Fighting the Slave Trade: West African Strategies

Chapter 8

121 Chapter 8 Igboland, Slavery, and the Drums of War and Heroism John N. Oriji Igboland is among the areas of West Africa that experienced the most intensive slave-trading activities during the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Although the total number of Africans enslaved remains unknown, available estimates suggest that about 637,500 Igbo slaves, amounting to 75 percent of the total shipments from the Biafran hinterland, landed in the Americas between 1640 and 1800 (see Oriji 1986). Furthermore, ex-slaves of Igbo ancestry constitute a majority of the population in Bonny, Okirika, and many other eastern delta states that served as depots and exchange centers for European merchants. Much is already known about how the slave trade was organized in the Igbo hinterland and its impact on local communities (Oriji 1986; see also Oriji 1982; Dike 1956; Ekejiuba 1972; Northrup 1978). But the growing literature on the slave trade provides little insight into the responses it elicited in the hinterland. My research uses oral traditions and other sources to examine how individuals, families, and communities responded to the slave trade and enslavement. Igbo response differed from one area to the other, and it is necessary to distinguish between the various ecological zones of the region, and explain the degree to which they were either involved in slave trading or subjected to slave You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. 122 John N. Oriji raids and the other forms of social violence they engendered. The major ecological zones relevant to this study are • western Igbo communities, which offer us some of the earliest evidence of slavery in Igboland; • northern Igboland, including Okigwe, the Enugu-Nsukka area, and the AwkaOnitsha axis, which experienced the most intensive raids and provided the most diverse forms of resistance; • riverine and coastal towns, whose middlemen sold captives to European traders; • southeastern Igbo communities, including the homeland of the Aro slave traders and their Abam warriors, who were the main slave dealers in the hinterland; • southern Igbo communities of Owerri, Mbaise, Ngwa, Asa-Ndokki, IkwereEtche , and other places, which were occasionally raided by Abam warriors. Western Igboland Cult Slaves, Exiles, and Escapees Cult slavery is probably one of the most ancient forms of enslavement in Igboland. Its genesis lies in the holistic cosmology of agrarian Igbo societies dominated by the earth deity (Ala/Ana), in which there was no separation between religious power and the judicial and other arms of government. Major laws that were of common interest to a society were then ritualized with the earth force to transform them into the sacerdotal realm. Thus, individuals who violated the sacred laws of Ala involving homicide, incest, and stealing of farm crops were accused of committing acts of sacrilege (Iru Ala) and held liable and responsible for their actions (Meek 1937, 5; Oriji 1989). The Igbo system of jurisprudence was similar to the Mosaic law in that it did not provide much leeway for those found guilty. An individual , who committed homicide for example, might be killed or sold into slavery , unless he/she paid adequate compensation to the injured family, and carried out a protracted and expensive ritual cleansing ceremony in Ala shrine (Isa Ihu, or washing one’s face) (Oriji 1989). The tragic fate of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1984) after he had committed manslaughter, clearly illustrates how rigidly the laws of Ala were enforced. In spite of the towering heights he had attained in the Umuo¤a clan, Okonkwo had to go into exile with his family to his maternal home, undergo ritual cleansing, and pay painful penalties, including the destruction of his yams and his compound (31–33, 113–18). Individuals who wanted neither to take refuge in Ala shrine and become Osu (cult slaves) nor to go into exile had an option left for them to save their You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. Igboland, Slavery, and the Drums of War and Heroism 123 lives. They might escape say at night to a distant place to found new homes, and continue to live as free citizens. The escapees are associated with the origins of many communities like the...