OzikoroMiddlemen of the Oil Rivers: How the Itsekiri Dominated the Exchange Between the Hinterland and Europe
The Itsekiri people of the Western Niger Delta played an instrumental role in shaping West Africa’s early modern economy. From the 16th to the 19th century, they emerged as powerful commercial middlemen in the region historically known as the Oil Rivers, a network of deltaic waterways linking inland producers to foreign merchants along the Atlantic…