Ethnic groups · pre-1822 and continuing
Dei people
The people of Cape Mesurado itself — small in number, decisive in 1821–22.
Biography
The Dei held the coastal strip around Cape Mesurado and the lower St Paul, a narrow territory squeezed between Vai, Gola and Bassa neighbours. Their towns were fishing and salt-making settlements with strong ties to the river trade. Because the ground the American Colonization Society wanted was theirs, the Dei stand at the centre of the 1821 contract and the crisis of April 1822 — and it was a Dei principle, voiced by the subordinate chiefs, that no one, not even a king, may sell land that belongs to all.
Historical significance
One of the sixteen principal peoples mapped in the atlas; Atlantic (Mel) in language, with an economy built on salt making and fishing.
Timeline
- pre-1500Dei towns established on the Mesurado shore
- Dec 1821Dei rulers sign the Cape Mesurado contract
- 1822Repudiation, crisis and the mediated settlement
On the map
Associated with Ducor. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Captan 2015; Burrowes 2023
Suggested reading
- Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia.