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Relations between African and European Traders in the Niger Delta 1880–1896

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Cherry Gertzel
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Extract

When the British Oil Rivers Protectorate was established in 1885, the political independence of the Delta States came to an end. The European invasion of African sovereignty, which in effect began in 1849 with the appointment of a British Consul, was complete. Since trade and politics were so intimately linked within these states, which had for so long guarded the middleman trade in the interior, the fortunes of the middleman chiefs were bound to be affected by such a major political change. The material which has emerged from my study of John Holt in relation to his Delta trade in the period 1880–1910, suggests, however, that the economic power of the chiefs (as opposed to the rulers) was by no means so quickly affected as has usually been suggested. The deposition of King Ja Ja of Opobo in 1887 symbolizes the end of the political power of the Delta rulers. His middleman chiefs were able, however, to maintain their control of the middleman organization of trade for a few years longer. Similarly, in each of the other rivers (with the exception of Brass), while the ruler lost his power, his hierarchy of middlemen retained control of internal commerce until almost the turn of the century.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , July 1962 , pp. 361 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

1 See both Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–1885 (1956),Google Scholar and Jones, G. I., review of Dike in Africa (01 1957), xxvii, No. I, 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 ‘Holt, John, a British Merchant in West Africa in the Era of Imperialism’. D.Phil. thesis submitted July 1959, Nuffield College, Oxford. The major sources for this study were (as listed in my paper for the 1957 conference) the official records, F.O. 2, F.O. 84, F.O. 83 (P.R.O.), and the Holt Papers, a large and varied collection of private and commercial papers belonging to the first John Holt, who founded the African merchant firm of his name which is still one of the leading West African firms today. I have since then been able (by kind permission of the Nigerian Archives) to use the local (Niger Delta) Court of Equity and Consular records housed in the Nigerian Federal Archives in Ibadan. These three sources, used in conjunction with each other, have proved most valuable for information on trade and commercial relations between Africans and Europeans in the Niger Delta, and in the Gaboon/Ogowe region, for the period 1860–1910.Google Scholar

3 See Oliver, Roland, Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa (1957).Google Scholar

4 Flint, J. E., Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria (1960).Google Scholar

5 See F.O. 84/1857. Minute by Anderson, 15/3/1887, quoted in Flint, op. cit. 101;Google ScholarLiverpool Daily Post, 2/12/1881 and 27/12/1881; F.O. 84/1654Google Scholar. Johnstone, C. and Co. to Foreign Omce, 30/1/1883; F.O. 84/1660, Hewett's Comments on C. Johnstone and Co. 30/1/1883; Holt Papers, 27/2.Google ScholarWelsh, T. to Cotterell, H., 14/5/1887.Google ScholarWelsh, T. to Cotterell, H. 18/4/1887; F.O. 84/1780. Opobo Supercargoe to Hewett, n.d., but 1885.Google ScholarKingsley, M., West African Studies (1st ed., 1898), 543 et seq.;Google Scholar Holt Papers, 6/a. Memo by Holt, John on the Management of the African Association Ltd, 31/12/1889.Google Scholar

6 Holt Papers, 26/3a, Holt to Moor, 24/9/1896; F.O. 2/85, Moor to Foreign Office, 25/12/1895.Google Scholar

7 The suggestion that Ja Ja should be deposed was made originally by Consul Hewett, F.O. 84/1660, Hewett to Foreign Office 12/2/1884, during the Qua Ibo dispute.Google Scholar

8 F.O. 84/1881, Hewett to Foreign Office, 13/11/1888.Google Scholar

9 F.O. 84/1941, Hewett to Foreign Office, 12/2/1889.Google Scholar

10 F.O. 84/1941, Hewett to Foreign Office, 3/7/1889.Google Scholar

11 Holt Papers, 6/3. Synopsis of Opobo Agreement 1893.Google Scholar

12 See Flint, op. cit. 104.Google Scholar

13 Dike, op. cit. 122–4.Google Scholar

14 F.O. 84/1780. Agents in Opobo to Foreign Office, n.d. Kingsley M., op. cit. 544. F.O. 84/1660, Hewett's Remarks on Ledlum to Foreign Office, 24/1/1884. F.O. 84/1681, Foreign Office to Ledlum, 19/1/1884. F.O. 84/1917,Google ScholarRhodes, S. to Foreign Office, 21/3/1888. F.O. 84/1866, Memo on Spiff Case, 15/8/1887.Google Scholar

15 This crisis reached its climax in 1886, when produce prices in Europe fell to £18 a ton for palm-oil, the lowest on record. Holt Papers, 26/3a. Holt to Theorin, 18/8/1885;Google ScholarHolt to Watts 23/2/1886.Google Scholar

16 Halt Papers, 26/3a, Holt to Watts 23/2/1886.Google Scholar

17 See especially Holt Papers, 27/2, Welsh to Holt and Cotterell, 28/1/1887.Google Scholar

18 De Cardi, one of the supercargoes in Opobo, thought not. See Kingsley M., op. cit., p. 541.Google Scholar