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My reasons for attending the conference went beyond the presentation of a paper that offered an African perspective on abolition. I also went to rediscover a West Africa from which I had been absent since I completed research on my dissertation more than three decades ago. It was a splendid conference in every way—well organized, beautifully sited, and replete with valuable scholarship. It was a delight to greet Professor Afigbo again after so many years and to hear his challenging address, but for me the most vivid experience was the connections I was able to make with a new generation of African historians. I sought out historians from places I had once known in southern Nigeria and Cameroon, and because they tended to cluster together, I tended to meet them in groups. It was a pleasant surprise that Prof. Afigbo remembered my name after so many years, but I was utterly flabbergasted that so many of the younger scholars were familiar with me on the basis of my first book. There were comic moments. After staring at my nametag, a new acquaintance often asked whether I was related to that other Northrup who had written Trade without Rulers about southeastern Nigeria? Was he my uncle or my father perhaps? “The connection is closer than that,” I replied, “I am that author.” Their confusion stemmed from the fact that the book in question was published in 1978 and none of my work since then had found its way to them. The book has long been out of print. None of them had ever seen a copy of the book itself but knew of it from photocopies that passed from hand to hand.

I tell of discovering this secret fan club not to brag or inflate my ego but because of something much deeper. I had written that study for them. Of course, it had earned me my doctorate, helped me get a job, and secured me tenure, but it had also been written out of thanks to a part of the world where I had lived for two and a half years and that I had loved. It was my book, but it was their history. When it was published, I had sent copies to some Nigerian libraries, but I knew that economics and  logistics made it unlikely that a book published in Oxford in a costly hardcover edition would find many African readers. To discover that it had reached (and was still reaching) its intended audience was a rare and wonderful delight.

Since the conference I have received many touching emails from Nigeria and sent many back. I have also been sending, aided by generous publishers, copies of some more recent scholarship. Here in the West we live in a world of strong institutions and transient personal ties. It was wonderful to reenter a world where institutions may too often be weak, but personal networks are so strong that it is not an exaggeration to say nothing gets done without them. I am reconnected.