Bight of Biafra 27area by European travelers, and reinforced with maps, Bi-
afra essentially encompasses the entire region east of the
Niger, where it further extends to Mount Cameroon and
also to parts of Senegambia. Th e Bight of Biafra changed
the way that Africans participated in the slave economy.
African intermediaries traded slaves to Europeans who had
established castles along the coast to house Africans before
being shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. With their ships
packed tightly and loosely, European slavers prepared their
chattel for redistribution in the Americas. Most of the time,
slaves stayed belowdecks in cramped quarters where Euro-
peans parceled out food, in spoons, to them, which they ate
with their bare hands. Th e Bight of Biafra played a leading
role in the slave trade.
From the 1740s on, the Bight of Biafra along with
Benin dominated the transatlantic slave trade, accounting
for 47 percent of the slaves exported. Figures revealed that
from that time period on, the trade in slaves expanded from
about 1,000 slaves per year to 17,000 per year in the 1790s.
Most of the slaves ended up in the Chesapeake Bay region
of Maryland and Virginia, where they adapted to perform-
ing grueling manual labor. With no centralized pattern of
enslavement, each polity controlled its spheres of infl uence.
Aboh and Idah dominated the interior trade, and private
cartels participated freely in the commercial process. Not
only were slaves exported, but inhabitants also maintained
their own slave institution and culture. Based on the system
of clientage, and debt peonage (whereby pawns performed
service for a specifi ed amount of time), Africans had their
own form of slavery long before the arrival of Europeans and
their chattel economy. Europeans commercialized slavery
whereas Africans wanted to settle debts or obtained slaves
through raids or wars. As a result of European presence and
the appearance of Africans as intermediaries who brought
Africans from the interior to the coast for sale, the com-
mercialization that erupted during then transatlantic slave
trade altered the way that Africans participated in the slave
economy. No longer did Africans trade among themselves.
Other inducements that Europeans off ered compelled Af-
rican merchants to sell other Africans to European traders
for a variety of goods.
Biafra earned historical distinction for another reason.
Along its bight developed a city of its namesake, the Repub-
lic of Biafra (ROB), located in southern Nigeria. Th e Repub-
lic seceded from Nigeria for three years from March 30, 1967,
to January 15, 1970. During its short stint of independence,castings as early as the 14th century. Bronze sculptures
from Benin refl ect great art and a technical profi ciency in
metallurgy suggesting that the forest people were just as
advanced as those of the savanna region. Th e Benin king-
dom is better known for its brass sculptures than any other
brass-casting center in West Africa. Benin is also known
for its ivory, and ivory sculpture continues to be produced
in some areas today.
See also: Atlantic Slave Trade; Kingdom of Benin; Kingdom
of Dahomey
Maryalice GuilfordBibliography
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Bight of Biafra
As a bay in the Gulf of Guinea, the Bight of Biafra was once
known for its exportation of African slaves. Located along
the West African coast, and extending northerly from the
Niger River delta to Gabon’s Cape Lopez, the Bight of Biafra
encompasses 371 square miles. Nigeria, Cameroon, Equa-
torial Guinea, São Tomé, Principe, and Gabon are all coun-
tries that are located along the Bight of Biafra. Th e Bight
of Biafra was based mainly on the ports of Bonny, Brass,
Opobo, and Calabar (formerly Old and New Calabar). Th e
term “Biafra” has European roots. As a name given to the