Oral tradition relating to slavery and slave trade in Nigeria, Ghana ...

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The advent and practice of the transatlantic slave trade
goods and move back, and the Africans, who were claimed to be the
traditional chieftains, will put their own goods close to that of the
Europeans and move back also. After certifying the balance of interest,
each party would then pick their exchanged commodity and
depart. Fear was soon eliminated and the Africans were more comfortable
by the day, with their trading partners.
This initial trade relationship was claimed to have graduated in
a gradual manner, to the exchange of Africans for the purchase of the
same European sales items.
During the time of the slave trade practice, increased wealth was
said to have been associated with the traditional slave dealers who by
now have come to enjoy the supply of improved standards of slave
catching equipment that were provided by their European partners.
Consequently, the records of the practice both of slavery and
slave trade have been passed down from past generations to date,
through folktales, stories, proverbs, songs, pictorial documentation on
fabrics, bas-relief and personal association with the people who inherited,
purchased or sold slave buildings and related physical materials.
Research have shown that oral accounts relating to slavery and
slave trade have come to be preserved over time, through the people’s
re-enactment of their experiences. Thus because they had no access
to print or electronic media, they were left with ideas that gradually
came to be preserved through the above-mentioned means which
have thrived to the present time.
Apart from the observed similarity between the oral tradition
that has been built over time concerning the beginning of the Trans
Atlantic slave trade, there are noticeable variations in the oral traditions
collected from each of the three areas as related to the subject.
Based on the foregoing, and for the purpose of clarity, the oral tradition
narrations relating to slavery and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in
Nigeria, Ghana and Benin will hereafter be presented under separate topics.
Slavery and trade in Nigeria
In Nigeria, the oral tradition relating to slavery is very widely associated
with the activities of the kings and chieftains of the country during
the times preceding the event of the Trans Atlantic slave trade.
Such activities were deeply reflective of the inter-tribal wars that
were endemic in the country at that time. Captives from war were