17 - Etchu Richard Ayuk’s Manuscript on the Slave Trade and Social Segregation in the Ejaghamland

Summary

Etchu Richard Ayuk was very interested in researching and documenting the culture of Ejagham people. The Ejagham people live in a sparsely populated and hilly rain forest crisscrossed by many rivers and streams. The slave trade in the Cross River area began at Rio del Rey. Most of what one know about the slave trade from this region has been written by European traders, missionaries, and colonial officers, all of whom were located on the coast. Etchu's document provides some insights in this direction. He starts his text by explaining that individuals who had been convicted of witchcraft or crime were usually sold as slaves. He then explains the organisation of the slave trade, the tasks those slaves who were not sold to the coast had to carry out, and the rituals or associations through which memories of the social segregation of slaves and free born are still kept alive.