The Trading States of the Oil Rivers: A Study of Political Development in Eastern NigeriaThis vivid account of the rise of the remarkable slave and palm oil trading states in the Niger delta in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also analyses the relation of political development to economic change. The author's field studies among the Ijo, Ibibio, and Ibo peoples have made possible an analysis of the essential processes of economic and political transformation which lay behind the oral traditions. There are also detailed and often lively accounts of the European traders. The study concentrates on the two principal Oil Rivers states which nineteenth century writers called New Calabar and Grand Bonny. For purposes of comparison the adjacent states of Brass (Nem?) and Okrika, the Andoni peoples and the Efik state known to Europeans as Old Calabar are also examined. The study ends in 1884, the year that marks the beginning of the Brithsh Protectorate government and with it the end of indigenous systems of government which characterised these Oil River States during the nineteenth century. The monarchies established in the eighteenth century by King Pepple of Bonny and King Armakiri of Kalabari and the political and economic organisations developed under their rule were coming to, or had already come to, an end, with new oligarchies developing in their place. |
Contents
1 | |
III | 7 |
IV | 9 |
V | 13 |
VI | 16 |
VII | 19 |
VIII | 20 |
IX | 22 |
XXX | 105 |
XXXI | 107 |
XXXII | 133 |
XXXV | 139 |
XXXVI | 157 |
XXXVII | 159 |
XXXVIII | 162 |
XXXIX | 166 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abali able African community Amakiri Andoni Arochuku Barboy group became Bight of Biafra Bights of Benin Bonny and Kalabari Bonny tradition Braid Brass British community Calabar river canoe house group Captain Chiefs of Bonny comey consul court of equity deity descendants Duke Town Eastern Delta Effiom Efik Elem Kalabari established European traders expansion fission founder Fubra George Amakiri greater household group of houses head hinterland Horsefall Ibibio Ifoko Jack Jaja juju Kalabari tradition Kamalu King Amakiri King and Chiefs King Karibo King Pepple King William Dappa kingship Korome leaders lineage main house Majesty's Manilla Pepple Manuel markets Nembe Niger Nigeria nineteenth century Oil River Okrika Old Calabar Ombo Opobo original Orikadibia Owerri palm oil Pepple house Pepple's Prince puncheons referred reign Rio Real ritual segments ship slave trade structure succeeded supercargoes Tombia treaty tribes vessel village ward wealth West India
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Page vii - Indeed, we have chosen for the series those studies which were especially innovatory in their day; ahead of their time then, they continue to read well now. They are also studies of unusual depth in the 1930s, the product of 4-5 years' research, in the 1950s of 2-3 years'. Such concentrated fieldwork is a rarity today. The Institute, though administered from London, was markedly international: its funding came from European and African (colonial) governments, mission organisations (both Catholic...