Cannabis et al.: The Portmanteau Biota Concept Applied to an Enslaved Central African Migration

Abstract Historian Alfred Crosby developed the concept of “portmanteau biota”—the organisms that accompany a human migration—to analyse European expansion in the Atlantic World. This concept has not been used to understand enslaved African migrations. I identify elements of the portmanteau biota of people whom slavers called “Congoes.” At least five other organisms accompanied these people from Central Africa: Cannabis , manioc, cattle, the tsetse fly, and the trypanosome that causes African sleeping sickness. Based on how these organisms affected social-ecological resilience for the “Congo” migration, I describe four ways to characterize elements of portmanteau biotas. Some organisms negatively impact social-ecological systems in which they were previously unknown; I call these “novel antagonists.” In contrast, “familiar antagonists” negatively impact social-ecological systems in which they were previously known. Other organisms, which I call “mutualists,” enhance social-ecological resilience, differing by whether they were familiar or novel in those systems. The role of any organism is context-dependant, and not categorical. Cannabis , for example, had mutualistic characteristics as it enhanced resilience for African social-ecological systems, and antagonistic characteristics as it enhanced the capacity of overseers to extract labour within plantation capitalism. Applied in this way, the portmanteau biota concept underscores the ecological complexity of human migrations.