“Bring Back the English”: The Legacy of British Trade on the Southern Gabonese Coast in the Concessionary Era, 1900–1914

Abstract

Long tied to Portuguese and British trading networks, southern coastal Gabonese people found themselves under the domination of rapacious concessionary companies granted a monopoly over trade in 1900 by the French colonial government. Concessionary companies relied on force and deception to obtain ivory and rubber from southern Gabonese coastal communities, who had previously enriched themselves as middlemen with European traders. Concessionary officials took advantage of contradictory state policies to protect their monopoly while failing to promote the economy. Southern Gabonese people turned to memories of British traders to criticize concessionary firms. British and American journalists wrote exposés of French concessionary firms that highlighted British ideals of free trade, but also showed how southern Gabonese communities tried to regain their control over trade by invoking British traders for their respect for Africans. This case thus examines a battle between older British-dominated Atlantic trade ties with French efforts to ensure control over Gabonese commerce.