This episode is six years in the making.

Many of us know the Berlin Conference of 1884, otherwise known as the scramble for Africa which was where European leaders decided how to share Africa like moi moi among themselves. But a lesser-known but equally important conference was the 1890 Brussels conference that King Leopold II organised as an anti-slavery conference. The agreements made at the conference were enshrined into an act titled: The Convention Relative to the Slave Trade and Importation into Africa of Firearms, Ammunition, and Spiritous Liquors.

This episode is about firearms, ammunition and spirits–what these objects that were so central to the slave trade can tell us about why Nigeria was made.


Timestamps

Chapters
01:28 The lesser-known 1880s B* conference
03:39 ‘Firearms, Ammunition, and Spiritous Liquors‘
08:50 Negotiating power and identity/Local Agency vs. Colonial Control
15:11 The Iva Valley Massacre