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The Slaves of Salaga*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Marion Johnson
Marion Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Extract

Salaga was one of the leading slave-markets of West Africa in the 1880s. The story of the slaves – where they came from, who brought them to Salaga, who bought them, and what happened to them afterwards – can be pieced together from the reports of a great variety of travellers, black and white, officials, soldiers, merchants and missionaries, of various nationalities, African and European. Thus, on the eve of the European occupation which put an end to it, it is possible to lift the veil that usually conceals the internal slave trade of pre-colonial Africa, and gain some idea of its scale and workings, and of the range of attitudes towards slavery and the slave trade.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , July 1986 , pp. 341 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 RKA, Akte 3334, Bl. 85 von Francois (undated, 1888).

2 PRO, CO 96/207, 285 ff., R. E. Firminger.

3 Holden, J. E. ‘The Zaberima conquest of North-West Ghana’, Transactions, Historical Society of Ghana viii (1965), 60–86.Google Scholar

4 Theophil Opoku, ‘An African Pastor's preaching journey…’ BM, EMM, 1885. Presumably this is the ‘Kalameiyau’ (variously spelt) of v. Francois (v. Francois, G. Ohne Schuss durch Dick and Dünn (Esch-Waldems, 1972) 25 ff.)

5 Binger, L. G., Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée (Paris, 1891), 11, 84–5.Google ScholarBakari was chief of Dogon Kade, north of Salaga.

6 e.g. Ges.f. Erdk. Kling (Berlin, 1890). Abdul Karimu retired in 1887 from the Gold Coast Constabulary, in which he had reached the rank of Native Officer, having served the British for fifteen years. Lived and traded mainly in Salaga, but established a caravan stopping place and (?) ferry at Konsu, on the borders of what was then considered the British Protectorate. An important merchant in Salaga, dealing in slaves (though Riby Williams believed he did not send any to the British protectorate). Host to Kling (1890 and 1891); described as aged about fifty in 1888, and the fattest African von Francois had seen in the Volta area. Witness to von Francois' abortive Protectorate treaty, and to the treaty of friendship which replaced it; ‘adviser’ to successive Salaga chiefs. Took the wrong side in the Civil War, and probably retired to Kpabia, just inside Dagomba, where he was chief in 1901; at this date he was also established in the Ungua Kuka suburb of Salaga; in 1902 was appointed assistant tax collector for the caravan trade at Salaga by the Chief Commissioner for the Northern Territories.

7 RKA, Akte, 4390, v. Carnap to Govt. Adam Mosumfo, a rich and influential Salaga merchant, was said by German officers to be friend and host of Ferguson (who does not mention him, and who is said elsewhere to have always camped at Kpembe). Probably the Adam whose house was searched by Grüner in 1894 (RKA 3330, Bl. 50). Shot in 1896 by v. Carnap's men; v. Carnap seems at first to have taken credit for this, on the grounds that Mosumfo had used insulting language about the Germans and trampled the German flag underfoot, and that Mosumfo was not only a slave trader but a slave-stealer by profession (he had been accused by merchants who had taken refuge in Kete of waylaying their caravans and selling the porters); v. Carnap explained that Mosumfo was not a British subject, so no repercussions were to be feared. Later the story was somewhat modified – Mosumfo had been shot in the back while running away, after being summoned to appear before v. Carnap in connexion with the waylaying of caravans.

8 RKA, Akte, 4086, Dr Wolf, 9 April 1889.

9 RKA, Akte, 4390 Bl 172–80, Zech to Govt, 3 July 1896; Akte 3760, Bl. 84, v. Carnap to v. Danckelmann (private letter), 21 June 1896; Akte 4391, Bl. 68, and 73 (interpreter's sworn denial), 12 Nov. 1896; and Zech to Köhler, 12 Dec. 1896.

10 PRO CO Afr (W) 538, 150, August 1897.

11 Rattray, R. S.Ashanti Law and Constitution (London, 1929), 36.Google Scholar

12 Opoku, ‘An African Pastor’.

13 Ph. Buss, BM, Heidenbote, 1879; Geog. Ges. Bern, iii, 1880–1, Beilage 6, 35–53 (ed. Beck).

14 Kling, MaadS 1890.

15 PRO, CO96/2O7, 285 ff., Firminger. R. E. Firminger, whose first appointment had been as a House of Commons clerk, was appointed Assistant Inspector (later Inspector) Gold Coast Constabulary, but served mainly in civil capacities as District Commissioner Axim (1880) and Quittah (Keta) (1882–3), and on the Assini Boundary Commission in 1882, and on special commissions to Bey Beach and Baguida (1884), and to Ashanti (1886), before the 1887 recruiting expedition. He had a number of periods of sick leave and was invalided home in 1888. After a period of training at Wormwood Scrubs and recovering his health, he took up the appointment of Superintendent of the Convict Establishment at Colombo, Ceylon, which he held for the next 16 years, acting occasionally as Superintendent of Prisons.

16 Ibid.

17 von Francois, MaadS, 1888; RKA, Akte, 3334 Bl., 82 ff.

18 PRO 0096/207, 285 ff., Firminger.

19 G. A. Krause, Tagebuch 18 May 1890, cited,RKA, Akte 4088 Bl., 59 I7;(forKrause, see note 66).

20 Kling, MaadS, 1890.

21 Krause, Tagebuch, 28 April 1889, cited RKA, Akte, 4088, Bl 59, 16.

22 Ramseyer, F. A. and Kiihne, J., Vier Jahre in Asante (2nd German edition) (Basel, 1875) 290.Google Scholar

23 Opoku, ‘An African Pastor’.

24 von Francois, RKA, Akte 3334, Bl. 32, 17 July 1888.

25 List of slave transactions, collected by Kumah, Institute of African Studies, Legon.

26 For example Lonsdale in Parliamentary Paper, C 3386 of 1882, no. 42, encl. 2, ‘This is the lodestone which draws the Haussa from his distant country over miles of insecure road’; cf. Bonnat, M.-J., ‘Les Achantis’ in L'explorateur (Paris, 1876), iii 1–3.Google Scholar

27 Binger, Du Niger au Golfe, 11, 102; BM, Jenkins 304 (18933) Clerk.

28 RKA, Akte, 3338 Bl. 98, Dr Wolf, 9 Apr. 1889.

29 Opoku, ‘An African Pastor’.

30 von Francois, MaadS 1888.

31 Lonsdale, in Parliamentary Paper, C 3386.

32 Krause, Tagebuch, 18 May 1890, cited RKA, Akte 4088, Bl. 59 (1899).

33 von Francois, RKA, Akte, 3334, Bl. 10 (undated, 1888).

34 Krause, Kreuz Z. 1 June 1892, cited RKA, Akte, 4087, Bl. 102.

35 PRO, CO96/2O7, 285 ff., Firminger.

36 von Francois, RKA, Akte, 3334, Bl. 80 (undated, 1888); Binger, Du Niger au Golfe, 1, 440; II, 2, 3, 100.

37 Krause Tagebuch, 3 May 1889, cited RKA, Akte 4088, Bl. 59 (1899).

38 Savonnet, E., Atlas de Haute Volta (Ouagadougou, 1968), 12.Google Scholar

39 PRO CO96/2O5, 77, Lieut-Col. E. B. McInnes; cf.Monteil, P. V., De St Louis à Tripoli (Paris, 1896), 209.Google Scholar

40 Krause Tagebuch, 20 April 1889, cited RKA, Akte, 4088, Bl. 59, 1899. According to von Francois, Krause travelled with the Hausa caravan-leader, Aladi Musa, who travelled every year from Accra through Salaga, Wala Wala, Wagadugu, Duensa to ‘Ban Djagara on the Niger’ (v. Francois, Ohne Schuss, 13).

41 Ibid. 3 May 1889.

42 Ibid.; also Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, letter dated 1888, published 4 Mar . 1890, cited RKA, Akte 3328, Bl. 34.

43 RKA, Akte 3761, Bl. 80–81, 11 Dec. 1897.

44 Ferguson, CO Afr (W), 479, 79; PRO CO96/277 both printed in Arhin, K. (ed.), The Papers of George Ekum Ferguson (Leiden and Cambridge, 1984), 133, 142.Google ScholarOsumanu was Krause's host at Beri in Mossi country in 1886; he probably stayed with Krause in Salaga in 1892 (when he gave a return gift of Mossi rice) (Krause, Tagebuch 9 May 1892, cited RKA, Akte 4o88, Bl. 59, 19); Firminger cultivated his friendship at Atebubu in 1894, hoping for (and obtaining) his help in negotiating with Mossi. Ferguson described him as a member of the royal family (presumably by marriage ?). Osumanu's caravan met with disaster in that year, and he was himself wounded.

45 CO 96/208 Hodgson, 17 Feb. 1890.

46 Binger, Du Niger au Golfe, 11, 86. Krause called Sherif Ibrahim ‘a black Arab’; it was he who bought the horse given to Krause by the King of Wagadugu, and later sold it at Sansanne Gasari for 10 slaves. Krause met him at Lomé (Krause, Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, 4 Mar. 1890, quoting letter dated 1888, cited RKA, Akte 3228, Bl. 34).

47 Krause, Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, 1 June 1892, cited RKA, Akte 4087, Bl. 102; Krause, petition 11 Dec. 1898 Bl. 160 ff., cf. Opoku, ‘An African Pastor’, who believed that many slaves were bought by Hausa caravans.

48 PRO CO 96/215, Ferguson, Mission to Atebubu, 1890, printed in Arhin (ed.), Papers, 21.

49 PRO, CO 96/207, 385 ff., Firminger.

50 Ferguson, CO Afr (W), 448.

51 Binger, Du Niger au Golfe, 11, 83.

52 Krause, Tagebuch 3 May 1889, cited RKA, Akte 4088, Bl. 59.

53 von Puttkamer, RKA Potsdam Akte, 4087 Bl. 45–6, 12 Nov. 1891.

54 Krause Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, 1 June 1892, cited RKA, Akte 4087, Bl. 104; Herold, RKA, Akte 4097, Bl. 122 (undated).

55 Krause, Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, cited RKA, Akte, 4087 Bl. 104. Osman Kato was said by Krause to have been a slave; he lived in Nyeduase Adukrom (Akwapim) and was a Hausa soldier with the British ‘for a short time’ according to the Basel Mission pastor Hall (BM Jenkins 227). Settled in Kpandu, then considered part of the British Protectorate; he was probably subsidized to maintain roads and to encourage traders to proceed to the Gold Coast (which was the normal route). He was angry with the British for abolishing the slave trade; at the time of the frontier settlement he was in Accra (Krause says he was involved in bringing recruits); three of his slaves ran away – he was paid £5 for the man, who enlisted, but was not helped to recover the two women. He returned to Kpandu, where the German government gave him 100 marks (£5) a month to keep Kpandu quiet, settle palavers and ‘persuade’ traders to go to Lomé. Had confiscated goods from German coast for the British; after Kpandu became German, did similarly for the Germans.

Krause claims that he had never been told that the slave trade was forbidden in German territory, and that he had no orders to suppress it, or prevent the entry of slaves into Togo. When Krause told him the time would come when the German government would suppress slave trading, he was thunderstruck (according to Krause), and eventually said ‘if that happens, the black man will “not feel well” (nicht wohl fühlen)’.

Basel Mission pastor Hall was evidently impressed by Osman Kato in 1887 (when he joined the chief in asking for a teacher). But in 1893 Rösier, a more critical Basel missionary, described him as ‘exercising cruel authority’ over the Muslim community as well as over his own family and slaves; he was ‘one of the central figures in the slave trade’ (BM Jenkins 227, 286). One of Osman Kato's slaves was a certain Mama, who with a group of Akims and Akwapims was terrorizing the frontier districts of Togo in 1889 (PRO CO 96/204, Zimmermann, encl. in G. C. Conf., Sept. 1889); this may well have been the same Mama who twice visited Worawora, Buem, in 1892 (BM, Jenkins, 305). Osman Kato died in 1893 (BM, Jenkins, 296).

56 PRO CO 96/207, minute by RWGH (Hemming), 19 March 1890.

57 Ibid. 293.

58 Krause, Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, 4 Mar. 1890 (letter of 9 Dec. 1888), cited RKA, Akte, 3328 Bl. 34.

59 BM, Jenkins, Clerk, 1893, 3O5; quarterly report Worawora 1894: ‘Nowadays many slaves are brought here from the interior, the way being now open. They are only dearer in comparison to former times.’

60 Krause, Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, 4 Mar. 1890 (letter of 9 Dec. 1888), cited RKA, Akte Bl. 34; Ibid. 14 June 1892, cited RKA, Akte, 4087 Bl. 105.

61 Ges.F.Erdk., Kling, Berlin, 1890, 348; v. Puttkamer, RKA, Akte 4087 Bl. 45–6, 12 Nov. 1891.

62 CO 96/14818f 499, 28 June 1889, Callerholm.

63 Ibid.

64 Krause, Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung, Beilage 520, 6 Nov. 1894, cited RKA, Akte, 3759 Bl. 68–9.

65 CO Afr (W), 479, Griffith, 6 Dec. 1894.

66 CO Afr (W) 479, M. Goselin, encl. 3 in no. 26, 7 Nov. 1894. Gottlob Adolf Krause was a philologist of some distinction. In 1882 he went to Lagos to take part in the Riebeck expedition, but for some reason, probably political, he did not get further than Lagos. A few years later, according to the German Foreign Office, he sought a post in the German Colonial Service, but was rejected as ‘untrustworthy’; another account, from the same source, says that he had been dismissed for falsely accusing his brother officials of slave dealing (CO Afr (W), 479). In 1886 he arrived at Accra with about £5 in his pocket, and performed a remarkable journey (often travelling barefoot) via Salaga and Wagadugu to Bandiagara, where he attempted to preach the gospel to the Commander of the Faithful! Denied permission to proceed to Timbuctu, he returned by way of Sansanne Gasari (then at Sati in what is now Upper Volta), Walembele and Salaga, and thence to the River Mono and Little Popo, returning overland to Accra, where he borrowed money for his passage home. In 1888 he returned to Salaga as an agent for the Stuttgart firm of Chevalier, based at Ada, and remained there, with a break 1889–90, until 1894, having been caught there by the civil war. The plundering of a caravan made it possible to obtain carriers, and he left for Yeji and Krachi, just before the arrival of Ferguson. From Krachi he sent a letter to the German Governor, and another to a German newspaper, with accounts he had received about Ferguson's proceedings at Salaga. The German Government officially denied the accusations against Ferguson, but not before Klose had gone to Salaga and confiscated Ferguson's treaty (which he obviously could not read).

In 1892the Catholic newspaper Neue Preussische (Kreuz) Zeitung published a series of articles accusing the German administration of condoning the slave trade; Krause had probably been instrumental in getting questions asked in the Reichstag in 1890. He does not seem to have returned to West Africa after 1894 (his health is said to have been affected) but he returned to his campaign in 1898–9, quoting earlier diaries.

67 CO 96/208, 293, minute by Hemming.

68 CO 96/208, 511 ff., Riby Williams, encl. in Hodgson's reply to Firminger's allegations.

69 BM, Heidenbote, 1893, 92.

70 Rösier, BM, Jenkins 307 (1893). Robert Bannerman, mulatto merchant based at Ada, was the son of the great Accra mulatto ‘Old’ James Bannerman (born c. 1790; Deputy Governor 1851), and the Ashanti princess acquired by ‘Old’ James Bannerman as part of the spoils of the battle of Akatamansu in 1826. Robert Bannerman apparently kept up contact with his mother's people. In 1876 he accompanied Bonnat up the Volta to Krachi and thence to Salaga; he was evidently already involved in the Volta trade, with a wife established near the Afram junction. He is known to have traded to Salaga again in the following year.

The ‘Ada traders’ market' opposite Nkami was again visited by Basel missionaries in 1891, but there is no mention of slave trading at that date, though Ada traders were reported to be still bringing slaves down to the Ada villages.

71 BM, Mohr; Jenkins, 145 (1881).

72 PRO CO 96/208, 293, minute by Hemming.

73 GNA Admin 47, 129, 12 Feb. 1891. A German version, probably fictitious, of what was probably the same incident, reports that Firminger had taken away one of the King's wives as a hostage (Henrici, RKA, Akte 3392 Bl. 20, 1887). Firminger's own version has not survived in the official records, but is preserved in the diary of William Brandford Griffith in Portrait of a Colonial Judge (Ilfracombe, 1951). Fatima, who was the daughter of a priest and large cattle owner in Fula country near to Moshi, was kidnapped by Mossis and sold by them to Wangaras who brought her to Salaga, where Firminger saw her. ‘He did not like to buy her himself, so he told Ali, the native officer, to find out her price and put it in her hands to do what she liked with. She freed herself and went to the camp where she found a Fulani woman, the wife of one of the Houssas, with whom she stayed’. She lived in mortal terror of the white man, i.e. Firminger, because the people told her that the white man wanted Fulani girls on the Coast to kill them and take their blood. She appears, however, to have got over her fears, for she came to live in and about Firminger's quarters. Griffith's diary goes on to tell of the case of Fatima's ‘sister’ Aminara, whose purchaser was fined £ 10 by Griffith. Aminara married one of the Native Officers; probably Fatima did the same. I am grateful to David Killingray for showing me this message.

74 PRO, CO 96/207, 285 ff., Firminger.

75 Ibid.; Amina case, PRO, CO96 5806, 17 Feb. 1890.

76 Rösier BM, Jenkins, 307 (1893).

77 BM, Heidenbote 1893, 92.

78 BM, Clerk; Jenkins, 304 (1893).

79 Ibid.

80 CO 96/208, 511 ff., Hodgson.

81 Parliamentary Paper, C 890, Further papers on the Ashanti invasion, No. 1 of 1874, and appendix.

82 GNA, Admin 1/48, Ellis (to War Office) 30 June 1889, 95; A. B. Ellis, Land of Fetish (London, 1882), 189, 191; GNA, Admin 1/470, Ussher, 5 April 1880, ‘bands of Hausa deserters’.

83 Ibid. Ussher, 3 Feb., 5 April, 31 May 1880.

84 GNA, Admin 1/644, Rowe, 129, encl. in 240 of 17 Oct. 1881.

85 GNA, Admin 1/470, Griffith, 129, 12 Feb. 1891.

86 PRO CO 96/208, Riby Williams, encl. to Hodgson's reply to Firminger allegations, 511 ff.

87 Kling, MaadS 1890, 4.

88 Binger, Du Niger au Golfe, 1, 34.

89 RKA, Akte 3758, Bl. 36–7, von Puttkamer, to Bismarck, 29 May 1888.

90 PRO CO 96/208, Riby Williams, f. 146.

91 RKA, Akte 3334, Bl. 95, von Francois, 9 Apr. 1889.

92 Ibid. Bl. 32, 17 July 1888.

93 RKA, Akte, 3338 Bl. 95, Wolf, 9 Apr. 1889.

94 GNA Admin. 47, Griffith, conf. despatch to S. of S., 1 July 1890.

95 PRO CO 96/215, Ferguson, mission to Atebubu.

96 CO 96/205, 776–81, 26 July 1889, Lt-Col. McInnes; it was noted that ‘vigilance would be needed to prevent desertion of recruits on the homeward march’: Native Officer Ali, a free immigrant from Katsina, joined the Lagos Hausas in 1863, and probably re-enlisted there in about 1872; served as Sgt. Major in the Ashanti expedition 1873–4, appointed Native Officer 1874, sent to U.K. for training 1875. Awarded a medal for service in the Awuna expedition 1885; also served on the Denkyira expedition 1890; was A.D.C. to several Governors, and served with the 2nd Gold Coast Regiment 1902. In 1906 discharged as medically unfit, with a pension of £48 p.a. He retired to Accra, where he was recognized as head of the Zongo (Muslim quarter). His wife was a Fanti woman, and their son, El Haj Ali, studied Arabic at Mecca.

He accompanied Firminger on the 1887 recruiting expedition (and apparently procured Fatima for him); his report on the Fatima incident was not made until after Firminger had left the country. He was to have been the leader of the proposed recruiting expedition to Hausaland, partly on account of his high status at Katsina.

A ‘brother’, evidently a merchant, was established at Atebubu, where Ferguson discussed with him the possibility of obtaining recruits there in 1890. (I am indebted to David Killingray for much information about Ali and other officers.)

97 Klose, Togo unter deutscher Flagge (Berlin, 1899), 362 ff

98 RKA, Akte 4088, Bl. 57, 12, Krause, ‘Einige Stimmen über den Sklavenhandel in Togo’, 1898.

99 Opoku, ‘An African Pastor’.

100 RKA, Akte 4390 Bl. 101, von Carnap, 15 Feb. 1886.

101 PRO CO 96/208, 311 ff., Hodgson's reply to Firminger allegations, minute by Hemming.

102 Ibid. Hodgson.

103 Ibid. Hodgson.

104 Ibid. Hodgson.

105 Klose, Togo unter deutscher Flagge.

106 PRO CO 96/208, 311 ff., Hodgson.

107 BM, Jenkins 307 (1893), Schopf; Rösler stated that the Mission had frequently returned runaway slaves to their owners (ibid. 308).

108 BM Heidenbote, 1879, 35, Buss.

109 BM, Jenkins 195 (1884), Müller; Jenkins 308 (1893) Schopf.

110 BM, Jenkins 280 (1891), Clerk.

111 PRO CO Afr (W), 538, 150, 9 Sept. 1897.

112 Ibid. 132, 1 Sept. 1897.

113 GNA, Adm 56/1/411, Monthly report Jan. 1904 (I am indebted to Roger Thomas for this reference and for the v. Francois book).

114 GNA, SNA 147/07 (V. R. Dist. ferries), 356/32/1906, from Chief Commissioner, Gambaga.