From the outset, relations between Europe and Africa were economic. Portuguese merchants
traded with Nigerians from trading posts they set up along the coast. They exchanged items
like brass and copper bracelets for such products as pepper, cloth, beads and slaves - all
part of an existing internal Nigerian trade. Domestic slavery was common in Nigeria and well
before European slave buyers arrived, there was trading in humans. Black slaves were
captured or bought by Arabs and exported across the Saharan desert to the Mediterranean
and Near East.
In 1492, the Spaniard Christopher Columbus discovered for Europe a 'New World'. The find
proved disastrous not only for the 'discovered' people but also for Africans. It marked the
beginning of a triangular trade between Africa, Europe and the New World. European slave
ships, mainly British and French, took people from Africa to the New World. They were
initially taken to the West Indies to supplement local Indians decimated by the Spanish
Conquistadors. The slave trade grew from a trickle to a flood, particularly from the
seventeenth century onwards.
Portugal's monopoly in the obnoxious trade was broken in the sixteenth century when
England followed by France and other European nations entered the trade. The English led in
the business of transporting young Africans from their homeland to work in mines and till
lands in the Americas.
Most slaves sold by Nigerians
At the initial stage of the trade parties of Europeans captured Nigerians in raids on
communities in the coastal areas. But this soon gave way to buying slaves from Nigerian
rulers and traders. The vast majority of slaves taken out of Nigeria were sold by Nigerian
rulers, traders and a military aristocracy who all grew wealthy from the business. Most
slaves were acquired through wars or by kidnapping. " Olaudah Equiano, an ex-slave,
described in his memoirs published in 1789 how African rulers carried out raids to capture
slaves. "When a trader wants slaves, he applies to a chief for them, and tempts him with his
wares. It is not extraordinary, if on this occasion he yields to the temptation with as little
firmness, and accepts the price of his fellow creature's liberty with as little reluctance, as the
enlightened merchant. Accordingly, he falls upon his neighbours, and a desperate battle
ensues...if he prevails, and takes prisoners, he gratifies his avarice by selling them."
A profitable trade
European slave buyers made the greater profit from the despicable trade, but their Nigerian
partners also prospered. Many grew strong and fat on profits made from selling their
brethren. Tinubu square, commercial centre of today's Lagos and home to Nigeria's Central
Bank, is named after a major nineteenth century slave trader. Madam Tinubu was born in
Egbaland and rose from rags to riches by trading in slaves , salt and tobacco in Badagry.
She later became one of Nigeria's pioneering nationalists.
Nigeria's rulers, traders and military aristocracy protected their interest in the slave trade.
They discouraged Europeans from leaving the coastal areas to venture into the interior of the
continent. European trading companies realised the benefit of dealing with Nigerian suppliers
and not unnecessarily antagonising them. The companies could not have mustered the
resources it would have taken to directly capture the tens of millions of people shipped out
of Africa. It was far more sensible and safer to give Africans guns to fight the many wars
that yielded captives for the trade. The slave trading network stretched deep into the Africa's
interior. Slave trading firms were aware of their dependency on African suppliers. The Royal
African Company, for instance, instructed its agents on the West coast "if any differences
happen, to endeavour an amicable accommodation rather than use force." They were "to
endeavour to live in all friendship with them" and "to hold frequent palavers with the Kings
and the Great Men of the Country, and keep up a good correspondent with them, ingratiating
yourself by such prudent methods" as may be deemed appropriate.
Nigerians faced with a new world
Contact with Europe opened new images of the world for the Nigerian elite and presented
them with products of a civilisation which as the centuries passed became more
technologically differentiated from their own. The slave trade whetted their appetite for the
products of a changing world. Sadly it was not only tinpot rulers who were mesmerised by
the glitters of western artefacts.
European traders saw the advantages of helping Nigerian kings and chiefs realise their desire
to acquire western culture, if not for themselves then for their children. Hugh Crow, who
commanded the last British slave ship to leave a British port, wrote "It has always been the
practice of merchants and commanders of ships to Africa, to encourage the natives to send
their children to England as it not only conciliates their friendship, and softens their manner,
but adds greatly to the security of the traders." With their children in Europe,
African chiefs
were likely to be more accommodating, knowing full well their offspring could be held as
ransom.
African traders resist abolition of obnoxious trade
When Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 it not only had to contend with opposition
from white slavers but also from Nigerian rulers who had become accustomed to wealth
gained from selling slaves or from taxes collected on slaves passed through their domain.
Nigerian slave-trading classes were greatly distressed by the news that legislators sitting in
parliament in London had decided to end their source of livelihood. But for as long as there
was demand from the Americas for slaves, the lucrative business continued.
The slave trade business continued in many parts of Africa for many decades after the British
abolished it. For as long as there was demand for slave labour in the Americas, the supply
was available. The British set up a naval blockade to stop ships carrying slaves from West
Africa, but it was not very effective in suppressing the trade. Thousands of slave ships were
detained during the decades the blockade was in operation. One Lieutenant Patrick Forbes, a
British naval officer, estimated in 1849 that during a period of 26 years 103,000 slaves were
emancipated by the warships of the naval blockade while ships carrying 1,795,000 slaves
managed to slip past the blockage and land their cargo in the Americas.
British efforts to suppress the trade made it even more profitable because the price of
slaves rose in the Americas. The numerous wars that plagued Yorubaland for half a century
following the fall of the Oyo empire was largely driven by demand for slaves. Reverend
Samuel Johnson wrote of the subjugation of neighbouring Yoruba kingdoms by Ibadan war-
chiefs in the 1850s: "Slave-raiding now became a trade to many who would get rich
speedily." It took the intervention of British colonialism to impose peace in Yorubaland in
- Slave trading for export ended in Nigeria and elsewhere in West Africa after slavery
ended in the Spanish colonies of Brazil and Cuba in 1880. A consequence of the ending of
the slave trade was the expansion of domestic slavery as Nigerian businessmen replaced
trade in human chattel with increased export of primary commodities. Labour was needed to
cultivate the new source of wealth for the Nigerian elites.
Abolition of the Slave Trade
In 1807 the Houses of Parliament in London enacted legislation prohibiting British subjects
from participating in the slave trade. Indirectly, this legislation was one of the reasons for
the collapse of Oyo. Britain withdrew from the slave trade while it was the major transporter
of slaves to the Americas.
Between them, the French and the British had purchased a majority of the slaves sold from
the ports of Oyo. The commercial uncertainty that followed the disappearance of the major
purchasers of slaves unsettled the economy of Oyo. Ironically, the political troubles in Oyo
came to a head after 1817, when the transatlantic market for slaves once again boomed.
Rather than supplying slaves from other areas, however, Oyo itself became the source of
slaves.
British legislation forbade ships under British registry to engage in the slave trade, but the
restriction was applied generally to all flags and was intended to shut down all traffic in
slaves coming out of West African ports. Other countries more or less hesitantly followed the
British lead. The United States, for example, also prohibited the slave trade in 1807
(Denmark actually was the first country to declare the trade illegal in 1792).
The Royal Navy maintained a prevention squadron to blockade the coast, and a permanent
station was established at the Spanish colony of Fernando Po, off the Nigerian coast, with
responsibility for patrolling the West African coast. Slaves rescued at sea were usually taken
to Sierra Leone, where they were released. Apprehended slave runners were tried by naval
courts and were liable to capital punishment if found guilty.
Still, a lively slave trade to the Americas continued into the 1860s. The demands of Cuba
and Brazil were met by a flood of captives taken in wars among the Yoruba and shipped
from Lagos, while the Aro continued to supply the delta ports with slave exportPortuguese adventurers who sailed southeast along the Gulf of Guinea in 1472 landed on the
coast of what became Nigeria. Others followed. They found people of varying cultures.
Some lived in towns ruled by kings with nobility and courtiers, very much like the medieval
societies they left behind them. More than a century earlier Benin exchanged ambassadors
with Portugal. But not all African societies were as developed. Some enjoyed village
existence in primeval forests remote from outside influences.
The first African slaves landed in the Portugese port of Lagos in 1442. The old slave market
now serves as an art gallery.
Economics was the driving force
From the outset, relations between Europe and Africa were economic. Portuguese merchants
traded with Nigerians from trading posts they set up along the coast. They exchanged items
like brass and copper bracelets for such products as pepper, cloth, beads and slaves - all
part of an existing internal Nigerian trade. Domestic slavery was common in Nigeria and well
before European slave buyers arrived, there was trading in humans. Black slaves were
captured or bought by Arabs and exported across the Saharan desert to the Mediterranean
and Near East.
In 1492, the Spaniard Christopher Columbus discovered for Europe a 'New World'. The find
proved disastrous not only for the 'discovered' people but also for Africans. It marked the
beginning of a triangular trade between Africa, Europe and the New World. European slave
ships, mainly British and French, took people from Africa to the New World. They were
initially taken to the West Indies to supplement local Indians decimated by the Spanish
Conquistadors. The slave trade grew from a trickle to a flood, particularly from the
seventeenth century onwards.
Portugal's monopoly in the obnoxious trade was broken in the sixteenth century when
England followed by France and other European nations entered the trade. The English led in
the business of transporting young Africans from their homeland to work in mines and till
lands in the Americas.
Most slaves sold by Nigerians
At the initial stage of the trade parties of Europeans captured Nigerians in raids on
communities in the coastal areas. But this soon gave way to buying slaves from Nigerian
rulers and traders. The vast majority of slaves taken out of Nigeria were sold by Nigerian
rulers, traders and a military aristocracy who all grew wealthy from the business. Most
slaves were acquired through wars or by kidnapping. " Olaudah Equiano, an ex-slave,
described in his memoirs published in 1789 how African rulers carried out raids to capture
slaves. "When a trader wants slaves, he applies to a chief for them, and tempts him with his
wares. It is not extraordinary, if on this occasion he yields to the temptation with as little
firmness, and accepts the price of his fellow creature's liberty with as little reluctance, as the
enlightened merchant. Accordingly, he falls upon his neighbours, and a desperate battle
ensues...if he prevails, and takes prisoners, he gratifies his avarice by selling them."
A profitable trade
European slave buyers made the greater profit from the despicable trade, but their Nigerian
partners also prospered. Many grew strong and fat on profits made from selling their
brethren. Tinubu square, commercial centre of today's Lagos and home to Nigeria's Central
Bank, is named after a major nineteenth century slave trader. Madam Tinubu was born in
Egbaland and rose from rags to riches by trading in slaves , salt and tobacco in Badagry.
She later became one of Nigeria's pioneering nationalists.
Nigeria's rulers, traders and military aristocracy protected their interest in the slave trade.
They discouraged Europeans from leaving the coastal areas to venture into the interior of the
continent. European trading companies realised the benefit of dealing with Nigerian suppliers
and not unnecessarily antagonising them. The companies could not have mustered the
resources it would have taken to directly capture the tens of millions of people shipped out
of Africa. It was far more sensible and safer to give Africans guns to fight the many wars
that yielded captives for the trade. The slave trading network stretched deep into the Africa's
interior. Slave trading firms were aware of their dependency on African suppliers. The Royal
African Company, for instance, instructed its agents on the West coast "if any differences
happen, to endeavour an amicable accommodation rather than use force." They were "to
endeavour to live in all friendship with them" and "to hold frequent palavers with the Kings
and the Great Men of the Country, and keep up a good correspondent with them, ingratiating
yourself by such prudent methods" as may be deemed appropriate.
Nigerians faced with a new world
Contact with Europe opened new images of the world for the Nigerian elite and presented
them with products of a civilisation which as the centuries passed became more
technologically differentiated from their own. The slave trade whetted their appetite for the
products of a changing world. Sadly it was not only tinpot rulers who were mesmerised by
the glitters of western artefacts.
European traders saw the advantages of helping Nigerian kings and chiefs realise their desire
to acquire western culture, if not for themselves then for their children. Hugh Crow, who
commanded the last British slave ship to leave a British port, wrote "It has always been the
practice of merchants and commanders of ships to Africa, to encourage the natives to send
their children to England as it not only conciliates their friendship, and softens their manner,
but adds greatly to the security of the traders." With their children in Europe, African chiefs
were likely to be more accommodating, knowing full well their offspring could be held as
ransom.
African traders resist abolition of obnoxious trade
When Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 it not only had to contend with opposition
from white slavers but also from Nigerian rulers who had become accustomed to wealth
gained from selling slaves or from taxes collected on slaves passed through their domain.
Nigerian slave-trading classes were greatly distressed by the news that legislators sitting in
parliament in London had decided to end their source of livelihood. But for as long as there
was demand from the Americas for slaves, the lucrative business continued.
The slave trade business continued in many parts of Africa for many decades after the British
abolished it. For as long as there was demand for slave labour in the Americas, the supply
was available. The British set up a naval blockade to stop ships carrying slaves from West
Africa, but it was not very effective in suppressing the trade. Thousands of slave ships were
detained during the decades the blockade was in operation. One Lieutenant Patrick Forbes, a
British naval officer, estimated in 1849 that during a period of 26 years 103,000 slaves were
emancipated by the warships of the naval blockade while ships carrying 1,795,000 slaves
managed to slip past the blockage and land their cargo in the Americas.
British efforts to suppress the trade made it even more profitable because the price of
slaves rose in the Americas. The numerous wars that plagued Yorubaland for half a century
following the fall of the Oyo empire was largely driven by demand for slaves. Reverend
Samuel Johnson wrote of the subjugation of neighbouring Yoruba kingdoms by Ibadan war-
chiefs in the 1850s: "Slave-raiding now became a trade to many who would get rich
speedily." It took the intervention of British colonialism to impose peace in Yorubaland in
- Slave trading for export ended in Nigeria and elsewhere in West Africa after slavery
ended in the Spanish colonies of Brazil and Cuba in 1880. A consequence of the ending of
the slave trade was the expansion of domestic slavery as Nigerian businessmen replaced
trade in human chattel with increased export of primary commodities. Labour was needed to
cultivate the new source of wealth for the Nigerian elites.
Abolition of the Slave Trade
In 1807 the Houses of Parliament in London enacted legislation prohibiting British subjects
from participating in the slave trade. Indirectly, this legislation was one of the reasons for
the collapse of Oyo. Britain withdrew from the slave trade while it was the major transporter
of slaves to the Americans.
NOTE: NO CRITICISM, IT'S JUST AN HISTORY
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