Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What caught my attention was him saying that Africans controlled the source of the slaves from the begining to the end of the slave trade. Is that a bigger African role than many would have thought?
It should be widely known that many of the people sold by the Africans as slaves to the Europeans were members of rivaling tribes that were captured by Africans. It wasn't Europeans going inland to capture these peoples.
There were also certain tribes, particularly along the Bight of Benin (modern Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc) that captured prisoners from rivaling tribes during acts of war. These prisoners would be taken to the main village of the tribe in the war and many were subjected to either serve their captors and/or many were killed. There are buildings still standing whose walls are composed of mixture of dirt, human blood, and other things. Guess where the human blood came from? With the appearance of European slave merchants along the coast (mostly Portuguese), many of the people that normally would be killed after captured were sold by the Africans to the Europeans. As uncomfortable as that fact was, selling instead of killing the captives had the unintended consequence of saving the lives of many people and their direct descendants, most of which are descendants of slaves in the Americas.
Slavery was a dirty business and the culprits were often on both sides, the Europeans on one hand and the Africans on the other. Basically, if you want to see it this way, subjecting people to slavery often started with Africans selling Africans to the Europeans. In many cases the alternative was to kill them, so in a way it was the lesser of two evils.
There are guides in many of these places in Western Africa that give a tour to mostly North American (including African Americans) and European tourists of these places. After seeing many documentaries and shows showing this, I have come to the conclusion that often this is shoved under the rug. Tour guides that try to hide this fact often appear tensed and annoyed if a tourist brings up this issue in the tour. You can see it in their demeenor and in the response they give. Other guides seem to be more open to the reality of the past, but they appear to be in the minority regarding this.
It should be widely known that many of the people sold by the Africans as slaves to the Europeans were members of rivaling tribes that were captured by Africans. It wasn't Europeans going inland to capture these peoples.
There were also certain tribes, particularly along the Bight of Benin (modern Ivory Coast, Ghana, etc) that captured prisoners from rivaling tribes during acts of war. These prisoners would be taken to the main village of the tribe in the war and many were subjected to either serve their captors and/or many were killed. There are buildings still standing whose walls are composed of mixture of dirt, human blood, and other things. Guess where the human blood came from? With the appearance of European slave merchants along the coast (mostly Portuguese), many of the people that normally would be killed after captured were sold by the Africans to the Europeans. As uncomfortable as that fact was, selling instead of killing the captives had the unintended consequence of saving the lives of many people and their direct descendants, most of which are descendants of slaves in the Americas.
Slavery was a dirty business and the culprits were often on both sides, the Europeans on one hand and the Africans on the other. Basically, if you want to see it this way, subjecting people to slavery often started with Africans selling Africans to the Europeans. In many cases the alternative was to kill them, so in a way it was the lesser of two evils.
There are guides in many of these places in Western Africa that give a tour to mostly North American (including African Americans) and European tourists of these places. After seeing many documentaries and shows showing this, I have come to the conclusion that often this is shoved under the rug. Tour guides that try to hide this fact often appear tensed and annoyed if a tourist brings up this issue in the tour. You can see it in their demeenor and in the response they give. Other guides seem to be more open to the reality of the past, but they appear to be in the minority regarding this.
You left our Arabs. Christians, Jews, and Muslims, as well as people who practiced native African religions, all profited from the slave trade.
People rarely want to know the truth about a horrendous subject such as slavery. It's easier to blame certain people and leave it at that.
I saw slavery myself as recently as 1996, in southern Morocco. Tuareg tribes brought Saharan and sub-Saharan Africans to Morocco to trade and sell. It was terrible.
I saw slavery myself as recently as 1996, in southern Morocco. Tuareg tribes brought Saharan and sub-Saharan Africans to Morocco to trade and sell. It was terrible.
How developed is Morocco? I'm thinking slavery mainly exist today in countries that have under developed legal systems. Is slavery today one of those things that mainly exist in rural areas of these countries?
You left our Arabs. Christians, Jews, and Muslims, as well as people who practiced native African religions, all profited from the slave trade.
People rarely want to know the truth about a horrendous subject such as slavery. It's easier to blame certain people and leave it at that.
I saw slavery myself as recently as 1996, in southern Morocco. Tuareg tribes brought Saharan and sub-Saharan Africans to Morocco to trade and sell. It was terrible.
Muslim slavers were likely the worst mass murderers this planet has ever seen. The largest slave markets were in North Africa, mainly Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis. From the 16th to the early 19th century muslim slavers raided as far as Iceland, taking up to 1.25 million white Christian slaves.
Quote:
Even Americans were not immune. For example, one American slave reported that 130 other American seamen had been enslaved by the Algerians in the Mediterranean and Atlantic just between 1785 and 1793.
However, their proximity to Sub Saharan Africa made them an even more popular target.
Quote:
... a minumum of 28 Million African were enslaved in the Muslim Middle East. Since, at least, 80 percent of those captured by Muslim slave traders were calculated to have died before reaching the slave market, it is believed that the death toll from 1400 years of Arab and Muslim slave raids into Africa could have been as high as 112 Millions. When added to the number of those sold in the slave markets, the total number of African victims of the trans-Saharan and East African slave trade could be significantly higher than 140 Million people.
-- John Allembillah Azumah, author of The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious Dialogue
Quote:
Much of Islamic slavery was sexual in nature, with a preference for women. Those men who were captured were castrated. The mulatto children of the women were often killed, which explains why Islam was not demographically shifted towards the black race, unlike slaves in the West, who bore children to breed a mestizo class. Add in those dead children; and we arrive at well over 200 million.
Where does this African role in the slave trade fit in with the reparations issue?
Not at all from the usual suspects as it isn't politically correct. Not to mention that African nations having to pay meaningful reparations--the discussion over the merit of reparations aside for a moment--would bankrupt them. That said, it is important that we tell the truth about the role these nations played in the slave trade.
How developed is Morocco? I'm thinking slavery mainly exist today in countries that have under developed legal systems. Is slavery today one of those things that mainly exist in rural areas of these countries?
Slavery exists all over the world, though more covertly than before. The U.S. and other countries, both developed and less developed, have plenty of slaves, trafficked for sex, agricultural and domestic work, textile factories, massage parlors, tech companies, etc. It is dreadful. More slaves exist today than in any other time in history. Morning coffee? Chocolate from cocoa beans? Child brides? Handwoven carpets? The laptops we're typing on right now? Slave labor -- and much of it is child slave labor.
What I saw with my own eyes in Morocco were people used brutally, mostly as domestic and agricultural slaves.
Not at all from the usual suspects as it isn't politically correct. Not to mention that African nations having to pay meaningful reparations--the discussion over the merit of reparations aside for a moment--would bankrupt them. That said, it is important that we tell the truth about the role these nations played in the slave trade.
I can't think of a single culture or civilization that hasn't had slavery. It's more prevalent today than ever -- but is better hidden.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
