39 - The Blood Men of Old Calabar – a Slave Revolt of the Nineteenth Century?

Summary

Literature on the history of Old Calabar describes the Blood Men as slaves who organized a revolt against their Efik masters that first occurred at the mid-nineteenth century. This chapter presents two passages from missionary texts, which offer intimate insights into the social life of Old Calabar. The first account is from the diary of Hugh Goldie. The second is from an entry in missionary Anderson's diary and a letter of missionary Goldie. A careful reading of their two accounts reveals that slaves operated in support of their deceased master's family when they felt it was necessary to find those responsible for his death, and that local politics played an important role as well. According to the missionaries, the Blood Men were not only fighting against being sacrificed but also to escape the oppression of the Ekpe association, which the Efik to this day consider their traditional form of government.