The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra
An African Society in the Atlantic World

G. Ugo Nwokeji explains the structure, dramatic expansion, and manifold effects of the slave trade in the Bight of Biafra.

G. Ugo Nwokeji (Author)

9781107662209, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 January 2014

304 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 map 15 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

'It should be indispensable for scholars and students of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. It will serve as a model for future work on the mechanics of the slave trade within Africa.' The Journal of African History

The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra dissects and explains the structure, dramatic expansion, and manifold effects of the slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. By showing that the rise of the Aro merchant group was the key factor in trade expansion, G. Ugo Nwokeji reinterprets why and how such large-scale commerce developed in the absence of large-scale centralized states. The result is the first study to link the structure and trajectory of the slave trade in a major exporting region to the expansion of a specific African merchant group - among other fresh insights into Atlantic Africa's involvement in the trade - and the most comprehensive treatment of Atlantic slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. The fundamental role of culture in the organization of trade is highlighted, transcending the usual economic explanations in a way that complicates traditional generalizations about work, domestic slavery, and gender in pre-colonial Africa.

1. Introduction
2. The Aro in the Atlantic context: expansion and shifts, 1600s–1807
3. The trade diaspora in regional context: commercial organization in the era of expansion, 1740–1850
4. Culture formation in the trading frontier, c.1740–c.1850
5. Household and market persons: deportees and society, c.1740–c.1850
6. The slave trade, gender, and culture
7. Cultural and economic aftershocks
8. Summary and conclusions.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH], General & world history [HBG]