‘My Nigerian great-grandfather sold slaves’

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Amid the global debate over race relations, colonialism, and slavery, some of the Europeans and Americans who made their fortune in the human trade have seen their legacies, their demolished statues, and their names removed from public buildings reevaluated.

Nigerian journalist and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani writes that one of her ancestors sold slaves, but she argues that she should not be judged by today’s standards or values.

My great-grandfather, Nwaubani Ogogo Oriaku, was what I prefer to call an entrepreneur, from the Igbo ethnic group of south-eastern Nigeria. He dealt with a number of goods, such as tobacco and palm products. He also sold human beings.

“I had agents who captured slaves from different places and brought them to them,” my father told me.

Nwaubani Ogogo slaves were sold through the ports of Calabar and Bonny in the south of what is now known as Nigeria.

People from ethnic groups along the coast, such as Efik and Ijaw, generally acted as stevedores for white merchants and as intermediaries for Igbo merchants like my great-grandfather.

They loaded and unloaded ships and supplied foreigners with food and other supplies. They negotiated prices for slaves in the interior, then collected royalties from both sellers and buyers.

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Around 1.5 million Igbo slaves were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean between the 15th and 19th centuries.

More than 1.5 million Africans were sent to what was then called the New World, the Americas, through the port of Calabar, in Bonny Bay, making it one of the largest departure points during transatlantic trade.

The only life they knew

Nwaubani Ogogo lived at a time when the fittest survived and the bravest stood out. The concept of “all men are created equal” was completely foreign to the traditional religion and law in their society.

It would be unfair to judge a 19th century man by the early 21st century.

Evaluating people from Africa’s past by current standards would compel us to choose most of our heroes as villains, denying us the right to fully celebrate anyone who has not been influenced by Western ideology.

Igbo slave traders like my great-grandfather suffered no crisis of social acceptance or legality. They did not need any religious or scientific justification for their actions. They were simply living the life they were raised in.

That was all they knew.

Slaves buried alive

The most popular story I heard about my great-grandfather was how he successfully confronted British colonial government officials after they captured some of his slaves.

The slaves were being transported by intermediaries, along with a shipment of tobacco and palm products, from Nwaubani Ogogo’s hometown of Umuahia to the coast.

Apparently, my great-grandfather did not consider it fair that his slaves had been captured.

The buying and selling of human beings among the Igbo had been going on long before the Europeans arrived. People became slaves as punishment for crime, payment of debts, or prisoners of war.

The successful sale of adults was considered a feat for which a man was hailed by praise singers, similar to feats in fighting, war, or hunting animals such as the lion.

Igbo slaves served as servants and domestic workers. Sometimes they were also sacrificed in religious ceremonies and buried alive with their masters to serve them in the next world.

Slavery was so ingrained in the culture that several popular Igbo proverbs refer to it:

• Anyone who has no slave is his own slave.
• A slave who watches while another slave is bound and thrown into the grave with his master must realize that one day the same could be done to him.
• It is when the son receives advice when the slave learns

The arrival of European merchants offering weapons, mirrors, gin, and other exotic products in exchange for humans greatly increased demand, prompting people to kidnap others and sell them.

How slaves were traded in Africa

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• European buyers tended to stay on the coast
• African sellers brought slaves from the interior on foot
• Trips can last up to 485 km (300 miles)
• Two captives were typically chained together at the ankle
• Columns of captives were tied together by ropes around their necks.
• 10% -15% of captives died on the way

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica

Resisting abolition

The trade in African people continued until 1888, when Brazil became the last country in the western hemisphere to abolish it.

When the British extended their government to southeastern Nigeria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they began to impose abolition through military action.

But by using force instead of persuasion, many local people, like my great-grandfather, may not have understood that abolition was about the dignity of humanity and not a mere change in economic policy that affected demand and supply.

“We believe this trade must continue,” said a local king in Bonny infamously in the 19th century.

“That is the verdict of our oracle and our priests. They say that their country, great as it is, can never stop a commerce ordered by God.”

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As for my great-grandfather, he had a bona fide business license from the Royal Niger Company, a British company that managed trade in the region in the last quarter of the 19th century.

So when their property was seized, an aggrieved Nwaubani Ogogo bravely went to see the responsible colonial officers and handed them their license. They freed their property and their slaves.

“The whites apologized to him,” said my father.

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Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Slave trade in the 20th century

Acclaimed Igbo historian Adiele Afigbo described the slave trade in southeastern Nigeria, which lasted until the late 1940s and early 1950s, as one of the best-kept secrets of the British colonial administration.

While international trade ended, local trade continued.

“The government was aware of the fact that coastal chiefs and leading coastal merchants had continued to buy slaves from the interior,” Afigbo wrote in Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southern Nigeria: 1885 to 1950.

He added that the British tolerated ongoing trade for political and economic reasons.

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They needed the leaders of the slave trade for effective local governance and for the expansion and growth of legitimate trade.

Sometimes, they also turned a blind eye rather than jeopardizing a useful alliance, as appears to have been the case when they returned the slaves from Nwaubani Ogogo.

That incident deified Nwaubani Ogogo among his people. Here was a man who successfully confronted the white powers abroad. I have heard the family story and read about it.

It was also the beginning of a relationship of mutual respect with the colonialists that led Nwaubani Ogogo to be named supreme commander by the British administration.

He was the government’s representative to the people of his region, in a system known as indirect government.

Records from the UK National Archives at Kew Gardens show how desperately the British fought to end the internal slave trade throughout most of the colonial period.

They promoted legitimate trade, especially in palm products. They introduced the English coin to replace the cumbersome bronze rods and the chests that the merchants needed slaves to carry. Criminals were prosecuted with prison terms.

“In the 1930s, the colonial establishment had worn out,” wrote Afigbo.

“As a result, they had come to place their hope in the removal of trade on the corrosive effect over time of education and civilization in general.”

Working with the British

As overlord, Nwaubani Ogogo collected taxes on behalf of the British and earned a commission in the process.

He presided over cases in native courts. He supplied workers for the construction of railway lines. He also voluntarily donated land for missionaries to build churches and schools.

The house where I grew up and where my parents still live is on land that has been in my family for over a century.

It was once the site of the Nwaubani Ogogo guest house, where it hosted visits by British officials. They sent him envelopes with hair fragments to notify him when they arrived.

Nwaubani Ogogo died sometime in the early 20th century. He left behind dozens of wives and children. There are no photographs of him, but he is said to have been remarkably light-skinned.

In December 2017, a church in Okaiuga, in the state of Abia, in southeastern Nigeria, was celebrating its centennial and invited my family to receive a posthumous award on their behalf.

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Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

His records showed that he had provided an armed escort for the first missionaries in the area.

My great-grandfather was known for his business prowess, outstanding boldness, strong leadership, vast influence, immense contributions to society, and the advancement of Christianity.

The Igbo do not have a culture of erecting monuments to their heroes; otherwise, one dedicated to him might have been somewhere in the Umuahia region today.

“Everyone around him respected him,” said my father. “Even whites respected him.”