OzikoroCredit, Culture, and Control: Pawnship and the Regulatory Power of the Ekpe and Oghu Systems
The pre-colonial and early colonial economies of the Bight of Biafra and the Niger Delta were built on a sophisticated bedrock of credit. In an era before standardized banking and colonial legal courts, the “commercial empire” of West Africa relied on indigenous institutions to ensure the sanctity of contracts and the repayment of debts.…