IMPACT OF TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ON IKA LAND FROM 1500-1900

ABSTRACT
The study has examined the impact of Trans-Atlantic slave trade on Ika land. The magnitude of the human tragedy slave trade represented as well as the continuing relevance of their aftermath in contemporary times accounted for this interest. Trans-Atlantic slave trade has been felt by the people of Ika Annang land. It has brought hardship, death and suffering to the land and people of Ika land. Although it has also brought about trade relations between Ika people and other communities, people have been able to trade beyond Ika community. The sources of data adopted for this study was primary and secondary sources. The findings of the study revealed that trans-Atlantic slave trade in Ika land has a considerable impact on the people of Ika. The study concludes that despite the negative impact of Trans-Atlantic slave trade to the people of Ika Annang, it has also necessitated trade relations between Ika people and other communities.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page – – – – – – – – i
Certification – – – – – – – – ii
Dedication – – – – – – – – iii
Acknowledgments – – – – – – – iv
Abstract – – – – – – – – v
Table of contents – – – – – – – vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study – – – – – 1
1.2 Geographical Background – – – – – 4
1.3 Statement of the Problem – – – – – 6
1.4 Aims and Objectives of the Study – – – – 6
1.5 Significance of the Study – – – – – 7
1.6 Scope of the Study – – – – – – 7
1.7 Research Methodology – – – – – 8
1.8 Literature Review – – – – – – 8
Endnotes
CHAPTER TWO: AN OVERVIEW OF IKA LAND AND PEOPLE
2.1 Early Political Institutions and Functions – – – 17
2.2 Early Social Cultural Institutions and Functions – – 23
2.3 Early Economic Organizations – – – – 27
Endnotes

CHAPTER THREE: THE INSTITUTIONS OF SLAVERY AND SLAVE TRADE IN PRE-EUROPEAN IKA

The Concept of Slavery among the Ika People – – 37
3.2 The Origin of Slavery in Ika – – – – – 42
3.3 Sources of Slavery in Ika Society – – – – 45
3.4 The Functions and Experiences of Slaves in Ika Society – 48
3.5 The Impact of Internal Slavery on Ika Society – – 53
Endnotes
CHAPTER FOUR: IMPACT OF THE TRANSATLANTIC TRADE ON IKA LAND
4.1 An Overview of the Transatlantic Slave Trade – – 58
4.2 Ika During The Transatlantic Slave Trade – – – 64
4.3 The Impact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on the People of Ika 65
Endnotes
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – 72
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – 73
Bibliography

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study
Slave trade and slavery have been major subjects for historical studies by scholars, especially those in the West, for over a century and still continue to fascinate our historical imagination.1 The magnitude of the human tragedy they represented as well as the continuing relevance of their aftermath in contemporary times account for this interest. For much of that period, however, attention was focused on the external slave trade, more especially the trans-Atlantic slave trade to Europe, the Americans and the Caribbean and less so on the equally important and much older trans-Saharan and trans-Indian ocean trades. One result has been that, until very recently, little attention was paid to the indigenous internal slave trade and slavery in many ways like ‘launching pad’ for the external trade. It has been examined, using primary oral evidences supplemented by extant written records, the development, nature and character of indigenous use of people of subordinate status or unfree labour as well as the impact of the external slave trade, both trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic and their abolition in Nigeria. From the analysis of various sub-regions of Nigeria, it is clear that slavery and slave trade played important roles varying in intensity in the history of the peoples of the region internally and externally especially between the sixteenth and late nineteenth centuries. They were not only major institutions of social subordination and control but also important labour source throughout the sub-regions. For much of the period under consideration, they influenced in substantial ways. The relations between the organized and centralizing policies and their non-centralized ones, and with the maturation of the external slave trade, dominated and shaped virtually all major social, economic and political relations between these policies. They were indeed major factors in the growth, development, decline and collapse of the centralized states in the Sahal, Savannah and forest zones.

At the maturation of the trans-Atlantic trade and slavery in Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean slave trade and slavery shaped economic, political and even cultural relations between the coastal policies of Nigeria and their hinterland neighbours as well as those between them and the Europeans. Black slavery played a very significant role in “the emergence, consolidation and ideological validation of Euro-American racism, a powerful force in world history since the eighteenth century of which the Black has remained perhaps the greatest victim”2. The campaign to eradicate slavery and slave trade from the late eighteenth century also significantly influenced the rationalization and consolidation of European imperialism and colonialism in the Niger-Benue region, the Nigeria of our present day.3
As in the case of Niger Delta city states, slavery and slave trade were dominant institutions in the Cross River region of Akwa Ibom, Cross River, lower Benue, parts of Ebonyi and Abia states and the Southern Cameroons, areas which historically made up the Cross River region. Okon Uya’s analysis confirms that although there were varying forms of use of unfree or subordinated labour in the small scale trade, artisinal and farming activities in the area, the coming of the slave trade was to transform relations between the Efik City states of Old Calabar and the Ibibio, Annang, Ogoja, Ekoi and Igbo hinterland communities from whence the slave were extracted.
The analysis shows clearly that the Cross River region communities involved in the slave trade can substantially be classified into three, namely; the slave trading communities which principally were the Efik city states; the slave raiding communities, principally the Aro and their Abam collaborators, and the slave raided communities of present day Akwa Ibom. The Ogoja communities of the Cross Rivers and the Igbo hinterland fear and near. The impact of the trade differed substantially in the three groups, with the first two qualifying to be regarded as gainers while those in the third group were losers in the trade.