Talk:Alhassan Dantata

Useful West African History
I appreciate that the language in the current page expresses opinions and does not cite facts throughout the page. However, it is interesting history. The tag says it is more like an advertisement, where I would say it is an oral history presented in written form. Rcollman (talk) 13:56, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

I got sucked into history and decided to do a major edit of the page. I tried to leave words entered by others. I did get rid of most opinions and some observations I considered unnecessary. There were some things which did not make any sense to me. As they say, "a leopard does not change his spots." I do not believe he went to visit his mother in hopes that she would support him and he would not have to work. It is not clear if this trip took place before or after he was ransomed in the Kano Civil War. It seems reasonable to me that in either case, a young Agalawa (whose father, mother, grandfather, great grand father and many relations were long distance traders) would join a caravan to a place he had kin with business interests.

The other point which was missed concerned Europeans and Emir Abass. The Emir restored the lands taken away in 1893. This enabled Dantata in 1913-14 to enter the groundnut trade as a "new person" in Kano. Rcollman (talk) 18:17, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

Old Summary Text
Alhassan Dantata was successful businessman from what is now present day Nigeria. He was born into an Hausa trading family in the town of Bebeji. He was originally a Kola trader(1903-1906?) transporting goods from Kano through Ibadan-Lagos and finally to Accra, Ghana. He was one of the pioneering merchants using this route was fairly successful trading kola from Bebeji. Alhaji Dantata later dabbled into trading western clothes, beads and necklaces. But soon later he would make effective changes to consolidate his business. He chose a Kano residency around the time of Abbas, Emir of Kano(1903-1919). This gave him a wider exposure to the political charlatans of the era. And later in 1918, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata a devout Muslim soon found a much bigger prize, he was approached by the Niger company(U.A.C) to become an agent for them in the groundnut produce business. He chose to work with the company for different reasons, one was the successful precedent set by cocoa produce merchants in the gold coast. Since then he never looked back. He was also a board member of the Nigerian Railway Corporation. Alhaji Dantata died in 1955 and was survived by 18 children, including Alhaji Aminu Dantata (Express Petroleum) and Alhassan Sanusi Dantata (Dantata and Sawoe). At the time of his death he could arguably be described as the richest West African in the British colonies.

External Links

http://dantatafamily.com/alhassan_history.htm#Alhassan

http://dantatafamily.com/

http://dantatafamily.com/tribute_to_alhassan.htm

Links of possible use
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/obriensu/christelow.pdf - some info about his life http://www.samfogg.com/sf-v02/data/exhibition/details/20071009.pdf - about the Sufi son

--Picaroon (t) 23:47, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Richest man in West Africa
He was the richest man in West Africa at the time, but not the whole continent. I'm not sure who held that position, probably a South African or maybe an Egyptian. I'd appreciate if anyone who knows who the richest person in all of Africa at the time was could add that to the article (with citation). Picaroon (t) 22:04, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Removed Warning Templates
There were several templates which were posted in 2014. One for neutrality the other for lack of citation. Today I saw many references and the language to me did not warrant a neutrality warning. If someone feels otherwise, put back the template and reasons why on this talk page.
 * Suggest using the in specific places where a citation is needed, thus not needing the general template and followup on this page :)  Rcollman (talk) 16:37, 20 April 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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