Captain Frederick Forbes’ mission in West Africa was to plant the seeds for the palm oil trade. There was a widely espoused argument that trade for goods was morally superior to a trade in bodies. In practice, however, the trade in raw materials from the continent was and continues along a brutal spectrum of extractive politics that exploited bodies and land for generations to come. William Lever, the founder of the company that would become Unilever, eventually partnered with King Leopold and the Congo Free State to found the Huileries du Congo. Similar arrangements have been in place since this time for the mining of rare minerals and the harvesting of cacao.

Promised loan to Harvey B. Gantt Center for African- American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC, February - June 2024