Fighting the Slave Trade

West African Strategies

Sylviane A. Diouf

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9780821441800
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

While most studies of the slave trade focus on the volume of captives and on their ethnic origins, the question of how the Africans organized their familial and communal lives to resist and assail it has not received adequate attention. But our picture of the slave trade is incomplete without an examination of the ways in which men and women responded to the threat and reality of enslavement and deportation.

Fighting the Slave Trade is the first book to explore in a systematic manner the strategies Africans used to protect and defend themselves and their communities from the onslaught of the Atlantic slave trade and how they assaulted it.

It challenges widely held myths of African passivity and general complicity in the trade and shows that resistance to enslavement and to involvement in the slave trade was much more pervasive than has been acknowledged by the orthodox interpretation of historical literature.

Focused on West Africa, the essays collected here examine in detail the defensive, protective, and offensive strategies of individuals, families, communities, and states. In chapters discussing the manipulation of the environment, resettlement, the redemption of captives, the transformation of social relations, political centralization, marronage, violent assaults on ships and entrepôts, shipboard revolts, and controlled participation in the slave trade as a way to procure the means to attack it, Fighting the Slave Trade presents a much more complete picture of the West African slave trade than has previously been available.

PART 1

Defensive Strategies

CHAPTER 1

Lacustrine Villages in South Benin as Refuges from the Slave Trade

Elisée Soumonni

The prominent role played by Dahomey (Benin) in the supply of captives for enslavement in the Americas is illustrated by the abundant literature on this old West African kingdom.¹ Ouidah (Whydah in the English documents), its port of trade, is a familiar name to students and scholars of the Atlantic slave trade. The extant literature however does not address several issues of Dahomey’s involvement in the trade. The impact of the obnoxious traffic on the old kingdom and indeed on other contemporary sub-Saharan African polities is generally overlooked. Little attention, if any, is paid to the ways local populations resisted the slave trade and enslavement, thereby often giving the impression that any form of resistance began on board the slave ships or in the Americas.

Not much is known about the various forms of internal resistance to the traffic, thereby creating the assumption among many that captives surrendered like sacrificial lambs to their oppressors. By examining the primary form of resistance and protection provided by the nature of the environment, this chapter is an attempt at challenging such a view. The environment under consideration is made of a series of lacustrine villages in the southern region of the present-day Republic of Benin. Ganvié is the most important and the best known of these villages because of its exploitation as “one of the gems of the Republic of Benin’s tourist and cultural heritage” (Zinsou 1994). Ganvié is also referred to as the Venice of Africa, extolled by Eustache Prudencio, the country’s popular poet, in one of his famous poems.² But even the least attentive tourists visiting the site can easily understand from the guide’s explanations that those living in the so-called Venice of Africa and other adjacent lacustrine villages were not attracted there in the early eighteenth century by the beauty of the landscape. The search for security in a period of violence and fear created by slave raiders and traders forced fleeing populations to seek a decent life in an environment that was then and still largely remains unattractive.

THE COUNTRY OF “THE MEN ON WATER”

During the era of the transatlantic slave trade, Lake Nokoué and the swamplands surrounding it provided an ideal refuge for various migrants who came to constitute a homogenous ethnic group, that of the Tofinu (see Bourgoignie 1972). This major historical factor in the establishment and relocation of villages in the area, though acknowledged, is yet to be the focus of investigation. In contrast, the physical environment in which various and successive generations of migrants settled, their social organization, and their economic activities have been the subject of significant research. The starting point and focus of these studies are generally the ecological dimension of human settlements. Geographers, botanists, geologists, and archaeologists, in an ethnographic perspective, have made outstanding contributions to our knowledge of what I shall call Tofinuland (see, for example, Pélissier 1963; Mondjannagni 1969; Paradis 1975; Barbier 1978; Pétrequin and Pétrequin 1984).

Tofinuland, the country of the Tofinu, is part of the lagoon system created along the entire Bight of Benin through the deposit of sand by the eastward-moving coastal current. It is located in the lower zone of the So River, a branch of the delta built up by the Weme (Ouémé), the most important river of Benin, about forty kilometers from the coast. While the So flows into Lake Nokoué, most of the delta waters flow into the lagoon of Porto Novo and, through a natural channel, into that of Lagos. Tofinuland is in an amphibian environment prone to flooding by the swelling So and Weme Rivers, as well as Lake Nokoué and the lagoon of Porto Novo. Indeed, floods, a characteristic feature of Tofinuland, have been used as a classification criterion of its villages:

• villages with cultivable lands because they are not often flooded: Gbessou-Gbegome

• villages regularly flooded, with poor lands for subsistence agriculture during a few months: Kinto, Zoungome, Ahome Lokpo, Ahome Oume, Ahome Gblon, So-Ava, Dekame Pave, Ouedo Aguekon, Vekky;

• villages entirely lacustrine: Ganvie, So Tchanhoue, So Zounko, Ouedo Gbadji. (Bourgoignie 1972, 33)

Access to these various localities, whether partially or entirely lacustrine, is difficult. The same goes for conditions of life. Canoe is the only means of transportation from village to village and even from door to door within the same village. Fishing is virtually the only viable economic activity. How do thousands of dwellers (70,000, of which 25,000 live in Ganvié alone, according to the 1992 census) manage to survive is one of the questions that have puzzled researchers in development studies over the last four decades. In this quest, areas of attention include fishing activities and techniques, habitat, social organization, ethnic and cultural identity, sanitation, and education.

The Tofinu are closely associated with fishing. Most fishing is carried out from two-man canoes, with one man propelling the craft and the other casting the net, a picture that has become a cliché of tourist advertising agencies. But the most-studied Tofinu technique of catching fish is undoubtedly that employing akadjas, refuges consisting of branches forced into the mud. The fish grow inside these refuges, which are harvested periodically by surrounding them with nets, pulling out the branches, and capturing the fish. As a result of the ever growing importance of this technique, fishing grounds, like land, became valuable properties over which contentions could degenerate into violent clashes. Drying, smoking, and selling the fish is the business of the Tofinu women. The Tofinu have also designed an original habitat, habitat palafitte. They live in homes built on stilts at the edge of the lake or in the lake waters, planned in such a way as to accommodate both human beings and animals, the latter moving from the bottom level to the top floor during a flood, while the former remain in the middle.

History is generally called upon to explain the evolution of the natural environment and political and socioeconomic institutions. But the reference to historical factors generally remains vague or superficial. A notable exception is the research of Canadian ethnosociologist Georges Edouard Bourgoignie, which integrates the historical dimension in a comprehensive study of Tofinu society. After nine months on the field among the men on water as well as several long interviews and discussions with them, Bourgoignie realized how inseparable history was from the way their society is structured and continues to function. However, his focus was not on the history of the Tofinu within the general context of violence created by the transatlantic slave trade, on the ways they reacted to and protected themselves against the slave trade and enslavement. Of course, Bourgoignie cannot be blamed for this shortcoming since his study is basically ethnosociological in its objective and perspective. In this respect, a history of the Tofinu, in the era of the transatlantic slave trade remains to be written. What is being attempted here, on the basis of my own investigations in Ganvié and of published works on the Slave Coast can be seen as a very modest contribution in this direction.³

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Oral tradition is a vital source for the reconstruction of the historical experience of the various migrants to the Lake Nokoué area during the transatlantic slave trade. It is however difficult to make proper use of the information collected without some degree of familiarity with the extant literature on the geopolitical setting of the Slave Coast of West Africa. It is indeed difficult to ask informants relevant questions on the issue of local resistance to the slave trade and enslavement, to cross-check contradictory or misleading statements, to correct obvious errors, and to arrive at a relative chronology of remembered major events. Although the same stories are told with significant different details, it is easy to identify the same underlining factors at the origins of major events. Similarly, ethnonymy and toponymy are often a digest of a historical process. That seems to be the case with many Tofinu place and personal names. The meaning of the names Tofinu and Ganvié is still a matter of controversy among specialists of the area (see Bourgoignie 1972; Iroko 1998). This is not the place to go into the details of semantic arguments resorted to in the controversy, but a consensus of sorts seems to have emerged. With respect to Tofinu, it is reflected in Bourgoignie’s title: Les hommes de l’eau (The men on water). As for Ganvié, its widely accepted meaning is “safe at last.” Most oral traditions collected from local populations seem to confirm this generally agreed upon meaning. They are also consistent with the outline of the geopolitical history of the Slave Coast. Any meaningful reconstruction of the process that led to the establishment, peopling, and development of the Nokoué lacustrine village complex must therefore be conceived from this wider perspective. The various stories of migrations to the area only make sense within the framework of the Bight of Benin in the era of the transatlantic slave trade.

The Tofinu traditionally trace the origin of their migrations to Tado, cradle and departure center of Aja ethnic groups to various destinations. According to the prevalent tradition, the earliest migration from Tado, led by Agasu, resulted in the establishment of the related kingdoms of Sahe (Savi, Ouidah), Allada, Abomey, and Hogbonou (Ajase, Porto Novo). Though it is imprudent to suggest a reliable chronology, it is generally assumed that the migration of the Tofinu—who started establishing themselves as refugees in the area of Lake Nokoué by the end of the seventeenth century—occurred later, probably a century or so after the Agasu-led movement. Despite the present state of our knowledge of the various aspects of these migrations, two facts appear clearly from the general picture. First, the core of the refugees, who moved to the lake area by successive stages, was made of the Aja-Tado cultural group. Tofingbe, the Tofinu language, is closely related to the Aja-Fon family (Hazoumé 1981). Second, the search for security took place within the context of violence and fear associated with the ongoing slave trade in Ouidah, Allada, and Abomey. This violence escalated with the conquest, by Dahomey, of Allada in 1724 and Ouidah in 1727, and forced more groups, including non-Aja, to move to the lacustrine area in order to escape slave raiders and enslavement. The trend was to continue nearly two centuries, since Dahomey remained committed to slave-catching activities till the end of the nineteenth century. And during this long period, the Aja peoples provided the great majority of the captives for enslavement in the Americas, notably through raids by Dahomey on its neighbors. The conquests of Allada and Ouidah were particularly brutal. That of Allada was followed by the capture in 1732 of Jakin, with over four thousand of its inhabitants taken captive. Many more were subjected to the same fate during the sack of Savi, capital of the old kingdom of Ouidah.

In the heart of a region disrupted by such an outbreak of violence, as rightly pointed out by Georges Edouard Bourgoignie, “The Tofinu country was to provide an ideal refuge. Its villages, established in the swamp of the So River, or even in Lake Nokoué waters, could serve as a sanctuary to those who took to flight to survive.⁴

TOFINU’S DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES

Oral traditions of the various villages, despite their inherent confusions, contradictions, and vague chronological framework are consistent with the historical background of the successive migrations to the area. They also show that concern for security and defense was the determining factor in the location and relocation of villages by refugees. For the Tofinu, the So River and its marshland constituted a natural barrier against Abomey’s armies, who were unfamiliar with such an environment. But a village can become easily accessible and exposed to danger when the marshland dries up. In such a situation, the natural protection against external aggression is no longer guaranteed and the village must be relocated. Most of the villages established on the right bank of the So River were affected by this phenomenon. The move to relocate a village on the very waters of Lake Nokoué was determined by pressing danger. Thus, Ganvié and So-Tchanhoué were born out of the abandonment of the villages of Sindomè and Sadjo, respectively. The old sites continue to serve today as cemeteries for the new ones.

The reaction of the Tofinu to impending danger or actual aggression was not, however, limited to relocating their villages. Before resorting to this solution, they faced the danger and responded to it with the means at their disposal. The story of Ganvié is worth considering in this respect, as it is illustrative of the general trend of the lacustrine refuge-villages of southern Benin.

The foundation of Ganvié, the lacustrine metropolis of the Bight of Benin, was the last stage of the migration from Tado of two rival Aja groups. According to tradition, the Dakoménu and the Sokoménu, for reasons that remain unclear but not unconnected with factional disputes, left Tado during approximately the same period. They found themselves in the territory of the king of Allada, who apparently failed to reconcile them. It is worth noting that the kingdom of Allada itself was on the eve of its collapse under the advancing army of Aga...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• PART I DEFENSIVE STRATEGIES
• PART 2 PROTECTIVE STRATEGIES
• PART 3 OFFENSIVE STRATEGIES
• Epilogue: Memory as Resistance: Identity and the Contested History of Slavery in Southeastern Nigeria, an Oral History Project
• Contributors
• Index