European commerce in West Africa took place, therefore, most often on ships anchored well away from shore and dependent on skilled African canoe-men whose ability to negotiate across the hazardous stretch of water between the mainland and the waiting ships made the Atlantic trade possible.

Even in places where Europeans were able to conduct trade on the mainland, their presence was limited by an epidemiological situation that impeded their livelihood and threatened their lives. Malaria, dysentery, yellow fever, and other diseases reduced the few Europeans living and trading along the West African coast to a chronic state of ill health and earned Africa the name "white man's grave." In this environment, European merchants were rarely in a position to call the shots.

Furthermore, when Europeans first initiated a trading relationship with West Africans in the mid-15th century they encountered well-established and highly-developed political organizations and competitive regional commercial networks. Europeans relied heavily on the African rulers and mercantile classes at whose mercy, more often than not, they gained access to the commodities they desired. European military technology was not effective enough to allow them this access by means of force on a consistent basis until the 19th century. Therefore it was most often Africans, especially those elite coastal rulers and merchants who controlled the means of coastal and river navigation, under whose authority and to whose advantage the Atlantic trade was conducted.

Domestic slave ownership as well as domestic and international slave trades in western Africa preceded the late 15th-century origins of the Atlantic slave trade. Since most West African societies did not recognize private property in land, slaves functioned as one of the only profitable means of production individuals could own. West Africans, therefore, acquired and expressed wealth in terms of dependent people, whether as kin, clients, or slaves. Moreover, caravan routes had long linked sub-Saharan African peoples with North Africa and the wider Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. Not only was slavery an established institution in West Africa before European traders arrived, but Africans were also involved in a trans-Saharan trade in slaves along these routes. African rulers and merchants were thus able to tap into preexisting methods and networks of enslavement to supply European demand for slaves. Enslavement was most often a byproduct of local warfare, kidnapping, or the manipulation of religious and judicial institutions. Military, political, and religious authority within West Africa determined who controlled access to the Atlantic slave trade. And some African elites, such as those in the Dahomey and Ashanti empires, took advantage of this control and used it to their profit by enslaving and selling other Africans to European traders.

It is important to distinguish between European slavery and African slavery. In most cases, slavery systems in Africa were more like indentured servitude in that the slaves retained some rights and children born to slaves were generally born free. The slaves could be released from servitude and join a family clan. In contrast, European slaves were chattel, or property, who were stripped of their rights. The cycle of slavery was perpetual; children of slaves would, by default, also be slaves.

Although the historical reality is sometimes difficult to accept by African Americans who still face racial discrimination over a century after the abolition of slavery, African complicity in the slave trade neither justifies today's social problems nor minimizes their seriousness. Fifteenth-century Africa, was not a homogenous group of people. Some African elites benefited from the enslavement of their rivals, their enemies, their poor, and other
* culturally foreign groups from the 15th century through the 18th and even into the 19th centuries. Class, language, religion, gender, and ETHNICITY divided Africans,
and it was along these lines that certain Africans participated in the slave trade. Understanding the dynamics of African complicity in the slave trade is important in understanding Africans as historically active and diverse human beings. This understanding should not detract from the horrors of the slave trade or from its American legacy of inequality and racism.

By Zayde Antrim

||  SLAVE KINGDOMS EPISODE  ||

* This is without a doubt the greatest episode of racist ethnic cleansing in human history, far greater than anything perpetrated by White people.

But only white people ever get called racist .. WHY ? ... Find out here Click

Sean Bryson

See ...

Black Anger By Sean Bryson

Joseph Cinque, the Amistad Hero, was himself a slave trader, selling his fellow blacks into this horror after he himself was set free by a US court

Copied below is a posting called "Black Anger" that I made some time ago on a Yahoo group.

On many occasions I have heard angry and resentful Black people make reference to the slave trade. Much of Black anger and resentment in this country towards white people, stems from the taught indoctrination regarding the slave trade.

Much of the PC indoctrination to make white people feel guilty, and under some sort of obligation towards black people, ( and minority groups generally ) stems from the same sort of indoctrination.

Perhaps black people could benefit from the knowledge that during the slave trade days it was always the Black African who held all of the ACE cards, not us whites ! We did not have the manpower on our sailing ships to undertake the wholesale capture of thousands of warriors. Whites did not enslave most of the slaves that were taken from Africa, they had already been enslaved and made ready for sale by Black African slave traders.

They would be sold to any buyer, not just White Europeans.

In those days the more wealthy of the Black African slave traders used to send their children ( Sons only ! ) to be educated in European schools, who would then return home to run the family business, the slave trade.

This practice went on for the entire duration of the European involvement with Black African slave traders.

These pupils would introduce themselves as the sons of African Chiefs, or Kings. The truth is that they were the sons of Black African slave traders. It was the White European who ultimately used his power to outlaw this trade, which was overwhelmingly enforced, by the British Navy of the day.

Despite this, Black African slave traders continued their RACIST ethnic cleansing, for many many years afterwards. The savagery of the Black African slave trader to his fellow African surpassed anything meted out by the White slavers. The wholesale castration of all captured males with a stone knife against a rock, before being marched to the coast to be sold, caused massive loss of life. This is just one of the many barbarities of the time.

Africa still suffers with appalling Black on Black, inter tribal racism today !!

I suppose that all things are relative to the times that we live in. But in the days of the slave trade because of the Black on Black brutality in Africa, many people thought that being a slave to a White man was the lesser of two evils. This was one of the main arguments against the abolition of slavery many years ago. That the abolition of Slavery in the White world, would condemn many Black African slaves to a far worse fate.

Even today, it is Far - Far - better, to be a member of a minority group in a White country, than anywhere else on this planet !!

It would not be wrong to suggest that a lot of the negative attitudes that White people have / had towards Black people, stems from the days of the slave trade.

And without a doubt a lot of the Black anger and resentment towards White people stems from the falsehoods being taught about the slave trade.

To perpetuate this inaccuracy regarding the slave trade, is nothing less than the deliberate attempt to demonize the White race, and cultivate Black anger against White people.
What's going on ?

And only White people ever get called Racist !!
WHY ? Find out here ... Click!

Sean Bryson