Like all African nations, Nigeria is an amalgamation of various ethnicities, peoples, nations, languages and cultures. But what caused the decline of our various kingdoms, confederacies and empires? What made it possible fore a few hundred Europeans to subjugate millions of people? Here is my hypothesis.

The Fulani
By the 1880s, the flame of religious fervor that had stirred the Fulani to conquest was in it's dying embers. By this time, challenges had arisen within the empire. Social problems were among the most prominent. By the end of the century, 1 in 3 people were slaves, and the minority Fulani population were ruling the majority Hausa vassals. As the years passed, unrest began to spread. Problems in centralization also arose and threatened the position of the Caliph of Sokoto as the sole ruler of the Empire. The Empire, which stretched from Illorin to Kano was governed by emirs who submitted to the supreme authority of the Caliph, but soon several of these emirates, including the emir of Argungu and the emir of Kano, rebelled against the Caliph. And to add to their problems, the French, by 1890, had begun supplying other rival kingdoms with firearms. By 1892 after a year of brutal warfare with the emir of Argungu, widespread unrest had yet again weakened the empire. The French then moved in and annexed Fulani lands to the north of Sokoto, in what is now Niger Republic. The British in turn made inroads into the Fulani lands to the South and by 1903, Kano and Sokoto had been sacked and the empire had fallen under British protection.

The Ijaws
The Ijaws were among the first to meet the Europeans. Since the 1500s, the Ijaw had been trading with Portuguese explorers and the Portuguese had set up a few trading posts on the coast. In trading cities, the Ijaw traded slaves, spices, ivory, and skins for European rum, firearms and cloth. As the years passed, the Europeans gained an interest in pushing into the hinterland but however, it was finally in 1895 after years of pitting the Ijaw clans among themselves that the British Royal Niger Company that the British were able to annex Ijaw land into the South Nigerian protectorate.

Igbos
Igboland had been fortunate enough to escape British Imperialism for several years after other parts of Nigeria had been conquered. The Igbo existed in the stretch of land that lay between the Edo and the Efik. The British had made several attempts to advance into the Igbo country but they were rebuffed by the Aro confederacy and it's allies to the south and the Aniocha communities to the West. Originally, the British traded palm oil, slaves, wine, fabrics and firearms with many Igbo groups but they grew anxious to tap into the vast wealth of the hinterland and destroy the Aro Ibini Ukpabi shrine which held a monopoly on the slave trade. In the late 1890s, after several failed attempts to end the slave trade, the British used it as an excuse and formally invaded the Igbo country. In the southern areas of what is now Rivers state, they had success and captured a few trading posts. The Aros, seeing this as a threat to their prosperity launched a series of attacks aimed at halting the British advance. The British themselves responded by launching an all out assault on Igbo communities allied with the Aros which ended in 1902 after a hundreds of  British soldiers and their allies defeated tens of thousands of Aro troops. The capture of Arochukwu signaled the opening of eastern Igboland to the British, however, the Western part still lay closed.
In the West, the Igbo had been engaged in warfare with the British since 1884. The Ekumeku movement, as it came to be called, was an attempt by several Igbo groups namely, Ukwunzu, Aniocha and others to dislodge the British from the area. However the war ended on 1914 after Asaba and other key cities were captured. By the end of 1915, the road into the Igbo heartland and the east were open. However it was not until 1920, after the Aba women's riot that the Igbo were firmly under Imperial British control.

Edo
Since the 1700s, the Edo empire was in steady decline. Many years of warefare with neighboring groups which coupled with the growing British presence forced the Oba to ban all trade with foreigners except with Palm oil. The British, seeking more and more of trade wealth of the empire launched an expedition in 1896 which ended in the sacking of Benin city, the exile of the Oba and the clearing of the path into the Midwest.

Yoruba (Oyo)
The Oyo empire, by the 19th century, had become a shadow of it's former self. The empire no longer ran as efficiently as it used to, and the swords of the warriors no longer seemed as sharp or dangerous as they were.
furthermore, to complicate the issue, the Oyo kingdom suffered years of internal unrest and political upheaval after Oba Biodun had been murdered by his son Awole. Awole proved to also be an in weak leader and he too was ousted from power in 1796 after various chain-revolts had started. A few years later, the Fulani waged war against the weak empire and captured Illorin and other Muslim Yoruba lands. After a series of weak leaders, the empire was on it's last legs by the late 1880s. Finally in 1888, Great Britain invaded and quickly annexed the Oyo empire which has fragmented into various feuding states. By 1896, the Oyo empire existed merely as a footnote in history and with it's collapse, the Yoruba heartland lay unprotected.


So to conclude, I find it amazing thata few hundred British troops were able to subjugate empires and nations all within the same time period. What went wrong?

odumchi:

So to conclude, I find it amazing thata few hundred British troops were able to subjugate empires and nations all within the same time period. What went wrong?

Nothing went "wrong", unless you want to count native assistance. Other than that, the equation is simple. Stronger empires will subjugate smaller communities.

Even though I understand how it happened, it still baffles me to wonder how a few hundred people were able to conquer millions. Maybe it's just the fact that these empires were in decline. I'm sure in their golden days they woulve been able to ward off any European attacks.

I'm not surprised. The stage was set for conquering, in my opinion. I also don't think the 'golden days' would have proven much different.

Interesting.

It's funny how all of these groups were in decline at around the same time. I wonder if there's a larger reason for this.

Who wrote this article?

There are a few inaccuracies.

1895 is when Nembe was defeated after the 'Brass Revolt' or 'Akassa War'. It does not necessarily mean that is when "Ijawland" was defeated and annexed.

Niger Coast Protectorate troops (Hausas, basically) were used against the Aro, not British soldiers.

The Ekumeku uprisings were separate events (1898, 1902, 1904, 1909, 1911, etc.) that broke out at different times.

The British did not invade the Oyo empire nor the states that succeeded it. The British did invade and fight the Ijebu kingdom however.

Also, the Benin kingdom was not really in "steady decline" from 1700 onwards and the decline was not due to fighting against external groups. There was a civil war from around that time but the kingdom had recovered and was doing well by the 1780s as attested to by written documents from James Field Stanfield (an Irish abolitionist who visited Ughoton) and also by Pierre Labarthe, although the kingdom was no longer in its golden period. The next period of decline was in the 1850s. Another internal conflict happened around this time and the kingdom was in decline and it was a little after this time that external groups chipped away at the exterior parts of the kingdom. The kingdom was definitely still in decline by the 1880s and of course by 1897 it was far from its glory period.

Even though I understand how it happened, it still baffles me to wonder how a few hundred people were able to conquer millions. Maybe it's just the fact that these empires were in decline. I'm sure in their golden days they woulve been able to ward off any European attacks.

How many millions? What was the population of Nigeria in 1900?

The 1952-3 census showed that Nigeria's population was around 30 million:books.google.com/books?id=3FHvvW1TclIC&pg=PA154

By 1963, it was 47 million. I think that around 1900 it was much less than 30 million and this is among hundreds of different groups, so individual states and kingdoms would have been of limited size.

It is true that most of these places were all in decline when invaded, but I do not think any of these places had an army of sufficient size out of the population of their individual states that could have put up a really amazing resistance anyway.

It might be more accurate to say that a thousands of people (not hundreds) were able to conquer millions, but it's more or less the same thing. It's happened before in history. Think of the Mongols conquering China or the conquistadors conquering the Aztecs (even fewer people were used here, if I recall correctly). The important thing is who has the superior military force and tactics. Those places that had to face maxims (machine guns, basically) and rocket artillery never really had a chance.

The main reason for this simple conquest was the use of the maxim (developed in 1884) in these invasions. If they had invaded before the maxim was developed, the resistance would have been quite different. For example, when one reads the descriptions of the conquest of Benin by some of those actually involved, it becomes (annoyingly) clear that the whole thing was really about the maxim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim_Guns

Note the part about 50 soldiers fighting off 5,000 Ndebele (Zulu) warriors in a battle.

Also,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Matabele_War

One reason the 1879 Anglo-Zulu conflict looks like such a great resistance (in comparison to the Matabele invasion or other invasions in Africa) by the Zulu is because they didn't have to face even a single maxim machine gun in 1879. That's one thing that some people miss when they fall for the myth of Zulu military preeminence among African groups. When the Ndebele (who are basically a group of Zulus) were invaded with maxim guns, the result was similar to the simpler invasions in other parts of Africa.

I wrote this.

By 1900, the population of Africa was 120 million. If you'd like to divide it by today's Nigerian ratio, there were a bit over 15 million Nigerians in 1900.

http://www.thuto.org/ubh/ub/h202/wpop1.htm

This also gives the population of the South Nigerian protectorate at 7.8 million in 1911, knock of a few hundred thousand if you'd like to go back to 1900.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Nigeria_Protectorate

As for the British employing troops, I am well aware that the British are famous for fighting with "empire" troops when outside of Europe. What I meant when I said "British troops" was that those troops were fighting for Britain. I purposely distinguished British troops from their "allies" to show that other independent groups fought on the side of the British. I didn't necessarily mean "white" troops from Britain.

I don't know much about the details of tbe collapse of the Edo Empire, so when I was writing about them, I had google as my friend.

As for the British versus Africans thing, I know the main disadvantage was that their opponents didn't have repeating rifles or even machine guns. But then again, it makes you wonder: how much manpower can a maxim make up for? At the battle of Arochukwu, warriors from all the nearby areas were assembled (nearly ten thousand of them) and armed with muskets to fight just under two thousand British troops and a few hundred of their allies. Our oral tradition tells us that when news returned that the battle was swaying in favour of the British, all able-bodied men in the city were armed with machetes in anticipation for the British assault on the city but it was still not enough.

As for the military thing, the Edo, in their golden years, had a formidable military force. Although initially they did not have firearms, they could've dealt serious damage to British troops of that time period with or without them.

I read parts of the book The Fall of Nigeria by Obaro Ikime when I checked it out 2 years ago from a library and from the parts that I read, the main issue was definitely the difference in the power of arms used by the different sides. Brain triumphs over brawn every time.

Of course the irony here is that the British invented neither guns (although they managed to improve on them) nor rockets, so maybe another lesson there is that extensive trade, diplomacy and adventurousness triumphs over isolation and complacency.

Its amazing to imagine the type of impact technology has made on history. I wonder how the African map would've looked now had there been no foreign intervention.

Superior firepower and advanced military tactics by the Europeans.

What on earth, several hundred europeans? They had thousands on men, in addition to forts and ships on the coast.

Also colonialism is taught all wrong. When they show colonial maps with africa completly divided between european countries it is very misleading. Maps like the one below simply showed European claims in relation to other European countries.

So basically it was 'theirs' in their heads only and they didn't really control the land. And they certainly didn't defeat all the people in battle, because in most cases the ppl didn't even know they were in a colony.

I'm aware that the British had thousands of troops at their disposal however, as conscious of the value of human life as they were, they rarely used more than a few hundred troops at any single engagement.

At the famous battle of Isandlwana between the Zulu and the British it was 1500 British troops against twenty thousand Zulu warriors.

LOL they sold each other out. It's as simple as that.

^^^^^Do you have a Nigerian boyfriend?

odumchi:
Igbos
Igboland had been fortunate enough to escape British Imperialism for several years after other parts of Nigeria had been conquered. The Igbo existed in the stretch of land that lay between the Edo and the Efik. The British had made several attempts to advance into the Igbo country but they were rebuffed by the Aro confederacy and it's allies to the south and the Aniocha communities to the West. Originally, the British traded palm oil, slaves, wine, fabrics and firearms with many Igbo groups but they grew anxious to tap into the vast wealth of the hinterland and destroy the Aro Ibini Ukpabi shrine which held a monopoly on the slave trade. In the late 1890s, after several failed attempts to end the slave trade, the British used it as an excuse and formally invaded the Igbo country. In the southern areas of what is now Rivers state, they had success and captured a few trading posts. The Aros, seeing this as a threat to their prosperity launched a series of attacks aimed at halting the British advance. The British themselves responded by launching an all out assault on Igbo communities allied with the Aros which ended in 1902 after a hundreds of  British soldiers and their allies defeated tens of thousands of Aro troops. The capture of Arochukwu signaled the opening of eastern Igboland to the British, however, the Western part still lay closed.
In the West, the Igbo had been engaged in warfare with the British since 1884. The Ekumeku movement, as it came to be called, was an attempt by several Igbo groups namely, Ukwunzu, Aniocha and others to dislodge the British from the area. However the war ended on 1914 after Asaba and other key cities were captured. By the end of 1915, the road into the Igbo heartland and the east were open. However it was not until 1920, after the Aba women's riot that the Igbo were firmly under Imperial British control.

The Western part was already well open, even to the point that we have pictures of people in those parts from the 19th century. The British post itself was in Asaba (and Onitsha) and they called on Frontier troops, or whatever those bare foot African soldiers were called, from other parts of British West Africa when the rebellions got too tough. The Ekumeku was secret and underground and people were regularly arrested.

The oil palm trading was based in Asaba. The whole problem of colonisation started with greedy traders. Compare that with China and other East Asian countries that kept their borders tightly closed.

PhysicsQED:
Niger Coast Protectorate troops (Hausas, basically) were used against the Aro, not British soldiers.

It was actually the West African Frontier Force. There were over 80 European officers there and over 2000 men on the European side over 4 months so there were probably over 100 Europeans.

PhysicsQED:

When the Ndebele (who are basically a group of Zulus) were invaded with maxim guns, the result was similar to the simpler invasions in other parts of Africa.

The Ndebele are a smaller group driven out by the Zulu, they have a different language and culture. That would be like Ibibio being Igbo.

mbatuku2:

Superior firepower and advanced military tactics by the Europeans.

Britain? Advanced? Maybe if Admiral Nelson was there but making others gang up on one another isn't that advanced, or black mailing or blockading. Without their guns they'd be nothing just like the Zulu case.

MsDarkSkin:

LOL they sold each other out. It's as simple as that.

Who sold who out?

Without their guns they'd be nothing just like the Zulu case.

I agree. At this point the British were using Gatlin guns and machine guns.

'tactics' were not a factor.

No wonder this wide-scale imperialism occurred when it did (19th century). Rewind back one hundred or even two hundred years, you'd see Europeans acting humbly before African sovereigns. Back then there wasn't much of a technological advantage for the Europeans since they and the Africans both had muskets.

The worst thing to hit Africa was the machine gun.

Yeah, Africans let them set up trading posts, awed by their mirror and Western clothing like the Madras they imported. The Europeans were acting like equals to Africans until they studied them and went for the kill.

Look at Portugese men bowing to the king od Loango. Now Angola is an ex-Portuguese territory.

[center][/center]

ezeagu:

It was actually the West African Frontier Force. There were over 80 European officers there and over 2000 men on the European side over 4 months so there were probably over 100 Europeans.

My mistake on that, it was indeed the West African Frontier Force.

The Ndebele are a smaller group driven out by the Zulu, they have a different language and culture. That would be like Ibibio being Igbo.

It appears that there are two groups of people called "Ndebele". The group I referred to are not the "real" Ndebele, but a group of "Zulus" called the Matabele, and from what I've read, they are indeed basically Zulus.

"THE ORIGIN OF THE MATABELE.

During the period of suspense which is so hateful to eager spirits on both sides, we may, with advantage, take a glance at the central figure of this strange drama. Lobengula, the son of Moselekatse, as he used to be called in all the earlier missionary books from which we gain our first information of this region, or Umziligazi, as later and more correct information has led us to describe him, is a Zulu. His father more than sixty years since revolted against Tchaka, the founder of the Zulu kingdom. Leaving Natal, where Tchaka brooked no rival, he settled at first in the Transvaal, but being pressed by the advancing Boers he crossed the Limpopo and settled in Matabeleland. There, in the heart of sub-tropical Africa, in a pleasant and well-watered land abounding in great game and free from the tetzi fly, he established a Matabele counterpart to the original Zulu kingdom. The Matabele are as much Zulus as the Americans are English. They are practically identical in race, in manners, in language, and in their social and military organization. Lobengula is but a more remote Cetewayo. He himself objects to be culled a Matabele, always asserting that he and his men are Zulus. The analogy between the split in the English speaking race and the two branches of the Zulu kingdom is closer than would at first sight appear. The Zulus of Zululand have kept their blood purer than the emigrants who trecked westward under Moselekatse. The men who formed the impi which destroyed the British army at Isandhluana, and who were subsequently broken up at Ulundi, were men of purer blood than the men who are gathering on the Matalele frontier to-day. Lobengula's impi are only partially made up of the pure-blooded Zulu and very largely of other native races. Many of them have been captured as boys in the predatory raids of the Matabele, and been taught as the Turkish Janissaries to have no other country than that of their victors and no other religion but war."

books.google.com/books?id=qBcyIMmrE20C&pg=PA555


I should have indicated that I was referring to the so called "Northern" Ndebele who are the Matabele (Zulus).

Okay, there's also two Ndebele one in South Africa and the other in Zimbabwe, maybe "Ndebele" is a generic word in their languages[s].

Relax101:

^^^^^Do you have a Nigerian boyfriend?

no sir i don't.

MsDarkSkin:

no sir i don't.

Oya be my girl friend. I have big money.

hmm,

indeed, what went wrong?

odumchi: Like all African nations, Nigeria is an amalgamation of various ethnicities, peoples, nations, languages and cultures. But what caused the decline of our various kingdoms, confederacies and empires? What made it possible fore a few hundred Europeans to subjugate millions of people? Here is my hypothesis.

The Fulani
By the 1880s, the flame of religious fervor that had stirred the Fulani to conquest was in it's dying embers. By this time, challenges had arisen within the empire. Social problems were among the most prominent. By the end of the century, 1 in 3 people were slaves, and the minority Fulani population were ruling the majority Hausa vassals. As the years passed, unrest began to spread. Problems in centralization also arose and threatened the position of the Caliph of Sokoto as the sole ruler of the Empire. The Empire, which stretched from Illorin to Kano was governed by emirs who submitted to the supreme authority of the Caliph, but soon several of these emirates, including the emir of Argungu and the emir of Kano, rebelled against the Caliph. And to add to their problems, the French, by 1890, had begun supplying other rival kingdoms with firearms. By 1892 after a year of brutal warfare with the emir of Argungu, widespread unrest had yet again weakened the empire. The French then moved in and annexed Fulani lands to the north of Sokoto, in what is now Niger Republic. The British in turn made inroads into the Fulani lands to the South and by 1903, Kano and Sokoto had been sacked and the empire had fallen under British protection.

The Ijaws
The Ijaws were among the first to meet the Europeans. Since the 1500s, the Ijaw had been trading with Portuguese explorers and the Portuguese had set up a few trading posts on the coast. In trading cities, the Ijaw traded slaves, spices, ivory, and skins for European rum, firearms and cloth. As the years passed, the Europeans gained an interest in pushing into the hinterland but however, it was finally in 1895 after years of pitting the Ijaw clans among themselves that the British Royal Niger Company that the British were able to annex Ijaw land into the South Nigerian protectorate.

Igbos
Igboland had been fortunate enough to escape British Imperialism for several years after other parts of Nigeria had been conquered. The Igbo existed in the stretch of land that lay between the Edo and the Efik. The British had made several attempts to advance into the Igbo country but they were rebuffed by the Aro confederacy and it's allies to the south and the Aniocha communities to the West. Originally, the British traded palm oil, slaves, wine, fabrics and firearms with many Igbo groups but they grew anxious to tap into the vast wealth of the hinterland and destroy the Aro Ibini Ukpabi shrine which held a monopoly on the slave trade. In the late 1890s, after several failed attempts to end the slave trade, the British used it as an excuse and formally invaded the Igbo country. In the southern areas of what is now Rivers state, they had success and captured a few trading posts. The Aros, seeing this as a threat to their prosperity launched a series of attacks aimed at halting the British advance. The British themselves responded by launching an all out assault on Igbo communities allied with the Aros which ended in 1902 after a hundreds of  British soldiers and their allies defeated tens of thousands of Aro troops. The capture of Arochukwu signaled the opening of eastern Igboland to the British, however, the Western part still lay closed.
In the West, the Igbo had been engaged in warfare with the British since 1884. The Ekumeku movement, as it came to be called, was an attempt by several Igbo groups namely, Ukwunzu, Aniocha and others to dislodge the British from the area. However the war ended on 1914 after Asaba and other key cities were captured. By the end of 1915, the road into the Igbo heartland and the east were open. However it was not until 1920, after the Aba women's riot that the Igbo were firmly under Imperial British control.

Edo
Since the 1700s, the Edo empire was in steady decline. Many years of warefare with neighboring groups which coupled with the growing British presence forced the Oba to ban all trade with foreigners except with Palm oil. The British, seeking more and more of trade wealth of the empire launched an expedition in 1896 which ended in the sacking of Benin city, the exile of the Oba and the clearing of the path into the Midwest.

Yoruba (Oyo)
The Oyo empire, by the 19th century, had become a shadow of it's former self. The empire no longer ran as efficiently as it used to, and the swords of the warriors no longer seemed as sharp or dangerous as they were.
furthermore, to complicate the issue, the Oyo kingdom suffered years of internal unrest and political upheaval after Oba Biodun had been murdered by his son Awole. Awole proved to also be an in weak leader and he too was ousted from power in 1796 after various chain-revolts had started. A few years later, the Fulani waged war against the weak empire and captured Illorin and other Muslim Yoruba lands. After a series of weak leaders, the empire was on it's last legs by the late 1880s. Finally in 1888, Great Britain invaded and quickly annexed the Oyo empire which has fragmented into various feuding states. By 1896, the Oyo empire existed merely as a footnote in history and with it's collapse, the Yoruba heartland lay unprotected.


So to conclude, I find it amazing thata few hundred British troops were able to subjugate empires and nations all within the same time period. What went wrong?

Am I missing something from this your epistle ?? You make it sound as if aro is the only igbo kingdom. You can't get aro higher that it already is! You ppl sold human for a living and there is no NOBILITY in that. Aros were savages and never contributed nothing to Igbo culture and history. You Odumchi must stop using aro as a tool for an Igbo representation,so the world doesn't think all Igbo sold human like your barbaric forefathers. Hell,you guys are hardly Igbo,to be very factual. Aro is not a model Igbo tribe. The only thing my father said about aro is that they were kidnappers and human sellers and we Nri look down on such people including Oyo and Benin kingdoms. Odumchi,you are a decendant of barbaric human sellers and as such will never represent the DIVINE,SACRED AND THE NOBLE PEOPLE of Eri and Ifikuanim! Keep deceiving yourself!

Odenigbo Aroli: Am I missing something from this your epistle ?? You make it sound as if aro is the only igbo kingdom. You can't get aro higher that it already is! You ppl sold human for a living and there is no NOBILITY in that. Aros were savages and never contributed nothing to Igbo culture and history. You Odumchi must stop using aro as a tool for an Igbo representation,so the world doesn't think all Igbo sold human like your barbaric forefathers. Hell,you guys are hardly Igbo,to be very factual. Aro is not a model Igbo tribe. The only thing my father said about aro is that they were kidnappers and human sellers and we Nri look down on such people including Oyo and Benin kingdoms. Odumchi,you are a decendant of barbaric human sellers and as such will never represent the DIVINE,SACRED AND THE NOBLE PEOPLE of Eri and Ifikuanim! Keep deceiving yourself!

Are you incapable of behaving civilized?

ChinenyeN:

Are you incapable of behaving civilized?

You are very stupid for asking me that question. Was the post addressed to you ??

Odenigbo Aroli:

Am I missing something from this your epistle ?? You make it sound as if aro is the only igbo kingdom. You can't get aro higher that it already is! You ppl sold human for a living and there is no NOBILITY in that. Aros were savages and never contributed nothing to Igbo culture and history. You Odumchi must stop using aro as a tool for an Igbo representation,so the world doesn't think all Igbo sold human like your barbaric forefathers. Hell,you guys are hardly Igbo,to be very factual. Aro is not a model Igbo tribe. The only thing my father said about aro is that they were kidnappers and human sellers and we Nri look down on such people including Oyo and Benin kingdoms. Odumchi,you are a decendant of barbaric human sellers and as such will never represent the DIVINE,SACRED AND THE NOBLE PEOPLE of Eri and Ifikuanim! Keep deceiving yourself!

bonobo, did i hear you say your forefathers looked down on Oyo?

Dudu_Negro:

bonobo, did i hear you say your forefathers looked down on Oyo?

Reminds me of Chromosone 6
Good book.good read.

ezeagu: Yeah, Africans let them set up trading posts, awed by their mirror and Western clothing like the Madras they imported. The Europeans were acting like equals to Africans until they studied them and went for the kill.

Look at Portugese men bowing to the king od Loango. Now Angola is an ex-Portuguese territory.

[center][/center]

The Portuguese were probably one of the less destroying nations when it comes to colonalization. The Portuguese traded fairly with Benin Kingdom as far as I know, it didn't go down until the British decided to burn it into the ground. But hey, I guess greed would've gotten to them sooner or later anyway, if it weren't for the British. But the Portuguese were in my book, less harmful if you can put it that way, than most other colonization powers. Though, I could be wrong

Dudu_Negro:

bonobo, did i hear you say your forefathers looked down on Oyo?

Were you guys slave traders or not ?

Odenigbo Aroli:

Am I missing something from this your epistle ?? You make it sound as if aro is the only igbo kingdom. You can't get aro higher that it already is! You ppl sold human for a living and there is no NOBILITY in that. Aros were savages and never contributed nothing to Igbo culture and history. You Odumchi must stop using aro as a tool for an Igbo representation,so the world doesn't think all Igbo sold human like your barbaric forefathers. Hell,you guys are hardly Igbo,to be very factual. Aro is not a model Igbo tribe. The only thing my father said about aro is that they were kidnappers and human sellers and we Nri look down on such people including Oyo and Benin kingdoms. Odumchi,you are a decendant of barbaric human sellers and as such will never represent the DIVINE,SACRED AND THE NOBLE PEOPLE of Eri and Ifikuanim! Keep deceiving yourself!

Avo ole ka I di?

I've told you before that if you want to discuss this Aro slavery thing with me, open a separate thread dedicated solely for that topic. You have not done so, therefore I don't see why you should be pursuing me like a housefly.

Nwanna, azakwa aga emechu onwe gi ivu.

Yea,of a truth,no igbo tribe have any good thing to say of the aros,the aros were agents of death,everyone dreaded them,they and their abam partners were bad news to all igbo tribes, little wonder the british didn't have any problem,getting the neighbouring igbo tribes like the ngwas,to gang up against aros. But Odenigbo, your aggression towards our eze is misplaced,the discussion on this thread has to do with initial contact of the british with nigerians,it is only normal that aros represents the igbo,because of their role in slave trade.