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

42
The effect of the slave trade on attitudes and social values
gave Arochukwu its prominence and strength among the slave trading
communities of its area, the Ibini Ukpabi, is now retrospectively, associated
with deceit.
Also, in the Cross River area, intermarriages that came to be
as a result of reciprocal benefits that were then favourable to slave
trading activities have come to be associated with sources of distrust
Some oral accounts have emphasized that the families of those
who took part in the slave trade are relatively not as prosperous as the
descendants of returnees. The people’s assumption regarding this is
along the line that the profit that were made then seemed to have
been frittered away.This, they adduced to be the repercussion of what
they have termed the ‘spirit’ of slavery.
Some narrations also said that the slaves who were obviously aware
of those who raided them had placed curses on the people and the land,
at the time that they were leaving on the ship to the new world.
One positive thing that came out of the various attitudinal
changes is the ascendancy to the traditional thrones, in recent times, of
enlightened and educated members of the erstwhile slave trade communities.
For example, concerning the throne of Badagry, the incumbent
Akran, Whenu Aholu Menu Toyi 1, was already a journalist of repute
before his ascendancy to the Badagry throne. In the same vein, the Eze
Aro of Arochukwu is learned in the discipline of the natural sciences
while the present king in Alladah was a French teacher.The present King
of Abomey is a medical Doctor and retired colonel from the army.These
will no doubt be in positions to promote the quest for the required cause
for bridging the factional gap observed as currently lingering from the
past slavery and slave trade practice.
The need for the assessment of the class factors embedded
within the enclave of oral information across time has been observed
by Mazrui as posing a problem to the researcher who perhaps have
opted for the analysis of class in their intellectual quest for studying
oral evidence. According to him:
“How do we assess the class characteristics
across time? If oral evidence is disproportionately
the evidence of Consensus, and is transmitted as such
from generation to generation, how can we learn
about conflict and class struggle in such
consensual transition?”
(Mazrui,1984:42)