In Search of a Window: An Analysis of Ijaw Migrations to Central Africa

Abstract

By the second half of the nineteenth century, Niger Delta communities in the forefront of the African periphery of the Atlantic world economy have attained an enviable height in indigenous accumulation as the commercial-entrepreneurial class articulated the forces of production and expanded capital generation. The highly resourceful entrepreneur-rulers, with a preponderant combination of power and capital, controlled large territories and a corresponding volume of trade. However, the inability to sustain the process of indigenous accumulation due to the dramatic disruption of natural improvements of mercantile capabilities from the 1870s led to the massive impoverishment of those communities and cross-border movements of Ijaws in search of a window to escape poverty. This article examines the relationship between the crisis of indigenous accumulation in the Niger Delta and Ijaw migrations to Central Africa; aspects of Ijaw cultural and economic transfers; and Ijaw experiences and contributions to host economies. Locating the beginnings of Ijaw movements to the Central African region in European imperialism and colonial suppression of the process of indigenous accumulation, the article demonstrates that Ijaws could not escape poverty in their host economies due to harsh official policy and socio-political environments.