THE ERA OF SLAVERY IN NIGERIA (I)

The Era Of Slavery In Nigeria (I)
From the outset, relations between Europe and Africa were strictly economic. Portuguese merchants traded with Nigerians from trading posts they set up along the coast. They exchanged items like brass and copper bracelets for such products as pepper, cloth, beads and slaves – all part of an existing internal Nigerian trade. Domestic slavery was common in Nigeria and well before European slave buyers arrived, there was trading in humans. Africans were captured or bought by Arabs and exported across the Sahara Desert to the Mediterranean and Near East.
In 1492, Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus discovered for Europe a ‘New World’. The finding proved disastrous not only for the ‘discovered’ people but also for Africans. It marked the beginning of a triangular trade between Africa, Europe and the ‘New World’. European slave ships, mainly British and French, took people from Africa to the ‘New World’. They were initially taken to the West Indies to supplement local Indians decimated by the Spanish Conquistadors. The slave trade grew from a trickle to a flood, particularly from the 17th Century onwards.
Portugal’s monopoly in the obnoxious trade was broken in the 16th Century when England, followed by France and other European nations, entered the trade. The English led in the business of transporting young Africans from their homeland to work in mines in the Americas.
At the initial stage of the trade, parties of Europeans captured Nigerians in raids on communities in the coastal areas. But this soon gave way to buying slaves from Nigerian rulers and traders. The vast majority of slaves taken out of Nigeria were sold by Nigerian rulers, traders and a military aristocracy who all grew wealthy from the business. Most slaves were acquired through wars or by kidnapping. Olaudah Equiano, an ex-slave, described in his memoirs published in 1789 how African rulers carried out raids to capture slaves. “When a trader wants slaves, he applies to a chief for them and tempts him with his wares. It is not extraordinary, if on this occasion he yields to the temptation with as little firmness, and accepts the price of his fellow creature’s liberty with as little reluctance, as the enlightened merchant. Accordingly, he falls upon his neighbours, and a desperate battle ensues. If he prevails and takes prisoners, he gratifies his avarice by selling them,” Olaudah wrote.
European slave buyers made the greater profit from the despicable trade, but their Nigerian partners also prospered. Many grew strong and fat on profits made from selling their brethren. Tinubu Square, the commercial centre of present-day Lagos and home to Nigeria’s Central Bank headquarter, is named after a major 19th Century slave trader, Madam Tinubu.
Nigeria’s rulers, traders and military aristocracy protected their interest in the slave trade. They discouraged Europeans from leaving the coastal areas to venture into the interior of the continent.