¹ Nigerian National Archives Ibadan (hereafter NNAI), CSO 26/1 Ormsby-Gore, W., Secretary of State for Colonies, to Governor Sir Hugh Clifford, 31 03 1925.Google Scholar

² In 1932 the Temporary Commission was replaced by the Committee of Experts on Slavery. The consultative machinery was more effective and the Nigerian government was forced to respond with more specifics of Nkanu slavery. For the Nigerian government's manipulation of the League's queries see NNAI, CSO 26/2/11799, VIIIGoogle Scholar, ‘Question of Slavery in British West Africa’. For the League of Nations responses see League, of Nations Publications, Series VI B, ‘Slavery’ 1923–1934.Google Scholar For an account of the Commission's role see Greenidge, C. W. W., Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Anti-Slavery Society (London, 1958)Google Scholar, and, from an ‘insider’, Lugard, Lord, ‘Slavery in all its forms’, Africa, VI (1933), 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ Colonial reports in the 1920s repeatedly noted that South Nkanu was still free of missionary influence. This was the experience of the Revd A. Humphrey Richardson, the first missionary in South Nkanu. See Mrs Humphrey Richardson, ‘An account of the pioneer work in the Agbani area of Nigeria undertaken by the Rev. Arthur Humphrey Richardson of the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society 1916–1920’, unpublished manuscript, The Methodist Church, Overseas Division (Missionary Society), London (hereafter MMS). I would like to thank Mrs M. J. Fox, Archivist, for calling my attention to this valuable manuscript.

⁴ See Roberts, Richard and Miers, Suzanne (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1988).Google Scholar

⁵ Hopkins, focusing on the steady growth of agro-exports after emancipation, claims there was little economic or social dislocation. He thought that the availability of land, the trading boom in agro-exports and the development of slaves in agriculture accounted for the ‘smoothness of the transition’. Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (New York, 1973) 225–9.Google Scholar

⁶ Hopkins, , Economic History, 227.Google ScholarMiers, Suzanne and Kopytoff, Igor (eds.), Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Madison, 1977), 73–4.Google Scholar

⁷ A village-group is a cluster of villages who claim to be related to a common ancestor. Each kinship group within a specific village holds similar claims to a common ancestor descended from this ancestor.

⁸ Nigerian National Archives Enugu (hereafter NNAE), CSE 2/14/11, ‘Onitsha Province Annual Reports for 01 1921 to 03 31, 1921’.Google Scholar

⁹ NNAE, OP1070, Beaumont, S. P. L., ‘Intelligence Report on Agbani-Akpugo Village Group in the Nkanu Area of the Udi Division’, 1935, 4.Google Scholar

¹⁰ NNAE, OP917, Beaumont, S. P. L., ‘Intelligence Report on Amurri-Ugbawka Group, Udi Division’, 1934.Google Scholar

¹¹ Osuntokun, Akinjide, ‘Disaffection and revolts in Nigeria during the First World War, 1914–1918’, Can. J. Afr. Studies, V (1971), 180.Google Scholar The documentation of the uprising is in Public Records Office (hereafter PRO), CO 583, files 12, 14, 19, 20, 23 and 32.

¹² The only studies of slavery in Nkanu are Horton, W. G. R., ‘The Ohu system of slavery in a northern Igboland village-group’, Africa, XXIV (1954), 311–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘God, man and the land in a northern Ibo village-group’, Africa, XXIV (1956), 17–28.Google Scholar Nkanu features prominently in Nwaka's study of contemporary discrimination against slaves descendants. Nwaka, Geoffrey I., ‘The civil rights movement in colonial Igboland’, Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XIII (1985), 473–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Of the few studies of Igbo slavery most focus on either the unusual cult slaves, called Osu, slavery in central Igboland or on the highly stratified coastal trading communities of the Niger Delta. The Osu slaves are the subject of Leith-Ross, Sylvia, ‘Notes on the Osu system among the Ibo of Owerri Province, Nigeria’, Africa, XX (1937), 206–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ezeanya, S. N., ‘The Osu (slave cult) system in Igboland’, Journal of Religion in Africa, I (1967), 35–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Okeke, Igwebiuke Romeo, The ‘Osu’ Concept in Igboland: A Study of the Types of Slavery in Igbo-Speaking Areas of Nigeria (Enugu, 1986).Google Scholar Those based on research in central Igboland include Harris, J. S., ‘Some aspects of slavery in southeastern Nigeria’, Journal of Negro History, XXVII (1942), 37–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Uchendu, Victor, ‘Slaves and slavery in Igboland, Nigeria’Google Scholar, in Miers, and Kopytoff, (eds.), Slavery in Africa.Google Scholar On the coastal/delta communities see Nwachukwu-Ogbedegbe, K., ‘Slavery in nineteenth-century Aboh (Nigeria)’Google Scholar, in Miers, and Kopytoff, (eds.), Slavery in Africa, 133–54.Google Scholar His is one of the few studies focusing on a specific community. There are sporadic references in Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–1885 (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar, and Jones, G. I., The Trading States of the Oil Rivers: A Study of Political Development in Eastern Nigeria (London, 1963).Google Scholar

¹³ Despite its flexibility slavery in central Igboland excluded slave descendants from certain rituals. NNAE, OW301/1922, District Officer (hereafter D.O.), Okigwi, , to Resident (hereafter Res.), Owerri, 5 04 1922Google Scholar; Degema, D. O. to Owerri, Res., 10 04 1922Google Scholar; D.O. Aba to Res. Owerri, 19 04 1922Google Scholar; D.O. Owerri to Res. Owerri, 21 04 1922Google Scholar; Secretary, Southern Provinces (hereafter S.S.P.), to Res. Owerri, 1 05 1922.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Horton, , ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 324.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Nwachukwu-Ogbedegbe, , ‘Slavery in nineteenth-century Aboh’, 144.Google Scholar

¹⁶ See Richardson, Revd, ‘Pioneer work in Agbani’, 134, 141.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Shaw, Thurstan, Igbo-Ukwu: An Account of Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria (2 vols.) (London 1970)Google Scholar; Don Ohadike, , ‘The decline of slavery among the Igbo people’Google Scholar, in Miers, and Kopytoff, (eds.), Slavery in Africa, 443.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Lovejoy, Paul, Transformations in Slavery (Cambridge, 1983).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Horton, , ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 311.Google Scholar

²⁰ The Aro dominated the internal market, virtually monopolizing the exchange of slaves for imported goods. As custodians of an oracle recognized throughout south-east Nigeria, Ebinokpabi, they secured slaves initially for ritualistic and eventually commercial purposes. Northrup, David, Trade Without Rulers: Pre-Colonial Economic Development in South-Eastern Nigeria (Oxford, 1978)Google Scholar; Afigbo, A. E., Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (Nsukka, 1981), 239–81Google Scholar; Ukwu, Ukwu I., ‘The development of trade and marketing in Igboland’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, III (1967), 651–5.Google Scholar

²¹ Koelle, S. W., Polyglotta Africana (London, 1854).Google Scholar Informants in Ugbawka, a South Nkanu village, mention that Aro and Awka traders bought children supplied by kidnappers sometimes organized in guilds. Interview with Igwe Emmanuel N. Agu, Ugbawka, Nigeria, 3 08 1988.Google Scholar

²² Rhodes House Library, Oxford University (hereafter, RHL), Mss. Afr. s. 1556, ‘Nigeria Diary’, Sandys Parker George to Inspector General of Police, Lagos, 4 02 1935Google Scholar; Harris, , ‘Some aspects of slavery’, 40–2Google Scholar; Interview with Benson Ede, Isigwe, Ugbawka, 20 08 1988.Google Scholar

²³ Ukwu, , ‘Development of trade and marketing’Google Scholar; Horton, , ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 317Google Scholar; Isichei, Elizabeth, Igbo Worlds: An Anthology of Oral Histories and Historical Descriptions (Philadelphia, 1978), 76–7Google Scholar; Interview with Nwoha Nnamani and Kumuejim Nwachi, Agbani, 25 08 1988.Google Scholar

²⁴ See Northrup, David, ‘The compatibility of the slave and palm oil trades in the Bight of Biafra’, J. Afr. Hist., XVII (1976) 353–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁵ The ‘Yam King’ title or Eze ji was bestowed on a member of a title society. It was open to successful freeborn farmers who raised the requisite numbers of yams, fed the society's members for a fixed number of days and paid entrance fees. As expert farmers their opinions and technical assistance were sought by other villagers and they occasionally adjudicated land disputes. Afigbo, , Ropes of Sand, 128.Google Scholar

²⁶ Each ton of palm oil required 250 person-days to process, half by women and children. RHL, Mss. Afr. s. 679, Bridges, A. F. B., ‘Report on palm oil survey in Ibo, Ibibio and Cross River Area’ (1938), Appendix VII, 1.Google Scholar By 1863–4 south-eastern Nigeria was exporting over 40,000 tons. As cited in Northrup, , Trade Without Rulers, 183.Google Scholar

²⁷ Horton, , ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 311Google Scholar; NNAE, Hair, P. E. H., Enugu: An Industrial West African City (mimeograph, Enugu, 1953), 145Google Scholar; Afigbo, , Ropes of Sand, 127–30, 138.Google Scholar

²⁸ Isichei quotes Noo Adala, an Agbaja elder, then c. 102, who witnessed the ascent of the ‘new’ wealthy. In Agbaja the wealthy were called Amadi: ‘As time went on, this gradation of authority right from the town to the family unit, depending on age as the criterion gave way to the authority of the wealthy. These were people who were rich enough to take the highest titles of the town … During deliberations in the governing council of ndi amadi, the suggestion made by an amadi was more agreeable to those present than that of a poor elder, no matter if he was the eldest’. Isichei, , Igbo Worlds, 73.Google Scholar See also Afigbo, A. E., ‘Southeastern Nigeria in the nineteenth century’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, Michael (eds.), History of West Africa (2nd ed., New York, 1974), II, 442.Google Scholar

²⁹ The village of Nomeh had a junior patrilineage who used alliances with Aro slave traders and their many slaves to enforce their role as judicial officials, selling offenders into slavery. NNAE, OP/1145, Beaumont, S. P. L., ‘Intelligence Report on the Nara Village Group of the Nkanu Clan, Udi Division’ (1934).Google Scholar Also see Brown, Carolyn, ‘Accumulation and stratification in northern Igboland: the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on an African society’, unpublished paper, Northeastern University, Department of African-American Studies, Conference on the Slave Trade, 25 April 1991.Google Scholar

³⁰ Nwachukwu-Ogbedegbe, , ‘Slavery in Aboh’, 45–6.Google Scholar

³¹ Meillassoux, Claude, The Anthropology of Slavery: The Womb of Iron and Gold (Chicago, 1991), 9–10.Google Scholar

³² Ibid. 10.

³³ Also, as the wife's father had himself not paid the brideprice for his wife, he had no patriarchial rights to demand a brideprice for a betrothed daughter.

³⁴ There was apparently an important market for slave children in the Cross River area during the 1920s. Frank Hives, a former Resident of Onitsha, noted in a sensationalist racist book that much of his time was spent intercepting Aro caravans in which small children were abducted in long baskets. See Hives, Frank, Justice in the Jungle (London, 1932), 207–21.Google Scholar

³⁵ Miers, and Kopytoff, (eds.), Slavery in Africa, 35.Google Scholar

³⁶ The Revd Richardson intervened several times in Nara to save a slave woman from sale to the Aro. ‘Pioneer work in Agbani’, 124.Google Scholar

³⁷ This happened with those slaves in the Akegbe who had successfully eliminated many of the symbolic and actual restrictions on their freedom, only to have them reasserted by their master in the wake of the uprising. NNAE, OP82/1924, D.O. Awgu to Res. Onitsha, 1 09 1924.Google Scholar

³⁸ This analysis is an interpretation of Horton's conclusions about the foundations of solidarity in totally segregated slave villages in Nike clan area in North Nkanu. I have applied them to all slave quarters of mixed villages where possession of an Ani shrine is a symbol of community cohesion. Horton, , ‘God, man and the land’, 17–28Google Scholar; ‘Ohu system’, 329.Google Scholar

³⁹ Horton, , ‘God, man and the land’, 23–6Google Scholar; ‘Ohu system’, 329.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Horton, , ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 326Google Scholar; NNAE, Beaumont, , ‘Intelligence Report on Agbani-Akpugo’.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Today some slave descendants cite this as proof of their indigenous origins. But as Horton notes, this assertion is questionable: ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 324.Google Scholar This is another example of the inaccuracy of earlier Igbo studies. Uchendu claimed that this was prohibited to slaves: ‘Slavery in Igboland’, 128.Google Scholar

⁴² Later in 1936 the Amadi of Akegbe Ukwu protested when an Awbia family tried to do this dance at a funeral. NNAE, OP129/ONDIST 12/1/101, Stoddart, A. F. R., ‘Awbia-Amadi Dispute, Nkanu Area’, 14 10 1936.Google Scholar The exact definition of the Ubo dance varies with the town. In some cases it is the one done by the ‘horsekiller’ society, a prestigious title acquired by men of wealth.

⁴³ The Egede drum is played by this title society which includes community elders. It is the highest band used at funerals. They sacrifice cows, horses, goats, etc. and when they dance they show all they have done. The dance usually lasts four days. Ohu could not dance the same day as the Amadi. Interview with Victor Uke, research assistant, 5 07 1989.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Horton, , ‘Ohu system of slavery’, 316–17.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ NNAE, OP/1070, Beaumont, , ‘Intelligence Report on Agbani-Akpugo’, 20.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Ibid; NNAE, OW301/1922, Dew, H. T. B. to Res.(?), 11 10 1921.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Talbot, P. Amaury, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria (4 vols.) (London, 1969), III, 441.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Horton, , ‘Ohu system’, 318Google Scholar; NNAE, OP268/1921, Owen, A. G. J., ‘Nkanu Progress Report No. 17’, 30 04 1923.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ NNAE, OW301/1920, Res. to S.S.P., 18 10 1921.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ NNAE, OP82/1924, D.O. Awgu to Res. Onitsha, 1 09 1924.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Considering that the fourth day was usually a market day, the slaves worked for the owner from one-third to all of the working week. NNAE, OW301/1922, Dew, , 11 10 1921.Google Scholar

⁵² This is another dissimilarity with central Igboland, where eldest sons were heirs: Ibid.

⁵³ This was a favorable arrangement for a master because it increased his lineages' labor resources. Interview with Chief Joseph Edenwonovo, Uhuona, Ugbawka, 17 08 1988.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Although in Akpugo land reverted to the owner upon the slave father's death. NNAE, OP268/1921, Dew, to Res.(?), 4 09 1923.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Interview with Benson Ede, Isigwe, Ugbawka, 21 08 1988.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ PRO, CO520/10 ‘Memorandum on instructions with regard to the Aro expedition’, 12 11 1901Google Scholar, as cited in Ohadike, , ‘Decline of slavery’, 447.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ NNAE, OW301/1922, Moorhouse, , 25 11 1921.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ The Proclamation attempted to preserve the ‘house’ as a commercial unit by making it more difficult for slave members to break away and work on their own. Resembling in some respects the post-Civil War vagrancy laws in the Southern United States, the Ordinance subjected rebellious or vagrant ‘house’ members to fines and imprisonment. By the time it was passed the system was in advanced decay and many slave members had contracted to work outside the ‘house’. The law then entitled the owner/‘house’ head to a certain percentage of the earnings of his erstwhile employed slave. Lugard, Frederick, Report on the Amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria, and Administration, 1912–1919 (Command Paper 469, London, HMSO, 1920).Google Scholar For a discussion of the ‘house’ see Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830–1885 (Oxford, 1956).Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Roberts, and Miers, (eds.), The End of Slavery in Africa, 12–13Google Scholar; Tamuno, , The Evolution of the Nigerian State: The Southern Phase, 1898–1914 (New York, 1972), 324Google Scholar; Tamuno, , ‘Emancipation in Nigeria’, Nigeria Magazine, LXXII, (1964), 223Google Scholar; Lugard, Lord, Instructions to Political Officers on Subjects Chiefly Political and Administrative, 1913–1918 (revised) (London, 1919), 245–6.Google Scholar

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⁶¹ Beaumont, , ‘Intelligence Report on Nara Clan’.Google Scholar

⁶² For a discussion of the problems created by Lugard's system see Afigbo, , The Warrant Chiefs, ch. 5.Google Scholar

⁶³ NNAE, CSE 2/14/11, ‘Onitsha Province Annual Report for 1921–1922’, 6.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Onyeama, Dilibe, Chief Onyeama: The Story of an African God (Enugu, 1982), 20–5.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ A clan-based job stratification emerged in the colliery with important implications for the coal industry's workers' movement. Akpala, Agwu, ‘The background to the Enugu shooting incident in 1949’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria III (1965), 335–64Google Scholar; Brown, , ‘History of worker consciousness’.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Documentation of this resistance is in two record series. PRO, CO583, files 12, 14, 19, 20, 23, and 32; and NNAE, ONPROF 1/15/28. The revolt is discussed by Akinjide Osuntokun, , ‘Disaffection and revolts in Nigeria’, 180.Google Scholar NNAE, CSE 1/48/15, ‘Petition against the conduct of Chief Ezeokole and Onyeama’, 16 09 1919.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ This characterization is from Uzoechi, , ‘Impact of the Eastern Nigerian Railway’, 126.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ After crushing the revolt with 200 deaths the government was still too weak to prevent 2,000 Nkanu railway workers from deserting that February. PRO, CO583/32, Lugard to Secretary of State for the Colonies, Harcourt, 18 12 1914.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ One Colonial Office official noted: ‘The ordinary system, I believe, is to ask the chief to furnish so many labourers, explaining the conditions of service. The chief furnishes them, and if they run away he provides some more. No doubt he deals with the men who run away. But so long as he acts in accordance with the law, that is a matter between the chief and the native labourers’. PRO, CO583/9, ‘Baynes Minute’, 18 02 1914.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ ‘Petition against the conduct of Chief Ezeokole and Onyeama’.

⁷¹ Interview with Anyionovo Nwodo, in Uhuona, Ugbawka, 18 08 1988.Google Scholar

⁷² Brown, , ‘Workers' consciousness among coal miners’, ch. 3Google Scholar; NNAE, OP45/21, S.S.P. to Res. Onitsha, 2 09 1921Google Scholar; D.O. Enugu to Sr. Res. Onitsha, 30 06 1921Google Scholar; Akpala, , ‘Background to the Enugu shooting incident’, 341–2.Google Scholar

⁷³ Interview with Anyionovo Nwodo, Ukhuona, Ugbawka, 18 08 1988.Google Scholar A group of former miners replied to an inquiry on the treatment of slaves in the colliery by saying that to the Europeans, ‘We were all Awbia’ (another name for slaves, to be explained below). Interview at Obiofia, Akegbe-Ugwu, 5 08 1986.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Ekechi, Felix K., Missionary Enterprise and Rivalry in Igboland 1857–1914 (London, 1972), 142–3.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Despite superficially cordial relations with the Chief, Richardson found he persisted in supplying slave women for sacrifice to the Aro and occasionally traded in slaves himself: ‘Pioneer work in Agbani’, 140.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ For a discussion of the conflicts between contending missionary organizations see Udo, Edet A., ‘The missionary scramble for spheres of influence in Southeastern Nigeria, 1900–1952’, Ikenga, (1972), 22–36.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Dodds, Revd F. W., Invasion for God: The Story of Methodism in Eastern Nigeria 1893–1943, 13Google Scholar; Richardson, , ‘Pioneer work in Agbani’, 95, 134.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Richardson, , ‘Pioneer work in Agbani’, 95, 134.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Ibid. 132.

⁸⁰ Several years later a district officer claimed that continuing slave unrest was related to ‘Erroneous ideas … possibly acquired from missions or Colliery Camps as to their being entitled to absolute freedom with all property rights’. NNAE, OP82/1924, ONPROF 7/11/10, D.O. Awgu to Resident, 1 09 1924.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Interview with Anyionovo Nwodo.

⁸² PRO, CO583/77, J. Beringer, Acting Senior Sanitary Officer, Southern Provinces of Nigeria, , ‘The influenza epidemic of 1918 in the Southern Provinces of Nigeria’, 5 09 1919.Google Scholar

⁸³ Jordan, John P., Bishop Shanahan of Southern Nigeria (Dublin, 1949), 157.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Richardson, , ‘Pioneer work in Agbani’, 89–90.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Ibid.; Beringer, , ‘The influenza epidemic’, 24 05 1919.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ They received £10 per 100 month for surface and £15 for underground. NNAE, ONDIST 12/1/1562, Moorhouse, H. C. to Res. Onitsha, 24 03 1920.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ NNAE, OP45/21, S.S.P. to Res. Onitsha, 2 09 1921Google Scholar; Interview, Obiofa, Akegbe-Ugwu; ONDIST 12/1/1562, Bland, E. M., ‘Railway minutes’, 26 08 1920.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Interview with Anyionovo Nwodo, Uhuona, Ugbawka, 18 08 1988.Google Scholar

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⁹⁰ For a discussion of the system of control see Brown, , ‘History of workers' consciousness’.Google Scholar

⁹¹ NNAE, ONDIST 12/1/1562, Exec. Udi to Res. Onitsha, 17 02 1920Google Scholar; Brown, , ‘History of workers' consciousness’, 42–6.Google Scholar

⁹² NNAE, ONDIST 2/1/1562, Asst. D.O. to Res., 2 03 1920Google Scholar; OP12/1920, ‘A General Report on matters concerning Enugu Ngwo and Enugu Division’, 23 04 1920.Google Scholar

⁹³ There is a considerable literature of these unions. See Offodile, Oyeaka, ‘Growth and influence of tribal unions’, The West African Review (08 1947), 937–41Google Scholar; Hair, P. E. H., ‘Enugu: an industrial urban community in Nigeria, 1914–1953’, Report of the Annual Conference Sociology Sections, West African Institute of Social and Economic Research (Ibadan, 03 1953), 162–6Google Scholar; Hodgkin, Thomas, Nationalism in Colonial Africa (New York, 1957), 85–7.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ NNAE, ENDIST 2/1/1, ‘A General Report’.

⁹⁵ NNAE, OP268/1921, 2811 1923, D.O. Enugu to Resident.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ NNAE, OP 268/1921, 2001 1923, Lawton, J. G., ‘Nkanu Escort Progress Report No. 3’.Google Scholar

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⁹⁸ NNAE, Dew, , 11 10 1921.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Interview with Godwin Ede, Amafor, Ihuokpara, 18 09 1988.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Interview with Raymond Agwu.

¹⁰¹ Dew, , 11 10 1921.Google Scholar

¹⁰² NNAE, OP268/1921, Res. Onitsha to S.S.P., 25 04 1922Google Scholar; Chief Chukwuani and other slaveholders notified the government of their plans to evict them unless they continued to work. NNAE, Dew, L. T., D.O. Enugu, 18 10 1921Google Scholar; Interview with Godwin Ede, Amafor, Ihuokpara, 18 09 1988.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁴ Uzoechi, , ‘Impact of the Eastern Nigerian Railway’, 218.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁶ NNAE, OP268/1921, 1812 1922, D.O. Enugu to Sr. Resident.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Later that year an Ugbawka slave woman was murdered for funeral purposes: NNAE, OP168/1921, Res. Onitsha to S.S.P., 29 03 1923Google Scholar; OP268/1921, ‘Agbani Outstanding Case No. 21, April–30 November 1922’.

¹⁰⁸ Dew, the D.O. Enugu, noted that slavery was so widespread in Nkanu that aggressive enforcement of anti-slavery laws would lead to the arrest of most Nkanu free patriarchs. NNAE, OW301/1922, enclosure in Moorhouse, , 23 12 1921.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁰ In November Moorhouse noted, ‘What they want is what no Ordinance can give them, and that is to enjoy in their own villages equal rights with the freeborn’. NNAE, OW301/1922, Moorhouse, H. O., 25 11 1921.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁵ The latter claim challenged Igbo land law which gave ‘outsiders’ access to land through a token or ‘kola’ rent or market rent. NNAE, OW301/1922, Cooke, W. H., 18 10 1921.Google Scholar

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¹¹⁸ NNAE, OP268/1921, S.S.P. to Res. Onitsha, 11 12 1922Google Scholar; Owen, , ‘Memorandum’.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Owen, , ‘Memorandum’.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ NNAE, OP268/1921, D.O. Enugu to Sr. Res. Onitsha, 18 12 1922Google Scholar; Wood, A. C., ‘Nkanu Patrol Progress Report No. 4’, 1 06 1923.Google Scholar

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¹²⁷ NNAE, OP82/1924, ‘Petition from Agbani Town Chiefs’, 15 10 1924Google Scholar; S.S.P. to Sr. Res., 23 12 1924.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ In Agbani slaves killed a horse and flaunted tradition by refusing to share the first meat with their owner. Predictably the Secretary was inundated with petitions protesting this use of the courts to usurp freeborn privileges. NNAE, OP 82/1924, S.S.P. to Sr. Res., 23 12 1924.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ NNAE, OP82/1924, D.O. Awgu to Res. Onitsha, 1 09 1924Google Scholar; ‘Awbia Petition to Res. Onitsha’, 21 04 1924.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ NNAE, OP29, ONDIST 12/1/102, Vol. II, D.O. Enugu to Res. Onitsha, 7 03 1925.Google Scholar

¹³¹ NNAE, OP268/1921, Confidential, Resident to S.S.P., 26 11 1923.Google Scholar

¹³² NNAE, OP245/25, 207 1924, Assistant D.O. Nkanu to D.O. Enugu.Google Scholar

¹³³ The fee was not considered exorbitant because it approximated the daily wage of men in the mines or on the railway. NNAE, OP82/1924, D.O. Enugu to Res., 12 03 1924Google Scholar; OPROF 1/26/99, ‘Annual Report for Onitsha Province – 1925’.

¹³⁴ NNAE, OP82/1924, Asst. D.O. Nkanu to D.O. Enugu, 26 07 1925Google Scholar; ‘Petition from Agbani Town Chiefs’, 21 04 1924.Google Scholar

¹³⁵ NNAE, OP82/1924, D.O. Enugu to Res. Onitsha, 7 03 1925.Google Scholar

¹³⁶ NNAE, OP82/1924, Political Officer Grey to D.O. Enugu, 7 11 1931.Google Scholar

¹³⁷ Interview at Akwuke, Nigeria with Benson A. Ugwu, 21 08 1986.Google Scholar

¹³⁸ In an interview in Akwuke several Awbia spoke proudly of their parents' decision to leave the freeborn and establish their own home. They considered themselves superior to those who chose to remain behind and live under freeborn harassment. Interview with Benson A. Ugwu, 21 08 1986Google Scholar; Nwaka, Geoffrey, ‘The civil rights movement in Igboland’.Google Scholar

¹³⁹ After World War II they protested their exclusion from some of the development programs. NNAE, ONDIST 12/1/103, ‘Petition to the Res. Onitsha from Ndiobias’, 21 01 1946.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁰ Ibid.; Nwaka, , ‘Civil rights movement’.Google Scholar