Slavery and pawnship in the Yoruba economy of the nineteenth century

1807: Economic shocks, conflict and the slave trade

“…Because war provided both slaves and other resources, "economic considerations were as important as the political ones in determining the issues of war and peace" (Awe, 1973). Slaves and other resources were sought in war, kidnapping, and raids (Falola, 1994). 4.2.3.…”

State Building in the Niger Basin in the Common Era and Beyond, 1000–Mid 1800s: The Case of Yorubaland

“…9 'Slavery and the making, buying and selling of slaves,' Fage argues, were means by which certain privileged individuals in West African society [sic], or persons who wished to gain or extend positions of privilege in that society [sic], sought to mobilize the wealth inherent in the land and people on it and that this process had already gone some distance before the Europeans arrived. (Fage, 1969: 398) There was indeed ample evidence of political and economic deployment of slaves in various Yoruba states (Falola, 2003). Palace slaves -they included Hausa, Nupe and other upper Niger elements -who were of non-Yoruba stock (Clapperton, 1829in Morton-Williams, 1971Fage, 1980) were deployed to labour in royal farms as messengers, administrators, and so on in Yoruba kingdoms.…”

“…The preference for militarism in those new states is understandable at a time when slavery was already a parallel mode of production for the elite (Falola, 2003). During Ibadan's 'early years in 1830s, slave raiding was very intense and the careers of its early leaders were dependent upon it' (Falola, 2003: 115).…”

“…The households that the political and military elite, who ran the new Yoruba states, established, operated and controlled ways that were different from those that were based strictly on kinship groups (Falola, 2003). Their households, which grew mostly by fission (Falola, 2003), were segmental economic units that relied mostly on slave labour to produce surpluses in agriculture and in other 'occupations such as horsetending, rope making, barbing and cowherding' (Falola, 2003: 114). They encompassed 'a range of relationships disguised within [them], which might appear … as merely based on kinship but in fact included many unrelated servile members, both slave and pawn' (Falola, 2003: 112).…”

The Aru Igbo Trust Network and Slave-dealing in Igboland and the Lower Southeast Niger Basin: Assessing the Impacts and Consequences of Initial Abolitionary Efforts by Governments in the Atlantic World in the Period, 1787–1807

“…Although the ownership of slaves was not diffused in Igbo and Yoruba societies, in the latter: “members of the narrow slave-owning elite class depended on slaves to sustain and perpetuate their political and economic power in society” (Ejiogu, 2007b: 16). The highly apex-structured Yoruba monarchical authority patterns were conducive to the transformation of slavery from a marginal and incidental institution, first: “into an institution, which then became a mode of production that existed and functioned alongside other modes of production such as kinship and pawnship, in the social formation” (Ejiogu, 2007a: 17; Falola, 2003), but predominantly for state officials and members of the elite class. In fact, as far back as the 16th century, through sundry contacts and: “interaction with societies in the upper Niger basin where the use of eunuch and non-eunuch slaves” (Ejiogu, 2007b: 17) “in the army and bureaucracy” (Lovejoy, 1983: 15) “had seeped quite deeply through Islamic contacts … Yorubaland was exposed to the advantages of incorporating” (Ejiogu, 2007b: 17) “slave officials and soldiers [who] often proved very loyal because of their dependency on their masters for status” (Lovejoy, 1983: 17) “in the service of the state” (Ejiogu, 2007a: 17).…”