Four Western Niger River Delta city-states (situated in modern-day Nigeria) existed from 1600 A.D. until 1900 A.D. These city-states include Calabar, Bonny, and Dony.
JOHN THORNTON --Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles – Professor at Boston University
Jon,
As for the Niger Delta city states, these are mostly documented by outsiders, though Old Calabar had a literate group of traders in the 18th century who have diaries that might shed some light on this question, again I think you'll find evidence for factions in their politics, which were built around what was called a "canoe house" built up from a rich man and his clients and slaves. I documented this phenomon back to the late seventeenth century, to some degree in a paper which I wrote but which has avoided publication because the places that want to publish it keep going under. I've attached a copy of it for you, and perhaps you'll find more in the footnotes.
Best,
John
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RALPH AUSTEN -- Ph.D. Harvard University – Professor at University of Chicago
Jonathan:
Niger Delta (writ large) is very rich
a. My own ideas (and references) are found in /Middlemen of the Cameroons Rivers/ espec. pp. 43-7.
b. For someone who thinks a bit more like you (and provides lots of bibliography), Nimi Wariboko,/ The mind of African strategists : a study of Kalabari management practice /and
also his (unread by me) more recent /Pattern of institutions in the Niger Delta: economic and ethological interpretations of history and culture
/Hausa: chapters in /History of West Africa/ / edited by J. F. A. Ajayi and Michael Crowder.
I am also attaching a paper of mine (about to be published in the /Journal of Early Modern History) /with discussions of warfare and lots of bibliography (focused on the period of incorporation into the Sokoto Caliphate but should still be useful).
I hope all of this helps you,
Ralph
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