Slavery In Africa

Throughout history, Africa has been a vulnerable player in the eyes of the rest of the world. From the slave trade to various civil right injustices that have taken place over in every century, from what we have studied in this class, we have been able to see the lasting impact on the continent as a ramification of certain events occurring. Using various sources from the text, which serve as evidence, and help prove how the western world exercised its power in order to capitalize on the African continent and exploit the African people and land.

Before the Western world had an influence on them, Africa, like the other continents had stable systems that differed, but resembled other civilizations around the world. Ibn, Battuta, Visit from Mombasa

It was the essence of removing people from their homelands, and taking them across oceans to “work” and live in “better” conditions than their current state. However, it is vital to note that slavery existed in Africa long before Europeans arrived. Although in the 1400s, Europeans introduced a form of slavery that shook the African life and society. The slaves had no way of buying their freedom, families were separated, and the Europeans did not enslave the natives in their homeland, where they could still preserve their culture and identity, but were instead transported to the Western World. To advance this argument, we will be looking at Nzinga Mbemba, Letters to the King of Portugal (1526). Slavery greatly expanded its grip on many African societies, and in many cases, dismantled the social and political order. Kongo was under the rule of Nzinga Mbemba when he realized how detrimental the situation was to his nation, he began to voice his sentiment with the pursuit of the slaves in his

The choice of words immensely resonates with his audience, leaving a bad aftertaste. His piece was titled “The Black Man’s Burden”, with the intention of, what seems to be, educating the rest of the western world about what their greed and thirst for Africa had led to. Calling his own people invaders, speaks to the point of how now that the slave trade had failed, by which they had to find an alternative way to assert their dominance in the region. Morel also speaks to this by stating, “what even the oversea slave trade failed to do, the power of modern capitalist exploitation, assisted by modern engines of destruction, may yet succeed in accomplishing.” The use of the word “modern”, speaks about the new ways in which the Western powers were exercising, in able to continue being present, ways in which the slave trade failed to do so. Morel argues against colonialism, and European presence in Africa, through which his arguments create a viewpoint of his distaste in his nations involvement in the continent, and how they are entering without invitation, upsetting the dynamics of a country, rather than contributing to its success and growth, therefore making it worse off. “It attacks Africa from... destroyed his natural pursuits and