Rulers · fl. c. 1800–1840s
Siaka of Gallinas
Vai ruler of the Gallinas country whose lagoons became the most notorious slaving station on the coast.
Biography
Siaka governed the network of islands and creeks behind the Gallinas bar, north-west of Cape Mount, at the moment when British abolition pushed the Atlantic trade into exactly such hard-to-blockade places. He leased barracoon ground to Spanish and Portuguese dealers — most famously Pedro Blanco — and taxed what passed.
His son Manna succeeded him. The dynasty's wealth was real and its position impossible: the same geography that made Gallinas rich made it the first target of the British squadron's destruction of the barracoons in 1840 and 1849.
Historical significance
Gallinas under Siaka is the case study for how African rulers were incorporated into, and finally ruined by, the illegal trade of the post-abolition decades.
Timeline
- c. 1800Consolidates authority over the Gallinas lagoons
- c. 1822Barracoons operating at scale as the legal trade closes
- 1840British squadron begins destroying the establishments
On the map
Associated with Gallinas. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Jones, Adam (1983). From Slaves to Palm Kernels: A History of the Galinhas Country.
- Holsoe, Svend E. (1977). 'Slavery and Economic Response among the Vai.'
Suggested reading
- Jones (1983).