Igbo Trade Timeline: Portuguese First, British Last

Our Igbo ancestors traded with the Portuguese as early as the 1400s, long before the British arrival in 1900. Portuguese merchants landed in Benin around 1472 and entered Igboland through Aboh and Onitsha, exchanging guns, mirrors and cloth for slaves, pepper and ivory. In the 1600s, Arab traders came through Hausa and Igala lands into Nsukka and Nri, bringing horses, red cloth and books while taking slaves and kola. By the 1700s, Indian traders joined markets in Aro and Onitsha with “George” cloth, beads and cowries in exchange for slaves and palm oil. When the British finally arrived with their Maxim guns in 1900, they ended our independent trade, seized land, crowns and church posts. Ask your grandparents which cloth they knew first—Portuguese textiles or British uniforms? Share your town’s story and let’s teach our children the true history.

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