Pre colonial slave trade Slave Trade.pptx

this document gives a description about slave trade in the African continent

1. DVS 1203 POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AFRICA AND DEVELOPMENT TOPIC: SLAVE TRADE AND ITS IMPACT ON AFRICA Readings: 1) Walter Rodney (1972), How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, London, Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications

2. Readings Cont’d 2)M’BAYE Babacar (2006), ‘The Economic, Political, and Social Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa’, The European Legacy , Vol. 11, No. 6, pp. 607–622. 3)Klein Martin A (1990), ‘The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on the Societies of the Western Sudan’, Social Science History , Vol. 14, No. 2 (Summer), pp. 231-253.

3. THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE Slavery existed in Africa long before Europeans arrived, but we could refer to it as unfree labor. It was not intensive as it was in Europe. Rulers in Mali and Songhai in West Africa for instance had a number of slaves who worked as servants, soldiers, and farm workers. Villages raided one another to take captives and sell them. Often, a slave could work to earn his or her freedom.

4. THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE Starting from the arrival of Portuguese ships on west African shores in 1444, the Europeans set up an elaborate triangular trading system to transport enslaved Africans, import plantation produce, and export European goods to both Africa and the Americas. This type of trade devastated African life and society

5. THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE They raided towns to capture unwilling Africans. Some Africans captured in wars were sold to European traders by other Africans. One estimate is that 10 to 12 million Africans were forced into slavery and sent to European colonies in North and South America from 1520 to 1860. Many more were captured but died of disease or starvation before arriving.

6. THE TRANS ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE About 1750, movements to stop the slave trade had begun. By 1808, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Denmark had made it illegal to bring in slaves from Africa. However, it would take longer for countries to make owning a slave illegal.

7. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA The arrival of Europeans on the West African Coast and their establishment of slave ports in various parts of the continent triggered a continuous process of exploitation of Africa’s human resources, labor, and commodities. Yet Europeans benefited from the Atlantic trade the most, since the commerce allowed them to amass the raw materials that fed their Industrial Revolution.

8. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA This was at the expense of African societies whose peace and capacity to transform their modes of production into a viable entrepreneurial economy was severely halted. The Atlantic trade affected the lives of millions of Africans who came from such diverse regions such as the present Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, West-Central Africa, Benin, Ghana and Nigeria.

9. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA The trade arrested Africa’s development by exploiting its technological, agricultural, and cultural skills for the development of the West only. The consequences of slave trade on agricultural activities in West, East and Central Africa were negative.

10. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA Labor was drawn off from agriculture and conditions became unsettled. For example Dahomey, which in the 16 th century, was known for exporting food to parts of what is now Togo, was suffering from famine in the 19 th century. This was true of other areas in West, East and Central Africa.

11. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA It hampered Africa’s mercantilist economy by halting its capacity to be transformed. As Walter Rodney has shown, the trade affected Africa’s economy by bringing about a loss of industry, skills, technological invention and production of Africans. Africans were taken to work for Americas and Europe instead of developing their continent.

12. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA Moreover, it started the systemic and continuous process of economic exploitation and social and political fragmentation that Europeans later institutionalized through colonization and neo-colonization. Slave trade weakened African societies as able bodied men and women were taken out as slaves. Africans were later to be defeated in their resistance against colonialists having lost the people that would have defended Africa.

13. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA Furthermore, the Atlantic trade led to the formation of semi-feudal classes in Africa that collaborated with Europeans to sanction the oppression of their own people. These classes came from the African aristocracy and middlemen who facilitated the capture and sale of Africans and made substantial gains from the trade.

14. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA In addition to the Africans captured and sold, many were killed during raids. About two-thirds of those taken were men between the ages of 18 and 30. Slave traders chose young, strong, healthy people, leaving few behind to lead families and villages. African cities and towns did not have enough workers. Family structures were destroyed.

15. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA It should also be noted that Africa had trading systems which had developed over hundreds of years – well before Europeans ever arrived on their shores. Europeans destroyed these systems in large areas of Africa when they developed the trade in enslaved Africans. Local systems were badly affected and overwhelmed by the demands of the new trade in enslaved Africans.

16. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA Slave trading undermined the ‘Gold Coast’ economy of West Africa. It destroyed the gold trade which had flourished in African kingdoms (Western Sudanic States). Slave raiding and kidnapping made it unsafe to mine the land or to travel with gold. Also the Europeans’ demand for slaves made raiding for captives more profitable than gold mining.

17. IMPACT OF SLAVE TRADE ON AFRICA The transatlantic slave trade encouraged Africans to wage war against one another and conduct raids, instead of building more peaceful links. This promoted rivalries, conflicts and violence between the raiders (those who raided African societies for slaves) and the victims (those that were captured and sold as slaves). African societies turned into “Man eat Man” societies.