Photograph: Onitsha Chiefs 1920 circa Excerpts from the book:Iboland, Southern Nigeria by Frances M. Dennis 1874"The two large rivers of Southern Nigeria run through the country of the Ibos — the Niger and the Cross River.Up these rivers steamers have been running for years, bringing millions of cases of gin and bright-coloured cloth for trading purposes, carrying away the rich produce of the country—palm oil, palm kernels, and things of less value.From one interior station of the Niger Company alone thousands of tons of palm oil are annually sent to Liverpool, yet it is a very common sight to see heaps of palm nuts lying by the sides of the road, left there until all the oil has disappeared and only the kernels remain, as it is too much trouble to extract the oil.Absolutely unconscious of the value of their country, these Ibos are quite satisfied to receive a fraction of the value of their palm oil and kernels, while for the smaller things, such as fowls, they want more than their value.The majority of the slaves shipped from the West Coast were Ibos, Bonny and the Cross River being the great ways out. The great slave-traders, too, were Ibos, not enemies from other countries.We do not hear of great slave-raids in this Iboland, of large numbers of foreigners coming down upon them suddenly and carrying off whole villages; but we hear of the Arochuku people, Ibos, who, posing as medicine-men and the messengers of God, traded in slaves on a very large scale, having got most of their victims through deceit, taking advantage of the people’s superstition.The great enemy of the Ibo has been the Ibo."*********N.B:While "Ibo" is used mostly in pre-colonial or colonial books, "Igbo" refers to the same ethnic group and language, and is the preferred and more accurate term.