OXFORD STUDIES IN AFRICAN AFFAIRS

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OLD CALABAR
1600-1891
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The purpose of this book is to analyse
the response of a traditional African
society to the demands made upon it
by the expanding international economy
from the seventeenth century to the
establishment of Colonial rule. It tries to
obtain insight into the dynamic process of
change • thus the growth of the slave trade
and its successor the trade in palm
produce, with their effects on the
domestic economy, are described in depth
and at length.
Efik society was modified by the
inclusion of the many slaves needed as
extra hands as the people of Old Calabar
turned from fishing to slave trading, and
yet more modifications became necessary
as the palm produce trade developed.
But contrary to the opinion of earlier
writers, the fundamental stability of the
Elik social and political systems was not
affected by these changes so much as
by the ever growing influence of Britain
the major trading partner, which slowly
and unwittingly undermined the
traditional political system, resulting in
anarchy and a demand from certain
sections of Efik society for annexation.
To this the British government reluctantly
acceded for fear that her commercial
rivals in Europe would step in instead,
thereby excluding her merchants at a time
of fierce international competition
t'5.00 net
in UK.
/O ■ CO ■ •
The purpose
the respons
society to tl
by the expa
from the se'
establishme
obtain insig
change tht
and its suc<
produce, wi
domestic et
and at lengj
Efik society
inclusion ol
extra hands
turned from
yet more m,
as the palnj
But contrail
writers, the!
Efik social I
affected by
by the ever
the major tl
and unwittj
traditional |
anarchy an
sections of
To this the!
acceded fq
rivals in Ed
thereby exl
of fierce iri
OXFORD STUDIES IN AFRICAN AFFAIRS
General Editors
JOHN D. HARGREAVES and GEORGE SHEPPERSON
OLD CALABAR 1600-1891
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OLD CALABAR
1600—1891
THE IMPACT OF THE
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY
UPON A TRADITIONAL SOCIETY
BY
A. J. H. LATHAM
CLARENDON PRESS • OXFORD
1973
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the exp
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NC
5 IS • 65
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Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W.l
GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
CAPE TOWN IBADAN NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM LUSAKA ADDIS
ABABA
DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA
KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE HONG KONG TOKYO
© OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1973
< V__
pMMIOBLUBR^'branch
CALL No
date received........

IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
clay (the chaucer press) ltd.
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK
r
Preface
£
Since Dike’s pioneer study appeared in 1956,1 others
such as New
bury, Jones, Alagoa, Ajayi, Akinjogbin, Ayandele,
Ikime, Wilks,
and more recently Rodney, Ryder, and Daaku,3 have
advanced our
knowledge of West African history and society in pre-
colonial times.
Each has sought to explain the evolution of African
societies from the
internal point of view rather than from that of the
uncomprehending
external observer. It is hoped this study will fill in
another of the
many gaps in our knowledge of particular West African
societies.
Accordingly, this is an analysis of a traditional West
African
society as it evolved under the influence of the
economic demands of
the West, from the arrival of the first Europeans to
the establishment
of British rule. It presents Old Calabar and its
relationship with the
West not as a static model, but as a dynamic one. As
such it attempts
to overcome the limitations of the short-period
analyses of anthro
pology, which do not consider how change takes place
within the
system. And it also tries to overcome the weaknesses
of historical
studies over long periods of time, which so often fail
to understand
the working of the society they describe, and the
economic forces
which tend to determine the changes they chart. In so
far as Old
Calabar is considered, this is intended to be a
contribution to African
history. But in demonstrating how a traditional
society was drawn
into the international economy, it is intended to be a
contribution to
international economic history.
Early work on Old Calabar was done by Dike,3 but his
account is
rather superficial, being based mainly on European
sources. Conse
quently he fails to penetrate the skin of Efik social
and political life,
which leads him to misinterpret the slave movements of
the 1850s as
revolts to obtain liberation. This error invalidates
his over-all con
clusions about social and political development in the
Oil Rivers at
large in the nineteenth century.
The most important work on Efik social and political
organization
1 K. O. Dike, Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta
(Oxford, 1956).
1 See Bibliography.
3 Dike, op. cit.
3 purpot
: tespon
:iety to ■
the exp
>m the si
tablishm
>tain msi
'ange. tl
td its sui
reduce, t
omestic >
nd at len
fik some
delusion
ixtra han
urned fre
yet more
as the pa
But conti
writers, tl
Elik socu
affected
by the ei
the main
and unvt
tradition
anarchy
sections
To this I
accedec
rivals in
thereby
of fierce
vi
PREFACE
has been done by G. I. Jones.'1 By combining oral
tradition with
European written sources, he has provided a much more
perceptive
understanding of Elik society than did Dike. Yet he
has failed to
appreciate the full significance of economic forces
upon the evolution
of Efik society, and he has not attempted to discuss
domestic politics,
or the relationship between Calabar and the West.
More recently Nair has produced a study of politics
and society in
Old Calabar in the late nineteenth century? But there
are serious
weaknesses in his work. His failure to consider
Calabar earlier than
the nineteenth century leads him to assert that slaves
became part
of Efik society as a result
although they
result of
of the
the palm-oil
palm-oil trade,
trade, although
they had
had
actually been incorporated much earlier. Because he
does not under
stand the Efik political system, particularly the
relationship between
the King and the Eyamba, his interpretation of
political events lacks
epth. His economic information is misleading. And by
his determina ton to vilify the British as imperial
aggressors he blinds himself to
e ‘ntcrnal political disintegration at Calabar which
was such a vital
~,thefpr-ess of imperialism.
Efik
°f th‘S b°0k is devoted t0 the imPact of tlle s!ave
trade 011
ness ofCletj' AlthouSh this section is quite short,
owing to the sparsehas beeevidence f°r this
Period>much previously overlooked material
Nicholin’USed’ SUCh as Watts’s description of Calabar
in 1668? and
informatS V‘Slt1805-’These sources have been combined
with new
Calabarmade avaiIable in the Hart Report on the Obong-
ship of
Calabar’196fegher W‘th Oral tradition collected durin8
fieldwork in
at Callbar A11*”5 the elTect of the development of the
palm-oil trade
used, such p"’ material that was previously overlooked
has been
* G I j0 38 Roberts°n’s Notes on Africa,” a great
rarity containing
Trade^f Political Organisation of Old Calabar’,
inDaryll Forde (ed.,)
‘
Rivers (London, 1963).
Ibadan Ph.D 5 Pphtics and Society in Old Calabar,
1841-1906’ (University of
‘John Waits?I151967).
“i^rous Murde/e lri!.c Rc,ation of the inhuman and
unparalleled Actions, and
<r „ VabarinGi>! of NeSrocs and Moors, committed on
three Englishmen in
'
1745), pp &c.’, in Harleian Collection of Voyages and
Travels, vol. 11
19*a'
^ords of the African Association 1788-1831 (Nelson,
Ca/o6ar On.Jt,
Enqii.ry jlM lhe Dispute over the Obongship of
' A- RobertSOncu®cnt No. 17 of 1964, Enugu.
n’ Notes on Africa (London, 1819).
PREFACE
vii
vital economic information on the early years of the
oil trade. Use
has also been made of personally discovered manuscript
material,
particularly the Revd. William Anderson’s Journal for
1851-2,
crucial years in Efik social history, and the Black
Davis Papers,
which belong to the family of one of the important
Efik slaves of the
last century. Oral evidence has also been used.
Because so much more
material is available, this section is much longer
than the first, despite
determined compression.
In writing this book I am indebted to A. G. Hopkins
and G. I.
Jones for their detailed criticism, and to the late R.
E. Bradbury for
his correspondence. I am also indebted to the
Leverhulme Trust, who
granted me an Overseas Scholarship which enabled me to
spend a
year in Nigeria (1965-6) on fieldwork and research.
A.J.H.L.

January 1971
Contents
xi
LIST OF MAPS
LIST OF GRAPHS
xi
LIST OF TABLES
xi
LIST OF CHARTS
xii
ABBREVIATIONS
xiii
1. INTRODUCTION: THE CROSS RIVER BASIN AND
THE EFIK BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE EURO
PEANS
1. Geography
2. The people
3. The economy
4. The Efik
1
3
5
9
PART 1
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
2. THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
1. The rise and fall of the external slave trade
2. Exports
3. Imports
4. The effects of external trade on the domestic
economy
5. The internal slave trade
17
22
24
24
25
3. THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
1. The incorporation of slaves into Efik society
2. Development of the house or ward
3. The forces which united Efik society
31
33
34
4. THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY
1. Efik political offices
2. The changing location of political offices
3. Personalities and politics
4. Efik subjection of other Cross River peoples
42
43
45
49
1
po
ion
to
exp
ie s
ishn
i ms
je-.t
ts su
uce.'
estic
at ler
socie
iiision
,a han
ned tn
x more
,the pa
pt conf
.nters.t
fik soci
,ff acted
pY <he e'
tne maic
and unv
tradition
anarchy
sections
To this
accedec
rivals in
thereby
of fierci
CONTENTS
x
PART 2
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL
TRADE
OLD CALABAR
5. THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT’ OLD
external palm-oil trade
1. The rise and development of the e\v------
55
65
73
75
79
2. Exports
3. Imports
4. The effect of external trade on the domestic
economy
5. The internal palm-oil trade
6. THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL
HISTORY
91
96
102
105
109
1. The expansion of the agricultural slaves
2. The upward mobility of the urban trading slaves
3. The Mission
4. The liberated Africans
5. The European traders
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK
1. Inter-ward political rivalry
2- Political disintegration
3. Anglo-Efik relations
Conclusion
Epilogue 1891-1971
POLITICAL history
APPENDICES
_
L Palm Oil Exports from Old Calabar, 1812-18
2. Palm Kernel Exports from Old Calabar, 1869 1
3. List of Treaties and Official Letters signed by th
1842-1862
4. List of Treaties and Agreements signed by
1875-1884
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
113
123
134
146
149
151
152
Q^ar,
153
Town chiefs,
162
166
179
List of Maps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

‘Old Callebar River’ c. 1820x

The Cross River basin
Major soil areas
Cross River people
Land use
Cross River economy
Palm belt with main oil markets
frontispiece
xiv
2
4
6
8
87
List of Graphs
1.
2.
3.
4.

Ships from Liverpool to Africa, 1709-1807

Palm oil exports from Old Calabar, 1812-1887
Palm kernel exports from Old Calabar, 1869-1887
Buying prices for palm oil, London, 1844-1891
19
66
68
70
List of Tables
1. Captains known to have been in Old Calabar, 1785-
1787
2. Slaves exported in Liverpool ships from New
Calabar, Bonny,
and Old Calabar, 1752-1799
3. Palm oil imported to Liverpool, 1772-1787
4. Palm oil imported into U.K. from West Africa, 1790-
1853,
to the nearest ton
5. The value of the copper rod, 1805-1910
6. The value of the black copper wire, 1846-1910
20
21
56
57
77
78
1 Source: Edward Bold, The Merchants' and Mariners'
African Guide (London
1822).
urt
sspt
ty t
te e
the
blist
nn il
nge
List of Charts
i its t
duct
mesti
d atl
ik sot
clusiC
dra h.
irned
et mo
is the
Jut co
writers
Efik so
aflecte
by the
the mi
and u'
traditi
anarcl
sectio
To th’
accec
rivals
there
of be
1. Efik structural genealogy
2. Old Town Kings
3. Heads of Efiom Ekpo lineage (to 1805)
4. Eyamba title-holders in Ekpe
5. Genealogy of Efik Oboags, 1600-1891
6. Analysis of Efik signatories to Treaties and
official letters, 18421862
7. Duke Town signatories of Treaties and Agreements,
1875-1884
8. Political divisions of Old Calabar c. 1850
9. Genealogy of Eyamba title-holders in Eyamba ward
10. Genealogy of Creek Town Obongs
10
11
12
37
44
98
101
114
116
117
Abbreviations
Calprof
cit.
E.H.R.
I. R.
J. A.H.
J.H.S.N.
J.R.A.I.
J.R.G.S.
P.P.
P.R.G.S.
UPCMR
Calabar Provincial Papers
citing
Economic History Review
Intelligence Report
Journal of African History
Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Journal of the Royal Geographical Society
Parliamentary Papers
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society
United Presbyterian Church Missionary Record
References in the form of a name and date denote
interviews.
Map 1: The Cross River Basin
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: The Cross River basin and
the Efik before the arrival of the Europeans
1. Geography
The Cross River rises in the Cameroons Mountains and
flows north
west until it meets the Anyim River (Map 1). There it
turns south
west towards Enyong Creek, from where it flows south-
east to the
sea. Leaving the forested and hill area near the
Cameroons, the river
passes through a gently undulating savannah plain
until its conflu
ence with Enyong Creek. Then it continues through the
forested
coastal plain which extends west to the Niger Delta.
The annual
rainfall in the Cross River basin varies from about 60
inches in the
north to 150 inches on the coast. To the north the wet
season begins
in March and ends in October, but on the coast the
rains are from
February to November. Temperatures are fairly constant
throughout
the year, varying according to season between 94 °F.
and 71 °F. In
the rainy season the winds come mainly from the south-
west, and the
skies are clouded, with mists common in the morning,
and thunder
storms often occurring in the afternoon and evening.
During the dry
season, the winds come from the east or north-east.
They are rela
tively dry, causing cloudless but hazy weather, when
visibility may
be reduced to half a mile.
In the north the soil is derived from shale, and is
mostly gently
sloping and poorly drained (Map 2). It is capable of
producing large
quantities of yams, cassava, maize, and legumes, and
if carefully
managed it can be kept in production for many years.
Following the
river from its junction with the Anyim, to beyond
Enyong Creek,
lie nearly-level, deep, loamy alluvial soils. Surface
drainage is
necessary for grain crops, yams, or cassava, and areas
flooded during
the rainy season are not cultivated. West of Enyong
Creek is an area
of red, sandy, permeable soil, derived from thick
sandy deposits.
These retain little water or plant nutrients, but oil
palm and banana
can be grown, with some cassava, yam, and other
vegetables. East
of the confluence of Enyong Creek and the Cross River
is a large area
ul
S1
tv
e
th
alii
in
'g<
its
iu<
nes
I at
s<
lus
tra I
rnec
tm
; the
ut c
fritei
fik s
ffec'
jy th
he n
and i
iradi’
anan
secti
To tl
acce
rival
ther
of fi
I'
THE PEOPLE
3
of sloping sandy soils derived from weathered
crystalline rocks.
Forest covers most of this area, which is largely
unsuited for crops.
To the south is an area of yellow, sandy, and
permeable soil, on which
oil palm, bananas, maize, and vegetables are grown.
Lastly there
are the swampy alluvial soils around the Cross River
estuary, which
are mainly covered in mangrove.1
2. The People
Although the people who now inhabit the region arrived
at
different times, the main settlement pattern was
almost certainly
established before the end of the sixteenth century
(Map 3). To the
north and north-west of the Cross River the people are
Ibo. G. I.
Jones suggests that they are descended from Ibo groups
which came
from the west at an indeterminate date. Some of these
groups say they
were later driven north by ‘white-eyed dwarfs armed
with blunder
busses’. These people are principally farmers, and
yams their most
important crop.2 The Aro are a sub-tribe of specialist
traders, whose
trading activities derived from their contacts gained
through their
possession of the Long Juju of Arochuku, famed in the
eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries throughout the area and
beyond, as an
oracle and fertility spirit.3 To the west and south-
west of the river are
the Ibibio. They have no tradition of migration from
any other place,
which suggests they have long been settled where they
now live.
Palm products are the basis of their economy, but the
Uruan, who
live on Ikpa Creek, are specialist fishermen who make
their catches
in the Cross River estuary.4 In the late sixteenth
century a dispersal
movement occurred from the Uruan area, some people
moving north
to form the Enyong tribe, and others moving south
where they
founded fishing communities on the lower Cross River,5
the Effiat
and Efik being part of this movement.” East of the
Cross River,
where the Efik settled, the population is sparse.
Spread widely to the
1 J. E. Christiansen, C. L. Scrivner, F. C. Jones, F.
R. Olive, ‘Preliminary
Survey of the Cross River Drainage Basin of Eastern
Nigeria’, Ford Foundation
and USAID, Enugu, 12 January 1963 (unpublished).
2 Daryll Forde and G. I. Jones, The Ibo and Ibibio-
Speaking peoples of SouthEastern Nigeria (London,
1962), p. 52.
2 Ibid. pp. 55-6.
4 Ibid., p. 68. Enugu I.R. 120 EP 9303A, Uruan Clan,
Uyo District, Calabar
Province, 1932, Capt. H. P. James, D.O., p. 3, para.
9.
1 Jones, Trading States, p. 31. Ibadan I.R. 31382,
Enyong Clan, Aro District,
Calabar Province, 1935, N.A.P.G. Mackenzie, A.D.O., p.
2, para. 4.
’ Forde and Jones, pp. 89-90.
B
put
resp
iety
the 1
n th
ablis
tain
ange
d its
oduc
jmes
id at
fik so
iclusi
xtra t
□med
'et mt
is the
But c<
writer
Efik si
affect
by thi
the rr
and 1
tradit
anarc
sectii
To th
acce
rival’
there
of fii
Map 3. Cross River people
ri
THE ECONOMY
5
north are the Ekoi, and other smaller groups such as
the Umon and
Akunakuna, whose origins are obscure. To the south-
east arc the
Okoyong,’ and still further south, the Qua who arc an
Ekoi group,"
and the Efut, who migrated from the Cameroons.” Most
of these
people are hunters and subsistence farmers.

3. The Economy
■ The population settled on the most fertile land,
which is reflected
by the proportion of land now in cultivation in the
various areas
(Map 4). While overall the soils are of low fertility,
in the north-west,
an estimated 11 per cent of the land is under
cultivation, a much
higher proportion than elsewhere. West of Enyong creek
about 7 per
cent of the land is cultivated, but even this is
higher than east of the
river, where in the north only 4 per cent is tilled,
and in the south
east only 1 per cent.10
Resulting from the distribution of fertile soil, the
traditional econ
omy of the Cross River basin is as old as the
settlement of its people
(Map 5). Essentially the pattern was one of the
interchange of yam,
from the fertile Ibo areas of the north, for the palm
produce of
Ibibioland, and the fish and salt from the coast. This
was facilitated
by the ease of canoe movement along the Cross River
and its in
numerable tributaries. Even in modern times this
pattern of exchange
has not altered,11 except that salt is now imported
rather than made
by evaporation of sea water.
Most of the yams came from Afikpo and Abakaliki. There
the
people are excellent farmers, and the Ezzas even use
fertilizer made
up of leaves, crop remains, the manure of their sheep,
goats, and
cattle, and night-soil.12 Yams also came from Obubra
in plentiful
years.12 The yams were carried by canoe down the Cross
River to the
Ibibio and Efik markets such as Itu, Ikorofiong,
Ifiayong, Ikpa, and
7 Ibadan I.R. 27674, Okoyong Clan, of Calabar
Division, Calabar Province,
1933, T. M. Shankland, A.D.O.
• H.R.H. Chief the Hon. Ika Ika Oqua II, M.H.C.,
M.O.N., The Ntoe of Big
Qua Town, 18 Nov. 1965.
• Chief E. Edem, ‘A Brief History of Efut People’
(unpublished manuscript,
Calabar, 1947).
10 Christiansen, Scrivncr, Jones, and Olive, pp. 32-4.
11 Anne Martin, The Oil Palm Economy of the Ibibio
Farmer (Ibadan, 1956),
p. 15. Forde and Jones, p. 81.
la J. W. Wallace, ‘Agriculture in Abakaliki and
Afikpo*, Farm and Fore
2 (1941), 90-1.
11 C. Partridge, Cross River Natives (London, 1905),
pp. 109-10.
Map: 4 Land use. Figures indicate proportion of land
under crops
THE ECONOMY
7
Calabar.11 From there, other traders took them to the
small inland
local markets. As the Ibibio could only grow about
half a year’s
supply for themselves, they were, like the Efik, very
dependent upon
these imported yams.15 Oil palms are abundant in
Ibibioland, and
palm products the basis of their economy. Oil was
exported both up
river to the specialist yam areas, and down-river to
Calabar.10 In
return for the oil and yam carried down to the
communities living
on the Cross River estuary, these people sent fish,
shrimps, prawn,
and salt, to the inland markets, where they were
distributed on foot
to the local markets by petty traders, as with the yam
from the
north.17 At the end of the seventeenth century, Barbot
observed these
coastal fishing and salt-boiling communities,18 and as
late as 1805
salt was being boiled there.19
Within this basic distribution network, nineteenth-
century evidence
suggests particular places specialized in producing
certain durable
goods. Pottery was made at Afikpo,20 Ikorofiong,21
Nkpara,22 and
Ikot Ansa.23 Canoes were made at Emuramura,21 and
raffia cloth at
Ikorofiong.25 Metal-working was done by itinerant Ibo
blacksmiths,20
using iron which probably came from the Cameroons.27
To the east
of the Cross River there was little of importance, for
the people were
largely self-sufficient, although the Qua did obtain
some salt from
Mamfe.28
14 Forde and Jones, p. 81.
« Ibid.
Martin, p. 15.
17 M. D. W. Jeffreys, ‘Cross River Prawn and Shrimp
Fishing', Nigerian Field
(July 1952), 139-40. Enugu I.R. 120 EP 93O3A, Uruan
Clan, p. 3, para. 9.
18 J. Barbot, A Collection of Voyages and Travels,
vol. v. A Description of the
Coasts ofNorth and South Guinea (London, 1732), p.
382.
10 Robin Hallett (cd.), Records of the African
Association, 1788-1831 (London,
1964), p. 197.
50 S. and P. Ottenburg, 'Afikpo Markets’, in P.
Bohannan and G. Dalton
(edd.), Markets in Africa (North Western University
Press, Evanston, 1962),
p. 121. Chief Ene Ndem Ephraim Duke, 22 Nov. 1965.
51 UPCMR 14 (Aug. 1859), 153, cit. Baillie, 12 Feb.
1859.
22 Rcvd. H. M. Waddell, Journal, vol. 7, p. 44, 24
Nov. 1849, vol. 10, p. 55,
12 Jan. 1855.
23 Chief Ene Ndem Ephraim Duke, 22 Nov. 1965.
21 Revd. Goldie, H. Calabar and its Mission (Edinburgh
and London, 1901),
p. 340. UPCMR N.s. 2 (1 Nov. 1881), 371, cit.
Edgerley. Ibid., N.s. 6 (Sept. 1885),
301, cit. Goldie, 13 Nov. 1884.
28 UPCMR 14 (Aug. 1859), 153-4, cit. Baillie, 12 Feb.
1859.
20 Jones, Trading States, p. 13. Waddell, Journal,
vol. 8, p. 77, 22 Mar. 1851.
Coulthurst to Nicolls, in Nicolls to Hay, 29 Mar.
1832, CO 82/5.
27 Rcvd. H. M. Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years in the West
Indies and Central
Africa (London, 1863), p. 326.
28 The Ntoc of Big Qua Town, 18 Nov. 1965.
I
P’
ret
let
the
n1
abl
tail
ant
dV
odi
imt
id i
flk !
iclu
xtra
urnt
fet r
as U
But
writ
Efik
affe
by 1
the
anc
trac
ana
sec
To
act
riv<
tht
of
1Ver economy
THE EFIK
9
4. The Efik
Such was the environment within which the Efik, the
subject of
this study, dwelt. Now their origins, social and
political structure,
and economic life, prior to the arrival of the
Europeans, must be
analysed.
Originally the Efik lived at Uruan in Ibibioland,22
and as the Uruan
still do,30 they fished the Cross River estuary,31
selling their catch at
the up-river markets. But late in the sixteenth
century they left Uruan
after a disturbance,32 and after settling temporarily
at Ikpa Ene,33 an
island in the Cross River, and then at Ndodoghi,31 on
the eastern
bank, they finally established themselves at Ikot
Etunko, now known
as Creek Town.35 Verbal tradition appears to hold that
there were
five founding fathers who settled at Creek Town with
their wives
and families.30 As can be seen from Chart 1, four of
the founders
were closely related, for Eyo Ema was uncle of the
three brothers
Oku Atai, Ukpong Atai, and Adim Atai, all being
descended from a
common ancestor, Ema.37 Oku was the eldest brother,
but Ukpong
and Adim shared a different mother.38 The fifth
founding father was
Efiom Ekpo, who was unrelated to the others,32 and may
have been
an Ibibio who sided with the Efik in their dispute at
Uruan.40
Not long after the establishment of Creek Town, about
the
beginning of the seventeenth century,41 a dispute
apparently led to
the departure of the Ukpong and Adim Atai groups, who
established
themselves at Obutong, now Old Town. About the same
time,
Efiom Ekpo died, and his eldest son Nsa Efiom became
head of the
lineage.42 Then Efiom Ekpo’s daughter, Okoho, bore
twins43 to an
Efut man.44 It was customary for the secret society to
kill twins,45
20 A. K. Hart, Report of the Enquiry into the dispute
over the Obongship of
Calabar, Official Document No. 17, Enugu, 1964, p. 27,
para. 69, p. 29, para. 79,
p. 31, para. 87.
30 Forde andJoncs.p.81.Enugu I.R. 120EP9303A,Uruan
Clanp. 5, para. 18.
31 Hart, para. 105. The Ntoe of Big Qua Town, 18 Nov.
1965.
33 Hart, paras. 69, 81, 87.
33 Ibid., paras. 65, 69, 82, 89.
31 Ibid., paras. 66, 67, 82, 89.
35 Ibid., paras. 82-3, 87.
33 Ibid., paras. 83, 90.
37 Ibid., paras. 121-6. G. I. Jones, ‘The Political
Organisation of Old Calabar’,
in Efik Traders of Old Calabar, p. 159.
33 Hart, para. 90.
33 Ibid., paras. 71, 85, 90, 98, 127. Jones,
‘Political Organisation’, p. 159.
43 Hart, para. 81.
41 See below, p. 12.
" Hart, paras. 68, 73, 85, 90, 100.
43 Ibid., paras. 71, 85, 98.
44 Chief Ekpc Asuquo Ene Ekpo Basscy Edem, 26 Feb.
1966.
46 Hart, paras. 71, 101. Forde and Jones, p. 77.
J
PI
6!

et
he
11
ibl
air
’•<
f n
I-;
d ?

10
INTRODUCTION
and Okoho’s predicament was made worse by the fact
that they were
illegitimate. But Edem Efiom, her second eldest
brother, arranged
for her to be taken to Nsutana, an island in the Cross
River.46 There
the boys grew up, and in the second or third decades
of the seven
teenth century,47 founded Atakpa, now Duke Town.48
To date the arrival of the Efik at Calabar is not an
easy matter.
However their oral traditions, and those of their
neighbours, the Qua
and Efut, indicate that the Efik arrived in Calabar
before trade with
ik <
Chart 1
cld
:• i
irne
et n
s th
Jut
vntt
Efik
iffei
□y t
the
and
irad
ana
sec
To
ace
rive
the
of
Ema
EfilcJStructural Genealogy
Efiom ^Ekpo
Eyo Ema Atai Ema
(Cobham)
1
Oku Atai
(Ambo)
Nsa Efiom
(Henshaw)
Edcm Efiom
(Ntiero)
Okoho
Ukpong Atai Adim Atai
(Obutong)
Ofiong^Okoho Efiom Okoho
(Eyam ba) (Duke, Archibong,
Etim Efiom)
Duke"Town11 ^t'10ugh it has been suggested that Old
Town and
this is improbaH6 f°unded in response to the European
trade,50
the Efik to settl
°r
Qua and E^ut woldd Ee unlikely to allow
which they would h
land t0 ParticiPate in the Eur°pean trade,
Efik had to pay k6 wanted to keep to themselves. As it
was, the
land, until at le n°Ute to the Qua for the privilege
of living on their
must have arrived*
earIy nineteenth century.51 Hence the Efik
century, for as w l|1? Calabar before the middle of
the seventeenth
not begin until th °6 S'10Wn *n Chapter 2, the
European trade did
In the absence of a k
can throw further ]’ rchae°l°gical evidence,52 the
only sources which
With other peoples'8^ °n tde date settlement are the
genealogies.
U Hart
genealogies can be misleading, because
insignifi«^*>P7t285- 98-
1
wld2;.Chicr Asuann I?Wn’ 18 Nov. 1965- chief E-
Ekpenyong, M.B.E.,
“ Halt.. ’ Twe"‘y-Ni? £Ldct Okon. 25 Nov. 1965. Edem.
Hart, paras. 104-5.
re “Hid be a„ • and> has been uninhabited ever since
the Efik left,
” ‘nteresting site.
THE EFIK
11
cant men are forgotten. But this is unlikely in the
case of the Efik,
as the father’s first name becomes the son’s second
name. Conse
quently any omission would be easily detected. The
striking point
about Efik genealogies and chief lists is their
shortness. At Bonny and
Kalahari, where settlement took place as early as the
late fifteenth
century,53 the lists are much longer.61 The obvious
implication is that
by comparison with Bonny and Kalabar, the date of Efik
settlement
is more recent.
Old Town was established by one of the founding
fathers of Creek
Town, Ukpong Atai, together with his brother Adim.65
Chart 2
shows that there were only seven kings of Old Town,
representing six
generations, the last being Willy Tom Robins who died
in 1854.50
The fifth king, also known as Willy Tom Robins, was
reigning 1786—
8,67 and the fourth, Ephraim Robin John in 1767.68
Even if the first
Chart 2
Old Town Kings
1. Ukpong Atai
2. Oso Ukpong
3. Akabom Oso
4. Efiom Otu Ekon (Ephraim Robin John) c. 1767
5. Eso Asibon
(Willy Tom Robins) c. 1786-8
6. Ekpenyong Etim Asiya
7. Asibon Eso
(Willy Tom Robins) Died 1854
Genealogy
1. Ukpong Atai
I
2. Oso Ukpong
I
3. Akabom Oso
I
Asibon Akabom (not king)
I
5. Eso Asibon
I
7. Asibon Eso
Sources: Etubom A. E. Archibong, Chief Antigha
Efefiom,
Chief Efiom Obo Efanga, Chief Etim Otu Bassey,
Chief Otu Otu Efiom, Chief Oku Efiom Asiya, 14 Feb
1966.
63 Jones, Trading States, pp. 29-35.
64 Ibid., p. 26.
60 Sec p. 9 above.
50 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 550.
67 Antcra Duke, ‘The Diary of Antera Duke’ in Forde,
Efik Traders, p. 47,
19 July 1786, p. 59, 16 Sept. 1787, p. 64, 17 Jan.
1788.
58 Gomer Williams, History of the Liverpool Privateers
and Letters of Marque
(London and Liverpool, 1897), p. 536.
12
INTRODUCTION
four kings ruled for thirty years each, which is
unlikely, Old Town
must have been founded after 1600. This date is
supported by the
few generations recorded as heads of Efiom Ekpo
lineage, indicated
on Chart 3. Ekpenyong Ofiong was head in 1805,
although he was
then old.59 Edem Ekpo, the seventh head, died in
1786.00 If each of
the seven heads ruled for thirty years, then Efiom
Ekpo must have
founded Creek Town at the earliest in the last quarter
of the sixteenth
century. But it is unlikely that the average period of
rule was thirty
years, as only five generations were involved, and two
of the heads
were twin brothers. So Creek Town was probably founded
about the
end of the sixteenth century, Old Town early in the
seventeenth, and
Duke Town, the last settlement, in the second or third
decade of the
seventeenth century.

Chart 3
Heads of Efiom Ekpo Lineage (to 1805}
I. Efiom Ekpo
2. Nsa Efiom
3. Ekpo Nsa
Edem
Okoho
I
4 Ofiong Okoho
5. Efiom Okoho
.8. Ekpenyong
I Ofiong
6. Ekpo Efiom
7. Edem Ekpo
Sources: Chief Enc Ndem Ephraim Duke, 4 Dec. 1965, 9
Dec. 1965;
Chief Joseph Henshaw, 6 Dec. 1965, 8 Feb. 1966;
Chief Michael Henshaw, 18 Nov. 1965.
Because the Efik had lived so long in Uruan, it is
reasonable to
assume that the main outlines of Efik culture, and
social and political
organization, were similar to those of the Uruan
Ibibio. Certainly
their language was Ibibio.01 In Ibibio society, the
smallest social unit
was the iiiip consisting of a man with his wives and
children. Several
idips together made up a compound, known as an ufok,
and a group
of ufoks made up the extended family, or ekpuk, which
has been
described as ‘a group of patrilineal relatives tracing
descent from a
single male ancestor’.02 A village was composed of
several ekpuks.
■' Hallett, p. 199.
“ Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 46, 4 July 1786.
“ Forde and Jones, p. 90.
«Ibid., p. 72.
THE EFIK
13
Although each ekpuk was self-governing under the
authority of the
ete ekpuk or lineage head, they were bound together in
the village
group by their common religion, secret society, and
village council.
Religion was supervised by a chief priest or oku ndem,
who was
responsible to the tutelary deity or ndem. This office
usually
descended in a particular ekpuk. The functions of the
secret society
to which the menfolk belonged are not fully understood
because of
their very secrecy, but the society appears to have
had a judicial role.
The village council dealt with secular matters
concerning the village
as a whole, including external relations, and was
composed of repre
sentatives of each ekpuk, under the chairmanship of
the village head
or obong isong. Decisions were taken by the council as
a whole, and
the obong isong could not take decisions by himself.03
It appears that the Efik were organized in a similar
fashion in the
early years of their settlement at Creek Town. There
were two basic
lineage groups, the Emas and the Ekpos. There was a
common
tutelary deity, the Ndem Efik, whose priest was Eyo
Ema, from whom
all subsequent priests are directly descended.01 There
was a secret
society called Nyana Yaku.K And there was a secular
figure of
authority, presumably the obong isong.00
If settlement at Calabar did not at first affect Efik
social organ
ization, neither did it alter their economic life. For
they continued to
be specialist fishermen07 as they had been at Uruan,
selling their
catches at the up-river markets in exchange for yam
and palm oil.
But the arrival of the Europeans in the middle of the
century was
radically to change all this.
13 Forde and Jones, pp. 71-5.
63 Hart, para. 200.
“ Ibid., paras. 81, 101, 176.
60 Ibid., para. 98.
•’ Ibid., pp. 34-5, paras. 104-5.
PART 1
The Era of the Slave Trade
I
CHAPTER 2
The Slave Trade at Old Calabar
1. The rise andfall of the external slave trade
The arrival of the first European traders at Old
Calabar cannot be
dated exactly,1 and although the Portuguese may have
known of the
Cross River, it is unlikely that they traded there
before the middle
of the seventeenth century. For Pieter De Marees,
writing about
1600, advised traders to ignore all the rivers of what
is now called the
Bight of Biafra, because there was nothing to be
gained there, and
there was a danger of being stranded.2 Moreover,
Ardener has recently
drawn attention to Leers’s 1665 edition of Leo
Africanus, in which
an addition to the text states that a great reef
prevented entry to the
Old Calabar river.3 But trade had begun with Calabar
by 1668, for
John Watts, an English sailor, recounted how in that
year the Peach
Tree of London ‘sailed to old Calabar, in the bay of
Guiney', where
she ‘entered a river called the Cross river into
Paratt island’.1 She took
on a load of slaves, which proves the trade was
already established.
But the fact that Watts, having been kidnapped by the
inhabitants,
could not escape for several months, until another
ship arrived,
suggests the trade was not very regular.6
However, English ships continued to visit Old Calabar,
for in 1672
it was said that ‘many ships are sent to trade at New
and Old Calabar
for slaves and teeth (ivory tusks)’.6 Captain Reckord
of the James
took such a cargo in 1675-6,’ and John Elliot of the
Welcome arrived
at Barbadoes with 210 negroes from Old Calabar in
February 1679.8
1 E. E. Afigbo, ‘Efik Origin and Migrations
Reconsidered’, Nigeria, 87 (Dec.
1965), 275-7.
3 Pieter De Marecs, Description et Recit du Riche
Royattme D'or de Gunea
(Amsterdam, 1605), p. 93. J. Bouchaud, ‘Les Portuguais
dans la Baie de Biafra au
xvieme siecle’, Africa, 16 (1946), 220.
3 Edwin Ardener, ‘Documentary and Linguistic Evidence
for the Rise of the
Trading Polities between Rio del Rey and Cameroons,
1500-1650’, in I. M.
Lewis (ed.), History and Social Anthropology (London,
1968), p. 106.
4 Harleian Collection, ii, 512.
3 Harleian Collection, ii. 512-15.
3 Elizabeth Donnan, Documents Illustrative ofthe
History of the Slave Trade to
America (Washington, 1930), i. 193.
’ Ibid. i. 205.
• Ibid. i. 243.
18
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
In January the following year Captain Andrew Branfill
made landfall
at Jamaica, with 278 slaves, also from Old Calabar.9
So greatly did
the slave trade expand in the next twenty years that
in 1700 it was
complained that ‘there is so many Ships gone to Old
Callebarr that
you cann have no trade there’.10 The Dutch traded
occasionally at
Old Calabar at this time,11 and probably the
Portuguese as well.12
Indeed, it can be said that the development of the
slave trade at
Old Calabar during the last half of the seventeenth
century reflected
the changes that were taking place in the pattern of
trade along the
West African Coast. For everywhere the Portuguese
dominance was
being challenged by the French, Dutch, and English,
and new areas
of supply such as Old Calabar were being tapped, as
demand for
slaves for the ‘sugar revolution’ in the Caribbean
outstripped supply.13
But it was the eighteenth century which saw the
spectacular rise in
slave exports from the Bight of Biafra in general,
particularly after
1730. Curtin estimates that total exports per decade
from this region
rose from 4,500 in 1721-30, to 139,300 in 1761-70, and
137,600 in
1791-1800, a total of 823,700 being exported between
1711 and
1810.11 In this period the English emerged as the
leading traders on
the West African coast, after several Anglo-French
wars.15 However,
London’s share of the trade declined as a consequence
of the South
Sea Bubble, leaving Bristol as the principal English
slaving port.13
These changes affected the ships coming to Old
Calabar, for at an
incident in 1767 there were only English ships in the
river, four from
Bristol, one from London, and one from Liverpool.1’
But as Graph 1
makes clear, Liverpool was of growing importance as a
slaving port.
Between 1795 and 1804, 1,099 ships left Liverpool for
West Africa,
but only 155 frOm London, and 29 from Bristol.18 At
Calabar,
Liverpool certainly appears to have been predominant,
for as Table 1
shows, of the 24 captains named by Antera Duke in his
Diary for
1785-7, at least 13 were Liverpool men.
Yet, although the late years of the eighteenth century
and the early
’ Ibid. i. 255.
M Ibid. iv. 82.
1S Barbot, p. 383.
>= Ibid. p. 465.
p Faec’ A History of West Africa (Cambridge, 1969),
pp. 65-70.
P. D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census
(Madison, Milwaukee, and
London, 1969) pp. 116-26.
„ E0111". P- 221.
is Fage, pp. 70-80.
the History of Liverpool from the earliest
authenticated period down to the
" w n™ (LivcrPoo>. 1810), p. 111.
P- 53<L
■“‘d., Appendix xi, p. 680.
THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
19
150 r
140 130 -
rd
120 110 100 -
90 -
80 70 60 -
50 -
J
40 -
30 -
1
20 10 -
J
O1
------------------------(09) 1730 40
50
60
70
HO
90 1800 8
Graph 1: Ships from Liverpool to Africa 1709-1807
Source: Williams, op. cit. Appendix, p. 678.
years of the nineteenth century marked the apogee of
the slave trade,1’
a contemporary observer, Captain John Adams, stated
that Old
Calabar became less popular as a slaving port in these
years, because
10 Curtin, p. 266, Fig. 26.
c
20
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
Table 1
Captains known to have been in Old Calabar 1785-1787
Liverpool Captains
Aspinal
Brighousc
Combesboch
Tom Cooper
Fairweather
Ford
Hughes
Johnston
Overton
Potter
Savage
Small
Tatam
Others
Brivon
Brown
Collins
John Cooper
Hewitt
Loosdam
Morgan
Opter
Osatam
Rogers
Williams
total 13
total 11
Note: The list of captains is taken from Antera Duke’s
Diary It is not a complete
list, for many Liverpool men who sailed for Calabar
according to the Holt and
457 ^65-7a«3’ 481 J"* mCnti°nCd' Sec Holt and Gregson
Papers, vol. x, nos.

1
V
1
r
rt
port dues (or ‘comey’) were £250 compared to £150 at
Bonny.20
There may be some truth in this, for in 1762 a
Liverpool Captain
about to sad for Old Calabar was instructed by his
merchants to
use your utmost endeavour to keep down the Comeys
which in
ir
at
ri
it
o
considerably more.
ano in uic
When Britain made the slave trade illeRal in 1808 the
trade con
tinued unabated, and at Old Cal k
c°al in 1808, tne uw
absence of British ships was snnAnr ^'e vacuum created
by t e
particularly the French, Spanish n ed by those of
other nations,
October 1820 and July 1821 16o’ ortu8uese, and
Dutch.23 Between
,„r
,,
’ 2 cargoes of slaves left Old Calabar.-1
-» Capt. John Adams, Sketches taken j
“‘aves len
WUH™°p 4L8°6ndOn’ 1822)1 PPU2 77
Af'ica’ be,ween
” Jones, Trading States, p. 46
™^?d8'Cy'Rcport on “’<= old
lozo, CAJoz/1.

^ar River, in Owen to Croker, 21 Feb.

21 Robert Jamieson, Commerce

frica (rev. C(jn , London, 1859), P- 21.

’’I
THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
21
But it was in 1821 that the British fleet involved in
suppressing the
slave trade first visited Old Calabar.25 and from then
on, the trade
fluctuated as to whether or not the fleet was in the
vicinity. In 1825
the trade was increasing in the river,20 and it
continued vigorously in
Table 2
Slaves exported in Liverpool shipsfrom New Calabar,
Bonny, and Old
Calabar, 1752-1799
(Figures indicate the number of slaves anticipated as
cargo.)

1752'
1771’
1784s
1785*
1786’
1787“
1798’
1799’
New Calabar
Ships
Slaves
6
2,260
3
1,050
11
4,210
15
5,450
6
2,200
5
1,860
11
3,234
8
2,583
Bonny
Ships
Slaves
12
4,670
16
6,850
6,900
13
8,600
14
5,750
11
6,650
9
34
14,078
14,945
37
Old Calabar
Ships
Slaves
8
3,130
11
3,250
11
4,200
8
3,150
13
5,150
7
2,360
6
2,473
6
2,275
(2,504)
(2,828)
(2,545)
Note: Numbers of slaves marked in brackets arc
calculated from entries, in
Antera Duke’s Diary, of slaves actually carried away.
It is unlikely that he
counted them all.

Sources: 1 Williams, Appendix vii, pp. 675-7. 2

Donnan, ii. 545-6. 3 Holt and
Gregson Papers, vol. x, nos. 463-71. 4 Ibid., nos,
449-59. 6 Ibid.,
nos. 473-5. 0 Ibid., no. 481. 7 Williams, Appendix
xiii, pp. 681—4.
8 Donnan, ii. 646-9.
1828.27 But in 1829 it was said to be entirely
suppressed,23 and the
river was free of slavers in 1831,29 and 1832.30 That
slavers avoided
Old Calabar between 1829 and 1832 was due to the
proximity of the
British settlement on Fernando Po in 1827-34, from
which naval
activities were based, for Col. Nicolls, the Governor
commented in
1834 that the slave traders were returning to the area
again ‘thinking
we are gone’.31
During his residence on Fernando Po, Nicolls tried to
persuade
Duke Ephraim, the leading figure in Old Calabar, to
stop selling
26 Duke Ephraim to Collier, 9 Apr. 1821, in Collier to
Croker, 16 Apr. 1821,
FO84/14. Knight to Croker, 5 Aug. 1821, FO84/14.
20 Hamilton etc. to Canning 10 Apr. 1825, FO84/38.
27 Owen to Hay, 16 Dec. 1828, CO82/1.
28 Ibid., 9 Apr. 1829, CO82/2.
29 Nicolls to Hay, 4 Dec. 1831, CO82/4.
30 Ibid., 24 Aug. 1833, CO82/6.
31 Ibid., 2 Apr. 1834, CO82/7.
22
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
slaves, and in 1832 was hoping ‘that an arrangement
might be made
with him (Ephraim), for a very trifling present, which
would do more
to put down the Slave Trade than all the exertions of
our active,
expensive, but inefficient squadron’.32 The following
year he pointed
out to the Duke and his chiefs the benefits of
legitimate commerce,33
but they continued to sell slaves, and ships which had
loaded in Old
Calabar were captured by the squadron in 1836, 1838,31
and 1839.35
But in 1840 two ships were captured which had taken
slaves from
Old Calabar, and two more slavers were wrecked at the
mouth of
the river, which virtually brought the slave trade
there to an end.30
Consequently the two Kings of Old Calabar were content
to sign
treaties with Britain on 6 December 1841, ending the
external slave
trade in exchange for five annual payments of 2,000
Spanish dollars
each,37 (or the equivalent in goods) a sum of about
£416. 13s. 4rf.38
So it was that the slave trade at Old Calabar came to
an end, for
when in 1842 a French slaver, backed by a gunboat,
tried to force the
Efik to supply slaves, they refused steadfastly.30
2. Exports
As has been discussed, the slave trade at Old Calabar
lasted about
190 years, from about 1650 to 1841. But how many
slaves were
exported in this period is a matter for conjecture, as
there are no
adequate statistics. Table 2 on page 21 shows the few
figures which
exist, which are for Liverpool ships for eight years
between 1752 and
1799. These figures are a very poor guide, as they
give only the
number of slaves anticipated as cargo. Nor is there
any way of know
ing how representative these eight years were.
Moreover, the full
total for each of these years must have been greater
than the total
carried in Liverpool ships, for although Liverpool
dominated the
trade, Bristol, London, and foreign ships still
carried some slaves.
However, the figures indicate that Calabar provided
about 16-25 per
cent of the slaves carried from the Bight of Biafra in
Liverpool ships
during the eight years in question. Assuming that this
proportion
■■ Ibid., 30 Jan. 1832, CO82/5.
” Ibid., 14 July 1833, CO82/6.
” Campbell to Wood, 28 Apr. 1838, FO84/262.
“ Tucker to Elliot, 17 Apr. 1839, FO84/302.
Tucker to O’Fcrrell, 26 May 1841, FO84/384.
’’ Blount to Tucker, 7 Dec. 1841, FO84/439.
38 Dike, Trade and Politics, p. 108.
31 Foote to Herbert, (undated, but 1842-3) FO84/495.
Canning to Admiralty,
26 June 1843, FO84/492. Raymond to Foote, 10 Jan.
1843, FO84/495.
THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
23
was true of Calabar’s over-all contribution to the
slave trade from
the Bight of Biafra between 1711 and 1810, then from
Curtin’s
estimate that 823,700 slaves were carried away in
these years,40 it can
be calculated that Calabar may have provided 133,600
of the total.
These were the peak years of the slave trade from this
region, so it is
unlikely that as many slaves were carried away from
Calabar in the
years before 1711, and after 1810, although Badgley
did estimate,
in 1828, that from six to eight thousand slaves were
exported an
nually.41 So a reasonable guess of the total export of
slaves from
Calabar during the years of the slave trade would be
250,000 at most.
The actual figure may lie somewhere between 133,600
and 250,000.
It must be borne in mind that these figures are really
only obtained
by guesswork, and could be wide of the mark.
If there is little information about the number of
slaves exported
from Old Calabar, there is no more detail of their
cost. What price
evidence there is, is quoted in terms of the copper-
rod currency
peculiar to the Cross River and Rio del Rey areas,42
which dates
back at least to 1668.13 Barbot at the end of the
seventeenth century
quotes male slaves as costing from 38 to 48 coppers,
and female
slaves from 28 to 37.44 This suggests that the price
of a slave varied
according to his appearance, and according to market
conditions.
By 1767 male slaves cost as much as 100 coppers
each.45 The price
rise could have been due to many factors, such as
increasing demand
in the New World, or decreasing supply in Old Calabar,
or even a
depreciation of the copper rod. But the absence of
concrete inform
ation makes discussion of this topic fruitless.
Slaves were not the only exports in these years, for
small quantities
of ivory and barwood were also bought by the
Europeans,40 and at
the end of the seventeenth century, monkeys from Old
Calabar were
popular in Europe.47 The ships also bought their
provisions for the
40 Curtin, p. 221.
41 James Badgley, Report on the old Calabar River, in
Owen to Croker, 21
Feb. 1828, CO82/1.
42 G. I. Jones, ‘Native and Trade Currencies in
Southern Nigeria during the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Africa, vol. 28,
no. 1 (Jan. 1958), pp. 46-7.
See Chapter 5, below.
43 Harleian Collection, ii. 512.
44 Barbot, pp. 383, 465.
“ Williams, p. 539.
40 Barbot, p. 383. Adams, Sketches, p. 43. Williams,
p. 486. Francis E. Hyde,
Bradbury B. Parkinson, and Sheila Marriner, ‘The
Nature and Profitability of the
Liverpool Slave Trade’, E.H.R. 2nd Ser., vol. 5, no. 3
(1953), p. 369.
47 Barbot, p. 383.
24
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
middle passage,” including quite large quantities of
palm oil,1” some
of which appears eventually to have found its way to
Liverpool.50
3. Imports
Imports are even more difficult to quantify than
exports, because
of the lack of information. However, from what
evidence there is, it
is clear that the goods imported were of direct
utility: iron, copper,
hardware, and cloth.51 Therefore the common accusation
that the
Europeans were foisting rubbish on to the Africans is
not true.
Certainly gaudy clothes and gold-finished walking
canes were sent
to Calabar,52 and even elaborate wooden houses,53 but
these were
not the basis of the trade, and were only for the
personal display of
particular wealthy men. A display of personal prestige
was of great
importance to the African traders, as it revealed
their status and
credit-worthiness, not only to their own people, but
also to the
European traders who would have virtually no other
yardstick by
which to judge. Spirits were also imported,51 but they
do not appear
to have been very important. Early nineteenth-century
material
suggests that liquor was mainly used for ‘dash’ by the
Europeans.55
Over the years there were some significant changes in
the type of
goods imported. For example, guns were not imported
until after
1713, for Barbot does not mention them, and when
William Snelgrave visited Old Calabar that year, the
inhabitants were armed with
bows and arrows.50 Yet by 1767 guns were a standard
article of
trade.57 Nor was salt apparently imported until the
development of
the palm-oil trade in the early years of the
nineteenth century.58
4. The effect of external trade on the domestic
economy
The majority of slaves exported came from far inland,
as will be
discussed in the last section of this chapter, and
unfortunately this
« Barbot, pp. 383, 465.
11 Adams, Sketches, pp. 43, 113, Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 40.
14 Dec. 1785, p. 42,
22 Jan. 1786.
10 Sec Chapter 5, p. 55-6.
11 Barbot, pp. 383, 465. Williams, pp. 539-40.
« Williams, pp. 545-6.
81 Hallett, pp. 207-8.
“ Williams, p. 540. Duke, ‘Diary’, pp. 35-6, 7 and 11
July 1785.
ss Edward Bold, The Merchants' and Mariners' African
Guide (London, 1822),
pp. 77, 80-1. Adams, Sketches, pp. 113-16.
18 Capt. William Snclgrave, A New Account of Some
Parts of Guinea, and the
S’ ■’ Trade (London, 1734), introduction.
8i illiams, pp. 539-40.
58 See Chapter 5, p. 73-4.
THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
25
means it is not possible to assess what damage may
have been caused
by the vast outflow of labour. But as regards the
lower Cross River
the effect of the movement of labour was favourable,
as the Efik
themselves accumulated slaves to assist their trading
operations.
It is also difficult to judge how imports from Europe
affected the
indigenous economy. However, on the whole they must
have been
beneficial. Iron was probably the most important
import, the greater
supply of which must have had far-reaching
consequences. Now tools
and implements could be made or sheathed in iron,
whereas previ
ously they had been usually made of wood.69 The
distant areas where
the small amount of indigenous iron was produced may
have been
seriously disturbed, but nothing is known about this.
The import of
hardware would have had a more direct effect on the
economy,
European-made knives and axes greatly increasing the
efficiency of
the local labour force. Such hardware meant
competition for the local
smiths, but the fact that unworked iron continued to
be imported in
quantity indicates that they simply redirected their
efforts into pro
ducing articles of metalware which were not imported,
like hoes and
other implements. When guns were imported after the
second decade
of the eighteenth century, the bow-wrights and
fletchers may have
also turned their hands to making tools. The copper
which was
imported was mainly used for currency, although as an
extension of
this it was used for personal ornament.00 The brass
basins or ‘nep
tunes’ which were imported were presumably sold to the
salt-boiling
communities on the coast, and thereby increased the
efficiency of
salt production. The import of textiles brought a new
article of
consumption to a people who had previously managed
largely
without,01 save for raffia ceremonial costumes which
are used to this
day. As the amount of cloth manufactured in the region
was negligible
before, these cloth imports can hardly have damaged
local industry.

5. The internal slave trade

During the two centuries or so that the Efik were
engaged in the
slave trade, they built up a trading organization
which channelled
slaves to the coast, and distributed European
manufactured and
semi-manufactured goods inland. How did this
originally small
group of fishermen achieve this ?
It is not clear to what extent the Efik and other
people of the lower
60 Harleian Collection, ii. 515-16.
01 Harleian Collection, ii. 512, 516.

10 Ibid. ii. 516.

.
26
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
Cross River were slave-holders before the arrival of
the Europeans.
But Watts’s description of Old Calabar in 1668 shows
that slavery
already existed.62 Cannibalism and human sacrifice
were also prac
tised,63 as they were up-river until this century,64
which suggests
that slavery existed before the Europeans came, at
least to provide
victims for feasts or rituals. As the Efik were very
like the Ibibio, who
were not great slave-holders,65 conceivably those
eaten or sacrificed
were merely prisoners of war.66
It was a simple development from eating prisoners of
war to
selling them, and Watts supports this hypothesis by
stating ‘The
slaves, they sell to the English are prisoners taken
in war . . ,’.67 A
century later Isaac Parker recounted how he had joined
an Efik chief
on a slave-raiding expedition by canoe in the 1760s,68
and other
observers of the time also tell of slave-raiding.68
But by the 1780s a
trading network had come into existence, for Alexander
Falconbridge
noted that the slaves were bought by the traders at
fairs held two
hundred miles inland.™ Antera Duke, also writing in
the 1780s,
establishes that both raiding and trading provided
slaves. One entry
in his Diary notes ‘Tom Aqua and John Aqua joined
together to
catch men’.71 Elsewhere he says that he had sent his
brother ‘Egbo
Young to Boostam to trade for slaves’, and also ‘Opter
Antera to
Enyong to trade for slaves’.72
The date of the development of this internal marketing
system, so
clearly established by the 1780s, is bound up with the
origins of the
Aro. They were the most important suppliers of slaves
to Bonny,
New Calabar, and Old Calabar, in the nineteenth
century. The basis
of their commercial success was their possession of
the Long Juju of
Arochuku. It was famed far and wide, and litigants
came long dist
ances to seek the Oracle’s judgement. Fees and fines
were made in
Ibid. ii. 516.
11 Ibid. ii. 512-13, 516. Barbot, p. 381. Snclgrave,
Introduction.
“Johnston to Salisbury, 9 Feb. 1888, No. 6, Africa,
FO84/1881. Johnston,
Memorandum on the British Protectorate of the Oil
Rivers, 26 July 1888, FO84/
1882. Unsigned letter from H.B.M’s Niger Coast
Protectorate, 26 Oct. 1895.
Calprof 8/2 vol. 1.
“ Forde and Jones, p. 75. UPCMR N.s. 11 (1 July 1869),
398, cit. Dr. Robb,
“ Jones, Trading States, p. 115.
07 Harleian Collection, ii. 516.
•• Abridgement, iii (1790), 53.
“ Ibid, iii (1790), 61.
’• Alexander Falconbridgc, An Account of the Slave
Trade on the Coast of
Africa (London, 1788), p. 12.
71 Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 28, 30 Jan. 1785.
’■ Ibid., p. 34, 21 June 1785, p. 35, 7 July 1785.
THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
27
slaves which the oracle was supposed to devour, but in
fact the slaves
were hidden and later sold. Beside slaves gained in
this way, the Aro
also dealt directly in slaves.” Their traditions
maintain that they
originated in a fusion of elements of different
tribes, united by
Okoyong mercenaries from Akankpa near Creek Town,
Calabar.
These mercenaries were successful because they
possessed the first
guns to be seen so far inland, which came from
Calabar.’1 Presum
ably their guns also played an important part in
establishing the Aro
trading network. These guns are crucial to the process
of dating the
founding of the Aro people, and the network they built
up. For, as
has been shown above, firearms were not imported to
Calabar until
after 1713.” So it is clear that the Aro did not come
into being until
nearer the middle of the eighteenth century, nor did
their trading
network.
Coinciding with the development of the marketing
network inland
during the middle of the eighteenth century, came a
sophistication of
trading relations with the Europeans. It is unlikely
that credit was
given to the Africans in the uncertain conditions
which Watts de
scribed in the early years of the trade. But by the
1760s the Euro
peans were advancing credit or ‘trust’ as it was known
to the Efik in
the form of trade goods, taking as security a hostage
known as a
‘pledge’ or ‘pawn’, often one of the African traders’
sons.” The
Efik would then give the goods to their agents, and
send them to the
inland markets to buy slaves.” Holman described the
working of
the slave trade as practised by Duke Ephraim in 1828
in this way:
He induces the Captains to deposit a quantity of goods
in his hands, which
he sorts into such portions as would form an ordinary
load for a man to
carry on his head. He then sends his agents into the
country with the goods
to purchase slaves, promising the Captains their
cargoes, amounting to any
given number, within a stated time.”
" Dike, pp. 37^11.
74 Ibadan I.R. 29017, Aro Clan of Arochuku District,
Calabar Province, 1933,
T. M. Shankland, A.D.O., pp. 9-10, paras. 35-7. For a
slightly different version of
Aro origins, sec G. I. Jones, ‘Who are the Aro?’,
Nigerian Field, vol. 8, no. 3
(1939), pp. 100-3.
75 Sec
See above p. 24.
unib, pp.
—J. DUAL,
to-1,
70 Williams,
pp. 533^t, J^tl,
541, D^tJ
543-5.
Duke, ‘Uluiy
Diary’,, p.
p. JJ,
35, —24 UUU
and —27/ JU11V
June 11785,
7 July 1785
•
—
55, p. 44, 20 Apr.
1786. Abridgement, ii. 205-6.
77 Duke,;, ‘Diary’, p. 34, 21 June 1785, p. 35, 7 July
1785.
78 J. Holman,
Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, St. Jago,
Cape Coast,
Holt
Fernando Po, Princes Island, etc., etc., (2nd cdn.,
London, 1840), p. 396.
28
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
In effect the Efik traders were receiving credit from
the Europeans,
and then giving credit to their agents, expecting
slaves in return.
Although there may have been credit involved in
internal trans
actions before the arrival of the Europeans, the
growth of credit, as
the slave trade developed, created special problems,
because of the
large sums involved. Commercial credit of the kind of
which the Efik
were now availing themselves, was essentially
capitalist in origin and
nature, and having espoused capitalism preferred by
the Europeans
in this way, they had now to adopt institutions to
govern the bad
debts which might occur. Rather than copy any western
institution
to solve this problem the Efik produced a brilliant
solution of their
own, a new form of secret society called Ekpe. Like
the introduction
of guns, the development of the internal marketing
system, and the
trust system, Ekpe dates from the period of the rapid
expansion of
the slave trade in the mid-eighteenth century, as will
be shown in
Chapter 3, where Ekpe will be discussed at length.
Although Ekpe
had many other functions, its debt-collecting role was
vital, and in
the case of bankruptcy it had the power to destrain
the debtor’s
property. It was therefore a genuinely African
capitalist institution
of an elementary kind.
The last question to be considered is the origin of
the slaves which
the Efik sold to the Europeans. The earliest slaves
sold were the
unlucky members of lower Cross River tribes captured
in war. But
as war became raiding specifically for slaves, and as
the market net
work for slaves developed inland, slaves were brought
from further
and further inland. Falconbridge tells of English
seamen being
seized on the coast somewhere between Bonny and Old
Calabar,
probably on the Qua Ibo, and force-marched across
country to
Calabar where they were sold as slaves, thereby
revealing a trade
route to the west.™ Antera Duke’s men traded at
Boostam (Umon)
and Enyong for slaves.80 And Nicholls in 1805 stated
that the Calabar
slaves came from ‘Eericock (Ikot Offiong), Tabac
(Oron) Eericock
Boatswain (Umon), and Ebeo (Iboland); sometimes some
Brassy
(Bakasi) slaves and Cameroons Slaves’.81 But tradition
holds that the
main slave market was Itu, and the majority of slaves
Ibo, provided
by the Aro.82 Waddell supports this view, for he
stated in 1849 that
” Falconbridgc, pp. 44-5.
” Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 34, 21 June 1785, p. 35, 7 July
1785.
1 Hallett, p. 204.
Chief U. E. E. Adam, 22 Nov. 1965. Chief E. Ekpcnyong,
M.B.E., 1 Dec.
THE SLAVE TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
29
the Ibo slave market was very extensive.83 And Curtin
and Vansina,
using Koelle’s Polyglotta Africana, have recently
shown that there
were large numbers of Ibo slaves liberated in Sierra
Leone from
captured slave ships, in the first half of the
nineteenth century. Other
liberated slaves who may have been sold at Old Calabar
came from
Ibibioland, and the tribes of the upper Cross River,
such as the
Akunakuna, Yako, and Ekoi, but there were also Tiv,
and people
from the Cameroons Highlands.81 Waddell was aware of
the latter
source of slaves to the east, for he refers to the Qua
market,83 prob
ably Uwet which he elsewhere states to have been a
great slave market
in the days of the external slave trade, but which had
declined since
its end.80 There the slaves came from ‘some district
of Mbudikom, a
country several days journey beyond the Qua
mountains’.87 As late
as 1888 most of the slaves brought to Old Calabar were
from this
area,88 and Chilver has recently identified them as
coming from the
Bamenda Grassfields of the Cameroons Highlands.80 Many
however
may have been Tiv, for there was a slave route from
the middle and
upper Benue to Old Calabar,00 and the Tiv shared the
same copperrod currency as the Efik,01 unlike the
people of Bamenda.02
So it was that the advent of the external slave trade
revolutionized
the Efik economy. Originally fishermen, the Efik
became slave traders,
at first obtaining the slaves by war and raiding, and
then by purchase.
As a proper market network for slaves built up during
the middle
of the eighteenth century, the Efik began both to
receive and give
credit, adopting a new institution, Ekpe, to govern
the inevitable
problem of bad debts. It was an elementary capitalist
institution, of
1965. Chief Thomas A. Efiom, M.O.N., 7 Dec. 1965.
Chief Ene Ndem Ephraim
Duke, 23 Nov. 1965. Ibadan I.R. 31013, ItuClan of Itu
District, Calabar Province,
1935, R. Floyer, A.D.O., p. 3, para. 5.
83 P.P. 1849, (308) xix, 1, 1st Report, Minutes of
Evidence taken before the
Select Committee on the Slave Trade, p. 393, Revd. H.
M. Waddell.
83 Phillip D. Curtin and Jan Vansina, ‘Sources of the
Nineteenth Century
Atlantic Slave Trade', J.A.H., vol. 5, no. 2 (1964),
pp. 186, 197.
85 P.P. 1849, (308), xix. 1, 1st Report, p. 393, Rcvd.
H. M. Waddell.
88 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 459.
87 UPCMR 14 (Sept. 1859), 169, cit. Goldie, 27 June
1859.
88 Report on the British Protectorate of the Oil
Rivers, Section F. Ethnology,
in Johnston to Salisbury, 1 Dec. 1888, FO84/1882.
80 E. M. Chilver, ‘Nineteenth Century Trade in the
Bamenda Grassficlds,
Southern Cameroons’, Afrika und Ubersee, xlv. 233.
•° Curtin and Vansina, p. 190.
81 Paul and Laura Bohannan, Tiv Economy (London,
1968), p. 237.
93 Chilver, p. 251.
’■'
30
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
entirely African origin. Yet the credit which the Efik
gave was
dependent upon the credit which they received from the
Europeans.
In this way the Efik economy dovetailed into the
international
economy, where the demand for their slaves originated,
and became
an integral part of the international economic system.
Such a revolu
tion in the Efik economy inevitably resulted in
substantial changes in
Efik society, which will be discussed in the next
chapter.
CHAPTER 3
The Slave Trade and Efik Social History
This chapter will discuss the changes which the slave
trade brought
about in Efik society. Although information about Efik
social struc
ture is very limited before the middle of the
nineteenth century, care
has been exercised not to project backwards the mid-
nineteenth
century situation, for as Dike,1 Jones,2 and more
recently, Nair3 have
suggested, by that time Efik society had been modified
by the ending
of the slave trade, and the development of the palm-
oil trade.
1. The incorporation of slaves into Efik society
When the Efik arrived in Old Calabar about the
beginning of the
seventeenth century, their social organization was
like that of the
Uruan Ibibio among whom they had lived so long.
Accordingly, their
social structure was composed of family cells, of a
man, his wives,
and children. Several of these cells, related through
their menfolk,
made up a compound group, known as an ufok, or house.
And several
compound groups, acknowledging agnatic descent from a
common
founding ancestor, made up a lineage group. The
original village
settlement was made up of two lineage groups, bound
together by
their common tutelary deity, secret society, and
council.4
But the onset of the slave trade introduced a new
element to Efik
society. For it is unlikely that the Efik were owners
of many slaves
when they were simple fishermen.5 But now they
required extra hands
to man the canoes, join the raiding gangs, and later,
to trade at the
slave markets. Although Nair states that the Efik were
not slave
holders during the days of the slave trade,5 the very
earliest record
of Old Calabar society shows that in 1668 domestic
slavery was
already common.’ Mid-eighteenth century material bears
this out,
for Isaac Parker, an English seaman who stayed in Old
Calabar for
1 Dike, pp. 153-9.
2 Jones, ‘Political Organisation’, pp. 132-5. Jones,
Trading States, pp. 189-90.
3 Nair, K. K., ‘Politics and Society in Old Calabar,
1841-1906’ (Univ, of
Ibadan Ph.D. thesis 1967), pp. 63-4.
• See Chapter 1, p. 13.
• See Chapter 2, pp. 25-6.
“ Nair, pp. 63-4.
7 Harleian Collection, ii. 516.
32
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
several months, in 1765-6, remarked that Dick Ebro’,
the Efik chief
with whom he lived, had many slaves which he employed
in cutting
wood, fishing, and as canoe boys.9 And Captain Hall, a
sea captain
who traded at Old Calabar in the 1770s, affirmed that
the canoe boys
were slaves? There are also numerous references to
domestic slaves
in Antera Duke’s Diary,10 including reference to a
trading slave, in
the entry ‘my first boy came from Curcock with
slaves’.11
As the structure of Efik society was based upon
kinship, which
determined a man’s membership in family, compound, and
lineage,
the slaves who now were settled at Old Calabar were
inevitably
‘outsiders’. They were considered to be the personal
possessions of
their master,12 and therefore appendages to the basic
framework of
society, without economic, social, or political
rights. As the numbers
of slaves grew, their masters, who could all trace
their descent from
one of the two Efik ancestors, became a ruling elite
of freemen.
Yet slaves were expected to support and identify with
the interests
of their masters, for whom they had to work, and if
necessary, fight.
This gave them opportunity to achieve both wealth and
influence
despite their lack of kinship. Those slaves who were
born and brought
up in Calabar were especially favoured,13 as they were
fully ‘Eficised’,
and by the middle of the eighteenth century there must
have been
many of these. But the most eminent was Eyo Nsa, whose
career will
be discussed at greater length in Chapter 4. Although
not a freeborn
Efik, Eyo Nsa became a great warrior, for which he was
rewarded by
the Ambos with one of their princesses as a wife.14
This was tant
amount to being granted freedom because it gave him
kinship with
the freemen by marriage. By his active participation
in the slave trade,
he became extremely rich, and by buying slaves for
business and
prestige, built up a large household of retainers
which established
itself as a new lineage group, and segment of the Efik
community.
8 P.P. 1790 (699), Ixxxviii, Minutes of the Evidence
taken before the Select
Committee appointed for the Examination of Witnesses
on the Slave Trade,
pp. 133-4, Isaac Parker.
9 P.P. 1790 (698), Ixxxvii, Minutes of the Evidence
taken before the Select
Committee appointed for the Examination of Witnesses
on the Slave Trade,
p. 551, Capt. J. A. Hall.
10 Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 33, 17 June 1785, p. 42, 23 Jan.
1786, p. 44, 20 Apr. 1786,
pp. 48-9, 14 Oct. 1786, p. 49, 15 Oct. 1786, p. 50, 6
Nov. 1786, p. 54, 17 Mar.
1787, p. 60,1 Oct. 1787, p. 62, 1 Nov. 1787, etc.
11 Ibid., p. 30, 21 Apr. 1785.
w Marwick, p. 325. •
” Waddell, Twenty-Nine Year
irs, p. 318. Marwick, p. 326.
14 Hart Report, paras. 285, 28:
187.
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
33
2. Development of the house or ward
But Eyo Nsa was not alone in creating a new segment in
Efik
society during the days of the slave trade. For the
two original
lineage groups, which formed the two segments of Efik
society at the
date of settlement, subdivided into six separate
segments, which
Jones has called ‘wards’. The Ema lineage split into
the Cobhams and
Ambos, while the Efiom Ekpo lineage split into the
Henshaws,
Ntieros, Eyambas, and Dukes.15 Together with the Eyos,
there were
now seven wards. As all the wards, with the exception
of the Eyos,
had originated in compound groups which had formed
part of the
two basic lineages, they retained the Ibibio name for
a compound
group, which was ufok or house.
The reason for the expansion of particular compound
groups into
independent wards lay in the accumulation of slaves by
the members
of the compound group. As in the case of Eyo Nsa,
successful traders
needed many slaves to work their canoes, and handle
their business,
and as a result became masters of large numbers of
retainers. If
several men in the compound group were successful, the
compound
group as a whole would possess a substantial body of
retainers. This
would give the compound group political strength, and
the power to
enable them to reject the authority of the old lineage
head, and estab
lish themselves as a self-governing group, to all
intents and purposes
a new lineage group. Consequently it can be said that
the Efik house
system was the direct result of the introduction of
slaves into Efik
society. Yet the fact that several compound groups
broke away from
the control of their original lineage group, as they
filled out with
slaves, did not mean that they no longer acknowledged
their descent
from the original lineage founders. This was still
acknowledged,
because it defined the free status of the ward
leaders. All that had
happened was that the freemen no longer accepted the
political con
trol of the old lineage.
Of the two original lineages, more compound groups
expanded
into wards from Efiom Ekpo lineage than from Ema
lineage. Apart
from the groups which separated to form Old Town, only
two wards
developed from Ema lineage. These were Cobham, which
is the
remnant of the original lineage, and Ambo, which grew
from the
compound group headed by Oku Atai, one of the original
settlers
at Creek Town. But from Efiom Ekpo four wards had
grown up by
the end of the eighteenth century. These were Henshaw,
which was
15 Sec Chart 1, Efik structural genealogy, p. 10.
34
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
the remnant of the original lineage, Ntiero, which was
based on the
compound group of one of Efiom Ekpo’s sons, and the
two wards
Eyamba and Duke which grew from the compound groups
estab
lished by the outcast illegitimate twins of Efiom
Ekpo’s daughter.16
These last two wards are of particular interest in
that neither could
claim for their freemen agnatic descent from either of
the two Efik
traditional ancestors. Like the Eyo ward, founded by
Eyo Nsa, their
legitimacy was dubious, and yet, as will be seen in
Chapter 4, they
dominated Efik commercial and political life in the
last third of the
eighteenth century, and thereafter.
Each of the wards which came into being was governed
in the same
way as the lineage groups they had superseded. All the
freemen
acknowledged descent from the founder of the ward, and
were
organized in families and compounds within the ward.’
Each sub
division of the ward was governed by the elder and the
head of that
subdivision, together with a council of elders. If two
subdivisions
clashed they could put their dispute to the
arbitration of the head
and council of the higher subdivision, of which they
were both part.
Ultimatdy each ward was ruled by a head and cyouncil
of elders.

E
C
t
11
r<
a
n
Ifi
n«
3X
lu
Y€
as
B
w
E
a
b
tl
a
ti
a
s
a—
1
incorporated into society, and indenend p comP,etely
as slaves were
being which could be governed by slav t canoe-h°uses
came int0
house as ‘a compact and well 0rga • ,Jones describes
the canoeporation, capable of manning and maint •
trac''nS and fighting cor"
was nothing analogous to this in Old „a!ning a war
canoe’.18 There
ward established by Eyo Nsa. Yet this 13 a^ar’ save
perhaps for the
ning a war canoe, and functioned in., m d noth>ng to
do with manJUst hke the other Efik wards.
3. The forces which united Efik society
Although the incorporation of s]av
in the expansion of certain compoUndVes ’nto ^fik
society resulted
chose to cast aside the control of t[,e.grouPs to tlle
extent that they
wards did not separate themselves f? llneage heads,
the resulting
»Sec pp. 9-10.
« Wadd
the village group. Even
" Jones, Trading States, p. 67 ■
y^ p 3J4
1
r
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
35
though Duke Town was on the other side of the river
from Creek
Town, the two settlements continued to form what was
essentially
one enlarged village. The original village with its
two lineage seg
ments, had been united by their common tutelary deity,
secret society,
and council, and this remained mostly true of the
enlarged village
with its seven segments or wards which had come into
being as a
direct result of the slave trade.
The first of these integrating forces was the cult of
Ndem Efik,
the tutelary deity whose guardian priest has always
come from the
Cobham ward which is the remnant of the original Ema
lineage.19
Ndem Efik is a water god, appropriate to the
traditional Efik occu
pation of fishing.20 He is supposed to dwell in the
river near Parrot
Island, where albino or light-coloured girls were
commonly sacrificed
to him.21 Apparently the Ndem priest had once been of
great import
ance in Efik affairs, and was known as King Calabar.22
As late as
the middle of the nineteenth century, he was the
ultimate judge of
crimes for which there was no precedent.22 But
although the Ndem
priesthood still exists,21 it had already lost much of
its influence by
1805.25 This was because the Ndem priest was debarred
from
trading,20 an unimportant factor when the Efik were
only fishermen,
but decisive as they became slave traders. While other
Efik freemen
could trade, grow wealthy, and build up retinues of
slaves, the Ndem
priest could not, until he was left with nothing but
ritual importance
in a ritual which itself had ceased to be very
important.
As the Ndem cult lost effectiveness as an integrating
force during
the development of the slave trade, a new cult grew up
which helped
to bind together the newly emergent wards. This was
called Ekpe,
and was associated with a secret society. The new
secret society
modified or replaced the secret society called Nyana
Yaku, or Mkpe,
which had originally helped to integrate the two
lineages in the
village group.27
Ekpe, or Egbo as it was known to the Europeans, is
first referred
to in the 1770s, for in 1776 Otto Ephraim wrote to
Ambrose Lace, a
19 Hart Report, p. 75, para. 200.
20 Revd. Hugh Goldie, Dictionary of the Efik Language
(Edinburgh 1874),
p. 144, s.v. ‘ka, v. t’, p. 200, ‘Ndem Efik’.
21 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 617. Marwick, p.
398, citing Anderson,
14 June 1862. UPCMR N.s. 4 (1 March 1872), 81, cit.
Dr. Robb.
22 Goldie, Calabar, p. 43. Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years,
pp. 314—15.
23 T. J. Hutchinson, Impressions of Western Africa
(London 1858), p. 146.
21 Hart Report, para. 200.
25 Hallett, p. 200.
20 Goldie, Calabar, p. 43.
27 Hart Report, paras. 101, 81, 176.
D
f
J
3
E
a
b
a
z
36
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
Liverpool merchant, ‘1 pay Egbo men yesterday I
done.now
for Egbo’.28 And in 1773 ‘Grandy King George’ of Old
Town wrote
that ‘the New town people ... has blowed abuncko for
no SJ‘P
go from my water to them nor any to cum from them to
me. - »
Ekpe must have come into being at a date nearer to the
mtdd e o
the eighteenth century. Tradition maintains that the
founder of
was Esien Ekpe Oku, grandson of Oku Atai, one of the
first Enk
settlers at Creek Town. Esien Ekpe Oku is said to have
bought the
Ekpe secrets from Archibong Ekundo, a man from Usak
Edet,30
now known as Bakasi, on the Cameroons side of the
Cross River
estuary.31 Thus Esien Ekpe Oku became Eyamba I, the
first presi
dent of Ekpe. Later he transferred this office to his
senior half
brother, who therefore became Eyamba II.32 But
Ekpenyong Ofiong,
who was Eyamba III,33 was in office in 1805, for the
traveller Nicholls
refers to him as ‘Egbo Young Eyambo’.31 He appears to
have held
office as early as 1787, for in a distribution of Ekpe
entry fines in that
year, he received more than any other member.35 This
is certainly
possible, for he is described as ‘between sixty and
seventy’ in 1805.30
Thus he would have been in his middle forties in 1787.
As it is un
likely that he took office before he was twenty the
very earliest date
at which he might have taken office would be about
1760. As his
predecessor was the senior half-brother of the founder
of the society,
it is improbable that together they had ruled for more
than fifty years.
In which case Ekpe cannot have been founded before
1710. A date
later than 1710 is suggested by the fact that Eyo Nsa,
the second
Ebunko in Ekpe^received this office through his wife,
on the death of
18M3“lf he held office f nr
P°Sition in 1805,38 and d‘Cd “*
abou\nK
P
p
ms to have come about in those years of the
28 Williams, p. 548.
20 jl-.
30 Hart Report, paras. 177, 180 182 PP’ 543~4-
" Hart Report, para. 186. See List „r e
«
33 See List of Eyamba title-holder. • kyamba title-
holders in Ekpe, P- 3'" Hallett, p. 198.
» Duke -n"
P- 37.
” Hallett p. 199.
« Hart
. P- 59, 31 Aug. 1787.
Capt. Hugh Crow, Memoirs ofa *’ para- 186.
33 Hallett, p. 199.
(London, 1830), p. 280.
01
late Captain Hugh Crow of Liverpool
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
Chart 4
Eyamba title-holders in Ekpe
Esien Ekpe Oku (Ambo) CT.
Eyamba I
Ekpenyong Ekpe Oku (Ambo) CT.
Eyamba II
Ekpenyong Ofiong Okoho (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba III
Efiom Edem (Duke) DT.
Eyamba IV
Edem Ekpenyong Ofiong Okoho (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba V
Ntiero Ekpenyong Ofiong Okoho (Eyamba) DT. Eyamba VI
Efiom Edem Ekpenyong (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba VII
Edcm Archibong (Archibong) DT.
Eyamba VIII
Orok Edem (Duke) DT.
Eyamba IX
James Eyamba (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba X
Efiom John Eyamba (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba XI
Adam John Eyamba (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba XII
Eyamba XIII
Efcfiom John Eyamba (Eyamba) DT.
Effa John Eyamba (Eyamba) DT.
Eyamba XIV
DT. = Duke Town
CT. = Creek Town
Source: Hart Report, para. 158.

37
(King)
(King)
(King)
ring)
(King)
mid-eighteenth century in which the pattern of
commerce at Old
Calabar was changing as the Europeans began to give
the Efik traders
credit, and the internal slave market developed. The
introduction of
Ekpe was an integral part of this process, for the
society had import
ant powers to control credit indebtedness, as will be
discussed below.
Ekpe's functions were religious, judicial, commercial,
and social.
Ekpe itself was a forest spirit, which had to be
propitiated for the
well-being of the community. Ekpe society claimed to
interpret the
desires of Ekpe, and invoked his authority to back
their decisions.40
Being a spirit, Ekpe was never seen by anyone, but it
had a messenger
called Idem Ikwo, who dressed in a raffia costume with
a black hood,
and a bell fastened to his side. This figure went
about the town
carrying a bunch of leaves in one hand to denote his
forest origin,
and a large whip in the other, with which he whipped
those who
were not members of the society.41 In this way the
leading men of
Calabar exercised control over law and commerce, in
the name of a
deity of which the rest of the population was kept in
awe.
It was Ekpe society which made and enforced the law in
Calabar.
While the wards had complete authority over their own
people, it
was Ekpe which made laws for the community as a
whole,42 and adju
40 Jones, ‘Political Organisation,’ p. 137.
41 Hutchinson, Impressions, pp. 142-3.
43 Hart Report, para. 152. Brief Statement of Henshaws
Town, 30 Dec. 1877,
in Oflbr to Derby, 14 Feb. 1878, FO84/1527. Statement
of Henshaws Town,
20 Aug. 1878, paras. 3,17, Calprof Ibadan 4/1 vol. 6.
38
I
c
A
n
j>
IL
a;
B
E
a
t
t
2
t
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
dicated disputes between wards.43 G. I. Jones has
recognized seven
principal sanctions which Ekpe could apply to enforce
its judge
ments. First it could boycott a person, by having Ekpe
‘blown
against him, which would prohibit anyone from trading
or having
any other dealing with the offender. Secondly, it
could place a mark
on someone’s property which prevented its being used
until the mark
had been removed. Thirdly, ithad the power to impose
fines. Fourthly,
it could arrest an offender and detain him or hand him
over to the
person with whom he was at odds. Fifthly, it could
execute an
offender, either by decapitation, or by tying him to a
tree in the bush
with his lower jaw removed.44 Sixthly, it could
confine people to their
quarters by hoisting a yellow flag. And lastly it
could destroy or
destrain a man’s property.45 Of these sanctions nearly
all had a
definite economic force, and it is clear that Ekpe's
powers in com
mercial matters were very great.
Its most important economic function was that it had
the power to
enforce the repayment of debts, an essential power in
a society which
had adopted credit trading. Holman describes how this
was done in
1828:
applies to the Duke forth^Egbo dru fr°m “ de^tor'’’the
assrievcd party
with the nature of his complaint- if
’ acctua'ntmS him at the same time
Egbo assembly immediately meet a .e
accedes to the demand, the
... If the complaint be just, the F*
drums are heat about the town;
warn him of his delinquency,’ and t h *S sent t0 tde
offending party to
nouncement no one dares move out° r manc* reparation,
after which anuntil the affair is settled, and if it
house, inhabited by the culprit,
down about their ears, in which c nOt S°°n arran8ed,
the house is pulled
follows.46
ase ‘he loss of a few heads frequently
Because Ekpe had the power t
traders joined the society during th co"ect debts,
several European
the advantage being, as Captain r nineteenth century
if not earlier,
could be given to the African t d
Walker related, that credit
could be recovered.47 It was this radcrs> w‘th full
confidence that it
credit which lay behind the spread°^er t0 insist 011
the repayment of
of EkPe societies among the other
Holman, p. 392 u
"™
6(2Oc«a^
' M cit. Walker.
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
39
peoples further inland up the Cross river,18 for by
adopting Ekpe
they made themselves credit-worthy in the eyes of the
Efik, and there
fore could avail themselves of Efik credit.
Besides Ekpe society’s religious, legal, and
commercial functions,
it also acted as a chamber of commerce and club for
the important
menfolk from the various wards, where they might meet
over a
drink, or the occasional banquet.'10
Membership of Ekpe was open to all men, slave or free.
There were
nine grades of membership, the most important grades
all having
been introduced by Esien Ekpe Oku, the founder of the
society.50
The first four grades in order of descent were
Nyamkpe, Okpoho,
Okuakama, and Nakanda, and were only open to freemen.
Beneath
them were the remaining five grades to which slaves
could belong,
which were in order of descent, Mboko, Mboko Mboko,
Mkpe,
Mbakara, and Edibo. Membership to each grade had to be
bought,
and before one could be admitted to any but the first
grade, one had
to possess all the grades below it. Each grade had its
own worshipful
master, known as the obong of the grade, this position
tending to
be associated with a particular family. Above all the
grades was the
vice-president of the society, called the Ebunko, and
the president
known as the Eyamba.n
Of the Ekpe grades, it was Nyamkpe, the top grade,
which formed
the main decision-making council,52 and Okpoho, the
second grade,
which implemented its decisions.63 These grades were
of course
restricted to freemen, which has led Jones to conclude
that one of
Ekpe’s purposes was to keep the slave population in
subjection.51
Yet this cannot have been entirely so, for Eyo Nsa
managed to achieve
the exalted position of Ebunko, vice-chairman of Ekpe,
on the death
of the society’s founder.55 In fact the effect of Ekpe
was to integrate
the slaves into Efik society by giving them a share,
however small,
in the central organ of government. That they had an
inferior status
in the society was due to the fact that they belonged
to freemen,
18 Hart Report, para. 149. John Parkinson, ‘A note on
the Efik and Ekoi Tribes
of the Eastern Provinces of Southern Nigeria’,
J.R.A.I. 37 (1907), 264.
M. Ruel Leopards and Leaders (London, 1969), pp. 217-
8.
" Hallett, p. 203. Jones, ‘Political Organisation’, p.
137.
50 Hart Report, para. 177.
51 Holman, p. 392. Hutchinson, Impressions, pp. 141-2.
VPCMR 6 (2 Oct.
1876), 283-4, cit. Walker. Hart Report, paras. 150-1,
157. Chief E. Ekpenyong,
M.B.E., 3 Dec. 1965.
82 Jones, ‘Political Organisation’, p. 139.
02 Holman, p. 507.
55 See p. 36.
51 Ibid., pp. 145-8.
THE era of the slave trade
yet as the case of Eyo Nsa proved, upward mobility
’was not totally
impossible.
So it was that men from all wards, both free and
slave, formed a
common organization which made and implemented the
law, and
instituted bankruptcy proceedings. Not only did it
unite them in a
common organization, through which they might meet
each other
socially, as well as binding them together by the
force of friendship,
it also provided the machinery to solve any disputes
which might
arise between them. Indeed, as G. I. Jones has
suggested, it is be
cause of the integrating force of Ekpe society, that
the separatist
tendencies displayed by the wards, as they grew out of
the old com
pound groups of the original lineages, were
restrained.50 Because
their interests could be pursued via the Ekpe society,
they were
content to remain part of the extended village group,
rather than
break completely away to form new and independent
village groups
of their own.
But Ekpe was not a secular village council This last
integrating
institution of the original village settlement
continued much as
before being made up of a group of elders drawn from
the various
wards,57 Without any formal restrictions. It was
chaired as before by
what appears to have been the obong isong> and it was
respOnsible for
matters pertaining to the village as a whole, in
particular relations
with foreigners, as wi 1 be discussed more fu1 y in
Chapter 4.
Thus the external s ave trade resulted in the
introduction to Efik
society of domest.c slaves required to meet the demand
for extra
manpower. Consequently the comn„, ,
inc ucm<ulu
ful traders filled out with slaves to ” ®roups of tbe
most success
able to cast aside the control of th
an extent tbat
'vcrc
selves as independent wards. Yet th»Elr lneaSc> ar*d
establish t temaway entirely from the village
Se e,mergent wards did not break
within it as new segments. For alth
^Ut cbose instead to remain
old fishing cult had weakened as fit?
’nte8rat'n8 porce tbe
the economy, a new and vigorous i8 Ceased t0 be the
basls.
which was more orientated towa'a * Cabed ^Pe came int0
being
Ekpe’s secret society made and enf1 S
Prob'ems °*' commerce,
cial law, and its membership was 0°rced tbe law,
especially commercould afford its fees, whether Slav
t0 members of all wards, who
e Or free- Moreover, all the wards
Jones, ‘Political Organisation- n ]d.
p‘*^23 Jure
2
^ar. 1786,
40
I
c
r
■f
n
lu
V<
a:
B
w
E
a
t
t
t
t
’
I
W, 26 Sept. 1787.
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
41
participated in the common village council which dealt
with general
affairs, especially the vital question of relations
with the Europeans.
So it was that the central organs of Efik government
were modified to
serve the interests of the several wards, who
therefore were content
to remain within the enlarged village. Nevertheless
considerable
political manoeuvring took place as particular wards
attempted to
gain control of the organs of government, as will be
described in the
next chapter.
I
1
CHAPTER 4
The Slave Trade and Efik Political History
c
f
While the previous chapters have shown how the slave
trade devel
oped, and the social consequences of its expansion,
this chapter will
discuss the interplay of the emergent wards for the
dominant political
offices in the Efik community, and the struggle by
that community
for dominance over the other people of the lower Cross
River.

Il
3
A
e
a
h
t
t
1. Efik political offices
It was pointed out in Chapter 3 that originally the
three inte
grating ties of Efik society were the Ndem cult, the
secret society, and
the village council. But as the slave trade replaced
fishing as the basis
of the Efik economy, the importance of the Ndem cult
diminished,
and the new cult of Ekpe, connected to the refurbished
secret society,
largely superseded it in influence. The village
council was unaffected
by these changes, continuing as before. As in Ibibio
society, each of
these integrating organs had a particular office-
holder at their head.
Indeed Captain Hall who visited Old Calabar in 1775-6,
noted that
‘At Calabar they had Three Kings, one of which had the
Civil
Government, the other was at the head of the Religion,
and the third
at the Head of the Law.’1
The head of religion was the Ndem priest, known even
in the
nineteenth century as King Calabar. And the head of
law was of
course the Eyamba. But the head of the civil
government requires
some discussion, as there has been great confusion
among European
observers about this position. In the nineteenth
century he was
known as the ‘King’, and the use of this term has led
Europeans to
the conclusion that this office conferred sovereign
powers upon the
holder. But an examination of the possible Efik terms
for this office
shows this to be a false assumption. There are three
possible Efik
terms for this office: etinyin, edidem, and obong." In
Ibibio, etinyin is
' P.P. 1789 (646), Ixxxiv, Papers received since the
Date of the Report of the
Committee for Trade, on the Subject of the Trade to
Africa, and particularly the
Trade in Slaves, Part 1, Capt. Hall.
! Hart Report, pp. 213-14, Appendix A, Native Court
Proclamation, 1902.
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 43
used for certain office-holders,3 but its Efik meaning
is obscure,1
■ and Goldie’s Dictionary, published in 1874 and still
the standard
authority on the Efik language, does not mention it.
Goldie does
however include edidem, which he describes as a title
superior to
obong, denoting one who held absolute power, but which
did not
apply to anyone in Calabar, as no one there had such
authority.5
By elimination, therefore, obong must have been the
term for the civil
authority, and Goldie supports this by defining obong
as a principal
ruler or king.0 That obong was the Efik term for the
office-holder,
whom the Europeans called the King, is supported by
the fact that
when the Henshaw ward attempted to make itself
independent in the
1870s by declaring its own king, the latter began to
call himself
Obong Henshaw.’ Moreover, when the British in 1902
prohibited
the use of the word king for the Efik civil authority,
the term obong
replaced it.8 Identifying obong as the correct name
for the Efik civil
authority, strongly supports the hypothesis that the
powers of the
Efik civil authority were those of an Ibibio obong
isong.’ Far from
having sovereign powers, he was simply the chairman
and spokesman
of the village council which dealt with general
matters, and foreign
relations.10 If the Europeans thought he was the most
important
political figure, it was because he was the person
they negotiated
with, in his role of‘minister’ for foreign affairs.
2. The changing location ofpolitical offices
As the wards emerged from the original lineage groups
with the
absorption of slaves into Efik society, the location
of two of the three
main political offices was affected. Only in the case
of the Ndent
priesthood, or Oku Ndem, was there no change. For this
position has
always been held by a member of Cobham ward, which is
the rem
nant of the original Ema lineage.11 That there was no
change in the
location of this office reflects the fact that the
fishing cult declined in
importance as the economic basis of Efik society
changed from
3 Forde and Jones, pp. 74-5.
1 Hart Report, paras. 198-202.
3 Goldie, Dictionary, p. 61.
0 Ibid., pp. 3, 527.
7 Agnes Waddel, Memorials of Mrs. Sutherland of Old
Calabar (Paisley, 1883),
p. 121, Obong Henshaw to Mrs. Sutherland, 16 Mar.
1878.
8 Hart Report, pp. 213-14.
0 See Chapter 1, p. 13.
10 Jones, ‘Political Organisation’, pp. 126-7.
Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years,
p. 314. Hart Report, para. 188.
11 See Chapter 3, p. 33.
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
44
fishing to slave trading. The new wards did not seek
the priesthood
because it was no longer very important.
By contrast, the position of Obong became increasingly
desirable,
as it conferred considerable influence over relations
with the Euro
peans, now so vital to Efik economic life. Originally
this office was
the prerogative of the Efiom Ekpo lineage, and the two
Obongs Nsa
Efiom and Ekpo Nsa, who succeeded Efiom Ekpo, came
from what
is now Henshaw ward, the remnant of the lineage.12
Then Ofiong
Okoho, co-founder of Duke Town, and founder of Eyamba
ward,
became Obong. He was followed by his twin brother, co-
founder of
Chart 5
Genealogy of Efik Obongs, 1600-1891
Efiom Ekpo(l)
N'sa Efiom (2) H
Okoho
I
I
Ekpo Nsa(3)ll
Ofiong Okoho(4)E Efiom Okoho(5) D
Ekpcnjong Ofiong(8)E
I
E!Ekpo Efiom (6) D
H
E
D
A
=
=
=
=
Henshaw ward
Eyamba ward
Duke ward
Archibong ward
po(7)D Archibong Ekpo
EdemEkpenyong(IO)E Edem Ekpc
Efiom Edcm(9)D Ededem(l2)D'
Archibong(I l)A Eyo Archibong(l3)A
Edcin Archibong (14) A
Orok Edem(14)I)
Sources: Hart Report, p. 55, para. 158.
Chief Ene Ndem Ephraim Duke, 9 Dec. 1965.
Chief Joseph Henshaw, 6 Dec. 1965, 8 Feb. 1966.
Chief Michael Henshaw, 18 Nov. 1965.
Duke Town, and founder of Duke ward. Thereafter the
Obong-ship
has been held by a member of either Eyamba ward or
Duke ward or
one of the wards which separated from Duke ward in the
nineteenth
and twentieth centuries.13 The re-location of the
office in these two
‘illegitimate’14 wards, resulted from their superior
business success.
This was due to their living at Duke Town, which
placed them in
earlier contact with the Europeans than the Henshaws
who were still
at Creek Town.15 Moreover their dubious ancestry may
have provided
a spur to their commercial aggressiveness. Accordingly
they rapidly
accumulated slaves, which gave them the physical power
to press for
the OAong-ship, and being most accustomed to
negotiating with the
15 Sec Chapter 3, p. 33-4.
13 See chart 5 above.
“ Sec Chapter 1, p. 9-10.
15 Hart Report, para. 85.
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 45
Europeans, they also had the practical experience to
justify their
demands. This change in the location of the Oftong-
ship took place in
the last half of the seventeenth century, for the
Europeans began
trading at Old Calabar about the middle of the
century. A date close
to the end of the century is suggested by the fact
that Ekpenyong
Ofiong, son of Ofiong Okoho, who was the first Duke
Town Obong,
was still alive in 18O5.10
The Oiong-ship was not the only office to be re-
located in a different
ward. For the £)w»Aa-ship also moved from the ward
with which it
was originally connected. The first two Eyambas were
from Ambo
ward, for it was the Ambo chief Esien Ekpe Oku who
introduced
Ekpe. He was Eyamba I, and he handed the office to his
elder brother
Ekpenyong Ekpe Oku, who became Eyamba II.1’ But
Ekpenyong
Ekpe Oku’s daughter married Ekpenyong Ofiong of Eyamba
ward,
who became Eyamba III on his father-in-law’s death.18
Nearly all
subsequent Eyambas have come from Eyamba ward, with
the excep
tion of three from Duke ward, or its offshoots.10
Indeed it can be said
that, from the late eighteenth century,20 those wards
which provided
the Obongs also provided the Eyambas.
A similar change in location occurred in the case of
the Ebunkoship, the vice-presidency of Ekpe. This also
had been held at first by
Esien Ekpe Oku, founder of the society. But on his
death it passed
from Ambo ward via his daughter to her husband Eyo
Nsa,21 who
was busily establishing a ward of his own despite his
dubious
origins.22 All subsequent Ebunkos have come from Eyo
ward.23 The
change in the location of the Ebunko-ship took place
during the last
quarter of the eighteenth century, for Eyo Nsa was
vice-president to
Ekpenyong Ofiong.21
3. Personalities and politics
It has been shown that the Obong-ship became located
in Eyamba
and Duke wards, and that the £yo»ifca-ship also became
established
in these wards. It was Egbo Young (Ekpenyong Ofiong),
son of
Ofiong Okoho, senior founder of Duke Town, who was the
first in
these wards to hold the ij’onffiu-ship. First recorded
in 1777,25 he
17 See Chapter 3, p. 36.
10 Hallett, p. 198.
10 Sec Chart 4 p. 37.
18 Hart Report, para. 186.
21 Hart Report, para. 186.
20 See below.
23 Hart Report, para. 186.
23 See below. —
21 j- .
Hallett, pp. 198-9. Duke,
‘Diary’, p. 53,16 Feb. 1787, p. 59, 31 Aug. 1787.
25 Williams,"p. 553.
46
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
appears to have been Eyamba in the period of Antera
Duke’s Diary,
1785-8, for one entry reads ‘Egbo Young and Willy
Honesty dressed
Grandy Ekpe in the palaver house’,20 clearly a
reference to a ritual
performed by the two senior officers of the society.
And he received
the largest share of an entry fee described in another
note.27 The many
references to him in the Diary reveal his importance
in Efik affairs
in these years,28 and after the death of Duke Ephraim
(Edem Ekpo)
in 1786,20 he became Obong. For in 1805 Nicholls
described him as
‘principal chief and trader’,30 who was ‘obliged to
entertain all
strangers, and, if required, give them his
protection’.31 This obligation
was clearly that of the Obong in his role as spokesman
for foreign
affairs. Nicholls describes him at this time. ‘Egbo
Young Eyambo is
between sixty and seventy, five feet ten inches high,
very corpulent,
and rather a commanding deportment; he appears a
little disfigured
by large bony excrescences upon his knees and elbows;
he has a small
nose and a large mouth, and all together has rather a
pleasant
countenance.’32
He died during the second decade of the nineteenth
century, for his
successor was in office by 1820.
Egbo Young’s chief rival was Willy Honesty (Eyo Nsa).
There is
no agreed genealogy for him,33 which suggests he was
of outside
origin.34 He was a great warrior,35 and played a
leading role in the
battle of 1767 by which Old Town was virtually
excluded from the
European trade.30 Indeed he is remembered as a
national hero, who
defeated the pirates of Mbiakong at the mouth of Ikpa
Creek, who
had constantly harried the Efik trade-canoes.37 It was
in recognition
of this victory that the Ambo chief Esien Ekpe Oku,
founder of Ekpe,
gave his daughter to Honesty in marriage, thereby
conferring freedom
Duke, 'Diary' p. 53,16 Feb. 1787.
*’ Ibid., p. 59, 31 Aug. 1787.
Duke, ‘Diary’ p. 27, 25 Jan. 1785, p. 28, 5 Feb. 1785,
p. 29, 6 Mar. 1785,
7 Mar. 1785, p. 35, 29 June 1785, pp. 36-7, 4, 14, 29,
and 30 Aug. 1785, p. 40,
23 Oct. 1785, p. 41, 25 and 30 Dec. 1785, p. 43, 8
Feb. 1786, p. 46, 9 June 1786,
p. 49, 26 Oct. 1786, pp. 52-3, 1 and 24 Jan. 1787.
=■ Duke, 'Diary', p. 46, 4 June 1786.
” Hallett, p. 198.
11 Ibid., p. 208.
•’ Ibid., p. 199.
” Hart Report, paras. 281-6.
31 Ibid., p. 128, para. 285. Chief Thomas A. Efiom,
M.O.N., 7 Dec. 1965.
33 Hallett, p. 199.
“P.P. 1790 (699), Ixxxviii, Minutes of Evidence taken
before the Select
Committee appointed for the Examination of Witnesses
on the Slave Trade,
p. 386, Mr. George Millar. D. Simmons, ‘An
Ethnographic Sketch of the Efik
People', in Forde, pp. 67-8, note 14.
” Hart Report, para. 287.
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 47
upon him.38 Active in trade,39 Honesty established a
ward of his
own making in Creek Town, and was able to assume the
Ebunko-ship
through his wife on her father’s death.10 This took
place after the
battle with Old Town in 1767,41 and before 1785, for
in Antera
Duke’s Diary he appears as second in importance in
Ekpe to Egbo
Young?2 The numerous other references to Willy Honesty
in the
Diary show how great his influence was at that
time.'13 In 1805 he was
described by Nicholls Tn person the king of Ebongo is
about six
feet high, with an extreme good natured negro
countenance, has a
very commanding deportment, and is a very great
warrior.’41 But
between then and his death in 1820,45 Ekpe was invoked
against him,
forcing him to pay an enormous fine which ‘chopped him
all to
nothing’.40 The cause of this attack is not revealed,
but the most
likely interpretation is that he had tried to
establish Creek Town as an
independent village, as his son Eyo Honesty II did in
the late 1830s,
and as the Henshaw ward attempted later in the
century. The ad
vantage he would have gained by so doing would have
been direct
control over relations with the Europeans, unbiased by
Duke Town
interests.
Willy Honesty had good cause to try and escape the
strangle-hold
over foreign relations held by Duke Town, for at Duke
Town a
younger and more powerful commercial rival was
emerging, who was
to monopolize commerce and political offices until
1834. Egbo Young
and Willy Honesty had dominated Efik politics since
the death of
Duke Ephraim in 1786. But his son, also known as Duke
Ephraim
(Efiom Edem), turned his attention to trade, and by
1805 was ‘by far
the greatest trader’,4’ although Egbo Young and Willy
Honesty were
still in office. He was then ‘. .. a very elegant
formed young man, six
feet high, with a very expressive countenance, and his
skin is rather
blacker than the Calabar people in general.’48 It has
been said that
48 Ibid.

” Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 29,12 Mar. 1785, p. 33, 9 June

1785, p. 46, 23 June 1786.
p. 60, 26 Sept. 1787.
80 Hart Report, para. 287.
11 Chief Etim Hogan Etim, 21 Jan. 1966.
41 Duke, ‘Diary*, p. 53, 16 Feb. 1787, p. 59, 31 Aug.
1787.
“ Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 27, 25 Jan. 1785, pp. 29-30, 12
Mar. 1785, p. 31, 14 May
1785, p. 33, 8 and 9 June 1785, p. 41,25 Dec. 1785, p.
46, 23 June 1786, pp. 47-8,
4 Sept. 1786, p. 49, 19 Oct. 1786, p. 52, 24 Dec.
1786, pp. 52-3, 24 Jan. 1787,
p. 53, 2 Feb. 1787,16 Feb. 1787, p. 54, 22 Feb. 1787,
p. 55, 24 Mar. 1787,16 Apr.
1787, p. 57, 25 July 1787, p. 59, 31 Aug. 1787, p. 61,
9 and 22 Oct. 1787, p. 63,
25 Dec. 1787, p. 64, 8 Jan. 1788.
« Hallett, p. 199. 45 Crow, p. 280. •• Waddell,
Twenty-Nine Years, p. 310.
•’ Hallett, p. 199.
Hallett, p. 199.
48
THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
Duke Ephraim took office in 1814,19 but there is no
proof of this,
and Robertson states in his book published in 1819
that he was not
King.59 Yet from Bold it is clear that he had become
Obong prior to
Willy Honesty’s death in 1820.51 Not only Obong, he
was also
Eyamba, as was his predecessor, for he signed a letter
as Duke
Ephraim Eyambo in 1821.52 But unlike Egbo Young, he
had no
great rival such as Willy Honesty, who was now dead.
Consequently
his dominance was unchallenged, and he set about
consolidating and
extending his vast power. This is revealed in the
changes in the comey
distribution. In the past these dues had been made
direct to the men
with whom the Europeans traded, usually the ward
head.53 And as
late as the second decade of the nineteenth century
this was so, for
Bold gives a list of twelve traders to whom comey had
to be paid,
noting that there were others who no longer received
comey because
they had ceased trading. It is clear that Duke Ephraim
received most
comey, and Willy Honesty had the next largest share,
the comey
being proportionate to the amount of business a trader
furnished.51
When Honesty died, Duke Ephraim was left as far and
away the
most important trader and receiver of comey. So the
Europeans
refused to pay comey to anyone but him. The oil
traders led this
movement, but the slavers presumably followed their
example, for
the Duke ‘had nearly the whole of the Slave trade in
his hands’.55
So it was that by 1828 Duke Ephraim was Obong, Eyamba,
sole
comey recipient, and virtual monopolist of the
external trade. To
reinforce this position he was settling large numbers
of slaves in the
newly discovered agricultural district to the east of
Duke Town,
known as Akpabuyo.50 These slaves formed a reserve of
retainers,
the physical reality of his power. He was the most
influential man in
Efik history.

* Nair, pp. 51-2.

Robertson, p. 313.
„ Bold, pp. 76, 79.
,
EPhraim Eyambo to Collier, 9 Apr. 1821, in Collier to
Croker, 16
Apr. 1821, FO84/14.
‘Diary’ p- 33' 8 and 9 June 1785’ P- 36> 23 July 1785’
P- 46- 23 June
‘‘ BoW p277May 1787’ P' 601 26 SCPt' 1787’ P’ 621 25
°Ct' 1787‘
18281CO828t"i8lCy’Pcport on
old Ca'abar River, in Owen to Croker, 21 Feb.

23 NnJ“ifof;Ekpcnyon8’ M.B.E., 1 Dec. 1965. Chief Ene

Ndem Ephraim Duke,
19 Jan 1966 ^*c^®runo ^a» 30 Nov. 1965. Chief Maurice
Efana Archibong,
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 49
4. Efik subjection of other Cross River peoples
If the tendency within the Efik state was towards the
emergence of
a dominant ward, which gained control of the European
trade, a
similar process was taking place in relation to
neighbouring tribes.
For the Efik excluded all other peoples from direct
access to the
Europeans, establishing and maintaining a position as
monopolistic
middlemen.
The people of Old Town, who had separated from the
original
Efik settlement at Creek Town even before the
establishment of Duke
Town, had participated in the slave trade and
prospered. But such
was the rivalry between them and their cousins at
Creek Town and
Duke Town, that in 1767 what has been called the
‘Massacre of Old
Calabar’ took place. Six British ships lay in the
river, but as Old Town
and Duke Town were in arms, trade was at a standstill.
So the
captains made a secret pact with the chiefs of Duke
Town, to invite
the Old Town chiefs on board in a pretence at
mediation. But as
soon as the Old Town chiefs arrived, they were seized
and chained,
their canoes fired upon, and their men butchered by
the Duke Town
people who emerged from hiding. It is said that about
300 people
were killed in this treacherous action.57 Further
attacks were made
upon a greatly weakened Old Town during the next
thirty years,58
and by 1805 Old Town was of little importance.™
Another group which was excluded was the Ebreros, whom
it is
difficult to identify, and may have just been an
unsuccessful ward
which dwindled away. Barbot refers to a King Ebrero in
1698, who
supplied provisions,00 and in 1765 Isaac Parker, an
English seaman,
went on a slaving expedition with a chief called Dick
Ebro’.01 Some
57 Williams, pp. 535-9.
P.P. 1789 (646), Ixxxiv, Papers received . . .
on . . . Trade to Africa, Part 1,
Capt. Hall. P.P. 1790 (698), Ixxxvii, Minutes of the
Evidence ... on the Slave
Trade, pp. 515-17, 527-9, 537-8, 557-8, Capt. J. A.
Hall, pp. 633-6, Capt.
Ambrose Lace. P.P. 1790. Vol. 88 (699) Minutes of the
Evidence ... on the Slave
Trade, pp. 385-7, George Millar.
Abridgement (London, 1789-91), ii. 206-7, 212, 218-19,
244-5, iii. 155-6.
Chief Thomas A. Efiom, M.O.N., 7 Dec. 1965. Chief E.
Ekpenyong, M.B.E.,
1 Dec. 1965. Etubom A. E. Archibong, Chief Oko Efiom
Asiya, Chief Etim Otu
Bassey, Chief Antigha Efefiom, Chief Efiom Obo
Effanga, Chief Otu Otu
Efiiom, 14 Feb. 1966.
s' Williams, pp. 543-4, cit. Grandy King George to
Lace, 13 Jan. 1773, Hallett,
pp. 204-5.
" Hallett, p. 206.
•’ Barbot, p. 465.
01 P.P. 1790 (699), Ixxxviii, Minutes of the
Evidence ... on the Slave Trade,
pp. 133-4, Isaac Parker.
3
r
e
u
a
E
v
E
I
1
50
THE era of the slave trade
twenty years later Antera Duke mentions a Dick
Ebrow,02 although
the fact that there is only one reference to him
suggests that he was
not important. Eyo Ebrow’s son was Antera Duke’s cabin
boy.03
But as there are no more references to the Ebreros
after this time,
they must have been driven from the trade or become
extinct.
The Qua were also excluded from the trade. Duke
records that
they were active in the slave trade in 1785,01 and
Bold notes that the
King of Qua was entitled to comey during the second
decade of the
nineteenth century.05 However, at the time that comey
was re
organized under Duke Ephraim, they lost their claim
and were not
to have direct contact with the Europeans again until
after 1878.
But it was not only these adjacent communities which
were cut off
from the Europeans by the Efik. For the list of chiefs
from whom
provisions were bought in 1698 according to Barbot,
included
‘William King Agbisherca’00 and ‘Robin King
Agbisherea’,07 clearly
Ibibio chiefs, for Egbosherry was the name for
Ibibioland until the
late nineteenth century.00 Yet the Ibibio were
excluded from the
trade during the eighteenth century, and the battles
with the up-river
tribes, which are traditionally associated with Eyo
Honesty’s military
prowess, represent the culmination of this process
, Ba,rb°‘ a'S° 7fefrSTin 16J!8 t0 a "caPta*n Thomas,
at Salt-Town,’00
clearly the chief of Tom Shotts, at the eastern side
of the estuary.70
They were prevented from trading with the Eur
at an early
date, for in 180 Nicholls describes them as ‘having no
communi-
“ S"? ~
European boats and ‘used to seize
occasional,y attaakfd
whites he could lay hold of’.72 Ante’, r~? roast and
devour a 1 e
in his diary.73 These incursions wpJZ ,6 records such
an atta<ik
years of Duke Ephraim’s reign Fn ?a Prevented in the
early
people attacked and killed the matZ’ a?out ^21, the
Tom Shotts
Canning."1 In response, aided by s
Some kan(^s of the George
attacked and defeated them.75
Onie English seamen, the Duke
“ Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 33, 17 June 178s
“ Ibid., p. 28, 30 Jan. 1787.
•• Barbot, p. 465.
" Bold, p. 78. Waddell, Tw'nty-Nine y
■^otnp,C465DUke'S
’• SS':Dia
” Ibid., p 61 3 Oct. 1787.
•• Bold, p 77’
« Ibid.
’
P
S“
p. 38. 27 SCeptW’17P85 71'7' S1"’"10"5’ ‘N°,CS’’
’* Collier to Croker, 16 Apr. 1821, FO 84/14
75 Crow, p. 271.

65“’
THE SLAVE TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 51
About the time that Duke Ephraim conquered Tom Shotts,
he also
closed the Rio del Rey to the European trade. This
place had been a
minor trading place since Barbot’s time,76 and a long
standing Efik
sphere of influence.77 But Ephraim forbade the
Europeans to trade
there because of the occasional attacks by pirates.78
Thus it can be said that the slave trade caused the
emergence of
wards from the original lineages, as their compounds
absorbed
slaves, and it was those wards most successful in
trade which ex
panded fastest because they accumulated most
retainers. Certain
wards grew more quickly than others, for the Europeans
traded and
gave credit to those who paid their debts promptly and
honestly.
In the course of time, bad debtors lost their access
to credit, and only
the credit-worthy were supported. The more trust they
were allowed,
the bigger their organizations and reserves became,
and the more they
were able to justify being given further credit.
Paradoxically, it was
the three least legitimate wards, Eyamba ward, Duke
ward, and Eyo
ward, who prospered and became most powerful, no doubt
driven to
achieve commercial success by the insecurity conferred
by their
dubious ancestry. Consequently, during the last
quarter of the
eighteenth century, they demanded and received the
leading political
offices in Calabar. The deaths of the heads of Eyamba
ward and Eyo
ward, during the second decade of the nineteenth
century, left Duke
ward in a dominant position under the leadership of
the exceptionally
able Duke Ephraim, who was both Obong and Eyamba,
besides sole
collector of comey, and virtual monopolizer of the
external trade.
His profits he used to expand Duke ward still further,
using the newly
discovered Akpabuyo territory to settle the slaves he
bought. Extern
ally, he completed the task of consolidating the Efik
monopoly of
trade, by excluding all other tribes from direct
contact with the
Europeans, a process which had been progressing
steadily during the
eighteenth century. His supremely dominant position
was therefore
the logical culmination of the processes set in motion
by the slave
trade. But it was a position never to recur again in
Efik history.
70 Barbot, p. 384.
77 E. Ardcner, ‘Documentary and Linguistic Evidence
for the Rise of the
Trading Politics between Rio del Rey and Camcroons,
1500-1650’, in I. M.
Lewis, (cd.), History and Social Anthropology (London,
1968).
78 Collier, Report on the Coast of Africa, 27 Dec.
1821, FO84/19.

E
PART 2
The Era of the Palm-Oil Trade
CHAPTER 5
The Palm-Oil Trade at Old Calabar
This chapter will discuss the evolution of the palm-
oil trade at Old
Calabar from a subsidiary of the slave trade to the
main export
business, and its growth up to 1891 when the
imposition of tariffs
by the British altered the conditions under which
trade took place.
As Old Calabar was the first palm-oil port, this
chapter will help to
test the generalizations commonly made about the
development of
the trade.
1. The rise and development of the external palm-oil
trade
Although palm oil became the staple of the West
African trade
from Sierra Leone to the Cameroons as slaving
declined, it had been
purchased by the Europeans as early as 1522.1 During
the slave
trade, oil was bought for food on the middle passage,2
and as is shown
on Table 3, small but increasing quantities were
imported at Liver
pool from 1772. Table 4 indicates that after 1790 when
125 tons
were imported, British oil imports increased slowly
until 1806 when
361 tons came in. Already Liverpool merchants were
instructing their
captains to buy oil.3 With the abolition of the slave
trade in 1807,
a dramatic increase in oil exports occurred, with
steady growth until
the middle years of the century, at which point the
figures cease.
Old Calabar led the expansion of the oil trade. In the
1770s oil
was bought there,1 and Antera Duke apparently noted
two ships
taking away oil, 1785-6.5 Adams refers to a
considerable trade there in
oil in the last years of the slave trade, but there is
nothing to support
1 Alan Ryder, Benin and the Europeans 1485-1897
(London, 1969), p. 56.
Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages,
Traffiques & Discoveries
of the English Nation (Glasgow, 1904), vi. 457, 467.
2 P.P. 1790 (698), Ixxxvii, Minutes of the
Evidence ... on the Slave Trade,
p. 518, Capt. J. A. Hall.
3 Messrs. Leyland to Captain Charles Kneale of Ship
Lottery, 21 May 1802,
Liverpool K.f. 96. Messrs. Thos. Leyland to Caesar
Lawson of the Enterprise,
18 July 1803, Liverpool K.f. 96.
1 P.P. 1790 (698), Ixxxvii, Minutes of Evidence ... on
the Slave Trade, p. 526,
Capt. J. A. Hall.
3 Duke, ‘Diary’ p. 40, 14 Dec. 1785, p. 42, 22 Jan.
1786.
58
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
stiff competition continued from other firms,14 which
still entered
the trade.15
The oil traders also had to face the competition of
the slave traders
until 1841, both Beecroft10 and Nicolls1’ reporting
how the arrival of
slavers in the river brought the oil trade to a halt,
as it did else
where on the coast.18 So heated was the antagonism
between the two
groups that in 1828 an officer of the Kent was shot by
a French
slaver.19
As the number of oil ports increased from the 1830s,
the decision
to trade at Old Calabar in preference to other ports
was largely
determined by the supercargo’s reading of current
market conditions.
Eleven different firms traded at Calabar 1847-51, six
in 1847, five in
1848, three in 1849, six in 1850, and five in 1851.
Only Horsfall &
Sons were present in each of these years, and all the
firms were
Liverpool-based except one from Amsterdam whose ship
came in
1851.20 In 1855 six firms traded at Old Calabar, of
which two had
not traded there during 1847-51.21 This speculative
nature of the
trade contributed to its competitiveness, for the fact
that different
firms traded each year made it difficult for buyers’
rings to form.
In March 1854 the introduction of the monthly mail-
steamer
brought a new form of competition,22 which ultimately
revolution
ized the trading system. Whereas previously the
supercargoes had
given out trust, and in return accumulated oil as they
lay in the river
for months, now produce could be shipped immediately
to Britain
on the steamer. So it became absurd to send a vessel
to the coast to
lie there for the season, with the crew under-employed
and contracting
the innumerable coastal diseases. Under that system,
fixed capital in
the form of the ship lay idle for months, and trading
capital was also
11 Owen to Croker, 5 Nov. 1828, CO82/2. Landers, iii.
329. Crow, pp. 284-5.
15 Lee Trotman to Backhouse, 13 Mar. 1840, FO84/342.
10 P.P. 1850 (53), ix, QQ 3406-7, Capt. John Bcacroft
[s/c].
17 Nicolls to Hay, 28 Oct. 1833, CO82/6. Nicolls to
Hay, 4 June 1835, CO82/8.
18 P.P. 1842, (551), xii, (1) Part 2, Appendix No. 3,
Commissioners Report.
The Palm Oil Trade. P.P. 1847-8, (272), xxii (1), 1st
Report, QQ 2614-18, Wm.
Hutton.
18 Cummins to Badgley, 26 Jan. 1828, CO82/1.
80 P.P. 1850 (53), ix, Minutes of Evidence before
Select Committee on the
African Slave Trade, QQ 3143, R. Dawson cit. John
Clare. P.P. 1852 (284), xlix,
Correspondence Relating to the Conveyance of H.M.
Mails to the West Coast of
Africa, John Clare to Admiralty, 16 Dec. 1851.
81 List of Vessels laying in the River Old Calabar on
17 Oct. 1855, Inc. 6 in
Lynslagcrto Clarendon, 31 Oct. 1855, FO84/975.
8 Marwick,
Marwick, p.
n. 296.
296.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
59
tied up over long periods. All that was to be
necessary in future was a
hulk or cask-house, and a buying agent with some local
hands. Wage
bills were cut to a minimum, capital costs reduced,
and speed of
turnover greatly increased.
So it was that after March 1854 newcomers entered the
trade from
which they had been previously excluded by their Jack
of initial
capital. Exploiting the possibilities of rapid
turnover, they operated
on a lower cost-schedule than the old firms, whose
prices they were
able to undercut. The days of the sailing ship and
supercargo were
numbered, but faced with the probability of heavy
loss, the estab
lished firms were not prepared to go under without a
struggle.
Yet contrary to Dike’s view, which echoes that of
Consul Living
stone, the rivalry which ensued was not simply a
struggle between a
monopolistic group, and intruding competitors.23 For
competition
under the old system had been intense. Rather it was a
conflict be
tween a group of traders on one kind of cost-schedule,
within which
limits they were highly competitive, and another group
of traders
operating on a much lower cost-schedule made possible
by techno
logical advance. While it was inevitable that the old-
style traders
should lose in the long run, it was only natural that
they should use
whatever means that were at their disposal to attack
their upstart
competitors.
The first to seize the opportunities offered by the
mail services were
liberated Africans from Sierra Leone who came to Old
Calabar on
the early steamers, and began to ship oil to
Britain.21 By October
1855, ten ships lay in the river, only four of which
had been there less
than 10 months, the rest having been there 10, 12, 14,
17, 18, and 20
months respectively25 This was because King Eyo II,
the leading oil
trader, had not supplied the oil for which he had
taken trust, but was
selling his oil to Peter Nicholls, a liberated African
from Sierra
Leone,20 who had settled at Creek Town.27 Eyo’s son,
and Black
Davis, an important Duke Town trader, had been seized
and
imprisoned on board ship according to the traditional
fashion of
23 Dike, pp. 114-15, cit. Livingstone to Stanley, 1
Oct. 1866, FO2/47.
21 Hutchinson to Clarendon, 29 Sept. 1856, F084/1001.
26 List of Vessels laying in the River Old Calabar,
Inc. 6 in Lynslager to
Clarendon, 31 Oct. 1855, FO84/975.
20 Journal of Proceedings, in Lynslager to Clarendon,
31 Oct. 1855, FO84/975.
C. Fyfe, ‘Peter Nicholls—Old Calabar and Freetown’,
J.H.S.N. vol. 2, no. 1,
(Dec. 1960), pp. 105 etc.
27 Lynslagcr to Cuthbertson, 5 Nov. 1855, in
Hutchinson to Clarendon,
12 Mar. 1856, F084/1001.
60
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
forcing debts to be paid, without much effect.28 So in
November,
16 puncheons of Nicholls’s oil were seized as they lay
on the beach
awaiting the steamer, by Captain Cuthbertson, who
considered him
self to have a prior claim to the oil, having given
Eyo credit.20
This dispute set the scene for the turmoil which
developed in the
next few years between the supercargoes and those
shipping on the
steamers. Fundamentally, the supercargoes argued that
the Elik
must liquidate their existing trust debts before
selling to the new
comers. But the Elik, supported by the new arrivals,
insisted that
although trust must eventually be honoured, there was
no time-limit
by which point debts must be paid, and that in the
meantime they
might sell to whom they wished. In practice this meant
that the Elik
were using the supercargoes’ trust to purchase oil
inland, which
was then sold to the Sierra Leoneans, while they were
paying off
trust little by little.30
In May 1856 Captain Davies seized oil belonging to
Daniel Hedd,
another Sierra Leonean,31 and in July, Antica Ambo was
seized for
debt.32 Nevertheless, by October, ten ships were lying
in the river,
with trust out for 9,030 tons of oil, although recent
annual production
had been only 4,500 tons.33 Six of the ships had been
held up since
at least the previous November,31 and of these,
Captain Davies’s
ships had been there for two years.35 What is
surprising is that since
November, four ships had arrived and given trust
despite the situ
ation. It appears, therefore, that the supercargoes
were hoping to
defeat the Sierra Leoneans by giving trust, and
insisting that the
Efik repay it before trading with the newcomers.30
Traders who did
not do so were imprisoned, and any oil about to be put
aboard the
M Journal of Proceedings in Lynsiager to Clarendon, 31
Oct. 1855, FO84/975.
Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 566.
" Nicolls to Lynsiager, 2 Nov. 1855, in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 12 Mar.
1856, F084/1001.
30 Davies to Hutchinson, 13 Oct. 1856, in Hutchinson
to Clarendon, 1 Nov.
1856, FO84/10D1.
31 Hedd to Hutchinson, 21 May 1856, in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 24 June
1856, F084/1001.
31 King Eyo to Hutchinson, 25 July 1856, in Hutchinson
to Clarendon, 28 July
1856, ST 97. F084/1001.
33 Davies to Hutchinson, 13 Oct. 1856, in Hutchinson
to Clarendon, 1 Nov.
1856, F084/1001.
31 List of Vessels laying in the River Old Calabar,
Inc. 6, in Lynslagcr to
Clarendon, 31 Oct. 1855, FO84/975.
33 Davies to Hutchinson, 13 Oct. 1856, in Hutchinson
to Clarendon, 1 Nov.
1856, F084/1001.
36 Board of Trade to Earl Shelborne, 16 Nov. 1857, BT
1/545/1794.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
61
mail steamer was seized. This resort to direct action
was facilitated
by the Foreign Office’s statement on the Nicholls
affair that super
cargoes were not accountable in English law for their
actions in
Calabar to Sierra Leoneans and others who were beyond
the juris
diction of English law. While such actions were
disapproved of,
the only influence the Consul had was his ‘good
offices’.37 In January
1857, Mr. Hearn seized oil belonging to James
Haddison,38 a mission
employee from Jamaica.39 So the supercargoes won the
initial skir
mish, for Nicholls had returned to Sierra Leone in
disgust,40 and
Hedd and Haddison had lost their oil.
But in 1857 the situation took a turn against the
supercargoes. The
Olinda from Liverpool arrived in the river chartered
by King Eyo
II.41 Despite Eyo’s agreeing to liquidate his debts
before loading the
Olinda*- she sailed fully loaded in July.43 Meanwhile
Eyo continued
to ship oil via his steward, on the mail boats,44 and
in June 1857 two
Scotsmen, Mr. Inglis and Mr. Smith, arrived to begin
shipping oil on
the steamers, taking up residence at the Mission.45
Being British
subjects, they could not be treated by the
supercargoes with the
impunity relied on in the case of the Sierra Leoneans.
In 1858 the situation became even worse for the
supercargoes,
for the Olinda returned,40 and both Efik Kings died,
King Duke of
Duke Town on 11 August,47 and King Eyo II, still
greatly in debt,
on 3 December.48 Within a few weeks, a fire destroyed
King Eyo’s
palace and out-houses, making it unlikely his debts
would ever be
paid.49
37 Clarendon to Hutchinson, 21 May 1856, F084/1001.
38 Haddison to Hutchinson, 30 Jan. 1857, in Hutchinson
to Clarendon,
20 Feb. 1857, ST 10, F084/1030.
39 Hutchinson to Clarendon, 20 Aug. 1857, ST 47,
F084/1030.
40 Nicolls to Cuthbertson, 15 Apr. 1856, in Hutchinson
to Clarendon, 24 June
1856, F084/1001.
41 Supercargoes to Hutchinson, 19 Apr. 1857, in
Hutchinson to Clarendon,
29 Apr. 1857, ST 23, F084/1030.
43 Hutchinson to Clarendon, 29 Apr. 1857, ST 23,
F084/1030.
43 Hutchinson to Clarendon, 20 Aug. 1857, ST 46,
F084/1030. Supercargoes to
Hutchinson, 25 July 1857, in Hutchinson to Clarendon,
31 Aug. 1857, ST 50,
F084/I030.
44 Supercargoes to Hutchinson, 25 July 1857.
45 Ibid. Smith and Inglis to Hutchinson (undated), in
Hutchinson to Malmes
bury, 24 May 1858, ST 21, FO84/1061.
40 Deposition of Mr. Michael Hearn, 2 Mar. 1858, in
Hutchinson to Malmes
bury, 25 May 1858, ST 22, FO84/1061.
47 Marwick p. 3 74.
48 Ibid., p. 376. Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 646.
49 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 644.
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
By 1859 the situation was desperate. Tyson and
Richmond sent
one ship home empty because it was going rotten after
lingering
two and a half years. Michael Hearn, one of their
supercargoes,
seized Adam Archibong, a leading Efik debtor.60 When
Hearn’s
brother William, who also worked for Tyson and
Richmond, arrived
in the autumn, his ship was banned by the new King,
who was Adam
Archibong’s brother.61 Such was the resulting
bitterness between the
supercargoes that Mr. Cheetham of Horsfall’s62
suggested to his
merchants that Consul Hutchinson had accepted bribes
from the
Hearns.53 This accounted for his connivance at the
imprisonment of
Adam Archibong, which had led to a total stoppage of
trade,51 and
his refusal to recognize John Archibong as King until
the ban on
William Hearn’s ship was removed.55 A full Foreign
Office enquiry
was made into these accusations,56 and although Dike
and Nair have
said that Hutchinson was found guilty and removed from
office,57
he in fact successfully defended himself against the
bribery charge.58
He was translated from Fernando Po merely for showing
a lack of
judgement and discretion, and far from being dismissed
he was later
Consul at Callao.50
Hutchinson’s departure made no difference to the
problems of the
supercargoes, for in 1861 Stuart and Douglas alone
were owed 1,000
tons of oil.00 However many such debts must have been
written off,
for in April 1862 the price of oil in Britain
plummetted. The super
cargoes met, and decided to reduce the price they were
prepared to
offer. The Efik refused to accept the new prices, and
stopped all
trade.61
With the drastic fall in prices, many Liverpool firms
cut their losses,
and stopped trading at Calabar. By 1864, only three
Liverpool firms
62
10 Hearn to Hutchinson, 1 Mar. 1859, in Hutchinson to
Malmesbury, ST 12
FO84/1087.
11 Hutchinson to Russell, 25 Jan. 1860, ST 1,
FO84/1117.
53 F.O. to Hutchinson, 4 Sept. 1860, FO84/1117.
53 Hutchinson to Russell, 12 Sept. 1860, FO84/1117.
M Archibong to supercargoes, 28 Feb. 1859, in
Hutchinson to Malmesbury,
21 Mar. 1859, ST 12, FO 84/1087.
33 Hutchinson to Russell, 25 Jan. 1860, FO84/1117.
33 F.O. to Hutchinson, 4 Sept. 1860, FO84/1117.
47 Diko n 174 Mtiir n 774
19 F.O.’internal Memo,’sgd’‘W’, 18 Sept. 1860,
FO84/1117.
59 African Times, 28 Mar. 1874, p. 34.
co Stuart and Douglas to Russell, 2 Jan. 1861, Calprof
54/9/13 Enugu.
01 Supercargoes to Burton, 28 Apr. 1862, in Burton to
Russell, 22 May 1862,
No. 16, FO84/1176.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
63
were still trading there, Horsfall & Co., Stuart &
Douglas, and Tyson,
Richmond, and Jones. Three Glasgow firms had now
entered the
river, Walker, Scott & Co., Hamilton & Co., and
Taylor, Laughland
& Co. And there was the Company of African Merchants,
and the
Amsterdam firm of Messrs. Trankranem, making eight
houses in all.
But the supercargoes had gone, and each house now
operated through
an agent who lived aboard a hulk, with a cask-house on
the beach.62
It was the fall in prices in 1862 which finally dealt
the death blow
to the supercargo system. Once the high prices of the
crisis years
1854-62 had gone, it was no longer economic to
maintain the old
capital expensive way of trading, and those firms who
wished to
remain in business had to adopt the agent system. Some
firms were
forced out of the trade altogether. Yet the switch to
the agent
system did not mean the trade became less competitive;
on the
contrary new firms entered the market, and as many
traded as be
fore. However, the development of the agent system did
spell death
to the hopes of the liberated Africans, for the agents
could now
operate as cheaply, and had far bigger capital
resources behind
them.
Nevertheless the supremacy of the steamship was not
complete,
many of the trading companies still using their own
sailing ships
to collect oil from their agents.63 This more
efficient use of their
own ships enabled them to compete with the steamships.
But
the late sixties saw a decline of the sailing ship and
the victory of
steam, particularly after the West African Mail
Company started a
fortnightly service in 1866.°* In 1869 another
steamship line began
operations in Calabar, resulting in five steamships a
month, and
reduced freight rates.66 As a result trading ships
virtually ceased to
come to Calabar,66 and only the occasional sailing
ship with a coarse
and cheap cargo was to be seen in the early
seventies.67
Although prices paid for palm oil in Britain improved
in the late
sixties with the increasing use of oil as a flux in
the tinplate industry,
business apparently remained poor for the traders. In
September
1869 John Holt noted in his diary that ‘The losses of
all concerned
62 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/122L
02 Livingstone to Stanley, 1 Oct. 1866, FO2/47.
“ Ibid.
15 P.P. 1873, Ixv (1), Africa, West Coast, Old
Calabar, Report by Consul
Livingstone on the Trade and Commerce of Old Calabar
for the Year 1872.
00 Livingstone to Clarendon, 3 Dec. 1869, No. 36,
FO84/1308.
07 Undated Memorandum, signed Livingstone, FO84/1343,
64
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
in the palm oil trade have been large this year.’68
Although oil was
plentiful at Old Calabar in 1870,69 the early
seventies in general were
poor years for the European merchants, as there was
excessive
competition between the old houses, and newly arrived
traders
with limited capital, working for themselves.70 There
were two of
these new men in Calabar in 1871, D. J. B. Jansen and
George Watts,
the latter playing an important role in Calabar
affairs during the next
few years. They faced the competition of eight other
houses, four
from Liverpool and three from Glasgow.71 So intense
was compe
tition that in 1874 the Old Calabar Chamber of
Commerce sought
the help of the African Association in Liverpool in
making an agree
ment to reduce prices, as the numerous previous
attempts had always
failed.72 So bad was the situation that McCoskry and
Greer had
already decided to withdraw from the trade and sell
their hulk.73
Connected to this intense competition in Old Calabar
was the
opening of the kernel trade in 1869, probably due to
the enterprise of
Captain J. B. Walker,71 an agent, who visited the oil-
producing
villages with a missionary, and persuaded them to
start supplying
kernels. These were now in demand in Europe for the
newly developed
manufacture of margarine.76 But the Efik banned the
kernel trade
in 1872, as it was causing a glut of European goods at
the markets,
depressing their exchange value to the disadvantage of
the oil
middlemen.76 It was not until 1874 that Consul Hartley
was able to
persuade the Efik Chiefs to re-open the kernel
trade.77
The attempt to form a price ring in 1874 must have
been un
successful, for in 1883 W. Tyrer, an agent, sought an
agreement over
prices for bad oil and short measures, because
agreement for a
general price-reduction could not be made.78 But late
in 1883 there
was a sudden price rise in Britain, which provoked
such rivalry on the
coast that the merchants had to instruct their agents
to reduce prices
•' Cecil R. Holt, (ed.), The Diary ofJohn Holt
(Liverpool, 1948), p. 149.
” Livingstone to Clarendon, 10 June 1870, FO84/1326.
70 P.P. 1873, Ixv (1), Report by Consul Livingstone.
’* Agents and Merchants to Hopkins, 25 July 1871,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 2.
73 Old Calabar Chamber of Commerce to African
Association, 30 Nov. 1874,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/3 vol. 2.
73 Walker to Hartley, 28 Sept. 1874, Calprof Ibadan,
4/1 vol. 3.
71 UPCMR N.S. 2 (1 July, 1869), 398, citing Dr. Robb.
75 Allan McPhee, The Economic Revolution in British
West Africa (London,
1926), pp. 34-5.
74 P.P. 1873, Ixv, 1, Report by Consul Livingstone.
■” Hartley to Granville, 20 Mar. 1874, No. 6,
FO84/1401.
74 Tyrer to Owen, 1 Feb. 1883, Calprof Ibadan 3/2.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
65
in order to maintain a profit margin.” So at long last
an agreement
was made in Old Calabar to hold prices down.80 New
price lists were
issued to all agents on 27 December, and a meeting was
called for the
next day to make an agreement on gauge and dirty
oil.81
Under the agreement, produce was divided according to
the capital
each firm had invested in the river. Of the 8 shares,
Taylor, Laughland
& Co. received 1-J, Thomas Harrison & Co. 1J, British
and Conti
nental African Co. 1|, R. & W. King 1}, Stuart &
Douglas 1},
and George Watts -J. Some parallels can be seen
between this division
and the proportion of estimated capital investment
each later handed
to the African Association, Laughlands giving £17,734,
British and
Continental £18,470, Kings £14,582, Harrisons £13,772,
Stuarts
£7,735, and Watts £8,962. The validity of this
division is shown by
each firm’s exports in 1883, for, out of a total of
7,365 tons, Harrisons
exported 2,000 tons, Laughlands 1,600 tons, British
and Continental
1,226 tons, Kings 1,439 tons, and Watts 450 tons.82
But it was soon apparent that agents were
circumventing the pool,
and Harrisons’ agent broke the price agreement by
making a secret
pact with some Efik traders. The original agreement
therefore was
revised to become a quota arrangement with prices no
longer
restricted. This second agreement only lasted from May
1886 to
February 1888, for when Miller Brothers established
themselves in
Calabar in 1887 all pretence of combination
collapsed.83
So the story of the oil trade at Old Calabar until the
closing years
of the nineteenth century is one of intense
competition between
the various European firms. At no time was there a
monopoly or
combination of firms, except for the short-lived trade
agreements
of 1883-8. Yet despite the attempts of liberated
Africans, King
Eyo II, and the Henshaws in 1881-2,84 to trade
directly with Britain,
the Europeans continued to handle the external trade.

2. Exports
Old Calabar exported 700-800 tons of oil per annum in
the last
’• P.P. Africa, 1702 (1888), p. 31, Inc. 3 in No. 18,
Calprof Ibadan, 5/9.
" Gertzcl, Cherry, 'John Holt: A British Merchant in
West Africa in the Era of
Imperialism.’ (Oxford D.Phil. thesis 1959), p. 205,
cit. John Holt Papers, 3/11.
81 Burn to Agents, 27 Dec. 1883, Calprof Ibadan, 4/3
vol. 2.
82 Gertzel, ‘John Holt’, pp. 206-7, cit. John Holt
Papers 3/11 and 26/3a.
83 Gertzel, ‘John Holt’, pp. 209-12, cit. John Holt
Papers 26/3a.
84 N. B. Henshaw to Walkden & Co., 6 Oct. 1881,
Calprof Ibadan 4/3 vol. 2.
Walkden & Co. to N. B. Henshaw, 2 Dec. 1881, Calprof
Ibadan 4/3 vol. 2.
Walkden & Co. to N. B. Henshaw, 13 Oct. 1882, Calprof
Ibadan, 5/1,
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
66
years of the legitimate slave trade.85 Graph 2 shows
the increase of
Calabar’s exports during the century, and reveals how
important
Calabar was in the early days. She exported 1,200 tons
p.a. in 1812—
17, although only in 1815 were more than 1,500 tons
imported into
Britain.85 Bonny produced 200 tons p.a., and Cameroons
only
Tons
8000 -
7000
6000
5000
1
4000
3000
2000
1000
1800 10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Graph 2: Palm Oil Exports from Old Calabar 1812-1887
Source: see Appendix 1.
50 tons p.a. in the same six-year period.87 In 1821,
when Calabar was
producing 2,000 tons, and total U.K. imports were
5,124 tons, Bonny
was producing very little.88 Yet despite the over-all
increase in the oil
trade, Calabar was still only producing about 2,000
tons in 1828,
Bonny and Cameroons being of growing importance.89 By
1833 Old
Calabar was shipping 4,000-5,000 tons, total U.K.
imports being
13,345 tons. So it is clear that as West African oil
exports increased,
Old Calabar contributed a decreasing share of the
total, although
the volume of her exports continued to grow. From the
thirties to
85 Adams, Sketches, pp. 42-3 . 80 Table 4, p. 57. 87
Robertson, pp. 363-4.
88 Collier, Report on the Coast of Africa, 27 Dec.
1821, FO84/19.
89 Capt. W. F. W. Capt. Narrative of Voyages to
explore the shores of Africa,
Arabia, and Madagascar (London, 1833), ii. 357.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
67
the sixties, Calabar’s oil exports continued at about
the same level,
4,000-5,000 tons p.a., although, by the late forties,
British imports
were well over 20,000 tons. Only Bonny was exporting
more than
Calabar, with 7,773 tons in 1847, 8,450 tons in 1848,“
8,227 tons in
1849, 6,730 tons in 1850,91 and 12,421 tons in 1851.92
As slaving
declined elsewhere on the African Coast, other ports
became oil
exporters, and the proportion of oil furnished by the
Oil Rivers as a
whole declined. Nevertheless Calabar’s exports
increased after 1864,
for by 1871 her exports were running at about 6,000
tons. However in
1875 she only exported 5,085 tons to Bonny’s 5,658
tons.93 But in
1883 she exported 7,365 tons, and in 1887 her oil
exports were
estimated at 7,000 tons, while only Opobo of the Oil
Rivers ports
exported more, with 8,000 tons. Lagos however produced
11,470
tons, which made it the premier oil port, although the
Oil Rivers
aggregate was almost three times as large, at 33,000
tons.91 Thus
Calabar remained one of the most important West
African oil ports
until the last years of the nineteenth century.
Palm kernels became an important export after 1869,
and Graph
3 gives the available kernel export figures. 1,000
tons were exported
in the first year, and 2,000 tons in 1871, but then
there was an em
bargo on kernel exports by the Efik. But in 1875
approximately 975
tons were exported, in comparison with Bonny’s 422
tons.95 By 1887
Calabar was producing 10,000 tons of kernels, well
above her local
competitors Opobo and Benin, which produced 6,000 tons
each.
Lagos however produced 31,259 tons, a much greater
total.90 This
gives rise to the surprising observation that the
ratio of oil exports to
kernel exports at Lagos in 1887 was 1:2-7 tons,
whereas at Old
Calabar the ratio was 1:1-4 tons. As kernels and oil
were in joint
supply one can only assume that there was a greater
relative oil
surplus in palm-abundant Ibibioland, than there was in
the Lagos
hinterland, where more oil must have been consumed
domestically.

D“ P.P. 1850 (53), lx, Minutes of Evidence before

Select Committee on the
African Slave Trade, QQ 3143, Dawson cit. John Clare.
01 P.P. 1852 (284), xlix, Correspondence Relating to
the Conveyance of H.M.
Mails to the West Coast of Africa, in John Clare to
Admiralty, 16 Dec. 1851.
91 Ibid., in John Clare to Admiralty, 2 Jan. 1852.
93 James Irvine & Co. to Hopkins, 1 July 1878, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 7.
91 Minute by Governor Moloney, in connection with his
visit in April 1888
to the present eastern limit of the Colony of Lagos,
Government Gazette, p. 201,
FO84/1882.
93 James Irvine & Co. to Hopkins, 1 July 1878, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1, vol. 7.
91 Minute by Governor Moloney, p. 201, FO84/1882.
F
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
68
The price paid for oil by the Europeans varied
according to market
conditions in Europe, and in Calabar. In Britain oil
was an alter
native to tallow, from which soap and candles were
made, and the
two commodities were therefore in competition with
each other.”
Palm oil was also used for grease on the railways to a
small extent.98
Tons
10 000 r
9000 8000 -
7000 -
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
I85O~
60
70
80
90
Graph 3: Palm Kernel Exports
from Old Calabar 1869-1887
Source: see Appendix 2.

,u’ ’he introduction of mineral oil in the early

sixties greatly reduced
I c demand for oil for illumination,99 causing a sharp
drop in prices,
me late sixties prices picked up as palm oil was
increasingly used as
Ux m the tinplate industry.1 Thereafter the price of
oil remained
’ 847-8 (272) xxii (1), Minutes of Evidence taken
before the Select ComHonv- °n ’be Slave Trade, QQ
2606-7, W. M. Hutton. James Irvine & Co. to
»• p"s> 1 July 1878, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 7.

bef°re ‘he Se,eC‘

cphce, p. 33
i McPhee, p. 34.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
69
fairly steady, although the underlying trend was
downwards, until
after a brief improvement in 1883-4, prices fell away
sharply until
the end of the period in response to the general
depression in Britain.
The earliest price evidence shows that prices
fluctuated consider
ably in Britain, for although it can be deduced from
Robertson that
£40 a ton was being offered in 1812-17,2 other sources
give a price
of £20 in 1816? In 1823 oil was sold at £27, and in
1828 at £24 10s.,4
and £20? In the thirties higher prices obtained, for
in 1832 £33 is
quoted? and £35 in 1834.’ On 31 December 1842 the
buying price for
oil was £32, and on 31 December 1843 the buying price
was £29?
This kind of price fluctuation is typical of a primary
product such as
oil. Graph 4, showing palm-oil prices in London, 1844-
91, reveals
that prices continued to vary considerably. Just as
prices had moved
between £20 and £40 till 1844, they moved between £25
and £40
until the early fifties, when the level rose steeply
to between £40 and
£50 until the crash of the early sixties when prices
fell to about £32.
Recovery came late in 1865, and prices held between
£35 and £40 into
the seventies. From 1879 the price slid slowly down to
£30-35, when
a short-lived recovery took place in 1883-4 with
prices again £35-40.
Then the price dropped away badly to fluctuate between
£20 and
£24, the lowest prices recorded since 1844. After a
brief recovery in
1888-9 prices fell back again and in 1891 again went
below the £24
level. McPhee noted this overall pattern, but not in
detail?
There is much less evidence of the prices paid for oil
in Calabar, as
oil was exchanged for goods valued in coppers, the
local currency.10
Certainly the price the Europeans were prepared to
offer was partly
determined by current prices in Britain, but it was
also determined to
a Robertson, pp. 363-4.
3 P.P. 1842 (551), xii, (1), Part 2, Select Committee
on the West Coast of Africa,
The Palm Oil Trade.
* P.P. 1847-8 (272), xxii, (1), Minutes of Evidence
taken before the Select
Committee on the Slave Trade, QQ 2608, W. M. Hutton.
6 P.P. 1842 (551), xii, (1), Part 2, Select Committee
on the West Coast of Africa,
The Palm Oil Trade.
11 P.P. 1847-8 (272), xxii, (I), Minutes of Evidence
taken before the Select
Committee on the Slave Trade, QQ 2608, W. M. Hutton.
’ P.P. 1842 (551), xii, (1), Part 2, Select Committee
on the West Coast of
Africa, The Palm Oil Trade.
8 P.P. 1850 (53), ix, Minutes of evidence before
Select Committee on the
African Slave Trade, QQ 3143, R. Dawson.
8 McPhee, p. 34.
10 Supplementary remarks upon British Trade upon the
West Coast of Africa,
Wm. Tasker Nugent, 29 Apr. 1882, FO84/1630.
70
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
5
£
co
s
§
1
11
4 ■!

S o =
E 2
£ 8
■2 £
aH
II
i
s “ i
S
S?

§ z saa s i
o
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
71
some extent by the availability of oil. This must have
been subject to
the vagaries of the season, although there is no
information on
harvest fluctuations. The supply of oil was also
dependent upon the
political situation at the markets, for it is known
that in the highprice period of the 1850s, the Umon
oil market was closed.11 While it
was opened again in 1860 just before the big price
drop in Europe,12
it was only intermittently open until the
establishment of the Pax
Britannica.13 Sometimes the Efik combined to keep
prices up, as in
1862 when they stopped all trade because of the
falling prices.11
Unfortunately details of such combination attempts are
virtually
non-existent, although one may assume that Ekpe played
an import
ant part.
Adams in 1821 refers to oil prices at Calabar of £10
to £14,15 and on
Bold’s information about the same time it can be
calculated that
prices varied between about £7. 15s. and £15. 10s.,
per ton.10 There is
no other information until 1855 when oil was being
sold to the
Europeans at £25 per ton.17 But during the depression
in 1864, prices
in Old Calabar fell to between £13 and £15 per ton.18
In 1868 some
oil confiscated by the Consul was sold off at £20 per
ton.10 Thereafter
there is not even such scanty price evidence.
Nevertheless these prices do suggest a rough estimate
of turnover
profit margins for the Europeans. Waddell noted in
1854 that oil
worth £50 in Calabar was worth £100 in Britain,20
which suggests
there was a 100 per cent turnover profit. This figure
is supported by
the other price evidence, for the variation of £7.
15s. to £15. 10s.
in Calabar in 1820 fits the estimated variation in
Britain at this time
of £20 to £40. And the Calabar price of £25 per ton in
1855 fits the
11 Eyo Honesty to Beecroft, 26 Sept. 1851, in Beecroft
to Palmerston, 9 Oct.
1851, FO84/858. Supercargoes to Hutchinson, 30 June
1856, Inc. 1 in Hutchinson
to Clarendon, 20 July 1856, No. 93, F084/1001. Chiefs
to Hutchinson, (undated),
Inc. 1 in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 21 Feb. 1857, ST
12, F084/1030.
11 UPCMR 16 (Mar. 1861), 41 and 42, cit. Anderson’s
Journal, 3 Nov. 1860,
and 23 Nov. 1860, respectively.
13 Goldie, Dictionary, p. 361. UPCMR n.s. 4 (1 Jan.
1883), p. 13 cit. Goldie's
Journal, 28 Aug. 1882.
11 Supercargoes to Burton, 28 Apr. 1862, in Burton to
Russell, 22 May 1862,
No. 16, FO84/1176.
18 Adams, Sketches, pp. 109, 113, 116.
10 Bold, p. 78. Adams, Sketches, p. 113.
17 Waddell, Journal, vol. 10, p. 57, Waddell to Wilson
and Dawson, 15 Jan.
1855. Bold, p. 80.
18 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr., 1864, FO84/1221.
18 Livingstone to Clarendon, 28 Aug. 1869, No. 17,
FO84/1308.
30 Waddell, Journal, Vol. 10, p. 45, 25 Oct. 1854.
72
the era
OF
the palm-oil trade
,„tata> .t prta. » London M. th.< >»• T «».
“S™: ™«.1.0 a™ - im
•
erratic nature of the market both tn Britam and Cala^
that particular voyages might err on either sid
speculative
was a turnover profit of 100 per “"^^^^Vc^fectioner
eight months, nor bear the same risks. The oil mere a
had to bear the cost of the ship, depreciation,
insurance .port dues,
wages, comey, trade goods, ceremonial breakfasts, an
ue
of the putative 100 per cent turnover profit, which
could so eas! y
eroded by delay on the coast or a shift in prices.
Loss above insura
cover was not uncommon, for in 1851 two ships were
lost re urni
from Calabar,21 and in 1853 the Pytho was destroyed by
Me in
Calabar.22 Therefore it is a myth that excessive
profits were o
made in palm-oil trade before the 1860s, certainly as
far as
Calabar was concerned.
,
After the depression of the early sixties, the trading
system change
to that of agents resident at Calabar, sending oil
home on t e
steamers, or their companies’ ships which came out to
pick up t e
cargo which awaited them. Because of the rapid
turnover, smaller
profits were now theoretically acceptable, and
Livingstone, who is
largely responsible for the myth that excessive
profits were made in
the days of sail, estimated that turnover profits were
sometimes as
low as 5 per cent.22 Indeed, he suggests that as
prices picked up
again, the trading revolution may have increased
prices paid to
the Africans, although regrettably there is no
evidence to support
this assumption.21 In fact, what little evidence there
is suggests that
despite the change in the mode of trading, the
turnover profit
remained the same, since the local prices of £13 to
£15 in 1864 must
be set against the London price of £32 to £36 in that
year, and the
puncheons of oil which King Archibong was fined in
1868 were
auctioned in Calabar at £8 a puncheon, and sold at a
profit of £9 per
puncheon in England.25
Marwick, p. 283.
2 J‘in. 1852.
t Q ,, FO2/47
P.P. 1873, Ixv, Report by CoSi"° t0S,anlCy’1 °Ct’
’
22?
J'”’. ™84/1308. LiVinES,°ne'°
> "O. Zl, FO84/1308.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
73
Besides palm produce, Old Calabar also exported sundry
items of
less importance. The value of Calabar’s barwood,
ivory, ebony,
wax, gum, and red pepper was estimated at £8,400 p.a.
for the years
1812-17.28 Redwood was exported during the first half
of the cen
tury,27 but these items dwindled in importance over
the years,
although as late as 1871 a small trade in ivory and
ebony continued.23
3. Imports
As in the days of the slave trade, the principle
categories of goods
were textiles, bar iron, copper rods, hardware, guns,
powder, and
spirits.28
But one new commodity, salt, not mentioned in any
records of the
slave trade at Old Calabar, was imported in increasing
amounts as
the oil trade developed. Although still produced
locally at Tom
Shotts in 1805,28 by 1812-17 it was an important
import ‘especially
for the purchase of palm-oil’.21
Bold described salt as ‘a very profitable and
commanding article’22
at Calabar, and Adams, in about 1821, noted that as
salt was cheap
in Liverpool and always in demand at Calabar, the
ships took as
much as they could.22 Holman in 1828 reported that
salt formed the
principal part of the oil trader’s cargoes.2' In 1845,
out of a West
African total of 8,392 tons of salt, Calabar imported
from Liverpool
2,984 tons compared to Bonny’s 1,477 tons, although
the value of
Bonny’s total commodity imports was twice Calabar’s.22
Waddell
noted the importance of salt,28 and special ledgers of
the salt im
ports were kept by the Europeans, the return of which
to the Efik
was tantamount to stopping trade.27 Salt was vital to
the trade with
the main oil market at Ikpa,28 and a dispute over the
internal salt
20 Robertson, p. 3 63 .
27 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 327.
22 Capt. J. B. Walker, F.R.G.S., ‘Notes on the Cross
and Calabar Rivers, June
1871’, UPCMR N.s. 4 (2 Sept. 1872), 280.
22 Bold, pp. 80-1. Adams, Sketches, pp. 113,116. P.P.
1850 (53), ix, Minutes of
Evidence before Select Committee on the African Slave
Trade, QQ 3143, R.
Dawson, cit. John Clare.
30
Hallett, p. 197.
21 Robertson, p. 314.
32
Boid, p. 79.
22 Adams, Sketches, p. 114
34
Holman, p. 397.
33
P.P. 1850 (53), ix, Minutes of Evidence before Select
Committee on the
African Slave Trade, QQ 3143, cit. John Clare.
30 Waddell, Journal, vol. 10, p. 79, Waddell to
Badenock, 22 Mar. 1855.
37 Supercargoes to King Eyo Honesty, 16 Feb. 1858, in
Hutchinson to Malmes
bury, 25 May 1858, ST 26, FO84/1061.
32 VPCMR N.s. 1 (1 Oct. 1867), 405, cit. Anderson's
Journal, 7 Jan. 1867.
74
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
trade was an immediate cause of the war between
Henshaw Town and
Duke Town in 1875.39
As the growth of salt imports was associated with the
development
of the oil trade, it is possible that Duke Ephraim’s
subjection of
Tom Shott’s in the 1820s was due to his desire to
control the internal
salt trade, and thereby the oil trade. The growth in
salt imports
coincided with the vast increase in salt production in
Cheshire due to
the use of the steam engine for pumping, and the
construction of
canals.40 Perhaps it was the huge hinterland-demand
for salt which
was the incentive for Calabar’s early participation in
the oil trade,
at a time when she still had a profitable slave trade.
Only the Liver
pool traders could provide the quantities of cheap
salt that were
needed, and oil was the commodity they demanded in
exchange.
Although no other new categories of goods were
imported prior
to 1891, changes did take place in the goods in each
category. This
was particularly true of cloth, for up until at least
1820, as in the days
of the slave trade, Indian cloths such as romals,
photaes, alligars,
sastracundies, and carridaries, were of primary
importance. A little
Lancashire cloth was also taken,41 but by 1847 it had
ousted the
Indian stuffs.42 In 1872, however, Lancashire cloths
themselves were
suffering severe competition from cheaper and better
Swiss prints,43
although in the eighties Manchester regained her
grip.44
Other British goods also had to face Continental
competition. In
the early seventies Belgian muskets superseded those
from Birming
ham, and Belgian matchets for a short time ousted
those from the
Black Country.45
Another change which occurred in the late sixties was
the increased
inflow of cheap gin. Hitherto spirits had not played a
large part in the
Calabar trade, although some had always been imported.
In an
abstract of a cargo suitable for purchasing 100 tons
of oil at £14, in
33 Statement of Henshaw’s Town, 20 Aug. 1878, para.
10, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1
vol. 6.
40 T. C. Barker, and J. R. Harris, A Merseyside Town
in the Industrial Revolu
tion, St. Helens, 1750-1900 (Liverpool, 1954), pp. 57-
8.
E. Hughes, Studies in Administration and Finance,
1558-1825 (Manchester,
1934), pp. 396-403.
41 Adams, Sketches, pp. 113, 116. Bold, p. 80.
43 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 327.
43 P.P. 1873, Ixv, Report by Consul Livingstone.
44 Minute by Governor Moloney, p. 201, FO84/1882. A
Report on the British
Protectorate of the Oil Rivers, in Johnston to
Salisbury, 1 Dec. 1888, Section G.
Trade, FO84/1882.
43 P.P. 1873, Ixv, Report by Consul Livingstone.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
75
about 1820, Adams included brandy or rum worth only
£66 out of a
total of £l,400.45 Bold did not even include liquor as
an article of
trade, although he notes it was essential for
‘dash’.47 In 1845 Calabar
only imported 788 hogsheads of rum from Liverpool.48
But with the
opening of a steamship line from the Clyde in 1869,
cheap spirits
flooded into Calabar in increasing quantities, as the
Scottish
Missionaries noted to their regret.43
4. The effect of external trade on the domestic
economy
Because the oil-producing areas were inland, and the
Efik them
selves were not producers, little is known about how
the expansion of
the oil trade, from 1,000 tons p.a. to over 7,000 tons
p.a. in the eighty
or so years up to 1891, affected the economy in the
producing areas.
And it is only possible to speculate about the
influence which imports
had upon the local economy. Most of the commodities
had long been
imported, and their effect was merely a continuation
of what had
already been taking place.
European earthenware does not seem to have had an
adverse
effect on local potteries, as the Nkpara potteries
were flourishing
in the forties,50 and pottery was made at Ikot Ansa, a
Qua village
close to Old Town, until the early years of the
present century. Indeed
the challenge to the local potteries came not from
Europe, but from
Afikpo, which now supplies the lower Cross River.
Traditional types
of pottery are still widely used, despite the
competition of European
pots, pans, and enamelware.51
Cloth imports had little effect on local industry, as
none was made
except raffia cloth woven from palm-wine-tree fronds.
This had been
driven out of the Calabar markets by 1847,52 although
still worn by
the Ibibio in the 1870s.53 To this day the Ibibio and
Efik use raffia
cloth for the ceremonial costumes of their secret
societies.
Cheap spirits after 1869 may have had an adverse
effect on those
40 Adams, Sketches, p. 116.
47 Bold, pp. 80-1.
44 P.P. 1850 (53), ix, Minutes of Evidence before
Select Committee on the
African Slave Trade, QQ 3143, R. Dawson cit. John
Clare.
40 Marwick, p. 446, cit. Goldie’s Journal, 6 May 1869.
50 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 361-2, and Journal,
vol. 7, p. 44, 24 Nov.
1849.
01 Chief Enc Ndcm Ephraim Duke, 23 Nov. 1965. Chief
Asuquo Edet Okon.
25 Nov. 1965. Chief Thomas A. Efiom, M.O.N., 7 Dec.
1965.
t= Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 327.
“ UPCMR 14 (Aug. 1859), 153-4, cit. Revd. Baillie. 12
Feb. 1S59. Ibid. N.S. 2
(1 July 1869) 398 cit. Dr. Robb, and N.s. 4 (1 Oct.
1872), 301, cit. Dr. Robb.
76
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
employed in tapping palm wine, although there is no
proof of this
and Livingstone discounted the belief that the
Africans suffered from
drinking imported liquor.61
As regards the import of salt, it appears that this
did undermine
local production, for Tom Shotts ceased to make
salt.55 On the other
hand the vast quantities imported indicated a demand
which local
industry could never have satisfied.
The import of hardware does not seem to have reduced
demand for
local blacksmiths, who were much sought after.50 Ibo
in origin,57
they were being brought to Calabar to work as late as
1870.68
Although by 1847 local carpenters had stopped using
indigenouslymade axes, preferring European tools,59
there was still plenty of work
for the smiths. They made staples,00 shot, needles,01
and fixed brass
leglets on ladies of high estate.02 They also made the
‘black coppers’
which formed the domestic currency.03 As these were
used well into
the twentieth century, the smiths must have been kept
well occupied.
The influx of copper and brass rods during the century
must have
had some influence on the local economy, for these
‘coppers’ (pkuk)
about three feet long and half an inch thick, were
used as currency.01
Table 5 reveals that the value of the copper rod fell
from about Is.
in 1805, to fluctuate between 1|<Z. and 3<7. from 1846
to the early
twentieth century. The drop in value in the first half
of the century
may have been due to a considerable inflow of rods,
for Bold, in
about 1820, noted that none had been imported for many
years, so
51 P.P. 1873, Ixv, Report by Consul Livingstone.
55 Capt. J. B. Walker, F.R.G.S., ‘Note on the Old
Calabar and Cross Rivers’,
P.R.G.S. 16 (1871-2), 136.
58 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 326-7, 514, and
Journal, 8 (1 June 1851),
92, 10 (1 Nov. 1854), 46.
" Coulthurst, J.R.G.S. ii (1832), 305. Coulthurst to
Nicolls (undated), CO 82/5.
Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 326-7, 468.
“ Marwick, p. 470, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 17 Apr.
1870.
59 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 326-7.
00 Waddell, Journal, vol. 1, p. 29, 16 Apr. 1846.
81 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 468 .
82 Ibid., p. 356.
83 Ibid., p. 247. Goldie, Dictionary, p. 255, s.v.
Okttk, 2. *. . . Obnbit oka'.
81 Goldie, Dictionary, p. 255. African (West) No. 616.
West African Currency
Committee, Report, Minutes of Evidence, and
Appendices, 1900, p. 34, paras.
1382-3, CO879/62.
African (West) No. 645. Further correspondence
Relating to the Currency
of the West African Colonies, 1900-1903, p. 24, Moor
to Colonial Office, 7 July
1901, p. 58, Moor to Chamberlain, 12 June 1902,
CO879/66. Paul and Laura
Bohannan, Tie Economy (London, 1968), pp. 236-9. Mary
Douglas, ‘Primitive
Rationing', in Raymond Firth, Themes in Economic
Anthropology (London,
1967), pp. 137-8.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
Table 5
77
The Value of the Copper Rod, 1805-1910
18O51
18202
I8283
18464
1851*
1853
1857
18648
1869°
1882
189011
189412
189713
1900u
190116
1902lc
190417
191018
d.
12
4-89
10-12
2-3
2-4-3
2-4
4
2-6
3
1-5
2
3
3
2- 5
3
3
3
3-04-3-24
Sources: 1 Hallet, p. 207.2 Adams, Sketches, p. 116.3
James Badglcy, Report on
the Old Calabar River, in Owen to Croker, 21 Feb.
1828, CO82/1.
4 UPCMR 1 (Nov. 1846), p. 175, cit. Waddell. Waddell,
Journal, vol.
7, p. 4, Waddell to Jameson, 2 Nov. 1846. 5 Waddell,
Journal, vol. 8,
p. 81,28 Mar. 1851. Anderson, Journal, 24 Mar. 1851.0
Marwick, p. 278,
cit. letter dated 4 July 1853.7 Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 21 Feb. 1857,
ST 13, F084/1030. 8 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864,
FO84/1221.
9 West Africa, 26 Oct. 1968, p. 1251, cit. Rev. Alex
Robb to National
Bible Society (undated) 1869. 10 Supplementary remarks
upon British
Trade upon the West Coast of Africa, Tasker Nugent, 29
Apr. 1882,
FO84/1630. 11 Regulations for Maintaining Peace and
Order in the
District of Old Calabar, George F. Anncsley, Old
Calabar, 1 Sept. 1890,
F084/2020.12 Moor to Foreign Office, 13 Nov. 1897, pp.
295-6, No. 289,
F0403/250. 13 P.P. 1895, Ixxi, (1), Africa No. 1,
(1895) Report on the
Administration of the Niger Coast Protectorate, August
1891 to August
1894, p. 37, Inc. 17, Casement to MacDonald, 10 Apr.
1894. 14 P.P.
1902 Cd. 788-23. Ixv. 513. Colonial Reports. Annual,
No. 353 Southern
Nigeria, 1900. p. 7-8.15 P.P. 1903 Cd. 1388-5 xliii
381. Colonial Reports,
Annual, No. 381, Southern Nigeria, 1901. p. 6-7.10
Rates of Exchange
for Brass Rods and Manillas, (Undated) 1902, Calprof
Ibadan, 9/2
Vol. 2. 17 P.P. 1906, Cd. (2684-5), (Ixxv), 1,
Colonial Reports. Annual
No. 459. Southern Nigeria, 1904 p. 13. 18 Akuakiri v.
Efiom Okon,
(undated) 1910, Native Court Records, Calabar Native
Court, Book
57, No. 60, p. 160.
Note: These values arc only rough approximations.
Although there was an
‘official’ value of a shilling, the actual value was
clearly less than this. See James
Badgley, Report on the old Calabar River, in Owen to
Croker, 21 Feb., 1828,
CO82/1. Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 247. General
Report on the Bight of
Biafra, 20 June, 1856, in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 20
June, 1856, 69A, FO2/6.
78
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
that a new rod could be exchanged for goods worth one
and a half
rods.65 As traders took advantage of this 50 per cent
gain, coppers
were imported in numbers, leading to a change in the
ratio of coppers
to goods in circulation. In other words, Calabar
imported inflation.
Another possible factor in the decline of the value of
the rod was the
change from copper to brass, a change under way by
1846,66 and
nearly complete by 1856.67 As the value of a rod
depended upon its
appearance,68 the substitution of brass for copper may
have been
considered a debasement.
If the value of the copper held fairly steadily after
1846, the
‘black copper’ (obubit oku) did not fare so well.
These wires were
made by the local smiths from the rods, and were used
for trans-
Table 6
The Value of the Black Copper Wire, 1846-1910
18461
18493
18643
1875*
19006
1901°
19047
1910s
d.
0-5
0-5
O-3-O-5
1
0-12
0-14
015
012-015
Sources: Waddell, Journal, vol. 7, pp. 4-5. Waddell to
Jameson, 2 Nov. 1846.
Waddell. Twenty-Nine Years, p. 247. = Waddell,
Journal, vol. 7, p. 29,
22 Sept. 1849.3 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864,
FO84/1221. Marwick,
p. 407, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 23 Aug. 1864. 4
Deposition before
G. Hartley, H. B. M. Consul, 24 Sept. 1875, signed
Ercd Owo X Iseke,
Calprof Ibadan, 5/8, vol. 1.6 P.P. 1902 Cd. (788-23)
Ixv (513), Colonial
Reports, Annual, No. 353, Southern Nigeria 1900, pp.
7-8. 0 P.P.
1903 Cd. (1388-5), xliii (381), Colonial Reports,
Annual, No. 381,
Southern Nigeria, 1901, pp. 6-7. 7 P.P 1906 Cd. (2684-
5), Ixxv, 1,
a A?n’aI ReP°rts» Annual, No. 459, Southern Nigeria,
1904, p. 13.
Afion Abasi v. Udo Odusa, 26 Jan. 1910, Book 57, p.
138, No. 52,
fiaiA?Court Rccords>Calabar. Ndarake Abasi v. Asibon
Ene, (undated)
(1910), Book 57, p. 222, Native Court Records,
Calabar.
85 Bold, p. 78.
“ Waddell.Twenty-Nine Years, p. 247.
,P0rt on the Bi8ht of Biafra, 20 June 1856, in
Hutchinson to
?±">,?°J
UnC I856> 69A. FO2/16.
Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p.247.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
79
actions for which a rod was of too high value.0’ They
were particu
larly important in the oil trade, as it was only with
them that oil could
be bought at the inland markets.70 Table 6 shows how
the value of the
wire declined from W. in 1846 to 0-12 in 1900, to 0-15
of a penny in
1910, the main drop in value occurring after 1875. Yet
there is not
sufficient evidence to plot this decline closely, or
to ascertain the effect
of the devaluation on the domestic economy. However,
such a rise
in prices ought to have been a stimulus, and certainly
the smiths must
have benefited as they were called upon to make the
increased
amount of wires.
In sum, European imports do not seem to have had an
adverse
effect on the indigenous economy. On the contrary,
they had a
beneficial effect by introducing more efficient tools,
and a wider choice
of cloths and other goods. The wider availability of
rods and wires
can only have increased the flexibility of exchange in
the entire Cross
River basin. Just as European imports had been
beneficial in the days
of the slave trade, they continued to be so during the
oil trade. And as
the volume of exports and imports grew during the
century, more
people were able to benefit.

5. The internal palm-oil trade

The development of an export trade in palm oil
presented few
problems to the Efik, as it was a commodity which they
had long sold
in small quantities to the slave vessels for
provisions. As the demand
for oil increased, it was a simple matter to utilize
the commercial
skills of the slave trade in the evacuation of the new
export com
modity.
Until at least 1891, trade at Calabar continued to be
based on
trust, although the custom of taking a pawn or hostage
as guarantee
died out with the slave trade. No African accumulated
sufficient
capital to throw off his dependence on European
capital, nor had he
need to do so, because the intense rivalry of the
Europeans ensured a
constant availability of credit.
But as in the slave-trade days, credit created
problems, and both
Adams and Bold reported that there was difficulty in
recovering
credit debts.71 Duke Ephraim’s legendary credit-
worthiness meant
09 Ibid. Goldie, Dictionary, p. 255, s.v. Oknk, 2 *. .
. Obubit oku'.
70 Bold, p. 78. Bcecrolt to Palmerston, 4 Mar. 1851,
No. 19, FO84/858.
Beccroft to Malmesbury, 20 May 1852, No. 1, FO2/7.
P.P. 1873, Ixv, Report by
Consul Livingstone.
71 Bold, p. 79. Adams, Sketches, pp. 112, 114.
80
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
that during his reign bad debts were uncommon, but his
successor
Eyamba V in attempting to ape the Duke’s prestigious
display over
strained his more limited means and fell seriously
into debt.72 In
1846 one of his creditors imprisoned him on board
ship,73 this
being the traditional way of ensuring debts were paid.
His death in
1847 meant that his debts had to be written off,74 and
for a while all
was well,76 until in 1851 ships were again being
delayed.70 So in 1852
Beecroft negotiated a trade treaty, abolishing
trust.77 This proved
completely ineffective, and by 1855 over £250,000 was
held in credit
by the Efik.78 The struggle between the supercargoes
and liberated
Africans brought the credit problem to a head, and
when the crash of
1862 brought trade to a halt, and drove many firms
into liquidation,
Consul Burton negotiated a new trade treaty which
abolished trust.70
This again had no effect, for by 1869 it was clear
that credit was still
being given freely, despite heavy losses.80 In 1872
the Consul was at
long last given magisterial powers over British
subjects in his area,
and forthwith declared that no British traders were to
seize the
person or property of local people.81 As this was the
only way the
agents could insist upon their debts being paid,82
between 1874 and
1880 many such as J. H. White,83 Harry Hartje,81
George Watts,86
Capt. J. B. Walker,80 and Alex Henderson,87 joined the
Ekpe society
” Gooch to Jones, 14 July 1845, FO84/612.
Rickin to Horsfall & Sons, 29 Sept. 1845, FO84/612.
” Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 274.
’* UPCMR 2 (Nov. 1847), 185, cit. Edgerley.
" Beecroft to Palmerston, 5 Dec. 1850, FO84/816.
’• Bcccroft to Palmerston, 1 Sept. 1851, FO84/858.
" Treaty of Trade and Commerce, 17 Apr. 1852, Calprof
Ibadan, 5/7.
78 P.P. 1856, Ixii, Africa, (Consular)—Bight of
Biafra, pp. 42-3. Inc. 19 in No.
34, Supercargoes to Lynslager, 17 Jan. 1855.
” Agreement, 5 May 1862, in Burton to Russell, 22 May
1862, No. 16, FO84/
1176.
•"Wilson to Foreign Secretary, 23 Feb. 1869, No. 8,
FO84/1308.
Livingstone to Clarendon, 1 Dec. 1869, No. 35,
FO84/1308.
Livingstone to Clarendon, 4 Dec. 1869, FO84/1308.
Rules and Regulations framed under Her Majesty’s Order
in Council of the
™d.ay of February, 1872, by Her Majesty’s Consul at
Old Calabar, 29 Apr.
1
in Livin8stone to Granville, 29 Apr. 1872, No. 8,
FO84/1356.
' stephens to Livingstone, 11 June 1872, in
Livingstone to Granville, 3 Aug.
1872, FO 84/1356.
“ Walker to Hartley, 25 July 1874, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1
vol. 3.
,5 Han Report, para. 167.
t u Asrecment signed P. Jas Eyamba V, witness Harold
Brooke, 14 Oct. 1879,
John Holt Papers 22/2.
“ J?art Report, para. 170.
Easton to Foreign Secretary, 10 Feb. 1880, No. 5,
FO84/1569.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
81
which could use similar sanctions to demand debts be
liquidated.
So trust continued to be given, and although Vice-
Consul Johnston
tried to suppress it again in 1888, he was
overruled,"8 and it continued
into the nineties.
Trust was an integral part of the Elik trading system.
For the Efik
were monopolistic middlemen, who stood between the
Europeans
and the producers, receiving credit from the former,
and using it to
buy oil from the latter.
The exclusion of local rivals from the European trade
had been
pursued during the nineteenth century, and completed
by Duke
Ephraim.89 Thereafter the Efik suppressed attempts by
the Euro
peans and the hinterland people to contact each other.
Eyamba V
viewed with concern Beecroft’s up-river explorations
in 1841, fearing
lest the oil markets be discovered,® and the
missionaries also felt
Efik disapproval when they attempted to explore
inland.91 Beecroft’s
Treaty of 1852 attempted to open trade to all local
people, but was
not successful.92 So determined were the Efik to keep
the Europeans
from the inland markets that, as a result of the Revd.
W. C. Thomp
son’s evangelistic tour inland, in about 1860, a
meeting known as
Mbre Jduke ke Esuk Urua was called to discuss the
ejection of the
Mission, lest its activities deprive the Efik of their
role as middlemen.
Although the meeting was dispersed by a tornado, and
the Mission
remained, the Efik continued their monopoly.93 In 1861
young men
and boys began to trade in tiny quantities of oil, but
were thwarted
by an Ekpe law of 1862 which prohibited trading in
other than the
traditional casks and puncheons.91 To combat this law
Consul Burton
negotiated in his treaty of 1862 that the trade be
open to all without
restriction.95 But when he proceeded up-river
forthwith to visit the
markets, he was turned back at Itu by about sixty Duke
Town slaves,
armed with muskets. After a crisis in which Duke Town
was evacu
ated of civilians and filled with armed slaves under
orders to burn
*' Hewett to Salisbury, 20 June 1888, No. 25,
FO84/1881.
•’ Chapter 4, p. 49-51.
00 Capt. Beccroft and J. B. King, ‘Explorations of Old
Calabar River in 1841
and 1842', J.R.G.S. 14 (1844), 260.
01 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 454.
83 Treaty of Trade and Commerce, 17 Apr. 1852, Calprof
Ibadan, 5/7.
83 Goldie, Calabar, p. 206, cit. James Irvine.
Nigerian Eastern Mail, 19 Oct.
1935, p. 3, contribution from Etim E. J. Duke.
81 Supercargoes to Burton, 28 Apr. 1862, in Burton to
Russell, 22 May 1862,
No. 16, FO84/1176.
I
86 Agreement, 5 May 1862, in Burton to Russell, 22 May
1862, No. 16,
FO84/1176.
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
82
the town to cancel outstanding debts should the Consul
open fire,90
the matter was settled peaceably although the river
remained closed.97
One young man from an up-river village did begin a
brisk trade with
the Europeans, but the Duke Town chiefs confiscated
his canoes and
fined him £300." In 1869 a serious threat to the Efik
monopoly came
with the opening of the kernel trade, which was
entirely in the hands
of petty traders. The goods they obtained caused a
glut of European
manufactures at the inland markets, to the anguish of
the great oil
traders, who prevailed upon the King to ban the kernel
trade, in the
interests of the Efik monopoly.99 Not until 1874 was
the kernel trade
reopened, and small traders free to participate once
more.1 At long
last a small breach was appearing in the Efik
monopoly, and this
was broadened by an agreement in 1878 opening trade to
all local
people including the Qua. One vital article in this
agreement stipu
lated that brass rods could be bought by all local
people, the rods
being the currency with which oil was bought at the
markets.2
Thus a correspondent to the African Times could write
in January
1879:
An important step was taken in the interests of free
trade. Hitherto the
palm-oil trade has been monopolised by a very small
proportion of the
population. Now, however, it is thrown open to all the
inhabitants; and
not only so, but the neighbouring towns and tribes are
to have the same
access to the shipping and to the European factories
on the beach as had
hitherto been exclusively enjoyed by a favoured few in
Duke Town and
Creek Town?

With this liberalization of trade, came renewed

European attempts to
establish direct control with the oil producers, the
first example of
this being George Watts’s penetration of the Qua Ibo
in 1881, in
conjunction with the Henshaws. But this was not a
traditional
Efik market area, as is proven by the fact that it was
Jaja of Opobo
" Burton to Russell, 22 May 1862, No. 16, FO84/1176.
Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, Private, FO84/1221.
„ P n ‘’Si?’0 t0 Russdl- 3 Junc 1865, FO84/1249.
, r.f. 1873, ]xv> Report by Consul Livingstone.
F084M401'ent’ 27 F<!b' 1874’ ” Hartlcy t0 Granville,
20 Mar. 1874, No. 6,
No
3^084/1508 eP* ^87^’ ‘n Hopkins to Foreign Secretary,
6 Sept. 1878,
p. 39PKIal CorrcsP°nclent to Editor January 1879,
African Times (1 Apr. 1879)
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
83
who objected to Watts’s activities, not the Efik
oligarchy? But Coco
Bassey recorded in his diary, on 12 July 1883, a more
serious threat
to the Efik hold on the Cross River: ‘Thuday [sfc]
Harry Hajte [sic]
& George Watts went up with a steamer to go and trade
with Bosen
[sic] people but Bosun people refuse.’6
Despite this setback Hartje soon began to receive
letters from
the up-river people, begging him to come and open
trade. He pressed
John Holt to support the venture, privately deriding
the other firms
for their lack of interest in opening the river. In
December 1883
Hartje even informed the Henshaws that he intended to
open the
river and build a factory at every market. But the
scheme foundered,
for Holt feared Efik reaction, and was unable to lay
his hands on the
necessary capital? Holt’s fears were justified in 1884
by the Efik
rejection of the article in the Treaty of Protection,
which would have
given foreigners freedom to live and trade anywhere
they desired.7
By 1885, rather than attempting to break the Efik
stranglehold on
the river, the agents were seeking an agreement with
the chiefs, to
limit future trade to those already involved. Trading
establishments
were to stay as they were, but agents could go beyond
Umon for
trade if they wished? Although it is not certain that
this agreement
was ever signed, it docs indicate that the merchant
houses were not
really interested in breaking the hold of the Efik
oligarchy, but were
content to trade by way of it. The only possible
exception to this was
the area beyond Umon, never part of the Efik sphere of
influence,
and usually disturbed by local wars.
In fact, the only Europeans who established themselves
up the
Cross River in the eighties were the missionaries, and
before the
Efik would allow them to establish their interior
stations they had to
agree that they would take no part at all in trade? It
was not until the
consolidation of British authority after 1890 that the
merchants
penetrated up the Cross River. The end of Efik control
is marked
4 Memo by Watts, 24 Aug. 1881, John Holt Papers, 7/2.
John Harford,
Pioneering in West Africa: or 'The Opening up of the
Qua Iboe River, in Mary H.
Kingsley, West African Studies (London, 1899),
Appendix ii. Part ii, pp. 582-7.
P. A. Talbot, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (London,
1926), i. 210.
6 Diary of Coco Bassey, 2nd Folder, Coco Bassey
Papers.
• Gertzel, ‘John Holt’, pp. 185-8.
7 Draft Agreement, 1885, John Holt Papers, 7/3.
8 Treaty with Kings and Chiefs of Old Calabar, 10
Sept. 1884, Inc. 16 in No.
13, p. 27, FO403/47.
8 Goldie, Calabar, p. 20.
G
84
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
by the imposition of customs duties on 10 August
1891,10 the revenue
from which was to finance the administration, and
opening up, of the
country, and payment to the chiefs in lieu of comey
which was
abolished.11
While formal restrictions on local people trading were
relaxed
during the seventies, the lion’s share of the trade
continued to be in
the hands of the chiefs who formed the ruling
oligarchy. The social
history of Calabar will be dealt with more fully in
Chapter 6, but it
can be said here that the number of trading chiefs
increased during
the century. It was Duke Ephraim’s fundamental
achievement that
he virtually monopolized the trade in the twenties and
early thirties,
eliminating rival house-heads from contact with the
Europeans.
Some could only obtain credit on his guarantee.12 But
this monopoly
was broken up on his death, and the number of men
trading directly
with the Europeans increased. Those who had traded
under the
auspices of the Duke now carried on business in their
own right, and
negotiated their own credit. By 1847 there were at
least ten trading.13
During the fifties, men of slave origin such as Black
Davis, Yellow
Duke, and Bassey Henshaw, joined these privileged
ranks. They did
not advance on their own initiative from being petty
traders, but as
the favoured agents of their masters.1'1 Some managed
for their
masters who were more concerned with political
affairs, and others
took control of their master’s business after his
death. By 1875 there
were at least 31 Efik traders,15 and in 1888 a minimum
of 23 were
threatened with being banned from trading because of
their debts.10
All were well connected in Efik society, as freemen or
privileged
house slaves. Thus despite the relaxation of trading
restrictions from
the seventies onwards, petty traders and those of
neighbouring tribes
played an insignificant part in business. Trade
remained in the hands
of the Efik oligarchy, and did not pass to a
competitive, individual
istic group of small traders.

10 Macdonald to F.O., 11 June 1891, No. 30, FO403/171.

11 Ibid., No. 31, FO403/171.
11 Holman, p. 398.
13 Kings, Chiefs, and Gentlemen Traders to Hope, 30
Sept. 1847, in Hotham to
Admiralty, No. 42, 24 Jan. 1848, FO84/746.
13 Ofion Asibon v. Bassey Duke & House, Claim: To
recover the Estate of late
Yellow Duke. 5 Oct. 1903, No. 376, pp. 231-2, E. E.
Offiong’s Judgement Book,
1902.
“ Trust due to Couper Scott & Co., Hulk ‘Queen of
England’, Mr. Johns
Account, 1875, Calprof Ibadan 5/1.
13 Notice dated 13 Apr. 1888, signed H. H. Johnston,
in Hewett to Salisbury,
20 June 1888, No. 25, FO84/1881.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
85
It was this well defined oligarchy which received the
all important
trust. Each ‘gentleman trader* was head of a business
organization
with many workers, both slave and free, members of his
ward or
family. The majority were employed transporting
manufactures and
oil to and from the markets, as Waddell described:
Those employed in canoes are fed, and are in crews of
six to ten in each
canoe under a captain or super-cargo. He has a
commission on his trade,
and may trade on his own account a little, but not in
palm oil, or so as to
neglect his master’s interests. The canoe people
traffic in provisions,
buying with English goods up the country, and selling
to the towns-people,
ships and mission houses.1’
More important were the buying agents who lived at the
markets.
Black Davis had been a buying agent at Ikpa in 1839,18
and King
Eyo H’s principal trader was his Ikpa agent, who had
many slaves
and wives of his own.1’ At the other markets such as
Itu,20 Ikorofiong,21 and in the Cameroons,22 colonies
of Efik buying-agents grew
up, surrounded by their families and hands.23
From Waddell’s information it is likely that agents
had a com
mission on the business they furnished for their
master. They traded
by giving the market people goods on credit, which
their masters
had received on credit from the Europeans. In 1850 Itu
fell heavily
in debt to King Eyo II as a result of mis-spending
credit they had
received,21 and one of the causes of the Henshaw-Duke
Town war
in 1875 was that King Archibong had prohibited the
Henshaws from
trading after they had given out trust.25 In 1882 the
Henshaws
suffered a similar blow when the people of one of the
inland markets
stopped trade after receiving credit.20 And Goldie
attributed the
recurrent Umon-Calabar wars to the fact that the Umon
ran up big
credit debts, and then declared war in order to
repudiate them.27
; 17 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Tears, pp. 319-20.
18 Black Davis, 3 Sept. 1839, House Record of Black
Davis, pp. 334-5.
UPCMR 12 (1 Apr. 1857), 53, cit. Waddell’s Journal.
20 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 74, 22 Mar. 1851.
21 UPCMR 13 (July 1858), 129, Letter from Alexander
Robb, 19 Mar. 1858.
22 UPCMR N.s. 6 (1 Sept. 1877), 632, cit. Rcvd. Alex
Ross.
22 Nigerian Eastern Mail, 19 Oct. 1935, p. 3, cit.
Etim E. J. Duke. Chief Maurice
Efana Archibong, 19 Jan. 1966.
21 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 16, 26 May 1850.
Statement of Henshaw’s Town, 20 Aug. 1878, para. 10,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1
vol. 6.
20 Henshaw to Court of Equity, 17 Jan. 1882, Calprof
Ibadan, 3/2.
27 UPCMR n.s. 4 (1 Jan. 1883), 13, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 28 Aug. 1882.
86
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Thus as in the days of the slave trade, credit chains
extended
from the Europeans on the coast far into the
hinterland market
areas.
Lastly, the location of the oil markets must be
considered. The Efik
themselves did not produce oil in commercial
quantities,28 despite
Nair’s suggestion that the territory of Akpabuyo to
the east of
Calabar was settled during Duke Ephraim’s reign in
order to provide
oil.2’ For Waddell writes of the people of Akpabuyo in
1855: ‘But
the oil trade being in the hands of their masters
whose authority they
disown & their part of the country not growing the
Palm nut tree in
abundance sufficient for oil making in quantity, they
are excluded all
share in that trade now.’20
To this day Akpabuyo produces very little oil. Indeed,
the oil palm
is not cultivated,31 and, as is shown on Map 6, it is
to the west of
the Cross River, from Afikpo to the coast, that the
palm belt lies.32
The main markets lay within this region, Ikpa, Ikot
Offiong, Itu, and
Umon, with lesser markets at Ifiayong and Enyong.33
Bold and
Grant in the 1820s were aware of the importance of
Ibibioland as a
producer of oil, and the markets of Ikot Offiong and
Enyong.31
But Waddell knew that the principal oil market was
Ikpa,35 which
Goldie described as ‘The largest oil market of the
Calabar people’.36
The Efik took great care to keep this market open,
even sending
annual presents to the people there.37 Umon was also
an important
market, at the furthest point of Efik penetration up
the Cross River,38
its supplies coming from the region to the north-west
of the Cross
River. In the early fifties, its production, when
available, was
estimated at 1,600-1,800 puncheons annually, i.e. 640-
720 tons p.a.,
11 Capt. J. B. Walker, ‘Note on the Old Calabar and
Cross Rivers’, P.R.G.S. 16
(1871-2), 136.
“ Nair, pp. 54-7.
” Waddell to Badenock, 22 Mar. 1855. In Waddell,
Journal, vol. 10,
p. 79.
51 Martin, p. 9.
” A. F. B. Bridges, D.O., Report on Oil Palm Survey,
Ibo, Ibibio, and Cross
River Areas, 11 June 1938, CSO 26/17696, Ibadan, p. 4,
para. 11.
33 Chief Michael Henshaw, 18 Nov. 1965. Chief Thomas
A. Efiom, M.O.N.,
7 Dec. 1965. Chief Maurice Efana Archibong, 19 Jan.
1966.
“ Bold, p. 78. Crow, p. 271.
33 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 68, 24 Feb. 1851.
38 Goldie, Dictionary, p. 359.
33 Archibong and Chiefs to Hutchinson, 1 Mar. 1859, in
Hutchinson to
Malmesbury, 21 Mar. 1859, ST 12, FO84/1087.
38 Goldie, Dictionary, p. 361.
Map 6: Palm belt with main oil markets
88
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
which would have increased total exports by about 17
per cent.30
Unfortunately, repeated outbreaks of war made trade
there
irregular.40
East of the Cross River, an insignificant amount of
oil was bought
by the Efik from the fragmented tribes there such as
the Uwet, Ekoi,
and Okoyong.41 Further to the east, an important
supply area was
the Cameroons, although it is not clear which markets
were used,
or where the palms were situated. Although Bold noted
in the 1820s
that oil came from the Cameroons,42 since then this
source was kept
secret from the Europeans until 1877 when the Revd.
Alex Ross
reported that Yellow Duke was the major trader there,
with a base at
Odobo.43
Little is known of market expansion as exports
increased during
the century. Efik connections with the heart of the
Ibibio palm belt
were of long standing, as the Efik had migrated from
that region, and
had continued to buy oil there for domestic use. As
the oil demand
grew, more was gathered by the local people. Yet
expansion did not
take place without tension, as the following newly
discovered entry
for 3 September 1839 in the Black Davis House Book
shows:
I Black Davis states When Efik traders went to Ikpa
for the purpose of
trading, A great disturbance usual arose in the market
as that was only a
market which was called Creek Town or Ikpa market. Eyo
Eyo Inyang
was head Chief of Creek Town Traders and Eyo Honesty
King of Creek
Town at the time. Through this war then the (Atakpa)
or Duke Town
traders who were living together with the said Creek
Town traders called
the attention of Ibibio Chief and asked them for
another portion of land to
open a special market of ours. . . . The said
paramount Chief Akpan
Ekpene then showed in the Atakpa or Duke Town traders
a bush to clear
and open a market and build houses thereto. I Black
Davis built a place
of mine as well as other traders did on the said land
gave us by the para
mount chief Akpan Ekpene. Eyamba alias Edem Ekpenyong
was King of
Duke Town at the time the new market was
opened . . ,44
” Eyo Honesty to Beecroft, 26 Sept. 1851, in Beecroft
to Palmerston, 9 Oct.
1851, FO84/858. Bold, p. 80.
40 Goldie, Dictionary, p. 361. UPCMR n.s. 4 (1 Jan.
1883), 13, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 28 Aug. 1882.
41 Capt. J. B. Walker, ‘Note on the Old Calabar and
Cross Rivers’, P.R.G.S.
16 (1871-2), 137.
42 Bold, p. 78.
43 Marwick, p. 435, cit. Adam Duke to Anderson, 15
Oct. 1868. UPCMR n.s.
6 (1 Sept. 1877), 632-3, cit. Revd. Alex Ross.
‘‘‘ Statement of Black Davis, 3 Sept. 1839, translated
into English by Messrs.
Williams, D.O. and E. Offiong, Black Davis House Book,
pp. 334-5.
THE PALM-OIL TRADE AT OLD CALABAR
89
Efik connections with Umon, Itu, and Ikorofiong were
well
established during the slave trade, as was intercourse
with the
Cameroons.45 But in the late seventies there was a
quest for new
markets, which was reflected in increased exports. The
Henshaws
were particularly active, for Joseph Henshaw began
business at
Oron, and settled there in 1879.46 He also accompanied
George
Watts on the expedition to open the Qua Ibo in 1881.”
But the Oron
began to make difficulties,48 demanding tribute for
produce passing
through their territories, until they were defeated in
an attack on
25 January 1882, by the Henshaws and Duke Town.48
Unfortunately, this market expansion was offset by
consolidation
of German control in the Cameroons. Yellow Duke, who
was very
active there, kidnapped some people from Iduan in May
1888.“ On
1 July restrictions were placed on Efik traders
operating there; a
licence costing 2,000 marks a year was required to
import spirits, and
tariff's were to be paid on many other goods. In
notifying Hewett,
the Imperial Governor asked especially that Yellow
Duke should be
informed.51
These restrictions probably had little effect at
first, as the Efik
resorted to smuggling, even today a widespread
activity. Because the
Efik were flouting the restrictions, a German gunboat
sailed up to
Creek Town in 1889 and took Eyo VII prisoner, making
him respon
sible for the actions of two Creek Town traders at New
Wamaso on
the River Rumby on the Rio del Rey. Eyo was released
but two
hostages were carried away.52 By 1891 several
important Efik traders
had been nearly ruined by the assumption of German
sovereignty
in that region.52
So the Efik switched over smoothly from the slave
trade to the oil
43 Ardencr, pp. 109-13. Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 38, 3 Oct.
1785, p. 43, 11 Feb. 1786.
40 Henry Cobham v. Idiok Une, representing the people
of Uyaron, Oron, in
the Calabar Divisional Court, 1937 (supplied by Chief
Efana Daniel Henshaw,
21 Dec. 1965).
44 Memorandum by Watts, 24 Aug. 1881, Holt Papers 7/2.
18 Henshaw to Court of Equity, 17 Jan. 1882, Calprof
Ibadan 3/2.
49 Newspaper cutting in Watts to Holt, 19 Mar. 1882.
John Holt Papers, 4/6,
(year deduced from list of deaths on reverse of
cutting, mentioning death of
Louisa Anderson, on 26 Jan.).
60 Imperial Governor to Hewett, 24 May 1888, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 10.
51 Imperial Governor to Hewett, 24 May 1888, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 10.
“ Unwana Efik, vol. iii, no. 2 (Feb. 1889), in Hewett
to Salisbury, No. 14,
18 Apr. 1889, FO84/1941.
53 Journal of Commerce, 30 May 1891, Book of News
Cuttings, 1881-96, John
Holt Papers.
90
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
trade, utilizing the trading mechanisms and know-how
they had built
up in the slave trade to export palm produce. It was
not until the
consolidation of British authority on the Cross River,
and German
rule in the Cameroons, in the 1890s, that the Efik
lost their grip on
the monopolistic trading-network they had built up.
Meanwhile they
successfully kept the Europeans from the hinterland,
and the hinter
land people from the Europeans. But it was the
misfortune of the
Efik trading empire that it was a purely commercial
organization,
which did not control the source of supply of the palm
produce it
handled. With the establishment of free trade on the
Cross River
under the Pax Britannica, the Efik commercial empire
was shortcircuited, and Old Calabar’s prosperity
disappeared. If this was a
disaster to the Efik, it was hardly a disaster to the
oil producers, who
were now free to negotiate their own prices with the
Europeans. But
that is another story.
CHAPTER 6
The Oil Trade and Efik Social History
During the period of the slave trade, Efik society was
modified by
the incorporation of slaves into the original compound
groups. The
compounds of successful traders expanded into wards
which cast
aside the authority of their lineage groups, and
became independent
segments of the community. Yet the new wards did not
separate from
the village group, because the three integrating
forces of Ndem,
secret society, and council, particularly the latter
two, were adapted
to enable their interests to be served. But the
cessation of the external
slave trade, and the development of the export of palm
oil, introduced
new forces to which Efik society had to adapt. This
chapter will dis
cuss these forces, both internal and external, and the
problems which
they presented.

1. The expansion of the agricultural slaves

The population of Old Calabar grew steadily during the
nineteenth
century, that of Duke Town being about 2,000 in 1805,1
and roughly
6,000 after 1846, with perhaps ten times as many in
the farming
areas.2
Much of the expansion of the population between 1805
and 1846
was due to the settlement of large numbers of slaves
in Akpabuyo, a
large agricultural district to the east of Calabar.
Tradition holds that
this took place particularly in the twenty or so years
of Duke
Ephraim’s reign, which ended in 1834.3 This was the
transitional
period from the export of slaves to the export of palm
oil, and Jones
has implied that the settlement was undertaken to
absorb surplus
slaves left over from the slave trade.1 But although
some of the
settlers had been released from slaving ships at the
approach of the
1 Hallett, p. 206.
5 Waddell, Journal, vol. 1, p. 23, 11 Apr. 1846, p.
25, 13 Apr. 1846. Marwick,
p. 497, cit. Anderson to Law, etc., 22 Dec. 1871.
3 Chief E. Ekpcnyong, M.B.E., 1 Dec. 1965. Chief Ene
Ndem Ephraim Duke,
23 Nov. 1965. Chief Bruno Efa, 30 Nov. 1965. Chief
Maurice Efana Archibong,
19 Jan. 1966.
• Jones, ‘Political Organisation’, pp. 134-5.
92
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
squadron, they were a minority.5 For traders were
unlikely to buy
slaves inland until they had sold their stocks in
Calabar; and the
fact that the slave trade continued even after 1834,
when Akpabuyo
was well established, meant that slaves temporarily
unshipped could
be sold later.
It is tempting therefore to assume that slaves were
being diverted
from the export trade to the collection and production
of palm oil in
Akpabuyo, as Nair has suggested.6 But Akpabuyo was
virgin land,
and had no oil palm, which is secondary vegetation
found only in
conjunction with agriculture. Commercial oil was not
produced there
in the nineteenth century, and to this day little is
produced.7
However, the area may have been peopled to grow food
for Cala
bar, which was so dependent upon the Cross River
markets for
supplies. The legend of Akpabuyo’s discovery lays
great emphasis
on the fertility of the land. By the middle of the
century Calabar was
taking produce from Akpabuyo, for during the war among
the
slaves there in 1852, food prices rose sharply.8
Nevertheless farming
may not have been the real reason for settlement, as
recent studies
indicate that the area is not very fertile.0
Probably the movement of slaves to this area owes more
to the
political situation in Calabar than it does to
directly economic
motives. The more potential warriors that a ward
possessed, the
greater its power. To Duke Ephraim the discovery of
Akpabuyo
provided an opportunity to build up a large reservoir
of retainers
who would provide their own maintenance. Once he had
begun to
settle slaves there, the other wards had to try to
follow suit, if they
were not to be overwhelmed.
Thus the Duke converted his profits from the oil
trade, and the
dying slave trade, to the purchase of slaves for
Akpabuyo. His
superior wealth is reflected in the fact that he
established by far the
largest number of villages there.10 This could still
be observed in
1963, when of the 71 villages there, 23 were in Duke
ward, 11
in Etim Effiom, 4 in Archibong, 7 in Eyamba, 5 in
Henshaw, 7 in
Ntiero, 10 in Cobham, and 4 in Obutong (Old Town).11
As Etim
' Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 426.
• m ’ ??• 54-7'
’ See Chapter 5, p. 86.
• p/lrwic^> PP- 263-4, cit. Anderson, 9 Aug. 1852.
, ..Hh1Tarl’Map4-LandUs'-P-6' » ? cni"son>
Impressions, pp. 144-5. Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p.
497.
Minkter Lisl of Principal Efik Villages at Akpabuyo,
in X. N. Ephraim to
r of Customary Courts and Chieftaincy Affairs, Thru
Provincial Com-
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
93
Effiom and Archibong ward only separated from Duke
ward long
after the settlement of Akpabuyo,theirvillages must be
added to those
of Duke ward to show the approximate balance of power
in Duke
Town at the time of settlement.
Although Nair has stated that it was the development
of the oil
trade which led to the incorporation of slaves into
Efik society,12 in
fact slaves had long been ward members. What was new
was the
expansion of the wards with large numbers of
agricultural slaves
living some distance away from the townships. While
this did not
cause any problem at first, by the middle of the
century tensions grew
up between the urban dwellers, and the agricultural
slaves, as the
latter developed a communal life of their own. The
tendency for the
farm slaves to consider themselves virtually
independent of the towns
men was increased by the fact that the death of Duke
Ephraim in
1834 left the biggest group among them with no clearly
recognized
master. By 1850 they were reluctant to acknowledge any
direct master
at all.13 They constituted the first internal force
for change in Efik
society.
During the late forties slaves from various wards
escaped from
their masters to the farms, to avoid harsh
punishment,11 and when
Duke Ephraim’s son John died in 1846,“many of his
slaves fled to
the farms to avoid the massacre which normally took
place on the
death of important men.10 These funeral sacrifices
became a major
cause of contention between the farm slaves and the
‘gentlemen’ of
Duke Town, in 1850. In February an Ekpe law was passed
abolishing
funeral sacrifices, as a result of pressure from the
Mission and the
Captains.17 There was unrest among the slaves during
the next few
months, and in June another Ekpe law was passed making
it a capital
offence for slaves to abscond.18 But unrest continued,
and when King
Archibong seized some of the farm slaves later in the
year, the rest
bound themselves with a blood oath to resist the
arbitrary treatment
missioncr, Calabar Province, Calabar, 31 July 1963
(copy in the author’s
possession).
11 Nair, p. 63.
13 UPCMR 6, (Aug. 1851), 118, cit. Goldie’s Journal,
12 Dec. 1850.
11 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 379.
15 Ibid., p. 293.
10 Ibid., p. 295. See Chapter 7, below.
17 Marwick, pp. 231-7, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 5-16
Feb. 1850. Extract from
UPCMR 5 (July 1850), in McGear to Palmerston,
(Undated) (Aug. 1850),
FO84/818.
18 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 19, 27 June 1850.
94
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
of the freemen in Duke Town. They plundered a farm
belonging to
King Archibong’s mother, and only restored their loot
when the
captured slaves were released. To settle the matter
they demanded to
be treated as freemen, and that funeral sacrifices be
absolutely
abolished, as they did not believe this had already
happened.19
Thus they achieved freedom from the arbitrary actions
of the
freemen.
But, at the end of January 1851, the farm slaves
entered Duke
Town as a body, in what Dike has suggested was a
revolt to secure
‘full emancipation’.20 Jones, with whom Nair largely
agrees,21
interprets this invasion not as an attempt to gain
liberty so much as
to demand freedom from capricious ill treatment such
as funeral
massacres.22 However, they had already gained this the
previous year,
and a closer analysis of the situation reveals that
the slaves were
Duke-ward slaves who had been summoned to town by King
Archibong to support him in a political move against
his rivals in
Eyamba ward. This will be discussed more fully in the
next chapter.
That the slaves were prepared to support the King
reveals clearly
that they did not have revolutionary aims.23 Now they
had secured
fair treatment, they were content to remain the
agricultural sector of
Duke Town, supporting their ward leaders in inter-ward
politics.
The Duke-ward slaves were again invited to town a year
later,
when King Archibong, also of Duke ward, died in
February 1852.
Obuma, the King’s mother, wanted the slaves to force
the Eyambaward leaders to submit to the poison ordeal
to determine whether
they had used witchcraft to kill the king.21 She
thereby hoped to
destroy the Eyamba candidates for the succession.
Rather than face
the ordeal the two leading Eyamba chiefs fled from
town for a while,
suffering a damaging loss of prestige.25 However, the
slaves did not
use their new-found political power to overthrow their
freemen, but
returned to the farms. There a war broke out between
the slaves of
the late Henshaw Duke, and the slaves of the late John
Duke, over
the division of the 100,000 coppers Obuma had paid
them for their
>• UPCMR 6 (Aug. 1851), 118, cit. Goldie’s Journal, 12
Dec. 1850.
'■’Dike, pp. 155-9.
11 Nair, pp. 79-82.
22 Jones, ‘Political Organisation’, pp. 148-57.
22 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 477, and Journal,
vol. 8, p. 62, 5 Feb.
1851.
22 Marwick, pp. 258-60, cit. Anderson.
22 Anderson, Journal, 7 Feb. 1852. Waddell, Twenty-
Nine Years, p. 498.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
95
intervention.20 Peace was not made until 6 August
1852.2’ However,
the slaves maintained their ameliorated conditions,
although the
headmen benefited most, the ordinary field hands being
little better
off than before.28
At Creek Town there was a large expansion of
agricultural slaves
in the area behind the town during the reign of King
Eyo II, which
ended in 1858.20 Like Duke Ephraim, Eyo converted the
profits of
the large share of the export trade which he had
gained into slaves,
for political reasons. Although forbidden to take the
blood oath by
the King in 1851,30 his slaves united under the oath
on his death in
1858, and entered the town to prevent any funeral
sacrifices.31 They
reappeared on the death of Eyo III in May 1861, to
kill Egbo Eyo
who it was believed had procured the King’s death by
witchcraft.32
Thus at Creek Town as at Duke Town the farm slaves
united initially
to secure freedom from arbitrary murder, but having
achieved this
did not overthrow the freemen but chose instead to
support their
ward leaders in the internal political interplay.
Having improved
their position within the existent social and
political system it became
their interest to uphold it. They did not seek freedom
from their
slave status.
During the remaining years of the sixties the farm
slaves busied
themselves with their agriculture, and did not play an
active part in
urban politics. But in 1871 both King Archibong and
Eyo VI fell ill,
and their ward slaves at Duke Town and Creek Town
entered the
towns to seek the enemies of both men, who were
supposedly using
witchcraft to induce their illnesses. The
missionaries, however,
thwarted the slaves.33
It is clear then that the farm slaves were still an
important political
force. Yet they were essentially conservative in
outlook, and, now
they had secured freedom from arbitrary treatment,
were contented
ward members, and did not even seek to penetrate the
upper echelons
of Efik society, with the possible exception of George
Duke, one of
20 Anderson, Journal, 10 Feb. 1852. Marwick, p. 263,
cit. Anderson, 9 Aug.
1852.
27 Anderson, Journal, 7 Aug. 1852.
28 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 558.
22 Ibid., pp. 320, 366, 462, 604, and 643.
20 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 61, 3 Feb. 1851.
21 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 643-4.
22 Ibid., pp. 650-1. Goldie, Calabar, pp. 210-13, cit.
Mr. Timson.
22 Marwick, pp. 486-90, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 29
May-5 June 1871. Goldie,
Calabar, pp. 233-5.
96
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
the Duke-ward slave-leaders. Their continued ward
allegiance was
demonstrated in the war in 1884-5 between Duke and
Archibong
sections of Duke ward which led to the separation of
the Archibongs
as an independent ward.31 To this day the people of
the Duke Town
and Creek Town farms consider themselves ward members.
Hence
it can be said that the great expansion of
agricultural slaves during
the nineteenth century caused no revolutionary change
in Efik
society; the basic ward-structure which had emerged
during the
days of the external slave trade continued unaltered.

2. The upward mobility of the urban trading-slaves

The movement among the agricultural slaves for better
treatment
was paralleled by an improvement in the status of some
of the leading
trading-slaves. And just as it was Duke-ward slaves,
particularly
those of Great Duke Ephraim himself, who led the
movement at the
farms, it was the Duke-ward trading-slaves who were
most successful
in improving their social and political status.
Duke Ephraim had built up a vast centralized trading
organization
which encompassed nearly all the external trade in
slaves and oil.
Slaves had played a prominent part in this
organization, both as
agents and canoe captains. Consequently when the Duke
died with
out an heir in 1834,35 these slaves were left in
control of his business
empire. As the trading network was the foundation of
his ward’s
prosperity, these slaves also inherited influential
positions in Duke
ward, dominating it. To this day such a ward member is
head of
Efiom Edem (Great Duke) section.30 Acting the roles of
freemen,
the leading slaves began to seek the acknowledged
symbols of free
dom during the 1850s. Accordingly they constituted the
second
internal pressure upon the Efik social structure.
The uppermost group in Efik society were the
‘gentlemen’ who had
bought the highest grades in Ekpe. To enter these
grades one had to
be a freeman, and rich. While in theory freemen had to
be descended
from a founding father, a more liberal interpretation
obtained by
the mid-1850s, as Anderson noted:
There is no impassable gulf between the depths of
bondage and the heights
of gentlemanship, such as it is, in this country. All
slaves born in Old
31 See Chapter 7.
36 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 497, Chief Ene Ndcm
Ephraim Duke, 23
Nov. 1965. Chief E. Ekpenyong, M.B.E., 9 Dec. 1965.
33 Chief Thomas A. Efiom, M.O.N., 7 Dec. 1965, Chief
E. Ekpenyong, M.B.E.,
3 Dec. 1965.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
97
Calabar are termed half-free', the children of the
half free are sometimes
termed three-quarters free, but more frequently, I
think, whole-free. The
half-free cannot, in ordinary circumstances, be sold
out of the country.
More than this, they are allowed to purchase four or
five of the nine
different grades of Egbo. Their children may buy all
the grades save one or
two, which are reserved by the ‘proper free’ for
themselves.37
Thus it was that the leaders of Eyo ward, descended
from the slave
born Eyo Nsa, and the leaders of Eyamba and Duke
wards, descend
ants of the illegitimate, outcast twins, Ofiong and
Efiom Okoho, were
by this time considered freemen, and were important
office-holders
in Ekpe and the council.38 Like them, the great slaves
now began to
seek assimilation to the rank of ‘gentleman’.
In 1850, the year the farm slaves asserted themselves,
an Ekpe law
was passed prohibiting persons, who did not own all
the grades of
Ekpe, from wearing long shirts or morning gowns.39
This was de
signed to distinguish the ‘gentlemen’ from those of
equal or greater
wealth, who could now afford the outer trappings of
status. One such
was Iron Bar of Duke ward,40 who apparently gained his
opportunity
at the death of Duke Ephraim, for when his master
died, he brought
up his children, traded for them and himself, and
became wealthy
and important.41 Although a slave and excluded from
Ekpe privileges,
he was King Duke Ephraim’s right-hand man, and was the
next most
influential man in Duke Town before dying in about
1851-2.42
As he was excluded from Ekpe he must have made his
influence felt
in the council, membership of which was open to any
man of in
fluence.43 By so doing he set an important precedent,
and after 1855
other great slaves became council members.
Jones and Nair have both recognized that wealthy
slaves were
important at this time,44 but neither has identified
these men. How
ever, it is reasonable to assume that council members
signed the
treaties and official letters, which exist from the
period 1842-62.
In Chart 6 there is an analysis of these signatories,
which shows that
after 1855 several were of slave origin. Of the 35
names which
appear more than twice on these documents, 20 are
identifiable. 5
were certainly slaves, 4 of which were from Duke ward,
reflecting the
37 Marwick, p. 326, cit. paper by Anderson on Slavery,
27 Jan. 1855.
38 See Chapters 3 and 4.
33 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 438.
80 Efiom Edcm Iron Bar, 15 Jan. 1966.
81 Waddell, Journal, vol. 10, p. 73, Waddell to Blyth,
(undated) (March 1855).
83 Marwick, p. 258, cit. Anderson, 12 Feb. 1852.
83 Chapter 3, p. 40.
88 Jones, Trading States, p. 190. Nair, p. 69.
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THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
99
fact that Duke-ward slaves were most successful in
improving their
status. Bassey Henshaw Duke appeared on 13 of the 19
documents,
Yellow Duke on 12, Black Davis on 11, and George Duke
on 4,
although the latter was a farm slave not a trading-
slave. The fifth
man, Bassey Africa, mentioned on 5 documents, was from
Eyamba
ward.
It was the wealth and influence derived from their
business suc
cesses which enabled these slaves to advance, but only
a select few
who were given permission to trade directly with the
ships were
allowed to achieve commercial success. This is
indicated in the follow
ing quotation from E. E. Offiong’s Judgement Book:
. . . after the death of Efiom Edem, (Great Duke
Ephraim) the second
Yellow Duke remains with Edem Odo (King Duke Ephraim)
and was a
storekeeper at the time not every man or chief who use
to go to Hulk for
business transaction and was greatly assisted by the
King whereof Yellow
Duke became rich. The reason why the King allowed
Yellow Duke this
priviledges [stc] was that he may compute [stc] with
Bassey Henshaw.45
By contrast the ordinary canoe boys remained as
servile as ever.
The advance of the great slaves was furthered by the
poverty of
the Efik Obongs who succeeded Great Duke. King Eyamba
went
bankrupt,10 King Archibong I, although wealthy and a
successful
trader, only reigned for five years,47 and King Duke
Ephraim was a
poverty-stricken drunkard.48 The reason for such
poverty probably
lies in the fact they were contemporaries of Great
Duke, and had so
long been excluded from trade, that they had no
business knowledge
or experience. Inevitably they were forced to rely on
the superior
know-how of the slaves who managed the trade.
Nair attributes the increased wealth and influence of
the great
slaves in these years to his belief that slaves could
inherit their
fathers’ property, and not have it divided up among
numerous
relatives, like the freemen. But there is no basis for
this theory, for a
slave’s property reverted to his master on death.4’
45 Ofion Asibon v. Bassey Duke & House. Claim: To
recover the Estate of late
yellow Duke, 5 Oct. 1903, Native Council of Old
Calabar, No. 376, E. E. Ofliong’s
Judgement Book (1902-), p. 232.
45 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 274.
47 Marwick, pp. 215-16, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 28
May 1849.
44 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 392-3.
Bcecroft to Malmesbury, 30 June 1852, FO84/886.
40 Chief Asuquo Okody, 9 Feb. 1966. Chief Thomas A.
Effiom, M.O.N.,
21 Dec. 1965.
H
100
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Although the great slaves obtained positions of
influence in the
council, Jones has stated that they were excluded from
the upper
grades of Ekpe.M But there is evidence to prove that
some did buy
the highest grades, in the late fifties and early
sixties. An entry in the
Black Davis House Book, 24 November 1861, reads:
In the day yellow Duke buying all Egbo people &c to
let him have
negrobell for the foot according to our fashion for
dancing so they
agree Duke Town and Creek Town charge him twenty (20)
boxes of
rods all Calabar allow him to buying this because he
is Proper man
to help Calabar in every so allow him to buy this as
any Egbo man
Put down name.
Doctor Eyo King of Creek Town
Prince Archibong II
King Eyo Honesty VI
Creek Town
Eke Eso
Old Town
Offiong Enian
Ikoneto
Black Davis
George Duke
Boco Duke
Ephraim Adam
Toby (?)
Offiong Effeo Iwat
Egbo Etam Henshaw
Egbo Young Hogan
Ephraim Lewis
And witness to writing by Big Adam Duke. 51
This reveals that Yellow Duke was being allowed to
purchase the
right to wear a distinctive article of dress allowed
only to those
privileged in Ekpe.sz Equally important is the fact
that Black Davis
and George Duke signed the document, implying they had
already
achieved this distinction. Further evidence that
Yellow Duke did
purchase the highest Ekpe grades at this time is the
fact that he erected
a wooden two-storey house of the kind allowed only to
the holders
of the highest grades.53 That Black Davis had indeed
bought the top
four grades is indicated by a statement in the Black
Davis House
Book to that effect.51
"
States, p. 190.
« \v^a?ia^s House Book’ 24 Nov- 1861- P- 38“ Chirff’
Twen,y-Ni"t Years, pp. 266, 356.
12 Apr 1862UqU° Okody'9 Dec-1965' Ma™ick, p. 398, cit.
Anderson, Journal,
'• Black Davis House Book, 27 July 1874, n. 39.
101
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
The success of these great slaves in entering the
class of ‘gentlemen’
who owned the highest grades of Ekpe was due to their
wealth, as had
been their acceptance in council a few years earlier.
For Archibong II
was as financially inept as his predecessors, and by
1862 Yellow Duke
was his creditor.55 Moreover, the Eyamba ward,
traditionally in
fluential in Ekpe, was impoverished and of reduced
importance at
this time as a result of its overweening schemes for
political ag
grandisement.50 The poverty of the ‘gentlemen’ made it
difficult for
them to refuse the entry fees of these rich slaves.
There was also
sound political judgement behind allowing the wealthy
slaves to
become ‘gentlemen’, for otherwise they might use their
wealth to
mobilize the rest of the slave population against the
rulers. By
admitting the great slaves, the ‘gentlemen’ were
binding them to
support the existing structure of society.

Chart 7
Duke Town signatories of Treaties and Agreements
1875-1884
1 1I
iulhl I
E LZ
f,5 g I
George Duke________
Henshaw Duke
Yellow Duke________
Prince Duke_________
Hogan Ironbar_______
Adam Ironbar_______
Archibong III________
Prince Archibong.il
Prince Archibong III
James Ephraim Adam
Prince James Eyamba V
Joseph Eyamba
EfTiong Eliualt_______
Eyo E.Ndcm________
Henshaw Toby_______
Total 15
X
ix
xl
2<
x
_x_
X
zp
x!

X
xl
_ x_
X
X
X
2<_
2?_
2<^
x
ix
ZEX
4 o
2 3 4
x 2<_
x 2£
X
Jx
_ IX
x!
X
X
X
2<_
2L
x 2<_
JO
Names mentioned only once have been omitted
Source: see Appendix 6.
6D Burton to Russell, 22 May 1862, No. 16, FO84/1176.
50 See Chapter 7.

X_
X
2<_ 2<_
2< 2<_
X
X
X
X
6 4
«
_l_
X
X
X
X
x 2< X
x X
2L x_
x_
2£ 2<
x x_ x
x_ x
2<_ 2<_
2< 2<_
2< 2L
_x
X
x x
n
102
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
The analysis of official documents of 1875-84, Chart
7, shows that
men of slave origin continued to be represented on the
council. Of the
fifteen names which appear more than once, Yellow
Duke, George
Duke, and the brothers Hogan and Adam Ironbar,
descendants
of the first influential Iron Bar who died about 1851,
were of
unfree birth. Both Yellow Duke and George Duke had
become
Ekpc gentlemen in the sixties, but it is not known if
the Iron Bar
brothers followed suit. It is possible that they did,
for as late as 1888
Coco Otu Bassey, also of unfree origin, obtained the
highest
grades.67
However, in the late seventies and eighties there was
a determined
attempt by a new generation of leading freemen to curb
the ambitions
of the great slaves. Prince Duke claimed George Duke’s
estate on his
death in 1879,58 and Yellow Duke’s estate on his death
in 1888.59
Indeed this period marks an attempt at retrenchment by
the Efik
leaders against the social changes of the previous
thirty years.
Presumably they feared that their own position would
soon be com
pletely undermined, and that the entire social and
political structure
might disintegrate. For not only were they subject to
the pressure
of infiltration by the great slaves, but they were
also worried by the
increasing numbers of British-protected people who
were establishing
themselves at Old Calabar. These will be dealt with
next.

3. The Mission
The first of these foreign groups to establish
themselves in Calabar
was the Mission. Nair has dismissed the importance of
the Mission in
Efik social and political development,00 but although
the Mission was
small in numbers, it had an influence out of
proportion to its size,
he missionaries contributed to the improvement in
slave conditions,
or they were opposed to slavery on principle,01 and
were always
rea y to save a slave from cruel treatment by his
master.02 Early after
dr arrival they determined to secure the abolition of
funeral
sacn ices, which resulted in the passing of the Ekpe
law against this
" AndL°r 50CS Basse>'. 20 Apr. 1888, First Folder,
Coco Bassey Papers.

“NXppS.TlOkOdy>9Feb 1966« Waddell’32,8,

Anderson’s paper on Slavery, 1855.

pp. »^rs6pp-2sU 4o3-5-

THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
103
custom in 1850.01 Yet the Mission was unable to break
the institution
of slavery itself, which continued into the twentieth
century.
The missionaries were more successful in obtaining the
abolition
of some of the unpleasant and cruel customs of
Calabar, such as the
murder of twin babies,05 and the poison-bean ordeal,
used to deter
mine whether a person was guilty of witchcraft.00 In
1878 an agree
ment was signed between the Chiefs and Consul to
prohibit these
practices.07 Other ways in which the Mission
influenced Efik life was
in teaching some of the children to read, and in
gaining a few con
verts to Christianity. The latter effect may have been
of great personal
significance to the people concerned, but did not
alter Efik society
in general. Indeed the impact of Christianity on the
structure of Efik
society was nil.
Where the Mission, as distinct from Christianity, had
an effect was
in establishing a community which was contingent with
Efik society,
but apart from it. At each Mission house, a household
grew up
independent of the customs and mores of Calabar. Some
of the
members had come with the Mission from elsewhere, but
increasingly
the missionaries gathered round them local people
given to them as
presents, and twin babies rescued from the bush.08
More important,
refugees from Efik justice sought the protection of
the Mission,
especially at Duke Town.00 In Efik eyes all these
people belonged to
the missionaries, and were the slaves of the house or
ward ruled by
the missionaries as freemen, and they were even known
among the
Efik as ofn tnakara or ‘whitemen’s slaves’.70
At first the Mission households were able to live
peaceably, and the
refugees went about their daily affairs unchallenged,
informally under
British protection.71 Many were baptised.72 However,
the missionM Marwick, pp. 231-7, cit. Anderson’s
Journal, 5-16 Feb. 1850. Extract from
UPCMR 5 (July 1850), in McGear to Palmerston,
(undated) (Aug. 1850),
FO84/818.
66 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 442.
•• Ibid., p. 279.
07 Agreement on Twin Murders, Sacrifices, Trade and
Commerce, 6 Sept.
1878, No. 33, FO84/1508.
08 Goldie, Calabar, pp. 369-70. Waddell, Twenty-Nine
Years, pp. 511-12.
Marwick, p. 288, cit. Anderson, 30 Nov. 1853. Marwick,
p. 355, cit. Anderson’s
Report for 1856. Anderson to Hartley, 8 Oct. 1875,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1
vol. 4.
“ Marwick, pp. 212-13, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 22 and
23 Apr. 1849.
70 Chief Thomas A. Efiom, 25 Jan. 1966.
71 Beecroft to Malmesbury, 20 May 1852, FO2/7.
72 Marwick, pp. 336-7, cit. Anderson’s Report for
1855.
104
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
aries wanted formally to emancipate their Efik
household members,73
and in 1855 Consul Hutchinson began to grant them
emancipation
papers,71 which became a standard practice.75 But by
the early 1870s
the Duke Town authorities began to fear that the
granting of emanci
pation and British protection to these people was a
threat to their
position. Many more slaves might escape to the
Mission, receive
manumission papers, and thereby cease to be their
subjects.
The situation came to a head over Egbo Bassey, a
former steward
of King Eyamba V who had fled to the Mission in
1849,75 when
accused of theft.77 Baptised78 and emancipated,79 he
worked hard,
married, and bought slaves who were also
emancipated.80 But soon
after the accession of Archibong HI in 1872,81 Prince
Thomas
Eyamba82 tried to reclaim Egbo Bassey and his
people,98 forcing him
to flee to Fernando Po.81 Then it became apparent that
the Efik
authorities were concerned about all such
emancipadoes, for in 1875
King Archibong informed Consul Hartley:
. . . those who were not redeemed from us by the
mission with money,
should leave my country entirely unless they agree to
sign a document that
they will remain at the mission still in submission to
their respective master
& consider themselves to be my subjects. ... If the
custom of giving free
papers continues, it will become a serious matter to
me as I shall lose my
subjects and my country will be ruined .. ,8W
Because further attempts were made in 1876 to re-
enslave emanci
padoes,85 the Foreign Office was forced to clarify the
situation, stating
31 Jan ni856OFOO84/100hinSOn’18 Jan’ 1855,in
Hutchinson,oClarendon,No-111
uutcti.nson to Clarendon, No. 11, 31 Jan. 1856,
F084/1001.
. »<TUtC7lnson to Clarendon, 24 June 1856, No. 77,
F084/1001. Hutchinson
I860 ST^^FOM/IH?1859’ ST 101 FO84/1087' Laughland to
Russell, 1 Dec.

Marwick, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 22 Apr. 1849, and 23

Apr. 1849.
m" ■ <Jn ,0 Hartlcy. 8 Oct. 1875, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1
vol. 4.
’• a *'wick» PP- 336-7, cit. Anderson’s Annual Report
for 1855.
.0 Ibid" t0 Hart,Cy’ 6 July 1875’ Ca,Prof Ibadan, 4/1,
vol. 4.

■= EehTn1’’ P' 5041 cit’ Andcrson. 28 Aug. 1872.

•> M8,™-tSSCy Ha,rtley. 17 June 1874, Calprof Ibadan
4/1, vol. 3.
'• Eohn n^’ P' 531’ c'*’ Anderson’s Journal, 20 Apr.
1875.
... ArrhiK s7..,° Hartl°y. 17 June 1874, Calprof
Ibadan 4/1, vol. 3.
•s Alev
Hartlcy. 4 Oct. 1875, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 4.
McKelhr /°s5t0 Act- Con. McKellar, 24 Apr. 1876,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 5.
Ballantvne A,°uu'8n Secretary. 9 Sept. 1876, No. 45,
FO84/1455. Cobham,
Calprof Ibadan 4/3 ™'o|°20nE Hcnny ,0 Forei8n
Secretary, 18 Sept. 1876,
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
105
that such people were not entitled to British
protection unless at
tempts were made to re-enslave them or to prevent them
trading.80
This precipitated a rush of demands for British
protection from slaves
who had enjoyed increasing freedom during the middle
years of the
century, but who were now being subject to the
reactionary backlash
against this liberalism from the new generation of
Efik leaders.
James Egbo Bassey87 and his brother petitioned for
British protection
in 1877 as the authorities were trying to enslave them
and their people,
and prevent them trading.88 In 1881 Peter King
Cameroons sought
protection because he was being oppressed, for
although a slave, he
had become a family head.89 Okon Ma sought protection
the same
year, because Archibong III was trying to reduce him
to slavery.90
And in 1883 George Duke, son of the George Duke who
had been
one of the most successful great slaves, requested
British protection
because King Duke had taken his late father’s
estate.91
Thus the Mission’s impact on Efik society was felt in
procuring
British protection for the refugee slaves, who became
members of
their households. It was seen by leading slaves in
Efik society that
British protection and emancipation did remove the
onerous demands
which their masters might make. Consequently, when the
new gener
ation of Efik freemen, who dominated Efik politics
from the early
seventies, began to repress those slaves who had
enjoyed considerable
liberty in the middle years of the century, they
turned to demand
British protection. British protection became a shield
behind which
the oppressed slaves in Calabar could shelter.

4. The liberated Africans

The group of emancipated slaves associated with the
Mission were
not the only threat to the control of the Efik
oligarchy. The Chiefs
became increasingly concerned about another group
under British
•• F.O. to Hartley, 10 Apr. 1877, No. 7, FO84/1487.
87 Not to be confused with Egbo Bassey aforementioned.
Egbo Bassey, father
of James Egbo Bassey, died before 1868. Egbo Basscy of
the Mission was alive in
1874. Marwick, p. 443, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 15 May
1868. Egbo Bassey to
Hartley, 17 June 1874, Calprof Ibadan 4/1, vol. 3.
88 James Egbo Basscy to Tait, 1 Oct. 1877, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 10. Ibid.
17 Nov. 1877, Calprof Ibadan 4/1 vol. 6. Petition of
James Egbo Bassey 2nd,
(undated) Nov., 1877, Calprof Ibadan, 4/3 vol. 2.
89 Petition of Prince James Eyamba V on behalf of
Peter King Cameroons and
family of Duke Town, to Earl Granville, 20 Sept. 1881,
FO84/1612.
»» Memorial of Okon Ma to Earl Granville, 27 Sept.
1881. FO84/1612.
81 Memorial of George Duke to Earl Granville, 13 July
1883, FO84/1654.
106
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
protection which was expanding in Calabar, the free
Africans from
other parts of the coast.
The first of these was Fergusson, a Cape Coaster who
had been on
the Niger expedition in 1841, and became King Eyo Il’s
clerk shortly
afterwards.02 But it was not until 1854 that any
significant number of
liberated Africans settled in Calabar, a little later
than in Yorubaland. There Sierra Leoneans established
themselves in the forties,
becoming a vital force in commerce and education.03
The Revd.
Jones of the C.M.S. in Sierra Leone visited Calabar in
1853, and
obtained Eyo’s word that he would welcome liberated
slaves who had
come from the locality.01 The first of these
immigrants arrived in
1854, on the new mail steamers. They did not settle at
Creek Town,
but chose to live on the Mission ground at Duke Town.
There were
seven families, each of whom built a hut. Mostly they
were old people
wanting to end their days in the region of their
childhood.05 But in
1855, two of them began to trade with the local people
for oil, sending
the oil to Britain on the mail packets.05 The
supercargoes there
persuaded King Duke to order the Sierra Leoneans to
leave, lest
large numbers come and take over the country.07 Consul
Hutchinson
prevented their eviction, thereby establishing that,
while not British
subjects, they were to receive British protection.08
Nevertheless, opposition to the liberated Africans
continued, and
in 1858 King Duke informed Hutchinson,
A number of Sierra Leone men and others have come here
to reside in my
town now these men say they are Englishmen and British
subjects and arc
not amenable to any law of mine, I do not understand
when man do bad
thing, and keep no law, that he say he be Englishman,
and you must tell
man come for any town for live here that he live for
my country law, when
he live here. Some carpenter and sawyer come for do
work for we, we like
that and pay them but they must have law for keep, but
plenty other
Sierra Leone man come here have nothing, and have only
theif for do, to
" Waddell, Journal, vol. 1, 16 Apr. 1846, p. 30.
“J. F. A. Ajayi, Christian Missions in Nigeria, 1841-
1891 (London, 1965),
pp. 25-52.
** Goldie, Calabar, p. 166.
,D Anderson to Hutchinson, 17 June 1856, Inc. 2 in
Hutchinson to Clarendon,
24 June 1856, No. 76, F084/1001.
’• Chapter 5, p. 59-61.
07 Anderson to Hutchinson, 17 June 1856, Inc. 2 in
Hutchinson to Clarendon,
24 June 1856, No. 76, F084/1001.
“ Hutchinson to Clarendon, 24 June 1856, No. 76,
F084/1001. Clarendon to
Hutchinson, 19 Oct. 1856, F084/1001.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
107
get chop, you must tell all them men to go away he no
use for we and only
bring palaver.”
In 1859 Hutchinson sent two Sierra Leoneans back to
the colony,
one for arson and the other for slave stealing, and
the Efik pressed
them to expel them all.1 But the number of liberated
Africans
continued to increase, especially after the crash in
the oil trade in
1862. During the next two years the number of Sierra
Leoneans and
Accra men increased from thirty to fifty, and they
caused considerable
trouble by trading, owning slaves, and playing the
chiefs, mission
aries, and agents off against one another.2 In 1867
Livingstone
complained of the ‘turbulent Accra natives’ in Duke
Town, who were
constantly quarrelling with the Calabar people.3
Apart from the trouble they caused, the liberated
Africans had little
impact on the cultural and political life of Calabar.
Some became
church members.4 Fergusson had done some teaching in
the 1840s,5
and it was in education that they made their greatest
contribution.
The local traders preferred to send their children to
these men for
lessons, as the English and arithmetic they taught was
more useful
for business, than the Efik and Bible studies the
missionaries
concentrated upon. By 1872 there were at least three
running
schools.0
Nevertheless, the wave of reaction which overtook the
Efik
gentlemen in the seventies culminated in an attempt to
eject the free
Africans. In 1874, the year that Egbo Bassey fled to
Fernando Po,
the carpenters, coopers, tailors, and clockmakers from
Sierra Leone,
Accra, and Cape Coast asked the Consul whether they
were entitled
to British protection, as they were being oppressed by
the Efik.7 Next
year King Archibong III sought clarification on this
point, as the
free Africans were refusing to abide by local law and
were claiming
BB King Duke Ephraim to Hutchinson, 6 May 1858, Inc.
5, in Hutchinson to
Malmesbury, 25 May 1858, ST 23, FO84/1061.
1 Hutchinson to Hill, 28 Feb 1859, Inc. 1 in
Hutchinson to Malmesbury,
24 Feb. 1859, ST 4, FO84/1087.
2 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
3 Livingstone to Stanley, 27 Apr. 1867, No. 7,
FO84/1277.
4 Marwick, pp. 336-7, cit. Anderson’s Report for 1855.
5 Waddell, Journal, vol. 1,16 Apr. 1846, p. 30.
2 Marwick, p. 509, cit. Anderson’s Annual Report for
1872. Ibid., p. 517, cit.
Anderson's Annual Report for 1873.
7 Memorial of Samuel Fuller, Daniel J. Josiah, etc.,
to Hartley, 21 Aug. 1874,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1, vol. 3.
108
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
to be British subjects.8 But by July 1876 many had
left Calabar as the
Efik were threatening to massacre them, and those
remaining were
seeking immediate British protection? That autumn
Archibong made
his attitude clear when he informed the Court of
Equity:
... I will in no wise have any African born British
Subjects in my Country
who will not abide by the law of my country with the
exception of the Hulk
and Cask house dwellers.
I therefore implore the Court to inform the said
British Subjects dwelling
in Old Calabar Towns under my control that those who
will not abide by
my Country law must leave my Country entirely or abide
in one of the
Hulk in my river if they choose.1”
But the court refused to act, and the liberated
Africans remained.11
Two years later, in 1878, King Archibong was still
hoping to be rid of
them, and Consul Hopkins was describing them as ‘the
most meddle
some and dangerous people on the Coast’.12 The Foreign
Office agreed
with Hopkins, but was unwilling to withdraw protection
from them.13
By the end of that year there were only 26 free
Africans—a drop in
numbers from the 50 of 1864—because of the recent
troubles: 9 were
from Sierra Leone, 13 from Accra, and one each from
Lagos, Mon
rovia, St. Kitts, and Fernando Po. Eight were
carpenters, 4 tailors, 3
blacksmiths, 3 clerks, 2 traders, a butcher, a
teacher, a sempstress,
a cook-steward, a servant, and one ‘washing and
sewing’, all of whom
had arrived in the previous eleven years.1'1
Seven years later, in 1885, their numbers had
increased to 48, of
which 24 were from Sierra Leone, 13 from Accra, 7 from
Lagos, and 4
from the West Indies. Five of them owned slaves,
making 10 slaves in
all.15 This slave-holding had long been a cause of
Efik opposition,
for they had held slaves as early as 1864,1Gand in
1876 Prince Thomas
Eyamba had reclaimed a girl one of them had bought and
was seeking
8 Archibong III per P. Eyamba to Hartley, 8 Oct. 1875,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1
vol. 4.
’ Jas. A. Croker to ?, 5 July 1876 Calprof Ibadan 4/1
vol. 5. James Africanus
Croker to Hewett, 20 July 1876, Inc. in Hewett to
McKellar, 13 Sept. 1876,
Calprof Ibadan 4/1 vol. 5.
10 Archibong III to Court of Equity, 10 Oct. 1876,
Calprof Ibadan, 3/2.
II J. B. Walker, Chairman, to Court of Equity, 10 Oct.
1876, Calprof Ibadan,
3/2.
12 Hopkins to Foreign Secretary, 28 Aug. 1878, No. 29,
FO84/1508.
13 F.O. internal memo re Hopkins, No. 29, FO84/1508.
11 List of British Subjects resident at Old Calabar
(internal evidence gives date
Nov.-Dec. 1878) Calprof Ibadan 4/1, vol. 5.
“ Act. Con. White to Granville, 9 Feb. 1885, Africa,
No. 13, FO84/1701.
Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
109
emancipation papers for.17 The Chiefs feared that the
purchase of
slaves by free Africans, who then sought emancipation
papers for
the people they bought, would lead to slaves being
removed from
Efik control as when the Mission emancipated refugees.
Vice-Consul
White therefore tried to prohibit free Africans from
redeeming
slaves,18 but was overruled by the Foreign Office.19
So it was that the Efik fought a losing battle against
the influx of
British-protected Africans. Like the emancipated
Mission servants,
they revealed to maltreated Efik slaves that they
might escape ill use
by seeking British protection. Moreover, these free
Africans were
another group resident in Calabar for whom the British
government
owned responsibility, and therefore represented an
extension of
British influence into Calabar affairs. After the
establishment of
full British protection in 1891, the numbers of such
people living in
Calabar, but not under Efik rule, increased rapidly.20
5. The European traders
Apart from the Qua and Efut communities which were
peripheral
to the evolution of Efik social and political life,
the last important
group at Calabar were the European traders, with their
crews and
hands. These men were independent of Efik society.
Each ship was a
self-governing unit, with European officers and a
mixed crew of
Europeans and Africans. Their relationship with the
Efik was purely
commercial, although in the twenties and late
seventies several
joined Ekpe in order to facilitate the collection of
debts.21 While cask
houses were rented on shore,22 the Europeans and their
men lived
aboard ship or hulk.
At the height of the oil season in the fifties, there
would be several
hundred Europeans in Calabar, officers and men, but
with the decline
of the oil trade in 1862, and its consequent
reorganization to the hulk
system, the numbers dropped to a maximum of about
three hundred.23
By 1874, when the hulk system was completely
established, with
17 Van dcr Grypc to McKellar, 6 Sept. 1876, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 5.
18 Act. Con. White to Granville, 1 Feb. 1885, Africa,
No. 8, FO84/1701.
10 F.O. internal memo, re White to Granville, 1 Feb.
1885, Africa No. 8,
FO84/1701.
20 Goldie, Calabar, pp. 353-4.
21 Holman, p. 392. Chapter 5, pp. 80-1.
22 James Badgley, Report on the old Calabar River, in
Owen to Croker, 21
Feb. 1828, CO82/1.
23 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
110
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
resident agents aided by hands who were usually
Krumen, the
numbers of Europeans resident in Old Calabar were
few.24
In 1857 Mr. Inglis and Mr. Smith, when they arrived to
ship oil
on the mail steamers, tried to live on shore. Unable
to find local
accommodation, they were allowed to stay at the
Mission, until the
captains protested.25 Then they obtained permission
from the King
to build their own house, well away from the
Mission.26 But many
local people opposed this move in a great meeting
called to discuss
the situation:
All the mischief [they said] arose from the
missionaries living on shore.
They lived too long, and showed others how to live
long also; and soon
they would see all the white people living on shore,
and more would come,
till they would be too many. Before time white people
lived all on ship
board; and while they lived in their ships the country
was safe. They used
to get sick and die soon, and were afraid to stay one
year in the river. Now
they won’t die; the missionaries teach them to live
long; so they stop in
Calabar two or three years, and fill two or three
ships before they go back
to England.27
Hence they pressed that the Mission be sent home, and
the captains
be kept to their ships.28 While the Mission was
allowed to stay, the
general antipathy to the traders settling on shore led
them to choose
instead to live on hulks from the early sixties.29
Indeed, Consul
Livingstone was one of the first Europeans to live
ashore, when he
transferred the Consulate to Calabar in 1872-3,
although he lived at
one of the Mission houses.30 At about the same time
Capt. J. B.
Walker established two schools and an experimental
farm.31 In
1874 he sought permission from the King to build a
house inside his
cask house. Louch, another trader, had already built a
house, but had
to pay an extortionate rent, and the King demanded a
similar rent
21 Marwick, p. 530, cit. Anderson’s Annual Report for
1874.
25 Supercargoes to Hutchinson, 25 July 1857, Inc. 1 in
Hutchinson to Claren
don, 31 Aug. 1857, ST 50, F084/1030. Waddell to
Hutchinson, 7 Aug. 1857,
Inc. 4, in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 31 Aug. 1857, ST
50, F084/1030. Waddell,
Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 609-10.
26 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 611-12.
27 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 612.
28 Ibid.
23 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
30 Livingstone to Granville, 19 Oct. 1871, FO84/1343.
F.O. to Livingstone,
2 Feb. 1872, FO84/1356. F.O. to Hartley, 21 Aug. 1873,
No. 3, FO84/1377.
Hartley to Granville, 17 Jan. 1874, FO84/1401.
31 Marwick, p. 509, cit. Anderson’s Annual Report for
1872, and p. 529, cit.
Anderson’s Journal, 21 Apr. 1874. Whitford, p. 297.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK SOCIAL HISTORY
111
from Walker.32 These high rents were presumably
designed to dis
courage traders from dwelling ashore, and in 1881 they
were still
living in hulks.33 Although the Efik refused to agree
to the Article in
the Protection Treaty of 1884 allowing foreigners to
have factories
and houses wherever they wished,31 the agents did
begin to live ashore
soon afterwards, for they were addressing letters from
their ‘factories’
in 1885.35 By 1891 the African Association owned a
property known
as Fort Stewart, which contained a dwelling house.30
With the estab
lishment of the Consular administration of the 1890s,
the Europeans
finally established themselves on shore, and hulks
became a thing of
the past.37
So the European traders themselves remained isolated
from Efik
society until after 1891. The Efik had always
recognized that they
were a potential threat to Efik society, and
consequently were always
determined to prevent them establishing themselves on
shore. Their
direct impact on Efik society was negligible.
Thus the development of the oil trade did not of
itself alter the
structure of Efik society which had been established
in response to
the demands of the slave trade, because both trades
were similarly
organized. But the wards did expand as the profits of
the oil trade
were converted into self-maintaining agricultural
slaves, potential
warriors. Duke ward expanded most, a reflection of
Great Duke
Ephraim’s enormous wealth. There were, however,
modifications
within the structure of Efik society, as the
agricultural slaves de
manded more humane treatment, and the great trading-
slaves were
allowed to enter the oligarchy of ‘gentlemen’. Besides
these internal
pressures, there were external pressures, as British-
protected Africans
established themselves, both Mission emancipadoes, and
free Afri
cans, from other coastal towns. Ultimately a crisis
developed, as the
oligarchy began to repress those slaves who had
pretended to high
status. They in turn demanded British protection, the
effectiveness of
32 Walker to Hartley, 28 Sept. 1874, Calprof Ibadan
4/1 vol. 3.
33 Harford, ‘Pioneering’, p. 585.
31 Treaty with Kings and Chiefs of Old Calabar, 10
Sept. 1884, Inc. 16 in No.
13, p. 27, FO403/47.
33 White to White, Palm Factory, 16 Apr. 1885, Calprof
Ibadan, 3/1. Lyon to
Court of Equity, Hope Factory, 30 Nov. 1885, Calprof
Ibadan, 3/2.
30 Major MacDonald to African Association, 8 Dec.
1891, Inc. 3 in No. 117B,
80D, FO403/171.
37 P.P. 1893-4 (655), Ixii, General Correspondence,
Africa, No. 11, Corre
spondence respecting the Affairs of the West Coast of
Africa, No. 1, Sir C.
MacDonald to the Earl of Rosebery, 12 Jan. 1893.
Goldie, Calabar, pp. 351-4.
112
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
which they had observed in relation to the
emancipadoes and free
Africans. In this way the internal and external forces
united in a
political demand for British rule.
All these changes stemmed from the trade connection
with the
West. If there had been no oil trade, there would have
been no agri
cultural slaves or great trading-slaves. Nor would
there have been a
Mission, or free Africans, or British merchants and
Consuls. But it
is not true that the change from the slave trade to
the oil trade precipi
tated social change by creating new groups based upon
the oil trade
which challenged those who had been based upon the
slave trade.
Such changes may have occurred in hinterland
producing-areas, as
A. G. Hopkins suggest happened in Yorubaland.38 But
they did not
occur in Old Calabar, an entrepot which merely dealt
in both
commodities.
38 A. G. Hopkins, ‘Economic Imperialism in West
Africa, Lagos, 1880-1892’,
E.H.R. 2nd Ser. vol. 21, no. 3 (Dec. 1968), p. 586-92.
CHAPTER 7
The Oil Trade and Efik Political History
There are two main areas of interest in Efik political
history from
the beginning of the palm-oil trade to the
establishment of British
rule; first, Old Calabar’s domestic political history,
and secondly, the
history of Anglo-Efik relations. This chapter will
discuss both aspects.

1. Inter-ward political rivalry

In Chapter 4 it was shown that Efik domestic politics
were prim
arily concerned with the competition between the wards
for the three
major political offices, the <?Z>ong-ship, Eyamia-
ship, and Ebunkoship. It was the triumph of the new
wards, Eyamba ward, Duke ward,
and Eyo ward, that they gained control of these
offices during the
eighteenth century. Yet while the Ebiinko-sh\p
remained unchallenged
in Eyo ward during the nineteenth century, serious
inter-ward rivalry
continued for the other offices.
Two customs played an important part in resolving
inter-ward
conflict for offices. The first of these was the
massacring of many of
an important man’s slaves on his death.1 This weakened
the power
of the deceased’s family, which prevented them
replacing him with
another candidate. Hence it was a crude political
mechanism which
tended to ensure that offices circulated among the
wards. The second,
and more important, was the esere poison-bean ordeal,
which
was believed to kill those drinking it who practised
witchcraft.2 Its
political significance lay in the fact that when a
leading man died, his
friends and enemies would accuse each other of having
used witch
craft to procure his death. Thus the various ward
leaders had to
submit to the ordeal, from which many died and were
eliminated
from the succession dispute.3 In this way successions
were decided
without inter-ward warfare, and it was not until the
late 1870s when
1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 293-5, 336-8. Duke,
‘Diary’, p. 50, 6 and
8 Nov. 1786.
2 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 279.
3 Ibid., pp. 279, 497-8. Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 47, 10, 11,
18, and 19 July 1786,
p. 57, 15 Junc 1787.
H4
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
these customs were abandoned that succession disputes
became
insoluble.
Eyamba ward and Duke ward had together monopolized the
Obong-sh'vp during the eighteenth century, and when
Egbo Young
Ofiong secured the jE)wi&a-ship late in the century,
this office also
fell into their hands. Egbo Young Ofiong of Eyamba
ward was the first
Chart 8
Political Divisions of Old Calabar c.1850
Creek Town
Cobham
Old Town
Duke Town
Duke
Cobham
Henshaw
Archibong
Eyamba
Ntiero
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 115
man to be Obong and Eyamba,' and on his death both
offices passed
to Great Duke Ephraim, the rival head of Duke ward.
Under his
influence Duke ward expanded very rapidly in the early
nineteenth
century, as the Duke capitalized on his position as
Obong, Eyamba,
sole gatherer of comey, and virtual monopolist of
external trade?
But on his death in 1834 the Eyamba ward and their
allies conspired
to use both available political mechanisms to break
the power of Duke
ward. Innumerable slaves were killed,0 and of the
fifty people who
had to submit to the poison ordeal, over forty died,
leaving Duke
ward almost bereft of potential political candidates.7
Consequently
the Eyamba candidate, Edem Ekpenyong, son of Egbo
Young
Ofiong,8 took office as Eyamba V,9 both Obong and
Eyamba.'0
However the accession of King Eyamba V did not mean
that Duke
ward was permanently crippled. Although Great Duke’s
own family
had been nearly wiped out in the succession dispute,
there were still
freemen in other families of the ward who could
present themselves
as candidates at a later date. And the economic power
of Duke ward
continued, for the slaves who had been Duke Ephraim’s
managers
carried on trading. This undermined King Eyamba’s
position, for
prestige demanded that he present as good a display,
and distribute
as much largess, as his predecessor. But whereas the
Duke had the
vast wealth accumulating from his trade to draw upon,
King Eyamba
did not, for he was an inadequate business man and
could not com
pete with the Duke ward slaves. Thus his expenditure
outstripped his
resources,11 and he was imprisoned on board one of the
ships for
debt,12 dying soon afterwards on 14 May 1847,13 in
effect an un
discharged bankrupt.11
King Eyo II of Creek Town also contributed to Eyamba
V’s
misfortune by capturing a large share of the external
trade. Father
Tom (Efiok Eyo) had become head of Eyo ward on the
death of Eyo I
4 Eyainba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37 , Chapter 4, p.
45-6.
5 Chapter 4, p. 47-8.
6 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 497.
’ Ibid., p. 279.
8 Genealogy of Eyamba title-holders in Eyamba Ward, p.
116.
0 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 311.
10 Eyatnba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37.
11 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 243, 311. Gooch to
Jones, 14 July 1845,
FO84/612.
13 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 274.
13 Ibid., p. 336. Hope to Hotham, 3 Dec. 1847, in
Hotham to Admiralty,
24 Jan. 1848, FO84/746.
UPCMR 2 (Nov. 1847), 185, cit. Edgerley’s Journal.
14 Anderson to Hartley, 25 Sept. 1875, Calprof Ibadan,
4/1 vol. 4.
i
t
s
I
1
116
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
in 1820,16 while Eyo Eyo, his younger brother,
concentrated on
trading,16 with the goodwill of Duke Ephraim for whom
he had
worked as a boy.17 As Eyo Eyo grew wealthy, Father Tom
allowed
Chart 9
Genealogy o/Eyamba Title-Holders in Eyamba Ward
Ekpenyong Offiong (111)
Edcm Ekpenyong (V)
Efiom Edcm (VII)
James Eyamba (X)
Nticro Ekpenyong (V!)
Efiom John Eyamba(XI)
Adam John Eyamb;’a (XII) Efcfiom John Eyamba (XIII)
EfTa John Eyamba
(XIV)
Source: Etubom Etta John Eyamba, 8 Feb. 1966.
ccording to Etubom Eyamba, Great Duke was made Eyamba
IV,
Because he was a nephew of Eyamba III, and Edem
Ekpenyong was still a
minor. Edem Archibong, Eyamba VIII, and Orok Edcm,
Eyamba IX,
cre allowed by Eyamba Ward to be Eyamba as a special
concession. Sec
Eyamba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37.
reign “Wki3™ himself Obong of Creek Town early in
Eyamba’s
spokesma 'Z ^at*ler T°m continued to be Ebunko,w Eyo
II was now
directly yXh* f°re’8n affairs for Creek Town, and
could negotiate
King Eva * h t'le ^uroPeans for comey and trust,
circumventing
authority to p ’ W110 was unable to suppress this
repudiation of his
slaves in th
cons°hdated his position, employing thousands of
not to grow °t trade’ anc) settling other slaves on
farms in the bush,
the farms w * ’ °Ut t0 gain commanti of the trade
routes on which
policy until hre Strate8‘cahy placed. He continued
this settlement
“Wadd
*S deatb>21 converting surplus wealth into potential
18I50S1 Genralog° ofc'’ V0L 7’ p' 671 6 Jan'
18S0'Ibid" vo1' 10, p’ 361 13 Jan'
vo1; 7. P-'sT^’s’j’an36^11 3’8. WaddehTAwaV-Wne Years,
p. 414, and Journal,
=» m-j’’ »-’&7e'"y'N‘"e Years< PP- 3H-13.

!,!bS::pppp3i>-3.
63(2°n3^6’ 604~S. Captain J. B. Walker, F.R.G.S., 9
Mar. 1875,
WaddJnforc 'hc SeU .1876)1 521 pp- 1849 (3O8)1 xix
(,)1 Mil>utes of Evidence
Waddell.
Select Committee on the Slave Trade, QQ 431, Revd. H.
M.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY
117
warriors to support his ambitions, just as Duke
Ephraim had done in
Akpabuyo.
Chart 10
Genealogy of Creek Town Obongs
Eyo Nsa (Eyo 1)
Okoho
Ibok (Eyo VI)
Eyo (Eyo II)
Aye (Evo V)
I
Eyo Ete (Eyo III)
Nsa Okoho (Eyo VII)
Source: Hart Report, pp. 125-31, paras. 281-90, Tables
G, H, etc.
Efiok (Eyo IV)
The death of Eyamba V in 1847 created a succession
problem. The
elimination of many Duke-ward freemen in the 1834
succession
pogrom left only one obvious candidate from that ward,
Duke
Ephraim (Ededem or Edem Odo),22 a brother of Great
Duke
Ephraim,23 but an impoverished alcoholic.24 Eyamba
ward’s candi
date was Mr. Young, but he was also poor and an
inadequate
businessman,23 sharing the financial ruin of Eyamba
ward brought
on by King Eyamba. King Eyo II was a possible
candidate, being
highly regarded by the British, and extremely
wealthy.20 But the
Obong was finally selected by Lieutenant Selwyn of the
Royal Navy,
who on the advice of the missionaries, supercargoes,
and masters,
rejected Eyo because his only claim was wealth, and
chose instead
Archibong Duke, of the Archibong family of Duke
ward.2’ He was
the outside candidate, being young and
inexperienced,28 but he was a
wealthy and successful trader,29 a cousin of Great
Duke,30 and a
nephew and son-in-law of Eyamba V.31
12 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 392-3. Hart Report
pp. 71-2, para. 192.
23 Genealogy of Elik Obongs, p. 44.
24 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 392-3.
22 Ibid.
23 Hope to Hotham, 3 Dec. 1847, in Hotham to
Admiralty, 24 Jan. 1848,
FO84/746. Murray to Hotham, 24 Mar. 1848, in Hotham to
Admiralty, 3 May
1848, in Ward to Eddisbury, 21 July 1848, FO84/748.
27 Selwyn to Fanshawe, 1 June 1849, in Admiralty to
Eddisbury, 23 Nov. 1849,
FO84/785.
22 UPCMR 5 (Jan. 1850), 8, cit. Waddell's Journal, 22
Apr. 1849.
22 Marwick, pp. 215-16, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 28
May 1849.
20 Genealogy of Efik Obongs, p. 44.
31 Waddeli, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 337.
118
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Selwyn’s selection and crowning32 of Archibong has
been seen as
an act of foreign interference,33 yet the fact that
Archibong was
acceptable to the Efik shows that Selwyn’s choice was
sympathetic to
local opinion. However, while a British officer might
choose the
Obong, whose responsibilities were largely concerned
with foreign
relations, he could have no influence over the
selection of the Eyamba,
essentially a secret office. So Archibong did not
become Eyamba,31
and for the next twenty-five years the two offices
were held by separ
ate people.
Mr. Young had the strongest claim to the EyamZ>a-ship
as brother
of the late Eyamba,35 and, despite his poverty, had
great influence
as Archibong’s chief minister.30 Yet the Eyam&a-ship
lay vacant for
some years, as two entries in Anderson’s recently
rediscovered journal
show. On 31 January 1851, he wrote ‘Evidently big
palaver in market
place between Duke Town gentlemen and plantation
slaves’. And
next day, ‘Great day in town—Mr. Young was made Eyamba
or
keeper of all the Egbo’s’.37
However, despite Anderson’s entries, Mr. Young did not
become
Eyamba.33 Previously it has been believed that the
slaves who filled
the town on 31 January were in revolt.39 But they were
Duke-ward
slaves, and the fact that Mr. Young was made Eyamba
the day after
their arrival, suggests that they had been summoned by
Archibong to
prevent Mr. Young assuming the Eyamba-ship. Rumours of
some
such political motive were widespread at the time,
although it was
hidden from the Europeans.10 In the face of the massed
slaves, Mr.
Young must have withdrawn his candidacy. Poverty was
the reason
for his lack of resistance and he was imprisoned on a
ship for debt
that October.11 Because the Duke-ward slaves were
prepared to back
Archibong, the impoverished and less numerous members
of Eyamba
ward could not promote their candidate successfully.
All they could
33 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 392-3.
33 Hart Report, pp. 71-2, para. 192.
31 Eyantba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37.
33 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 393. Genealogy of
Eyantba title-holders
in Eyamba ward, p. 116.
31 Ibid. Marwick, pp. 215-16, cit. Anderson’s Journal,
28 May 1849.
37 Anderson’s Journal, 31 Jan. 1851-1 Feb. 1851.
38 Eyantba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37.
33 Chapter 6, p. 94.
40 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 62, 5 Feb. 1851.
Beecroft to Palmerston, 4 Mar.
1851, FO84/858.
41 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 484.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 119
do was to prevent anyone else becoming Eyamba. It was
political
stalemate.
About a year later Archibong died, at noon on 4
February 1852.12
This re-opened the question of the succession to both
the Ofcong-ship
and the Eyamfia-ship. Almost immediately Mr. Young
began to sign
himself ‘Eyamba VI’.43 But again the Duke-ward slaves
were
summoned to town, by the late King’s mother, who
offered them
100,000 coppers if they would force the Eyamba leaders
to submit to
the poison ordeal.41 In this way Duke ward hoped to
smash the
Eyambas in revenge for the decimation of Duke ward
freemen in
1834.45 The two wards confronted each other in the
market place,
many on both sides dying from the ordeal as accusation
and counter
accusation were made. But when Mr. Young was
eventually
challenged, he deferred his turn to the next day, and
fled during the
night to Creek Town, where his brother Antera joined
him.40 King
Eyo came down from Creek Town to smooth matters
over,47 but
Mr. Young’s prestige had been so greatly damaged by
his flight that
Duke Ephraim of Duke ward was made Obong, although a
drunk
ard.48 Nevertheless the Eyambas continued to block the
selection of
an Eyamba, and the office remained vacant until after
Mr. Young’s
death on 11 February 1855.49 Then at last the problem
was solved,
and by 1856 Mr. Young’s brother Antera (Ntiero
Ekpenyong Ofiong)
had been made Eyamba VI.50
Duke Ephraim’s accession had been a bitter blow to
King Eyo’s
ambitions.51 Eyo’s mediation in the ordeal crisis
marks the height of
his political influence, for afterwards he was dogged
by bad luck which
eroded his position. A fortnight after intervening at
Duke Town, he
lost £8,000-10,000 worth of trade goods in a fire,52
and had to start
42 Anderson, Journal, 4 Feb. 1852.
43 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 497.
44 Marwick, p. 260, cit. Anderson. Anderson, Journal,
6 and 10 Feb. 1852.
45 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 497.
40 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 497-8. Anderson’s
Journal, 7 Feb. 1852.
47 Anderson’s Journal, 9 Feb. 1852.
48 Beccroft to Malmesbury, 30 June 1852, FO84/886.
42 Marwick, p. 313, cit. Anderson, 28 Mar. 1855.
80 Eyamba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37. Duke Town
Chiefs to Hutchinson.
26 Aug. 1856, Inc. 4 in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 23
Sept. 1856, No. 115, FO84/
1001. James Haddison, King Duke Ephraim, and Anteiro
Young Eyamba to
Hutchinson, 15 Sept. 1856, Inc. 8 in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, loc. cit. Hutchin
son to Malmesbury, 2 Mar. 1859, ST 8, FO84/1087.
51 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 414, and Journal,
vol. 7, p. 67, 6 Jan. 1850.
52 Anderson, Journal, 27 Feb. 1852. Waddell, Twenty-
Nine Years, pp. 499-502.
120
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
almost afresh to build up his wealth.63 Although
previously he had
the largest share of the external trade,61 his
position now began to
decline, and to fight this he turned increasingly to
sharp practice.
In 1854 he refused payment on his newly imported
house,66 and in
1855, with credit received from the supercargoes, he
began to buy
oil, which he then shipped to England on the mail
steamers.66 The
following year his two most important trading agents
died, one being
his representative at Ikpa market.67 Consequently his
influence at this
vital market declined, and in 1857 he ordered his
people to burn the
factory of Bassey Henshaw Duke, a wealthy Duke-ward
slave who
was depriving him of business.68 Matters were made
worse for Eyo
by the continuing Umon-Akunakuna war which prevented
640-720
tons o oil reaching Calabar each year.69 Against this
background he
1Pa nr jSt despera,e attempt to restore his fortunes,
by chartering
■ 6 a' a,out from Liverpool, in 1857 and 1858, which
he loaded
™'e ’ate y whilst still deeply in debt to the
supercargoes of the
had "dr Con3panies-M Nevertheless his share of the
river’s oil trade
1858 r™i<PC ro™
Per cent ’n 1852, to about 25 per cent in
one last ch'S
Epbra’m’s death on 11 August 1858 63 gave Eyo
four monthsT"2 °f becomin8 Obong but ironically he
died suddenly,
his death61 d
°n 3 December.66 A fire in his premises soon after
and thereafter^
bnaI b,ow t0 Eyo wards P°*’tlcaI ambitions,
The success'ionTV0''''’ 8 imPortance declined rapidly.
although Anter Y° K1"S Dul<c EPhraim was solved fairly
easily, for
old to press h^ , ?n8ofEyamba ward was still Eya/nba,
he was too
ward, brother Of A3"’?.t0 be Obo"g-r‘!' So John
Archibong of Duke
61 Goidir /- , , Archibong I, was chosen without any
mass killings
“Treaty oF?±e’P?60“ Waddell, Tw„,.a"d Comm«ce, 17 Apr.
1852, Calprof Ibadan 5/7.

*• Cha4’tand P' 54’2 Jan Ysss*'

579‘ Waddc"’ Journal- voL 10’ p- 431 22
“ Bassey Hcn'hawnn'r " Wadd=”. Journal, vol. 11, p.
78, 9 July 1856.
C „r6ndon> 20 Fcb 18S7 o-i? Hutchinson, 31 Jan. 1857,
Inc. 4 in Hutchinson to
don 3nPtC'?arS«6 to Hute? 8' F°84/1O3O.
r° Ju y 1856» No QiCtHSOn’ 30 Junc 1856,Inc- 1 in
Hutchinson to Clarcn’jjchinson to
Clarendn» \.O84/1001. Chiefs to Hutchinson, (undated),
Inc. 1 in
“ Hutehhs5' P' 61
Feb- *857’ ST 12’ FO84/103°-
-as.wiiehewn’o Hbta Feb. 1SSF, !..< I ,n
HulehlBHutchinson to Ma|Fcb- <«c) 1859, ST 4,
FO84/1087.
"■■mesbury, 2 Mar. 1859, ST 8, FO84/1087.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY
121
or poison orgies. The amicable nature of the
succession was marked
by the fact that Antera Young, the Eyamba, crowned the
new Obong
in August 1859.°' However this acceptance of Archibong
II by the
Eyamba ward may simply represent their recognition of
their own
weakness. The last reference to Antera Young is in
I860,07 and he
probably died soon afterwards. But Archibong did not
become
Eyamba, and a son of Eyamba V, Efiom Edem Ekpenyong,
was made
Eyamba VII.08 Virtually nothing is known of this man
except a vague
reference in 1864.69
Although Archibong was Obong, considerable power
actually lay
in the hands of the wealthy Duke-ward slaves who were
so influential
in council and Ekpe from the middle fifties. The great
slaves had
increased their share of the external trade as King
Eyo’s fortunes
declined, but the ward leaders continued to be poor,
as is evidenced
by the fact that Adam Archibong, the Obong’s brother,
was imprisoned
on board ship for debt in 1859.70 So men like Bassey
Henshaw, Black
Davis, and Yellow Duke were now important figures
behind the
scenes, Yellow Duke for example being King Archibong’s
creditor.71
Nevertheless, their support gave Archibong
considerable power,
and one of the more notable political events of his
reign was his
deprivation of one of King Eyamba V’s sons of his Ekpe
privileges,
an action which Eyamba ward was powerless to
prevent.72 The ward
agricultural slaves also continued to support
Archibong, and when
he fell sick in May 1871, came to town to seek out and
kill the King’s
enemies who it was believed were making him sick with
witchcraft,
although the missionaries persuaded Archibong to send
them away
again.73 The Obong died on 25 or 26 August 1872.’4
If the 1860s were a period of comparative political
stability and
economic strength at Duke Town, Creek Town by contrast
virtually
disintegrated in the aftermath of the collapse of King
Eyo’s political
ambitions. His numerous slaves had united under the
blood oath on
00 Marwick, pp. 376-8, cit. Anderson, 30 Aug. 1859.
07 Ibid., p. 386, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 8 Nov.
1860.
08 Genealogy of Eyamba title-holders in Eyamba Ward,
p. 116. Eyamba title
holders in Ekpe, p. 37.
C9 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
70 Supercargoes to Hutchinson, 1 Mar. 1859, Inc. 1 in
Hutchinson to Malmes
bury, 21 Mar. 1859, ST 12, FO84/1087.
71 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
72 Marwick, p. 407, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 12 Sept.
1864.
73 Ibid., pp. 486-91, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 30 May-
6 June 1871.
74 Ibid., p. 505, cit. Anderson, 28 Aug. 1872.
122
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
his death,’5 and would only accept Eyo’s son, Young
Eyo, as master
by dint of much persuasion.” As Eyo III,” Young Eyo
could not
cope with the problems confronting him, and took to
drink.78 The
second Christian convert in Calabar,70 though long
since ex
communicated,80 he bled to death when a syphilitic
ulcer burst81 on
12 May 1861 ,sa The slaves filled the town and hanged
Egbo Eyo, one
of Eyo H’s brothers, and Inyang Eyo, Young Eyo's half-
sister, on
suspicion of killing the King with witchcraft.83
Although Father
Tom, Eyo Il’s eldest brother, was made Eyo IV in
1862,8,1 the slaves
would not accept him as master and chose instead Eyo
Okon, a slave
and close friend of Young Eyo, as their head.85 The
town population
dispersed amongst the farms,80 and so greatly had
Creek Town’s
trade declined that her share of the comey was reduced
this same
year.87 By 1864 Creek Town was being boycotted by the
Europeans
because she owed oil to 20 ships.88 As Eyo Okon was
the real power
in Creek Town, Eyo IV was ineffectual,80 and he died
on 22 March
1865.°° During the brief interregnum, Duke Town made a
peace
settlement with Enyong without consulting Creek Town,
a gesture of
contempt for Creek Town’s weakness.01 Aye or John Eyo,
another
of Eyo H’s brothers'was crowned Eyo V in 1865,02 and
restored some
degree of amity in relations with Duke Town.03 He died
on 11 June
1868, and was succeeded by Ibok or Doctor Eyo, another
of Eyo Il’s
76 Goldie, Calabar, pp. 197-201. Waddell, Twenty-Nine
Years, pp. 643-4.
UPCMR 14 (Mar. 1859), 48-50, cit. Goldie’s Journal, 18
Dec. 1858.
70 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 644.
77 Hutchinson to Malmesbury, 2 Mar. 1859, ST 7,
FO84/1087.
78 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 644-5, 647-9.
78 Marwick, p. 286.
80 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 574.
« UPCMR 16 (Aug. 1861), 150. Burton to Russell, 15
Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
82 UPCMR 16 (Aug. 1861), 149.
82 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, pp. 650-1. Goldie,
Calabar, pp. 209-13, cit.
Mr. Timson.
81 Burton to Russell, 22 May 1862, No. 16, FO84/1176.
88 Goldie, Eyo VII, p. 15.
82 UPCMR 17 (1 Sept. 1862), 166, cit. Goldie, 27 June
1862.
87 Laughland to Russell, 21 Jan. 1861, ST 3,
FO84/1147. Agreement of Trade
and Commerce, 5 May 1862, Inc. 4 in Burton to Russell,
22 May 1862, No. 16,
FO84/1176.
88 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
87 Goldie, Calabar, pp. 216-18.
UPCMR 20 (1 July 1865), 135.
81 Ibid. 20 (1 Nov. 1865), 204-5, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 17 May 1865, and 23
May 1865.
72 Ibid. 20 (1 Nov. 1865), pp. 205-6, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 9 June 1865.
72 Ibid., n.s. 1 (May 1867), cit. Goldie’s Journal, 19
Nov 1866.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 123
brothers, as Eyo VI.91 Creek Town’s economic decay
continued,95
and in 1870 Archibong was threatening war against
Eyo,90 but before
this could break out Eyo died on 25 June 1871.9’ He
was the last of
Eyo I’s sons to survive, and so his death marks the
end of an era in
Creek Town’s history.
2. Political disintegration
Up to 1872, Efik politics had been concerned with the
struggle
between the wards for the offices of Obong and Eyamba.
This man
oeuvring took place within the basic political
mechanism of the state.
Even when Eyo ward declared their leader Obongof
CreekTown, they
continued to recognize the Eyamba, and the Ndem. But
after the
deaths of Eyo VI in 1871 and Archibong II in 1872, a
noticeable
degree of political disintegration took place, as both
wards and
individuals appealed more and more to external powers
against the
traditional authorities, and as some sections of Efik
society sought to
opt out of Calabar entirely.
The licensing of the first Efik minister, Esien Esien
Ukpabio, in
January 1871 was symbolic of the change overcoming the
political
scene in Old Calabar.98 For a whole new generation of
political
leaders was about to move into positions of influence.
These men
had been children when the Mission arrived in 1846,
and had all
been brought up, to some degree, under its influence.
It was they who
were to tear Calabar apart.
But at first there appeared to be greater harmony at
the centre of
Efik political life than had obtained since King
Eyamba V’s day.
Adam Archibong, Archibong III, was made both Obong and
Eyamba,
the first man to hold both offices since 1847, and
only the second
member of Duke ward ever to hold the office.99 This
was only
possible with the agreement of Prince James Eyamba,
leader of
’* Ibid., N.S. 2 (Sept. 1868), 170-1, cit. S. H.
Edgerley. Wilson to Foreign
Secretary, 23 Feb. 1869, No. 8, FO84/I308.
05 Livingstone to Stanley, 28 Dec. 1867, No. 38,
FO84/1277. Livingstone to
Clarendon, 3 Dec. 1869, No. 36, FO84/1308. Ibid. 10
June 1870, FO84/1326 (no
number).
30 Goldie, Calabar, pp. 230-2. UPCMR n.s. 3 (1 May
1871), 480, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 7 Nov. 1870.
07 UPCMR n.s. 3 (1 Nov. 1871), 672, cit. Anderson’s
Journal, 28 June 1871.
38 Marwick, p. 501.
33 Eyamba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37. Marwick, pp.
510-11, cit. Anderson,
25 Mar. 1873, and p. 577, cit. Archibong III Eyamba
VIII to Anderson, 15 June
1877.
124
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Eyamba ward, an old Mission scholar who was
Archibong’s chief
advisor.1 But as Archibong was old and blind,2 Prince
James had
considerable influence and was virtually the power
behind the
throne.3 The Eyamba ward was re-emerging as a
political force
from the doldrums in which it had languished in the
sixties.
However the closer alliance of the two major wards at
Duke Town
did not mean that the other wards were content. Indeed
the members
of Henshaw ward were provoked by this change in ward
alliance to
seek complete political independence by declaring
their own Obong,
and attempting to leave Calabar. Although the Henshaws
were the
rump of Efiom Ekpo lineage, from which Ntiero ward,
Eyamba
ward, and Duke ward had separated, the latter two
wards had long
since overshadowed them. The Henshaws had not had a
successful
Obong-ship candidate for about two centuries, and
since the 1820s
had been denied a share of the comey? But their final
humiliation
came when the Ndem shrine was rebuilt on 23 June 1867?
As they
were the senior family, it was traditionally the
Henshaws’ task to
erect the pillars at the front of the shrine. But the
people of Duke
Town came early in the morning and put up the pillars,
thereby
claiming seniority. Insulted, the Henshaws, many of
whom were
living in Duke Town, decided to re-establish
themselves at their old
village nearby? Archibong II sanctioned the rebuilding
of the village,
and by February 1871 work was well under way.’
By introducing Christian-inspired reforms into their
new village,
the Henshaws cleverly obtained the interest and
support of the
Mission and Consul? Encouraged, they then decided to
create
their own Obong, despite the contrary advice of the
Mission and
agents? King Henshaw III was crowned on Christmas Day,
1872,10
1 Marwick, p. 507, cit. Anderson.
2 Ibid., p. 505, cit. Anderson, 28 Aug. 1872.
3 Prince Eyamba to Chairman and Court of Equity, 2
Mar. 1874, Caiprof
Ibadan 3/2.
* Duke, ‘Diary’, p. 46, 23 June 1786. p. 62, 25 Oct.
1787. Bold, p. 77. Sec also
Chapter 4 p. 44.
6 UPCMR N.s. 1 (Oct. 1867), 407, cit. Anderson’s
Journal, 23 June 1867.
• Chief Joseph Henshaw, 10 Dec. 1965.
’ Marwick, p. 481, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 17 Feb.
1871.
8 Ibid., p. 484, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 30 Mar.
1871. UPCMR n.s. 3 (1 Nov.
1871), 672, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 28 June 1871.
8 Henshaw Chiefs to Act. Con. Hopkins, 16 Feb. 1871,
Caiprof Ibadan 4/1
vol. 2. Marwick, p. 481, cit. Anderson’s Journal, 17
Feb. 1871, and p. 483, cit.
Anderson’s Journal, Il Mar. 1871.
10 Ibid., pp. 507-8, cit. Anderson’s Annual Report for
1872. Livingstone to
Granville, 20 Jan. 1873, No. 16, FO84/1377.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 125
but although the Consul had been invited to the
ceremony he did
not attend.11 Archibong and Prince James Eyamba and
the Duke
Town Chiefs were determined to squash this unilateral
declaration
of independence, and Prince James with great
diplomatic skill united
the agents and Ekpe members against the Henshaws.12 In
retaliation
the Henshaws exploited their good relations with the
Consul by
seeking his help, and offering to put themselves under
his protec
tion.13 Fearing another situation like the Bonny-Opobo
war, the
Consul intervened, and having received an assurance
from Archibong
that the Henshaws would be allowed to govern
themselves un
molested, persuaded them to hand over their crown.11
They were
fined three hundred boxes of brass rods by the King
and the crown
was burned in Duke Town market.15
By 1874, King Archibong was an invalid,15 and Prince
James
Eyamba began to use the King’s name to pursue his own
policies.17
Friction between Duke Town and Henshaw Town had
continued
since 1873, and in 1875 Archibong used Ekpe to ban the
Henshaws
from trading in salt. In retaliation they seized
Prince Duke (Orok
Edem) of Duke ward.18 Eyo VII of Creek Town secured
his release,
but Duke Town demanded Chief James Henshaw be handed
over
to them for punishment. This was refused, and on 7
September
1875 war broke out between Duke Town and the Henshaws.
About
a couple of dozen people were killed, mostly Henshaws,
and that
evening Chief Henshaw escaped to a hulk. The agents
acted as gobetweens, and it was agreed that Chief
Henshaw be handed over to
Duke Town, and Henshaw Town evacuated and put to the
sack.19
11 Adam Archibong to Consul, 17 and 24 Dec. 1872. Inc.
1 and 2, in Living
stone to Granville, 20 Jan. 1873, No. 16, FO84/1377.
King Henshaw III and
Chiefs to Livingstone, (undated) (Jan. 1873), Inc. 3
in Livingstone to Granville,
20 Jan. 1873, No. 16, FO84/1377.
15 Adam Archibong to Livingstone, 24 Dec. 1872, Inc. 2
in Livingstone to
Granville, 20 Jan. 1873, No. 16, FO84/1377. Marwick,
pp. 507-8, cit. Anderson’s
Annual Report for 1872.
13 King Henshaw III and Chiefs to Livingstone,
(undated) (Jan. 1873), Inc. 3
in Livingstone to Granville, 20 Jan. 1873, No. 16,
FO84/1377.
“ Livingstone to Granville, 20 Jan. 1873, No. 16,
FO84/1377.
10 Black Davis House Book, 15 Jan. 1872 [s/'c].
13 Pro. Archibong King Regent, to Court of Equity, 8
May 1874, Calprof
Ibadan 3/2.
17 Prince Eyamba to Court of Equity, 2 Mar. 1874,
Calprof Ibadan, 3/2.
13 Statement of Henshaw Town, 20 Aug. 1878, paras. 6-
12. Calprof Ibadan 4/1
vol. 6.
13 Marwick, pp. 534-8, cit. Anderson to Revd. John
Law, John Chisholm, etc.,
14 Sept. 1875.
126
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Again the Consul intervened, and the Henshaws were
allowed to
return to their village after swearing allegiance to
King Archibong,
and being guaranteed the same rights as the freemen of
Duke
Town.20
But the Henshaws were not satisfied with this
settlement, and in
1876 they petitioned Lord Derby for an independent
enquiry,21
although they subsequently withdrew this demand.22 In
1877
Joseph Henshaw, the second Henshaw Chief, complained
of Duke
Town oppression,23 and went to Fernando Po to seek the
Consul’s
help.21 And in December the same year the Henshaws
again petitioned
Lord Derby.25 Consequently Consul Hopkins made an
enquiry, and
discovered that the Henshaws had been excluded from
Ekpe, which
prevented them knowing of new laws which they were
punished for
breaking. Moreover, their trade had been ruined
because Archibong
had prohibited the purchase of oil in quantities less
than a puncheon
which they could no longer afford because of the war.
Hence they
wanted to leave Calabar for the Rio del Rey or Qua
Ibo, and live
under British protection.20 Fearing that the Henshaws
might inter
fere with Jaja of Opobo’s markets, or traditional Efik
markets, if they
left Calabar,27 Hopkins persuaded them to come to
terms with Duke
Town. The Henshaws were to recognize Archibong as
Obong, and to
obey him on all matters not contrary to Christian
conscience. In
return, Chief Henshaw was to have a place on the
council, and Duke
Town was not to interfere in Henshaw Town, besides
which all
restrictions on trade were removed.28
The Henshaws had shown considerable diplomatic skill
in obtain
ing this settlement, having courted ever since 1871
the favour of the
20 Henshaw Town-Duke Town Agreement, 28 Sept. 1875, in
Hartley to Derby,
30 Oct. 1875, No. 46, FO84/1418.
21 Petition of Henshaw Chiefs to Earl of Derby, 18
Feb. 1876, in McKellar to
Foreign Secretary, 29 Feb. 1876, No. 11, FO84/1455.
22 J. Henshaw to McKellar, (undated) (Mar. 1876),
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 5.
22 Joseph Henshaw to Senior Naval Officer in Command
of the West Coast of
Africa, 18 Nov. 1877, Calprof Ibadan, 4/3 vol. 2.
21 Statement of Henshaw Town, 20 Aug. 1878, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 6,
para. 19.
22 Statement of Henshaw Town, 20 Aug. 1878, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 6.
20 Statement of Henshaw Town, 20 Aug. 1878, paras. 17-
21, and conclusion,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 6.
27 Hopkins to Foreign Secretary, 6 Sept. 1878, No. 33,
FO84/1508.
28 Agreement between Henshaw Town and Duke Town, 6
Sept. 1878, in
Hopkins to Foreign Secretary, 6 Sept. 1878, No. 33,
FO84/1508. Trade Agree
ment, 6 Sept. 1878, in Hopkins to Foreign Secretary, 6
Sept. 1878, No. 33,
FO84/1508.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY
127
Mission and Consul to bring British influence to
support them
against the powerful caucus of Duke ward and Eyamba
ward acting
in concert. To ingratiate himself with both Mission
and Consul,
Chief Henshaw had even been baptised in March 1878.2®
Yet not all
the Henshaws were satisfied with the settlement, and
Joseph Hen
shaw, an extremely enterprising trader, decided there
was no future
for himself in Calabar, and moved to Oron on the other
side of the
river.30 There he introduced cocoa, the first cash
crop to be grown
on the Cross River, which he had seen growing at
Fernando Po on
his visit there in 1877.31 In conjunction with George
Watts, who had
long associated with the Henshaws, and may have been
their political
advisor,32 he attempted to open the Qua Ibo area for
palm produce,
in order to have an economic base independent of
Calabar. This
attempt was thwarted by Jaja of Opobo.
While in Calabar to make this enquiry, the Consul
crowned
Adam Archibong as Archibong III, even though he had
actually
been Obong since Archibong Il’s death six years
earlier.33 But
Archibong did not long survive his coronation, and
died on the
night of 5-6 May 1879.31 His death marked a turning-
point in Efik
history.
During Archibong Ill’s reign, Creek Town had been torn
by in
ternal dissension which only hastened its economic and
political
decline. Eyo Vi’s death in 1871 had provoked a
succession dispute.
Whereas since Eyo Ill’s death the line of succession
had been clear,
passing to each of Eyo I’s surviving sons in turn,35
now an entirely
new line of succession had to be established. At first
there was com
parative stability, because Eyo Okon, the slave who
was the real
power in Creek Town since Eyo Ill’s death, continued
to hold sway.
But after his death on 3 June 1873, serious
disturbances ensued.30
However, on 25 February 1874, Nsa Okoho, known as
Henshaw
29 Waddcl, Mrs. Sutherland, p. 121, Obong Henshaw to
Mrs. Sutherland,
16 Mar. 1878.
2n Henry Cobham of Calabar v. Idiok Une, of Uyaron,
Oron, in Calabar
Divisional Court, 1937, supplied by Chief Efana Daniel
Henshaw, 21 Dec. 1965.
31 R. E. Dennct, ‘Agricultural Progress in Nigeria’,
African Affairs, Journal of
the African Society, 18 (July 1919), 280. Chief
Michael Henshaw, 18 Nov. 1965.
Chief Joseph Henshaw, 6 Dec. 1965.
32 Adam Archibong to Livingstone, 24 Dec. 1872, Inc. 2
in Livingstone to
Granville, 20 Jan. 1873, No. 16, FO84/1377.
33 Marwick, p. 566, cit. Anderson’s Annual Report, for
1878.
31 Ibid., p. 567, cit. Anderson, 8 May 1879.
35 Genealogy of Creek Town Obongs, p. 117.
30 Goldie, Calabar, p. 237.
128
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Tom Foster, was made King Eyo VII.37 He was a grandson
of Eyo I
through his mother, Okoho.38 However the Ambo ward
would not
accept him as Obong,m and in June 1875 he was forced
to flee to the
Cobham-ward section of Duke Town, with the intention
of starting
a new settlement on the other side of the river.40
The cause of the turmoil went back to Eyo I, who had
been
honoured with free status, and a princess as a wife,
by the Ambos.
In disgust, many Cobhams, members of the other ward at
Creek
Town, moved to Duke Town. Eyo II was the son of this
Ambo
princess, and was consequently acceptable as Obong to
the Ambos,
but not to the Cobhams, many more of whom left for
Duke Town
at the time of his elevation. Eyo III had been
acceptable to the
Ambos because he was the grandson of their princess.
Eyo IV, Eyo V,
and Eyo VI were insignificant figures, real power
lying in the hands
of Eyo Okon, so that their lack of connection to the
Ambos was not
important. But Eyo VII was descended from a Cobham
princess who
had been a wife of Eyo I. The Ambos feared that their
arch-rivals the
Cobhams would use their influence with the new Obong
against Ambo
interests, and therefore were adamantly opposed to
him.41 Eventu
ally, however, the matter was settled and Eyo returned
to Creek
Town.42
The death of Archibong III in 1879 created a situation
at Duke
Town similar to that which had arisen in Creek Town on
the death
of Eyo VI. Archibong was the last of the generation of
Great Duke
Ephraim’s contemporaries, and after his death the
principle of
succession for a new generation had to be decided
upon. There was
no longer a generally recognized series of venerable
old men, whose
order of succession could be determined by their order
of seniority.
Since the accession of King Duke Ephraim in 1852 there
had been
no serious succession dispute, as there had been no
serious rivals to
the candidates for the Ohong-ship. Now, however, a
three-cornered
dispute broke out.43 The Eyamba ward candidate was
Prince James
37 Hart Report, pp. 101-2, para. 245. Hartley to
Granville, 20 Mar. 1874, No. 7,
FO84/1401.
38 Genealogy of Creek Town Obongs, p. 117.
33 UPCMR n.s. 5 (1 Feb. 1875), 369, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 29 Sept. 1874.
Ambo Chiefs to Hartley, 6 Oct. 1874, Calprof Ibadan,
4/1 vol. 3. UPCMR N.s.
5 (1 May 1875), 463, cit. Goldie’s Journal, 17 Nov.
1874.
"■Goldie, Calabar, p. 241. UPCMR N.S. 5 (1 Nov. 1875),
649, cit. Goldie's
Journal, 7 July 1875.
31 Hart Report, pp. 129-30, paras. 287-8 .
43 Goldie, Calabar, p. 241.
43 Hewett to Granville, 17 Feb. 1882, ST 5, FO84/1617.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 129
Eyamba, son of King Eyamba V.44 Duke ward provided two
candi
dates, Prince Duke (Orok Edem), son of King Duke
Ephraim,15 and
Prince Archibong III (Archibong Edem), son of King
Archibong
III."5 The latter represented the Archibong section of
Duke ward,
and signified that there was internal dissension in
Duke ward.
The situation was complicated by the fact that the
traditional
mechanisms for resolving succession disputes had been
abolished—
funeral sacrifices in 1850, and the crucial poison-
ordeal only the
year before, in 1878.'” Moreover Prince James Eyamba
was a leading
Christian, being an elder of the church and
superintendent of Sunday
schools, and was in any case opposed to these
traditional mechan
isms.48 As a result, only negotiation or war could
solve the succession,
and as negotiation failed, disorder broke out.
In an attempt to bring an end to the chaos, Acting
Consul Easton
crowned Prince Duke as King Prince Duke Ephraim Eyamba
IX, in
March 1880.4’ He was both Obong and Eyamba." But this
foisting
of a King upon the Chiefs and people did not satisfy
them, and dis
content continued.51 So Consul Hewett asked the Chiefs
to assemble
and elect a King of their own choice.52
The re-opening of the dispute gave Prince Duke’s
rivals time to
organize their campaigns. Most diplomatically skilful
was Prince
James Eyamba. While chief advisor of Archibong III, he
had used his
diplomatic ability to pursue the joint interests of
Duke ward and
Eyamba ward, but now he directed his energies against
Duke ward.
This was the traditional Eyamba ward position in Efik
politics. As
Archibong’s chief minister he had witnessed at first
hand the effective
ness of the Henshaws in courting the good favour of
the Mission and
Consul, in order to obtain British support for their
policies. And he
had also seen how effective British protection had
been, in preventing
the re-enslavement of Mission emancipadoes, and the
ejection of free
44 Genealogy of Eyamba title-holders in Eyamba Ward,
p. 116. Anderson to
Hartley, 9 Oct. 1875, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1, vol. 4.
45 Genealogy of Efik Obongs, p. 44.
4“ Chief Ephraim Duke, 9 Dec. 1965.
47 Agreement, in Hopkins to Foreign Secretary, 6 Sept.
1878, No. 33. FO84/
1508.
48 Marwick, p. 577, cit. Anderson to Chisholm, 25 Mar.
1881.
40 Easton to Foreign Secretary, 23 Apr. 1880, No. 30,
FO84/1569.
00 List of Eyamba title-holders in Ekpe, p. 37.
81 Hewett to Granville, 16 Aug. 1880, No. 23,
FO84/1569.
63 Foreign Office to Hewett, 19 Oct. 1880, No. 22,
FO84/1569. Hewett to
Granville, 17 Feb. 1882, ST 5, FO84/1617.
130
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
Africans. So he determined to woo British support for
his claim to
the throne.
. . .
In seeking British support, he stressed his active
Christianity as a
justification for his elevation, contrasting himself
with the super
stitious and licentious Prince Duke. He wrote to the
Foreign Office
three times during 1880-1 on these lines, and
threatened that if
Prince Duke remained King, the Eyambas would seek
British
protection, and leave Calabar to live somewhere else,
governed by
the Christian principles enshrined in the 1878
agreement abolishing
human sacrifices.53 He also supported the request for
British protec
tion made by the slave Peter King Cameroons, an elder
of the church
who was being oppressed.54 And he inspired a publicity
campaign,
which stressed his piety, in the African Times™ in
support of his
candidacy.
If Prince James hoped that the Mission would use its
influence to
support him because he was such an important church
member, he
was to be sadly disappointed. The Revd. Anderson, who
had been
the Duke Town missionary for many years, would not
take sides in
the succession dispute.50 However, Mr. Ross, a
relative newcomer,57
who had been on explorations with Prince Eyamba,58
supported his
claims, and denounced Anderson’s toleration of
barbarous customs,
and his apparent support for the unconverted Prince
Duke.59 Such
was the rancour between the two missionaries, that an
independent
enquiry was set up to adjudicate between them. As a
result Mr. Ross
was ordered home without delay, and Mr. Anderson was
reproached.
Ross refused to go home, and instead resigned from the
Church on
Christmas Day, 1881. Prince James Eyamba and his ward,
together
Prince James Eyamba V etc. to Foreign Office, 24 June
1881, FO84/1612.
!“•> ™July 18811 FO84/1612. Hewett to Granville, 17
Feb. 1882, ST 5, FO84/
1617. (The letter of 1880 is missing.)
“Petition of Prince James Eyamba V on behalf of Peter
King Cameroons and
lamtiy of Duke Town to Earl Granville, 20 Sept. 1881,
FO84/1612.
tssti
J ?cl' 18811 p- H6, cit. Amindi Africanus to Editor,
24 Aug.
, 1
2
18821 P- 8, cit. F. C. T. Wanabo to Editor, 9 Oct.
1881. Ibid.,
June 1882, p. 68 cit. Ami Ndi Africanus to Editor, 24
Mar. 1882.
Marwick p 579, cit. Anderson to Chisholm, 25 Mar.
1881.
" Ibid., p. 541, cit. Dr. MacGill c. 1875.
KsJ?dd'i1'ofa' Sutherland, pp. 122-3. Paul Langhans,
‘Vergessene Reisen in
1877^mS’i,«t?'1Dn dCS Missionaro Alexander Ross, von
Alt-Kalabar nach Efut
“
Gcosraphische Mitteilungen, 48 (1902), 73.
Minuti 1497 of F M r
Sectary F.M.C., 28 Aug. 1879, considered in
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 131
with the Henshaws, withdrew from the Mission with Mr.
Ross,
Prince Eyamba giving his new house to Mr. Ross, and
the Henshaws
building him a church.60 That the Eyambas and the
Henshaws acted
together on this issue reveals that Prince James had
gained the co
operation of the Henshaws against the more powerful
Duke ward.
Their joint withdrawal from the Mission on this
political issue
demonstrates the political motivation behind their
membership.
While Prince James Eyamba pursued an intelligent and
construc
tive campaign for the OZtozzg-ship, Prince Archibong
pursued a
bloody-minded and destructive policy. He committed a
series of
violent acts to show he was beyond all authority,
early in 1881 cap
turing some men from Cobham Town, and in November
seizing
some of the Henshaw Chiefs. Both incidents nearly
precipitated war
with the wards concerned.61 In October the same year
he imported
the first Gatling gun to be seen at Old Calabar,
together with 5,000
cartridges.02
In August 1882 Hewett summoned the Chiefs to elect a
King for
him to crown, and notwithstanding their previous
objections, Prince
Duke was chosen, and crowned on 8 August.60 However,
as there
was discontent when he was made King earlier, the re-
affirmation of
his position only guaranteed that discontent would
continue. If the
vast power of Duke ward was sufficient to achieve
Prince Duke’s
accession, it could not prevent the disappointed wards
from acting
against him as Obong. Indeed, the situation in Calabar
deteriorated.
Again it was Eyamba ward which most cleverly worked
against
King Duke. Now that their chance of the Ofiozzg-ship
and Eyambaship was lost, they changed their policy
from seeking British support
for their claim to the throne, to seeking British
annexation of Cala
bar. A flurry of letters was sent to the Foreign
Office from Eyamba
ward in 1883, complaining of the barbarities of Prince
Duke, and the
murderous and violent acts of Prince Archibong, which
were con
trary to the 1878 treaty on inhuman practices, and
asking openly for
British annexation as the only remedy.61 But the
Eyambas were not
60 African Times, 1 June 1882, p. 68, cit. Ami Ndi
Africanus to Editor, 24 Mar.
1882. UPCMR N.S. 2 (1 Apr. 1882), 92. Marwick, p. 581,
cit. Anderson to Chis
holm, 31 Dec. 1881.
« Hewett to Granville, 16 Feb. 1882, ST 2, FO84/1617.
Ibid. 27 July 1882,
ST 11, FO84/1617. George Watts to ?, 6 Feb. 1882,
Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 9.
68 African Times, 2 Jan. 1882, p. 8, cit. F. C. T.
Wanabo to Editor, 9 Oct. 1881.
Hewett to Granville, 14 Aug. 1882, ST 12, FO84/1617.
« Hewett to Foreign Office, 19 Oct. 1883, FO84/1634
(this cites three letters
which are now missing). Thomas S. Fuller to Granville,
27 Sept. 1883, FO84/
K
132
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
merely being spiteful in demanding annexation, for
there was a
genuine need for law and order, and the Eyambas
themselves had a
real need for protection. It was not that they were
necessarily com
mitted to humanitarian reform in the face of barbarous
authorities,
for they forced someone to submit to them as a vassal
in November
1883.05 Their fears for their own safety were
justified by an attack
upon them by Prince Archibong during the same month,
in which
one of their people was killed, and two dozen
imprisoned. A fullscale war threatened, the Eyambas
fearing an attack by Duke ward,
and the Archibong sub-section of Duke ward.60
So it must have seemed a triumph to the Eyambas when
Consul
Hewett arrived in the river in July 1884 to negotiate
a preliminary
protection treaty. King Eyo VII signed on 23 July, and
King Duke IX
the following day,07 and in September a more
comprehensive treaty
was signed.03 However the main purpose of British
protection was to
prevent the interference of other foreign powers,
although disputes
between the Kings and Chiefs were to be adjudicated by
the Consul.09
But the fact that the Consul was now arbitrator
between the Chiefs
only exacerbated the political disintegration, as now
aggrieved ward
leaders appealed to the Consul and Foreign Office
against the King,
completely undermining what little authority he still
retained.70
By 1 January 1885 war, which threatened to envelop the
town,71
had broken out at the farms between Duke ward and its
Archibong
sub-section. The fundamental cause of the acrimony was
Prince
Archibong’s disappointment in the O&ong-ship dispute.
Acting
Consul White brought the two sides to terms, and
banned the import
of arms.72 Later the same year more complaints were
made to the
Consul on behalf of Eyamba ward, about Prince
Archibong and
1655. E. John Eyamba to Granville, 27 Sept. 1883,
FO84/1655. Ibid. 30 Sept.
1883, FO84/1655.
5 Abyah Young to Chairman of Court of Equity, 24 Nov.
1883, Calprof Iba
dan, 3/2.
"Prince Eyamba V to Court of Equity, 12 Nov. 1883,
Calprof Ibadan 3/2.
H.^Hartjc, to Court of Equity for their comments, 12
Nov. 1883, Calprof Ibadan
" £raisie t0 Brooke, 26 July 1884, Inc. 5 in No. 22,
pp. 18-20, FO403/32.
Hewett to Granville, 24 Sept. 1884, No. 28, FO84/1660.
Ibid. 24 Sept. 1884,
°;’3> P- 9' FO403/47.
treaty with Kings and Chiefs of Old Calabar, 10 Sept.
1884, Inc. 16 in No.
13;.pP-2,7-8.FO403/47.
n A'.' Whitc. etc. to Salisbury, 9 Oct. 1885, No. 133,
pp. 187-8, FO403/71.
‘ ™.cc Eyamba V to Munro, 1 Jan. 1885, Calprof Ibadan,
3/2.
White to Granville, 21 Jan. 1885, No. 4, FO84/1701.
Acting Consul’s
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 133
King Duke.73 Although Consul Hewett intervened in
March 1886,74
and Vice-Consul Johnston in November, the situation at
Calabar
was deteriorating rapidly. Again war had broken out
between Duke
ward and the Archibongs, as a result of which the
Archibongs were
leaving Calabar to settle in the Rio del Rey, where
they were already
provoking further trouble.75 This exodus marks the
establishment
of the Archibongs as an independent ward from Duke
ward, as they
are to this day.
Clearly the degree of British intervention permitted
under the
Treaty of Protection was insufficient to bring order
to Calabar, and
those who had sought British annexation began in 1887
to seek a
complete and thorough establishment of British rule.
Again the
Eyambas led the way, now backed by the Cobhams and
Yellow
Duke.70 While the Foreign Office was reluctantly
coming to the
conclusion that further intervention was necessary,
the situation at
Calabar descended into even more violent disorder in
1889-90, as
King Duke struggled to re-establish his authority by a
brutal show of
Ekpe force. But this was Ekpe's last fling, for in
1890 Consul Annesley
prohibited the use of Ekpe except to enforce his own
decisions.77
Thus the instrument of Efik government passed under
British control.
In September the same year Annesley made himself
President of the
Native Court, because of the squabbling of the Efik
officers, and he
set up a governing council.78 In August 1891,
MacDonald, Her
Majesty’s Commissioner and Consul General, arrived to
administer
the Government of the Oil Rivers, and tariffs were
imposed to pay
for the administration.79 Calabar was no longer an
independent state.
Decision Re the Recent disturbances in Old Calabar,
(undated) (April, 1885),
Calprof Ibadan 5/8, vol. 2.
73 Thomas to H. G. White, 28 July 1885, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1, vol. 10. Un
signed letter from Eyamba Town, 17 Aug. 1885, Calprof
Ibadan, 4/1, vol. 10.
Thomas to H. G. White, 15 Aug. 1885, Calprof Ibadan,
4/1, vol. 10. Ibid. 24 Nov.
1885, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1, vol. 10 (2 letters).
74 Goodrich to Grubbc, 30 Mar. 1886, Inc. in No. 69,
p. 65, FO403/72.
75 Johnston to Consul, 22 Nov. 1886, Calprof Ibadan,
4/1, vol. 10.
70 Prince Efiom John Eyamba, etc. to Salisbury, 19
July 1887, FO84/1866.
George Jos Turner, Prince E. J. Eyamba, Fred C.
Thomas, Thomas Yellow
Duke, etc. to Salisbury, 25 Oct. 1887, No. 249, pp.
197-200, FO403/73.
77 Annesley to Foreign Secretary, 26 Feb. 1890, No.
12, F084/2020.
78 Anncslcy to Foreign Secretary, 2 Sept. 1890, No.
35, F084/2020.
70 MacDonald to Foreign Office, 11 June 1891, No. 30,
p. 17, FO403/I71. A
Proclamation imposing Customs Duties within the Oil
Rivers Protectorate, Inc. 1,
in No. 30, p. 17, FO403/17I. MacDonald to Foreign
Office, 8 Aug.1891,No.55,
pp. 33-7, FO403/171.
134
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
3. Anglo-Efik relations
Trade was the basis ofthe relationship between Britain
and Calabar.
To the Efik, British trade was vital, as their entire
state was based
upon the monopoly of the external commerce of the
Cross River
basin. To the British, Calabar was a comparatively
unimportant
primary producer, and a minor market for manufactured
goods. The
last thing which Britain wanted was to become involved
in Efik
politics, still less to assert political control. Yet
very gradually Britain
was drawn into Efik affairs, almost without being
aware of the fact.
During Great Duke Ephraim’s reign, Anglo-Efik
relations had
been amicable, as the Duke realized that his power was
dependent
upon his ability to maintain his credit-worthiness
with the British.
These good relations continued after his death, and in
1836 King
Eyamba V invited Beecroft to help him solve a palaver
which was
interrupting trade.80 Formal relations between the two
countries
were established with the signing of the anti-slavery
treaties of 1841.81
Indicative of future trends, additional articles
signed in 1842 gave
Britain the right to intervene with force if slave
trading revived.82
So greatly had British interests in the area expanded
by the middle
forties, with the growth of the oil trade, that King
Eyamba’s failure
to pay his British creditors led to suggestions, in
1844 and 1845, that
John Beecroft be made Consul to mediate in such
matters.83 Although
no Consul was appointed, Commanders of British
cruisers were
instructed they might intervene amicably in similar
circumstances.8*
But if Britain did not consider Calabar’s trade
sufficiently important
to warrant the appointment of a Consul, the French
viewed Calabar
more covetously. In 1847 a French steamer arrived to
persuade the
Efik to accept French protection.86 The Chiefs
refused, and instead
asked that Britain annex Calabar.80 Thomas B.
Horsfall, Chairman
"R- K- Oldfield, ‘A briet Account of an Ascent of the
Old Calabar River in
1836 , ZR.G.S. 7 (1837), 195-8.
7 Decl84? FO8 K'"B Eyamba and KinB Ey0>6 DeC'1841 ’in
Blount ,o Tucker,
ia«Addi,ional Articlcs. with King Eyamba V and King
Eyo Honesty, 30 Nov.
i> v ,?otc to Hcrbert, 12 Dec. 1842, FO84/495.
S t0 Barrow, 5 June 1844, FO84/549. Nicolls to
Canning, 2 Dec. 1844,
,,j(555-. Gooch to Jones, 14 July 1845, FO84/612.
,s h,an,n'nS to Admiralty, 21 Nov. 1845, FO84/607.
!849, F0g4'!z’7p’’e'"-,'‘iv'"c Tears, pp. 350-2.
Bcecroft to Palmerston, 16 July
and Gentlemen Traders to Hope, 30 Sept. 1847,
FO84/746.
FO84/746H°tham’ 3 DCC’ 1847’ InC' 1 in Hotham t0
Admira|ty. 24 Jan- 1848'
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 135
of the Liverpool African Association, eagerly pressed
Palmerston
to agree to the Efik request,8’ but Palmerston
adamantly refused to
entertain the idea,88 and turned it down.89 But the
matter did not rest
here, for in 1849 the Chiefs allowed Lieutenant Selwyn
to select and
crown King Archibong,99 who immediately requested a
flag from
Queen Victoria.91 This was interpreted as another
request for British
annexation,92 but again Palmerston rejected the
idea.93 Contrary to
Dike’s opinion, Palmerston clearly did not have
territorial ambitions
in the area.91 However, his basic interest in the
commerce of
the region is revealed by his making John Beecroft
Consul in
1849.95
The Consul’s job was to protect British subjects, and
promote their
commercial interests, but he had no authority over
them, or over the
Africans with whom they dealt.99 In normal
circumstances his only
weapon was his good offices, although in an emergency
he might
call a man-of-war.9’
But Beecroft was well known by the Calabar Chiefs, who
conse
quently did not object to his intervention in the
political crisis of
1851. If they hid from him the real motive behind the
slaves’invasion,
they signed the treaty he drew up confirming the
abolition of human
sacrifices, giving him the right to redress any
infringements.98 As in
1842, Britain was committed to intervention in Efik
affairs, to
uphold treaty obligations. Such was Beecroft’s
continued acceptance
87 Horsfall to Palmerston, 4 Dec. 1847, FO84/710.
88 Memorandum re M. Gibson Craig to Foreign Office, 6
Dec. 1847, signed
Palmerston, FO84/710.
87 Murray to Hotham, 24 Mar. 1848, Inc. 2 in Admiralty
to Foreign Office,
21 July 1848, FO84/748.
00 Selwyn to Fanshawe, 1 June 1849, in Admiralty to
Eddisbury, 23 Nov. 1849,
FO84/785.
01 King Archibong I and Mr. Young to Queen Victoria,
14 June 1849, in
Selwyn to Fanshawe, 10 Sept. 1849, Inc. 2 in Admiralty
to Foreign Office, 23
Nov. 1849, FO84/785.
02 Selwyn to Fanshawe, 10 Sept. 1849, Inc. 2 in
Admiralty to Foreign Office,
23 Nov. 1849, FO84/785.
83 Comment on Admiralty to Foreign Office, 23 Nov.
1849, signed Palmerston,
14 Dec. 1849, FO84/785.
81 Dike, pp. 95, 128. Robert Gavin, ‘Nigeria and Lord
Palmerston’, Ibadan, 12
(June 1961), 24-7.
95 Dike, p. 95.
88 D. C. M. Platt, ‘The Role of the British Consular
Service in Overseas Trade,
1825-1914’, E.H.R. 2nd Ser. 15 (1962-3), 494-5.
87 Hutchinson to Clarendon, 23 Sept. 1856, No. 115,
F084/1001.
88 Treaty with Slaves of Qua Plantations, 15 Feb.
1851, Inc. 10 in Beecroft to
Palmerston, 24 Feb. 1851, FO84/858.
136
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
by the Chiefs, that he supervised the election of
Archibong I’s
successor in 1852.”
The consequences of making treaties which bound
Britain to
intervention were soon apparent. In 1854 Chief Willy
Tom Robins of
Old Town died, and traditional funeral sacrifices took
place. This
appeared to Acting Consul Lynslager to be a breach of
the 1851
treaty abolishing human sacrifice, and after giving
King Eyo and
Duke Ephraim two days to hand over those responsible,
he ordered
the evacuation and destruction of the town.1 Lynslager
was not to
know that he was being used by the people of Duke Town
to crush
their ancient rivals who had not been party to the
1851 treaty, nor
was the Foreign Office, who accepted that compulsion
to enforce the
treaty was unavoidable.2 The moral of this episode was
that if Britain
wanted to avoid being embroiled in Efik internal
affairs, she should
avoid making treaties with the Chiefs which committed
her to
intervention. Yet on this very visit Lynslager made a
treaty with the
Kings to abolish the murder of twin babies.3 For the
Consul could
hardly avoid taking advantage of circumstances which
favoured such
humanitarian agreements, with the ever-watchful eyes
of the Mission
upon him. Fortunately, however, it was to be many
years before
Britain had to intervene again in such an affair.
Although the Consul was the protector of the British
traders in
his district, he had no authority over them. Thus he
was powerless
to control the situation in Calabar after 1854, when
bitter rivalry
broke out between the old trading companies using
sailing ships, and
the newcomers sending oil to Britain on the mail
steamers. Men were
assaulted, and oil was stolen. So the Foreign Office
decided that the
Consul’s powers must be strengthened, either by
drawing up com
mercial laws which would be enforced with the co-
operation of the
Kings, or by investing the Consul with magisterial
powers over the
British subjects in his area. Extending control over
the Africans was
not considered.'* It was decided eventually to give
the Consul magis
terial authority, and he was instructed to seek the
agreement of the
•• Bcccroft to Malmesbury, 30 June 1852, FO84/886.
1 P.P. 1856, Ixii, Africa (Consular)—Hight of Biafra,
Inc. 1 in No. 34,
I.ynslagcr’s Journal.
8 Memorandum ‘W to Clarendon, I Muy 1855, 1’084/975.
Clarendon to
Lynslagcr, 8 May 1855, I 084/975.
8 P.P. 1856, Ixll, Africa, (Consular) Bight of Biafra,
Inc. 27 in No.
34.
‘ Memorandum, signed ( ‘laieiidon, 17 Oct. 1856,
1’084/1001.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 137
Calabar Kings to this move.5 Hutchinson obtained their
agreement
in 1860, but the whole scheme was scotched by the
refusal of other
Chiefs in the Bights.0
So it was left to Consul Burton to put commerce in Old
Calabar on
a more regular footing by negotiating a new code of
by-laws in 1862,
which King Archibong would only sign under threat of
severe mea
sures.7 These permanently established a Court of
Equity, which
Hutchinson had unsuccessfully tried to set up in
1856.® The Court
handled commercial matters, and was made up of the
supercargoes or
agents, and the two Kings, the Consul having final
authority.9
Although the new laws stipulated free trade on the
Cross River,
Burton was prevented by the Efik from establishing
direct contact
with the markets.10
Livingstone, the next Consul, wanted to pursue a
forward policy
to open the Cross River, but the Foreign Office was
not interested,
and turned down his request that the Pioneer be
stationed in his
district.11 Nevertheless Livingstone did interfere in
Efik affairs, for,
in 1867, he fined King Archibong II for violating the
1851 treaty
abolishing human sacrifices, by killing some villagers
and sacrificing
two women.11 And in 1869 Acting Consul Wilson had to
fine Archi
bong again, this time for a breach of the 1862 trade
by-laws.13 Again
Britain had had to intervene in Calabar, in order to
uphold treaty
provisions.
Despite fining Archibong II, the Consul still had no
official power
over Africans or British.11 Thus Livingstone
complained how difficult
it was to settle squabbles between the agents, and
make and uphold
treaties with the Africans.15 The agents also pressed
that the Consul
3 Malmesbury to Hutchinson, 23 May 1859, ST 15,
FO84/1087.
» Hutchinson to Russell, 12 Feb. 1860, ST 8,
FO84/I117. Ibid. 28 May 1860, ST
24, FO84/1117.
’ Burton to Russell, 22 May 1862, No. 16, FO84/1176.
8 By-laws, in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 24 Sept. 1856,
F084/100I. Clarendon
to Hutchinson, 20 Dec. 1856, F084/1001.
8 Agreement, 5 May 1862, Inc. 4, in Burton to Russell,
22 May 1862, No. 16,
FO84/1176.
10 Burton to Russell, 22 May 1862, No. 16, FO84/1176.
Burton to Russell,
15 Apr. 1864, Private, FO84/1221.
11 Livingstone to Russell, 3 June 1865, FO84/1249.
13 Livingstone to Stanley, 26 Dec. 1867, No. 34,
FO84/1277.
13 Acting Consul Wilson to Foreign Secretary, 23 Feb.
1869, No. 8, FO84/I308.
11 Memorandum re Livingstone’s No. 35,1 Dec. 1869,
signed N.H.W., 18 Jan
1870. FO84/1308.
13 Memorandum (undated) signed Livingstone, FO84/1343.
138
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
should be invested with greater powers so that he
might intervene
more quickly in trade disputes with the Efik.10 The
Foreign Office
accepted that the Consul ought to have more
authority,1’ but it was
not until a legal decision established that the West
African Courts
of Equity had no legal powers that they decided to
act. At long last
magisterial authority was conferred upon the Consul.18
Now he
could fine, banish, or imprison British subjects who
broke the rules
or regulations which he might make for the good order
of the
district.10
Although Livingstone himself was recalled in 1873 on
the charit
able belief ‘that the Consul must be suffering in his
head’,20 the as
sumption of magisterial powers by the Consul marked an
important
advance in British involvement in Efik affairs. Now
two groups
living in Calabar, the Mission and their emancipadoes,
and the free
Africans, fell under the authority of the Consul. This
provoked a
conflict between the Obong and the Consul as to who
really had
authority over these people.
However, first the Consul was drawn into Efik affairs
on another
issue. The Henshaws sought his intervention in their
dispute with
Duke Town over the crowning of their own Obong, in
1872-3. And
when war broke out between the two towns in September
1875,
the Consul negotiated a settlement, fearing that
another BonnyOpobo situation might develop. His
interference in Efik politics was
a threat to the Obong’s authority, so Archibong tried
to eject from
Calabar the Mission emancipadoes and the free
Africans, who
claimed to be subject to the Consul alone. But the
Consul insisted
that these people remain, and his thwarting of
Archibong’s intentions
strengthened his image, in the eyes of local people,
as an alternative
power and protector.21
Consequently, discontented elements in Calabar began
to clamour
for British protection, which would make them subject
to the Consul
1871,ANont15°FO84/I34325 JU'y 187’’ InC' 2
Hopkins to Granville- 2 Au8'
s'snc'1 c- Vivian> 31 Aug- 1871, re Hopkins No. 15, 2
Aug.
lo/l, rO84/1343.
“ n'?' l° kivin8stone’ 11 0°t. 1871, FO84/1343.
. a CS rc ,RcEulations framed under Her Majesty’s
Order in Council of the
Anr ,7-,,° , ruary’ 1872> by Her Majesty’s Consul at
Old Calabar, dated 29
■-« Mkm’ln klvingstonc 10 Granville, 29 Apr. 1872,
FO84/1356.
1873, FO84/1"™ S'8ne<1 ’E’’ 27 J“'y’ 1873’ re
Livin8stone’s N°- 36> 10 Ju"0
” Chapter 6, p. 104-5, 107-8.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 139
and beyond the power of the Obong and his Chiefs. In
1877 James
Egbo Bassey sought protection for himself and his
people, and the
Henshaws sought protection for their proposed new
settlement.
As Hopkins informed the Foreign Office, it was useless
trying to
explain that the Consul’s job was only to watch over
the interests of
British subjects.22 Thus in 1878 Hopkins negotiated a
settlement
between Henshaw Town and Duke Town, and also a treaty
confirm
ing the abolition of the murder of twin babies, and of
human sacri
fices, and abolishing the poison ordeal.23 Like
earlier treaties, this was
soon to necessitate British intervention, as the
Foreign Office feared
at the time.21
As has been shown earlier, the death of Archibong III
precipitated
a vicious dispute about the succession. As the wards
tightened their
control over their members as the dispute deepened,
people who had
come to consider themselves free were subject to
attempts at re
enslavement. In retaliation, they clamoured for
British protection.
Simultaneously, the Eyambas protested that if Prince
Duke remained
King, they would ask for British protection and leave
Calabar.
However, when Prince Duke’s elevation was confirmed in
1882, the
Eyambas began to demand British annexation of Calabar,
arguing
that only this could remedy the constant evasions of
the 1878 treaty
on inhuman practices. By making the treaty the British
Government
had trapped itself into having to consider annexation.
Pressure on the British Government to establish
protection in the
Oil Rivers was great. As early as 1879, the Kings of
Cameroons had
sought to place themselves under British rule.25 And
in 1881, letters
in the African Times suggested that Old Calabar be
placed under
British protection for the benefit of those being
oppressed there.20
Consul Hewett strongly advocated that the territory
from Benin to
Cameroons be annexed, or the French would step in,27
arguing that
because of the chaos at Calabar, British protection
would be a
blessing.28 Since the French would impose
discriminatory tariffs, loss
22 Hopkins to Foreign Secretary, 28 Aug. 1878, No. 31,
FO84/1508.
53 Agreement, 6 Sept. 1878, in Hopkins to Foreign
Secretary, 6 Sept. 1878,
No. 33, FO84/1508.
24 Memorandum signed J.P., 28 Oct. 1878, re Hopkins,
No. 33, 1878, FO84/
1508.
23 Hewett to Granville, 14 Jan. 1882, No. 9, pp. 20-1,
FO403/18.
22 African Times, 1 Oct. 1881, p. 116, cit. Amindi
Africanus to Editor, 24 Aug.
1881.
27 Hewett to Granville, 14 Jan. 1882, No. 9, pp. 20-1,
FO403/18.
22 Ibid. 17 Feb. 1882, ST 5, FO84/1617.
140
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
of trade was the major consideration,20 as John Holt
pointed out.30
This fear was heightened by the re-establishment of
the French
protectorate at Porto Novo in 1883.31
Thus the Foreign Office came to the conclusion that if
Britain did
not heed the requests for protection from the
Cameroons and
Calabar Chiefs, they would offer themselves to the
French.32 Mr.
Goldie-Taubman, of the National Africa Company,
pressed for
action in September 1883, because of the presence of a
French gun
boat on the Niger,33 and as a French move seemed
imminent,31 the
matter was put to the Cabinet.33 Meanwhile more
requests for
British protection came from Calabar, on which Hewett
com
mented that, as British policy had unwittingly led the
people there to
rely too much on Britain, protection was now the
logical outcome.30
Old Calabar needed good government, and British trade
there was
large and increasing.37 By 22 December 1883, it had
been decided to
strengthen the Consular administration and make
treaties with the
Chiefs, with the effect that they were not to cede
their territories to
other foreign powers.38 Hewett was to return to his
post unosten
tatiously, and conclude the necessary treaties.30
However, the
financing of the scheme had not been decided, and the
Foreign
Office could not act unless the traders would bear the
cost of the
strengthened administration.10 On 27 February 1884,
although plans
were complete, and Hewett ready to go, and despite
increasing con30 Supplementary Remarks upon British
Trade upon the West Coast of Africa,
Wm. Tasker Nugent, 29 Apr. 1882, In No. 23*. pp. 29-
33, FO403/18.
" Holt to Granville, 11 Dec. 1882, No. 1, pp. 1-2,
FO403/19.
" Herbert to Lister, 12 May 1883, No. 11, pp. 11-12,
FO403/19. Lister to
Herbert, (Confidential), 22 May 1883, No. 14, pp. 15-
17, FO403/19.
31 Memorandum by Mr. Anderson on the French Occupation
of Porto Novo,
11 June 1883, No. 19, pp. 38-42, FO403/19. Hewett to
Granville, 11 June 1883,
No. 21, p. 44, FO403/19.
33 Goldie-Taubman to Lister, 26 Sept. 1883, No. 37, p.
54, F0403/20.
31 Lister to Bramston, 5 Oct. 1883, (Confidential),
No. 45, p. 58, F0403/20.
' Bramston to Lister, 5 Oct, 1883, No. 48, p. 59,
FO4D3/20. Lister to Bramston,
23 Oct. 1883, No. 61, p. 68, F0403/20. Lister to
Meade, 30 Oct. 1883, No. 62,
p. 69, F0403/20.
33 Hewett to Granville, 3 Nov. 1883, No. 19,
FO84/1634.
38 Suggestions’, Hewett to Foreign Office, 20 Nov.
1883, FO84/1634.
Memorandum by Mr. Lister respecting the Niger, Oil
Rivers, and Cameroons 22 Dec. 1883, No. 3, p. 3,
FO403/31.
„ "ndcrson ,t0 Sanderson, 15 Jan. 1884, Annex to No.
13, p. 14, FO403/31.
Memorandum by Mr. Anderson on the Consular Protection
and Jurisdiclion on the West Coast of Africa (Niger
and Oil River District), 25 Jan 1884,
F0403/31P' 151 FO',03/31' Granville to Aberdare, 6
Feb. 1884, No. 22, p. 20,
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 141
cern at French interest in the Niger,41 all was
deadlocked for want of
funds.42 The traders had refused to bear the cost, and
the Exchequer
was reluctant to pay.43
Late in April came news of a German mission departing
for West
Africa,44 and early in May news of French movements on
the Niger.45
At last the British government was spurred into
action, and although
the financial problem was still not resolved, Hewett
left for the coast
on 28 May.40 But the scheme was bungled because of the
delay over
finance, for when Hewett arrived in the Cameroons, he
found the
Germans there before him. However, he cut his losses
and concluded
treaties with the Kings at Calabar and the other Oil
Rivers ports.47
The motivation for British intervention in the Oil
Rivers has been
under discussion in recent years.48 However, trade was
the basic
consideration. Hewett’s letter of instruction stated
that intervention
was being undertaken because British trade was
increasing, making
it necessary to protect the lives and property of
British traders, and
to safeguard commerce from the ignorance, greed, and
weakness
of the local Chiefs.49 If this was imperialism, it was
unashamed
economic imperialism. The question of protection had
first been
brought to the attention of the Foreign Office by the
demands for
protection from the Cameroons and Calabar,
particularly the latter,
which were the consequence of the political
disintegration there.
So Britain was faced with the alternatives of acceding
to these
demands, or of seeing these people offer themselves to
the French
or Germans. As the French and Germans would have
imposed
discriminatory tariffs, British tracjp would have been
seriously
41 Granville to Abcrdare, 6 Feb. 1884, No. 21, with
enclosures, pp. 19-20,
FO403/31.
41 Memoranda by Mr. Anderson and Mr. Lister, No. 43,
pp. 33-5, FO403/31.
41 Ibid.
41 Ampthill to Granville, 23 Apr. 1884, No. 67*. p.
49, FO403/31. Thompson to
Lister, 2 May 1884, with enclosure, No. 69, p. 50,
F0403/3L
45 Secretary of the Admiralty to Lister, 3 May 1884,
with enclosure, No. 70,
pp. 51-2, FO403/31.
44 Lister to Secretary of the Admiralty, 15 May 1884,
No. 87, p. 57, FO403/31.
” Hewett to Granville, 25 Aug. 1884, No. 18,
FO84/1660. Ibid. 24 Sept. 1884,
No. 28, FO84/1660.
48 J. D. Hargreaves, Prelude to the Partition of West
Africa (London, 1963).
R. Robinson, J. Gallagher, and A. Denny, Africa and
the Victorians (London,
1961). M. E. Chamberlain, ‘Lord Aberdare and the Royal
Niger Company’,
The Welsh History Review, 3 (1966-7), 45-62. D. C. M.
Platt, ‘Economic
Factors in British Policy during the new
“Imperialism”, Past & Present, 39
(Apr. 1968), 120-38. Hopkins, pp. 580-606.
1
48 Lister to Hewett, 16 May 1884, No. 88, pp. 57-8,
FO403/31.
142
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
reduced, and hence intervention was essential. Yet if
there had
been no political vacuum in Old Calabar, there would
have been
no possibility of the people there offering themselves
to the French
or Germans, and therefore Britain’s trade would not
have been in
jeopardy, and Britain would not have intervened.
However, having
established protection, Britain did not introduce
discriminatory
tariffs against her rivals, although she had
intervened to prevent them
introducing such tariffs.50
As with the earlier treaties which Britain had made
with the Chiefs
of Old Calabar, the protection treaty created more
problems than it
solved. By laying down that the Consul should
adjudicate disputes
between the Chiefs, it made him the central figure in
Efik politics.
Yet although he had powers of adjudication, he had no
tools to
implement his decisions if the parties refused to
accept them.
These problems became apparent immediately. In January
1885,
the Acting Consul had to adjudicate about a war which
had broken
out between the Archibongs and Duke ward. And later
that year
more demands were made from Calabar for a complete
assertion of
British control, because of the atrocities which were
occurring. Hewett
commented that unless Britain established control to
suppress these
cruelties, it would appear that she supported them, or
was too weak
to prevent them.51 But the British traders at Calabar
did not want
further intervention, and instead, complained to
Salisbury that
Hewett was undermining King Duke’s authority by his
interference,
to the detriment of the safety of themselves and their
trade.52 In
1886, Hewett and Vice-Consul Johnston both had to
settle palavers
at Calabar, but the situation continued to
deteriorate. In 1887 the
Eyambas, backed by the Cobhams, and Yellow Duke,
begged
Salisbury to annex Calabar completely, with Hewett
eagerly sup
porting such a move.53
Further consolidation of power had been under
consideration at
the Foreign Office, where it had been hoped that the
Oil Rivers could
be brought under the Niger Company system. As this was
now
unlikely, some other self-financing system was sought,
as it would
Wk,Pr.inlad ,ctler’ White to Chairman of the Courts of
Equity, 27 Jan. 1885, in
"si n 0 Gjanvillc. 29 Jan. 1885, No. 5, Africa,
FO84/1701.
■ ■;e5’arks on letter of 29 June 1885, from British
subjects at Old Calabar,
6." T ucw'“- 4 S°P>-1885, FO84/1701.
„ nt,
■lte’ elc-,o Salisbttry, 9 Oct. 1885, No. 133, pp.
187-8, FO403/71.
ism 5crva,10ns on the Petition of Prince Efiom John
Eyamba, of 19 July
1887, Hewett to F.O., 15 Oct. 1887, FO84/1828.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY 143
benefit the merchants.51 Meanwhile Hewett continued to
press for
annexation.55
The ineffectiveness of the Consular administration was
growing
daily more obvious. In 1888 Vice-Consul Johnston had
to be re
strained from interfering too vigorously in local
affairs as Britain did
not yet administer the district.56 And Hewett fell out
with Johnston,
rescinding some notices he had issued.5’ Moreover, in
1889 a German
gunboat openly sailed up to Creek Town and seized King
Eyo, later
sailing away with hostages.58
At long last, more determined steps were taken to
improve the
administration, and in April 1889, Major MacDonald
discussed
schemes for the future administration of the district
with the Kings
and Chiefs.50 As a result he recommended that a strong
consular
administration be set up with an executive backed by
armed police
and a constabulary. If this was constitutionally
unacceptable, then
a Crown Colony should be established.60 But he did not
indicate
how the administration should be paid for, which was
thought by
the British government to be the primary
consideration. Sir Villiers
Lister overcame this problem by suggesting an import
duty,61 and
Johnston combined both men’s ideas in a long
memorandum in
August 1890, although he proposed that the head of the
adminis
tration be termed the High Commissioner.02 Now that
the financial
question was resolved, the decision was taken to go
ahead. Mac
Donald was made Commissioner and Consul General in
April 1891,60
and arrived in Calabar on 1 August 1891,61 the day
that the customs
duties were imposed.05 Old Calabar had passed under
British control.

51 Memoranda signed N.P.N., and I.V.J., 18 Oct. 1887,

FO84/1828. Lister to
Colonial Office, 2 Nov. 1887 (Confidential), No. 232,
p. 178, FO403/73.
85 Observations on Turner to Salisbury, 25 Oct. 1887,
Hewett to F.O., 16
Dec. 1887, FO84/1828.
60 F.O. to Act. Con. Johnston, 10 Feb. 1888, No. 3,
FO84/188I.
87 Hewett to Salisbury, 20 June 1888, No. 25,
FO84/1881. Memorandum re
Hewett to Salisbury, 20 June 1888, No. 25, signed
I.V.J., 1 Aug. 1888, FO84/1881.
08 Unwana Efik, no. 2, vol. iii (Feb. 1889), in Hewett
to Salisbury, No. 14,
18 Apr. 1889, FO84/1941.
08 MacDonald to Salisbury, No. II, 12 June 1889,
F084/1940.
80 Report by Major MacDonald of his visit as Her
Majesty’s Commissioner to
the Niger and Oil Rivers, March 1890, FO403/131, pp.
95-102.
61 Memorandum by Sir Villiers Lister, 1 July 1890,
FO403/134.
02 Memorandum by Consul Johnston on the Administration
of the Oil Rivers,
11 Aug. 1890, FO403/132.
03 Lister to Major MacDonald, 18 Apr. 1891, No. 2, pp.
1-3, FO403/187.
81 MacDonald to Foreign Office, 8 Aug. 1891, No. 55,
pp. 33-7, FO403/171.
80 Ibid., 11 June 1891, No. 30, p. 17, FO403/171.
144
THE ERA OF THE PALM-OIL TRADE
The London price of palm oil began to fall slowly in
level above £36, which it had mostly maintained from
the pri
revival of the mid-sixties, and by late 1882, prices
reached about
£32 to £33, their lowest point since the low of £32,
reache '
early sixties. Then they rose sharply to a peak of £45
in 1883, ir
which they declined again from mid-1884, breaking the
£30 level in
1885, and sinking below £24 until late 1888. Then they
rose a htt e o
fluctuate between £24 and £30, until late 1891 -G7
Although unres in
Calabar after 1879 originated in the domestic
political strugg e or
office, it may have been exacerbated by the fall in
prices. Dec inmg
prices would mean declining profits, making the Ohong-
ship an
Eyamba-shvp even more desirable because of the control
these posts
conferred over comey and commerce. However, during the
crucia
period of 1883-4, in which Britain decided to
establish protection,
prices were extremely good. These high prices did
bring the British
agents into association,08 for fear of competing each
others profits
away, but they did not seek intervention, and in 1885
actually com
plained that the Consul’s interference was undermining
King Duke s
authority, to the detriment of their trade. It was
only after the estab
lishment of British protection that prices plunged to
their all-time
low. This had serious repercussions in Calabar, for in
1888 Johnston
stopped the trade of twenty-three Efik traders who
were in debt to
the agents.09 Although King Duke was not involved,
more than half
the leading Efik traders were, including
(significantly) the King s
main opponents, Prince James Eyamba, Prince Archibong
III, and
Chief Henshaw in. Thus, coming on top of the original
political
crisis, the price-fall contributed to the continued
unrest which
determined the British to consolidate their authority.
So it was that Britain took control of Old Calabar
after nearly a
century of trying to avoid becoming embroiled in Efik
affairs.
Britain s only interest in Calabar was trade, and
Palmerston had
strictly avoided broadening these commercial interests
into political
•• Hopkins, pp. 596-9.
C»69 Chapter 5, p. 64-5.
for Palm Oil’ London. 1844-91, p. 70.
“ mrliRRRawd 13 Apr* 1888’ s’8ncd H‘ H- Johnston, in
Hewett to Salisbury,
20 June 1888, No. 25, FO84/1881.
THE OIL TRADE AND EFIK POLITICAL HISTORY
145
overlordship, even when directly invited to do so by
the Efik them
selves. Yet as the century wore on, each apparently
insignificant
treaty drew Britain deeper into Efik affairs, for if
the terms of the
treaty were broken the Consul had to intervene. At the
same time
groups of free Africans and emancipadoes were growing
up in Cala
bar, informally under British protection. Thus when
the Consul was
given magisterial powers he became in effect the ruler
of these groups
in Calabar, and therefore a rival to the Obong. Having
secured the
abolition of the poison ordeal in 1878, the Consul was
unwittingly
party to the political crisis which developed in 1879
over the suc
cession to Archibong HI. Since the dispute could not
be resolved by
the traditional ordeal, inter-ward warfare broke out,
against a back
ground of falling oil prices. When the new Obong was
finally selected
in 1882, the defeated Eyamba ward began to press for
annexation,
on the grounds that the 1878 treaty was being
transgressed, and
because they saw the Consul as a preferable
alternative to King Duke.
Their pressure coincided with the requests for
protection from those
almost-free men who were being re-enslaved, as the
wards tightened
their grip over their members, in response to the
threat of war.
Faced with these demands for protection, Britain
decided to inter
vene, lest those seeking protection should offer
themselves to the
French or Germans instead, an outcome which would have
severely
affected British trade. After protection, discontent
continued, since
the Consul’s interference undermined the King’s
authority without
replacing it, while oil prices hit the century’s
lowest point. Conse
quently, when a formula was discovered for financing a
meagre
administration without cost to the Exchequer,
consolidation was
effected, and in 1891 the Consul-General’s authority
replaced the
Obong's. If the short-term cause of intervention was
the political
disintegration inside Calabar, this disintegration was
a side-effect of
the long-standing commercial connection with Britain.
Had there
been no Anglo-Efik trade, Britain would not have
annexed Old
Calabar.
Conclusion
From 1600 to 1891 the economic demands of the
expanding
international economy were the main force acting for
change in Efik
society. The relationship between the West and Old
Calabar was
essentially commercial, and the changes which took
place in Efik
society were side-effects of this commerce.
It was the increasing need of the Western economy for
slave
plantation labour in the New World which first brought
European
traders to Calabar, and gave the small community of
fishermen
traders there the opportunity to develop their trading
skills as slave
exporters. Their success in meeting this external
demand enabled
them to develop into the dominant tribe on the Cross
River, by
purchasing domestic slaves to work for them as canoe
hands and
traders, with the profits which accrued. Thus the Efik
state was a
response to the demands of the international economic
system, utiliz
ing Western credit to evacuate labour for the Western
economy.
In adapting to the demands of the West, the Efik
demonstrated
their sensitivity to economic stimuli, and the
flexibility of their social
and political system. The old lineage-system
disintegrated, as wards
emerged composed of freemen and slaves. Yet the wards
were con
tent to cohere in the enlarged village-group, rather
than break away
to form new independent villages. For their interests
continued to be
served by the modification—where necessary—of the
integrating
institutions of tutelary deity, secret society, and
council.
Early in the nineteenth century, as the Western
economic system
evolved under the process of industrialization, the
external demand
for slaves was replaced by a demand for palm oil. To
this the Efik
quickly adapted, utilizing their commercial skills and
knowledge to
become middlemen in this trade, as they had been in
the slave trade.
They invested the profits of the new trade in slaves,
which they
settled in the newly discovered agricultural areas, to
function as self
maintaining retainers essential to their masters’
security in inter-ward
politics.
From the middle of the century, as trade increased,
and techno-
CONCLUSION
147
logical advance improved communications with other
parts of the
West African Coast and with Europe, enclaves of aliens
began to
establish themselves in Calabar, who were directly or
indirectly
dependent upon the oil trade. These were the
missionaries and their
emancipadoes, and the free Africans. Also, a Consul
was sent out to
protect the interests of British subjects in the area.
When, in 1872, he
was given authority over British subjects and
protected people, he
assumed control over these enclaves in Calabar, and
therefore
became a challenge to the authority of the Efik
rulers.

Politics in Calabar had always consisted of inter-ward

rivalry for
the leading political offices. But the new powers of
the Consul,
backed by Britain’s potentially overwhelming force,
meant that
parties discontented with the current rulers could
seek the protection
of the Consul as an alternative pole of political
authority. Thus when
the Eyamba ward was defeated in the vicious succession
dispute of
1879-82, they turned to demand British annexation as a
preferable
alternative to the rule of their hated rival. They
were joined by other
discontented elements in Efik society.
During the seventies the spread of industrialization,
associated
with economic nationalism in the United States and in
Europe, had
deprived Britain of her wealthiest and most
sophisticated markets.
She was therefore forced to seek market expansion in
the less devel
oped areas of the world, in Asia and Africa. This had
led to her
political intervention in Egypt in 1882 to safeguard
the route via the
Suez Canal to India and the East. Consequently the
growing interest
of the new European industrial powers in West Africa
was unwel
come, for if they annexed any of the Coastal states,
they would
establish discriminatory tariffs to Britain’s loss.
Hence, when faced
with demands for protection from Calabar, Britain had
no alternative
but to intervene, lest the petitioners offer
themselves to her rivals.
It was Britain’s original intention merely to
establish protection to
keep other countries away. But the Consul was given
the right to
adjudicate between the King and Chiefs, unfortunately
thereby
undermining the King’s authority without replacing it.
Chaos
ensued, and the only solution was to give the Consul
ruling powers
and assume control.
Thus intervention was determined by the political
vacuum inside
Old Calabar, and the growing economic competition
between the
L
148
CONCLUSION
Western powers. Annexation was the resultant of the
polygon of
forces operating internally and externally at Calabar.
These forces
were economic, or the by-product of economic forces.
The ultimate
impact of the international economy upon Efik society
was the
establishment of British rule.
Epilogue 1891-1971
Efik history of the last eighty years, like the
question of Efik
relations with the hinterland people, has yet to be
researched. Much
of the obscurity of these years is due to the fact
that records of the
Colonial period are mainly concerned with the problems
of Colonial
administration, rather than with indigenous affairs.
However, much
could be gleaned from a careful study of Nigerian
archival material,
Native Court Records, and local newspapers.
Only a brief outline of the decline in Old Calabar’s
importance
can be indicated here. Until 1900, Old Calabar was
headquarters of
the Niger Coast Protectorate,1 and then headquarters
of the Protec
torate of Southern Nigeria which followed.2 Renamed
Calabar in
1904,3 its future as an administrative centre was
ruined by the
amalgamation of Southern Nigeria and Lagos in 1906,
the latter
becoming the new seat of government. Meanwhile the
economic life
of the city was being undermined by the opening of the
Cross River
and the establishment of European trading-stations at
the main
markets. The Efik were no longer middlemen? Yet
Calabar remained
a major port for the evacuation of palm produce, and
various schemes
were proposed to link Calabar to the hinterland by
rail.5 But with
the discovery of the deep-water harbour at what was to
be Port
Harcourt, in 1913, and the decision to develop it as
the railway
terminal for the country east of the Niger, Calabar’s
hopes of develop
ment as an entrepot were destroyed. Much of the palm
produce
1 P.P 1895, Ixxi, 1, Africa No. 1 (1895), Report on
the Administration of the
Niger Coast Protectorate, August 1891-August 1894.
2 P.P. 1901 cd. (431-7), xlv, 727, Colonial Reports—
Annual; No. 315, Southern
Nigeria, Report for 1899-1900. I. F. Nicolson, The
Administration of Nigeria,
1900-1960 (Oxford, 1969), p. 101.
3 West African Mail, 23 Sept. 1904, p. 613. 14 Dec.
1906, p. 903. 3 Mar, 1905,
pp. 1163-4.
4 West African Mail, 18 Dec. 1903, p. 978, 8 Jan.
1904, pp. 1050-1, 12 Feb.
1904, pp. 1166—7. S. M. Tamuno, ‘The Development of
British Administrative
Control of Southern Nigeria, 1900—12: A Study in the
Administrations of Sir
Ralph Moor, Sir William MacGregor, and Sir Walter
Egcrton’, (Univ, of London
Ph.D. Thesis 1962), p. 338.
6 J. C. Anene, Southern Nigeria in Transition 1885-
1906 (Cambridge University
Press, 1966), p. 296. Tamuno, p. 132.
150
EPILOGUE 1891-1971
which had previously been exported via Calabar now
went via
Port Harcourt, which became Nigeria’s second port.0
What remained of Calabar’s export trade was adversely
affected
by the collapse of primary-produce prices in the late
twenties and
early thirties. As unemployment grew, an exodus,
spurred on by a
revival of witchcraft, began—to Lagos, Enugu, and
other more
dynamic centres. Many Efik entered the Civil Service,
now their
most profitable sphere of employment. During the
forties and fifties,
Calabar remained a backwater, and the political
wranglings of the
post-independence era of the sixties only made matters
worse.
Because Calabar chose to back the Action Group rather
than the
N.C.N.C., she was largely excluded from the latter’s
economic
policy. And in 1961, Southern Cameroons, for which
Calabar was a
leading port, chose for political reasons to leave
Nigeria. Her trade
was diverted to Victoria, causing many firms to close
in Calabar, and
precipitating further emigration. By the mid-sixties
Calabar was
deeply depressed.’
However, the outcome of the Nigerian Civil War has
resulted in a
marked improvement in Calabar’s position. As early as
1958, the
Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) State movement was pressing
for the
creation of an independent state, centred on Calabar,
as part of
the Federation of Nigeria. The Rivers Province leaders
later separated
from the movement.8 But as a consequence of the war,
General
Gowon published a decree in May 1967, creating twelve
states from
the former regions of Nigeria, one of which was the
long-sought-after
South Eastern State. On 31 March 1968 the new state
came into
being. Despite some damage during the war, Calabar
appears to
have recovered quickly, the population increasing from
70,000 before
the war to 100,000 afterwards.9 There seems to be
every reason to
suppose that now the development of the south-east is
in its own
hands, Calabar will recover all its former prominence.
0 Nicolson, pp. 186-90.
E. U. Aye, Old Calabar Through the Centuries (Calabar,
1967), pp. 161-70.
’ Aye, pp. 178-9.
’ West Africa, 3 June 1967, p. 716, 30 Mar. 1968, p.
361,18 Jan. 1969, pp. 62-3,
1 Mar. 1969, pp. 230-1, 15 Mar. 1969, pp. 295-6.
Appendix i
Palm Oil Exports from Old Calabar, 1812-1887
1812-171
1821=
18283
18331
18473
18485
1849°
1850°
18517
18558
1864®
187110
187511
188312
188713
Tons
1,200
2,000
2,000
4-5,000
5,217
4,634
2,782
4,260
2,838
4,090
4,500
6,000
5,085
7,365
7,000
Sources: 1 Robertson, pp. 363-4. 2 Adams, Sketches, p.
113. 3 James Badgley,
Report on the old Calabar River, in Owen to Croker, 21
Feb. 1828,
CO82/1. 4 Maegregor Laird and R. A. K. Oldfield,
Narrative of an
expedition into the interior of Africa (London, 1837)
i. 278. 6 P.P. 1852,
ix (53), Minutes of Evidence before Select Committee
on the African
Slave Trade, QQ 3143, Dawson cit. John Clare. 0 P.P.
1852, xlix
(284), Correspondence Relating to the Conveyance of
H.M. Mails to
the West Coast of Africa, in John Clare to Admiralty,
16 Dee. 1851.
7 Ibid., in John Clare to Admiralty, 2 Jan. 1852 (the
figure is low as two
ships from Calabar were lost at sea).8 General Report
on the Bight of
Biafra, 20 June 1856, in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 20
June 1856, 69A,
FO2/I6. • Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864, FO84/1221.
10 Capt. J. B.
Walker, F.R.G.S. ‘Notes on the Cross and Calabar
Rivers’, UPCMR
n.s. 4 (2 Sept. 1872), p. 280. 11 James Irvine & Co.
to Hopkins (1 July
1878), Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 Vol. 7 (this figure docs
not include the small
Dutch shipment). 12 Gertzel, John Holt, cit. John Holt
Papers, 26/3a.
13 Minute by Governor Moloney in connection with his
visit in April
1888 to the present eastern limit of the Colony of
Lagos, Government
Gazette, p. 201, FO84/1882.
Appendix 2
Palm Kernel Exports from Old Calabar, 1869-1887
Tons
1,000
18691
2,000
18711
947
1875=
10,000
18873
Sources:1 P.P. 1873, Ixv, Commercial Reports, Africa,
West Coast, Old Calabar,
Report by Consul Livingstone on the Trade and Commerce
of Old
Calabar for the Year 1872. 2 James Irvine & Co. to
Hopkins, 1 July
1878, Calprof Ibadan, 4/1 vol. 7. 3 Minute by Governor
Moloney in
connection with his visit in April 1888 to the present
eastern limit of the
Colony of Lagos, Government Gazette, p. 201,
FO84/1882.
Appendix 3
Sources to Chart 6: List of Treaties and Official
Letters signed by the
Chiefs of Calabar, 1842-1862
(Treaties signed only by the Kings arc not included.)

1. Chiefs request Missionaries, c. 1842-3. Waddell,

Twenty-Nine Years, p. 209.
2. Chiefs request British Protection. Chiefs to Hope,
30 Sept. 1847, in Hotham
to Admiralty, 24 Jan. 1848. No. 42, FO84/746.
3. Engagement to abolish Human Sacrifice, 20 Mar.
1848. FO84/748 and
FO97/432.
4. Agreement of Duke Ephraim and Chiefs to Abolish the
Murder of Twin
Children, 18 Jan. 1855, Inc. 27 in No. 34, P.P. 1856,
Ixii, Africa, (Consular),
Bight of Biafra.
5. Agreement that Egbo will be blown to recover
European debts, 19 Oct. 1855,
Inc. 9 in Lynslager to Clarendon, 31 Oct. 1855,
FO84/975.
6. Duke Town Chiefs welcome Consul Hutchinson, 19 Jan.
1856. Inc. 6 in
Hutchinson to Clarendon, 31 Jan. 1856, No. 11,
F084/1001.
7. Declaration that British Subjects be not molested,
17 June 1856, Inc. 7, in
Hutchinson to Clarendon, 24 June 1856, No. 71,
F084/1001.
8. Duke Town Chiefs to Anderson, Edgerley, and
Baillie, 26 Aug. 1856, Inc. 6
in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 23 Sept.
1856,, ixu.
No. 1115,
F084/1001.
n. ioju
1 j, r
1
9. Duke Town Chiefs to Hutchinson, 26 Aug.
A,,n 1856, Tr,/
Inc.' 4A in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 23 Sept. 1856, No. 115,. F084/1001.
JO b >■ ,
If
« IT.
.
10. Duke 'Town
Chiefs to
Hutchinson,
1 Sept. 1856, Inc. 3 in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 23 Sept. 1856, No. 115, F084/1001.
11. Duke Town Chiefs to Hutchinson, 14 Sept. 1856,
Inc. 5 in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 23 Sept. 1856, No. 115, F084/1001.
12. Proposed Trade Treaty, 19 Sept. 1856, in
Hutchinson to Clarendon, 24 Sept.
1856, F084/1001.
13. Chiefs and Native Traders to Hutchinson (undated),
Inc. 1 in Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 21 Feb. 1857, ST 12, F084/1030.
14. Duke Town Chiefs to Hutchinson, 1 Mar. 1859, Inc.
2 in Hutchinson to
Malmesbury, 21 Mar. 1859, ST 12. FO84/1087.
15. Archibong II to Lord John Russell, 9 Aug. 1859,
Calprof Ibadan 4, 3 vol. 1.
16. Chiefs request Baillie to return from Ikorofiong,
30 July 1859, UPCMR 14
(Nov. 1859), 203.
17. Duke Town Chiefs to Lord John Russell, 3 May 1860,
Inc. 1 in Hutchinson
to Russell. 28 May 1860, ST 25, FO84/1117.
18. Addition to Comcy Treaty of 1856, 31 May 1861,
Calprof Ibadan 5 7.
19. Trade Agreement, 1862, 5 May, 1862, Inc. 4 in
Burton to Russell. 22 Mav,
1862, No. 16, FO84/1176.
a
Note: On the chart, those names which only occurred
twice or less have been
omitted. Creek Town Chiefs did not occur on some of
the letters, i.e. those
specifically from Duke Town. This explains the greater
frequency of Duke
Town names.
154
APPENDIX 3
Nantes omitted from Chart 6, 1842-1862
Treaty or letter
where names
appeared
King Eyamba V
1
Archibong Duke
3
Young Eyo
3
Ephraim Antcra
5
Ephraim Boco Duke
6
William Duke
6
Bo dar nar
6
Offiong Archibong
6, 15
Egbo Eyo
10, 13
Egbo Basscy
10
Etim Effiong Duke
10, 11
David King
10, 11
John Boco Cobham
10
Boco Cobham
10
Egbo Boyok
10
Etim Efliong Esien
10
Captain Duke
10, 11
Esicn Ambo
10
Treaty or letter
where names
appeared
10
Egbo Young Etim
10, 11
Little Capt Duke
10, 11
Nkse Etim Duke
10, 11
Ephraim Etim Duke
10, 11
Efiiong Muncshu
10, 11
Young Big Adam
10, 11
Old George
10, 11
Basi Duke Antario
10, 11
Egbo Jemmy
11
Egbo Bo
11
Ephraim Nacunda
11
Ekpenyong Ekpo
11
Ekpenyong Etim
11
Adam Oku
13
Apande Duke
13
Young Cobham
14
Coco Henshaw Duke
19
Ephraim Adam
Personal Details of Signatories
NAME
WARD
Jemmy Henshaw
Henshaw
Young Chief of Henshaws, 1846? King Jemmy Henshaw,
visited
by Revd. Anderson, 1849?

Sources:1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 245. 2

Marwick, p. 225.

Antera Duke
Traditional name for head of Ntiero House.

Ntiero
Henshaw Duke
Duke
King Boco Boco in Ekpe, 1836? Described as ‘late’ in
1846?
OlTiong Henshaw Duke, presumably his successor, was
King Boco
Boco in 1846? The Henshaw Duke of the 1862 treaty must
be his
successor, probably Lame Henshaw Duke?
Sources: ‘Waddell, Journal, vol. 1, p. 27,15 Apr.
1846.2 UPCMR 1 (Sept. 1846)’
135. 3 Waddell, Journal, p. 31, 17 Apr. 1846. ‘ Ibid.,
vol. 10, p. 41,
11 Sept. 1854.
Duke Ephraim
Duke
Brother of Great Duke Ephraim? Claims Kingship on
death of
Archibong I? (See Chapter 7, above.)

Sources: • Beccroft to Malmesbury, 30 June 1852,

FO84/886. 2 Waddell, TwentyNine Years, p. 497.
APPENDIX 3
NAME
155
WARD
Adam Duke
Duke
Is King War, 1846? Has considerable influence, 1849?
Dies
26 Feb. 1851? Ephraim Adam Duke his son?

Sources:1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 258. 2

Marwick, p. 206.3 Anderson,
Journal, 1851, 26 Feb. 1851.4 Waddell, Journal, vol.
1, p. 30, 16 Apr.
1846.
Ephraim Duke
Duke
Had been a leading man for twenty years when died a
victim of
rum, 28 Jan. 1870? There is no other mention of this
man although
he appears on so many documents. It is probable that
he was
another brother of Great Duke Ephraim’s, like Duke
Ephraim who
became King Duke. There was a junior brother who
didn’t hold
office.2
Sources:1 Marwick, p. 467, cit. Anderson Journal, 28
Jan. 1870. 2 Chief Enc
Ndcm Ephraim Duke, 9 Dec. 1965.

Black Davis
Duke
One of the slaves who dominated Duke House after the
death of
Great Duke.1 Was of Etim Effiom family, Duke House.3
Had top
four Ekpe grades.3 One of the wealthiest and most
influential
traders, dies 25 Jan. 1874? (Sec Chapter 6.)
Sources:1 Chief Thomas A. Efliom, M.O.N., 7 Dec.
1965.2 Chief Nicholas Efa
Ansa, Black Davis family, 17 Jan. 1966. 3 Black Davis
House Book,
27 July 1874, p. 39. 4 Marwick, p. 525.

Yellow Duke
Duke
One of principal native traders, 1862? Is slave of
Duke family, but
rises above his master. Is 60-70. Fine House at Duke
Town and
3,000 slaves? King John Archibong almost subject to
Yellow Duke,
one of his head slaves.3 Creditor of King Archibong,
and favourite.
One of the most dangerous men in river? Buys Egbo
privileges,
1861? Original Yellow Duke escaped from a ship, and
received his
name because of his yellow complexion. He bought the
slave called
Namatc who took his name and became the great Yellow
Duke.
Both belonged to Ekpo Offiong family of Duke House.
The great
Yellow Duke built a two-storey house, proving he was a
full
member of Egbo. He died in 1888? Is a great trader?

Sources:1 Marwick, p. 398, 12 Apr. 1862.2 UPCMR n.s.

5, (1 Oct. 1884), 307,
cit. Wm. S. Peebles. 3 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr.
1864, FO84/1221.
4 Burton to Russell, 22 May 1862, No. 16, FO84/1176. 5
Black Davis
House Book, 24 Nov. 1861, p. 38. 0 Chief Asuquo Okody,
Head of
Yellow Duke Family, 9 Dec. 1966. 7 Observations on
letter to Lord
Salisbury, from Mr. George Jos Turner, of Old Calabar,
25 Oct. 1887.
Signed Hewett, 16 Sept. 1887, FO84/1828.
APPENDIX 3
156
WARD
NAME
Bassey Henshaw Duke
Is a slave of late Henshaw Duke, and oil trader.

Duke
Source: Hutchinson to Clarendon, 20 Feb. 1857, ST 8,
F084/1030.

George Duke
Duke
Led Henshaw Duke faction in farm war of 1852.1 Vassal
of Great
Duke Ephraim, came from Aqua. Dies c. Oct. 1879.2
Sources:1 Anderson to Goldie and Ross, 10 Dec. 1879,
FO84/1654. 2 Marwick,
p. 263, cit. Anderson, 9 Aug. 1852.

John Archibong
Archibong
Brother to King Archibong I.1 Young Eyo detained on
account of
John Archibong’s trade debts, 1855.2 In debt to
shipping, 1859.3
Crowned Archibong II, 1859.4 Dies 25 Aug. 1872.8
Sources:1 Anderson, Journal, 21 Feb. 1852. 2 Waddell,
Journal, vol. 11, p. 9,
21 Sept. 1855.3 Hutchinson to Malmesbury, 2 Mar. 1859,
ST 8, FO84/
1087.4 Marwick, p. 377. 8 Anderson to Miss M. Duncan,
2 Sept. 1872,
in Anderson, Letters.
Adam Archibong
Archibong
Young Eyo detained on board ship for Adam and John
Archi
bong’s debts, 1855.1 Is imprisoned on board ship for
debt, 1859.2
Half brother of King John Archibong (Archibong II).3
Probable
successor to Archibong II, is exercising power.4 Dies
5 or 6 May
Sources:1 Waddell, Journal, vol. 11, p. 9,21 Sept.
1855. 2 Duke Town Chiefs to
Hutchinson, 1 Mar. 1859, in Hutchinson to Malmesbury,
21 Mar. 1859,
ST
^084/1087. 3 Burton to Russell, 15 Apr. 1864,
FO84/1221.
Anderson to Rcvd. Dr. MacGill, 25 Mar. 1873, Anderson,
Letters.
- Marwick, p. 567.
Mr. Young
Eyamba
Secretary and brother of Eyamba V, 1846.1 Brother of
Antera
r Uhdi Secretary of state to Archibong I, and claims
to be ‘King
°
packmen’.3 Is rival for throne on death of Archibong
I, with
Duke Ephraim. Calls himself Eyamba VI, 1852.4 Is bad
trader.8
iociTty1 Sundays.0 Made Eyamba or keeper of all the
Egbos,
ISM. uies 11 Feb. 1855.8 Dies insolvent prior to 5
Jan. 1856.°
Sources: ‘ Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 259. 2
Ibid., p. 337. 2 Ibid., p. 393.
Wid., p. 497 S Ibidp. 392. o Marwick, p. 208. 7
Anderson, Journal,
i851- ’ Marwick, p. 313." Waddell, Journal, vol. II,
p. 36, 5 Jan.
lojb.
157
APPENDIX 3
NAME
WARD
Antera Young
Eyamba
Mr. Young’s brother, 1847.1 Is second man in Duke Town
to
Archibong II, 1859.2 Is head of Egbo and candidate for
Kingship
on death of King Duke Ephraim, but too old to advance
claim,
1859.3
Sources: 1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 337.2
Marwick, p. 378. 3 Hutchinson to
Malmesbury, 2 Mar. 1859, ST 8, FO84/1087.
Bassey Offiong
Eyamba
Duke Town Gentleman.1 Attends Mission meetings in
Eyamba V’s
yard, which implies he is of Eyamba family, 1849.2 Is
detained on
board Magistrate for debts.3 Abasi Offiong (Basscy
Offiong) is one
of the three main segments of Eyamba house. Bassey
Offiong is the
name of the head of this segment. Coco Basscy family
is descended
from Coco Basscy, a slave of Basscy Offiong.4
Sources: 1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 485. 2
Marwick, p. 206. 3 Anderson,
Journal, 20 Jan. 1852.4 John Coco Bassey, 11 Jan.
1966.
Bassey Africa
Eyamba
Slave of Basscy Offiong, who took over family when
Basscy Offiong
died.1 Of Ibo origin, kept Coco Basscy as a boy.2 Is
oil trader,
1856.3 His remains brought to town, Nov. 1867.4 (See
Basscy
Offiong.)

Sources:1 Regarding Otu Bassey Ofion, Coco Bassey

Papers p. 8. 2 Generation
of Coco Otu Bassey, as information for his children.
Coco Bassey
Papers, pp. 2-7. 3 Hutchinson to Clarendon, 1 Nov.
1856, No. 128,
F084/1001.4 UPCMR, n.s. 11 (2 Mar. 1868), 38 cit.
Anderson, Journal,
27 Nov. 1867.

Enni Cobham
Cobham
Brother of Antika Cobham.1 Sits with King Eyo and Duke
Ephraim to stop poison-bean ordeals on death of
Archibong I.2
Once fought with brother, Antika, in King’s palaver
house, so had
slaves taken from him. But via his industry as trader
has recovered
position, 1846.3 Boco Cobham his brother or son.4
Shrewd active
businessman sometimes called King of Cobham Town, Duke
Town.5
Dies 9 Nov. 1865, Chief of Cobham Town.0
Dies 9 Nov. 1865, leaving sons Eyo, Andcm, and John
Antika.7
Sources: 1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 258.2 Ibid.,
p. 498.3 Waddell, Journal,
vol. 1, 2 May 1846.4 UPCMR 1 (Oct. 1846), 154.5
Marwick, pp. 205-6.
0 Ibid., p. 410.7 UPCMR n.s. 1 (1 Mar. 1866), 42-3,
Mrs. Sutherland,
29 Nov. 1865.
158
NAME
APPENDIX 3
WARD
Egbo Jack
Cobham
Is trader, as stands security for Eyamba V’s debts.1
Previously of
Duke Town, now lives at Creek Town, 1849.2 Has own
palaver
house at Creek Town.3 Is head of Jack Town, one
division of
Creek Town.4 Gives assent for abolition of Creek Town
Sunday
market, his assent being essential, 1850.5 Faction
fight with Ambos
1850, Jacks have own chief and palaver house.® Faction
fight Jacks
v. Ambos, 1852.’ Dies insolvent.8
Dies January 1855.®
A slave in Cobham (?).10
The information that he was a slave is in doubt, as it
is not clear
whether the same Egbo Jack was being referred to. If
he was a slave,
then his position as head of Jack family of Cobham in
the early
fifties makes him one of the earliest successful
slaves.
Sources:1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 274. 2 Ibid.,
p. 400. 3 Ibid., p. 505.
4 Ibid., p. 506. 5 Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 25, 11
Aug. 1850. 6 Ibid.,
vol. 8, p. 46, 2 Nov. 1850. 7 Waddell, Twenty-Nine
Years, pp. 507-8.
8 Waddell, Journal, vol. 11, p. 36, 5 Jan. 1856. 9
Marwick, p. 313.
10 Chief Joseph Henshaw, 18 Feb. 1966.
Antica Ambo
Ambo
Family head in Ambo described as Old Antica Ambo,
1855.1
Antica Ambo imprisoned by Captain Davies, therefore an
oil
trader, 1856.2 Antica Ambo and Tom Eyo are the two
elders of
Creek Town, 1858.3 Old Antica Ambo and King Cameroons,
Chiefs of Mbarakom.4
Sources: 1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 572.2 King
Eyo to Hutchinson, 25 July
1856, in Hutchinson to Clarendon, 28 July 1856, No.
97, F084/1001.
3 UPCMR 14 (Mar., 1859), 50, cit. Goldie’s Journal, 23
Dec. 1858.
4 UPCMR (1 Mar. 1864), p. 39, cit. Goldie’s Journal,
21 Nov. 1863.

A//?,? Cameroons
Ambo
Real na,Pe Hem Aret.1 Ambo, and King Eyo’s right-hand
man.2
Ambo. One of Ambo Chiefs, 1850.4 Old Antica Ambo and
King
• tmk\°2nu’ Chicfs of Mbarakom (Ambo), 1863.5 Ikot
Esien,
inhabited by Mbara Korn, the part of Creek Town of
which King
Cameroons is now head, 1866.° Master of Peter King
Cameroons,
who takes over family on his death, although a slave.’
Sources: ■ Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 346. 5
Ibid., pp. 462-3. ’ Ibid., p. 506.
, ™addcl1. Journal, vol. 8, p. 46, 2 Nov. 1850. ‘
UPCMR 19 (1 Mar.
39. cit. Goldie’s Journal, 21 Nov. 1863. 5 UPCMR N.s.
1 (Oct.
ooo), 186, cit. Goldie’s Journal, 15 May 1866. 7
Petition of Prince
anJcs Eyamba V on behalf of Peter King Cameroons, to
Earl Granville,
Sept. 1881. FO84/1612.

Hogan Bassey
”
Ambo
MesTnfJr att?ndant. 1846.' Of Ambo? Of Ambo Town.3
Negoti10n fight between Jacks and Ambos in Creek
Town.4
Sources: ‘'Yaddcll> Twenty-Nine Years, p. 263.3 Ibid.,
p. 508.3 Waddell, Journal,
: • 8’ p- 46, 2 Nov. 1850.1 Ibid.
APPENDIX 3
159
NAME
WARD
King Eyo Honesty II
Eyo
Dances in Bunko dance.1 Is king in Creek Town via his
family ties
and wealth.2 Fire at his house causes £5,000-£10,000
damage,
1852.3 Has commanding position in Egbo despite his
claims to the
contrary.1 Dies suddenly, 3 Dec. 1858.5 (Sec chapter
7.)

Sources: 1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 357.2

Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 46,
2 Nov. 1850. 3 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 499. 4
Ibid., p. 609.
6 Marwick, p. 376.
Toni Eyo
Eyo
Is King of Calabar after Eyo I, and before Eyo II.1 Is
King Bunko
(Ebunko), 1847.2 Is King Eyo’s eldest brother.3 Father
Tom, King’s
eldest brother, and head of Honesty family properly.
Has three
sons, eldest Young Tom Eyo, next Eyo Tom Eyo, last Eyo
Eyo
Tom.4 Becomes Eyo IV.5 Tom Eyo too good as King,
crowned by
Burton 7 May, 1862.° Is King of Creek Town, and fears
bloodmen,
1864.7 Dies night 21-2 Mar. 1865.8
Sources: 1 Waddell, Journal, vol. 7, p. 67, 6 Jan.
1850. 2 Waddell, Twenty-Nine
Years, p. 357. 3 Ibid., p. 428.4 Waddell, Journal,
vol. II, p. 88, 1 Sept.
1856. 5 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 651. 0 Burton
to Russell,
15 Apr. 1864, FO 84/1221. 7 UPCMR 19 (1 Feb. 1864),
245.8 Ibid. 20
(1 July 1865), 135.

John Eyo
Eyo
Is Eyo H’s brother.1 Crowned Eyo V, 9 June 1865.2 Is
good king,
trying to stop barbarous customs.3 Is brother of
Doctor Eyo.4 Dies
11 June 1868, succeeded by Dr. Eyo.5
Sources: 1 Marwick, p. 261. 2 UPCMR 20 (1 Nov. 1865),
205-6, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 9 June 1865. 3 Livingstone to Stanley, 28
Dec. 1867, No. 38,
FO84/1277. 4 UPCMR N.s. 11 (Sept. 1868), 170-1, cit.
S. H. Edgerley,
22 June 1868. 5 Ibid.
Doctor Eyo
King Eyo H’s brother, and father-in-law to Young Eyo.1
King
Eyo H’s brother.2
Ibok Eyo (Dr. Eyo) to succeed Eyo V, is brother of Eyo
V.3 Un
animously elected King on death of Eyo V. Crowned by
Wilson,
3 Feb. 1869.4 Talks of desire of Creek Town people to
put them
selves under protection of Ndem Efik again, now kept
at Duke
Town. Declares Ndetn Efik wouldn’t allow them twin
mothers and
their babies.6
Eyo
Sources: 1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 609.2
Waddell, Journal, vol. 8, p. 35*
21 Sept. 1850.3 UPCMR N.s. 11 (Sept. 1868), p. 171,
cit. S. H. Edgerley,
22 June 1868. 4 Wilson to Foreign Secretary, 23 Feb.
1869, No. 8,
FO84/1308.5 UPCMR N.s., vol. 3, p. 479, cit. Goldie’s
Journal, 1 May
1871.
160
1
APPENDIX 3
NAME
WARD
Thomas Hogan
Unknown
Pilot for ships coming up river.1 Is messenger from
King Archibong
on Waddell’s Umon trip, 1851.2 Pilot, chief
interpreter, and speaker
for Duke Town, in Efcpe-Mission palaver.3 Dies 4
August 1861,
local pilot, constant attender at public worship, very
intelligent,
pro-mission in native councils, not very wealthy, but
his intelli
gence gives him respect amongst Gentlemen of Duke
Town.4
Probably of Eyamba family, as Tom Hogan (probably his
son) and
Young Egbo Young Hogan, son of his relation Egbo Young
Hogan,
both signed Prince James Eyamba V’s letter to Hewett,
protesting
that King Duke was unacceptable. All the names on the
letter
appear to be of Eyamba ward.6 He signed his own name
on most of
the treaties.
Thomas Hogan was probably of Eyamba family, and the
fact he
was pilot and interpreter, makes it possible that he
was a slave.
But there is no evidence to prove this to date.
Sources:1 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 485. Waddell,
Journal, vol. 7, p. 40,
17 Nov. 1849.2 Waddell, Twenty-Nine Years, p. 463. 3
Waddell, Journal,
vol. 11, p. 75, 14 June 1856. 4 Marwick, pp. 395-6. 6
Prince James
Eyamba V and others to Consul Hewett, 24 June 1881,
No. 4, p. 16,
FO403/18.

Egbo Young Hogan

Signs document allowing Yellow Duke negro bells,
therefore is a
member of the upper grades of Ekpe.1
Unknown
Source: Black Davis House Book, 24 Nov. 1861, p. 38.
Tobby Tom
No information.
Unknown
Efiong Ludianah
No information except that the Ludianah was a ship
which visited
Old Calabar.

Unknown
Ephraim Henshaw Duke
No information.

Unknown
Tom Offiong
No information.

Unknown
Egbo Tom
Gives Anderson a mat as a present when he leaves
Calabar, is from
Duke Town.1 Is a trader?

Unknown
Somces:> Anderson, Journal, 12 May 1851. = Hutchinson
to S. J. Hill, 25 May
1858, Inc. 6, in Hutchinson to Malmesbury, 25 May
1858, ST 23,
FO84/1061.
APPENDIX 3
NAME
161
WARD
John Ephraim
No information.

Unknown
John Duke
Imprisoned on Princess Royal1 (so a trader).

Unknown
Source: Anderson, Journal, 10 Aug. 1852.
King War
No information.

Unknown
Appendix 4
Sources to Chart 7: List of Treaties and Agreements
signed by Duke
Town Chiefs, 1875-1884.
1. Agreement between Henshaw Town and Duke Town, 28
Sept. 1875, in
Hartley to Derby, 30 Oct. 1875, No. 46, FO84/1418.
2. Agreement between Henshaw Town and Duke Town, 6
Sept. 1878 (not
enclosed in anything), FO84/1508.
3. Agreement on Sacrifices, Trade, and Commerce, 1878.
6 Sept. 1878 (not
enclosed in anything), FO84/1508.
4. Treaty with Kings and Chiefs of Old Calabar, 10
Sept. 1884, Inc. 16 in No. 13’
p. 27, FO403/47.
Note: Names mentioned only once have been omitted from
Chart.
Names omitted from Chart 7, 1875-1884
Treaties or
agreements where
names appeared
1
Lord Archibong
1
Effiong Otu (Old Town)
1
Egbo Young Etam
1
Prince Samuel Eyamba
2
Egbo King Archibong II
3
Eyo Ita
3
Edem Ephraim Adam
3
Ephraim Eyo Duke
3
Joseph George Duke
Archibong Henshaw Duke 3
... Archibong
3
Egbo King
Treaties or
agreements where
names appeared
Big Adam Duke
3
A. Eyamba
3
Ene Black Davis
3
Aduk Ephraim Duke
3
Ephraim Lewis
3
Eshien Etem Bassey Ofiiong 3
Offiong Effiono Imah
4
P. Ejro Eyamba
4
Prince Egbo Archibong
4
Hogan Archibong
4
John Anderson
4
APPENDIX 4
163
Personal Details of Signatories
NAME
WARD
George Duke
See 1842-62 list (page 156).

Duke
Henshaw Duke
Duke
Is interesting and good-looking lame boy of about 16,
(1846-7).1
Is oil trader.2 Presumably Henshaw Duke, son of
Henshaw Duke
(see 1842-62 list).3 Egbo’s confiscated after palaver
with Cuthbert
son.4 Is oil trader.6 In dispute with Prince Archibong
III, (Archibong Edem), over Ekancm Eflanga’s
property.8 In dispute with
Archibong Edem.7
Sources:1 UPCMR 2 (Aug. 1847), p. 122, Revd. Wm.
Jameson.2 Calvert to Bcccroft, undated in Beccroft to
Malmesbury, 28 June 1852, FO84/886.
3 Waddell, Journal, vol. 10, p. 41, 11 Sept. 1854. 4
Guarantee, Eyo
Honesty and Duke Ephraim, 20 Sept. 1856, Inc. 10 in
Hutchinson to
Clarendon, 23 Sept. 1856, No. 115, F084/I001. 6 Trust
due by Duke
Town to Coupcr Scott & Co., Hulk Queen of England, on
a/c Mr.
Johns, 12 Nov. 1877, Calprof Ibadan 5/1. 8 Harold G.
White to Prince
Archibong III, 9 July 1885, Calprof Ibadan 4/2.7
Hewett to Salisbury,
4 Sept. 1885, Africa, FO84/I701.

Yellow Duke
Sec 1842-62 list (page 155).

Duke
Prince Duke
Duke
Named Orok.1 Is trader.2 Claims George Duke’s property
on his
death, as he was a slave or vassal.3 Crowned King 17
Apr. 1880.4
Acting King and head of Duke House, at variance with
Eyamba
House.6 Crowned 2nd time, 8 Aug. 1882.° Is Juju high
priest.7 Not
Christian. Comes to Consulate nude except for hat.8
Sources:1 Marwick, p. 578.2 Trust due by Duke Town to
Couper Scott & Co.,
Hulk Queen of England, on a/c Mr. Johns, 12 Nov. 1877,
Calprof
Ibadan 5/1. 3 Wm. Anderson to Goldie and Ross, 10 Dec.
1879,
FO84/1654. 4 Marwick, p. 573. 6 Hewett to Granville,
16 Feb. 1882
FO84/1617. 6 Hewett to Granville, 14 Aug. 1882, ST 13,
FO84/1617.
’ Turner to Salisbury, 25 Oct. 1887, No. 249, p. 197,
FO403/73.8 Report
on British Protectorate of the Oil Rivers, Johnston,
in Johnston to
Foreign Office, 1 Dec. 1888. Section F, Ethnology.
Hogan Ironbar
Duke
Prcsumbably son of Ironbar.1 Banished from Hulks.2
Ironbar
family in Duke House.3 Trader.4
Sources 1 Sec Chapter 6, p. 97.2 Hogan Ironbar to
White, Chairman of Court of
Equity, 25 Sept. 1876, Calprof Ibadan 3/2. 3 Efiom
Edcm Ironbar,
15 Jan. 1966.4 Trust Due by Duke Town to Coupcr Scott
& Co., Hulk
Queen of EnSland, on a/c Mr. Johns, 12 Nov. 1877,
Calprof Ibadan 5/1.
M
APPENDIX 4
164
NAME
WARD
Adam Ironbar
Duke
Probably son of Ironbar and brother of Hogan Ironbar,
see Hogan
Ironbar. Oil Trader.1 Ironbar family in Duke.2
Sources:1 Adam Ironbar to Gillis, Chairman of Court of
Equity, 19 Apr. 1883,
Calprof Ibadan 3/2.2 Efiom Edcm Ironbar, 15 Jan. 1966.
Archibong III
See Adam Archibong on 1842-62 lists (p. 156).

Archibong
Prince Archibong II
Archibong
Presumably son of Archibong II, as son of Archibong
III was
Prince Archibong III. No other evidence.

Prince Archibong III

Archibong
Is Asibon Edem III, wealthy, powerful, headstrong,
eldest son of
last King of Calabar (Archibong III). Would be serious
contender
for crown if it were not elective.1 Seizes Etim Basscy
Henshaw al
though he was in company of European, this being
contrary to Egbo
law. Had previously seized some Cobham chiefs. Is of
Archibong
House.2 Is beyond restraint.3 His people in dispute
with Duke
people about Egbo Archibong’s house on disputed
ground.4 King
Duke to rebuild Archibong Edcm’s places destroyed or
compensate
him.5 Unsatisfactory settlement of local war so it
threatens again.0
Keeps Okon Ma in chains, claiming him as slave.7 His
people leave
Calabar for Rio del Rcy.8 Trader.0
Sources:1 George Watts to ?, 6 Feb. 1882, Calprof
Ibadan 4/1, vol. 9.2 Hewett to
Granville, 16 Feb. 1882, ST2, FO84/1617. 3 Hewett to
Granville, 17
Feb. 1882, ST5, FO84/1617. 4 James Munro, Chairman of
Court of
19 Jan. 1885, Inc. 1 in Act. Con. White to Granville,
21 Jan.
1885, No. 4, Africa, FO84/1701. 5 Act. Consuls
Decision re recent
disturbances in Calabar, Act. Consul Harold G. White,
(undated)
wf- 1885), Calprof Ibadan 5/8, vol. 11. 0 Prince
Archibong III, to
White, 13 Mar. 1885, Calprof Ibadan 4/1 vol. 10. 7
Thomas to White,
iwf r 885, Calprof Ibadan 4/1, vol. 10.8 Johnston to
Consul, 22 Nov.
1886, Calprof Ibadan 4/1, vol. 10.0 Notice, 13 Apr.
1888, signed John
ston, in Hewett to Salisbury, 20 June 1888, No. 25,
FO84/1881.

Janies Ephraim Adam

Archibong
Consul burns Ephraim Adam’s house for ill treatment of
one of his
servan s y one of Ephraim Adam’s men. Archibongs leave
town
except Archibong Edem.
Soww: Journal^o^Commercc, 30 May, 1891, Book of
Newspaper Cuttings,
APPENDIX 4
name
165
ward
Prince James Eyamba V
Eyamba
Old Mission scholar, becomes Chief minister on death
of Archibong II. Archibong III probable successor,
1872.1 Elder and
superintendent of Sabbath school, conducts the Efik
services.’
24 Dec. 1881, withdraws from Church when Ross
withdraws.3 Is
trader.4 Head of Eyamba House, at difference with Duke
House.5
Threatens to withdraw from Calabar and go elsewhere,
because
Prince Duke, King, is licentious and superstitious.®
Is prohibited
from trading, 1888.7 Was Prince Eyamba V, as son of
Eyamba V.
Sources:1 Marwick, p. 507.2 Ibid., p. 577. 3 Ibid., p.
581.4 Balance of Trust due
Coupcr Scott & Co., 1879, John Holt papers, 12/7. 6
Hewett to Gran
ville, 16 Feb. 1882, ST 2, FO84/1617. 6 Hewett to
Granville, 17 Feb.
1882, ST 5, FO84/1617. 7 Notice, 13 Apr. 1888, signed
Johnston, in
Hewett to Salisbury, 20 June 1888, No. 25, FO84/1881.

Joseph Eyamba
Eyamba
Signs himself Joseph Eyamba V on letter from Prince
James Eyamba
V to Hewett declaring that King Duke is not
acceptable. Hence he
must be another son of King Eyamba V.
Source: Prince James Eyamba V etc. to Consul Hewett,
24 June 1881, No. 4,
p. 16, FO403/18.
Effiong Efiwatt
Unknown
Summons all Chiefs of Duke Town to elect King, 1882,
as is oldest
of chiefs.

Source: Hewett to Granville, 14 Aug. 1882, ST 13,

FO84/1617.
Eyo E. Ndem
No information.

Unknown
Henshaw Toby
Unknown
Is trader.
Source: Balance of Trust due Couper Scott & Co., 1879,
25 Nov. 1879, Inc. in
Statement of Goods and Trust due at Old Calabar, 12
Feb. 1880, John
Holt Papers, 12/7.
Sources and Bibliography
The following are to be thanked for their assistance,
in personally supplying
information.

Chief U. E. E. Adam, Chief E. E. E. A. A. Akabom, Mr.

E. N. Amaku, Chief
Edem E. Antera, Mr. Okon E. E. Anwan, Etubom A. E.
Archibong, Chief Maurice
Efana Archibong, Chief Oko Efiom Asiya, Mr. Efiong
Ukpong Aye, Mr. Andrew
Basscy, Chief E. A. E. Ekpo Bassey, Chief Etim Otu
Bassey, Chief John Coco
Bassey, Mr. Okon Basscy, Mr. J. C. Berry, Chief Ene
Ndem Ephraim Duke, His
Highness the Mori of Efut, Edet Edem, M.O.N., Mr.
Xavier Nyong Edcm, Chief
Bruno Efa, Chief Antigha Efefiom, Chief Efiom Obo
Effanga, Chief Otu Otu
Effiom, Chief Thomas A. Efiom, M.O.N., Chief E.
Ekpenyong, M.B.E., Chief
Nicholas Efa Ensa, Mr. Efiotu Ephraim, Prince J. A. E.
Ephraim, Chief Etim
Hogan Etim, Mr. A. Etim, Chief Ekeng Ewa, Chief Ekeng
Ewatt, M.B.E., Etubom
Effa John Eyamba, Chief Effiong Nta Eyibio, Etubom E.
E. E. Eyo II, Chief Henry
Eo Eyo, Chief E. Daniel Henshaw, Chief Joseph Henshaw,
Chief Michael
Henshaw, Chief Okon Ma Ikot, Revd. James Osonye
Ikpcme, Mrs. Nya Eniang
Inyang, Mr. Efiom Edem Ironbar, Etubom Eyo Nsa Eyo
Ita. Mr. K. Jackson,
Chief O. U. Ndok, Mr. Eyo Nkune, Chief Paul Ntuk, Mr.
E. E. Nya, Chief
L. A. Essicn Offiong, Chief Offiong Obobo Offiong,
Chief Asuquo Okody, Mr.
O. E. Okokon, Chief Asuquo Edet Okon, Hon. Bassey
Okon, M.P., His Royal
Highness Chief The Hon. Ika Ika Oqua II, M.H.C.,
M.O.N., The Ntoe of Big
Qua Town, Mr. Ansa O.E. Otudor, Chief Nyong Edet Uyo.

MANUSCRIPT SOURCES
PRIVATE PAPERS
Anderson, Revd. William
Journal, 1851-2
Foreign Mission Dept., Church of Scotland, 121 George
Street, Edinburgh.
Hitherto unknown, this gives vital information on the
so-called slave revolts.
Letters
MSS. 2981, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Journal, 1831-40
MSS. 2982, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Notes on Old Calabar Mission for Revd. James Buchanan,
1885.
MSS. 2983, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Black Davis
Papers
47 Garden street, Calabar.
The family papers of one of the great nineteenth-
century ward members,
containing material dating from the 1830s. Invaluable
for inside information
on the economic, social, and political development of
Old Calabar.
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
167
Coco Bassey
Papers
John Coco Basscy, 17 Coco Basscy Street, Calabar.
Two diaries of the 1880s, and an autobiography.
John Holt Papers
Papers
John Holt & Co., 250 India Buildings, Water Street,
Liverpool 2.
Holt & Gregson Papers
Papers
Brown, Picton & Hornby Libraries, William Brown
Street, Liverpool 3.
Johnston, Sir H. H.
Diaries, Journals, Correspondence, and other papers.
National Archives of
Rhodesia, P.O. Box 8043, Causeway, Rhodesia.
Microfilm, 53 OS 80-1. 53 OY 35: 2. University
Library, Ibadan.
Livingstone, Charles
Letters written during his service as H.M. Consul at
Fernando Po and Old
Calabar.
National Archives of Rhodesia, P.O. Box 8043,
Causeway, Rhodesia.
Microfilm, 53 OY 35: 3. University Library, Ibadan.
Marwick, Rev. IK.
African Papers
MSS. GEN 768, Edinburgh University Library.
Offiong III, E. E.
Papers
Chief L. A. Essien Offiong, 10 Edgerley Road, Calabar.
Trade Ledgers, Court Records, Leiter Books, etc.,
relating to turn of century.
Slessor, Mary
Papers
Mr. Dan Slessor, 3-4 Probyn Street, Calabar.
Unseen. In correspondence Mr. Slessor discounts their
importance.
Waddell, Revd. Hope Masterton
Journal, vols. 1, 7, 8, 10, 11.
MSS. National Library of Scotland.
OFFICIAL RECORDS
Board of Trade Papers
Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London.
BT 1/545/1794. Correspondence and Report of the Olinda
Affair.
Calabar Provincial Papers (Calprof)
National Archives, Ibadan.
3/2
4/1 vol. 2, 4/1 vol. 3, 4/1 vol. 4, 4/1 vol. 5, 4/1
vol. 6, 4/1 vol. 7,4/1 vol.9,4/1
vol. 10,4/2,4/3 vol. 1,4/3 vol. 2, 5/1, 5/7, 5/8 vol.
1, 5/8 vol. 2, 5/8 vol. 11, 5/9,
8/2 vol. 1.
Remnants of Fernando Po Consular Archives, including
Court of Equity
Records.
National Archives, Enugu.
Vast series, mostly relating to the twentieth
century’, but including a series of
Consular Despatches from Fernando Po in the nineteenth
century.
168
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Colonial Office Papers
Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London.
CO82, Fernando Po. vols. 1-9.
CO267, Sierra Leone, vols. 85, 98.
CO879, African (West). vols. 62, 66.
Foreign Office Papers
Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London.
FO2. Africa Consular. 6, 7, 16, 47.
FO84. Slave Trade. The most important single source.
14, 19, 38, zoz, juz,
384, 439, 492, 495, 549, 555, 607, 612, 710, 746,748,
775, 785, 816, 818, 858,
886, 975, 1001, 1030, 1061, 1087, 1117, 1147, 1176,
1221, 1249, 1277, 1308,
1326,1343,1356,1377,1401,1418,1455,1487, 1508,
1569,1612,1617, 1630,
1634,1654,1655,1660,1701,1828, 1866, 1881, 1882, 1940,
1941, 2020.
FO403. Confidential Prints. 18, 19, 20, 31, 32, 47,
71, 72, 73, 131, 132, 134,
171,187.
Native Court Records
Customary Court, Calabar.
Presbyterian Church of Nigeria
Papers and Records Presbyterian Church of Eastern
Nigeria Archives, Synod
Clerks Office, P.O. Box 14, Afikpo.
Unseen, as in process of removal to Enugu.
Miscellaneous
Papers
Old Residency, Calabar.
Papers
Brown, Picton & Hornby Libraries, William Brown
Street, Liverpool 3.

UNPUBLISHED OFFICIAL REPORTS

assessment reports
National Archives, Ibadan.
Abakaliki Division, Ogoja Province, 1927.
L. A. C. Helbert, D.O. A.R. 3. 20751.
Adun Clan, Obubra Division, Ogoja Province, 1927.
N. A. C. Weir, A.D.O. A.R. 6. 27640.
Aro District, Calabar Province, 1927.
E. N. Mylius, A.D.O. A.R. 10. 20690.
Calabar Division, Calabar Province, 1927.
C. F. Coley, Cadet. A.R. 31. 20689.
Itu District, Enyong Division, Calabar Province, 1927.
E. J. Price, D.O. A.R. 66. 20688.
Uyo District, Calabar Province, 1927.
K. V. Hanitsh, A.D.O. A.R. 134. 20682.
intelligence reports
National Archives, Ibadan.
Afikpo Clan of Ogoja Province, 1931.
H. Waddington, D.O. I.R. 27511.
Aro Clan of Arochuku District, Calabar Province, 1933.
T. M. Shankland, A.D.O. I.R. 29017.
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
169
Efik Clan, Calabar Province, vol. 1, 1932.
E. N. Mylius, D.O. I.R. 27627.
Efik Clan, Calabar Province, vol. II, 1933.
E. C. Aiderton. Acting A.D.O. I.R. 27627.
Enyong Clan, Aro District, Calabar Province, 1935.
N. A. P. G. Mackenzie, A.D.O. I.R. 31382.
Itam Clan of Enyong, Itu Division, Calabar Province,
1932.
S. L. Knight, A.D.O. I.R. 29807.
Ikom, Nkum & Obokun Mbaba, Villages of Ikom Division,
Ogoja Province,
1934. L. E. H. Fellows, D.O. I.R. 29966.
Itu Clan of Itu District, Calabar Province, 1935.
R. Floyer, A.D.O. I.R. 31013.
Okoyong Clan, of Calabar Division, Calabar Province,
1931.
L. Scaly King, D.O. I.R. 27674.
National Archives, Enugu.
Uruan Clan, Uyo District, Calabar Province, 1932.
Capt. H. P. James, D.O. I.R. 120 EP 9303A.
MISCELLANEOUS
National Archives, Ibadan.
Report on Oil Palm Survey in Ibo, Ibibio, and Cross
River areas.
A. F. B. Bridges, D.O., 1938. CSO 26.1528.17696.
National Archives, Enugu.
Report on the Cultivation of Oil Palm.
Calprof 14/3/801. E/2760/1908.
Palm Kernels and Oil exported from Eastern Province.
Answers to queries
on marked discrepancy in 1912.
Calprof 53/1/332.
Concerning the possibility of an export trade in Maize
from the Cross River
District.
Calprof 16/2/913. EP/1830/1907.
PUBLISHED OFFICIAL SOURCES
PARLIAMENTARYPAPERS
P.P. 1789, (573-6), Ixxxi. An account of the Value and
Amount of the Pro
duction of Africa imported into Great Britain, from
the Year 1771 to 1788.
P.P. 1789, (635), Ixxxiii. Minutes of the Evidence
taken before the Committee
to consider the circumstances of the Slave Trade.
P.P. 1789, (646), Ixxxiv. Papers received since the
Date of the Report of the
Committee for Trade, on the Subject of the Trade to
Africa, and particularly
the Trade in Slaves.
P.P. 1790, (698), Ixxxvii. Minutes of the Evidence
taken before the Select
Committee appointed for the Examination of Witnesses
on the Slave Trade.
PP. 1790 (699), Ixxxviii. Minutes of the Evidence
taken before the Select Com
mittee appointed for the Examination of Witnesses on
the Slave Trade.
P.P. 1790-1 (745-748), xcii. Minutes of Evidence taken
before the Select Com
mittee appointed for the Examination of Witnesses on
the Slave Trade.
170
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
P.P. 1798-9 (965), cvi. Minutes of Evidence taken on
the Third Reading of the
Bill to prohibit the Trading for Slaves on the Coast
of Africa, within certain
Limits.
P.P. 1816, vii, 2. Report from the Select Committee on
Papers Relating to the
African Forts.
P.P. 1842 (551), xi, 1. Part 1. Report from the Select
Committee appointed to
inquire into the state of the British Possessions on
the West Coast of Africa.
P.P. 1842 (551), xii, 1. Part 2. Report from the
Select Committee appointed
to inquire into the state of the British Possessions
on the West Coast of
Africa.
P.P. 1845, (187), xlvi. Palm Oil annually imported
into the United Kingdom
from the Western Coast of Africa, 1790-1844.
P.P. 1847-8 (272), xxii (1), 1st Report. Minutes of
Evidence taken before the
Select Committee on the Slave Trade.
P.P. 1847-8 (366), xxii, (283) 2nd Report. Minutes of
Evidence taken before the
Select Committee on the Slave Trade.
P.P. 1847-8 (536), xxii (467), 3rd Report. Minutes of
Evidence taken before the
Select Committee on the Slave Trade.
P.P. 1849 (308) xix, 1,1st Report. Minutes of Evidence
taken before the Select
Committee on the Slave Trade.
P.P. 1850 (53), ix. Minutes of Evidence before Select
Committee on the
African Slave Trade.
P.P. 1852 (284), xlix. Correspondence etc. Relative to
the Conveyance of Mails
to the West Coast of Africa.
P.P. 1854 (296), Ixv. Quantities of Palm Oil etc.
imported, 1844-53.
P.P. 1856, Ixii. Africa (Consular)—Bight of Biafra.
P.P. 1857 (427), xvi, 1. Biafra.
P.P. 1863, Ixxi, Africa, (Consular)—Bight of Biafra.
P.P. 1865, Ivi, Africa, (Consular)—-Bight of Biafra.
P.P. 1865 (412), v. Report of Select Committee on
Africa, (Western Coast).
P.P. 1865 (412), v. Minutes of Evidence taken before
the Select Committee on
Africa, (Western Coast).
P.P. 1873, Ixv, (1). Africa, West Coast, Old Calabar.
P.P. 1893-4, (655), Ixii. General Correspondence,
Africa No. 11. Correspond
ence respecting the Affairs of the West Coast of
Africa.
P.P. 1895 (1), xxi, 1, Africa No. 1 (1895) Report on
the Administration of the
Niger Coast Protectorate, August 1891—August 1894.
P.P. 1899 (15), Ixiii. Africa, Trade, Shipping,
Railways and Economic Con
ditions Part IV, West Africa; Niger Protectorate.
P.P. 1901 cd (431-7), xlv, 727. Colonial Reports—
Annual, No. 315 Southern
Nigeria, Report for 1899-1900.
P.P. 1902 cd (788-23), Ixv, 513. Colonial Reports,
Annual, No. 353, Southern
Nigeria 1900.
P.P. 1903 cd (1388-5), xliii. Colonial Reports,
Annual, No. 381, Southern
Nigeria, 1901.
P.P. 1906, cd (2684-5), Ixxv, 1. Colonial Reports,
Annual, No. 459, Southern
Nigeria, 1904.
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
171
PUBLISHED OFFICIAL REPORTS
Report of the position, status, and influence of
chiefs and natural rulers in the
eastern region of Nigeria. G. I. Jones, Enugu, 1957.
Report of the Enquiry into the dispute over the
Obongship of Calabar.
A. K. Hart, Official Document 17, Enugu, 1964.

SELECT UNPUBLISHED THESES

Edokpayi, S. I., ‘The External Trade of the Gold Coast
(Ghana) and Nigeria’
(Univ, of London M.Sc. (Econ.) thesis 1958).
Gertzel, C. J., ‘Imperial Policy towards the British
Settlements in West Africa,
1860-1875’ (Oxford B. Litt, thesis 1959).
Gertzel, C. J., ‘John Holt: A British Merchant in West
Africa in the Era of
“Imperialism” * (Oxford D. Phil, thesis 1960).
Hopkins, A. G., ‘An Economic History of Lagos, 1880-
1914’ (Univ, of Londo
Ph.D. thesis 1964).
Merrit, J. E., ‘The Liverpool Slave Trade from 1789 to
1791’ (Univ, of Notting
ham M.A. thesis 1959).
Morrill, W., ‘Two Urban Cultures of Calabar, Nigeria’
(Univ, of Chicago
Ph.D. thesis 1960).
Nair, Kannan Kutty, ‘Politics and Society in Old
Calabar, 1841-1906’ (Univ,
of Ibadan Ph.D. thesis 1967).
Rumbel, Linda Jo, ‘Some Aspects of the Life of
Maegregor Laird’ (Univ, of
Birmingham M.A. dissertation 1965).
Stilliard, N. H., ‘The Legitimate Trade in Palm Oil
with West Africa’ (Univ, of
Birmingham M.A. thesis 1938).
Tamuno, S. M., ‘The Development of British
Administrative Control of Southern
Nigeria, 1900-12: A study in the Administrations of
Sir Ralph Moor, Sir
William MacGregor, and Sir Walter Egerton’ (Univ, of
London Ph.D. thesis
1962).

MISCELLANEOUS UNPUBLISHED WORKS

Edem, Chief E. ‘A Brief History of Efut People’,
Calabar, 1947.
Christiansen, J. E., Scrivner, C. L., Jones, F. C.,
Olive, F. R. ‘Preliminary
Survey of the Cross River Drainage Basin of Eastern
Nigeria’, Ford Found
ation and USAID, Enugu, 1963.
SELECT BOOKS
Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence {taken
before a Committee ofthe whole
House, to whom it was referred to consider of the
Slave Trade) (4 vols., London,
1789-91).
Adams, Capt. John, Sketches taken during ten voyages
to Africa, between
the years 1786-1800 (London, 1822).
----- Remarks on the Country extending from Cape
Palmas to the River Congo
(London, 1823).
Ajayi, J. F. A., Christian Missions in Nigeria, 1841-
1891 (London, 1965).
Akinjogbin, I. A., Dahomey and its Neighbours, 1708-
1818 (Cambridge,
1967).
Alagoa, E. J., The Small Brave City-State (Madison,
1964).
Anene, J. C., Southern Nigeria in Transition 1885-1906
(Cambridge, 1966).
172
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ayandele, E. A., The Missionary Impact on Modern
Nigeria 1842-1914
(London, 1966).
Aye, Efiong Ukpong, Old Calabar through the Centuries
(Calabar, 1967).
Bardot, John, A Collection of Voyages and Travels,
vol. v, A Description of the
Coasts of North and South Guinea (London, 1732).
Barker, T. C., and Harris, J. R., A Merseyside Town in
the Industrial
Revolution, St. Helens 1750-1900 (Liverpool, 1954).
Bi nd loss, Harold, In the Niger Country (Edinburgh
and London, 1898).
Blake, J. W., European Beginnings in West Africa,
1454-1578 (London, 1937).
----- Europeans in West Africa, 1450-1560 (2 vols.,
London, 1942).
Bohannan, P., and Bohannan, L., Tiv Economy (London,
1968).
----- and Dalton, G., Markets in Africa (North Western
University Press,
(1962).
Bold, Edward, The Merchants' and Mariners' African
Guide (London, 1822).
Burton, Richard F., Wanderings in West Africa, from
Liverpool to Fernando
Po (2 vols., London, 1863).
----- Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains (2 vols.,
London, 1863).
Crow, Capt. Hugh, Memoirs of the late Captain Hugh
Crow of Liverpool
(London, 1830).
Daaku, K. Y., Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast
1600-1720 (Oxford, 1970).
Dapper, O., Description de L'Afrique (Amsterdam,
1686).
Davies, K. G., The Royal African Company (London,
1957).
Dickie, Revd. William, Story of the Mission in Old
Calabar. See Missions
of the United Presbyterian Church.
Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta
(Oxford, 1956).
Donnan, Elizabeth, Documents Illustrative of the
History of the Slave Trade
to America (4 vols., Washington 193O-).
Douglas, Mary, and Kaberry, Phillis M., (eds.), Man in
Africa (London,
1969).
Dudgeon, Gerald C., The Agricultural and Forest
Products of British West
Africa (London, 1911).
Esiere, The Revd., As Seen Through African Eyes
(London, 1935).
Eta, J. A., Chieftaincy in Calabar (Calabar, 1956).
Fage, J. D., An Atlas of African History (London,
1958).
----- A History of West Africa (Cambridge, 1969).
Falcondridge, Alexander, An Account of the Slave Trade
on the Coast of
Africa (London, 1788).
Firth, Raymond (cd.), Themes in Economic Anthropology
(London, 1967).
Flint, John E., Sir George Goldie and the Making of
Nigeria (London, 1960).
Forde, Daryll (cd.), Efik Traders of Old Calabar
(London, 1956).
----- and Jones, G. I. The Ibo and Ibibio-Speaking
Peoples of South-Eastern
Nigeria (London, 1950).
----- and Kaberry, P. M., West African Kingdoms in the
Nineteenth Century
(London, 1967).
Gann, L. H., and Duignan, Peter, Colonialism in Africa
1870-1960vol. 1
(Cambridge, 1969).
Goldie, Revd. Hugh, Dictionary of the Efik Language
(Edinburgh, 1874).
----- Calabar and its Mission (London, 1890; new edn.,
(with Revd. J. T. D.
Aldingham) Edinburgh and London, 1901).
----- Memoir of King Eyo VII of Old Calabar (Old
Calabar, 1894).
Hallett, Robin (ed.,), Records of the African
Association 1788-1831 (London,
1964).
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
173
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.
e
Index
Names of Efik persons are to be found under Efik
persons.

Abakaliki, 5
Abuncko, 36, see Ebunko
Accramen, 107,108, see also Liberated
Africans
Acting Consul Easton, crowns King
Duke Eyamba IX, 129
Acting Consul Lynslager, I. W. B.,
destroys Old Town, 136
Acting Consul White, H. G., adjudi
cates Dukc-Archibong war 1885,
bans import of arms, 132,142
Acting Consul Wilson, fines King
Archibongll, 137
Action Group, 150
Adams, Capt. John, writer, 19, 55, 57,
71,73,75,79
Afikpo, 5,7,75,86
African Association, 64,65,111
African Times, Free Trade at Calabar,
82; campaign for Prince Eyamba as
King, 130; letters press annexation,
139
Agents, 59, 63, 64, 65, 72, 80, 83, 110,
111,125,137,144
Agnatic descent, 31, 34
Agreed produce division, 65
Ajayi, J. F. A., writer, v, 130 fn
Akankpa, 27
Akinjogbin, I. A., writer, v
Akpabuyo, 48,51,86,91,92,93,117
Akunakuna tribe, 5,29,120
Alagoa, E. J., writer, v
Albinos, 35
Alligars, Indian cloth, 74.
Ambo ward, 10 Chart 1, 32, 33, 37
Chart 4,45,46,114 Chart 8,128,158
Amsterdam, 58,63
Anderson, Revd. William, missionary,
vii, 96,118,130
Anglo-Efik relations, 134-45
Anglo-French wars, 18
N
Anti-Slavery Treaties, 22,134
Anyim River, 1
Archibong-Dukc war, 1885, 142
Archibong Ekundo, from Usak Edct,
36
Archibong ward, 10 Chart 1, 37 Chart
4, 44 Chart 5, 92, 93, 114 Chart 8,
117, 129,132,133,156, 164
Ardcncr, Edwin, writer, 17
Arithmetic, 107
Aroclan,3,26,27,28
Asia, 147
Atakpa, 10,88, see Duke Town
Axes, 25,76
Ayandelc, E. A., writer, v
Badglcy, James, R.N., 23
Bakasi, 28
Bamcnda grassfields, 29
Banana, 1,3
Bankruptcy, 28,40
Baptism, 103,104
Barbadoes, 17
Barbot, John, writer, 7, 23, 24, 49, 50,
51
Barwood, 23,73
Beecroft, John, 58,134, see also Consul
Beecroft
Belgian muskets and matchets, 74
Benin, 67,139
Benue River, 29
Bible studies, 107
Bight of Biafra, 17,18,22,23
Birmingham, 74
Black coppers, see copper wires,
obnbit oku, and currency
Black Country, 74
Black Davis House Book, 88, 100, see
also Black Davis Papers
Black Davis Papers, vii, see also Black
Davis House Book
180
INDEX
Blacksmiths, 7,25,76,78,108
Blood oath, 93,95,121
Bold, Edward, writer, 48, 50, 56, 71,
73,75,76,79,86,88
Bold, Jonas, slave trader and palm oil
trader, 56
Bonny, 11, 20,21,26, 28, 34,66, 67, 73
Bonny-Opobo war, 125,138
Boostam, 26,28, sec Umon.
Bosun, sec Umon
Bows and arrows, 24
Bow-wrights, 25
Bradbury, R. E., writer, etc., vii
Brandy, 75
Branfill, Capt. Andrew, slave trader,
18
Brass basins, 25, see neptunes
Brass leglets, 76
Brass rods, 78, 82, 125, sec copper
rods, okuk, currency
Brassy, 28, sec Bakasi
Bribery, 62
Bristol, 18,22
Britain, 20,59,62,63,64,65,66,68,69,
71, 72, 134, 135, 136, 137, 140, 141,
142,143,144,145
British, vi, 20, 21, 43, 49, 55, 67, 74,
109, 117, 129, 130,131, 133,134, 137,
144
British annexation, 131-2, 133, 134,
139,147,148
British Cabinet, 140
British Exchequer, 141,145
British Fleet, 21,22,92
British Government, 139,141,143
British intervention, 141,142,145
British protected people, 102,103,104,
109, 111
British Protection, 105, 106, 107, 108,
109, 111, 126, 129, 130,132,135,138,
139,140,141,142,144,145,147
British rule, v, 83, 90, 112, 133, 139,
143,148
British subjects, 61, 80, 106, 108, 136,
138,139,147
British trade, 134, 140, 141, 142, 144,
145
British traders, 80, 112, 136, 140, 141,
142
British and Continental African Co,
trading company, 65
Butcher, 108
Buyers rings, sec price rings
Calabar, re-named from Old Calabar,
149
Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers (COR) State
Movement, 150
Callao, T. J. Hutchinson Consul at, 62
Cameroons, 1, 5, 7, 28, 29, 36, 55, 66,
85,88,89,139,140,141
Canals, 74
Candles, 68
Cannibalism, 26, 50
Canoes, 5, 7, 26, 31, 33, 34, 46, 49, 82,
85
Canoe boys, 32,33,96,99,146
Canoe-house, as at Bonny and New
Calabar, 34
Cape Coasters, 106, 107, see liberated
Africans
Capital, 59,65,79
Capital costs, 59
Capitalism, 28
Capitalist institutions, 28-9
Captains, 17,18, 20 Table 1, 27,42, 55,
55 fn, 56 fn, 60,93,110
Captain Thomas, of Tom Shotts, 50
Carpenters, 76,106,107,108
Carribean, 18
Carridaries, Indian cloth, 74
Case, George, slave trader and palm oil
trader, 56
Cask-house, 59,63,108,109,110
Cassava, 1
Cattle, 5
Ceremonial breakfasts, 72
Ceremonial costumes, 25,37,75
Chectham, supercargo, 62
Cheshire, 74
Chief priest, sec Oku Ndem
Chief Akpan Ekpcne, Ibibio, 88
Christian converts, 122
Christianity, 103,124,126,130
Church Missionary Society, C.M.S.,
106
Civil war, 20
Clerks, 108
Clockmakers, 107
Cloth, 24,25,73,74, 79, sec textiles
Clothes, gaudy, 24
Cloth manufacture, 25
Clyde, 75
Cobham Town, 131
Cobham ward, 10 Chart 1, 33, 35, 43,
92, 114 Chart 8, 128, 133, 142, 157,
158
INDEX
Cocoa, 127
Combination, Efik, 71
Combination, palm oil traders, 65
Comcy, 20,48,50,72,84,115,116,122,
124,144, sec also port dues
Company of African Merchants, trad
ingcompany, 63
Competition between palm oil traders,
56,57,58,59,63,64,65,144,147
Compound groups, 12, 31, 33, 34, 40,
51
Consul, 61, 71, 72, 80, 103, 107, 112,
124,125,126,127,129,132,134,135,
136, 137-8,139,142,144,145,147
Consul Anncsley, prohibits Ekpc, 133
Consul Beecroft, John, makes trade
treaty 1852, 80, 81; made Consul,
134-5; intervenes in 1851 crisis, 135;
see also Bcccroft, John
Consul Burton, Richard, makes trade
treaty 1862, 80, 137; fails to open
Cross River, 81-2
Consul Hartley, re-opens kernel trade,
64; receives King Archibong’s com
plaints about emancipadoes, 104
Consul Hewett, Edward Hyde, 89; asks
Chiefs to elect King, 129,131; nego
tiates protection treaty, 132; inter
venes in chaos, 1886, 133; advocates
annexation, 139; urges protection,
ordered to conclude treaties, 140;
makes treaties, 141; supports total
annexation, 142, 143
Consul Hopkins, complains of liberated
Africans, 108; negotiates settlement
between Henshaw Town and Duke
Town, and also treaty abolishing
human sacrifice, 1878, 126, 139
Consul Hutchinson, T. J., translated
after bribery enquiry, 62; grants
emancipation papers, 104; receives
King Duke’s complaints about
liberated Africans, 106; deports two
Sierra Leoneans, 107; unsuccessful
attempt to set up Court of Equity,
137
Consul Livingstone, Charles, 59,72,76;
complains of liberated Africans, 107;
transfers Consulate to Old Calabar,
110; intervenes in dispute over King
Henshaw, 125; seeks forward policy
on Cross River, fines King Archibong, 137; recalled
138
181
Consular Administration, 111, 140,
143
Consulate, at Old Calabar, 110
Consul General, 133,145
Coopers, 107
Cook-steward, 108
Copper, 24,25
Copper rods, currency, 23, 25, 29, 69,
73, 76, 77 Table 5; value of, 78, 79,
82, 94,100, 119; sec also brass rods,
okuk
Copper rods, depreciation of, 23, 72,
76-9
Copper wires, currency, 76, 78, 78
Table 6; value of, 79; sec also black
coppers, obubit oku
Cost schedule, 59
Council, sec village council
Couper Scott & Co, trading company,
84 fn
Court of Equity, 108,137,138
Credit, 27,28,29,30,37,38, 39,51,60,
79, 80, 81, 84, 85, 86, 120, 146, sec
trust
Credit-worthiness, 24,39,51,79, 134
Creek Town, 9, 12, 13, 27, 33, 35, 36,
37 Chart 4,47,49, 58, 59, 82, 88, 89,
95, 96, 100, 106, 115, 116, 119, 120,
121, 122, 123, 125, 127,128, 143, sec
Ikot Itunko
Cross River, 1, 3, 5, 7,9,10, 17,23,26,
28, 29, 39, 42, 49, 75, 79, 83, 86, 90,
92,127,134,137,146,149
Cross River Basin, economy of, 5-8, 6
Map 4
Cross River Basin, geography of, 1-3,
xiv Map 1
Cross River Basin, people of, 3-4, 4
Map 3
Cross River estuary, 3,7,9,36,50
Crown Colony, 143
Curcock, 32, see Ikot Ofliong
Currency, domestic, see copper rods
and copper wires
Curtin, P. D., writer, 18,23
Curtin, P. D. and Vansina, Jan, writers,
29
Cuthbertson, Capt., supercargo, 60
Customs duties, 56,84,143, see tariffs
Daaku, K. Y., writer, v
Dash, 24,72
Davies, Capt., supercargo, 60
182
INDEX
Debasement of copper rod, 78
Debt collecting, 28, 38, 59-60, 79, 80,
115,118,121
Debts, 28-9, 37, 38, 51, 60, 61, 62, 79,
80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 115, 121, 122, 134,
144
Depression, in the eighties, 69, in the
sixties, 72
Destraint, 28,38
Dike, K. O., writer, v, vi, 31,59,62,94,
135
Dirty oil, 65
Drums, Ekpe, 38
Dutch, 18,20
Duke-Archibong war, 1884-5,96,132—
133
Duke Town, 10,12, 35, 37 Chart 4,44,
45, 47, 48, 49, 59, 61, 81, 82, 88, 89,
91,93,94,95,96, 100, 103, 104, 106,
107,118,119,121,122,124, 125,126,
128,130,136, 138,139
Duke ward, 10 Chart 1, 33, 34, 37
Chart 4, 44, 44 Chart 5, 45, 51, 92,
93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 113, 114, 114
jli>, izu, ixj,
Chart 8,115,117,118,119,120,123,
124,125,127,129,130, 131,132,133,
122, 222, —,
154,155,156,163,164
Efik great trading slaves, 84, 96-102,
105,111,115,120,121
Efik house or ward, 31, 33, 34, sec ufok
and Efik wards
Efik inheritance customs, 99
Efik Kings, sec Efik persons
Efik language, 12
Efik markets, 5,120,126,137
Efik monopoly, Cross River, 48,49,51,
81-4,90,115,134
Efik oligarchy, 83,84,85,105, 111
Efik oral tradition, vi, vii, 9, 10, 36,91
Efik palm oil traders, 59, 60, 85,88,89
Earthenware, 75
Ebeo, 28, see Iboland
Ebongo, King of, 47, see Ebiinko
Ebony,73
Ebrcros, 49-50
Ebunko, 36,39,45,47,116
Ebunko-ship, 45,47,113
Economic Imperialism, 141
Edibo, 39
Edidem, 42-3
Education, 103,106,107
E. E. Offiong’s Judgement Book, 99
Eericock, 28, see Ikot Offiong
Ecricock Boatswain, 28, see Umon,
Bosun
Effiat tribe, 3
Efik economy, 13,29,42,43,44
Efik founding fathers, 9, 31, 32, 34, 36
Efik freemen, 32, 33, 34, 35, 39, 40, 84,
85, 94, 95, 96-7, 99, 102, 105, 115,
117,119,126,146
Efik genealogies, 10 Chart 1,10-11,44
Chart 5,46.
Efik Gentlemen, 85, 93, 96, 97, 101,
102,107,111,118
Efik persons:
Adam Archibong, see Edem Archibong
Adam Duke, 98 Chart 6,155 Appendix
3
Adam Ironbar, 101 Chart 7, 102, 164
Appendix 4
Adam John Eyamba, see Eyamba XII,
37 Chart 4,116 Chart 9
Adam Oku, 154 Appendix 3
Adim Atai, 9,10 Chart 1,11
Aduk Ephraim Duke, 162 Appendix 4
A. Eyamba, 162 Appendix 4
Akabom Oso, 11 Chart 2
Antera Duke Diarist, 18, 26, 28,32,46,
47, 50,55
Antera Duke, 98 Chart 6, 154 Appen
dix 3
Antera Young, see Ntiero Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho
Antica Ambo, 60, 98 Chart 6, 158
Appendix 3
Apande Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Archibong, see Archibong Duke
Archibong Duke, sec Archibong, and
King Archibong 1.44 Chart 5,93,94,
99, 101, 117, 118, 119,120,135,136,
154 Appendix 3
Archibong Edem, see Prince Archibong
III, 101 Chart 7, 129, 130, 131,132,
144,164 Appendix 4
Archibong Ekpo, 44 Chart 5
Archibong Henshaw Duke, 162 Ap
pendix 4
Asibon Akabom, 11 Chart 2
Asibon Eso, sec Willy Tom Robinsand
Chief Willy Tom Robins 11, 11
Chart 2,136
Atai Ema, 10 Chart 1
Aye Eyo, see John Eyo and King Eyo
INDEX
V, 98 Chart 6,117 Chart 10,122,128,
159 Appendix 3
Basi Duke Antario, 154 Appendix 3
Bassey Africa, 98 Chart 6, 99, 157
Appendix 3
Bassey Henshaw, see Basscy Henshaw
Duke
Bassey Henshaw Duke, sec Basscy
Henshaw, 84, 98 Chart 6, 99, 120,
121,156 Appendix 3
Basscy Offiong, 98 Chart 6, 157 Ap
pendix 3
Big Adam Duke, 100, 162 Appendix 4
Black Davis, 59, 84, 85, 88, 98 Chart
6,99,100,121,155 Appendix 3
Boco Cobham, 154 Appendix 3
Boco Duke, 100
Bo dar Nar, 154 Appendix 3
Captain Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Chief Willy Tom Robins, see Asibon
Eso
Chief Henshaw III, see James Hen
shaw
Chief James Henshaw, see James Hen
shaw
Coco Basscy, 83
Coco Henshaw Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Coco Otu Basscy, 102
David King, 154 Appendix 3
Dick Ebro’, 32,49
Dick Ebrow, 50
Doctor Eyo, see Ibok Eyo
Duke Ephraim, see Ededem
Duke Ephraim, see Efiom Edem
Duke Ephraim Eyambo, sec Efiom
Edem
Ededem, see Edem Odo, Duke Eph
raim, and King Duke Ephraim. 44
Chart 5, 61, 97, 98 Chart 6, 99, 106,
117,119, 120, 128, 129, 133,136, 154
Appendix 3
Edem Archibong, see Adam Archibong,
Eyamba VIII, and King Archibong
III. 37 Chart 4,44 Chart 5,62,85,98
Chart 6, 101 Chart 7, 104, 105, 107,
108,121,123,124,125,126,127,128,
129, 138, 139, 145, 156 Appendix 3,
164 Appendix 4
Edem Efiom, 10,10 Chart 1,12 Chart 3
Edem Ekpenyong, see Edem Ekpen
yong Ofiong Okoho.
Edem Ekpenyong Ofiong Okoho, see
Edem Ekpenyong, Eyamba V, and
183
King Eyamba V. 37 Chart 4, 44
Chart 5,80,81,88, 99, 104,115, 116,
116 Chart 9 and Source, 117, 121,
123,129,134,154 Appendix 3
Edem Ekpo, 12,12 Chart 3,44 Chart 5,
46
Edem Ephraim Adam, 162 Appendix 4
Edem Odo, see Ededem
Efefiom John Eyamba, see Eyamba
XIII, 37 Chart 4,116 Chart 9
Efla John Eyamba, see Eyamba XIV',
37 Chart 4,116 Chart 9
Effiong Efiwatt, 101 Chart 7, 165
Appendix 4
Effiong Muneshu, 154 Appendix 3
Effiong Otu, 162 Appendix 4
Efiok Eyo, see Eyo Honesty (?),
Father Tom, Tom Eyo and King Eyo
IV. 88 (7), 98 Chart 6, 115,116,117
Chart 9, 122, 128,159 Appendix 3
Efiom Edem, see Duke Ephraim, Duke
Ephraim Eyambo, Great Duke Eph
raim and Eyamba IV, 21, 21 fn, 22,
27, 37 Chart 4,44 Chart 5,47-8, 50,
51,74, 79, 80, 81, 84, 86, 91, 92, 93,
95, 96, 97, 99, 111, 115, 116, 116
Chart 9 and Source, 117,128,134
Efiom Edem Ekpenyong, sec Eyamba
VII, 37 Chart 4,116 Chart 9,121
Efiom Ekpo, 9, 10 Chart 1, 12, 12
Chart 3,34,44,44 Chart 5
Efiom John Eyamba, see Eyamba XI
37 Chart 4,116 Chart 9
Efiom Okoho, 10 Chart 1,12 Chart 3,
44 Chart 5,97
Efiom Otu Ekon, 11 Chart 2
Efiong Ludianah, 98 Chart 6, 160
Appendix 3
Egbo Bassey (1), 104,105 fn, 107
Egbo Basscy (2), 154 Appendix 3
Egbo Bo, 154 Appendix 3
Egbo Boyok, 154 Appendix 3
Egbo Etam Henshaw, 100
Egbo Eyo, 95,122,154 Appendix 3
Egbo Jack, 98 Chart 6,158 Appendix 3
Egbo Jemmy, 154 Appendix 3
Egbo King Archibong, 162 Appendix 4
Egbo King Archibongll, 162 Appendix
4
Egbo Tom, 98 Chart 6,160 Appendix 3
Egbo Young (brother of Antcra Duke,
diarist), 26
Egbo Young Etam, 162 Appendix 4
184
INDEX
Egbo Young Etim, 154 Appendix 3
Egbo Young Eyambo, see Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho
Egbo Young Hogan, 98 Chart 6, 100,
160 Appendix 3
Egbo Young Ofiong, see Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho.
Eke Eso, 100
Ekpenyong Ekpe Oku, see Eyamba II,
37 Chart 4,45
Ekpenyong Ekpo, 154 Appendix 3
Ekpenyong Etim, 154 Appendix 3
Ekpenyong Etim Asiya, 11 Chart 2
Ekpenyong Ofiong, see Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho
Ekpenyong Ofiong Okoho, see Ekpen
yong Ofiong, Egbo Young Ofiong
Egbo Young Eyambo, and Eyamba
III, 12, 12 Chart 3, 36, 37 Chart 4,
44 Chart 5, 45, 46, 47, 48, 114-5,
116 Chart 9
Ekpo Efiom, 12 Chart 3,44 Chart 5
Ekpo Nsa, 12 Chart 3,44,44 Chart 5
Ema, 9,10 Chart 1.
Ene Black Davis, 162 Appendix 4
Enni Cobham, 98 Chart 6, 157 Ap
pendix 3
Ephraim Adam, 100,154 Appendix 3
Ephraim Antera, 154 Appendix 3
Ephraim Boco Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Ephraim Duke, 98 Chart 6, 155 Ap
pendix 3
Ephraim Etim Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Ephraim Eyo Duke, 162 Appendix 4
Ephraim Henshaw Duke, 98 Chart 6,
160 Appendix 3
Ephraim Lewis, 100,162 Appendix 4
Ephraim Nacunda, 154 Appendix 3
Ephraim Robin John, see Efiom Otu
Ekon
Eshien Etem Bassey Offiong, 162
Appendix 4
Esien Ambo, 154 Appendix 3
Esien Ekpc Oku, see Eyamba I, 36, 37
Chart 4,39,45,46
Esicn Esien Ukpabio, 123
Eso Asibon, 11,11 Chart 2
Etim Effiong Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Etim Effiong Esien, 154 Appendix 3
Eyamba I, see Esien Ekpc Oku
Eyamba II, sec Ekpenyong Ekpe Oku
Eyamba III, see Ekpenyong Ofiong
C .oho
Eyamba IV, sec Efiom Edem
Eyamba V, sec Edem Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho
Eyamba VI, see Nteiro Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho
Eyamba VII, see Efiom Edem Ekpen
yong
Eyamba VIII, see Edem Archibong
Eyamba IX, see Orok Edem
Eyamba X, see James Eyamba
Eyamba XI, see Efiom John Eyamba
Eyamba XII, see Adam John Eyamba
Eyamba XIII, see Efefiom John
Eyamba
Eyamba XIV, see Effa John Eyamba
Eyo Archibong, see John Archibong
and King Archibong II, 44 Chart
5, 62, 72, 95, 98 Chart 6, 101, 120,
121, 123, 124, 127, 137, 156 Appen
dix 3
Eyo Ebrow, 50
Eyo Ema, 9,10 Chart 1,13
Eyo E. Ndem, 101 Chart 7, 165 Ap
pendix 4
Eyo Ete, see King Eyo III, and Young
Eyo. 95, 117 Chart 10,122,127,128,
154 Appendix 3
Eyo Eyo, see Eyo Eyo Inyang, Eyo
Honesty II, and King Eyo II, 47,59,
60,61,65,85, 88,95,98 Chart 6,106,
115,116,117,117 Chart 10,119,120,
121,122,128,136,159 Appendix 3
Eyo Eyo Inyang, see Eyo Eyo
Eyo Honesty, see Efiok Eyo (?)
Eyo Honesty I, sec Eyo Nsa
Eyo Honesty II, see Eyo Eyo
Eyo Ita, 162 Appendix 4
Eyo Nsa, see Eyo Honesty I, King Eyo
I, Willy Honesty, 32, 33 , 34, 36, 39,
40. 45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 97, 115, 117
ChartlO, 123,127,128
Eyo Okon, 122,127,128
Father Tom, sec Efiok Eyo
George Duke, 95, 98 Chart 6, 99,100,
101 Chart 7, 102,105,156 Appendix
3,163 Appendix 4
Great Duke Ephraim, see Efiom Edem
Grandy King George, 36
Henshaw Duke, (1), 94,98 Chart 6,154
Appendix 3
Henshaw Duke, (2), 98 Chart 6, 101
Chart 7, 154 Appendix 3, 163
Appendix 4
INDEX
Henshaw Toby, 101 Chart 7, 165
Appendix 4
Henshaw Tom Foster, sec Nsa Okoho
Hogan Archibong, 162 Appendix 4
Hogan Bassey, 98 Chart 6, 158 Ap
pendix 3
Hogan Ironbar, 101 Chart 7, 102, 163
Appendix 4
Ibok Eyo, see Doctor Eyo and King
Eyo VI, 95, 98 Chart 6, 100, 117
Chart 10, 122-3, 127, 128, 159
Appendix 3
Inyang Eyo, 122
Iron Bar, 97,102
James Egbo Basscy, 105,139
James Ephraim Adam, 101 Chart 7,
164 Appendix4
James Eyamba, see Prince James
Eyamba, Prince James Eyamba V
and Eyamba X, 37 Chart 4, 101
Chart 7, 116 Chart 9, 123, 124, 125,
128-9,130,131,144,165 Appendix 4
James Henshaw, see Chief James Hen
shaw, Chief Henshaw III, Jemmy
Henshaw (?), King Henshaw III and
Obong Henshaw, 43, 43 fn, 98
Chart 6 (?), 124, 125, 126, 127, 144,
154 Appendix 3 (?)
Jemmy Henshaw, see James Henshaw
(?)
John Anderson, 162 Appendix 4
John Archibong, sec Eyo Archibong
John Boco Cobham, 154 Appendix 3
John Duke, (1), 93,94
John Duke (2), 98 Chart 6, 161 Ap
pendix 3
John Ephraim, 98 Chart 6, 161 Ap
pendix 3
John Eyo, see Aye Eyo
Joseph Eyamba, 101 Chart 7, 165
Appendix 4
Joseph George Duke, 162 Appendix 4
Joseph Henshaw, 89,126,127
King Archibong I, sec Archibong Duke
King Archibong II, see Eyo Archibong
King Archibong III, see Edem Archi
bong
King Calabar, 35,42, sec Oku Ndem
King Cameroons, 98 Chart 6, 158
Appendix 3
King Duke Ephraim, see Ededem
King Duke, sec Orok Edem
King Duke Eyamba IX, see Orok Edem
185
King Ebrero, 49
King Eyamba V, sec Edem Ekpenyong
Ofiong Okoho
King Eyo I, see Eyo Nsa
King Eyo II, see Eyo Eyo
King Eyo III, see Eyo Etc
King Eyo IV, see Efiok Eyo
King Eyo V, see Aye Eyo
King Eyo VI, see Ibok Eyo
King Eyo VII, see Nsa Okoho
King Henshaw III, sec James Henshaw
King Prince Duke Ephraim Eyamba
IX, see Orok Edem
King War, 98 Chart 6, 161 Appendix
3
Little Capt Duke, 154 Appendix 3
---- «/■--» a
-------a
Lord Archibong,
162
Appendix
4
Mr Young, 98 Chart 6, 117, 118, 119,
156 Appendix 3
N. B. Henshaw, 65 fn
Nksc Etim Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Nsa Efiom, 9, 10 Chart 1,12 Chart 3,
44,44 Chart 5
Nsa Okoho, see Henshaw Tom Foster,
and King Eyo VII, 89, 117 Chart 10,
125,127-8,132,143
Ntiero Ekpenyong Ofiong Okoho, see
Eyamba VI, 37 Chart 4, 98 Chart 6,
116 Chart 9, 119, 120, 121, 157
Appendix 3
Obong Henshaw, see James Henshaw
Obuma, 94
Offiong Archibong, 154 Appendix 3
Offiong ElTco Iwat, 100
Ofliong Effiono Imah, 162 Appendix 4
Offiong Enian, 100
Ofiong Okoho, 10 Chart 1,12 Chart 3,
44 Chart 5,45,97
Okoho (Efiom) 9, 10, 10 Chart 1, 12
Chart 3,44 Chart 5
Okoho (Eyo) 117 Chart 10,128
Okon Ma, 105
Oku Atai, 9,10 Chart 1,33,36
Old George, 154 Appendix 3
Optcr Antcra, 26
Orok Edem, see King Duke Eyamba
IX, King Prince Duke Ephraim
Eyamba IX, Prince Duke, and
Eyamba IX, 37 Chart 4, 44 Chart 5,
101 Chart 7, 102, 105, 116 Chart 9
and Source, 125, 129, 130, 131, 132,
133, 139, 142, 144, 145, 163 Appen
dix 4
4C*
186
INDEX
OsoUkpong.il Chart!
Otto Ephraim, 35
P. Ejro Eyamba, 162 Appendix 4
Peter King Camcroons, 105,130
Prince Archibong II, 100, 101 Chart 7,
164 Appendix 4
Prince Archibong III, see Archibong
Edem
Prince Egbo Archibong, 162 Appendix
4
Prince Duke, see Orok Edem
Prince James Eyamba, sec James
Eyamba
Prince James Eyamba V, see James
Eyamba
Prince Samuel Eyamba, 162 Appendix
4
Prince Thomas Eyamba, 104,108
Thomas Hogan, 98 Chart 6, 160
Appendix 3
Toby (-?-), 100
Tobby Tom, 98 Chart 6,160 Appendix
3
Tom Eyo, sec Efiok Eyo
Tom Offiong, 98 Chart 6,160 Appendix
3
Ukpong Atai, 9, 10 Chart 1, 11, 11
Chart 2
William Duke, 154 Appendix 3
Willy Honesty, see Eyo Nsa
Willy Tom Robins, (1), see Eso Asibon
Willy Tom Robins, (2), sec Asibon Eso
Yellow Duke, 84, 88, 89, 98 Chart 6,
99, 100, 101, 101 Chart 7, 102, 121,
133, 142, 155 Appendix 3, 163
Appendix 4
Young Big Adam, 154 Appendix 3
Young Cobham, 154 Appendix 3
Young Eyo, sec Eyo Etc
Efik politics and political history, v, vi;
political offices, 42; Obong-ship defi
nition, 42-3; offices move to trading
lineages, 43-4; personalities during
slave trade, 45-9; subjection of
neighbours, 49-51; effect of slave
trade on, 51; inter-war rivalry for
office, 113; political functions of
funeral sacrifices and poison bean
ordeal, 113; succession dispute on
death of Great Duke Ephraim, 115;
accession of King Eyamba V, 115;
downfall of Eyamba V, 115; rise of
King Eyo II, 115-17; succession dis
pute on death of Eyamba V, 117;
accession of Archibong 1,117; slaves
prevent Mr Young becoming Eyam
ba, 118; succession dispute on death
of Archibong I, 119; accession of
King Duke Ephraim and Antera
Duke as Eyamba VI, 119; King
Eyo’s decline, 119-20; accession of
Archibong II, 120-1; power of great
slaves, 121; deterioration of Creek
Town, 121-3; accession of Archibong
III both Obong and Eyamba, 123;
Henshaws seek independence, 124-7;
Creek Towns political crisis, 127-8;
Duke Towns political crisis and sue
cession dispute, 128-31; Eyambas
seek British annexation, 131-2; estab
lishment of British Protection, 132;
establishment of British control, 133;
trade basis of Anglo-Efik relations,
134; appointment of Consul, 134-5;
Consuls functions, 135; destruction
of Old Town, 136 ; Consul powerless
in supercargoes v liberated Africans,
136; attempt to open Cross River
fails, 137; Magisterial power con
ferred on Consul, 138; increasing
claims for British Protection, 138-9;
Eyambas demand British annexation,
139; British reasons for establishing
Protection, 139-40; bungling of Pro
tection Treaties, 140-1; motivations
for Protection, 141-2; failure of
Consular administration, 142-3;
decision to establish new administra
tion, 143; part played in determining
British moves by palm produce
prices, 144; conclusions on Efik
politics, 144-5
Efik settlement, 10-12
Efik slave traders, 29, 31, 32,33,92
Efik society and social history, v, vi,
vii; original social structure, 31;
incorporation of slaves, 31-2; upward
mobility of Eyo Nsa, 32; Eyo Nsa
creates new ward, 32; segmentation
of lineages into wards, 33; wards of
dubious ancestry expand fastest, 334; self government
of ward, 34; Efik
ward or house not like Bonny and
New Calabar canoe house, 34; integ
rity of village group, 34-5; integrating
INDEX
187
force of Ndcm Efik, 35; growth of Ekpuk, 12,13
Ekpc, 35-8; Ekpc functions, 37-8; Elders, 34,40
EK'peeconomic functions, 38-9; struc Eliot, Capt.
John, slave trader, 17
ture of Ekpe, 39; Ekpe as an inte Ema lineage,
13,33,35,43
grating organ, 39-40; village council, Emancipadocs,
104,111,112,129,138,
40; conclusions on effects of slave
145,147
trade on, 40-1; increase in Efik Emancipation, 104,109
traders in nineteenth century, 84; Emancipation
papers, 104,109
expansion of population, 91; in Emuramura, 7
creased number of agricultural Enamelware, 75
slaves and settlement of Akpabuyo, England, 72,110,120
91-3; slaves unite with blood oath, English, 17, 18,
26, 28, 31, 49, 50, 85,
93-4; slaves participate in urban poli
106,107
tics, 94-6; upward mobility oftrading English law, 61
slaves, 96-7; identification of great Enterprise,
slave ship, 55 fn
trading slaves, 97-9; further advance Enugu, 150
of trading slaves, 99-100; obtain Enyong, 26,28,86,122
highest Ekpe positions, 100-1; at Enyong Creek, 1,5
tempt to curb great slaves, 102; Mis Enyong tribe, 3
sion, 102-3; emancipation of Mission Esere, 113, sec
poison bean ordeal
slaves, 104; opposition to emanci Ete Ekpuk, 13
pation, 104-5; liberated Africans Etim Effiom ward, 10
Chart 1,92-3
settle in Calabar, 105-6; opposition Etinyin, 42-3
to liberated Africans, 106-9; Euro Europe,
64,68,71,75,147
pean traders not allowed to settle on Europeans, v, 9,
13, 17, 23, 24, 26, 27,
shore, 109-11; conclusion on effects
28, 30, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48,
of oil trade on Efik society, 111-12
49, 50, 55, 64, 65, 68, 69, 71, 73, 79,
Efik trading slaves, 31, 32, 33, see Efik
81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 88, 90, 109, 110,
great trading slaves
111,116,118,122
Efik traders, 24, 28,38,48,84-5,88
European traders, 17,18,19,20,21,24,
Efik trading agents, 27, 28, 84, 85, 96,
65,109-112,146
120
European manufactures, 24-5, 64, 75,
Efik trading empire, 90
76,79,82
Efik tribe, 3,7,9-13
European trade, 10, 17, 23, 46, 49, 50,
Efik wards, 33, 34, 35,37, 38,39,40,41,
55,79,81
43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51, 85, 91, 92, Eyamba, vi, 37
Chart 4, 39, 42, 45, 46,
93,95, 96,113,121,124,145,146,147
48, 51, 115, 116 Chart 9, 118, 119,
Efik ward members, 40, 93, 95, 96,146
120 121 123 129
Efiom Ekpo lineage, 12,12 Chart 3,13, EyXX 45 IB, 114,
118, 119,
33,44,124
131,144
Efut tribe, 5,9,10,109
Eyamba I to Eyamba XIV, see Efik
Egbo, 35,36,97, see Ekpe
persons
Egbosherry, 50, see Ibibioland
Eyamba ward, 10 Chart 1, 33, 34, 37
Egypt, 147
Chart 4, 44, 44 Chart 5, 45, 51, 92,
Ekoi tribe, 5,29,88
94,97,99,101,113,114,114 Chart 8,
115,116 Chart 9,117,118, 119, 121,
Ekpe, founding of, 35-7; Eyamba title
124,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,
holders in, 37 Chart 4; sanctions, 38;
139,142,145,147,156,157,165
functions, 37-9; membership, 39;
European traders join, 80. Also 28, Eyo ward, 33, 34,
45, 51, 97, 113, 114
Chart 8,115, 120,123,159
29, 35, 37, 40, 42, 45, 46, 47, 71, 81,
93, 96, 97, 100, 101, 102, 109, 121, Experimental
farm, 110
Extended family, 12
125, 126, 133, sec Egbo
Ezza clan, 5
Ekpo lineage, see Efiom Ekpo lineage
188
INDEX
Factories, 82,83,111, 120
Grant, narrator in Crow, Capt. Hugh,
Falconbridgc, Alexander, writer, 26,
writer, 86
28
Grease, 68
Farmers, 3,5
Gum, 73
Fcrgusson, Cape Coaster, 106,107
Gunpowder, 73
Fernando Po,21,62,104,107,108,126, Guns,
3,24,25,27,73,74,81,131
127
Fertilizer, 5
Haddison, James, Jamaican mission
Fish, 5,7
employee, 61
Fishermen, 3, 7, 13, 25, 29, 31, 35, 146 Hall, Capt.
J. A., slave trader, 32, 42,
Fishing, 7,9,32,35,40,42,43,44
55 fn
Fishing cult, 43, see Ndem Efik
Hamilton & Co, trading company, 63
Fixed capital, 58
Hardware, 24,25,73,75,76
Fletchers, 25
Hartjc, Harry, agent, 80, 83
Food, 92
Hart Report, vi
Foreign Office, 61, 104, 108, 130, 131, Harvest
fluctuations, 71
132,133,136,137,138,139, 140,141, Hearn, Michael,
supercargo, 61,62
142
Hearn, William, supercargo, 62
Foreign Office enquiry, 62
Hcdd, Daniel, Sierra Leonean, 60,61
Fort Stewart, 111
Her Majesty’s Commissioner and Con
Free Africans, see liberated Africans
sul General, 133,143
Free Trade, on the Cross River, 81, 82, Henderson,
Alex, agent, 80
83,90,137,149
HenshawTown-Duke Town war, 1875,
Freight rates, 63
74,85,125,138, 139
French, 18, 20, 22, 58, 134, 139, 140, Henshaw Town,
125,126,139
141,142,145
Henshaw ward, 10 Chart 1, 33, 43, 44,
Funeral sacrifices, 93, 94, 95, 102, 113,
44 Chart 5,47, 65, 82, 83, 85, 89, 92,
115, 120, 129, 136, sec also human
114 Chart 8, 124, 125, 126, 127, 129,
sacrifice
131, 138, 139, 154
Hoes, 25
Gatling gun, 131
Holman, James, R.N., traveller-writer,
Genealogy of Efik Obongs, 1600-1891,
27,38,73
44 Chart 5
Holt, John, palm oil merchant and
Genealogy of Creek Town Obongs.
trader, 63,83, 140
117 Chart 10
Hopkins, A. G., writer, vii, 112,144
General Gowon, 150
Horsfall & Sons, trading company, 58,
George Canning, palm oil ship, 50
62,63, 80 fn
German, 89,141,142,145
Horsfall, Thomas B., merchant, 134
German gunboat, 89,143
Hulks, 59,63,64,99,108,109,110,111,
German Imperial Governor, 89
125
German sovereignty in Camcroons, 89, Human sacrifice,
26, 35, 130, 135, 136,
90
137, 139, see also funeral sacrifices
Gin, 74
Hunters, 5
Glasgow, 63,64
Goats, 5
Ibibioland, 5, 7, 9, 29, 50, 67, 88, see
Goldie, Revd. Hugh, missionary, 43,
Egbosherry
85,86
Ibibio tribe, 3, 5,7,9,12,26, 31, 33,42,
Goldie-Taubman, of National Africa
43, 50,75, 88
Company, 140
Iboland, 28,29
Government of the Oil Rivers, 133
Ibo tribe, 3,5,7,28,29,76
Governor of Fernando Po, 21
Ibo slaves, 28,29
Grain crops, 1
Idem Ikwo, 37
Grandy Ekpc,46
Idip, 12
INDEX
Iduan,89
Ifiayong, 5,86
Ikimc, Obaro, writer, v
Ikoncto, 100
Ikorofiong, also Ikot Offiong, 5, 7, 85,
89
Ikot Ansa, 7,75
Ikot Etunko, 9, see Creek Town
Ikot Offiong, also Ikorofiong, 28,86
Ikpa, 5,73,85,86,88,120
Ikpa Creek, 3,46
Ikpa Enc, 9,10 fn
Imperialism, vi, 141
Implements, 25
Imports, 24,25,73,74-9
India, 147
Indian cloth, 74. See romals, photaes,
alligars, sastracundies, carridaries
Inflation, 78
Inglis, agent, 61,110
Insurance, 72
International economy, v, 30, 146, 148
Iron, 7,24,25,73
Itu, 5,28,81,85,86,89
Ivory, 17,23,73
Jaja ofOpobo, 82,126,127
Jamaica, 18,61
James, slave ship, 17
James Irvine & Co, trading company,
67 fn
Jansen, D. J. B., independent trader,
64
John Aqua, of Qua, 26
Jones, G. I., writer, v, vi, vii, 3, 20, 31,
33,34, 38, 39,40,91,94,97,100
Jones, Revd., missionary, 106
Kalahari, 111, see New Calabar
King Calabar, sec Efik persons
Kent, palm oil ship, 58
King, vi, 37 Chart 4, 42, 43, 110, 129,
130,131,132,137,141,143,147. For
individuals see Efik persons, see also
Obong
King of Qua, 50
Kings of Cameroons, 139
Kinship, 32
Kneale, Capt. Charles, slave trader,
55 fn, 56 fn
Knives, 25
Koclle, writer, 29
Krumcn, 110
189
Lace, Ambrose, merchant and slave
trader, 35
Lagos, 67,144,149,150
Lagosians, 108
Lancashire cloth, 74
Laundry-maid, 108
Law, 37-8, 40, 42, 103, 106, 107, 108,
125
Lawson, Capt. Caesar, 55 fn
Leers, writer, 17
Legumes, 1
Leo Africanus, 17
Leyland, MessrsThos, slave merchants,
55 fn, 56 fn
Liberated Africans, 59,63,65, 80,105—
9, 111, 112, 130, 138, 145, 147, see
free Africans
Lineage heads, 13,33,34
Lineages, 12, 13, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 40,
43,51,91,146
Liquidation, 80
Liquor, sec spirits, alcoholic
Lister, Sir Villiers, 143
Liverpool, growing importance as
slave port, 18; ships sailing for
Africa from, 19 Graph 1; Captains,
20; slaves in Liverpool ships from
New Calabar, Bonny and Old Cala
bar, 21 Table 2; ships dominate Old
Calabar trade, 22; eighteenth cen
tury palm oil imports, 24, 55, 56
Table 3; many firms leave trade,
62-5; salt exports to West Africa,
73; rum from, 75. Also 58, 61,120
Liverpool African Association presses
Palmerston to annex Old Calabar,
135
Livestock, 5
London, 18,22,69,72,144
Long Juju of Arochuku, 2,26-7
Lord Derby, 126
Lord Salisbury, 142
Lottery, slave ship, 55 fn, 56 fn
Louch, agent, 110
McCoskry & Greer, trading company,
64
MacDonald, Major, Commissioner
and Consul General, 133,143
McPhee, A., writer, 69
Magisterial authority, 80,136,137,138,
145,147
Magistrate, palm oil ship, 157
190
INDEX
Mail steamers, 58,59,61,106,110,120, Needles, 76
136
Negrobells, 100
Maize, 1,3
Neptunes, 25, see brass basins
Mamfe, 7
Newbury, C. W., writer, v
Manchester, 74
. New Calabar, 17,21 Table 2,26,34
New Town, 36, see Duke Town
Marccs, Pieter De, writer, 17
New Wamaso, 89
Margarine, 64
New World, 23,146
Markets, hinterland, 5,7,9,13
Massacre of Old Calabar, 1767,46,49, Nicolls, Col.,
Governor of Fernando
Po, 21; 22,58
see Old Town war 1767
Nicholls, Henry, explorer, vi, 28, 36,
Matchets, 74
46,47,50
Mbakara, 39
Nicholls, Peter, Sierra Leonean, 59,60,
Mbiakong, 46
61
Mboko, 39
Niger, 140,141
Mboko Mboko, 39
Niger Coast Protectorate, 149
Mbre Iduke ke Esuk Urua, 81
Niger Company, 142
Mbudikom, 29
Niger Delta, 1
Mercenaries, 27
Messrs Trankrancm, trading company, Niger Expedition
of 1841,106
Nigeria, 150
63
Nigerian Civil War, 150
Metal working, 7
Night soil, 5
Middlemen, 49,64,81,146,149
Nkpara, 7,75
Miller Brothers, trading company, 65
Nsutana, 10
Mineral oil, 68
Mission, 61,81,85,93,102-5,106,109, Ntiero ward, 10
Chart 1,33, 34,92,114
Chart 8,124,154
110, 111, 112,123,124,127,129,130,
Nyamkpe, 39
131,136,138
Missionaries, 64, 75, 81, 83, 95, 102, Nyana Yaku,
13,35
103,107,110,117,121,130,147
Obong (1), King, 42-3, 44, 44 Chart 5,
Mission employee, 61
45, 46, 48, 51, 99, 115,116, 117,118,
Mkpe, (1), early secret society, 35
120,121,123,124,126,127,128,129,
Mkpe, (2), grade in Ekpe, 39
131,138,139,145, see King
Monkeys, 23
Obong
(2), in Ekpe, 39
Monopoly, European, 59,65
OZ>o//g-ship, vi, 44, 45, 46, 113, 114,
Monrovia, 108
119,124,128,131,132,144
Murder of twin babies, 9,103,136,139
Obong isong, 13,40,43
Nair, K. K., writer, vi, 31, 62, 86, 92, Obubit oku,
78, see black coppers,
93,94,97,99,102
copper wires, currency
Nakanda, 39
Obubra, 5
National Africa Company, trading Obutong, 9, 10 Chart
1, 92, sec Old
company, 140
Town
Native Court, 133
Odobo, 88
Native Court Records, 149
Ofn rnakara, 103
N.C.N.C., political party, 150
Oil palm, 1,3,7,86
Ndem, Ibibio, 13, see Tutelary Deity
Oil rivers, v, 67,139,141,142
Ndem cult, 13, 35,40,42,43-4,91,123, Okoyong, 88
see Ndem Efik
Okoyong tribe, 5,27
Ndem Efik, 13,35, 146, sec Ndem cult
Okpoho, 39
Ndem priest, 35, 42, 43-4, see Oku Okuakama, 39
Ndem and King Calabar
Oku Ndem, 13, 35, 43-4, see Ndem
Ndem shrine, 124
priest, and King Calabar
Ndodoghi, 9
Okuk, 76, sec copper rods
INDEX
Old Calabar Chamber of Commerce,
64
Old Town, 9, 10, 11, 12, 33, 36,46,47,
49,75,92,100,136, sec Obutong
Old Town war, 1767, 47, sec Massacre
of Old Calabar
Old Town Kings, 11,11 Chart 2
Oleum Palmae, 56 Table 3, see palm oil
Olinda, chartered palm oil ship, 61,120
Opobo, 67
Oron, 28, 89,127
Oron war, 1882,89
Palaver house, 46
Palm belt, 86,88
Palmerston, Lord, refuses to annex
Old Calabar, 135,144
Palm kernels, 64,67
Palm kernels trade, 64, 67,68 Graph 3,
82
Palm oil, 7, 13, 24, 55, 56 Table 3, 57
Table 4, 73, 91, 144, 145, sec oleum
palmae
Palm oil markets, 64, 71, 73, 81, 82,83,
85,86,87 Map 6,88,89,120,126
Palm oil prices, 62, 63, 64, 65, 68-72,
70 Graph 4,144,145
Palm oil trade, vi, 24, 31; early de
velopment, 55-6, competition with
slave trade and coming of Mail
steamers, 58; supercargoes versus
liberated Africans, 59-61; Olinda
incident, 61; Consul Hutchinson
translated, 62; depression of early
60’s, 62-3; coming of agent system,
63; arrival of independent traders,
64; development of kernel trade, 64;
price ring and produce agreement,
65; oil exports, 65-7; kernel exports,
67; prices in Europe, 68-9; prices in
Calabar, 69-71; turnover profit,
71-2; sundry exports, 73; imports,
73-5; effects of trade on domestic
economy, 75-9; credit, 79-81; Efik
monopoly, 81-4; Efik trading oli
garchy, 84—5; internal trading sys
tem, 85—6; markets, 86-8; market
expansion, 88-9; conclusions, 8990; dependency of
missionaries and
liberated Africans on oil trade, 147
Palm oil traders, 48,55-65
Palm produce 3, 5, 7, 149, see also
Palm oil and Palm kernels
191
Palm wine, 75,76
Pans, 75
Parker, Isaac, seaman, 26,31,49
Parrot Island, 17,35
Pawn, 27,79
Pax Brittanica, 71,90
Peach Tree, slave ship, 17
Penny, James, slave trader and palm
oil trader, 56
Photaes, Indian cloth, 74
Pioneer, naval vessel, 137
Pirates, of Mbiakong 46, in Rio del Rey
51
Pledge, 27, see pawn
Poison bean ordeal, 94, 103, 113, 115,
119,120,129,139,145, see esere
Polyglotta Africana, 29
Population, 91,150
Port dues, 72, sec comcy
Port Harcourt, 149,150
Porto Novo, 140
Portuguese 17,18,20
Pots, 75
Pottery, 7,75
Prawn, 7
Price lists, 65
Price rings, Efik, 71
Price rings, palm oil traders, 58, 64, 65
Princess Royal, palm oil ship, 161
Prisoners of war, 26
Profits, 72,144
Profit margins, 65,71
Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, 149
Provisions, 23,49,56,85
Puncheons, 60,72,86
Pytho, palm oil ship, 72
Qualbo, 28,82,89,126,127
Qua tribe, 5, 7,10,29,50, 75,82,109
Queen Victoria, 135
Raffia, 7,25,37,75
Railways, in Britain 68, in Southern
Nigeria 149
R & W King, trading company, 65
Ratio of oil exports to kernel exports,
67
Reckord, Capt., slave trader, 17
Red pepper, 73
Redwood, 73
Religion, 13,37,42
Retainers, 32,33,48,51,92,146
Rickins, supercargo, 80 fn
192
INDEX
Rio del Rey, 23,51,89,126, 133
Rituals, 26,35,46
River Rumby, 89
Rivers Province, 150
Robertson, G. A., writer, vi, 48,69
Robin King Agbisherea, Ibibio, 50
Rodney, Walter, writer, v
Romals, Indian cloth, 74
Ross, Revd. Alex, missionary, 88,130,
131
Rum, 75
Ryder, A. F. C., writer, v
Sailing ships, 59,63,136
St Kitts, 108
Salt, 5,7,24,73,74,76,125
Salt boiling, 7,25
Salt Town, 50, sec Tom Shotts
Sastracundies, Indian cloth, 74
Sawyer, 106
Schools, 107,110
Scotsmen, 61,75
Secret society, 9, 13, 28, 31, 35, 42, 75,
91, 146, see Ekpe, Mkpe and Nyana
Yaku
Selwyn, Lieut., R.N., 117,118,135
Sempstress, 108
Servant, 108
Shares, 65
Sheep, 5
Shot, 76
Shrimps, 7
Sierra Leone, 29,55,59,61,106,108
Sierra Leoneans, 60, 61, 106, 107,
108
Slave exports, 17, 18, 20, 21 Table 2,
22-3,24
Slave-markets, 26,27,28-9,31, 37
Slave movements, v, 93-6,135
Slave origins, 24,28-9
Slave prices, 23
Slave-raiding, 26,28,29,31,49
Slavery, domestic, 25,26,31,32,33,34,
40,51,91-102,103-5,146
Slaves, vii, 17,23,25,27,28,29, 30,31,
32, 33, 34, 39, 40, 43, 44, 48, 50, 51,
81,85,91,92,93,94, 96,103-5, 108,
109,111,115,118,122,146, etc
Slaves, agricultural, 48, 91, 93, 94, 95,
96,97,111,112,116,121,146
Slaves, farm, see slaves, agricultural
Slave trade, early development, 17-19;
Calabar declines as slave port, 19-20;
British abolition of, 20-1; decline
and end at Old Calabar, 21-2;
exports, 22-3; prices, 23; sundry
exports, 23-4; imports, 24; effects of
external trade on domestic economy,
24-5; internal slave trade, 25-6;
development of internal marketing
system, 26-7; development of credit,
27; coming of Ekpe as capitalist
institution, 28; origins of slaves,
28-9; conclusions, 29-30. Also 32,
35, 40, 49, 51, 55, 67, 74, 79, 86, 89,
90, 91,92, 111, 112, 134
1Slave traders, 17,18,20, 20 Table 1,21,
22,48, 55 fn, 56, 58,92
Slave war 1852,92,94,95
Smith, agent, 61,110
Smuggling, 89
Snelgrave, William, writer, 24
Soap,68
Soil fertility, 5,6 Map 4,92
South Eastern State, 150
Southern Camcroons, 150
South Sea Bubble, 18
Spanish, 20
Spanish dollars, 22
Spirit, fertility, 3
Spirits, alcoholic, 24,73,74-5,75,76
Staples, 76
Steam engine, 74
Steam ships, 58, 59, 60, 63, 72, 83, see
also Mail steamers
Stuart & Douglas, trading company,
62,63,65
Succession disputes, 94, 113-14, 115,
117-18, 119, 120-1,127,128-31,139,
145
Suez Canal, 147
Sugar, 18
Supercargoes, 58, 59, 60, 61,62, 63,80,
106,117,120,137
Swiss prints, 74
Syphilis, 122
Tabac, 28, sec Oron
Tailors, 107,108
Tallow, 68
Tariffs, 55, 133, 139, 141, 142, 147, sec
Customs duties
Taylor, Laughland & Co, trading
company, 63, 65
Teachers,
107,108
icacncrs, iv/,iuo
Technological advance, 59
I
INDEX
Textiles, see cloth
Thomas Harrison & Co, trading com
pany, 65
Thompson, Revd. W. C., missionary,
81
Tinplate industry, 63,68
Tiv, 29
Tobin, Sir John, palm oil merchant, 57
Tom Aqua, of Qua, 26
Tom Shotts, 50, 51, 73, 74, 76, see Salt
Town
Tools, 25,76,79
Traders, liberated Africans, 59-61, 63,
106,108
Traders, hinterland, 7
Trading capital, 58
Trading costs, 72
Traditional society, v
Travellers’ descriptions, vi
Treaty of Protection, 83, 111, 132,133,
142
Trade goods, 24,73-5
Tribute, 10
Trust, 27, 51, 59,60, 79-81,85,116, sec
credit
Turnover, 59
Turnover profit, 71,72
Tutelary deity, 13, 31, 146, sec Ndem
cult and Ndem Efik
Twins, 9,97
Tyrer, W., agent, 64
Tyson & Richmond, trading company,
62
Tyson, Richmond & Jones, trading
company, 63
Ufok, 12,31,33
Umon, 26,28,71, 83, 85,86,88,89, sec
Bosun, Boostam, Eericock Boat
swain
Umon tribe, 5
Umon-Akunakuna war, 120
Umon-Calabar wars, 85,88
United States, 147
Uruan clan, 3,9,12,31
Uruan, 3,9,12,13
193
Usak Edct, 36, sec Bakasi
Uwet, 29,88
Vegetables, 1,3
Vice-Consul Johnston, Harry, 81, 133,
142,143,144
Vice-Consul White, 109
Victoria, 150
Village council, 13, 31, 35, 40, 41, 42,
43,44,91,97,101,102,121,126,146
Village council members, 97-9
Village group, 12-13, 31, 34, 35, 40,
146
Village head, 13, sec obong isong
Wagebills, 59,72
Waddell, Rcvd. H. M., missionary, 28,
29,34,71,73, 85,86
Walkdcn & Co, Manchester commis
sion agents, 65 fn
Walker, Scott & Co, trading company,
63
Walker, Capt. J. B., agent, 38, 64, 80,
108 fn,110, 111
Walking canes, gold finished, 24
Watts, George, independent trader, 64,
65,80,82,83,89,127
Watts, John, seaman, vi, 17,26,27
Wax, 73
Welcome, slave ship, 17
West African Mail Company, 63
West Indies, 108
Whip, 37
White, J. H., agent, 80
Wilks, Ivor, writer, v
William King Agbishcrea, Ibibio, 50
Witchcraft, 94, 95, 103, 113, 121, 122,
150
Wood, 25,32
Woodcutting, 32
Wooden houses, imported, 23,100,120
Yako tribe, 29
Yams, 1,3, 5, 7,13
Yorubaland, 106,112
OXFORD STUDIES IN AFRICAN AFFAIRS
General Editors
John D. Hargreaves and George Shepperson
David Birmingham
Trade and Conflict in Angola
Kwame Yeboa Daaku
Trade and Politics on The Gold Coast 1600-1720
C. W. Newbury
The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers
Donal B. Cruise O'Brien
The Mourides of Senegal
A. Adu Boahen
Britain, The Sahara, and the Western Sudan
1788-1861
Richard Hill
On the Frontiers of Islam
Ruth
■
f,..

Marcia Wright
German Missions in Tanganyika 1891 -1941
Mo<nc.-tbau
r ii> F«.cr, taxing West. Africa
Janet Robertson
Liberalism in South Africa 1948-1963
■t
Kenneth James King
•9
Pan Africanism andd Education
.

......................................................
.............■■
f
' I'J,'
.."
Peter £ Garlick
African Traders and Economic Development in
•3 hunt
'
J
>
T
,iKlde:.j>e Tarr
•r’r.ifch and Sb’jte in Ethiopia 1270-1527
-H
■/
i Hubaraza
Rut.,™ Karugire
.. )‘-v of th© Kingdomt of Nkore
'^a^pa.ns
Mohamed Ome- Beshn
Educational Development in The Rud r>
1898 1956
Pjs'u Reb?. t sedition 1866-1890
E-'-iJ
tf James S. Read •
:e