"Let's face it -- think of Africa, and the first images that come to mind are of war, poverty, famine

and flies.

--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Wonders of the African World

How many of us really know anything at all about the truly great ancient African civilizations, which in their day, were just as splendid and glorious as any on the face of the earth?
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Wonders of the African World

Glorious of Africa

Africa, the birth place of humanity. Oldest human existence. Discovery of fossil remains 6-7 millions years old in Chad. Trade, Cultures and Civilisations in Africa Africa great civilisations-Ancient Egypt, which was developed over 5000 years ago.

Glorious of Africa

One of the first monarchies-Ta Seti was founded in Nubia in what is today the Sudan. Egypt of the pharaohs known for great monuments such as pyramid. Great advance in other field like paper, written script, calendar, mathematics, geometry and algebra.

Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture

Ceremony and Military Parade

"Public reception of the king's women"; "amazons" and other troops with guns parading in front of the king and his European visitors

Clothing Style, Wolof Man, Peule Man, Wolof Queen , 1850s

Types of Litters, Kingdom of Kongo, late 17th cent.

Shows slaves carrying wealthier Congolese in two types of litters. "When they want to take a trip they are carried in litters by their slaves

King of Benin with Soldiers, late 17th cent.

"He is a powerful prince, the King of Benin. In one day he can assemble 20,000 soldiers, and in a short time raise an army of 80 to 100,000 men; he is also the terror of his neighbors and the fear of their peoples"

Weapons, Musical Instruments

http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/sear ch.html

Why African slaves?

The idea of using black people from subSaharan Africa as slaves initially came from the existing Arabian and Persian slave trade along East Africa which Portuguese sailors came into contact with in the 15th century.

Why African slaves?

The Europeans had also noted the West African practice of enslaving prisoners of war (a common phenomenon among many peoples on all of the continents). They soon started bartering these captive slaves with their black slave owners for guns, brandy and other goods, that were only produced outside of Africa

Why African slaves?

This gave rise to an increasing demand for black tribes to continue capturing ever more Africans for the purpose of selling them into slavery to white Europeans. The African slaves were more resistant to European diseases than the Indians and a regular trade was soon established

Negotiating with African powers

Negotiating with African powers

The king of Portugal sent ambassadors to negotiate government-to-government commercial treaties with African countries the Kongo, as is shown in this image. Small groups of Portuguese merchants and political agents established themselves in African ports.

Negotiating with African powers

They often married locally and became middlemen with the commercial expertise and language skills needed to connect Portuguese trade with preexisting commerce in Africa, including the slave trade

Becoming a Slave

Slavery existed in African societies long before European contact and trade. 3 ways one become a slave in Africa:

Becoming a Slave

Pawnship (selling one by another or pawning oneself off in order to settle a debt)
Judicial process (if a crime had been committed, sold by kin) Captured in a war

Africa in the 18 century

Africa incorporated in world trading system in 18th century When Europe wanted to start trading for slaves, nature of the West Africa changed. By beginning of 18th century, slaves become primary export.

Human Servitude

Millions of Africans enslaved (see figure on pg.220) Many went to Latin America and Caribbean Slavery favored the growth of Europeans nations. Solving acute labour shortage in America

African and Overseas Slave Trade

Trans-Atlantic Trade, Mid 16 century

The Triangular Trade

Expanding European empires in the New World lacked one major resourcea work force. In most cases the indigenous peoples had proved unreliable (most of them were dying from diseases brought over from Europe)

The Triangular Trade

Europeans were unsuited to the climate and suffered under tropical diseases. Africans on the other hand were excellent workers Had experience of agriculture ,used to tropical climate, resistant to tropical diseases.

The Triangular Trade

Between 1450 an and the end of the 19th century, slaves were obtain from along the west coast of Africa with full and active cooperation of African kings and merchants. In return the African kings and merchants received various trade goods including beads, cowries shells (used as money)

The Triangular Trade

,textiles, brandy, horses and perhaps most importantly, guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves, until they finally used against the European colonizers.

The Triangular Trade

The transatlantic slave trade generally followed a triangular route. Traders set out from European ports towards Africas west coast. There they bought people in exchange for goods and loaded them into the ships.

The Triangular Trade

The voyage itself generally took 6 to 8 weeks. Once in the Americas, those Africans who had survived the journey were off-loaded for sale and put to work as slaves The ship returned to Europe with goods such as sugar,coffee, tobacco and rice

The Triangular Trade

The triangle, involving three continents: European capital, African labour and American land and resources combined to supply a European market.

Consequences

Africa is single out as the only continent where its population enslaved solely to contribute to the development of other nations. The West witnessed wide expansion through the employment of free labour, but also exploitation of African technologies (in agricultural sector, metal industries, etc

Consequences

This expansion took place in the new world which become the world hub of growth. On the hand, African continent, which was prosperous up to that time, fell victim to slavery, underdevelopment and marginalisation in a definitive way.

Capture of Slaves and Coffles in Africa

Slave Coffle, 19th cent.

Men, women, children linked by wooden yokes and chains; African guards carry guns.

Wooden Yokes Used in Coffles

African slave traders marching captives to the sea

European and African slave traders on the coast of West Africa

Slave Ships and the Atlantic Crossing (Middle Passage)

Enslaved Africans in Hold of Slave Ship, 1827

Shows men, women, children below deck, with European sailors/guards.

Diagram showing how African captives were imprisoned aboard a slave ship

Life on the Slave Ships

Slave ship

The Middle Passage was the most infamous route of this triangular trade. Although danger lurked constantly throughout the voyage across the Atlantic , the greatest danger to the slave ships always came when they were loading on the African coast

Slave ship

A House of Commons committee in 1788 discovered that one slave-ship, The Brookes, was originally built to carry a maximum of 451 people, but was carrying over 600 slaves from Africa to the Americas.

Advertisement for slaves from the "Hare," South-Carolina Gazette, June 17, 1756

Slave Sales and Auctions: African Coast and the Americas

Slave Auction, Richmond, Virginia, 1861

Shows a man and woman (with child in arms) on auction block, surrounded by white men

Branding Slaves, 19th cent.

Enslaved female being branded by a white man; other African women, presumably waiting to be branded.

Europeans Buying Enslaved Africans, late 18th cent.

Poster Announcing Sale and Rental of Slaves, U.S. South, 1829

Slave trade monument

After the slave trade

The MAAFA (African Holocaust) is a Kiswahili term for "Disaster" or "Terrible Occurrence". This is the word that best describe the more than 500 hundred years of suffering of people of African descent through Slavery, Imperialism, Colonialism, Invasions and Exploitation

African nations have scarified millions of lives as a result of Western monopolies and the exploitation of raw material. In Belgian Congo, for instance ten millions were massacred by King Belgian, Leopold II. Documented in the book King Leopolds Ghost.
A story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Houghton Mifflin 1998

Life Experience

Ottobah Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) (2) Olaudah Equiano, was captured and sold as a slave in the kingdom of Benin in Africa. He wrote about his experiences in The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African (1789)

Life Experience

Olaudah Equiano

Quotes
You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Primary Document

Frederick Douglas

Skill Development

Hold a debate on whether the institution of slavery could ever be justified on religious, political, or economic grounds.

Skill Development

Slavery exists today. Locate areas in the world that still have slavery and compare it with the slavery of the eighteenth century.

Skill Development

Write a speech that express your opinion as to why slavery should be abolish in the 1700s. Be prepare to present your speech to the class.

Article

Slave trade: a root of contemporary African Crisis

http://www.afbis.com/analysis/slave.htm

Quotes
We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.
Carter Woodson (1875-1950)
on founding Negro History Week, 1926

List of Slaves

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USA Safrica.htm