Palm Oil Market Scene in Akwete
A monochromatic photograph depicting a market scene in Akwete. The image shows a group of approximately 15 to 20 individuals, primarily Igbo men wearing waist-wrapped garments, gathered under an open-sided structure with a corrugated roof. Several large, spherical vessels encased in rope netting are visible on the ground, with one individual carrying two such vessels using a wooden yoke. A single individual is depicted in Western-style clothing, consisting of a long-sleeved shirt, trousers, and a wide-brimmed hat, appearing to be a European trader. The setting is an outdoor market environment involving the trade of palm oil in calabashes.
Community Notes
Onyeka Nwokike
Apr 24, 2026
The photograph is widely attributed to Jonathan Adagogo Green (J.A. Green), a pioneering indigenous Nigerian photographer active in the Niger Delta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Tate). It is also preserved in the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art and was used as the jacket illustration for the 2017 book African Photographer J.A. Green: Reimagining the Indigenous and the Colonial.
Onyeka Nwokike
Apr 24, 2026
Akwete was a strategic hub for the palm oil trade in the late 19th century, serving as a key point of interaction between European traders and local merchants within the Niger Delta trade networks (Emmason247). Scholarly research indicates that the economic prosperity brought by this trade directly influenced the development and flourishing of the renowned Akwete weaving tradition (SearchWorks, Stanford University Libraries), as noted in the Fashion History Timeline.
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