OPUSAM Ekinisam Ete2026-06-302026-06-302024978-978-768-267-8https://nigeriareposit.nln.gov.ng/handle/20.500.14186/2801The trans-Atlantic slave trade lasted from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries on the African continent, and had a devastating effect on the people living in the coastal territories adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea. These include the Yorubas on the shores of the lagoon in the west, the Ijo and other peoples of the Niger Delta wetlands at the centre, and the Igbo and other ethnic communities in the forest uplands to the north eastern edge of the territory. The setting of this fictional historical account of lives affected by the slave trade is the core Niger Delta region, where many of the ports from where slaves were shipped to foreign lands were located. In 1807, a ban on the international slave trade was promulgated by the British government, but the repeated raids by slave dealers continued in the creeks of the Niger Delta through a collaboration between foreign slave traders and powerful local merchants. Canoe Town is an epic adventure story about Ijo communities set during the era of the slave trade. In the course of this historic period in time, the gods chose to test the mettle of Alagoa, one of the central characters in the story. The invasion of his community by slave raiders in 1807 caused great upheaval and panic for Alagoa whose wife, Omiete, was heavily pregnant at the time, causing her death immediately after giving birth to their son, Owei. Alagoa buries his wife in a fishing camp. In another deserted fishing camp, he improvises a local diet to feed his newborn son. At yet another location, good fortune smiles on him when he discovers costly treasures. 1 In his determined quest to find sanctuary upland, he must master every ordeal that the escape journey threw at him. Alagoa battles the elements of bad weather and the odds set by the gods of the land in a bid to escape upland with his new born son. After passing many riverine communities, he arrives at the town of Igbogene where he leaves his son in the care of a long-time friend of his named Sorgwe and his wife, Izibefien, and travels to the community of Imbi-ama, there to sojourn. Owei grows to maturity, against threats of enslavement, until 1832 when his destiny is revealed to him at the age of twenty-five. He is to be one of those who will bring the dehumanizing trade to a definite end in the heart of the Niger Delta. His true mission begins when he sets out to locate Aru-ama, the fishing camp with canoes lining the shore, where his mother’s remains were laid to rest.Chapter 1: Eventful Escape Chapter 2: The Journey Upland Chapter 3: The Exchange Chapter 4: Imbi-Ama Chapter 5: Celebration Time Chapter 6: Forest Chase Chapter 7: Aru-AmaenBook