kingdom of Bonny

The Kingdom of Bonny was a significant trading center and slave-exporting depot in southern Nigeria from the 15th to 19th centuries. Located on the Bonny River, an arm of the Niger River delta, it was the capital of a kingdom that reached its peak under the Pepple dynasty in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The kingdom's economy was heavily reliant on the sale of enslaved people to European traders, making it one of West Africa's largest slave-exporting ports.12

By the 1850s, following the British enforcement of the end of the slave trade, Bonny transitioned to exporting palm oil and palm kernels. It remained an important port until the early 20th century when it was surpassed by Port Harcourt. Bonny regained prominence in the late 1950s and 1960s as a central depot for oil shipments.12