Examine the view that marginalisation of Africa could be traced to the transatlantic slave trade
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Part 2
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In the Muslim world, slaves were traded from East Africa across the Sahara desert to the Middle East. During this period most slaves are usually female than male, unlike the Europeans who choose only males as their priorities with few females. Arabs select females as their sexual employees rather than their labourers. Most of the European countries were involved in the trans-slave trade as a result of huge demand and large export of their goods which for them to continue they need additional labourers to produce effectively. And as such the European search for labourers. Thus they see Africa as their settlement where they can see their demands which are favourable to their domestic or industrial work, though during this period industrialization has been going on in different countries in Europe. Scholars have placed the debate of race superiority, among their notion that they are the superior race over the black Africans. And this notion was used by the Europeans to enslave thousands of slaves that were being bought or exchanged for items which were not worthy of exchange.
The Atlantic slave trade started when the Spanish and Portuguese arrived at the coast of Southern Africa. Which was later accelerated by the British, French, and many other European countries. Over 12.5 million humans were sold to the slave trade, of which those who are dead are not among those who are used as sacrifices to reduce the weight of their ships. Maybe slaves were kidnapped to meet the demands of the Europeans. It's so obvious that those putting slaves in bondage were Africa put Africa in slave bondage. Most African chiefs enter into war with their neighbouring villages over the fight for the conquest of their people to sell into the slave trade. As the demands of the Europeans increased the fight in Africa rises in enmity. Through the warfare among each other, they were unable to reunite as one. For instance, the Great Oyo defeated her rivalries, and they profit from the spoil of the war which they gain from the war such as captives who are sold to the slave trade. In return, the African chiefs were paid for a series of products such as guns, glass, Jin, and many other manufactured materials from Europe.
In a recent study, Nunn (2008) examines the long-term impacts of Africa’s slave trade. He finds that the slave trade, which occurred over a period of more than 400 years, had a significant negative effect on long-term economic development. Although the article arguably identifies a negative causal relationship between the slave trade and income today, the analysis is unable to establish the exact causal mechanisms underlying this reduced-form relationship. Slaves were supplied by ethnic groups that initially were less trusting, and these lower levels of trust continue to persist today
References
Nunn, Nathan. “The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s Slave Trades.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2008. 123(1): 139–76.