Bight of Biafra(renamed by Nigeria as the Bight of
Bonny), is a bight (bay) off the West African coast,
in the easternmost part (beyond the Bight of Benin
to the West) part of the Gulf of Guinea. It extends
from the river delta of the Niger in the north till Cape
Lopez in Gabon. Countries located at the Bight of Bonny are Biafra-
Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea (including
Annobon), São Tomé and Príncipe and Gabon.
Nearby cities: Uyo, Malabo, Port Harcourt Coordinates: 4°28'51"N 8°0'43"E

In the 18th century the slave trade expanded
eastward to the Bight of Biafra. The powerful
merchant princes of the coastal ports made
European traders give them a lot of presents. There
were rarely any wars that went on because of the
lack of large states and organizations. Instead, kidnapping was the major source of slaves.
Through a network of markets and inland routes,
some inland African merchants supplied European
slave traders at the coast with debtors, victims of
kidnapping, and convicted criminals. Aro of
Arochukwu used their control of a famous religious oracle to enhance their prestige and this made
them the largest inland traders. The Aro did
business with mostly powerful inland families and
merchants on the coast through many gifts and
even marriage alliances.
As the volume of the Atlantic trade along the Bight of Biafra expanded near the late 18th century,
some of the inland markets evolved into giant fairs
with different sections consisting of slaves and
imported goods. In 1780 an English ship’s doctor
reported that “slaves were bought by the black
traders at fairs, which are held for that purpose, at a distance of upwards of two hundred miles from the
sea coast.”He claimed seeing twelve hundred
enslaved men and fifteen hundred enslaved
women arriving at the coast only from one single
fair.
South of Congo estuary at Angola was the greatest source of slaves for the Atlantic trade and was the
one place along the Atlantic coast where Portugal
controlled a significant amount of territory. Some
markets met in the shadow of Portuguese frontier
forts while powerful African kings controlled the
other. Many of the slaves sold at these markets were
prisoners of war captured by expanding African
states. Most prisoners were usually the byproduct
of African wars rather than the purpose for which
the wars were fought.
Research has linked other enslavement with environmental crises in the hinterland of Angola.
They periodically suffered from droughts, which
drove famished refugees to better-watered areas
nearby. This allowed rich Africans take control of
these refugees because they supplied them with
food and water. They sold adult male refugees because they were more likely to escape compared
to the women and children who were working for
them. Rising Angolan leaders parceled out the
Indian textiles, weapons, and alcohol the received
in return for such slaves as gifts to attract new
followers and to cement the loyalty of the people such as their alliances.
The most successful of these inland Angolan
leaders became heads of powerful new states the
stabilized areas that were unfortunate by war and
drought and also repopulated them with the
refugees and prisoners they obtained. The slave frontier then moved farther inland. Even though a
cruel system, it did work to benefit a few African
rulers and merchants at the expanse of the many
thousands of Africans who were sent to death or
perpetual bondage in the Americas.
Although the organization of the Atlantic trade in Africa varied, it was based on a partnership
between European and African elites. To obtain
foreign textiles, metals, or weapons, African rulers
and merchants sold slaves and many products.
Even in the absence of the strong controlling states,
powerful African merchant communities everywhere dominated the movement of goods
and people. The Africans who gained from these
exchanges were only the rich and powerful few of
them, the rest of them didn’t work out too well.

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