Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:06:01.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Here is No Resisting the Country’. The Realities of Power in Afro-European Relations on the West African ‘Slave Coast’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Robin Law
Robin Law
Affiliation:
University of Stirling, Scotland*
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Perceptions of the earliest stages of interaction between European nations and the indigenous peoples of Africa, from the beginnings of European maritime expansion in the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, are easily clouded by consciousness of the subsequent imposition of European rule over almost the entire African continent. There has, arguably, been a tendency to read back into earlier periods the military and political dominance which became manifest in the European Partition of Africa at the end of the nineteenth century. The temptation is, perhaps, especially strong in relation to the history of the Atlantic slave trade, which appears so obviously damaging to the African societies involved that it is readily assumed that their participation in it must have been somehow coerced. Although strongest in popular perceptions, this tendency has been reflected in the work of some academic historians also: perhaps most emphatically in the general survey of Afro-European commercial relations by the late Walter Rodney, which remains probably the most widely read book on African history. There we are told, for example, that ‘From the beginning, Europe assumed the power to make decisions within the international trading system […] Above all, European decision-making power was exercised in selecting what Africa should export – in accordance with European needs.’ Primarily, according to Rodney, this was a question of disparity of economic power; but ‘as a last resort’ armed force could be used ‘to ensure the pursuit of favourable policies in the dependent areas’.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , July 1994 , pp. 50 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 Rodney, Walter, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (London 1972) 86–87, 91Google Scholar.

2 Thornton, John, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1680 (Cambridge 1992)Google Scholar.

3 See Lawrence, A.W., Trade Castles and Forts of West Africa (London 1963)Google Scholar ; also Dantzig, Albert van & Priddy, Barbara, A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana (Accra 1971)Google Scholar.

4 See further Kea, Ray, ‘Firearms and warfare on the Gold and Slave Coasts from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries’, fournal of African History 12 (1971) 185–213Google Scholar.

5 Bosman, William, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (London 1705) 184Google Scholar.

6 Daaku, Kwame Yeboa, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600–1720 (Oxford 1970) chapter IVGoogle Scholar.

7 See Law, Robin, The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550–1750: The impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African society (Oxford 1991)Google Scholar.

8 For the history of Dahomey, see also Akinjogbin, L.A., Dahomey and its Neighbours 1708–1818 (Cambridge 1967)Google Scholar.

9 ‘Journal du Voyage du Sieur Delbēe’, in: Clodore, J. de ed., Relation de ce qui s'est passe dans Us Isles el Terre-ferme de I'Ambique (Paris 1671) ii, 451–453Google Scholar.

10 Dantzig, Albert Van ed., The Dutch and the Guinea Coast 1674–1742: A collection ofdocuments from the General Stale Archive at The Hague (Accra 1978)Google Scholar no. 3: Heerman Abramsz to Assembly of Ten, 23 Nov. 1679; Jones, Adam ed., Bmntlenburg Sources for West African History 1680–1700 (Stuttgart 1985), no. 6: Otto Friedrich von Groeben's Account of his Voyage to Guinea, 1682–1683, 55Google Scholar.

11 Van Dantzig, , The Dutch, nos. 30, 74Google Scholar : Valentyn Gros, Offra, 21 Dec. 1690; Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 31 May 1692.

12 Hair, P.E.H., Jones, Adam and Law, Robin eds., Barbol on Guinea: The writings offean Burbot on West Africa, 1678–1712 (London 1992) ii. 642Google Scholar.

13 Law, Robin ed., Further Correspondence of the Royal African Company ofEngland relating to the ‘Slave Coast’, 1681–1699: Selected documents from Ms. Rawlinson C. 745–747 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1992), nos. 63–64, 66Google Scholar : John Wortley, Whydah, 5 & 17 Jan. 1692; Edward Jacldin, Whydah, 17 Jan. 1692.

14 ‘Relation du voyage d'Issiny fait en 1701 par le Chevalier Damon’, in: Roussier, Paul ed., L'Etablissement d'Issiny 1687–1702: Voyages de Ducasse, Tibierge el D'Amon a la Cote de Guinee (Paris 1935) 106Google Scholar.

15 Phillips, Thomas, ‘Journal of a Voyage in the Hannibal of London, 1693–1694’, in: Awnsham, and Churchill, John eds., Collection of Voyages and Travels (London 1732) v, 215Google Scholar.

16 Snelgrave, William, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea, and the Slave Trade (London 1734) 128Google Scholar.

17 Van Dantzig, , The Dutch, nos. 23, 32Google Scholar : Isaac van Hoolwerff, OfFra, 10 Feb. 1688; Valentyn Gros, Offra, 7 Aug. 1691.

18 Law, , Further Correspondence, no. 63: John Wortley, Whydah, 5 01 1692Google Scholar.

19 Van Dantzig, , The Dutch, no. 170: Journal of Elmina Castle, 29 12 1709Google Scholar.

20 See further Law, Robin, ‘Warfare on the West African Slave Coast, 1650–1850’, in: Ferguson, R. Brian and Whitehead, Neil L. eds., War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding slates and indigenous warfare (Santa Fé 1992) 103–126Google Scholar.

21 Van Dantzig, , The Dutch, no. 252: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 8 05 1727; Francisco Pereyra Mendes, Whydah, 4 Apr. 1727, quoted in: Verger, Flux et Reflux, 145Google Scholar.

22 Viceroy of Brazil, 30 July 1728, quoted in: Verger, , Flux el Reflux, 146Google Scholar.

23 Law, Robin ed., Correspondence of Royal African Company's Chief Merchants at CaboCorso Castle with William's Fort, Whydah, and the Little Popo Factory, 1727–1728: An annotated transcription of Ms. Francklin 1055/1 in the Bedfordshire County Record Office (African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison 1991), no. 19:Google Scholar Thomas Wilson, Whydah, 29 Apr. 1728; Archives Nationales, Paris [AN], C6/25, unsigned letter, Whydah, 20 May 1728. These eyewitness reports must be presumed to be more accurate than the later account of Snelgrave, , New Account, 116–120, which claims that the Dahomians did, in fact, occupy the French fort after its destructionGoogle Scholar.

24 AN, C6/26: Levet, Whydah, 20 Aug. 1743; Norris, Robert, Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee, King of Dahomy (London 1789) 30–33Google Scholar.

25 Norris, , Memoirs, 57–59Google Scholar.

26 Adams, John, Remarks on the Country Extendingfrom Cape Palmtts to the River Congo (London 1823) 52Google Scholar.

27 The Portuguese fort (which remained in the possession of the Portuguese government until 1961) is the only one of the three which survives more or less intact (and is now a historical museum); the English fort (or perhaps, a building which succeeded it) still exists, but altered beyond recognition as a military edifice; the French fort was demolished n i 1908.

28 Public Record Office, London [PRO], CO1/17: Captain Stewart, Allada, 18 Sept. 1663.

29 Jones, , Brandenburg Sources, no. 6: von Groeben's Account, 55Google Scholar.

30 Law, , Further Correspondence, no. 7: John Thome, Offra, 4 12 1681Google Scholar.

31 Van Dantzig, , The Dutch, no. 15: Instruction for Willem de la Palma, 8 12 1685Google Scholar.

32 Secretary of State, Lisbon, 13 March 1750, quoted in: Verger, , Flux et Reflux, 189Google Scholar.

33 Law, , The Slave Coast, 168–182Google Scholar.

34 Law, , Further Correspondence, no. 81: Josiah Pearson, Whydah, 8 04 1695Google Scholar.

35 Ibidem, no. 18a: Timothy Armitage, Whydah, 19 Oct. 1682.

36 Ibidem, no. 66: Edward Jacklin, Whydah, 10 May 1692.

37 Van Dantzig, , The Dutch, no. 206: Resolutions of Council, Elmina, 7 12 1714; AN, C6/25: Du Colombier, Whydah, 4 Feb. 1715Google Scholar.

38 PRO, T70/6: Mason, Welch & Branston, Whydah, 14 Sept. 1715; AN, B3/236, Du Colombier, 14 Apr. 1716.

39 Snelgrave, , New Account, 130–134Google Scholar.

40 AN, C6/25, ‘Memoire contre le Sr Galot’, 8 Nov. 1730; Snelgrave, , New Account, 119Google Scholar.

41 AN, C6/25: Levet, Whydah, 20 Aug. 1743.

42 Viceroy of Brazil, 8 Oct. 1747, quoted in: Verger, , Flux el Reflux, 188Google Scholar.

43 See lists in Akinjogbin, , Dahomey, 216–217Google Scholar.

44 Dalzel, Archibald, The History of Dahomy (London 1793) 227Google Scholar.

45 Adams, , Remarks, 54Google Scholar.

46 Extractsfrom the.Report ofthe Commissioners appointed for investigating the State of the Settlements and Governments on the Coast of Africa (London 1812) 12Google Scholar.

47 Law, , Further Correspondence, no. 7: John Thome, Offra, 4 12 1681Google Scholar.

48 Text in: Labat, Jean-Baptiste, Voyage de Chevalier (Us Marchais en Guinee, ides voisines, el a Otyenne (2nd ed., Paris 1731) ii, 88–91Google Scholar.

49 PRO, CO113/276: Randle Logan to Joseph Blaney, 20 Feb. 1715.

50 Governor & Council, Cape Coast Castle, 1 Mar. 1791, quoted in: Akinjogbin, , Dahomey, 184Google Scholar.

51 M'Leod, John, A Voyage to Africa (London 1820) 108–121Google Scholar.

52 Duncan, John, Travels in Western Africa (London 1847) ii, 263Google Scholar; Burton, Richard, A Mission to Celele, King of Dahome (London 1966) 344Google Scholar.