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In 1878, the town of Asaba on the Niger River staged one of the earliest documented acts of organized African resistance to European economic intrusion. Rather than resorting to open confrontation, the people of Asaba chose a disciplined, collective strategy: a trade embargo that halted commerce with European merchants until fairer terms were offered. This bold move was made effective by the republican cohesion of Otu Ihaza, the civic system that bound Asaba society together.
Rivalry on the Niger
By the late 1870s, British and French merchants were locked in fierce competition along the Niger. The British, pushing from the upper river, employed aggressive capitalist tactics, while the French, operating in the lower Niger, adopted a comparatively softer approach. Each sought to edge out the other, and in the process, prices for local goods rose sharply. Asaba’s producers felt exploited, squeezed by a trade war that enriched outsiders at their expense.
Lord Lugard would later admit the true motives of European expansion:
“Let it be admitted at the outset that European brains, capital and energy have not been and will never be expended in developing the resources of Africa from motives of pure philanthropy; that Europe is in Africa for the mutual benefit of her own industrial classes.”
— Dual Mandate
The Embargo
Faced with exploitation, Asaba’s leaders acted. By mid-1878, they decreed a total embargo: no commercial dealings with Europeans—principally the British—until prices were reviewed. This was not a spontaneous protest but a carefully considered civic measure.
The embargo’s effectiveness lay in Asaba’s social fabric. The town was a homogeneous and integrated society, where decrees carried legitimacy and were enforced by communal spirit. Merchants stalled on the riverbanks, supply lines thinned, and even missionaries struggled to secure provisions.
Leadership and Civic Cohesion
At the time, the Asagba (king) was Obi Nwani of Ugbomanta village, while the EzeUgbo, a principal officer of Otu Ihaza, was ‘Ayiwe’ Okonma of Umuaji village. Their leadership — along with The Onoi (leader of the House of Parliament) and The Oloto (his deputy), embodied the republican ethos of Asaba’s governance, where authority was communal and decrees were binding.
This structure made the embargo possible. It was not the act of one ruler but the will of a community, expressed through republican governance.
The Olia Markets
Asaba was not just a political center—it was a commercial crossroads. The town hosted periodic Olia markets, where diverse groups converged to trade:
“At Asaba, the natives of Benin come to trade by land, they have no canoes. The Eggarah people bring their produce of the interior. Those from Aboh bring European goods when they have them or salt. The dryland people from the hills behind Adamugu or Damoogoo or Abele bring horses. These people congregate at Asaba for the periodic Olia markets.”
— Captain William Allen and T.R.H. Thompson
These markets were vital to the regional economy—and to Britain’s industrial supply chain. The palm oil needed to run British society in England largely came out of the Asaba markets. The embargo didn’t just disrupt local trade; it struck at the heart of imperial logistics.
Missionary Entanglement
The embargo blurred the line between commerce and mission. Missionaries, dependent on local provisions, felt the same constraints as merchants. Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther of the Church Missionary Society visited Obi Igweli of Asaba to plead for an exemption for missionary agents. Igweli refused, insisting that all foreigners be included.
Crowther’s reaction was sharp. He withheld medicine from the OBI, claiming the illness was incurable—a fact he admitted he did not disclose at the time. Worse, he later published uncharitable remarks about the OBI’s condition in the Report of Mission Stations, 1878. These claims were refuted by Chief Obi Okonkwo Osadebe, born in 1866, who knew Igweli personally as a family member and eyewitness.
This episode reveals the embargo’s thoroughness and the tensions it exposed. Asaba’s policy treated merchants and missionaries alike, resisting attempts to carve out privileged exceptions.
Escalation and bombing:
Unable to break the embargo through diplomacy, the British escalated. Between 1879 and 1882, they bombed Asaba and other Niger towns that maintained similar embargoes. Violence replaced negotiation, underscoring how effective the embargo had become—and how threatening disciplined non-cooperation was to imperial economic goals.
Legacy
The Asaba embargo demonstrated that African communities were not passive recipients of imperial economics. They could read the moment, choose nonviolent leverage, and impose real costs on powerful actors.
• Strategic non-cooperation: Withholding markets and provisions as a negotiation tool
• Community-led governance: Otu Ihaza’s republican cohesion made decrees binding and durable
• Moral consistency: One rule for all foreigners reinforced civic legitimacy
• Historical impact: The British resort to bombardment is evidence of the embargo’s potency
Asaba turned social cohesion into economic power. In doing so, it wrote an early, enduring chapter in Africa’s history of organized resistance to exploitative intrusion.