Bight of Biafra and the Age of Sail

Article Abstract: The deep sea was a mysterious but not unraveled world for the people who inhabited the Atlantic coast within the Bight of Biafra in West Africa.  Frightful tales about water spirits, sea monsters and features, did not deter them from deep sea adventures. The accounts of such adventures are in the oral traditions, rituals, cultural festivals and religious beliefs of the Douala and other peoples of this coast. These oral sources, material culture of the people, and the accounts which the early European explorers left on them show that the people of this region explored and exploited fairly deep into the Atlantic Ocean. They did so not only for the sake of adventure but because the deep sea offered them many advantages such as bountiful fish riches and spiritual powers. The many distant off-shore islands and the coastal area provided the adventurers the enabling environment for deep sea adventures