History

Introduction

In Africa, slavery was a common practice long before the arrival of the Arabs, the

Berbers and the Europeans. There were different types of slaves. For instance those

who were slaves through conquest, those who were slaves due to unpaid debts,

those whose parents gave them as slaves to tribal chiefs, etc.

After the discovery of America, the need of manpower for the exploitation of this new

continent increased. From this time, Europeans started to come to Africa to search

for slaves. These slaves were used as workers in mines and sugarcane plantations.

The Blacks were exchanged with European and Asian products like clothes, old guns

and wines among others. This trade has been named Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade.

Apart from this slave trade, there were two other forms of slave trade, namely

the Trans -Saharan Trade operated across the Saharan desert where slaves from

West Africa were exchanged with European and Asian commodities and the Long

Distance Trade in which slaves from East Africa were traded to be used mainly in

plantations that were in Zanzibar by Arabs and in Seychelles and Reunion Islands by

French colonists.

The slaves from Africa were deported in very bad conditions, disease attacked

many and the death was so common that ships were called floating tombs.  As

this trade was made between Africa, America and Europe, Africa suffered serious

losses from the slave trade because the depopulation resulted into famine. While

Europeans who were running the slave trade profited from it: Money from the slave

trade contributed to the Industrial Revolution industries gained the raw materials

from Africa. Americas also got profits from that trade because much of the wealth

generated by the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade supported the creation of industries

and institutions in modern North America.

 

 

Key unit competence

Analyse the emergence, organisation and impact of slave trade in Africa.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this unit, I should be able to:

•             Explain the mechanisms of the Long Distance Trade and those of the

Trans-Atlantic Trade.

•             Differentiate the effects of the Long Distance Trade from the Trans-Atlantic

Trade.

Introductory activity

In the world history, slave trade has been a dehumanising practice so that nations

decided to fight against it till today. From the recent information about this evil

deed, analyse the factors and consequences of different slave trades that took

place in the world before the end of the 19th Century.

3.1 Trans-Saharan trade

3.1.Activity

Using the internet or any other document in your school library including

textbooks, discuss the reasons for the emergence of the Trans- Saharan trade.

3.1.1 Understanding the Trans-Saharan trade

The Trans-Saharan Trade was the trade that took place between West Africans who

were living in the savannah forest, Sahel and North African Berbers and Arabs across

the Sahara desert. This trade began to take place on a regular basis during the

fourth Century with the introduction of camels from Asia as an improved means

of transport. The volume of this trade increased again between 641 and 708 of

Common Era when Arabs from East conquered North Africa.

The Trans-Saharan Trade contributed to the rise of the Empire of Ghana between

the eighth and twelfth centuries. This trading system reached its peak between the

fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, during the heydays of the Mali and Songhai

Empires it declined in the 19th Century.

One of the main commodities of the Trans-Saharan Trade was the salt from the

deposits of rock salt in the Sahara. The Saharan salt mines had been controlled by

the Berbers of North Africa who were willing to exchange salt for West Africa’s gold

which was highly demanded in the Maghreb.

This early trade in salt and gold was to serve as the foundation for a more elaborate

and flourishing trade between the two regions and had far reaching effects on the

political and social histories of the peoples who inhabited there.

 

3.1.2. Factors for the emergence of Trans–Saharan trade

Most of the factors which facilitated the growth of the Trans-Saharan trade were

directly or indirectly related to Islam. Thus, Islam and the Trans-Saharan trade were

closely linked. The most important of these factors were for instance the introduction

of camel to North Africa, the increase in demand for gold in Muslim and European

countries, the spread of Islam in West Africa among others as below.

The introduction of camels on a large-scale basis into North Africa from Asia

was the most determinant factor for the growth and development of the TransSaharan trade. The camels were an appropriate means of transport that could help

to overcome different problems inherent in the geographical nature of the Sahara

desert which consisted of endless hailstorms, sand dunes and rocks, very hot in the

day and extremely cold at night. Travelling with trade goods across such hostile

environment was only made possible with camels which could carry heavy loads,

travel for about ten days without water and their flat hoofs enabled them to walk

on the sand.

The increase in demand for gold in Muslim and Europe countries also led to the

development of the Trans -Saharan Trade. Gold had become a commercial item that

was more and more needed for the manufacturing of jewelleries.

The spread of Islam in West Africa too played a very important role in the

development of the Trans-Saharan trade. It is worth noting that the majority of

the traders were Muslims and people who resisted to be converted to Islam were

captured and sold as slaves. Moreover, the spread of Islam in West Africa was a

securing factor for both Moslem traders and their buyers which facilitated trade

transactions between slave traders and Muslims.

The emergence of centralised state systems in the Kingdoms of Ghana, and

later Mali and Songhai in the West Africa also contributed to the growth of the

Trans -Saharan trade. The existence of such political organisations helped to ensure

security to the traders and hence leading to the development of the Trans Saharan

trade.

 

The islamisation of rulers of West African kingdoms, their performance of annual

pilgrimages and the subsequent diplomatic activities also played an important role

in the development of the Trans Saharan Trade. The Arabs and other Muslims were

interested in carrying out business in the countries led by Muslims. This increased

the numbers of traders that were involved in Trans Saharan Trade.

Conquest of North Africa by Arabs increased the inflow of the Arabs which led to

the introduction of Arabic language in West Africa. This facilitated communication

between the Arabs and the indigenous Africans during business exchanges which

solved the language barrier problem hence the growth and development of the

Trans Saharan Trade.

Availability of trade goods needed by both parties also contributed to the

development of the Trans -Saharan trade. West Africans provided goods such as

gold, slaves and kola nuts that were highly demanded by the North Africans (Berbers)

while the North Africans had goods like camels, clothes and weapons which were

needed by the West Sudan People.

Presence of safe and well established trade routes also contributed to the

development of the Trans-Saharan trade. This made it easy for the merchants

to carry out their business without any fear. Most times, the Tuaregs provided

security to the traders and acted as guides across the Sahara desert.

The presence of oases that provided water to the merchants and camels in the

Sahara desert was also a very crucial factor that enabled the Trans-Saharan trade to

take place. Given the harsh desert conditions like drought and higher temperatures,

Oases acted as refreshment areas for both the merchants and their camels.

Availability of capital was also a crucial factor for the development of the

Trans -Saharan Trade. The rich merchants in the region, the Berbers provided capital

for investment in the trade. This also led to development of Trans-Saharan trade

simply because capital is always a basic requirement for any commercial activity to

develop.

3.1.3 Methods of Trans-Saharan trade

The people involved in this trade from North Africa were the Berbers and Arabs

who initiated and financed the trade. Traders moved in caravans across the

Sahara to and from West Africa and were provided with security by the Tuaregs.

In West Africa, there were Black Africans who were essentially consumers of

goods from North Africa and suppliers of commodities from West African regions.

In addition to the people who played different roles in the Trans Saharan trade, there

were different commodities. The goods from North Africa included salt, iron tools,

weapons, silk, beads, horses, quinine, and sugar. The most important commodity

from this region was salt. While those from West Africa were gold, slaves, ivory, kola

nuts, leather, pepper, hides and ostrich feathers.

 

The most important commodity from West Africa was gold.

There were three major routes that were used in the Trans Saharan trade, namely

West-East, North-Southand Southern routes.

West-East routes

There were two routes from Timbuktu or Gao to Egypt. One went through Takedda,

Agades, Bilma and Tibesti to Cairo. The other ran through Takedda, Ghat, Fezzan, and

Aujila to Cairo. The second route was the preferred route and was also used by West

African Muslims on pilgrimages to Mecca. It was called the Gao or Mecca Road.

 

Figure 3.1: Trans Saharan trade routes

Source:https://www.thinglink.com/scene/634381331005964290.

 

North-South routes

To obtain gold from the Bambuk goldfields, traders from Fez and Marrakesh in

Morocco travelled the Audaghost trail through Sijilmasa and Wadan to Azukki or

Audaghost and from there to Kumbi Saleh in Ghana or to Takrur.

 

For gold from the Bure fields, especially when the Empire of Mali was at its height,

merchants travelled from Fez through Sijilmasa, Taghaza (or Tuat) and Tichitt-Walata,

to Timbuktu and Djenné.

From Tripoli, caravans travelled through Ghadames, Ghat, and Takedda or Agades to

the Hausa cities of Katsina or Kano.

Another route began in Tripoli and passed through Fezzan, Bilma, and Kanem to the

Bornu city of Bauchi. Finally, from Cyrenaicain or Aujila in eastern Libya a route led

through Wadai to Bornu.

 

Southern routes

From the end points of the camel caravan routes, trade goods were carried farther

south to the forest regions by donkeys, human porters, or canoes. One route from

Kumbi Saleh went through

Diara, down the Senegal and Faleme Rivers to the Bambuk goldfields.

Another led from Kumbi Saleh to Kangaba, down the Niger to the Bure goldfields.

From Djenn´e one could travel through Bobo-Dyulasso, Kong, and Begho to Kumasi

(in the modern nation of Ghana). From Kano a road led through Zaria and Old Oyo to

Benin. Another road went from Katsina through Kano and Bauci to Wukari.

Two main modes of exchange of goods were utilised in the Trans Saharan trade.

At the first time, traders used barter system which consisted of exchanging goods

for other goods and services for other services. But later, cowries’ shellsand precious

stones were adopted as a medium of exchange.

Camels and human portage were the main means of transport used in the

TransSaharan trade. At the beginning of this trade, human portage was used

and the volume of commodities exchanged was very small but, later on with the

introduction and use of camels, this volume greatly increased.

Traders travelled in large caravans of camels in order to enhance their security.

The rich traders from North Africa in itiated the trade and provided trade goods,

camels and horses to the middlemen who coordinated the trade with the West

Africans on their behalf.

The middlemen would contact desert guides known as Takshifs who also acted as

desert guards. They also protected the traders and guarded the oases in the Sahara.

The Tuaregs provided the traders withsecurity and acted as interpreters. The

caravans usually departed from the north after the rainy season when sandstorms

would subside smooth travel. The traders made stopovers at the oases to refresh

themselves and let their camels drink water.

 

The traders carried gifts for leaders of the communities along the route to appease

them as a reward for the security provided while travelling through their kingdoms.

Rulers of western Sudan offered security service to the traders while they were in the

territories. Some of the caravantraders used agents who sold goods on their behalf

in the interim period between their departures back to the north until the time they

came back to western Sudan.

 

3.1.4 Effects of Trans-Saharan trade

The Trans-Saharan trade played a very significant role in the commercial relationship

of African nations and beyond. For instance, the Saharan Berbers sold the goods

they bought from the Western Sudan to the Arab traders of North Africa and the

traders of North Africa sold them again to the European and Asian countries. This

trade provided an important link between the Western Sudan and North Africa

facilitating the exchange of political, religious, economic, social and cultural ideas.

Trans-Saharan trade helped to build the comfort and splendour of large North

African cities such as Carthage, Leptis, and Sabratha, back in times of Phoenician

and Roman rule before about 400 CE. West Africa towns such as Gao, Kano, Jenne,

Walata and Timbuktu developed and new cities were also born at the desert edge,

like Awdaghust, Kumbi Saleh and Tadamakka and their destiny was tied closely with

the continuity of the trade. However, when the caravan routes later changed and the

volume of trade declined, these towns, too, were soon abandoned.

 The merchants and rulers who participated in the trade accumulated a lot of wealth

from the profits and taxes respectively. This wealth enabled the rulers to pay for

large armies and complex systems of administration and to build large Empires such

as Ghana, Mali and Songhai.

The trade also facilitated the spread of Islam with its Islamic civilization and literacy

in Arabic language. Simultaneously, with the spread of Islam there was erosion of

pre-existing African cultures.

Trans-Saharan trade introduced new political system based on sharia law like

foundation of theocratic states in West Africa such as Macina.

The Trans-Saharan trade also enhanced the spread of the knowledge of Western

Sudan to other parts of the world through pilgrimages of West African Muslims

to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Trans Saharan trade also created a need among the

indigenous to control the centres of strategic productivity. For example, the Empire

of Ghana extended its territory as far north as Audaghost in an attempt to secure

direct access to salt production, while it simultaneously maintained direct linkages

to the Bambuk goldfields across the Senegal River.

 

Trans-Saharan trade also provided strong motivation for the formation of large

Sudanic states and empires to protect traders and trade routes, which in turn

brought in the necessary wealth to conduct wars so as to make territorial expansion,

to acquire horses and superior iron weaponry, to send thousands of soldiers into

battle, and to outfit and maintain garrisons of soldiers in conquered provinces.

The rise of trade strongly promoted the specialization of clans and the establishment

of clan “monopolies” in particular crafts, crucially important in iron smelting and

forging.

The trade led to the intermarriage between the people from the North and those

from West Africa without racial discrimination. In fact, many of the traders married

local concubines, as no women of their own society were available since they could

spend several years in the south, and there lived also permanent agents of North

African trading companies.

The trade also led to the emergence of three social classes, that is the class of foreign

merchants who settled in the towns and class of local professional traders such as

the Dyula and Wangara and the poor labors, initially there were only two classes, the

king, his chiefs and peasants, the trade now ushered in a cast society that was based

on one’s wealth.

The trade led to the improvement in the standards of living due to the introduction

of clothes, employment to West Africans as guides and guards and introduction of

new food crops in the region plus very many other pleasant luxurious items that

added value to life and set the West African region a class apart from the rest of

Africa.

The trade promoted the exploitation of African natural resources that had laid

untapped for centuries, this stimulated the growth and development of local

industries such as gold and salt mining, agriculture and textile industry plus iron

smelting which changed the whole picture of the West African region.

The trade linked West Africa to North Africa and to the Muslim world and this saw

the coming of other foreigners in the region, thus, the eventual colonization of West

Africa by the western world.

Had it not been this trade, West Africa would have probably remained a closed entity,

completely not known to the outside world for many years.

 

3.1.5 Decline of Trans-Saharan trade

Towards the start of the 19th century, the Trans-Saharan trade had almost

disappeared and this was due to many factors including the following:

Political instabilities that existed in West Africa contributed to the decline of TransSaharan trade. The conquest of Songhai Empire by the Moroccan forces in 1590 for

instance created chaos in Western Sudan which reduced the volume of trade and

even disrupted it.

Discovery of the sea route also contributed to the decline of the Trans-Saharan

Trade. The sea route from the Mediterranean Sea to the West African coast provided

an alternative means of transport for the traders that was cheap, safe and quick.

Increased European commercial activities on the West African coast contributed to

the decline of the Trans Saharan Trade. The frequently appearance of the Europeans

on the West Africa coast changed the direction of the trade from the north to the

south. A case to note is that by the 17th century gold exports to the southern West

African coast increased while the exports northwards decreased.

Availability of cheap European manufactured goods on the West African markets

also led to the decline of the Trans-Saharan Trade. The West African markets were

flooded with cheap items such as salt from Europe which outcompeted the poor

quality salt from Taghaza. This destroyed the salt trade across the desert.

Discovery of new sources of gold elsewhere in the World should not be

underestimated for the decline of the Trans- Saharan trade. For example the

discovery of gold in USA and the Far East diverted the attention of the traders from

West Africa to those new areas.

High taxes and rigid restrictions imposed on the traders by was also a significant

factor for the decline of the Trans-Saharan trade. The West African leaders imposed

tough regulations and heavy taxes on the traders which made the trade less

profitable.

Tropical diseases also led to the decline of the Trans-Saharan trade. As the caravans

approached the savannah and tropical areas, they were affected by diseases like

malaria and sleeping sickness which claimed most of their lives. With this, trade

became more risky and insecure which shunned away the traders.

Abolition of slave trade was also an important factor for the decline of the Trans

Saharan trade. With this abolition, the Trans-Saharan trade was deprived of one of

its main commodities (slaves).

 

The invasion of Moroccan ports along the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

by the two Iberian countries namely Portugal and Spain between 1471 and 1505 CE

further disrupted the trade hence causing its decline.

Colonisation of the African continent by the European powers from the 19th Century

was another cause for the decline of the Trans African trade. In fact, resources

from North and West Africa came under the control of different powers. European

penetration of the interior regions impacted negatively on the importance of

middlemen in the trade as European traders began dealing directly with the

producers.

Fall of powerful West African Empires such as Ghana, Mali and Songhai which pushed

Tuaregs to change their roles as guides and guards and started robbing the traders.

The golden age of the Trans-Saharan trade ended with the collapse of Songhai

Empire after the Moroccan attack in 1590. The disintegration of West African political

structures, the contemporary economic decline of Northern Africa and the European

competition on the Guinea coast made the caravan trade less profitable.

Nevertheless, the trade continued until the railroads gave it the final death blow in

the beginning of the 20th century. The shift in favour of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade

began with the arrival of the first Portuguese ships on the Mauritanian coast in 1443.

It was only during the age of imperialism that the encounter of West Africans with

other civilisations turned definitely from controlled relationship to collision.

 

 

 

Application activities

1. “The emergence of Islam played a great role to influence the TransSaharan trade”. Discuss.

2. With the help of the West African sketch map, explain the mechanisms

of the Trans-Saharan trade.

3. “The Trans -Saharan trade had many negative effects on all the people

involved in the business”. Discuss.

4. Account for the collapse of the Trans-Saharan trade.

5. Can we claim that the Trans-Saharan trade was profitable for all the

people involved in it? Substantiate your answer.

 

 

3. 2 Trans-Atlantic Slave trade

2. Learning activity

Using internet or textbooks from your school library analyse the main factors for

the riseand the organisation of Trans-Atlantic Slave trade.

 

3.2.1 The beginning of Trans-Atlantic Slave trade

Atlantic Slave trade was a commercial relationship that developed between Black

people of West African coast, America and Europe across Atlantic Ocean in a

triangular form. By this form it took the name of Triangular Trade.

This trade began by the 15th century when a Portuguese explorer Antonio

Gonzalazes took with him 10 Black Africans from West Africa on the order of Prince

Henry the Navigator who had planned to train Africans as gospel preachers in

Portugal in order to come back to spread Christianity in West Africa.

 

Figure3.2:The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade 1500-1800

Source: Bentley and Ziegler (2006, p.709).

 

 

The European colonists in America soon found the need for imported labour to

work on the sugar plantations, in the mines and later on the tobacco and cotton

plantations. The Spaniards started using Black slave labour in their West Indian

colonies early 16th century. Portuguese in the middle of the century started sending

slaves from Africa to Brazil. Other European nations like Britain, France and Holland

among others soon joined this lucrative trade, and the slave trade became a big

business.

 

3.2.3 The factors that encouraged the Trans–Atlantic Slave trade

In the mid-fifteenth century, Portuguese ships sailed down the West African coast in

a trick designed to bypass the North African Muslims, who had a virtual monopoly on

the trade of sub-Saharan gold, spices, and other commodities that Europe needed.

These voyages resulted into maritime discoveries and advances in shipbuilding

that later facilitated European vessels to navigate the Atlantic Ocean. Over time, the

Portuguese vessels added another commodity to their cargo namely African men,

women, and children.

For the first hundred years, captives in small numbers were transported to Europe.

By the close of the 15th century, 10 percent of the population of Lisbon, Portugal, the

then one of the largest cities in Europe, was of African origin.

 Other captives were taken to islands of the African shore, including Madeira, Cape

Verde, and especially São Tomé, where the Portuguese established sugar plantations

using enslaved labour on a scale that foreshadowed the development of plantation

slavery in the Americas. Enslaved Africans could also be found in North Africa, the

Middle East, Persia, India, the Indian Ocean islands, and in Europe including Russia.

The main cause of the trade was the colonies that European countries had acquired

in America and West Indies. In America, for instance, which was a colony of England;

there was a demand for many manual workers for the sugar, tobacco and cotton

plantations. Paid labourers were too expensive, and the indigenous people had

largely been wiped out by disease and conflicts, so the colonialists turned to Africa

to get cheap labour in form of slaves. With the discovery of America and West Indies

in 1492, there were much uncontrolled economic potentialities. There were minerals

such as copper, iron ore and gold and agricultural opportunities related to coffee,

sugar cane, tobacco and cotton.

Expanding European empires in the New World lacked one major resource namely

a workforce. In most cases, the indigenous peoples had proved unreliable because

most of them were dying of diseases brought over from Europe, and the Europeans

were unsuited to the climate and suffered from tropical diseases. Africans, on the

other hand, were excellent workers: they often had experience of agriculture and

cattle keeping, they were used to a tropical climate, resistant to tropical diseases,

and they could be exploited on plantations or in mines.

 

The interior regions of Bure and Bambuk were rich in gold. The latter reached the

Mediterranean regions and Europe from Songhay. The slave trade was closely linked

to the Europeans’ insatiable hunger for gold, and the arrival of the Portuguese on

the Gold Coast, the current Ghana, in the 1470s.

Later, Europeans developed commercial and political relations with the kingdoms of

Benin, in present-day Nigeria and Kongo. The Kongo kingdom became Christianised

and the process was undermined by the spread of the slave trade. Benin, however,

restricted Portuguese influence and somewhat limited the trade in human beings.

The African slaves’ dealers only captured slaves and sold them without any

investment. Thereafter Europeans exchanged their manufactured goods with many

slaves. This exchange increased the traders’ profits. In addition the West African

societies allowed the European traders to settle in the coast areas. The Africans

played the role of middlemen in the trade; their chiefs cooperated with the European

merchants by selling to them slaves as persons who were considered as social misfits

and criminals.

The White racists considered the Africans as human beings of the second grade.

They saw no crime in enslaving Blacks, torturing them and subjecting them to all

sorts of inhuman treatment.

After their capture, they were tied like animals and packed in ships like other

commodities. West African coast had also good natural ports as Bojador, Lagos and

Port Elmina for safe sailing of large trade ships and that contributed to the rise and

development of the Trans– Atlantic Slave trade.

 

3.2.3 Mechanisms of the Trans–Atlantic Slave trade

The Trans–Atlantic Slave trade was well organized and that’s why the trade survived

for a long time. The trade went on until the 19th century, with Europeans of many

countries taking part in it – notably the British, French, Dutch and Danes as well as

the Spaniards and the Portuguese. The British were at first engaged in the trade as

agents providing slaves for the Spanish colonies in 1562 for over 50 years before

slavery itself was introduced into British North America. The traders operated from

“factories” and forts established along the African coast, mainly in West Africa. In

West Africa, they exchanged European goods for gold, ivory and slaves. By the end

of the 18th century there were 40 of these “factories” which sometimes changed

hands as the nations competed with each other in the trade. It was organised in

such way that it was linking the three continents. It began from Europe and linked

to Africa where it had a route leading to America and from America to Europe again.

The demand for labour in America and West Indian colonies stimulated a profitable

commerce. During the triangular trade, European ships often undertook voyages of

three legs.

 

On the first leg, they carried horses and manufactured goods such as guns,

gunpowder, clothes, some utensils and glassware from Europe. Africans would in

return give to Europeans slaves, ivory, honey, gold, palm oil and tortoise shells. The

second leg took enslaved Africans to Caribbean and American destinations. Upon

arrival, merchants sold their human cargoes to plantation owners for two to three

times of what they had bought them on the African coast. Then they filled their

vessels’ hulls with land growing cash crops like coffee, cotton, sugar cane and tobacco

and minerals like iron ore, copper, gold and others. All of these raw materials were

shipped to Europe to supply their industries.

The procurement of the slaves was sometimes by raids into the interior, or even

actual wars, but more usually by trading agreements with the local native rulers or

by providing them with military help against their African enemies. As the trade

expanded, some African chiefs continued it with reluctance, but found it difficult

to withdraw. Some of the main European commodities supplied in exchange were

guns and gunpowder – and if an African chief stopped getting the guns, he would

be at the mercy of more unscrupulous neighbours.

The trade was organized in defined caravan trade routes to and from the interior

communities of West Africa to the coastal ports where the goods were loaded to the

ships for transportation across the Atlantic Ocean to America or to Europe.

 

Figure 3.3: The captured slaves being transported to the West African Coast

Adapted from Slavery in Central Africa about 1800

 

 

The mode of purchase in Africa was barter system. Europeans would exchange their

goods such as clothes and guns with the African goods including slaves, ivory and

honey. However, there was no clear measurement in this barter system that would

level on the balancing of the quantity exchanged. Later, money was introduced such

as Cowries shells. In America, they exchanged slaves for cash, but in sugar-producing

regions they often bartered slaves for sugar or molasses.

The Western European countries established distinct national trades. The European

ports and cities most involved in this growth industry were Bristol, Liverpool and

London in England; Amsterdam in Holland; Lisbon, the Portuguese capital; and

Nantes, located on the western French coast.

On the African side, most captives were traded from only a few ports: Luanda

(Angola), Whydah (Bight of Benin), Bonny (Bight of Biafra); and the adjacent castles

at Koromantin and Winneba on the Gold Coast accounted for at least a third of the

Africans transported to the Americas.

Other major ports included Old Calabar (Bight of Biafra), Benguela (Southern

Angola), Cabinda (north of the Congo River), and Lagos in the Bight of Benin. These

nine ports accounted for at least a half of all the Africans transported to the Americas.

 

Figure 3.4 : Major Slave Ports for Africa

Source :https ://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-were-ramifications-slavetrade-effects-slave-541027.

 

The European countries attempted, though not successfully, to regulate the

trade by chartering various national companies established under royal decree or

parliamentary order. But these efforts to create monopolies, such as England’s Royal

African Company (RAC), were soon undermined by private merchant companies

and pirates who opened up new markets in the Bight of Biafra and the northern

Angola coast, and challenged the RAC on the Gold Coast and in the Gambia.

Each of the nations and their slave ports experienced innovative marketing and

trading techniques. Sometimes this competition required the maintenance of

trading depots and forts – the slave castles or factories – as was the case in the Gold

Coast and the Bight of Benin, as well as in lesser ports along the Upper Guinea Coast,

Senegambia, and Angola.

 

3.2.4 Effects of the Atlantic-Slave trade

The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade affected Africa, Europe, and the Americas in very

different and significant ways. The current status of Africa, Europe, and the Americas

global political positions and their economies are deeply linked to this terrible part

of history.

•             Effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade on Africa

The impact of slave trade varied over time and from one African society to another.

The kingdoms of Rwanda and Buganda in the African great lakes region and the

herding societies of the Masai and Turkana of East Africa largely escaped the slave

trade, partly because they resisted it and their lands were distant from the major

slave ports on the West African coast. Other societies flourished during early

modern times and benefited economically from the slave trade. Those Africans,

who raided, took captives, and sold slaves to Europeans profited handsomely from

the trade, as did the ports, cities and the states that coordinated the trade with

European merchants. On the whole, however, Africa suffered serious losses from

the slave trade.

•             Demographic problems

The Slave Trade led to the depopulation of Africa because slaves were sold to

America and Europe. Other Africans died during the period of raids and on transit

or after reaching their different destinations. While diverting labour from Africa to

other lands, the slave trade also distorted African sex ratios, since approximately

two-thirds of all exported slaves were males. Slavers preferred young men between

fourteen and thirty-five years of age since they had the best potential to repay their

buyers’ investments by providing heavy labour over an extended period of time.

This preference for male slaves had social implications for lands that provided slaves.

By the late 18th century, for example, women made up more than two-thirds of

adult population of Angola.

 

This sexual imbalance encouraged Angolans to practice polygamy and forced

women to take on duties that in earlier times had been the responsibility of men.

African communities also experienced wars and raiding, which caused death. African

coastal communities were especially depopulated as people migrated to the interior

to escape slave traders and warring.

•             Loss of lives

It has been estimated that the total number of African slaves who reached America

and the West Indies in the course of the trade was about 9 to 10 million. It may well

have been more; and this does not include those who died on the voyage or those

who were killed in Africa during slave raids or wars.

•             Famine

The constant wars and slave trade resulted into famines. Wars increased during

slave raids and energetic people were taken into slavery outside Africa. The elders

and older people who were left behind died of hunger and famine due to lack of

manpower in agricultural activities and a few who remained were always on run for

safety of their lives.

•             Insecurity

The slave trade also brought turmoil to African societies. During early modern times,

African peoples fought many wars for reasons that had little or nothing to do with

the slave trade, but it encouraged them to participate in conflicts that might never

have occurred in the absence of the trade. Violence escalated when African peoples

exchanged slaves for European firearms. The sale of firearms to notorious chiefs

who wanted to conquer their neighbours looking for slaves increased insecurity e.g.

when the Kingdom of Dahomey obtained effective firearms, its armies were able to

capture slaves from unarmed neighbouring societies and exchanged them for more

weapons. Dahomey expanded rapidly and absorbed neighbouring societies.

•             Collapse of some African kingdoms and empires

Apart from the actual loss of manpower, the slave trade inhibited social and economic

progress in the African regions. The trade degraded political life, and encouraged

the continuation of slavery in Africa. All these factors caused the collapse of African

strong kingdoms and empires such as Fante, Egba Calabar Bonny, Dahomey in West

Africa and Luba, Lunda, Usanga and Chewa in Central Africa, while other kingdoms

like Hehe, Yao, Nyamwezi and Akamba in East Africa and Asante, Mandika, Itsekir,

Opobo Igbo and Yomba in West Africa were expanded.

 

 

•             Collapse of local industry

While the European nations were organising and inventing new means of

production, the Africans were depending economically upon a trade which was

totally unproductive and with the loss of the fittest members of the community,

curtailed production. There was serious decline of the African local industries because

the manpower was sold and European goods outcompeted African manufactured

goods such as the Yoruba art.

•             Horrible suffering

The captives were tortured, tied in chains, loaded like bags and forced to work for

longer hours moreover doing hard work. They would also be separated from their

families and their houses. One of the worst features of the trade was the voyage to

America.

The slave ship owners, in search of more profits, packed more and more slaves into

their vessels often on shelves across the holds which allowed no room to stand,

or even to kneel. The voyage lasted for about three weeks to two months or more,

depending on the weather and hunger often affected them in addition to the

appalling living conditions and many of them died before arrival.

 

Figure 3.5: The shipping of slaves.

Adapted from The slave ship

 

•             Economic hardships

As the trade stopped between certain groups, some African communities became

more dependent on the European traders. The loss of strong, young men meant

the loss of workers. These men were sometimes exchanged for guns, alcohol, and

luxury goods which did not help the continent’s economic development.

The Europeans came with goods which were previously not found in Africa, or at

least not readily available, but they also came with some items that were available.

Some African communities chose to trade and do business with the Europeans,

further hurting local businesses and the future of those communities’ economy.

African communities were undergoing rapid and extreme changes due to the

Trans-Atlantic Slave trade; many businesses did not plan for the future, since it was

uncertain. However, the people who participated in this trade become rich thus

their standards of living improved.

•             Racism

Africans were thought of as an inferior race, objects – commodities – not human

beings. Slave traders used a Eurocentric justification that they were bringing Africans

to a better place. This racism stemming from the slave trade can still be felt today.

•             Collapse of African traditional culture and customs

The slave trade caused cultural damage to communities which were a bond of unity.

As African peoples were sold to different countries, they took up a foreign culture

and behaviour and forgot their own beliefs and cultures.

Introduction and spread of diseases

Slave trade led to the spread of some diseases that never existed in Africa for

example syphilis was introduced by traders from Spain who came as slave trade

agents.

•             Effects of the Atlantic Slave trade on Europe

Since the Europeans were running the slave trade; they owned plantations in the

Americas, and mines in Africa. They made huge profits of the slave trade; money from

the slave trade contributed to the Industrial Revolution (factories, urbanisation, etc.);

the European industries gained the raw materials from Africa and America through

the Trans–Atlantic Slave trade and it encouraged the building of many industries in

Europe which gave the job to many workers in Europe.

European empires were able to grow due to strong economies and they have

remained the major world powers up-to-date.

 

The weakened status of African communities and the strength and money of the

Europeans, allowed them to colonise Africa easier.

•             Effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade on America

Plantations were very successful and made a lot of money which went into the larger

economy. Plantations were so successful in some parts because free labourers could

work in high temperatures and they had agricultural and mining skills.

The enslaved Blacks became talented, free carpenters, masons, miners, and

inventors and white Americans made money selling raw materials to Europeans in

exchange for slaves.

As Europe gained African culture, so did the Americas: ideas, language, religion,

views on government, music, food, art, technology…Many famous Black Americans

musicians, artists, writers, thinkers, politicians and athletes – are descended from

Africans brought over as slaves.

Much of the wealth generated from the Trans-Atlantic slave trade supported the

creation of industries and institutions in modern North America and Europe. To

an equal degree, profits from slave trading and slave-generated products funded

the creation of fine art, decorative arts, and architecture that continues to inform

aesthetics today.

The slave trade led to the creation of a society with both free whites and enslaved

blacks.  This led to serious conflicts.  The greatest of these was, of course, the Civil

War. Moreover, slave trade led to the formation of the Black Republics in Central

America such as Haiti in 1806, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

In general, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade laid the foundation for modern capitalism,

generating immense wealth for business enterprises in Americas and Europe. The

trade contributed to the industrialisation of north-western Europe and created a

single Atlantic world that included Western Europe, Western Africa, the Caribbean

islands, and the mainlands of North and South America.

 

3.2.5 Abolition of Trans–Atlantic Slave trade

The  trans-Atlantic Slave trade  reached unprecedented levels in the late 18th

century, but by the mid-nineteenth century every national carrier in Europe and

the Americas had formally abolished the traffic.  Denmark was the first nation to

abolish its trade in 1803. Britain and the United States followed in 1807, with the

U.S. ban going into effect in 1808. By 1836, the Dutch, French, Spanish, Brazilian, and

Portuguese governments had also abolished their trades. During just three decades,

every national Trans-Atlantic carrier outlawed a massive system of forced migration

that had lasted for three centuries.

 

Factors of abolition

According to historians, the relatively rapid abolition of the Trans-Atlantic slave

trade is explained by ideological, religious, and economic changes in Europe and

the Americas.

•             Enlightenment:  this influential 18th century intellectual movement suggested that all men and women had certain rights. Among these rights was liberty,

which the slave trade clearly violated. The French philosophers preached the

gospel of liberty, freedom and fraternity and they realised that although man

is born free, he is always in chains and in order to break these chains, all men

were meant to be seen as equals.

•             Role of some religious groups, such as the Quakers, who by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw abolitionism as an expression of

Christian love for their fellow man. Pope Benedict XIV, in 18th century also protested against slave trade and slavery and appealed to Catholic countries to

denounce it.

•             Humanitarianism and philanthropists: by the end of the 19th century, some

people realised that slavery and slave trade were illegal both before God and

before the law. In 1767 they formed Anti-Slavery campaigns headed by Thomas

Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Adam Smith and Granville who struggled to

campaign against slave trade in the British Parliament; The British Evangelist

led by John Wisely campaigned for the liberty of man and they decided to

defend the innocent slaves as they brought light to their government, which

abolished slave trade;

•             Economic motives: One early theory was that Britain abolished its slave trade

because British Caribbean plantations were becoming less profitable and

needed fewer new slaves.

•             Industrial Revolution in Europe from 1750 to 1850 led to abolition of Slave

Trade because many machines were invented and could do much of the

work quickly, easily and effectively than the slave labour. So, many countries

stopped importing slaves;

•             American war of independence: With the defeat of the British, American war

contributed to the abolition of slave trade because the British no longer had

any interest to recruit most African slaves to America. But British planned the

liberation of slaves and thereafter, the new American leaders supported the

repatriation of the freed slaves to West Africa.

 

The question is to know how Trans-Atlantic Slave trade ended. The Trans-Atlantic

slave trade was an international industry, which meant that international

cooperation was required to enforce abolition once national bans were in place.

In the early nineteenth century, many governments representing former slaving

powers signed multi-national anti-slave trade treaties. These accords affirmed

signatories’ commitments to abolition, established common standards  for

banning slave-trading equipment from commercial vessels, and outlined joint

commitments to maintain anti-slave trade patrols in African and Caribbean

waters.  Britain provided the largest and most effective anti-slave trade fleet,

but France, Portugal, and the United States also manned lightly-armed flotillas. In

addition, most powers recognised a newly established network of international

courts designed to adjudicate illegal slave trading cases, known as the Courts of

Mixed Commission. By the mid-nineteenth century, these courts were established

in Brazil, the Caribbean, West Africa, and South Africa.

 

Despite these efforts, the abolition legislation and international cooperation did not

end the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Although abolition was largely implemented in

the British and French empires, and only a few slave ships are known to have arrived

on U.S. shores after 1808, slave importations to Brazil, Cuba, and Puerto Rico actually

increased after the trade was outlawed. Underdeveloped plantation economies in

these jurisdictions created huge demand for slave labour and record profits for illegal

slave traders. Most Brazilian and Cuban policymakers linked economic growth with

continued slave imports, and many tacitly supported the illegal traffic.

 

Similarly, in Africa, states with long slave-trading histories such as  Dahomey  and

Ngoyo were unwilling or unable to halt the supply of captives to the coast, or to expel

foreign slave dealers who resided there, despite commitments to do both. Mean while,

the illegal slave trade became increasingly difficult to suppress. British and American

merchants engaged in directly in the traffic by supplying Latin American slave traders with

ships and goods exchange able for captives on the West African coast. The U.S. government

also denied other nations the right to search U.S. ships suspected of slave trading, and

soon a large portion of the entire illegal Trans-Atlantic slave traffic took place under the

shield of the U.S. flag. Under  these conditions, slave imports to Brazil and Cuba rose to

higher levels than those before the abolition.

 

Suppression of the illegal Trans-Atlantic Slave trade only became effective when

external pressures on slave-importing regions were reinforced by changing public

opinions within those societies. In 1850, domestic reformers in Brazil forced a

restriction on the illegal slave trade with the assistance of a British naval blockade

of Rio de Janeiro. At that point, Cuba became the last large-scale slave importation

zone. It was not until 1867, after widespread abolitionist pressure within the Spanish

empire and in light of emancipation in Cuba’s much larger neighbour, the United

States, after a violent civil war that the Spanish government moved decisively

against the illegal Trans-Atlantic slave trade, ending the traffic for good.

 

Application activities

6. Analyse at least two factors of abolition of Trans Saharan Trade.

7. Explain the effects of Trans-Atlantic Slave trade on Europe and America

8. Compare and contrast the consequences of Trans-Atlantic Slave trade in

Africa, Europe and America.

9. Describe the procurements and the mode of purchase of slaves in Africa

and America

3.3. Long distance trade

3.1 Learning activity

By using internet, textbooks and journals, carryout a research on the trade that

has been developed between East African coast and central Africa. Then analyse

the factors for its rise, decline as well as its impact on African societies. Write down

the results of your research in essay form.

 

3.3.1 Emergence of Long Distance Trade

The Long Distance Trade was a commercial relationship that linked the East African

coast to the interior of Central Africa and some parts of Asia. It existed for a long

period, but it increased considerably from the 18th century. It involved walking a very

long distance across many African societies like Yao, Akamba, Nyamwezi, Buganda,

Bunyoro and Eastern Congo among others, from the interior to the East African coast

and linked to Asian countries like Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, etc. It also involved

some European countries like France and Portugal.

•             Factors for emergence of long distance trade

The Long Distance Trade emerged due to different factors:

The expansion of Russian empirestarted cutting the supplies of slave from the

western regions to the Muslim lands. Therefore, East Africa was seen as a source

whose potential had not been fully tapped.

The high demand for slaves for the sugar and coffee plantations on the French

islands in the Indian Ocean was due to the expansion of these plantations from the

1770s in the French Indian Ocean colonies of Mauritius, Réunion and the Seychelles.

 

Initially, the French brought the slave workers from Portuguese Indian traders in

Zambia valley and Mozambique. With such expansion and high death rate on the

islands, they looked further field for their supply of slave labour. They turned to Arab

and Swahili traders at Kilwa and Zanzibar. Hence they encouraged the rise of slave

trade at the East African coast.

 

The growth in the Arab demand for slaves to work in their plantations on Zanzibar

and surrounding islands contributed to the rise of the Long Distance Trade. In the

1820s, Sultan Seyyid Said encouraged Arabs to set up clove plantations on the

islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. Therefore, this led to the increase in slave trade from

the mainland to Zanzibar for working in these plantations.

 

The increase in demand for sugar and cotton in Europe also led to the emergence

of Long Distance Trade. Due to Industrial Revolution achieved in Europe, more

European countries needed more sugar cane and cotton for their industries. They

started cotton and sugar cane plantations in America and Indian Ocean islands.

Black Africans were therefore considered as a cheap labour force, leading to the rise

of Slave trade in East Africa.

 

Some African traditional leaders were attracted by the European products like cotton

cloth, wines, guns and gunpowder. This attracted them into this trade by selling

their fellow Africans as slaves exchange for such European products. The chiefs like

Mirambo and Nyungu ya Mawe were guided by this interest.

 

African traditional leaders become passionate traders and actively participated

in the East African slave trade by financing the trade caravans, selling and buying

goods in high quantity. They also collaborated with the Arab traders like Sayyid Said,

Mlozi and Tyui Tyui. Those African chiefs were Nyungu ya Mawe and Mirambo of

Nyamwezi, Mutesa of Buganda, Mukwawa of Hehe and Kabalega of Bunyoro among

others. This collaboration between African traditional chiefs boosted the volume of

East African Slave Trade.

 

The “return of the Southern bantu” known as Ngoni migration created a war

atmosphere in East and Central Africa. This situation made the availability of the

slaves easy because they could be captured and sold as war prisoners. Besides, the

Ngoni introduced new military tactic known as Long horn method which was used

in raiding and capturing slaves for sale.

 

In 1840, Seyyid Said moved his capital to Zanzibar and settled there. He embarked on

strong plans to open up slave trade routes to the interior of East Africa. This boosted

slave trade, whereby the number of slaves being sold at the slave market in Zanzibar

increased annually by that time.

 

There were animal diseases which attacked camels and donkeys as they were used as

means of transport. Consequently, it necessitated people themselves to be involved

in the transportation of the trade goods and ivory. Such people included porters

who were regarded as slaves, or free Africans who could sell their services in return

for cloth and other trade goods.

 

The Arabs from Oman acted as middlemen between the African Swahili people,

the Portuguese and French traders. This made communication easier between the

trade participants, hence encouraging the development of this trade along the East

African coast and the interior of Central Africa.

 

The Long Distance Trade was also developed due to the presence of enough trade

commodities from both sides.

Some from Asia and Europe like guns, wines and clothes on one side, and others from

the interior of Africa such as copper from Katanga, iron ore and salt from Bunyoro

without forgetting slaves from many parts of Central and East Africa.

In many African societies, the domestic and child slavery already existed therefore

Africans were willing to exchange slaves for European goods.

 

3.3.2 Mechanisms of Long Distance Trade

The Long Distance Trade was well structured and organised by the trade tycoons

and local African leaders. It involved many participants from the interior of Africa to

the East African coast and others coming from Asia and Europe.

 

Major African societies involved included the Yao, Akamba, Nyamwezi, Baganda,

Banyoro, Hehe, Khartoumers, Chagga, Kikuyu, Galla, Nandi, Basoga, Katanga people

and the Shona among others. Most of these African societies were the trade item

providers and dominators of some trade routes which passed across their areas.

The trade commodities through this trade were in two forms: imports from the

coast of East Africa to the interior of Africa e.g. guns, gunpowder, clothes, knives,

plates, sugar and weapons made of copper etc.Export from the interior of Africa

to the coast of East Africa included slaves, ivory, gold, zebra and leopard skins, salt,

tortoise shells etc.

 

Figure 3.6: Ivories needed by the Arabs and EuropeansCowries shells used as medium of exchange.

 Adapted from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Different_

cowries.jpg.

 

Many trade market centres were located at East Africa coast (Malindi, Mombasa,

Pangani, Bangamoyo, Dar-es-Salaam, Kilwa) and at Zanzibar. To reach there with

trade commodities, it was necessary to use different means of transport. Initially,

footing and human portage were used as means of transport but later on donkeys

were used which improved the means of transport and quantities transported. To

small extent, there was also water transport on the rivers of Nile, Congo, Zambezi and

lakes of Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi and Albert. Canoes or boats carried merchants

and their goods across these water bodies.

To bring the trade commodities to the market centres, different trade routes were

followed by the traders. The main routes were conveniently divided into north,

central and south routes.

 

Figure 3.7: East African trade routes

Source: Atieno et alii (1977). A History of East Africa, Longman, p.92.

 

The Southern route began at the coast in the town of Kilwa and coastal ports of

Kilina and Sofala going into the interior to Lake Malawi and across to Khota Khota,

Kazembe, Karonga, Ndebele and Shona lands. The principle participants of this route

were the Yao with the slaves as the major trade item.

The Central route ran from Bagamoyo and Saadani through Zaramo to Tabora, Ujiji,

Karagwe, Buganda, Bunyoro, Rwanda and Congo – Katanga. The Nyamwezi were

dominant with ivory as the major item.

 

The Northern routestarted from Pangani, Tanga and Mombasa to the Kilimanjaro

through Akamba society, to the slopes of Mt Elgon going as far as Busoga and Iteso

in Uganda. The Akamba were dominant in this trade with ivory and slaves as the

major trade items.

  

At the market centres, the trade items were exchanged through the barter system at

first and later on there was introduction of money like rupees and cowries shells as

a medium of exchange.

 

3.3.3 Consequences of Long Distance Trade

 

The breakdown of family and tribal ties produced bands of ruthless bandits who

went around terrorizing the countryside making it impossible to engage in

profitable occupations.

 

Many people attracted in this trade settled in some states of East Africa. This increase

in population stimulated the need for food production. To satisfy this need, the new

food crops were introduced in Nyamwezi for example maize, potatoes, beans and

bananas among others.

 

In order to facilitate the trade transactions, the currency was later on introduced at

the East African Coast. Due to commercial exchanges between East African societies

and Central African communities, such currency (cowry shells) was also introduced

into the interior of Central Africa.

 

Due to the participation of different societies with their interest to satisfy their

needs, some communities became specialized in production of some trade items

or carryout of some activities. There were those who became permanent porters,

others emerged as craftsmen, shoemakers and the farmers also got specialized in

the production of certain crops.

 

The economic expansion supported by new military techniques and tactics learnt

from the Ngoni, some East African communities emerged into new political states

like Unyanyembe, Urambo and Ukimbu.

The states with access to guns and control of trade routes were able to dominate

and expand their territories at the expense of the small and weak ones. Moreover,

the trade tycoons who dominated and controlled main trade routes and activities

became the political leaders of some new formed states. For instance, Mirambo and

Nyungu ya Mawe became the leaders in Nyamwezi kingdom.

 

During this trade, there were slave raids which often resulted into the war. So, villages

and fields were often not reclaimed for many years for fear of being captured. Hence,

famine and poverty were dominant in the areas of slave raids. Besides, to high

extent, the slaves were energetic and active population. Selling them outside of

Africa also led to the famine because Africa in some areas remained with the oldest

and youngest who were not able to practice agriculture for their own subsistence.

The trade carried out between Central and East African coast led to the depopulation

of elephants and leopards due to the need of satisfying the needs of Asians and

Europeans.

 

Due to the trade caravan and participation in Long Distance Trade, many Africans

from interior of Africa were initiated to the Swahili and Swahili language. This

facilitated the spread of Swahili to many parts of East and Central Africa.

 

Most of the cities which had served as trading centres grew and emerged as new

towns, especially at the East Africa Coast and in central Africa. Such centres and

towns included Tabora, Ujiji, Katanga, Mumia, Malindi and Bagamoyo among others.

The Long Distance Trade contributed to the depopulation of Africa by reducing its

population. This was through the slave raids where some were killed while resisting

from being captured or through the sale of Africans as slaves like other trade

commodities.

 

In general, the economic activities were disrupted in Africa because able craftsmen

and farmers were transported. The local traditional goods were no longer produced,

had been replaced by the Arab and European products.

3.3.4 The downfall of Long Distance Trade

The death of the trade tycoons who were the chief organisers of this trade was a

great factor for its decline. For instance Mirambo died in the 1884, Mutesa I in 1884,

Sayyid Said in 1886. Other trading tycoons like Tipu Tipu, Mlozi Msiri Mumia and

Mukwawa followed.

Figure 3.8: Portrait of Tippu Tip

 

Some trade commodities got exhausted because they were carried in large quantities

and for a long time. As these items became limited on the markets, some people

who depended on selling and buying them pulled out resulting into the decline of

the trade. The Long Distance Trade had become less profitable because of the high

depletion of commodities put on market. Therefore some people pulled out of this

business, which become a factor for its decline.

 

The wars of raids and control of the trade routes and other viable areas made some

people hate the Long Distance Trade or created a less conducive atmosphere for

trade. With this state of insecurity trade could not flourish.

Some chiefs started to demand high taxes from traders crossing their land. As a

result, the traders were no longer getting enough profits. Such people were then

forced out of this trade.

 

Foreign invaderslike explorers, traders in chartered companies and the missionaries

accounted for the decline of the Long Distance Trade because they preached

against this lucrative trade. Moreover, the Long Distance Trade involved crossing

long distances and horrible suffering. Consequently it lost popularity and collapsed

easily. The chiefs had set very harsh and had laws that enabled to get slaves.

The European goods were brought to East and Central Africa where they were sold

cheaply and the European traders established trading shops in areas where they

had settlements, thus, limiting people from walking long distance for the needed

goods which resulted into the decline of the Long Distance Trade.

 

This colonisation of Africa ended the existence of the Long Distance Trade. The

imperialists controlled the social, political and economic lives of the Africans. This

denied African chiefs and others involved in this trade especially the Arabs to

continue carrying out this trade.

 

Application activity

1. Analyse the different factors that contributed to the rise of the Long

Distance Trade.

2. Describe the mechanism of the Long Distance Trade.

3. Examine the factors that led to the decline of the Long-Distance Trade.

4. Assess the effects of the Long-Distance Trade on African societies.

 

End unit assessment

 

1. “Human beings are born free and no one has the right to enslave,

humiliate, oppress or exploit them. However, from ancient time, the

slavery as dehumanizing practices of man to another happened until

now”.

Using the above quote, explain the emergence, organisation and effects

of slave trade in Africa.

2. Do you agree that slave trade in Africa was severe and totally negative?

Justify your response.

 

 

GLOSSARY
 

Dehumanisation: Dehumanization  or an act thereof can describe a behavior or

process that undermines individuality of and in others. Behaviorally, dehumanization

describes a disposition towards others that debases the others’ individuality as

either an “individual” species or an “individual” object, e.g. someone who acts

inhumanely towards humans. As a process, it may be understood as the opposite

of personification, a figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstractions are

endowed with human qualities; dehumanization then is the disendowment of these

same qualities or a reduction to abstraction

Trans-Saharan: across Sahara desert

Empire: a group of countries ruled by a single person, government or country

Trade Route: a route, often covering a long distance that people buying and selling

goods often used in the past

Discovery: the process of finding information, a place or an object, especially for the

first time, or the thing which is found

Tropical diseases: In practice, the term is often taken to refer to  infectious

diseases  that thrive in hot, humid conditions, such as malaria, leishmaniasis,

schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, Chagas  disease, African

trypanosomiasis, and dengue

Invasion: when an army or country uses force to enter and take control of another

country

Golden age: a period of time, sometimes imaginary, when everyone was happy, or

when a particular art, business, etc. was very successful

Exploration: when you search and find out about something; e,g. Livingstone was

the first European to make an exploration of the Zambezi river (= to travel to it in

order to discover more about it) .

Mechanism: a way of doing something which is planned or part of a system

Hardship: (something which causes) difficult or unpleasant conditions of life, or an

example of this economic hardship