The decline of Aboh’s economic influence in the Western Niger Delta of Nigeria in the era of legitimate commerce, 1830–1960

Abstract

ABSTRACT This is a study of the decline of Aboh’s economic influence in the Western Niger Delta owing to Europe’s increasing influence in the internal affairs of the Niger Delta in the era of legitimate trade. It evaluates the extent to which European commercial activities influenced Aboh’s trade with other groups of the Western Niger Delta and how they reacted to the European commercial penetration of the Niger Delta interior. The paper depended on primary and secondary sources of data on the subject. The primary sources are largely colonial intelligence reports and oral testimonies from the field and supplemented with available secondary sources. It deploys descriptive and analytical methods to address the subject. The paper argues that Aboh’s pre-eminence as the key player in the trade of the Lower Niger was challenged by European commercial interests. Thus, the paper is a detailed long-run analysis of this well-known argument about European interest within a West African context. The findings show that Aboh lost its middleman position to European penetration into the Niger Delta hinterlands. It concludes that European commercial activities in the area granted economic gains to other Western Niger Delta groups originally under Aboh’s influence.