Antera Duke

Antera Duke was an African merchant involved in slave trade who left diary which is an extremely valuable primary source on slave trade in Africa. It provides information on economic activity conducted both with other African entrepreneurs and with European ship captains who arrived to trade for slaves, produce, and provisions at the height of Calabar's overseas commerce.

Antera belonged to the Efik people that lived in Old Calabar, which is in modern day Nigeria. He lived in the house built in European style and from materials which were imported from Europe. A leading member of his community, Antera was proficient in numbers and literate. He spoke and wrote in English using Pidgin English in writing his diary. The members of the Efik people were known for enslavement actions and had business dealings with foreign slave merchants, mostly from Liverpool. Slaves obtained from criminal population, bought from neighboring towns and villages or simply captured in slave hunt were exchanged for western goods such as iron bars, knives, guns, gunpowder, beads and cloth. In his diary Antera also described a daily life in African community and its customs like mass executions of households and captives which were frequently held to celebrate feasts and in honor of the dead.