Ostrich feathers and ostrich eggs have long been an important export from North Africa to different European markets. These large plumes and eggs were part of the valuable luxury trade crossing the Mediterranean for centuries. The source of ostrich feathers until the later nineteenth century was principally from ostriches that were hunted in the wild, coming mainly from North Africa and West Africa. The value of the ostrich plumes triggered a colonial French and British competition over this luxury commodity leading to colonial attempts to establish domesticated ostrich farms, principally by the French in North and West Africa (and the British in South Africa). This paper uses an economic historical frame to understand colonial French and British relations during the 19th century in Africa through ostrich feather trade. The paper examines the trade feather that developed particularly by the later nineteenth century, and focuses on the sources of feathers and local practices for hunting and raising ostriches. I argue that by looking at the need of ostrich plumes in European markets and the rise of consumption of fashion goods based on the ostrich plume, nineteenth century European capitalism destroyed not only the wild North African ostriches but also local North African livelihoods based on wild ostriches.