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Trade, Palm Oil, and Power: How King Jaja of Opobo Challenged British Economic Imperialism

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The trajectory of African engagement with European expansion in the nineteenth century is frequently reduced to narratives of conquest and submission. However, within these broad strokes lie episodes of indigenous agency and economic resistance that challenge simplistic assertions of European dominance. A powerful example is King Jaja of Opobo (c. 1821–1891), a foremost Niger Delta ruler whose commercial and political strategies confronted British economic imperialism at the height of the palm oil trade. Jaja’s rise from enslavement to sovereign merchant king exemplifies how African leaders harnessed trade networks and political organization to assert economic autonomy. His challenge to British commercial interests reveals the complex interplay between indigenous institutions and expanding European capitalism in West Africa. This essay argues that King Jaja used control of the palm oil trade and strategic political authority to resist British economic hegemony , transforming Opo...
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The Census That Made Blacks Vanish: Statistical Racism in 19th-Century Argentina.

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In the nineteenth century, Argentina underwent a profound transformation in its national identity, one that was deeply intertwined with race, modernity, and the politics of enumeration. The disappearance of Afro-Argentines from official records—most notably from the national censuses—has long puzzled historians and sociologists. This phenomenon, often described as the “statistical disappearance” of Black Argentines, was not merely a demographic accident but a deliberate act of racial erasure embedded in the state’s project of nation-building. The census, a seemingly neutral instrument of governance, became a tool of ideological construction, shaping the contours of Argentine identity around whiteness and European modernity. As historian George Reid Andrews observes, “The census in nineteenth-century Argentina did not simply record reality; it created it” (Andrews,  The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires, 1800–1900 , 1980). Through the manipulation of categories, selective enu...
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The Colour Bar Acts – Institutionalized Racial Exclusion

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The concept of the “Colour Bar” represents one of the most insidious forms of institutionalized racial exclusion in modern history. It refers to the formal and informal systems of racial segregation and discrimination that restricted the rights, opportunities, and social mobility of non-white populations, particularly within colonial and settler societies. The Colour Bar Acts, as they came to be known, were legislative and administrative instruments that codified racial hierarchies, ensuring that political, economic, and social privileges remained the preserve of white populations. These laws were not isolated phenomena but part of a broader global pattern of racialized governance that emerged during the height of European imperialism and persisted well into the twentieth century. As historian W. M. Macmillan observed, “The Colour Bar was not merely a social prejudice; it was a system of law and administration designed to perpetuate white supremacy” (Macmillan,  Africa Emergen...
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