₦airaland Forum

omonnakoda:
Only an Eboe man will believe that nonsense
What is the meaning of that incoherent babble?
I suggest you go and eat some akpu at a nearby akputeria


I thought you had a little sense.

So what have we established on this thread: European policies affected the way certain parts of Africa developed. Europeans could choose to educate one part of a colony and deliberately hold back another to play to their advantage. In Nigeria, the first major industry (after slavery) started off in eastern Nigeria and led to the formation and (industrial) development of wider Nigeria. Before the Europeans arrived with their education, the eastern Nigerians were already writing down their language.

omonnakoda:
Archaelogists have found centuries old pottery and other items with Nsibidi in Calabar how come they never found anything like that in Eboeland

Which just shows the ever shifting theory of origin of nsibidi. Which just shows how the Cross River communities have been interacting with each other for thousands of years, bouncing ideas off of each other like how Arochukwu and some other Igbo towns took nsibidi and simplified it from its more pictographic origin on the ukara cloths, the main medium of nsibidi from Igboland to south west Cameroon. You do now there is little difference in genes between the Cross River people.

omonnakoda:
Old man stop exposing yourself to ridicule
Why is lying and deception in your blood?
Eboe name? Why don't you tell THE WHOLE TRUTH which is that it was said and I quote
The name of a boy called 'Onuaha' as recorded by J. K. Macgregor in 1909. Macgregor interpreted the first two symbols as corruptions of the English letters 'N' and 'A' and the last symbol a generic nsibidi. Macgregor noted the growing European influence on nsibidi

This was 1909 ? So tell us in your own words what does this mean?


Nsibidi was used for DECORATIVE purposes that is well known but here we are talking about origin.
You present something from Wikipedia which states clearly it has been corrupted by Western influence. It is dated 1905 which in the context of what we are discussing is irrelevant because by that time Eboe language had already been written in Roman Alphabets and Ajayi Crowther wh gave you your first dictionary had long died

Because the Igbo language picked up nsibidi after Ajayi Crowther, or the idea of writing names was of European origin, not that the characters were simply corrupted which is why you can't read that Igbo name. Or maybe combining the two, Ajayi Crowther spread nsibidi with his Ibo primer?

https://s11.postimg.org/y6g05xks3/800px_Ikpe_nsibidi.jpg

"Nsibidi was used in judgement cases known as 'Ikpe' in some Cross River communities. Macgregor was able to retrieve and translate an nsibidi record from Enyong of an ikpe judgement."

A court case written in 'crude' nsibidi in the 19th century. I'm laughing.

omonnakoda:
When people are trying to lie deceive misinform or confuse they introduce a barrage of unrelated information to confound the simple minded . It is called information overload. let us take it one at a time

Nsibidi is not an Eboe Phenomenon. So why attach any Eboe meaning to it THERE IS NONE
Just like you are free to borrow English alphabets you an borrow Nsibidi
You can make clothes and write anything on them that does not make the writing system YOURS

The word itself Nsibidi is not and Eboe word

There is another word "ABCEE" in the English dictionary today . i.e ABC which is what we are now communicating with . You have no more affinity to ABCEE than you do to Nsibidi. It is not an Eboe thing
Nsibidi was a secret system not open to the public it was very very limited in what it could be used for and not open to the general public in its place of origin .

Samuel Ajayi Crowther produced the First Eboe dictionary
It was not widespread in Eboeland and it was only known in Aro which was being ruled by Akamkpa kings and still is to this day. Even it Aro it was a secret society phenomenon. Finally Nsibidi is not a system of symbols not words akin to hieroglyphics. One can liken it to telling stories with cartoons. Every people have some kind of symbol/s with which they can communicate ideas whether in art e.g paintings facial decoration etc. Nsibidi on the other hand was very rudimentary and because it was meant to be secret never developed in the same way as a WRITING system

You present a phoograph of a purported Nsibidi patter on a cloth . You claim it is produced in Eboeland . The question is when was it produced. Can you tell us what the message on the cloth is ? Anyone who wants to can produce Nsibidi cloth today

It was only known in Arochukwu, so what are these guys in Ebonyi doing?

"Ùkárá cloth is sold in markets in Ohafia, Umuahia, Abiriba, Aro, Aba and in Calabar, but all this cloth is created in Nkalagu junction village. Formerly, were three producers of Ùkárá in Nkalagu, but the others passed away, and their children abandoned this practice because it is not lucrative enough."
Cross River Cultural Heritage
http://www.crossriverheritageafricandiaspora.com/p/blog-page.html

http://altoonsultan..co.uk/2015/07/at-hood-secret-patterns-of-ukara-cloth.html

"Every people have some kind of symbol/s with which they can communicate ideas whether in art"

Why aren't there any others you can show? Because nsibidi is the first known writing system in West Africa.

Look, an Igbo name, Onuaha, in nsibidi recorded in the early 1900s. I'm laughing.

https://s17.postimg.org/fjqjy6bzz/Onuaha.jpg

"The name of a boy called 'Onuaha' as recorded by J. K. Macgregor in 1909. Macgregor interpreted the first two symbols as corruptions of the English letters 'N' and 'A' and the last symbol a generic nsibidi. Macgregor noted the growing European influence on nsibidi."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsibidi (Check the references)

"J.K. Macgregor's view was that "The use of nsibidi is that of ordinary writing. I have in my possession a copy of the record of a court case from a town of Enion [Enyong] taken down in it, and every detail ... is most graphically described". Nsibidi crossed ethnic lines and was a uniting factor among ethnic groups in the Cross River region."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsibidi (Check the references)

actoor:
You mean Largest open market not Largest Capital market?
Because as at my last research, SW remain the bedrock of capital market for the Nation.
Your men should better wakup, SW boast of Investors while your people making mouth about petty Traders.

Onitsha Main Market in the colonial era was the biggest and probably most expensive market in West Africa and patronised by Africans from all over. I don't know what these other pop up arguments are about.

In case you missed it:

https://s28.postimg.org/ytebpcsm5/books_1.png

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j_0VAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22West+Africa%27s+Largest+Market%22+onitsha&q=%22West+Africa%27s+largest+market.%22&redir_esc=y

omonnakoda:
The problem with your folk is you are inveterate liars. What does nsibidi have to do with Eboes. You are so greedy and covetous. Nsibidi is a system belonging to and originating among people in secret societies in what is now Cross River and Cameroon. It was a SECRET only o members and not in anyway an Eboe thing. With your nature and left to you you woud rewrite history. Shameless people. At any rate it was an indigenous system which is commendable but I was a primitive system of writing in rudimentary stages of development with limited utility but it was not an Eboe phenomenon

Now read the write up you provided which is calculated to present a half-truth to the ignorant .Typical Eboe lying
There was no Nsibidi dictionary. The First Eboe dictionary was produced by Samuel Ajayi Crowther

Crowther was the first to create an all Igbo (Latin script) book, but wasn't the first to transcribe Igbo, preceded by people such as Olaudah Equiano. But moving on to nsibidi.

Nsibidi is writing that originated from Ejagham people but had already spread throughout the region before Europeans came. If you're bragging about a colonial taught Crowther, then you're going to give credit for the spread of nsibidi hundreds of years before any European taught any African any writing.

This is the nsibidi cloth, the main medium of nsibidi. It's made and designed between Ebonyi state and Abia state but used throughout the Cross River.

[img]http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/inscribing/images/30-Ukara-clothLG.jpg[/img]
http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/inscribing/power.html

It's similar to uli which also has some meaning attached to the symbols, although that's mostly just a motif.

https://s27.postimg.org/nqjfb2rwz/ijele02.jpg
https://sm76626./2013/01/08/898/

Nsibidi may be crude or whatever, but it's the first recognised writing system in West Africa with no outside influence whatsoever.

I thought we were talking about firsts?

omonnakoda:
You posted that before When people get old they have difficulty learning new stuff
LAGOS 1900

DO NOT FORGET THAT THE YORUBAS GAVE YOU YOUR FIRST EBOE DICTIONARY

Oh. Was that before or after the nsibidi writing system and John Crows dictionary and a plethora of other indigenous writing systems and dictionaries?

https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflatecap00crow

"pre-1500s == A form of writing called nsibidi, using formalized pictograms, existed among the Igbo and neighboring groups. It died out, probably because it was popular among secret societies whose members did not want to discuss it publicly. In 1904, T. D. Maxwell, Acting District Commissioner in Calabar, was the first European to learn about the existence of nsibidi. Apart from nsibidi writing, the Igbo acculturated themselves effectively by informal methods (Oraka pp. 13,17). "

"1841 == Another Norris expedition on the Niger. He took two missionary linguists from the staff of the CMS (Church Missionary Society) in Freetown, J. F. Schon and Samuel Ajayi Crowther (the latter a Yoruba-born ex-slave and teacher), along with twelve interpreters, including Igbo who came from emancipated slave families settled in Freetown. John Christopher Taylor and Simon Jonas were among these. No permanent mission was founded. Schon was interested in Igbo and Hausa. At a stopover in Aboh, he tried to communicate in Igbo but was disappointed that people did not understand him. He then abandoned Igbo study for some twenty years (Oraka p. 23)."

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/igbo/igbohistory.html

Your tried though.

What does a railway have to do with the discussion about the first partly modernised industry?

omonnakoda:
Please stop talking like an OMATA the total value of exports that year was £880000 it was more or less the same thing on the other side .What does that tell us about SIZE OF ECONOMY Nothing !! It only tells us about goods that are of economic interest to a single customer. That is all so if for example the level of export was at a ratio of 1: 100 we cannot deduce size of economy as you are so ignorantly trying to do.

In fact a bigger economy may even import more i.e run a trade deficit as e.g the US has done for more decades so restrict yourself to what you comprehend fully
You have not provided evidence for your industrial methods claim if they were the first what method exactly and from what date at what location

And what made up the rest of the economy of the 1850s? What was the deficit on brass imports in the 1850s? You tried though.

Here's a palm oil factory in 1890s Calabar:

https://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/photos/colonization/1232507.jpg

omonnakoda:
Was palm oil the only thing in the Lagos Colony? The reports reflect the power of the colonialists to extract wealth from their colonies and not the size of the economy e.g they got a lot more in Lagos from palm kernel rubber etc so really you are being economical. If you want to compare by all means do that but try and make a comparison that does justice to your level of intelligence

Yeah, but we're talking about firsts. And the first major economy using industrial methods, although crude, was in eastern Nigeria.

omonnakoda:
That was true at one time but it was equally true for Nigeria now Nigeria imports palm oil. It is a matter of palm oil you produce excess when there is demand and at that time there was demand while the other areas had other priorities . Africa did not export any cocoa 100 years ago so what?
SE Nigeria historically meant CROSS RIVER/AKAW IBOM

Guy, you need to stop these kind of jokes.

omonnakoda:
There were many others producing palm oil in the East not just Eboes..

You talk of an economy several times the size of others. SOURCE PLEASE

Southern Nigeria or 'Eastern Nigeria', 1899, 1900
"and of palm oil, amounting to 8,650,226 imperial gallons valued at £420,680 8s. 10rf., as against 8,113,820 gallons valued at £397,869 10s. 10rf. for the preceding year."

http://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1899_1900_southern_nigeria/3064634_1899_1900_southern_nigeria_opt.pdf

Lagos Colony or 'Western Nigeria' 1898
Palm oil: £97,337

http://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1898_lagos/3064634_1898_lagos_opt.pdf

omonnakoda:
Ok so Eboes invented palm oil?

I do not see the point you are making with those pictures how are they relevant to your post

No, they invested the palm oil industry in Nigeria, even if the British came and overran them.

Go East. https://books.google.com/books?id=AGuri9TP5kgC&pg=PA71&dq=palm+oil+industry+eastern+nigeria&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBmoVChMIo9eXi_zUyAIVhc0UCh0A-AAh#v=onepage&q=palm%20oil%20industry%20eastern%20nigeria&f=false

omonnakoda:
Manufacturing what exactly How are trains and a power plant luxuries.We had electritiy whil you were still shrieking naked in the wilds. come on give it up. How is putting oil in Drums "manufacturing" ? I am embarrassed for you. Anyway how is Asaba Eastern Nigeria? Have you no shame??

Shrieking unclad with an industrialised economy how many times the size of other parts?

Because the oil industry is putting palm fruits in drums and then magically getting perfect grades of oil. Hehe.

https://www.msh.org/sites/msh.org/files/ffield_image_cropped/node/story/11c._sorting_the_bye-products_to_separate_the_palm_kernel_from_the_chaff-web.jpg

https://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/01/images/640_oil-transport.jpg

Lagos received electric and phone lines because of European quarters and its administrative position, same as Calabar.

Eastern Nigeria is the industrial nucleus of West Africa and probably tropical Africa judging from the biggest markets. Asaba has always been a counterpart to Onitsha than anywhere else.

omonnakoda:
Today I think we accept that Bendel state are the kings of palm oil is that in doubt?

How can you say industrialization first happened in Eastern Nigeria when the first street lights,telephone,electricity power plant trains were all in the west
You guyns can beat chest sha

Eastern Nigeria is the home of the palm oil industry. Malaysia is the king of palm oil today. The first manufacturing industrialisation happened in eastern Nigeria form Asaba across to Calabar. I'm not talking about luxuries in GRA, also know as European quarters.

https://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/photos/colonization/1232507.jpg

Calabar, 1890.

omonnakoda:
Interesting stuff though it seems to me that this is mostly Eastern Nigeria and specifically the Coastal areas .

On both sides it would appear that they were largely operating from the coasts I e Bonny Okrika Calabar and Lagos

No doubt at that time more oil was going out from the east but the gap was closing and by the 60s the West was a major producer not only of oil but Cocoa which was not even being planted in Nigeria at the time of this report

And the River Niger to Aboh, Asaba, and Onitsha. Hence the Ekumeku movement in the 1880s-1910s.

Eastern Niger kicked off this industry. Industrialisation happened first in eastern Nigeria. Do you have sources for the oil gap closing?

omonnakoda:
Lt us put it like this . The country was not fully pacified for a long time after the British and Europeans signed their deals some communities never saw a wite man until the 1930s and the other thing to bear in mind is in the East what you had was the Royal Niger Company and their mercenary army acting under warrant from the crown and so it would appear that even the British were still quite vague about what they wanted and what they were prepared to leave to the RNC which by the way is Unilever. I believe particularly in the Niger Delta there may have been some grey areas but definitely rubber was being exported in large amounts from Lagos. Lagos was referred to as Colony and Protectorate of Lagos. Even n the 50s there was a different passport for Colonials as opposed to Protectorates. It is an area I will admit I have read a lot about but still have many questions still I will argue that Calabar was not capital of a space including Ibadan e.g which was covered in the Annual reports for Lagos

Okay

Southern Nigeria, 1899, 1900
"and of palm oil, amounting to 8,650,226 imperial gallons valued at £420,680 8s. 10rf., as against 8,113,820 gallons valued at £397,869 10s. 10rf. for the preceding year."

"The export of rubber rose more than 65 per cent., and amounted to 1,450,567 lbs. valued at £105,116 14s. 10d. as compared with 874,298 lbs. of the value of £60,607 17*.'9rf. for the
previous year. "

http://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1899_1900_southern_nigeria/3064634_1899_1900_southern_nigeria_opt.pdf

omonnakoda:
"Lagos Colony" actually means Western Nigeria as you can discern from the Colonial reports
http://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1898_lagos/3064634_1898_lagos_opt.pdf

eg page 8 where it shows export of £280000 of rubber Where do you think this rubber was coming from? Which part of Southern Nigeria produces rubber




The Term Southern Nigeria referred to what became Eastern Region those are the territories that UAC or its predecessor company RNC held on Charter. In any event this was on paper as the British still had to fight several battles across Nigeria to final enforce what they had drawn on their maps. But the long and short of it is Southern Nigerian Protectorate was basically the Eastern Region though to a large part the Colonial government had not exerted authority over many areas that it claimed

Are you sure Southern Nigeria was only the Eastern Region then?

omonnakoda:
Calabar was not capital of Southern Nigeria . This is a common error.

It was a capital of a part of southern Nigeria . i.e the Oil Rivers Protectorate.
When that was merged with West in 1906 Lagos became the Capital

Okay, Calabar was the capital of Oil Rivers Protectorate and then Southern Nigeria until the Lagos colony was added as an administrative centre in 1906. The point remain, Calabar was the first capital of Southern Nigeria which is where the palm oil trade was based and hence the point about the capital of the oil trade and so on.

Oh, and look where the Oil River Protectorate, the precursor to Nigeria, was based.

[img]http://www.nigeriainfo.fm/lagos/media/k2/items/cache/d26f2d3a8ff5583681ac68eec63fdc44_XL.jpg[/img]

omonnakoda:
Your link for oil palm is restricted so it adds nothing
The other post does not back up your claim for 60% .hat is clear is this by 1850 Britain had not annexed Lagos and so palm oil exports were not significant anyhow I should point out Cocoa is not indigenous to Africa and had not even been planted. By 1898 Lagos was exportin £100000 of palm oil so what is clear is in a very short time oil became a major export. Now all this argument is not about precolonial time but much later . By independence the Western region was a major producer of oil palm among other things which takes us back to your index claim of how you were BEST IN AGRICULTURE which really is the bone of contention. A region which previously did not have a single cocoa tree had become one of the world leading producers in addition to palm oil and rubber and kolanuts and timber. So you claim about agriculture is dismissed

The Onitsha market claim is too sketchy to believe and needs substantiation not some HEARSAY reports without citations
The one for the market lacks substantiation . We are not told who authored this report or their source

Can't you read, this quote references the restricted link, I'll post it again so you can read it properly

https://s15.postimg.org/ox2o6j6xn/oil.jpg

https://books.google.com/books?id=AMmPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67

I don't believe Olivier Pétré-Grenouillea is an eastern Nigeria or Routledge is an eastern Nigerian company, you may have heard of it though.

No. I already addressed the 'best agriculture' statement when I said I was referring to different regions in Nigeria, go back and read that original post because it did not say anything in direct reference to only eastern Nigeria. The bone of contention is not agriculture, the facts here are about palm oil being the first industrialised trade in Nigeria, which it was, and this fact was under the questioning of what were the 'firsts' in eastern Nigeria, and the palm oil industry started in eastern Nigeria which was the first industrialised trade and main economic pull of foreigners to Nigeria, I mean, it matched the slave trade. Your source on Lagos exports shows that, with inflation checked, Lagos wasn't half of what either Bonny or Calabar was processing and exporting individually (not palm kernels, oil) and that Bonny and Calabar 'monopolised' the trade to Britain at least.

So now that we know this fact, you're now trying to question the sources, which is ridiculous because one is a Routledge published book (available here) that references a Cambridge Academic book specifically based on the palm oil industry in west Africa. You can simply say you do not trust Cambridge University and Routledge because they are eastern Nigerian sympathisers or something. I don't know.

actoor:
By the time am done, I don't think you'll be able to stand the heat. As at my last visit to your large market I realise that the whole SE region is a JoKe.

An expensive joke with the largest markets in Africa which is soon to be larger, and the economy that birthed industrial Nigeria. An joke that will continue growing until you all have nothing left to say.

aresa:
In your village dreams, no such thing was documented as part of the history of Nigeria.

https://s29.postimg.org/vor93jsgn/books.png

Ministry of Information of Nigeria: https://books.google.com/books?id=Txo0AQAAIAAJ&q=onitsha+530,000&dq=onitsha+530,000&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAWoVChMIjYS8uN7UyAIVQVYUCh1ClAtk

https://s28.postimg.org/ytebpcsm5/books_1.png

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=j_0VAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22West+Africa%27s+Largest+Market%22+onitsha&q=%22West+Africa%27s+largest+market.%22&redir_esc=y

You want more "dreams"?

omonnakoda:
It seems strange to me that the British were making so much money in Eastern Nigeria and when they amalgamated the country they chose Lagos for the Capital ignoring where the money was. Eboes just concoct all manner of self affirmatory delusional stuff no matter how outlandish.

Angelina Jolie shops at Onitsha market for Bras


According to the colonial report there were street lights and telephones in Lagos by 1898 and trains. Why? After all the Eastern region was so prosperous

http://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1898_lagos/3064634_1898_lagos_opt.pdf

So you didn't know Calabar was the first capital of Southern Nigeria? I'm not even going to bother posting a source because it's a basic fact. Lagos was the biggest slave market before the British Navy collaborated with Yoruba whos whos to end the trade and they took the land as a colony. They then made it the capital of Nigeria after amalgamation and years after the palm oil trade in 1914.

omonnakoda:
You see I gave you a figure and I gave you a source The British Colonial report. Unlike you that just draw out one TumboTumbo figure 60% of Britain's palm oil imports in the 19th century. Do you have a source for your claims

Onitsha market £500000
You folk are truly hilarious
I have been to Onitsha market. It is a very dirty place I was there in the early 80s . do not find the £500000 claim credible. Can you tell us the name of the engineering firm that built it and who paid for it.
You keep banging on about these big markets where the US Army come to buy drones. Only Eboes believe that nonsense.The only market dirtier than Onitsha is Ariaria. Like I said the size of a market is not the size of the economy.The largest market in Nigeria is the Nigerian Stock Exchange It is turnover not acreage that makes a market "BIG"

Yeah, you're now bullshitting. I guess a researched work specifically on the oil industry in Nigeria published by Cambridge University is now unreliable because you didn't see what you like.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/commerce-and-economic-change-west-africa-palm-oil-trade-nineteenth-century

I dey laugh o!!!


And when I reply with sources on the cost of Onitsha's Main Market and how they paid for it, that also won't be reliable.

https://books.google.com/books?id=xfHsJMBLWlsC&pg=PA145&dq=onitsha+530,000&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAGoVChMIjYS8uN7UyAIVQVYUCh1ClAtk#v=onepage&q=onitsha%20530%2C000&f=false

https://s29.postimg.org/vor93jsgn/books.png

By the way this is from the Ministry of Information of Nigeria: https://books.google.com/books?id=Txo0AQAAIAAJ&q=onitsha+530,000&dq=onitsha+530,000&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAWoVChMIjYS8uN7UyAIVQVYUCh1ClAtk

actoor:
Onisha 1900 and Onisha 2015: I don't see any difference.

Yes, largest market then, largest market now.

omonnakoda:
I really do not understand the second part of your response but if by size of market you mean acreage how does having a big market translate to anything. The Ibos are villagers and never lived in towns so subscribe to this idea of large markets. A market selling yams would be larger than a market selling gold. A market selling cars would be larger than a market selling dollars. Size of markets is not the same as size of economy
The Ibos are villagers and never lived in towns so subscribe to this idea of large markets. That is not a basis for comparing anything. I wonder whether your Miele measured the size of cattle markets in Potiskum and elsewhere

You claim oil is an Eastern thin. That is wrong.Oil was produced in vast quantities all over the south.

in 1897 and 1898 about £100 000 of palm oil and £300 000 of palm kernel were exported from the Lagos


libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1898_lagos/3064634_1898_lagos_opt.pdf

PAGE 8

I guess you missed the part where it was said the Onitsha Main Market was built for £530,000 pounds in 1955. That's the equivalent of 10 million pounds today according to inflation calculators. That's one expensive "yam market".

You're talking about pre-colonial now, do we want to go there? Isn't it more impressive that Igbo people who supposedly never had markets or towns now have some of the biggest markets and industries in tropical Africa?

Yes, oil was produced in other areas of the south, but, I don't know who was taking oil from Lagos then because Bonny and Calabar together accounted for at least 60% of Britain palm oil imports in the 19th century with a total value of over £350,000 in 1850, 50 years before Lagos £100,000 and that's without considering inflation which makes Calabar and Bonny's palm economy in the 1850s roughly four times the size. And that's just palm oil.

What will be next?

omonnakoda:
The difference between you and me is I went to school to learn how to ask questions not believe what I am told or read.

Who is Miele and why should I believe him or her

If one person writes in his book this is the largest market in West Africa then I would ask by what measure
Acreage, volume of goods sold or what exactly? Next any person who is in a position to say A is the biggest by such and such measure should be able to say B is the 2nd and C the 3rd etc

When you say west you forget that Ughelli Sapele etc were in the West they produce plenty of rubber and no one produced more palm oil than Edo or Midwest so how can you say palm oil was an Eastern thing old man you are lazy and just spout redundant ideas that lack credibility

Look at this colonial reporthttp://libsysdigi.library.illinois.edu/ilharvest/Africana/Books2011-05/3064634/3064634_1898_lagos/3064634_1898_lagos_opt.pdf

See how much palm oil was exported from lagos port in 1898

At any rate the Acreage of a market tell us nothing about how much money changes hands there. generally cattle markets tend to be quite large. The Stock exchange is a market and the largest in Nigeria today so when we say large we need to be clear what we mean. I know Eboes with their 40 ft container mentality judge markets in acreage but there are gold markets and FOREX markets doing billions worth of business so the size of a market tell us little. Still the claim is unsubstantiated

Miele is an author and that book was published by the University of Wisconsin. They listed out the goods sold and the size of the market. Read it again maybe.

Here's more

1959 - https://books.google.com/books?id=DghXAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22West+Africa%27s+Largest+Market%22+onitsha&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22West+Africa%27s+largest+market%22

1960 - https://books.google.com/books?id=j_0VAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22West+Africa%27s+Largest+Market%22+onitsha&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22West+Africa%27s+largest+market.%22

1966 - https://books.google.com/books?id=geFXAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22West+Africa%27s+Largest+Market%22+onitsha&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22+Onitsha%2C+West+Africa%27s+largest+market+city+and+the+center+of+its%22

https://s15.postimg.org/ox2o6j6xn/oil.jpg

Although I don't know how much palm oil prices dropped and what inflation did in the 50 years, but that should give you an example of the size of the industry when the pound was much more than in 1835 than in 1900.

WIZGUY69:
Egbon!
I just tired for there matter, had it been it's the way iboes on marijuana are in reality, I am telling you that even the Japanese and Americans will envy them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IRZ30waSXo

I dey laugh oh!!!

Just kidding.

omonnakoda:
Cocoa House as commissioned in 1965 by Akintola it had NOTHING to do with the British so stop spewing your hateful ad moribund ideas.What do you mean by largest market? You can bully younger ones with your lies but pray tell how you had a so called largest market when there was not even a Niger Bridge? What exactly was being sold in this market and who went there to shop. The problem with you folk is you cannot distinguish between your desires and reality.

Best at agriculture ?? really on what measure or with which evidence . This is the digital age old man not the age where you just manufacture any kind of lie and pass of as you would on the village ilo. There was no SW or SE there was an East and west until the Midwest was carved out before the coup So who actually was BEST at agriculture? The main product from the East was palm oil which was also produced in the Western region as the Colonial reports show in much detail dating back to 1895. So if you are comparing what exactly are you comparing East to West or what. There never was a time when the area in the SE was best at agriculture. First it is a relatively tiny space compared e.g to the SS or the SW and more importantly it is not a fertile land relatively. The more productive parts of the East were Rivers and the old South Eastern State

It had nothing to do with them, only the engineers and the people who stole developed the cocoa industry were British. Anyway.

Edith E. Melie answers your question in 1977.

https://s11.postimg.org/crz3ny1rn/books.png
https://s11.postimg.org/3y876uesz/books_1.png

https://books.google.com/books?id=iqZbAAAAMAAJ&q=onitsha+largest+market+1955&dq=onitsha+largest+market+1955&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAWoVChMI6vTP6MrUyAIVxLoUCh0llw8i

And I was referring to groundnut empire of northern Nigeria when I said agriculture. Although palm oil is an eastern industry which is what started Nigeria, and the just like cocoa is a western thing.