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

and Kila, Rhila (c. 1358), is evidence of this. The source is an account by Ibn Battuta, a scholar from Morocco, and is of his visit to the Swahili coast of Mombasa and to Kilwa, a city in modern-day Tanzania. It is here we see the initial state of some of the nation-states in Africa, Battuta described “the city of Kulwa is amongst the most beautiful of cities, and most elegantly built” (57). The description of a beautiful land, in which can be argued the author romanticized quite a bit, but as an explorer, he was taken in by the beauty, and nature of the place. The author then went on to describe the people, stating how, “they are a religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built.” (57) Calling them trustworthy and righteous, are extremely thoughtful words, considering he was not part of the civilization and was just an outsider, which spoke to their benefit. Along with saying things were expertly built, provides his audience with more reasoning of their capability, to perform, and a civilization able to function on their own.

Looking at these descriptions, and how Battuta described these civilizations on his journey, it is evident that they were a functioning society, and similar to other societies in the world at the time. Of course, in every different civilization there are flaws, and areas to criticize that we would today, however, from the source given, we see that Africa too had a system in place, a system of hierarchies put it. So why start the transatlantic slave trade?

The Transatlantic slave trade created a path for the existence of the Western World within Africa.

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

country.

“Your Highness should know how our Kingdom is being lost in so many ways” (89)
Nzinga argument begins with “our Kingdom is being lost in so many ways”; he explained to the King of Portugal, for who this letter was addressed to, that the continuous presence of the Portuguese in his land, who took away natives and sold them, continued to devastate his kingdom. The use of the word lost here is significant as it emphasized what damage was being done to the land, as a result of the slave trade.
“We cannot reckon how great the damage is, since the mentioned merchants are taking every day our natives, sons of the land…they grab them and get them to be sold; and so great, Sir, is the corruption and licentiousness that our country is being completely depopulated…” (89) Nzinga goes on to describe the system of the slave trade as an aggressive one, by saying they “grab them”, the use of this word further emphasizes how the slave trade disrupted the system already in place. Furthermore when Nzinga mentions how the country was being “depopulated”, the loss of people meant the loss of cultures and the inability to progress. The Kingdom was weakened, and they had become unable to effectively resist the turmoil they faced.

“It is our will that in these Kingdoms there should not be any trade of slaves nor outlet for them.” (90) Nzinga kept using the word “our” throughout the source, making it known to the King of Portugal that it was not only Kongo’s problem but theirs too. He appealed to the Kings emotions, emphasizing that his people were not objects that could be removed, and taken without any aftermath following. Through this source we see the fight not only to resist the slave trade, but also to resist European influence and control, the fight for autonomy in ones own country.

The slave trade continued on for many years after this source was written, and came to an end in Europe in 1815.Yet, the end of the slave trade did not mean the end of European influence within Africa, nor the end of the exploitation of the African people in their own lands, and abroad. When Europeans ended the slave trade, they did not lose interest in Africa, additionally the transatlantic slave trade left behind a legacy of racism and other forms of Eurocentrism. Whether part of the African diaspora, or on the African continent itself, Africans found themselves subjects of racial discrimination and prejudice, which took a variety of forms, legislations, and “norms”. With this came the birth of colonization, and discriminatory laws against Africans within Africa, and on other continents. The use of legislation was implemented in order to discriminate against them, thus hindering them from having the ability to govern and develop on their own lands, and use their own resources.

Edmund D. Morel, a British clerk at the time of colonization, who worked for a shipping company that traded goods with Africa, noticed this. In looking at an excerpt from his piece, The Black Man’s Burden (1920), we see a very interesting argument presented by a white man himself, on the exploitation that his people, the British, caused to Africa.

“Africa has ultimately absorbed within itself every Caucasian and, for that matter, every Semitic invader too.” (233) It is interesting to see how Morel refers to the British colonialists and other white settlers in African countries as invaders.

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

occupations, claims his whole tome, enslaves him in his own home”(233-34), Morel’s argument is that the damage that Europeans are inflicting on Africans is permanent. By enslaving people in their own homes, made them defenseless against the oppressive powers that had come to their homelands and took control. The Africans are “really helpless against the material gods of the white man”, the “material gods” Morel is pointing out, have to do with the technologies, military arms, and all the innovations and advancements the whites had, which they could use over Africans, who had not developed that far, and by forcing their way into the nation and taking charge, made Africans tremendously vulnerable to colonialism. This is one of the biggest strategies the Europeans had, due to their technology and their advanced systems that Africans at first depended on them for help, but soon after became powerless, and defenseless against them. Through Morels source we understand what “The Black Mans Burden” truly is, it is how the African subjected themselves and endured the cruel treatment of the white man towards them on their own soil and land, thus making them “inferior” compared to those, whose home it was not in the first place. This implemented systems of oppression and severe racism, resulting in a lasting impact well into the 20th century.

The system of Apartheid in South Africa is said to be the most infamous form of racial systems. Which brings us to our final source, Nelson Mandela Rivonia trial,

He begins off by recounting the stories and tales he was told by the elders of his village (355), about how they fought for their homelands, and how he wished to do the same. Mandela starts off appealing to the white authorities by calling it the “fatherland” that the lands belong equally to the blacks, as much as it belongs to the whites. By titling it the fatherland, he asserts that the land that belongs to them, this is furthered argued when he states, “the land, the main means of production, belonged to the tribe”. This correlates to the early source looked at, Ibn Battuta, by which how African nations, have always been home to the natives, it has always been their land, it was just infiltrated by the Europeans, and seized.

“The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of White supremacy. White supremacy implies Black inferiority.” This idea of white supremacy is the aftermath of colonization, and the European ancestry whites trying to preserve and protect their dominance and presence in the African nations, which led to social, political, and economic hierarchy. This resulted in the birth of discriminatory behavior, and above all as what Mandela sees as worse, the discriminatory laws that kept Africans suppressed by legislation, and this is what they wanted to end.

“Above all, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent.” (359) It is clear that Mandela is arguing for a unified nation, not wanting to take over from the Whites, by doing to them what they did to the Africans. We see Mandela’s plea for racial harmony, the desire to create a non-racial state. The fear of the perpetual state of poverty, and discrimination towards Africans is what we can see Mandela fighting against, this same permanent state, we saw being emphasized in Morel’s source. Mandela is also dedicated to breaking this cycle through non-violent means, and by using Gandhi (357) as an example of inspiration, we start to better understand more what Mandela wanted out of the Pan-Africanism movement, which was to unify and revive the African people.