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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Fishing, Migrations and Inter-Group Relations in the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Coast of West Africa) in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Author:Olukoju, AyodejiISNI
Year:2000
Periodical:Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History
Volume:24
Issue:1
Pages:69-85
Language:English
Geographic terms:West Africa
Nigeria
Subjects:ethnic relations
fisheries
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
History and Exploration
Urbanization and Migration
Abstract:In response to their environment, the people of the coastline of West Africa within and across the coastal belt of the Gulf of Guinea have been engaged in fishing, salt-making, commerce and boat-making over the past millennium. This paper examines the domestic economy, which is largely based on fishing, and the nature and consequences of intergroup relations in this region during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The discussion focuses on the coastline of Nigeria between Badagry and Bonny, in particular the Niger Delta and its environs, inhabited by the Izon, Itsekiri and Ilaje. The lagoon network of this zone was the highway of political, commercial and social exchanges in this region. The paper deals with the migrations of fishing communities; the role of specialization and exchange in internal trade in the coastal zone; the initial economic complementarity of the Itsekiri fishing community and its agricultural neighbour Urhobo, which later evolved into interethnic social and political conflicts largely as a result of British colonial policies; peaceful socioeconomic exchanges in coastal western Nigeria; and the role of crude oil in regional tensions, territorial claims and communal violence. Economic complementarity and peaceful coexistence dominated relations between coastal communities in the Gulf of Guinea and between them and their hinterland neighbours until the imposition of British rule between 1880 and 1914. Since then, politics of resource control, claims to landownership and issues of boundary delimitation have disrupted patterns of peaceful exchange in part of the Delta. Notes, ref.
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