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By Ship or by Camel: The Struggle for the Cameroons Ivory Trade in the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Marion Johnson
Marion Johnson
Affiliation:
C.W.A.S., University of Birmingham
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Extract

Ivory appears to have gone to the Cameroun coast in considerable quantity in the early nineteenth century, while little was being carried across the desert. By the middle of the century this position had been reversed. This paper traces the penetration of Hausa ivory traders to Adamawa and the southern ivory markets, and the subsequent struggle by European firms with posts on the Niger and the Benue to divert the trade back to the sea-borne route. Eventually the Germans in Kamerun had some success in diverting what had become a dwindling trade as the elephants fell victim to modern weapons and to the ‘opening up’ of the country.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 1978 , pp. 539 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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