Old Calabar merchants and the off-shore British community, 1650–1750

Abstract

This study examines and analyses the character and dynamics of interactions between Old Calabar merchants and off-shore British slavers as trading partners in the Atlantic economy from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. A re-reading of foundational texts and a critical interrogation of oral testimonies in Calabar and its hinterland reveals the great exchanges that took place in the Atlantic world among populations that were radically different in language, culture and physique. The enormous economic and social benefits that Efik middlemen grossed from their collaboration with British slavers take us beyond the stereotypes that the native auxiliaries of the slave trade were merely helpless victims, left with no choice but to play the role assigned to them in the infamous trade. The best way to preserve and honour the memory of the slave trade in Old Calabar is to emphasize the place of local agents.