Cameroon Grassfields Civilization

7. Slave trading without slave raiding

69 7 Slave trading without slave raiding(1) Until the slow demise of the inland slave trade in the course of the 19th century, the densely peopled high plateaux of West Cameroon – otherwise the Grassfields – were an important source of slaves. They fed the trade of the Bay of Biafra for three centuries. However, in contrast to what is observable elsewhere, the off-take of slaves was not effected, as a rule, by armed raids. It did not empty the regions supplying slaves, as was the case in the borderlands of the slaving states, such as Dahomey or the emirates that arose in the wake of the jihad of Othman Dan Fodio. The Grassfields case allows us to explore the controversial relations between the slave trade, slavery, long-distance trade, kinship and population. This paper aims at establishing that the slave trade of the Grassfields was long-lasting and on a large scale, that it was at the heart of social reproduction and that, notwithstanding it, the Grassfields have remained thickly populated up to the present day. An old and substantial trade The accounts of Koelle (1854/1963), Goldie (1964), Johnston(2) and the works of the historians of the Atlantic slave trade (Curtin & Vansina 1964, Curtin 1969:188, 255, 295, Lovejoy 1983, Richardson 1989) of Calabar (Northrup 1978, Nair 1972) and of the Cameroon coast (Ardener 1968, Bouchaud 1952) inform us about the origins of slaves bought in the coastal ports of Duala, Bimbia, Rio del Rey and Calabar in the 19th century: a substantial proportion of these slaves came from the Grassfields (see map on page 68). The sources show, likewise, that Grassfields slaves were numerous in the coastal areas and well-liked. Among other witnesses here is the Reverend W. Anderson, a missionary in Calabar in the middle of the 19th century in a letter addressed to T.J. Hutchinson, the British Consul for the Bay of Biafra: “I have long wished to ascertain the position and distance from Old Kalabar of a country called here Mbrikum [the Grassfields]... Many of them are brought here as slaves. They are more liked in Old Kalabar than many brought from other countries. They are peaceable, honest, and energetic.” (Hutchinson 1967:322) The strong demand for slaves in Calabar can be understood by reference to this port's history. From the middle of the 18th century onwards it was visited by an increasing number of European ships: the switch to so-called ‘legitimate’ trade at the beginning of the 19th century brought it more profit than it did to Duala, principally in the palm-oil trade. In 1855 Hutchinson (1970:252) reported that Calabar exported twice as much palm-oil as Duala (4,090 tons as against 2,110). Subsequently, according to Latham (1973:151) the traffic at Calabar rose to 7,365 tons in 1883 while it was stagnant at Duala. The development of palm-oil exports to Europe had two obvious consequences in Calabar, and to a lesser extent in Duala: the demand for slaves, despite the decline of the transatlantic trade, was maintained on the coast throughout the 19th century – it might even have increased; the hinter-land was implicated in the palm-oil trade and the distant interior was ever more drawn into it. The bulk of the trade profits made by the notables and kings of the coastal ports were not invested in fixed productive capital but in conspicuous consumption and in slaves. The latter were used to handle goods in the palm-oil trade on the inland waterways and as paddlers in the hundreds of dugout canoes 70 Part II - The Grassfields regional economy owned by traders – these were used both as war-canoes and as a means of transport. Our sources strongly stress the political importance of these slaves that enabled each notable to swell his household “to make him strong”, as ‘King’ William of Bimbia told Allen and Thompson (1848, II:231). Northrup (1978) has shown that this function had consequences unintended by the ‘kings’ who sometimes found themselves encroached upon by their clientages whose power had come to exceed theirs.(3) This was the situation in the course of the 19th century, but one might well ask whether it was not much the same during the two preceding centuries. The following data establish a virtual certainty in this respect. First of all, we have the history of the trade in the four ports we have already mentioned. The accounts of...