Seaports of the Gulf of Guinea, C.1970–2018: Developments and Transformations

Abstract

This chapter examines seaports in the Gulf of Guinea to understand their evolution, development, problems and major transformations during the study period. Composed of multi-ethnic nation-states carved out and colonized by different European powers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, post-independent economic and social life in the region are conditioned by the structural colonial vestiges, with English and French as the chief official languages and a mixture of foreign and local cultures. The study used primary and secondary sources of data to analyse change in the port industry vis-à-vis the development and modernization of infrastructure, inter-port competition amongst the countries and the reasons for predominance of some ports, the tempo of hinterland development and demographic factors affecting the port cities, the trends of containerization, terminal concessions, deep-sea and deep-water port formation and security issues such as piracy, armed robbery and kidnapping. The study concludes by assessing the situation of the Gulf ports in the compelling dynamics of international shipping in the twenty-first century which are governed more by global benchmarking indices of commercial efficiency and compliance with extant maritime law than the demands of local politics.