Manilla: The first documented modern form of money used in trade in Nigeria

Manillas are the first documented modern means of exchange used in Nigeria

ICMS, Inc Reports
By Tom Okure, Ph.D.
May 29, 2017

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The typical Manilla form used in Southern part of Nigeria

Manillas are the oldest documented form of money used by Europeans in trade with West Africa including for the purchase of slaves from slave dealers.

Manillas were widely used in Southern and Western Nigeria especially among the Efiks, Ibibios, Annangs, the Igbos and the Yorubas tribal groups and served the significant monetary functions of convenience, transportability and wealth display by the well to do in Nigerian traditional communities. In Annang communities, bridal price (or dowries) for women was paid with Manillas called "Apkogo" in Annang language. In Efik (Calabar) language it is called "Okpoho."Before the introduction of Manilla, the most common dowry used for marriages were animals consisting of four types: goats, sheep, pigs and cows. The dowry could be paid to the bride’s family with a combination of the four domesticated animals or many of either of the group of animals. But at the beginning of the Second World War, it was becoming fashionable to add turkey to the group. The economic status of the bride’s family was always the deciding factor regarding the quantities and species of animal demanded for in the dowry. The end of World War II saw the slow decline in the use of animals as dowry in many parts of Africa. 
Manillas were made in different forms, sizes, texture and thickness. A traditional husband to be could be required to pay anyway between 10 to 25 or even more manillas in traditional Annang marriage as dowry price and settlement to his father in-law for the good upbringing of his wife to be. The British colonial administration paid for services and bought and sold goods utilizing the manilla. Since there are many sizes and forms of the manilla that was used as a means of exchange, one can suppose that a large size mannilla was equvilaent to a smaller number of manillas. This brass bracelet-shaped objects featured prominently in our culture and was the principal means of exchange from about the 16th century to the late 1930s. Manilla was mainly used in the Annang/Ibibio heartland of the present Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria along with other less renowned local monies. On the Oron coastline of the state, a variety of other currencies such as cowries was widely used.

Variant forms and sizes of
manilla money used in West Africa

Originally made in Europe, perhaps based on an African original design, there were various variants of the manilla form used and accepted either as money or jewelry everywhere in Africa. Manillas though monetary objects, were very desirable and valuable objects. It was not uncommon to see wealthy chiefs use them for body ornamentation in some parts of colonial West Africa. 

Even as late as the 1940’s Manillas continued to serve as money and decorative objects in many traditional contexts. Traditionally, the Manilla is called by different names (Apkogo in Annang land) depending on which part of Nigeria. The proliferation of names throughout Africa is perhaps the result of tribal and regional customs rather than the manufacturing practices for the object.

In terms of historical context, manillas are mostly connected with the Atlantic slave trade Manillas were used by the Europeans for the purchase of slaves. This monetary artifact are increasingly hard to come by these days but are still available in specialized outlets for purchase by tourists and collectors in many parts of Nigeria as memorabilia or momentous.