Germans in the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate
Subtitle: a photograph album
Series: Harvard College Library Colonial Photograph Collection
Published: 1905
Language: eng
Description: An album of photographs, taken by a German Traveller in the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate, and Showing a German “Factorei” in Sagbama, Its Facilities and Workers, German Associates, German Steamboat “Otto” and Steamship “Präsident,” Nigerian Villages and Markets, Native Chief, Workers, Family Groups, etc.
Notes: Provisional cataloging from description supplied by vendor.

Includes  96 mounted and one loosely inserted original gelatin silver photographs (some as real photo postcards), each ca. 9 x 12 cm. Five photos with period ink captions in German on versos.

The photos depict people and villages from the Niger Delta, apparently taken by a German merchant or employee in Southern Nigeria Protectorate (1900-1914). The album’s compiler most likely worked at the German enterprise in Sagbama, a town located in the middle of Nigeria’s modern-day Bayelsa state, where the discovery of rich oil deposits a couple of decades later gave a boost to the country’s oil industry. About forty images show the “factorei” and its facilities (warehouse, living quarters and bungalows, etc.), the compiler of the album and his colleagues (posing at their bungalows, at the company’s warehouse, supervising native workers, drinking beer, hunting, etc.), small German river steamer with the sign “Otto,” German steamer “Präsident,” etc. Five images are captioned on versos in German: “Wohnhouse der Sagbama-Factorei. Dez. 05”; “Studium der neusten Worken. Sagba. May 06;” “Sagbama Factorei von B. & Z. Southern Nigeria, aufgenommen Dez. 05. Niedriges Wasser;” “Herzlichen Grüss, dein Brüder Hans. Sagbama. Dezb. 1905, Southern Nigeria. West Afrika;” and “Auf dem Ausland.” Other photos are interesting ethnographical studies – views of the Niger delta villages and markets, native canoes on the river, and individual and group portraits of the locals: a chief, the “Factorei” workers, families, groups of women and children, men with a severed hippo head, men carrying a load near “No. 4 Powder Magazine,” men operating a crane on a river steamer, Nigerians playing a tug-of-war and watched by Europeans, men wearing top hats, etc. Overall an interesting album of Nigerian views and portraits with an unusual German connection.

Period green cloth album with a blind-stamped title “Album” on the front board; paper label of “L. Schaller, Stuttgart” on the inner side of the front cover. Album slightly loosened on hinges, a few images slightly faded or blurry, a couple with minor stains.

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