Impact of slave trade in Africa

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Impact of slave trade in Africa

From around the mid of 15th century, the Africa continent formed a distinctive relationship with Europeans that led to the devastation and depopulation of Africa, at the same time crating wealth in the European countries. From that time the European started establishment of a trade for African detainees. The trafficking supplemented a trade in the people that were already existing in Europe, for which the European had enslaved one another. Some other Europeans enslaved the people from Africa who had arrived in Europe, the Middle East and some other parts of the world before the middle of 15th century, which resulted from the trade in human beings that had also long existed in Africa.

Transatlantic slave trade was the main human enslavement which started up in the 15th centiury when the European kingdoms became capable of expanding seas and enter into Africa. There were other forms of slave trade that also took place of the time alongside transatlantic which included, trans-Saharan, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean slave trades. The Portuguese and other European kingdoms first began to kidnap Africans from the coastal region of Western Africa and transport them back to Europe. By early 16th century, most of the European laborers were the enslaved Africans. The slave trade continue for quite a longer time to 19th century. During this period, the trade shaped Africa’s history greatly in terms of, political, economic and social structures as seen in this essay.

Political impact was one of the major effect of slave trade to Africa. The Europeans introduced firearms as one of the most important technological innovation to West Africa. Those who were in power became anxious to trade with the Europeans majorly for acquisition of these firearms. These African leaders gave out captives for exchange with guns. The kings competed with themselves and therefore the acquisition of the firearms resulted in their rivals. This caused increase in capturing and selling of African people by the leaders and encouraged them to support the continuation of slavery. The acquisition of the firearms from Europeans changed conduct of warfare in African countries and as a result this led to change in the balance of power between different kingdoms. During this period of time, the only states which possessed guns could resist the attacks from their neighbor. This in turn encouraged numerous attacks in which the rulers attacked their neighbours.

Introduction of firearms also led to increased war and raiding. Warfare became more interesting for the ones who usually benefited from it. This created detainees, and therefore the prospective slaves could benefit from the war. The war was not only made for fighting for captives and in turn also led to increase in desire to go for the war.

As the demand for slaves increased, there was destabilization of the kingdoms that were there before. The governance existed on the basis on kinship and consent and were in turn destroyed in these periods of slave trade. The new kingdoms came in with the raiding for slaves becoming the way of life for the elites who possessed guns. The increased raiding made it hard for the people to distinguish between the insiders from foreigners and this thus resulted in churning up of the cultural boundaries.

Economic impact of slave trade was another big issue in Africa. The trade negatively affected the economic development in Africa. Most of the people captured were the young men and women in their youth leaving behind the aged, the people with disabilities, in other words the dependent individuals who could not be able to contribute to the economic growth because of their social status. This in turn resulted in stunted economic growth in Africa as the Europeans nurtured their economy using the African labor.

The economy of various countries in Africa became tied to politics. There arose conflicts within countries, including civil wars which eventually resulted to the blurring of the lines to reach to the end goal of improving their wealth they were struggling for. Instead of just selling native born of their countries to the Portuguese and other Europeans, some nations would simply enslave their rival citizens to sell to the Europeans. The decision of the people to sell citizens from their countries would have been looked down upon by some leaders in the same country who struggled and fought for the people and opposed the slavery. These leaders meant good for their countries since they wanted the people to work for their countries rather than just being sold to go and better the economy of the Europeans by working in their plantations.

Studies have been done and statics from various regions in Africa indicates the parts from which huge numbers of slaves were taken originally were underdeveloped. This is evidence that slave trade took place in Africa. It is believed that the areas where exportation of slaves occurred, they are still poorly developed even up to date. The underdevelopment in these area where most slaves were taken from, is clearly indicated by the poor urban centers and absence of industries. Scholars have stated that the underdevelopment in these areas was mainly constituted by the fact that the Europeans were mostly interested with the young men and women who would have otherwise contributed to the economic development in African. The aged and disabled who were lefty behind were not able to work in the farms to produce raw materials which would have otherwise contributed to development of industries. The industries also needed casual workers and were not available since the youths or the independent group would have provided such labor and they were the ones enslaved by the Europeans.

Another study conducted by Rodney indicated that the African societies were thwarted in the process of capital expansion, through the loss of potential labor in slave trade. The range of exports from Africa constricted down to just a few goods destabilizing the level of growth of dynamic capability in Africa itself from the foundation in slavery (Rodney, 2016). These trade relations led to stagnation of technological development in Africa, creating a barrier to innovation, even in the regions where the slave trade indirectly engaged due to distortion influence on relations overall.

Social structure was another sector greatly affected by the slave trade. Many of the African countries were depopulated, taking their families out and sell the in the slave trade as a result of introduction of weapons. The citizens would use the armed weapons to force their citizen who were of low dignity to go out and work as slaves for the Europeans. This resulted in decline in population of Africa in the countries where most of the citizens were detained to European countries as slaves ( William, 2015). The wars that came along with the slave trade also led to demographic change because of the mass killing of Africans by the communities that acquired firearms and stated attacking their neighbor, intending to sell them as slaves.

Transatlantic slave trade also influenced the cultural activities in African communities, some of which were perceived as a way of resisting from oppression while others were interpreted as survival of a native culture in the new society where the Africans were enslaved. The Europeans introduced their music and dance and other social practices, after which the African communities adapted them and became part of their social practices. Some of these culture borrowed from Europeans included, songs and spirituals which had call and response pattern.

The slave trade did not only change the history of African but also brought long term effects to the Africans. These effects includes weakening of the main Kingdoms of Africa which thereafter made it easy for the Europeans to come in and colonize the continent. This thus brought more poverty to the continent because during the colonization, the Europeans took resources, raw materials for their industries from Africa. This gives the main explanation as to why the African continent lags behind in terms of development as compare to the Europe.

The Africans came to a point and decided to resist from the slave trade. When captured and forced onto ships, the Africans resisted by forming hunger strikes, forming rebellions, and or even obligating suicide by jumping overboard instead of living in slavery. The rebellions were highly costing to the European traders and they were forced to avoid places with such rebellions. These strategies became effective and therefore most of the African communities adopted it. At long last, fewer Africans could be enslaved as compared to before.

Even though it became hard for the Europeans to enter into African content and enslave the citizens due to the resistance strategies, they adopted new measures to acquire slaves. They used the rulers to capture the slaves and take them to the coastal regions where they could get them from. The British governance later stepped and helped in bringing the slave trade to an end. It passed ‘Slavery Abolition Act 1833’ that targeted to end the slave trade. The British ships were not allowed to transport slaves anymore. Even though the British governance was forced to stop the slave trade by the massive loss of lives as well as property in the rebellions by Africans.

In conclusion, the African continent have been greatly impacted by the slave trade from the Europeans. Africans history have greatly been changed the slavery period from 15th century to 19th century. It has been greatly affected in its political, economic and social structures. The roots of the challenges facing Africa are from the social, economic and political disruptions that was brought as a result of slave trade and European colorizations. Africa have a big challenge in improving the status of its economy since they inherited constitution from the Europeans and do not indicate the structural realisms of their society.

References

Walter Rodney, “Slavery and Other Forms of Social Oppression on the Upper Guinea Coast in the Context of the Atlantic Slave Trade.” J.D. Fage, “Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History.” John Thornton, “Sexual Demography: The Impact of the Slave Trade on the Family Structure.” Martin Klein, “The Slave Trade and Decentralized Societies.” Joseph Inikori, “The Economic Impact of the 1807 British Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.” David Robinson, “Revolutions in the Western Sudan.” I.A. Akinjogbin, “The Expansion of Oyo and the Rise of Dahomey, 1600-1800.”

Leo Africanus, “The Western Sudan in the Sixteenth Century. 1526.” Tuan Ch’eng Shin, “China’s Discovery of Africa, 863.” (minimally) Duarte Barbosa, “The East Coast of Africa at the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century, 1516.” (minimally) William Bosman, “Justice and Warfare at Axim.” Thomas Bluett, “Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, the Son of Solomon, the High Priest of Boonda in Africa; Who was a Slave About Two Years in Maryland; and Afterwards Being Brought to England, was Set Free, and Sent to His Native Land in the Year 1734,” available online at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bluett/bluett.html Omar ibn Said, “The Autobiography of Omar ibn Said,” available online at: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text3/ religionomaribnsaid.pdf William Snelgrave, “The Slaves Mutiny, 1730.” John Barbot, “Benin, 1680.” Andrew Sparman, “The Boers, 1776.”

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