Rocky Rapids and Sinking Hopes: River Travel, Commercial Rivalries, and Political Divides in Oskar Lenz’s Gabon Voyages, 1874-77

Abstract

German geographer Oskar Lenz visited Gabon from 1874 to 1877, just as French expansion into the Gabonese interior began in earnest under the leadership of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Canoe workers from communities known for slave trading along the Ogooue River, particularly those from the Adouma and Okande clans, sought to gain commercial rights and reopen trade links through their service to Lenz. These workers recognized the value of their labour, and employed sabotage of canoes and strikes to force Lenz to raise salaries and support their goals. Younger Adouma and Okande men made partnerships with Lenz to enrich themselves and challenge older leaders during this time of political and economic change at the very end of the Atlantic slave trade in Gabon. This essay demonstrates how canoe workers asserted their economic rights and made the transition from slave trading to employment with Europeans at the opening of European colonial expansion in the late nineteenth century.