Canoe Carrying Barrels of Palm Oil, Calabar, Nigeria, ca. 1930-1940

Tinted lantern slide taken from a river vessel showing a wooden cargo canoe carrying barrels of palm oil. Whilst one man stands on the deck, three other crew members propel the canoe with long wooden poles. Following the waning of the slave trade in the mid 19th century, the trade in palm oil and palm kernels became a major industry for the people of Calabar, and in the late 19th century, the region became the capital of the Niger Coast Protectorate. With the opening of Port Harcourt as a rail transport centre after 1916, the importance of Calabar as a trading port lessened, but the area continued to export palm products. European missionaries in Calabar, most famously Mary Mitchell Slessor (1848-1915) sought to open up the palm oil and kernel trade to Calabar tribes people in order to encourage self sufficiency, and to reduce inter-tribal warfare and practices such as human sacrifice and poisoning ordeals. This slide comes from a set on mission, culture and industry in Calabar, southeast Nigeria generated by the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland (which was incorporated with the Church of Scotland in 1929.)