Transatlantic slave trade? Africans were active participants

 

In light of the United Nations voting today to recognise the enslavement of Africans as the 'gravest crime against humanity', I wish to set out my view on this matter. To be clear, I do not disagree with this vote. What I have a grouse with is that this resolution was proposed by an African member state of the United Nations, whereas Africans themselves were active participants in the transatlantic slave, and historians have suggested that approximately 90 percent of enslaved Africans in the this trade were captured and enslaved by fellow Africans before being sold to European traders. 

Now Africans are among those rightly demanding contrition (and reparations) from the perpetrators of this crime against humanity, yet Africans have not shown that they have acknowledged the full extent of their own participation in it. As direct evidence of Africans' involvement, below are the words of my own ancestors set out in a document written by them as a complaint to the then British colonial officers. 

In 2013, I had obtained a copy of the original report published in 1896. 

From 7 December, 2013

Today I obtained my copy of this report from H.M. Stationery Office. It is the Report by Sir John Kirk on the inquiry into the attack on the Royal Niger Company's headquarters in Akassa by the people of Nembe (Brass) in 1895, titled Disturbances At Brass. The attack was led by the king of Nembe, King William Koko. 

Sixty of the company's European employees were captured during the raid and reportedly later killed and ceremonially cannibalised. The report was published by the then British Colonial Office and presented to both Houses of the British Parliament in 1896.

Excerpts from the Report:-

"(Grievances of the Brass/Nembe people) 

Memorandum - Case of the Brass Chiefs.   (These are my ancestors)

Many years ago our fathers used to make their living by selling slaves to Europeans. This Slave Traffic was stopped by the Queen's Government and a Treaty made in 1856, to the effect that they should discontinue that traffic, and enter into a legitimate one, and that if they did so an allowance called "comey" should be paid them by the traders on all produce brought down from the interior.

This they agreed to; so that from that time to now we have not shipped a single person, but have traded only in palm oil and kernels.

Some time after this Europeans began trading in the Niger. Seeing this we at once complained to the Consul, but with no effect.

In 1878 Consul Hopkins arrived here and offered us the markets from Abo downwards, but we claimed from Onitsha to the sea.

The Consul went away, promising to consult the Government, but unfortunately he died the following year, and nothing was done.

In 1884 Consul Hewitt arrived to renew old Treaties. We brought the subject of the restoration of our markets to us before him, and positively told him we would sign no more Treaties, because no good came of it, until he gave us some assurance that justice would be done us, and that our markets would be given back to us.

In reply, he said he had no power to make this promise without consulting the Government. We refused to sign the Treaty. Then he requested us to sign it only for six months if we would not sign it altogether, and he would try to get us the exclusive use of the Assay markets in the Warri branch.

On this condition we signed a Treaty.

At the end of six months Vice-Consul H. A. White induced us, on the same promise, to extend it for another six months, in order to await the reply of the Government.

While this was going on (1884-1885) the French Government sent and asked us to enter into an agreement with it, and offered us large and costly presents, and promised us all sorts of good returns and aid; but we refused, thinking we would be more secure under the English.

In March 1886 Consul Hewitt arrived here with a printed form of Treaty for us to sign in place of the above-mentioned one, and said that the Government had decided that markets could not be divided nor given to any one particularly, that white men and black men might trade equally in all the markets, and that all and every market was to be free to everybody.

Seeing we could not do otherwise, we agreed to free trade. Article VI of this Treaty deals particularly with free trade.

About this time Consul Hewitt came back again, and, to our great surprise, informed us that the Government had granted to the National African Company a Royal Charter on the River Niger, which meant that they had full power to do what they liked in the river, and to impose and receive duties from everybody who wished to go there for the purpose of trade. We called his attention to the fact that our Treaty states that trade was free : how was it then that we were not allowed to go and trade freely at villages the people of whom we, our fathers, and grandfathers had traded with in past times?

The Company, which is now known as the Niger Company, has done us many injuries, which were made known to Consul Hewitt in writing : for some time after the Charter was granted they drove us away from our markets in which we and our forefathers had traded for generations, and did not allow us to get in our trust, or trade debts, some of which remain unpaid to this day. Neither will they permit the Ejoh or market people to come down and pay us.

In 1889, Major MacDonald now our big Consul, came to us, and we told him of all these things, and he promised that he would lay our complaints before the Queen's Government : Consul Hewitt was still in the Rivers.

In 1891, he, Major MacDonald, came again and explained to us that it was the intention of the Queen's Government to send Consuls to these Rivers and that we should then have a Consul of our own who would specifically look after our interests. He pointed out to us that this could not be done without money, and explained how the money could be raised by means of duty, and asked us whether we consented to pay these duties. At first we refused because we could get no satisfactory answer about our markets : but eventually we signed, but begged the Major that he would do what he could do to get some of our markets back for us. He then appointed a Vice-Consul Captain MacDonald to the River.

Since then we have seen the Major many times, and he has always told us to be patient, but latterly things have gone from bad to worse, and the markets that we have are quite insufficient to sustain us.

We thoroughly understand that all markets are free, and open to everybody, black and white man alike : and we are quite willing to trade side by side with the white man at those markets. We do not now ask for any exclusive privileges whatever, but only that we be allowed to trade without molestation at the places we and our fathers have traded in days gone by.

We are willing to pay fair duties : but we cannot understand, however, if all markets are open to black and white man alike, while there are many villages and markets in the Niger where neither are allowed to go and trade.

We submit that if we have to go to Akassa, a distance of nearly 40 miles, to pay our duties and are only allowed to trade at certain places selected by the Niger Company called "ports of entry", and have to take out trade and spirit licences and pay a very heavy duty going into the territories, and a heavy duty coming out, it is the same thing as if we were forbidden to trade at all.

The Niger Company say, "We (the Company) have to do these things, why not you?"

We can only say that, with our resources, to carry out these regulations and pay these duties means ruin to us.

The Niger Company are cleverer than we are. We humbly submit that we have a right, confirmed by our Treaty, to go and trade freely in the places we have traded at for all these generations. We are ready to pay to do so, but let us pay a fair duty and conform to fair Regulations.

The duties and Regulations of the Company means to us ruin : of this there is no doubt.

We do not deny that we have smuggled, but under the circumstances, can this be wondered at?

We have suffered many hardships from the Company's regulations. Our people have been fired upon by the Company's launches, they have been fired upon from the Company's hulks, our canoes have been seized and goods taken, sometimes when engaged in what white men call smuggling, and sometimes when not.

The "chop" canoes coming from the Ejohs have also been stopped.

Within the last few weeks the Niger Company has sent messengers to the Ejohs and other tribes with whom we have always traded and said that any of them who traded with us at all, or who paid us their debts, would be severely punished and their villages burnt.

We have evidence to prove all this, which we would like to lay before the big man who has been sent by the Queen.

All these unjust things have been done to us, and many times we have been told to be patient, and have been so, and the wrongs which we consider we have suffered are now worse than ever, all these drove us to take the law into our own hands and attack the Company's factories at Akassa.

We know now we have done wrong, and for this wrong we have been severely punished ; but we submit that the many unjust oppressions we have borne have been very great, and it is only in self defence, and with a view to have our wrongs inquired into, that we have done this thing. We have frequently asked the Consuls that have been put over us, from Consul Hewitt to the present time, to tell us in what way we have offended the Queen to cause her to send this trouble on us.    

Traders we are, have been and will always be.

The soil of our country is too poor to cultivate sufficient food for all our people, and so if we do not trade and get food from other tribes we shall suffer great want and misery.

We fervently hope and pray that some arrangements may be arrived at which will enable us to pursue our trade in peace and quietness.

(Signed) 

WARRI KAREMMA                                                  

NATHANIEL HARDSTONE E.  

                              Witnesses :

(Signed)  

H. L. GALLWEY

Deputy Commissioner and Vice-Consul

Benin District 

CUTHBERT E. HARRISON

Acting Vice-Consul Brass District 

Brass, June 8, 1895

Reparations for Africa?

We heard that Ghana is set to file a resolution at the United Nations on March 25, 2026, to have the transatlantic slave trade declared as one of the greatest crimes against humanity. President John Mahama has led the African Union's call for reparations, demanding that former colonial powers provide compensation for the injustices of slavery and colonialism. So, will the African slave raiders who captured and sold their fellow humans also be held to account? Or are we to ignore this part of the story?

Approximately 90% of Africans captured for the transatlantic slave trade were enslaved by fellow Africans—including rival states, kings, and traders—and sold to European buyers. Major powers driving this internal trade included the Kingdom of Dahomey, the Ashanti Empire, and the Oyo Empire, who often raided smaller societies for captives. Those actions were frequently fuelled by the European demand for labour, which encouraged kingdoms to secure goods like guns, textiles, and alcohol by providing captives. Coastal groups like the Efik and Ijaw in the Bight of Bonny, as well as individuals like Nwaubani Ogogo Oriaku, acted as middlemen, purchasing captives from the interior and selling them to Europeans at ports. Many Africans became rich from this trade.

My own ancestors in the Niger Delta engaged in selling captives from the hinterland to the Europeans, acting as middlemen. Why do we not include this part of the story in our conversations about this subject? Should Africans not also be taking responsibility for their complicity and for their own role in this trade? Why is "victim" the role we always want to enthusiastically embrace?

Manillas were a form of commodity money widely used as the principal currency by European traders to purchase enslaved Africans and other goods in West Africa from the 15th century onward. They were a crucial element of the transatlantic slave trade's economic system.

Manillas served as a traditional currency and metal bracelet in West Africa from the 15th to the 20th century and were primarily cast from copper, brass, and bronze. These open-ring, horseshoe-shaped items were often produced in Europe, notably in Birmingham, England, and traded for commodities and enslaved people.

Scientific analysis confirms that many of the famous Benin Bronzes were crafted by melting down millions of brass manillas. The artefacts are, arguably, the proceeds of the trade in human beings. There is a culpability for this heinous crime against humanity that we Africans have failed to acknowledge, choosing instead always to play the victim. The real victims of this crime were those who were enslaved, not those who captured them, enslaved them, and sold them.

Yes it is true that the Europeans themselves captured slaves. In the 15th century, Portuguese explorers often kidnapped West Africans directly from the coast to take back to Europe. European sailors and traders occasionally engaged in kidnapping individuals or conducted small raids along the coastline, as documented by formerly enslaved people like Olaudah Equiano, but high mortality rates from tropical diseases in the interior limited the ability of Europeans to travel inland to capture people themselves. Most enslaved people were captured by other Africans, particularly during wars, and sold at coastal forts operated by European nations like Britain, France, and Portugal.

While direct European raids happened, they were a smaller part of the overall, systematic, and brutal trade that saw 12–15 million Africans transported to the Americas. We Africans must face up to what actually happened and stop portraying ourselves wholly as victims. As a matter of fact, it is we Africans who now owe an apology to the descendants of those whom our ancestors so grievously harmed. This, I'm afraid, is the opposite of saying that 'reparations' are due to Africa, in particular, for the transatlantic slave trade, when many Africans were themselves enriched by it.

Reparations for colonialism is a different matter altogether, and with this I am in full agreement with its proponents; for the crimes against humanity committed during colonialism.

The manilla shown below with a horseshoe shape and flattened broad terminals, was known as the ‘Mkporo’ or ‘Okpoko’ manilla.

The word ‘okpoko’ is synonymous with ‘money’ or ‘brass’ in several West African languages like Efik and Ibibio. Manillas of copper and brass were the first true general-purpose currency known in West Africa, used for ordinary market purchases, bride price, payment of fines, compensation of diviners, and for the needs of the next world, as burial money.

Although used primarily for exchange in local agricultural and luxury products, the manillas also become a principle currency in the West African slave trade. The Portuguese, Dutch, French and British slave traders carried them to interior West Africa to procure slaves.

Accounts in the 15th-century state that a male slave could be bought for 12 to 15 manillas. But as demand for slaves grew, with growth of colonisation and plantations in the Americas and West Indies, inflation set in and the price of slaves went up to about 50 manillas in the 16th century.

A horseshoe-shaped brass ‘Manilla’ – pre-colonial money in West Africa