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Suppression of the Slave Trade in the Nigerian Emirates*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

C. N. Ubah
C. N. Ubah
Affiliation:
Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, Nigeria
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Extract

This article has concentrated on the efforts made by the British colonial regime in Northern Nigeria to suppress the slave trade. It has shown that the slave trade disappeared gradually, in three phases. The first extended from 1900 to about 1908, the second lasted until about 1919, while the third continued until the disappearance of the slave trade at the end of the 1930s. The task of suppression was carried out by a variety of means: military, including the patroling of trade routes and policing of strategic locations; political and diplomatic, involving co-operation with other colonial powers in the area; and judicial, including arrest, prosecution and punishment of offenders. In all these efforts the colonial administration received assistance from the Native Authorities; by the third phase these Authorities and the Native Courts were the most active forces against slaving. The slave trade dealt to a very significant extent in children. In the environment in which the trade was conducted the dealers developed a range of tricks and subterfuges to evade detection by the law enforcement agencies. The long borders which the agencies had to patrol, the manpower problems which they faced, and the relative ease with which slaves could be obtained in times of adversity combined to make the struggle against slaving a protracted one. Time was not, however, on the side of the traders. Improvements in communications, a stronger administration, the growing effectiveness of patrols, and the deterrent effects of judicial action cut into and finally eliminated the slave trade.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , November 1991 , pp. 447 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 Suzanne, Miers, Britain and Ending of the Slave Trade (London, 1975).Google Scholar

2 See especially Miers, Suzanne and Roberts, Richard (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988).Google Scholar

3 For instance, Miers, , Ending of the Slave Trade, 296–9Google Scholar; Miers, and Roberts, (eds.), End of Slavery, 20Google Scholar; Paul, Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage and the status of women slaves in early colonial northern Nigeria’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIX (1988), 264.Google Scholar

4 Miers, and Roberts, (eds.), End of Slavery, 8.Google Scholar

5 J. S. Hogendorn and Paul Lovejoy, ‘The reform of slavery in colonial northern Nigeria’, in Roberts and Miers (eds.), End of Slavery; Paul Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage’; Hogendorn, Jan and Lovejoy, Paul, ‘The development and execution of Frederick Lugard's policies toward slavery in northern Nigeria’, Slavery and Abolition, X (1989)Google Scholar; J. S. Hogendorn and Paul Lovejoy, Legal Status Abolition: The Ending of Slavery in Northern Nigeria (forthcoming).

6 Hogendorn, and Lovejoy, , ‘The reform of slavery’, 391, 393–4.Google Scholar Lovejoy had earlier expressed much the same opinion in Transformations in Slavery (Cambridge, 1983), 268.Google Scholar

7 Paul, Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage’, 264.Google Scholar

8 Flint, J. E., Sir Goldie and the Making of Nigeria (London, 1966), 246.Google Scholar

9 Lugard, F. D., Annual Reports of Northern Nigeria 1900–1911, Report for 1900–1901, 13.Google Scholar

10 Ibid. 10 and 13.

11 Ibid. 32 and 63. The position of these far-eastern emirates as the main suppliers of slaves to the Hausa emirates during the nineteenth century is well known. See David, Tambo, ‘The Sokoto Caliphate slave trade in the nineteenth century’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, IX (1976), 200.Google Scholar

12 Secretariat, Northern Provinces (hereafter SNP) 15/1, No. 42, exchanges between the Resident of Bauchi and Lugard in Sept., 1902. The Resident referred to Lugard's memorandum on the subject; Lugard cautioned that ‘the practice should be checked’.

13 For the provisions of this Slavery Proclamation, see SNP 17/2, No. 15849, ‘Early history of anti-slavery legislation 1900–1941’.

14 ‘Slave dealing’ was an expression used to cover a wide range of offences, including buying and selling of slaves, taking a person to be held or treated as a slave, pawning, bringing any person into Northern Nigeria to be sold, transferred or kept as a slave, or inducing a person to go out of Northern Nigeria for the same purpose.

15 SNP 10/3, No. 171P/1915, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1914.

16 SNP 17/2, No. 12577. In his own account of his life, Alhaji Mahmudu Koki, a contemporary, says that many slave traders lived in Karaye and that Carrow suppressed their business. See Skinner, Neil (ed.), Alhaji Mahmudu Koki (Zaria, 1977), 19.Google Scholar

17 SNP 7/13, No. 908/1912, Report for Yola Province, Dec., 1911.

18 SNP 7/13, No. 904/1912, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1911.

19 SNP 10/1, No. 182P/1913, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1912.

20 SNP 10/2, No. 95P/1914, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1913.

21 For the speech at Kano to this effect in 1903 see Annual Reports, 1903, 92–4.Google Scholar At Sokoto Lugard said emphatically (p. 164) that ‘buying and selling slaves and enslaving people are forbidden’.

22 According to Lugard, the famous Kano slave market closed itself, and the same thing could be said of many others.

23 Lovejoy, (‘Concubinage’, 245)Google Scholar makes the valid point that ‘before the British conquest slavery had been an important instrument for the recruitment of women, through capture and purchase from outside the Sokoto Caliphate’. One should add that under the British things did not change for a very long time.

26 Zar Prof 7/1, No. 2551 1904, Annual Report, Zaria Province, 1904.

27 Part of the difficulty was that they could not obtain nickel, the approved currency, and they hated carrying heavy bags of cowries from their towns to distant Zaria city.

28 SNP 7/9, No. 3825/1908, Yola Province report for June 1908.

29 SNP 7/9, No. 2124/1908, Yola Province report for March 1908.

30 SNP 7/9, No. 3825/1908, Yola Province report for June 1908.

31 Judges of Islamic courts (singular, alkali).

32 See the Annual Reports, especially those of 1904 and 1906–7.

33 SNP 17/2, No. 14985/1930, Annual Report, Adamawa Province, 1930.

34 Ibid., report by the Resident of Borno Province.

35 Ibid.

36 Roberts, and Miers, (eds.), End of Slavery, 7.Google Scholar The argument is borne out by the numerous case studies in their work. See, for example, Hogendorn and Lovejoy, ‘Reform of slavery’.

37 SNP 7/9, No. 2124/1908, Yola Province report for March 1908.

38 For instance, all the slaves freed in Dikwa emirate of Borno Province in 1922 had been abandoned by dealers when they realized that they had aroused suspicion. See SNP 9/10, No. 59/1923, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1922.

39 SNP 7/9, No. 1761/1908, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1906.

40 SNP 7/8, No. 1655/1907, Bauchi Province report for March 1907.

41 SNP 7/9, No. 889/1908, Annual Report, Bauchi Province, 1907.

42 Lugard, , Annual Reports, report for 1906–1907, 507.Google Scholar

43 SNP 7/13, No. 904/1912, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1911. The precise nature of the assistance was not disclosed, but it might have been the same kind of assistance which Shehu Sanda of Dikwa was later to render to the British after the fall of his territory to the French and British allies in 1914, that is, sending slave dealers to them for trial. See SNP 10/3, No. 63P/1915, Borno Province report for December 1914. General Largeau, the Commander of the victorious forces, had allowed the Resident of Borno to exercise some powers over Dikwa to prevent it from lapsing into anarchy. Shehu Sanda, a cousin of the Shehu of Borno, was evidently trying to prepare the way for this retention of power under whatever government the allies decided to set up.

44 SNP 10/4, No. 695/1916, Yola Province report for September 1916.

45 Ibid. The ruler of Adamawa bears the title of ‘Lamido’, instead of ‘Emir’.

46 The dogarai were appropriately designated ‘Native Administration Police’.

47 SNP 9/10, 59/1923, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1922.

48 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, Secretary, Northern Provinces, to Chief Secretary to the Government, Lagos, 23 April 1925.

49 Ibid., report on slave traffic in Dikwa emirate, 31 March 1930. The patrols were each made up of five men ‘under the leadership of men of some local importance’.

50 Those districts (Mobber, Kanembu and Monguno) were along the shores of Lake Chad. The near-desert conditions of these areas complicated the problems of policing.

51 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, ‘Slave dealing in Nigeria and the Cameroons’.

52 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, ‘Slave traffic in the Cameroons: report for the year ending 31st December, 1932’.

53 For all this see SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 2.

54 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, Resident of Adamawa to SNP, 14 June 1922.

55 Lugard, , Annual Reports, report for 1906–1907, 508.Google Scholar The secret service agents referred to may have been plain clothes policemen.

56 SNP 7/9, No. 446/1908, Telegram by Secretary, Zungeru, to some Residents, 15 Feb. 1908.

57 SNP 7/9, No. 446/1908, ‘Slave dealing in the Benue’.

58 SNP 7/9, No. 1895/1909, Annual report, Yola Province, 1908.

59 By the Resident of Muri. See SNP 10/5, No. 95P/1917, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1916.

60 Roberts, and Miers, (eds.), End of Slavery, 20.Google Scholar

61 Lugard, , Annual Reports, 1903, 180.Google Scholar Lugard said that because of this the Fulani concluded that German rule was better than British rule.

62 Ibid. 289.

63 SNP 7/8, No. 3168/1907, Mid-Year Report, Yola Province, 1907.

64 Ibid. The British pursued this matter without success.

65 SNP 7/9, No. 1481/1908, Annual Report, Yola Province, 1907.

66 SNP 7/9, No. 1761/1908, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1907.

67 For instance, in 1909 the Resident of Borno reported that ‘the Germans have taken strong measures to stop slave dealing; they lately ordered a man to be shot for the offence’.

68 SNP 10/3, No. 373P/1916, Yola Province report, March 1916.

69 SNP 7/9, No. 4992/1908, Annual Report, Northern Nigeria, 1907–8.

70 SNP 7/11, No. 1271/1910, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1909.

71 The co-operation took the following form: any slaves rescued through British action were sent to the French authorities if information gathered from them showed that their homes were in the territory under French occupation. The French similarly handed over to the British slaves from the British territory whom they had released.

72 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, SNP to the Chief Secretary, Lagos, 3 Mar. 1926. However, it is not known what the results of the investigations were.

73 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 2, SNP to Chief Secretary, Lagos, 10 April 1937.

74 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 2, ‘Report for the League of Nations on the Dikwa Division under British Mandate’. The officials emphasized the need for rapid communication between the two sets of patrols.

75 Hogendorn, , ‘Slave acquisition and delivery’, 479.Google Scholar

76 Adamawa had been partitioned between the British and the Germans. As a result of Germany's defeat during the First World War, the German section was shared by the British and the French.

77 SNP 7/9, No. 446/1908, Secretary, Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, to Provincial Commissioner, Central Province, Southern Nigeria, 15 Feb. 1908.

78 Lovejoy, , ‘Concubinage’, 255.Google Scholar In certain situations children were preferred even in the pre-European era. See Klein, Martin and Lovejoy, Paul, ‘Slavery in West Africa’, in Gemery, Henry and Hogendorn, Jan (eds.), The Uncommon Market (New York, 1975), 186.Google Scholar

79 SNP 7/8, No. 1756/1907, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1906.

80 The total population at this time was 333 of whom 129 were male and 57 children.

81 SNP 10/6, No. 199P/1918, Niger Province report, 31 Dec. 1918.

82 SNP 10/8, No. 9P/1920, Annual Report, Nupe Province, 1919.

83 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1917.

84 SNP 10/4, No. 695P/1916, Yola Province report for September, 1916.

85 Ibid.

86 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, Resident of Adamawa to SNP, 3 Feb. 1927.

87 SNP 10/6, No. 489/1918, Yola Province report for June 1918.

88 There is some information on the settlement at Zang. The resident Hausa population was made up of 117 men, 118 women and 76 children, including the 60 taken from the host society. It is unlikely that the slave traders would have been living with their wives and children in a foreign territory, initially at least.

89 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1917.

90 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 2, ‘Report for the League of Nations on Dikwa Division under British Mandate: Report No. 14 for the year 1934’.

91 SNP 17/3, No. 20216, vol. 1, Resident of Borno to SNP, 5 Dec. 1935.

92 SNP 17/3, No. 21325, vol. 2, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1933.

93 SNP 7/9, No. 446/1908, Acting Chief Inspector of Police to Chief Commissioner, Northern Nigerian Constabulary, 27 Apr. 1908.

94 SNP 10/4, No. 365P/1916, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1915.

95 Ibid. Groom said that if these children were separated from their owners for a few days and treated kindly, they would ‘summon courage and tell their stories’.

96 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, District Officer, Muri Division to the Resident of Muri, 10 Feb. 1917.

97 SNP 10/2, No. 95P/1914, Annual Report, Borno Province, 1913.

98 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, District Officer Katagum Division, to Resident, Kano Province, 24 Jan. 1922.

99 SNP 9/12, No. 639/1925, Annual Report, Yola Province, 1924.

100 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, SNP to Chief Secretary to the Government in Lagos, 10 March 1926. See also Miers, , Ending of the Slave Trade, 296.Google Scholar

101 Lugard, , Annual Reports, 1904, 287.Google Scholar

102 SNP 7/8, No. 1522/1907, Report for Bauchi Province, 31 Jan. 1907.

103 SNP 7/10, No. 6415/1909, Annual Report, Kano Province, 1908.

104 SNP 10/5, No. 95P/1917, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1916.

105 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 2, Report on slave traffic in Borno Emirate, 1932.

106 Ibid., SNP to Chief Secretary, Lagos, 5 Mar. 1936.

107 See Section 3 of the Slavery Proclamation of 1901.

108 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, District Officer in charge of Muri Division to the Resident, Muri Province, 10 Feb. 1917.

109 SNP 7/8, No. 1522/1907, Report on Bauchi Province, 31 Jan. 1907.

110 SNP 7/8, No. 1655/1907, quarterly report, Bauchi Province, 1907.

111 SNP 7/9, No. 3825/1908, Yola Province report for June 1908.

112 SNP 10/8, No. 256P/1920, Mid-year Report, Sokoto Province, June 1920.

113 SNP 7/8, No. 1343/1909, Annual Report, Muri Province, 1908.

114 SNP 7/12, No. 1881/1911, Annua! Report, Bauchi Province, 1910.

115 SNP 7/9, No. 889/1908, Annual Report, Bauchi Province, 1908.

116 SNP 10/4, No. 695/1916, Yola Province report for Sept. 1916.

117 Paul, Lovejoy, ‘Concubinage’, 253.Google Scholar

118 SNP 17/2, No. 12577, vol. 1, SCP to Chief Secretary to the Government, Lagos, 19 July 1929.

119 SNP 17/2, No. 12447, vol. 1, Annual Report, Adamawa Province, 1929.