MC_A Concise History of Africa

West Africa

The European slavers were unable to capture the Africans themselves, having no desire to venture inland. Europeans rarely entered Africa’s interior, due to fear of disease and fierce African resistance. They could not afford to make enemies of their suppliers, so they confined themselves to visiting marketplaces, examining prospective slaves and shipping them out. Most of the slaves were adult males, as Africans tended to retain their females, in that they were

useful for domestic and agricultural work and childbearing, while children were not economical, the cost of shipping them being the same as for an adult, while the prices that could be commanded for them were substantially less. The Atlantic crossing took 25 to 60 days, depending on the wind and where the boat was headed, and about 16 percent of slaves died in transit. The trade in slaves peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were

captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa. These forays were typically made by coastal African states against weaker African tribes and peoples. These mass slavers included the Oyo empire (Yoruba), the Kong empire, the kingdoms of Benin, Dahomey, Fouta Djallon, Fouta Tooro, Koya, Khasso, Kaabu, and the Fante and Ashanti confederacies. During the 1790s, the Abolitionist movement gathered strength in England and later in America, with calls for the ending of slavery and the repatriation of slaves to Africa. The Parliamentary campaign against the slave trade was led by William Wilberforce, who expressed his feelings with clarity and forcefulness: “Never, never will we desist, until we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labor, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonor to this country.” The British abolished the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, although it remained legal to own a slave. To some West African states, LEFT: William Wilberforce (1759-1833). Engraved by E. Scriven. OPPOSITE: Although founded by freed American and Caribbean slaves, Liberia is mostly inhabited by indigenous Africans, with slaves’ descendants comprising 4 percent of the population.

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