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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Princes as Highway Men: A Consideration of the Phenomenon of Armed Banditry in Precolonial Borgu |
Author: | Akinwumi, Olayemi |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Cahiers d'études africaines |
Volume: | 41 |
Issue: | 162 |
Pages: | 333-350 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Benin Nigeria |
Subjects: | Borgu polity organized crime Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.4000/etudesafricaines.90 |
Abstract: | Borgu extends from the river Niger to the rain forest of the border of Yorubaland. As a result of the 1898 Anglo-French pact, Borguland was partitioned into British Borgu (Nigeria) and French Borgu (Benin). The Kano-Gonja and Sokoto-Badagry trade routes that went through Borguland until the end of the 19th century brought enormous wealth to the country. However, the portion of these routes that passed Borgu were infested with armed bandits. This paper argues that armed banditry in precolonial Borgu appeared as a reaction to the change from agrarianism to mercantilism in the 15th, the period when kolanut was discovered in the Asante forests. The paper attributes the involvement of Borgu princes in banditry to the sociopolitical situation in the country. Armed banditry, which became well pronounced in the 19th, affected the main source of Borgu's economy, the caravan trade, and consequently led to the fall of many of the Borgu states. The shift of the trade route from one area to another, and the eventual boycott of the Borgu routes, laid the foundation for Borgu's impoverishment at the beginning of the 20th. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |