ABSTRACT
Three major factors informed the science and technology of traditional biological agents. The first one was the environmental wealth in terms of the availability of natural plants and big game animals that were difficult to hunt. The second factor was the ecological challenges related to disease. The third and perhaps the most dominant factor was violent conflicts in the form of external aggression including wars, raids and rivalries in the communities over access to land and wealth and disputes about traditional stools, wives or slaves. Field research included interviewees from the Gbagyi (Gwari) and Bassa in central Nigeria and Borgu and Bussa in Dahomey and in Nigeria. Interviews revealed that one of the secrets behind the survival of the Songhai, Jihadists, Ebira, Nupe and Yoruba sporadic raids was their possession of the knowledge of the science and technology of biological agents, the iron industry and hilltop refuge centers. The groups embarked on the secret production of armaments until they were forcibly stopped and seized by colonial conquest. They attributed mass production to the incessant attacks from warring groups and imperialists in their search for slaves for the Trans-Sahara and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and for slave-based agriculture and plantations to feed the Royal Niger Company (RNC). They still used the armaments for hunting big game and fishing.
