In this post we will be looking at Slave trade, Forms of slavery, Slavery practices throughout Africa, the Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism on Africa.
INTRODUCTION
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade (which started in the 16th century) began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa. Slavery in contemporary Africa is still practiced despite it being illegal. In the relevant literature African slavery is categorized into indigenous slavery and export slavery, depending on whether or not slaves were traded beyond the continent. Slavery in historical Africa was practised in many different forms: Debt slavery, enslavement of war captives, military slavery, slavery for prostitution, and enslavement of criminals were all practised in various parts of Africa. Slavery for domestic and court purposes was widespread throughout Africa. Plantation slavery also occurred, primarily on the eastern coast of Africa and in parts of West Africa. The importance of domestic plantation slavery increased during the 19th century, due to the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Many African states dependent on the international slave trade reoriented their economies towards legitimate commerce worked by slave labour. It is probably an understatement to assert that Africa, the world’s second largest continent, is underdeveloped compared with other continents. Two major exogenous factors often cited for Africa’s development crisis are the so called ‘dual historical injustices’ – the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. It is often pointed out that while the former almost completely arrested and retarded Africa’s demographical growth for more than three centuries, evoked a perennial state of acrimony and warfare and created a tense and unprecedented atmosphere of insecurity which hindered economic activities and stifled local entrepreneurship and technological drive and dislocated Africa’s socio-economic and political structures and institutions; the latter tied African countries to the apron strings of western imperial powers thereby rendering the pre-conditions necessary for socio-economic and political transformation unachievable.
Slave trade
Slavery, though abundantly practiced in Africa itself and widespread in the ancient Mediterranean world, had nearly died out in medieval Europe. It was revived by the Portuguese in Prince Henry’s time, beginning with the enslavement of Berbers in 1442. Portugal populated Cape Verde, Fernando Po (now Bioko), and São Tomé largely with Black slaves and took many to the home country, especially to the regions south of the Tagus River. New World Black slavery began in 1502, when Gov. Nicolás de Ovando of Hispaniola imported a few evidently Spanish-born Blacks from Spain. Rapid decimation of the Indian population of the Spanish West Indies created a labour shortage, ultimately remedied from Africa. The great reformer, Las Casas, advocated importation of Blacks to replace the vanishing Indians, and he lived to regret having done so. The population of the Greater Antilles became largely Black and mulatto; on the mainland, at least in the more populated parts, the Indians, supplemented by a growing mestizo caste that clung more tenaciously to life and seemed more suited to labour, kept African slavery somewhat confined to limited areas. The Portuguese at first practiced Indian slavery in Brazil and continued to employ it partially until 1755. It was gradually replaced by the African variety, beginning prominently in the 17th century and coinciding with the rapid rise of Brazilian sugar culture. The Royal African Company continued slaving until 1731, when it abandoned slaving in favour of traffic in ivory and gold dust. A new slaving company, the Merchants Trading to Africa (founded 1750), had directors in London, Liverpool, and Bristol, with Bristol furnishing the largest quota of ships, estimated at 237 in 1755. Jamaica offered the greatest single market for slaves and is believed to have received 610,000 between 1700 and 1786. The slave trade still flourished in 1763, when about 150 ships sailed yearly from British ports to Africa with capacity for nearly 40,000 slaves. Those opposing the slave trade often objected on other than humanitarian grounds. Some colonials feared any further growth of the Black percentage of the population. Others, who justified English slave sales to the Spanish colonies because payment was in cash, condemned the same traffic with French islanders, who paid in molasses and thus competed with nearby English sugar planters.
Forms of slavery
Multiple forms of slavery and servitude have existed throughout African history, and were shaped by indigenous practices of slavery as well as the Roman institution of slavery (and the later Christian views on slavery), the Islamic institutions of slavery via the Muslim slave trade, and eventually the Atlantic slave trade. Slavery was a part of the economic structure of African societies for many centuries, although the extent varied. Ibn Battuta, who visited the ancient kingdom of Mali in the mid-14th century, recounts that the local inhabitants vied with each other in the number of slaves and servants they had, and was himself given a slave boy as a “hospitality gift.” In sub-Saharan Africa, the slave relationships were often complex, with rights and freedoms given to individuals held in slavery and restrictions on sale and treatment by their masters. Many communities had hierarchies between different types of slaves: for example, differentiating between those who had been born into slavery and those who had been captured through war. The forms of slavery in Africa were closely related to kinship structures. In many African communities, where land could not be owned, enslavement of individuals was used as a means to increase the influence a person had and expand connections. This made slaves a permanent part of a master’s lineage, and the children of slaves could become closely connected with the larger family ties. The following are also forms of slavery:
- Chattel slavery
- Domestic service
- Pawnship
- Military slavery
- Slaves for sacrifice
- Local slave trade
Slavery practices throughout Africa
Like most other regions of the world, slavery and forced labour existed in many kingdoms and societies of Africa for hundreds of years the best evidence of slave practices in Africa come from the major kingdoms, particularly along the coast, and there is little evidence of widespread slavery practices in stateless societies. Slave trading was mostly secondary to other trade relationships; however, there is evidence of a trans-Saharan slave trade route from Roman times which persisted in the area after the fall of the Roman Empire. However, kinship structures and rights provided to slaves (except those captured in war) appears to have limited the scope of slave trading before the start of the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and the Atlantic slave trade.
The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism on Africa.
African shores and c.1870, the African continent experienced four slave trades the most extensive and celebrated being the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through which slaves were shipped from West Africa, West Central Africa and Eastern Africa to the European colonies in the New World.18 One profound impact of the slave trade on Africa is depopulation. Although, while the general destructiveness of the slave trade on Africa’s socioeconomic and political structures and institutions remains clear, the question of the number of Africans transported across the Atlantic remains a subject of speculation and debate with estimates ranging from a few millions to over a hundred million.19 Paul Lovejoy estimates that about 11,863,000. Africans landed alive in the Americas and elsewhere during the slave trade.20 This was in addition to the several millions who died in the ‘Middle Passage’21 as well as those who died between the time of capture and embarkation most especially in cases where slaves had to travel hundreds of miles to the coast. For every 100 slaves who reached the New World, another 40 had probably died in Africa or during the infamous Middle Passage. As Rodney has pointed out, particular reference must be made to the manner and circumstances in which slaves were obtained for sale and shipment. Evidently, the principal means of obtaining slaves was warfare. he other three were the Trans-Saharan, the Red Sea and Indian Ocean slave trades which removed more than 6 million Africans from their homelands. or more than three centuries, the Atlantic slave trade evoked a perennial state of acrimony and created a tense and unprecedented atmosphere of insecurity which hindered economic activities and stifled local entrepreneurship and technological drive which in turn distorted Africa’s socio-economic structures and dislocated her political institutions. Development as the capacity for self-sustaining growth is a many-sided process which is achievable only when other variables – for example a tranquil atmosphere – are present. By 1935, colonialism had been fastened on Africa like a steel grid. As has been pointed out already, this paper does not intend to attempt a detailed analysis of the origins and course of either the Atlantic slave trade or colonialism. Since there are dozens of specialized and excellent studies on the phases, course and consequences of western European colonial ventures in Africa,34 all that is attempted here is a brief and general outline of the impact of colonialism on Africa. colonialism often assert that overseas possessions were burdensome to the metropoles and that the latter made huge financial investments which, to a very large extent, stabilised and vitalised African economy but which, on the whole, did not yield commensurate economic dividends for the metropolitan economies. It should be pointed out that the colonisers could not exploit the resources and wealth of the colonies at no cost at all. Thus, in some cases, the extraction of the resources of the colonies entailed some measure of superficial investment in infrastructure particularly railways, roads, water resources, electrical power and administrative structures. Consequently, the infrastructures provided were neither adequate nor targeted at the overall development of the African economy since they were ‘accidental discharges and not products of deliberate, coordinated and conscious planning. This is not surprising given the purpose and nature of colonialism/imperialism whose primary purpose was the subjugation, domination, oppression and exploitation of other people.
CONCLUTION
Historians will long debate the heritage of economic development, mass bitterness, and cultural cleavage that colonialism has left to the world, but the political problems of decolonization are grave and immediate. The international community is laden with minute states unable to secure either sovereignty or solvency and with large states erected without a common ethnic base. The world’s postcolonial areas often have been scenes of protracted and violent conflicts: ethnic, as in Nigeria’s Biafran war (1967–70); national-religious, as in the Arab-Israeli conflicts, the civil wars in Cyprus, and the clashes between India and Pakistan; or purely political, as in the confrontation between Communist and Nationalist regimes in the divided Korean Peninsula. The end of colonialism did not bring with it the spread of new, neatly divided nation-states throughout the world, nor did it abate or ease rivalry between the great powers.