Antera Duke

Antera Duke was born around 1735 in Old Calabar in what is today the capital of Cross River State in southern part of Nigeria. He was an 18th-century efik slave trade dealer.

Antera Duke Age

Not available.

Antera Duke Early Life

Duke and his family were prominent Efik members in an African-British slave-trading network based in Duke Town. It was through this network that Duke learned to speak and write pidgin English.

Antera Duke Career

Duke kept a diary, written in trade English, a mix of African and English language used to conduct business. This described his day-to-day activities involving trade operations and disputes with British slave ship captains. Alongside his fellow traders, Duke received goods such as “cottons, household goods, beads, gunpowder, firearms, and liquor” in exchange for slaves.

In addition to keeping some of the goods for capital, Duke and his fellow traders would canoe down the Cross River and trade them for more slaves to trade with British captains. In many cases, if there were outstanding debts—either on the African side for not providing enough slaves or the British side for not providing enough goods—both parties engaged in a practice called “pawning” in which free African men and women and/or sailors were used as collateral “pawns” until the debt was repaid. 

Duke and the other traders within his network occasionally had trade disputes with British captains concerning the “comey” or duty taxes they required of the British captains before they traded in Old Calabar. In March 1785, Duke recorded one such dispute when the captain of a British ship tried to coerce Duke Ephraim, Antera’s trading partner, to lower the comey. The captain failed to convince Duke Ephraim to lower his comey and departed for Cameroon. Duke's diary also describes frequent mass executions of household and other captives to celebrate feasts and honour the dead.

Antera Duke Personal Life

Antera Duke reportedly died around 1809. Some years later, a Scottish missionary carried Duke’s diary to Edinburgh. While some of the content has been lost, what remains of Duke’s journal shows some of the sophisticated relationships that existed between African elites and English merchants. Traders and local leaders, like the Dukes, could mobilize powerful political, economic, and military resources in their dealings with Europeans in the Atlantic economy.

Antera Duke Awards

Duke was a chief of the Efik people.

Antera Duke Net Worth

His net worth is not available.

Antera Duke on Social Media