Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History
The Slave Trade in the Bight of Biafra: Igbo and Ibibio Captives
This episode turns to the Bight of Biafra, the second-largest source of enslaved Africans after West-Central Africa. Lucas and Luna explore the region's unique slave-trading system: the Aro Confederacy, a network of Igbo and Ibibio traders who used oracular authority and long-distance caravans to supply European ships at coastal ports like Bonny, Old Calabar, and Elem Kalabari. They discuss the oracular shrine at Arochukwu, the role of the Ekpe secret society in credit and enforcement, and the brutal internal dynamics that made the Biafran system so efficient. The conversation also…
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