The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth Century Atlantic Odyssey

Randy Sparks’s The Two Princes of Calabar is an engaging read demonstrating literal and scholastic efficiency. In a mere one hundred and forty seven pages, Sparks paints an ethnographic portrait animating the Euro-Afro-American Exchange responsible for creating the hybrid culture he calls “Atlantic Creoles,” a phrase borrowed from Ira Berlin (3). Sparks argues broadly that “Atlantic Creoles” are the result of eighteenth-century globalization, and narrowly focuses on two African brothers, Ephraim Robin John and Ancona Robin-Robin John from Calabar in the Bight of Biafra. The Robin Johns were unique because they were slave traders and slaves, functioning comfortably in Efik, American and European cultures. Often, linking figures become the first casualties of the clash resulting from the tensions created by societal encounters; the Robin Johns defied this convention and successfully negotiated their liminal existence. Their experiences enables Sparks to explore three distinct cultures in depth. He competently accomplishes this feat by analyzing the environment and background that contributed to shaping the Robin Johns’ human experience.

The Robin Johns were princes of the Efik tribe. The Efik tribe was equally complicit with the English in the eighteenth-century Atlantic slave trade. Far from being a primitive society, the Efiks developed a complex commercial culture resembling the beginnings of English consumerism. The Efiks would trade raw materials (slaves) for copper and manufactured goods. These transactions, necessary for the conduct of the slave trade, necessitated a cultural intermingling resulting in the creation of the “Atlantic Creole.” This further facilitated the transition of Efik society from the traditional, elder-based leadership to western style wealth-based leadership. Power became associated with wealth, and the acquisition of wealth became the primary focus of attaining and maintaining power.

Not surprisingly, as power was vested in wealth, trade wars developed. The trade wars between Old Calabar and New Calabar exemplified the best and the worst characteristics of capitalism. At its best, the competition between Old Town and New Town served its free market function to lower prices on tributes paid to the Calabar dukes by the English as well as the price of slaves themselves. Obviously, as Sparks points out repeatedly throughout the text, this is purely an economic analysis unfortunately unable to convey the horror of the fact that the goods described were human beings. At its worst, in 1767 the Efiks of New Town allied with the English to ambush the Efiks of Old Town, turning the trade competition into a violent clash. The result of this ambush was the kidnapping of the two Robin John brothers.

There are so many places where this text shines, not the least of which is Sparks’s portrait of the middle passage. Sparks steers clear of the age old debate on Atlantic middle passage statistics and focuses on a graphic, detailed description of the slave experience. This is not to say that Sparks ignores statistics; on the contrary, when describing the nature of the Old Calabar and New Calabar slave trade, Sparks employs statistics to illustrate the extent of the Efiks’ and English’s involvement (39). Sparks’s style, the study of history through the lens of the Other, is similar to one employed by Anne Salmond in her wonderful book The Trial of the Cannibal Dog. Salmond documents Cook’s Pacific voyages and untimely demise via the lens of the indigenous people juxtaposed against the logs and diaries of ordinary sailors and Cook’s officers. Likewise, Sparks relies on accounts by the “other” to aptly describe the middle passage. However, whereas Salmond had to rely solely upon oral histories which were generations removed, Sparks had the unique advantage of being able to rely on written letters between the Robin Johns and the famous Wesley brothers. It is impossible to read Sparks’s description without feeling the unbearable closeness of the slave holds, the withering heat and the constant battle simply to find pockets of breathable air. Sparks argues the obvious advantage of being an “Atlantic Creole” was the deeply entrenched Euro-Afro-American cultural exchange, resulting in the Robin John’s relative lack of fear they felt for the captains and crews of the slave ships. Their fellow slaves did not share the same comfort (71). The Robin Johns’ narrative has extensive outside verification from beginning to end and Sparks utilizes a veritable treasure trove of historical documents to accomplish this task. The aforementioned letters as well as ship’s logs, ship’s manifests, and court records provide the necessary outside validation of the Robin Johns’ accounts. This detailed account of the middle passage differs from Olaudah Equiano’s famous narrative for which there are no outside substantiating accounts, resulting in recent academic suspicion as to the nature and validity of the text.

The Robin Johns were able to employ their skills and knowledge of the English language, culture, and legal system to not only survive the dreaded middle passage but to exploit the freshly decided 1772 Somerset case in order to obtain their freedom. Sparks writes, “Here we have the remarkable case of African slaves arguing to the Lord Chief Justice of England that their enslavement violated the rules governing the Efik trade and English law as well” (101).  Sparks is clearly arguing that the Euro-Afro-American exchange was so accepted and so complete that Efik law was successfully argued in English courts. The moral irony of African slave traders legally arguing for their freedom from enslavement is not lost on Sparks. He devotes an entire chapter to the religious conversion the Robin Johns experienced resulting from their relationship with the English Methodists. This conversion further exemplifies the Euro-Afro-American exchange. The Efiks sought to emulate European society by adopting English values and these values included Christian salvation as one of the final steps in “civilization.”  Sparks argues that the Robin Johns’ conversion was genuine and not just a conversion of convenience despite evidence indicating the Robin Johns reentered the slave trade after receiving their freedom. Sparks concludes by studying the values of the Efiks requiring  repayment of debts; it was necessary for the Robin Johns to reenter the slave trade in order to finance the loans they accrued in England in order to mount a legal defense (130).

Sparks employs a sound methodology, resulting in a convincing argument. This is evidenced by his extensive and useful research notes, based upon a rich and authentic collection of primary source documents. He explores complex socio-economic, geopolitical relationships and presents to us a fuller view of the globalization of the eighteenth-century world by utilizing the vehicle of the Robin Johns as liminal figures, rather than focusing on the cultures themselves. “It’s a small world” tends to be an overused, timeworn axiom. However, Sparks academically proves when it comes to the eighteenth century, the Atlantic world appears to be much smaller than we originally thought.