The Roles of Africans in the Transatlantic Slave Trade - Research Paper Example

What were the roles of Africans in the Transatlantic Slave Trade? Thesis Africans were suppliers of the many slaves that were sent to the Americas, Brazil and other countries that brought them. Introduction It is estimated that the transatlantic slave trade resulted in a human loss of approximately 30 million to 20 million and whilst the role of European traders in the slave trade is well documented; the role of African rulers in the transatlantic slave trade has remained controversial amongst the international African community (Rawley & Behrendt, 2005). Indeed, recent reports of Smith (2009) highlight the calls of Nigerian Civil Rights Groups to force African tribal leaders to apologise for their role and responsibility in the transatlantic slave trade similar to Europe and Britain. The Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria argues that “we cannot continue to blame the white men, as Africans, particularly the traditional rulers, are not blameless” (In Smith, 2009). Moreover, The Nigerian Civil Rights Group argues that: “In view of the fact that the Americans and Europe have accepted the cruelty of their roles and have forcefully apologised, it would be logical, reasonable and humbling if African traditional rulers …. Can accept blame and formally apologise to the descendants of the victims of their collaborative and exploitative slave trade” (In Smith, 2009). This latest call from the civil rights group has re-ignited the polarised debate as to the role of Africans in the transatlantic trade and the focus of this paper is to critically evaluate the role of Africans in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. To this end, it is submitted as a central proposition in this paper that the African ruling class played an instrumental role in the transatlantic slave trade. However, it is also acknowledged in this paper that African participation in the transatlantic slave trade was not limited to the ruling class and ultimately African participation in the slave trade was rooted in wealth acquisition. Moreover, an examination of the role of Africans as suppliers of the slaves sent to the Americas provides an interesting insight into the complex cultural and political structures of pre-colonial Africa in this period of history. If we firstly consider the historical evidence regarding African participation in the slave trade; leading contemporary African economist journalist Obadina refers to the early writings of Portuguese explorer Duatre Pacheco Pereire that the African rulers and the military aristocracy’s wealth continued to grow exponentially as a result of the slave trade to European traders (2000). In reiterating this point, Obadina argues that the African Kingdom of Benin was “usually at war with its neighbours and takes many captives, whom we buy at twelve or fifteen brass bracelets each or for copper bracelets, which they prize more” (2000). Moreover, Obadina refers to the first hand written accounts of a slave in 1770 Ghana, called Ottobah Cugoano, who refers to the shame of betrayal by Africans in his capture: “I must own, to the shame of my own countrymen, that I was first kidnapped and betrayed by some of my own complexion, who were the first cause of my exile and slavery” (In Obadina, 2000). Accordingly, whilst on the other side of the spectrum, the European involvement and requirement for slaves has led some commentators to argue that the supply was merely to meet demand; it nevertheless does not detract from the instrumental role of the African ruling class in failing to prevent sales to meet the demand for slaves of their countrymen. This is further evidenced by the fact that Tinubu Square which is the financial centre of Lagos in Nigeria is actually named after a major African slave trader Madam Tinubu whose entire wealth was made as a slave trader (Smith, 2009). Indeed, historical accounts indicate that Tinubu’s acquisition of wealth via the slave trade is a rags to riches story, which supports the argument that African participation in the slave trade was not limited to the African ruling class (Rediker, 2007:364). Nevertheless, the African ruling class was clearly instrumental through their negotiations with Europeans and Obadina argues that the African ruling class and the military aristocracy protected their financial interests and position vis-à-vis the European traders through the slave trade (2000). Moreover, the ability to negotiate with African rulers was exploited by the European traders in perpetuating the slave trade (Obadina, 2000). In turn, Obadina posits that the role of Africans in the transatlantic save trade fuelled a domino effect through to the interior of Africa where “slave trading firms were aware of their dependency on African suppliers. The Royal African Company, for instance, instructed its agents on the West coast “if any differences happen, to endeavour an amicable accommodation rather than use force” (2000). In considering the motives behind this, Obadina points to the European manipulation of African rulers’ greed in acquiring economic advantage from the developments in Western civilisation, in particular, the “slave trade whetted their appetite for the products of a changing world” (2000). Therefore the working class and poor indigenous African effectively became a pawn in the European exploitation of African desire for European goods and Western culture. For example, a British ship commander Hugh Crow, who steered the last slave ship to leave a British port taking slaves to the Americas wrote that “it has always been the practice of merchants and commanders of ships to Africa, to encourage the natives to send their children to England as it not only conciliates their friendship, and softens their manner, but adds greatly toe ht security of the traders” (In Obadina, 2000). Therefore, the European prowess and growth of power in Africa hinged on the ability to win the friendship of the ruling class and feed their desire for material rewards and tokens from Western culture, with which they were fascinated (Bailey, 2005). Indeed, Bailey highlights the point that African rulers were obsessed with the European goods and wanted the prestige of acquiring these goods, which in turn propelled the growth of the slave trade (Bailey 2005; Obadina, 2000). Interestingly, Obadina comments that when Britain passed legislation to abolish the slave trade, it was the African leaders as well as white slave owners that objected due to the growth of wealth from selling slaves to Europeans. For example, abolitionist Thomas Buxton wrote in 1840 that an effective method to abolish the slave trade would be to appease African rulers by encouraging their involvement in other legitimate methods of acquiring European goods that did not involve the slave trade: “The African has acquired a taste for the civilised world. They have become essential to his. To say that the African under present circumstances shall not deal in man, is to say he shall long in vain for his accustomed gratification”(In Obadina, 2000). Indeed, notwithstanding the abolition of the slave trade in Britain, the slave trade continued for many years and the illegality of trading in slaves drove up prices of slaves in the Americas, rendering the trade extremely lucrative for all parties involved, African and European alike (Bailey, 2005). Indeed, Obadina highlights how the wars in Yorubaland were essentially rooted in the continued high demands for slaves: “Slave-raiding now became a trade to many who would get rich speedily” (2000). It took the intervention of British colonialism to impose peace in Yorubaland in 1893. slave trading for export ended in Nigeria and elsewhere in West Africa after slavery in the Spanish colonies of Brazil and Cuba in 1880 (Obadina 2000). Therefore, Rawley and Behrendt posit that the concomitant result of the abolition of the slave trade was the proliferation of domestic slavery as a result of African businessmen replacing trade in human chattel with increased export of primary commodities as labour was required to create new wealth for the African elite (2005). Quite controversially, African writer Obadina suggests that the long history of corruption in the African ruling class suggests that “had Europe not decided to end the slave trade and the New World ceased demanding chattel labour, the transatlantic trade might still be rolling today. The ending of the obnoxious business had nothing to do with events in Africa” (Obadina 2000). Therefore, Obadina’s arguments go beyond a consideration and acknowledgement of the role of Africans in the transatlantic slave trade and suggest that the very nature of the African hierarchical political framework meant that the African ruling class had no desire or incentive to cease the slave trade (2000). Obadina utilises this argument to imply an argument for innate corruption amongst the African ruling classes to suggest a correlation between their role in the transatlantic slave trade and contemporary problems of corruption in Africa (2000). He argues that the consistent trend of corrupt leadership and anti democratic rule in Africa stems from an “African disregard for fellow humans” (2000). In reiterating this point, Obadina argues that “the triangular slave trade was a major part in the early stages of the emergence of the international market. The role of slave trading African ruling classes in this market is not radically different from the position of the African elite in today’s global economy” (2000). However, whilst the role of the African ruling class in the transatlantic slave trade is undeniable, it is arguably too far to suggest that the slave trade would have continued to exist if Europeans had not abolished it. Additionally, the European control in negotiating and the role of many poor Africans as suppliers of slaves suggests that their role was an intrinsic part of economic survival and acquiring wealth in a politically uncertain time. This proposition is supported by the arguments of Rawley and Beherendt, who suggest that the myths of the slave trade have often ignored the actual machinations of the trade itself as a result of the focus on the immorality and humanitarian issues raised by the slave trade (Rawley & Behrendt, 2005:74). Moreover, from a British and American perspective the colonial past of the former and poor racial history of the former has rendered consideration of the role of Africans as protagonists in their own enslavement a difficult concept to address in mainstream historical dialogue. For example, Sharp and Schomp suggest that at the beginning of the slave trade, European traders realised that alliances with African rulers would increase their changes of acquiring slaves (2006 p.29). As a result of the wealth acquired from this, the West African kingdoms often purposively commenced wars simply to take captives for the slave trade and often poor families were forced to sell their children to pay off heavy debts for their children (Sharp & Schomp, 2006 p.29) Due to the possible economic advantages involved, the cycle of war continued and Sharp and Schomp reiterate the role of African slave traders in the transatlantic slave trade by commenting that “African slave traders and raiders also bought or kidnapped millions of men, women and children from inland villages and marched them to slave trading centers on the coast” (2006, p.29). In supporting this proposition, they refer to the first hand account of a British ship’s surgeon Alexander Falconbridge in 1788 that “he had great reason to believe that most of the Negroes shipped from the coast of Africa are kidnapped. I was told by a Negro woman that as she was on her return home one evening from some neighbours…. She was kidnapped and [even though] she was big with child, sold for a slave” (In Sharp & Schomp,2006, p.29). However, in addition to the wealth argument, it is important to highlight the fact that the structure of the African society was complex (Sharp & Schomp, 2006, p.30). Many of the African slave traders did not view their sales of humans as being of their own countrymen and they felt they were selling off intra-tribal slaves from other kingdoms. Moreover, many were unaware of the system of slavery that the slaves were being sold into in the New World (2006, p.30). Additionally, if we further consider the cultural paradigm context, within the African societal system, slavery and servitude was accepted and therefore in the diaspora of Africans, the question remains as to how and why the Africans sold their people into slavery? (Bailey, 2005, p.57). Moreover, it is submitted that this clearly has ramifications for the African diaspora and Bailey asserts how the rationale is inherently complex and that “the reality is that in an era of shifting allegiances, fierce competition on land and on the high seas, sporadic and sustained conflicts, a diversity of players moving in and out of the trade, much of the slave trade era reads like a spy novel… whose ending is unclear” (2005, p.58). Nevertheless, whilst acknowledging the role of Africans as suppliers in the transatlantic slave trade, Bailey’s arguments undermine Obadina’s dogmatic assertion of an African ruling class predisposed to enslaving their fellow country men. Indeed, in denouncing such an argument Bailey denies any notion of an equal partnership between African rulers and Europeans on grounds that “the simply fact also that no European was ever enslaved on a plantation in the Americas” (2005, p.59). Therefore, ultimately, the degree of and extent of the African rationale for participating in the transatlantic slave trend depended on the era and nature of the trade as many African rulers were in precarious positions vis-à-vis the more powerful European traders (Bailey, 2005, p.59). Therefore, to this end, Bailey negates what she terms are faulty assumptions pertaining to the African role in slave trade. For example, Bailey highlights the complex cultural makeup of Africa, which was not one large continent and was largely distinct ranging from Sudanic Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay in West Africa and nothing to do with the stone kingdoms of Zimbabwe in the South (Bailey, 2005, p.59). As such, these African ethnic divides clearly confounded European concepts of community “which often did not extend beyond a group of villages or towns in a particular area. The ties that bound these communities were clan and kinship, networks more than language and customs” (Bailey, 2005, p.59). Therefore, the Pan-African concept is an intrinsically modern Western concept that ignores the entrenched cultural divides in Africa. This is highlighted by the argument of Bailey that “if such unity beyond ethnic and language barriers do not exist today, we can only imagine the climate of yesterday, which is the reason that such a question – why did Africans sell each other into slavery needs to be greatly problematised” (2005, p.61). Accordingly, the above analysis highlights the reality that indigenous Africans did play a significant participatory role in the transatlantic slave trade. Whilst the African ruling class were undoubtedly involved, it is far too dogmatic to argue that they were the sole perpetrators from the indigenous African perspective and that this demonstrates a continuing trend in African politics that explains the corruption that is endemic in modern Africa. Moreover, the controversy over the role of Africans as suppliers in the slave trade has propagated numerous flawed assumptions and it is submitted that the causal factors in why Africans participated in the slave trade of their fellow countrymen cannot be explained by one theory and encompasses an interrelationship of numerous complex factors. Nevertheless, it is submitted that the role and power of Europeans in colonising Africa and the building the Americas on the back of the slave trade clearly highlights that the participation of African suppliers was by no means an equal partnership and points to an underlying desire for economic and political survival at the time. Bibliography Bailey, A.C. (2005). African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Beacon Press. Tunde Obadina (2000). Slave Trade: A Root of Contemporary African Crisis. Retrieved at www.afbis.com/analysis/slave.html accessed November 2009 Rawley, J., & Behrendt, S. (2005). The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History. University of Nebraska Press Rediker, M (2007). The Slave Ship: A Human History. Viking Adult. Sharp, P. S., & Schomp, V. (2006). The Slave Trade and the Middle Passage. Marshall Cavendish. Smith, D. (2009). African Chiefs Urged to apologise for slave trade. 16 November 2009, the Guardian Retrieved at www.guardian.co.uk accessed November 2009 Read More