t;the manners and government of a people who have little commerce with other countries are generally very simple, and the history of what passes in one family or village may serve as a specimen of the whole nation" (Equiano, 19). The British slave traders took advantage of such localized identity, as they never were obliged to confront an entity larger than their own small contingency. Small coastal tribes like the Oyo and the Aro, the traders' first African contacts, were given the privileged choice to cooperate with the British. They obliged, partially in return for the trinkets that the British had given to them, but more importantly due to their political interests with their neighboring tribes. These clans saw and seized the opportunity of acquiring mass land, resources, and ultimately wealth. Little did the Ibo people know that less than a century later, the British would return to take over the land that some tribes greedily set out to obtain.
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