Updated October 14, 2025 - This article draws on the research of Dr Nana Kesse, historian of West Africa at Clark University, whose study of Appolonia is the basis for the argument presented here. Full references are at the end of the page.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade is often told as a simple story: European greed on one side, African suffering on the other, and coastal rulers who profited in between. Like most simple stories, it hides the exceptions. And on the Gold Coast, the most striking exception lies in the far west, in the land of the Nzema.
The Kingdom of Appolonia stretched along the coast of what is today the western end of Ghana’s Western Region, close to the border with Côte d’Ivoire. It was a coastal kingdom with sea access, trade routes and European visitors, exactly the kind of place where, elsewhere on this coast, the slave trade took hold and grew. In Appolonia, it did not.
From the second half of the seventeenth century to the late eighteenth century, the Atlantic slave trade on the West African coast grew enormously. Historians have long argued that in this period the port towns of the Gold Coast became centres of intensive slave trading. Cape Coast, Elmina, Anomabu and many others fit that picture.
Dr Kesse’s research shows that Appolonia does not. His study finds that Appolonia was the only port region on the Gold Coast where the Atlantic slave trade did not thrive. The kingdom did take part in the trade, and indigenous forms of slavery existed within it, but in percentage terms its involvement in the Atlantic trade was minimal. In his words, Appolonia stands out as a statistical and geographical outlier in the slave trade economy.
This matters. It means that the trade was not an unstoppable force that swept up every coastal society equally. At least one kingdom on this coast shaped its own path.
According to Dr Kesse, the answer lies in measures the kingdom itself put in place. He points to two groups of factors.
The first is political. Appolonia had robust political structures and policies that limited the trade. This was not a weak or disorganised state that simply failed to join in. It was a kingdom whose rulers and institutions kept the trade in check.
The second is religious and socio-cultural. Appolonia’s religious beliefs and social practices worked against the large-scale sale of people to the Atlantic trade.
Its economy rested elsewhere. Appolonia’s wealth depended above all on the trade in gold and ivory, not on the sale of captives.
An earlier version of this page claimed that Appolonia stayed out of the trade because its government was decentralised and weak. That was wrong, and it is the opposite of what the research shows. The kingdom’s strength, not its weakness, made the difference.
Europeans in Appolonia
Appolonia was not cut off from Europeans. The British built Fort Apollonia at Beyin in the second half of the eighteenth century, and the fort still stands today. European traders came to the Appolonia coast like everywhere else on the Gold Coast. The difference was not the absence of Europeans, but what Appolonia was prepared to trade with them.
You can read more about the fort on our sister site: https://ghana-net.com/fort-apollonia-beyin-the-westernmost-fort-in-ghana
None of this makes Appolonia a society without slavery. Domestic forms of slavery existed there, as they did across West Africa, and the kingdom did sell some captives into the Atlantic trade. Dr Kesse does not argue that Appolonia was innocent. He shows that, measured against its neighbours, its part in the Atlantic trade was small, and that this was the result of choices and institutions, not chance.
Why this matters today
On the walls of Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle, visitors learn how European companies bought captives from African traders and rulers. That history is real, and it must be told. But it is often turned into the claim that “everyone was involved”, which is used to blur responsibility for the largest forced migration in human history.
Appolonia’s story shows that African societies had agency, and that agency included the possibility of saying no, or at least of saying “very little”. It does not cancel the guilt of those who profited, African or European. It makes the picture more honest.
Dr Kesse also notes that Appolonia’s case complicates how we think about historical justice and reparations. At the same time, it does not contradict the United Nations resolution of March 2026 declaring the trans-Atlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. The trade remains the most violent and catastrophic of the many atrocities committed against Africans and people of African descent.
Appolonia was not a perfect kingdom. But it was not a slave-trading state. And in a time when so much of this coast was built on the sale of human beings, that was a choice worth remembering.
The old kingdom lies in today’s Nzema country, in the Jomoro and Ellembelle districts of the Western Region. Beyin, with Fort Apollonia, is also the starting point for the stilt village of Nzulezo on Lake Amanzule. Nkroful, the birthplace of Kwame Nkrumah, is nearby.
Nzulezo: https://ghana-net.com/discover-nzulezo
Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum, Nkroful: https://ghana-net.com/kwame-nkrumah-mausoleum-nkroful
The Nzema language: https://myghana2027.com/nzema-language-of-the-far-west
Who sold whom: Ghana’s slave history without the marketing: https://ghana-net.com/diaspora-blog-item/who-sold-whom-ghana-s-slave-history-without-the-marketing
Nana Kesse, “Appolonia: An Outlier in the West African Atlantic Slave Trade”, International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 57, No. 2 (2024), pp. 147–167. Clark University repository: https://commons.clarku.edu/historyfac/126
Nana Kesse, “Appolonia: the story of an African kingdom that resisted the Atlantic slave trade”, The Conversation (2026): https://theconversation.com/appolonia-the-story-of-an-african-kingdom-that-resisted-the-atlantic-slave-trade-282102
Nana Kesse, “Appolonia : l’histoire d’un royaume africain qui a résisté à la traite transatlantique des esclaves”, The Conversation (French edition, 2026): https://theconversation.com/appolonia-lhistoire-dun-royaume-africain-qui-a-resiste-a-la-traite-transatlantique-des-esclaves-285728
Nana Kesse, Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/143553104/Appolonia_An_Outlier_in_the_West_African_Atlantic_Slave_Trade
Kevin Shillington, History of Africa (3rd edition).
Oral accounts and local Nzema historical traditions.
Correction and thanks — 14 October 2026
An earlier version of this article drew on the research of Dr Nana Kesse, Assistant Professor of History at Clark University, without naming him as its author. In the sources, his article was wrongly credited to another writer, and part of the text misrepresented his findings, describing Appolonia’s government as weak and decentralised when his research shows the opposite. We have corrected the author credit and the citation, rewritten the article in line with his work, and added his publications to the sources.
We thank Dr Kesse for contacting us, for his kind words about our work, and for pointing out the error. Giving proper credit to the historians whose research makes stories like this one possible is part of telling history straight. Our apologies for the mistake.
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For those interested in how memory and fiction intersect, explore other reflections on this site.